1941 American film
Rhapsody in Rivets is a 1941 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng.[1] The short was released on December 6, 1941.[2]
Plot
At a busy urban construction site in a world of anthropomorphic animals, an appreciative crowd of gawkers watches the foreman (a caricature of the conductor Leopold Stokowski) use the building plans as his score and conduct the workmen in Franz Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2", a symphony of riveting, hammering, sawing, and more. Elevators, picks, shovels, and a steam shovel are instruments in music making and construction.
As the clock nears 5:00 PM, the crew works furiously, and the building rises around the clouds. With a flag planted at the top and the work completed, the foreman takes a bow. One of the workers, while leaving, slams the door shut behind him; due to this and the overly hurried construction, the building (labeled the "Umpire State") comes crashing down. The foreman attempts to attack the worker in retaliation, but three bricks hit him on the head for the last three notes, ending the rhapsody and the cartoon.
Reception
Daniel Goldmark writes, "While almost every studio in Hollywood took on Liszt's "Second Hungarian Symphony" at one time or another, Warner Bros. did it twice — both times with Friz Freleng directing. (Rhapsody Rabbit, 1946, was the other.) What sets this version apart from all the others is that, while it keeps the spirit of a concert or performance, the execution is different. Freleng's central metaphor — comparing the skills and coordination of a construction crew to those of an orchestra — works remarkably well, giving a new twist to what had already become a cliché by then, a well-known classical work being played (or murdered) by a motley group of musicians. And because the "Rhapsody" was also a classical standard, bordering on a pop hit, Freleng could easily use just the best-known parts of the work to drive the several dozen gags."[3]
