The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour (194)

Thank you for joining us today.

Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Bugs Bunny Looney Tunes cartoon, the 1953 Forward March Hare, directed by Chuck Jones.



Bugs is unusually characterized rather differently in this cartoon only compared to the other cartoons: here Bugs has been recast as a rather dumb and incompetent but well-meaning rabbit, as opposed to the more intelligent karmic trickster he is usually cast in his other cartoons.


Before the start of our feature presentation ACME Eagle Hand Soap would like to bring you another message from one of our very favorite little old men -



It gives us all a great deal of comfort, knowing that Mel is still alive and well. (He must be eating his fresh fruit.)


We hope you are doing well with your self quarantines - the programming department of The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour have been vigorously scrubbing themselves with ACME Eagle Hand Soap - If your eagle's hands are dirty, we'll wash them clean! and sanitizing themselves for your protection. We are also engaged in social distancing - we are communicating with each other via Steganography and hollow coins.

We've picked another entry from the excellent reference book, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die by Steven Jay Schneider for today's feature. Today's choice is the classic 1948 John Huston film, The Treasure Of Sierra Madre, starring Humphrey Bogart and Walter Huston (the director's father). The film has been recognized as one of the first Hollywood movies for which most of the shoot took place on location outside the United States. The film is famous for the appearance of two actors in small roles: Robert Blake as a street urchin and (as a joke on her friend Humphrey Bogart,) Ann Sheridan, in a black wig, as a prostitute. As a joke, Sheridan went down to the set and donned the wig to see if Bogart and the other actors would recognize her. During the editing of the film, another bit actress was inserted into the actual shot. So why not sit back and relax (find the most comfortable seat) get a snack and a shot or two of tequila and join The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour in watching The Treasure of the Sierra Madre .



Director John Huston had read the book The Treasure of the Sierra Madre by B. Traven, who was a recluse living in Mexico, in 1936 and had always thought the material would make a great movie. Based on a 19th-century ballad by a German poet, Traven's book reminded Huston of his own adventures in the Mexican cavalry. Huston reached out to the writer and Traven approved of the director and his screenplay (by letter, obviously), and sent his intimate friend Hal Croves to the location to be a technical advisor and translator for $150 a week. The general consensus is that Croves was in fact Traven, though he always denied this. Huston was happy not to query him on the subject but his then-wife Evelyn Keyes was certain Croves was the mysterious author, believing that he was continually giving himself away, saying "I" when it should have been "he", and using phrases that were exactly the same as those to be found in Traven's letters to Huston. All very ironic, especially considering that Traven was offered $1000 a week to act as technical advisor on the film. It is known that "B. Traven" was a pen name, and Traven's true identity remains a mystery to this day.



Before you go - here's another ACME PSA:

Demand Euphoria!