I Only Have Eyes for You (film)
| I Only Have Eyes for You | |
|---|---|
| Merrie Melodies series | |
| Directed by | Fred Avery |
| Produced by | Leon Schlesinger |
| Voices by | Joe Twerp, Elvia Allman |
| Music by | Carl W. Stalling |
| Animation by | Robert Clampett, Virgil Ross |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | May 18, 1937 (USA) |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Language | English |
I Only Have Eyes for You is a 1937 Merrie Melodies animated short film directed by Tex Avery with an all-bird cast, and based on the song of the same name.
The protagonist (voiced by spoonerism specialist Joe Twerp), who drives an ice-delivery truck, is wooed by a homely spinster bird (voiced by Elvia Allman) who hopes to entice him with her culinary talents. The iceman, on the other hand, is only interested in Katie Canary (a Katharine Hepburn impression also voiced by Allman), who only wants to marry a radio crooner and rebuffs his overtures to the point where she prefers ordering a refrigerator.
The iceman, in order to win Katie, hires a voice imitator, Professor Mockingbird, to simulate crooners from the back of his ice truck while the iceman lip-syncs. The scheme eventually backfires when Professor Mockingbird turns blue from the extreme cold in the ice truck, and gets sick to the point that he sneezes the top of the truck off, causing Katie to discover the iceman's ruse. Katie marries the Professor, being sufficiently impressed by his crooning ability (while replacing her radio with an electric refrigerator), while the iceman is finally won over by the spinster's cooking and baking and presumably marries her.