Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Merrie Melodies Bugs Bunny cartoon, the 1956 Napoleon Bunny-Part, directed by Friz Freleng.
The songs on Napoleon's jukebox are:
St. Louis XIV Blues - Duc d'Ellington
Bastile Boogie - Count d'Basie
III Coins in the Fontanbleu - No artist listed, since the title just filled up the slip! (This is the one Bugs, a.k.a. "Josephine", plays on the jukebox)
I Ain't Got No Body: The Guillotiners (Bugs didn't read off this one).
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 1952 Howard Hawks' western, The Big Sky, starring Kirk Douglas. This film is one of Howard Hawks' least-known films, perhaps because it was butchered by the studio and left for dead. According to Peter Bogdanovich's interview with Hawks, the movie was doing big business in its 141-minute version, and greedy studio heads decided that they could squeeze in one more show per day if they cut 20 minutes from it. They did, and the film flopped. Today, a restored version exists, but the excised footage was taken from a 16mm print, and the quality doesn't exactly match. The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour would like you to join us in watching The Big Sky. So sit back, get comfortable and enjoy the film.
Howard Hawks considered Charlton Heston, Robert Mitchum or Sydney Chaplin for the role of Boone Caudill. Hawks considered Marlon Brando for either of the lead roles, but his asking price was too high.
Demand Euphoria!
No comments:
Post a Comment