The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour (258)

Thank you for joining us today

Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny cartoon, the 1961 Prince Violent (Later renamed Prince Varmint for television broadcasts), (featuring Yosemite Sam,) directed by Friz Freleng (co-directed by Hawley Pratt).



This was Arthur Davis's final credit as an animator for Warner Bros. cartoons during the original theatrical era. He had left the studio by June 1960, demanding he be released from his contract because fellow animator Phil Monroe had been promoted as supervisor of the commercials unit instead of him.


Before the start of our feature presentation, ACME Eagle Hand Soap who like you to join us in listening once again to the rantings of our favorite elderly Jewish man -



If you haven't already, please find the time to check out Lewis Black's Rantcast podcast.


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 the 1956 Japanese anti-war film directed by Kon Ichikawa, (based on a children's novel of the same name written by Michio Takeyama,) The Burmese Harp (Biruma no Tategoto). The film was one of the first films to show the effects of World War II on Japanese soldiers from their perspective. The film went on to become a huge success in Japan and throughout the world, The Burmese Harp was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Astute viewers may recognize many of the cues present in The Burmese Harp's soundtrack, as composer Akira Ifukube adapted Godzilla's requiem theme into several pieces heard throughout the film. The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour would like you to join us in watching this classic (but solemn seen) film, The Burmese Harp. So push away from the table, get comfortable and enjoy the film.



The film was originally slated to shoot in three-strip color, but director Kon Ichikawa worried that the huge camera might break down on location and he would not be able to have it fixed, so he shot in black-and-white. In 1985, Ichikawa himself remade the film in color. The new Burmese Harp, financed by Fuji TV after Toho turned it down. It did well enough to become the top-grossing Japanese film of 1985, but didn't repeat the international success of the original.