Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Merrie Melodies Bugs Bunny cartoon, the 1958 Hare-Less Wolf, directed by Friz Freleng.
The gag where Bugs throws a can in the air and shoots Charles M. Wolf in the face is reused in Wild and Woolly Hare, with Yosemite Sam in Wolf's place. The gag where Charles M. Wolf is tricked by Bugs into entering a tunnel is reused in Clippety Clobbered, with Wile E. Coyote in Wolf's place and the Road Runner in Bugs's place.
Before the start of our feature presentation, ACME Eagle Hand Soap would like to like salute a great American who died last week -
R.I.P. Ron Popiel, master tchotchke salesman, May 3, 1935 – July 28, 2021
Sadly you no longer need to wait, there is no more!
We've picked another entry from the excellent reference book, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die by Steven Jay Schneider. Today's choice is George Cukor's 1954 mangled classic, A Star Is Born, starring Judy Garland and James Mason. Yet again, a theme in this list, the film was both a disappointment at the box-office and at awards time - the film lost in all of the six categories it was nominated for, including Best Actor and Actress. The first test screening the following month ran 196 minutes, and despite ecstatic feedback from the audience, the director George Cukor and editor Folmar Blangsted trimmed it to 182 minutes for its New York premiere in October of 1954. Despite the excellent reviews the film initially received, Warner Bros. executives, concerned the running time would limit the number of daily showings, made drastic cuts without Cukor's input. At its final running time of 154 minutes, the film lost two major musical numbers and crucial dramatic scenes. A painstaking restoration in the early 80s resulted in a revised, 170-minute version. The film is now concerned one of the greatest movie musicals ever made. The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour would like you to join us in watching A Star Is Born. So push away from the table, get comfortable and enjoy the film.
In 1974, film historian Ronald Haver was doing a George Cukor retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. For the showing of A Star Is Born, he put together a brochure featuring stills from the cut scenes and descriptions of what was missing. This triggered interest at Warner Bros., where an apprentice film editor discovered the complete three-hour soundtrack in the sound department's storage vaults. Haver wanted to create a restored version using the soundtrack with stills filling in for the missing scenes, but was unable to raise the budget through the LA County Museum.
The restored version received its world premiere at the Radio City Music Hall in New York on July 7, 1983. As soon as the lost musical numbers appeared, the audience started applauding. At the end, the audience gave the film a standing ovation. Both of Judy Garland's daughters, Liza Minnelli and Lorna Luft, were in the audience. Afterwards, they had to be taken to a dressing room, where it took them 20 minutes to stop crying.
Demand Euphoria!
No comments:
Post a Comment