Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny cartoon, the 1956 A Star Is Bored (featuring Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, and Yosemite Sam), directed by Friz Freleng.
This is one of only four Warner Bros. cartoons in which Bugs Bunny is pitted against all three of his main antagonists, Yosemite Sam, Elmer Fudd and Daffy Duck. The other three are This Is a Life?, Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers and Bunny: Bugs Bunny's 51 1/2 Anniversary Spectacular.
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 1953 The Wages of Fear (Le Salaire de la peur), Henri-Georges Clouzot's tense thriller starring Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Folco Lulli, and Peter Van Eyck. The film brought Clouzot international fame and enabled him to direct his next thriller, the masterpiece Les Diaboliques, (both screenplays, Clouzot was successfully able to obtain before Alfred Hitchcock was able to get them.) The ironic ending will still manage to shock you, if you don't know about it. The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour would like you to join us in watching this tense film, The Wages of Fear. So sit on the edge of your seat, tightly grip your neighbor and enjoy the film.
The film is historical significance as it was one of the first foreign films which, without being dubbed, was widely released in Great Britain. In the early 50s, it was held that British audiences would not stand for a subtitled film, and foreign films rarely got beyond the big cities except through specialized outlets such as film societies. However, this film was a huge box-office hit, and led to a brief period when other subtitled films were given a general release in British cinemas. None did anything like as well at the box-office and the trend quickly petered out. It was pointed out that large sections of The Wages Of Fear contain no dialogue at all, and that many lines of dialogue are in English as there are several American characters - perhaps these may have been factors in the film's success.
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