The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour (266)

Thank you for joining us today

Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Merrie Melodies Bugs Bunny cartoon, the 1963 Mad as a Mars Hare, (featuring Marvin the Martian in his final appearance during the Golden Age of American Animation,) directed by Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble.



Please note: although Elmer Fudd does not appear in this cartoon (he has been retired from theatrical cartoons the previous year in Crows' Feat), he is mentioned by Bugs Bunny at the end of this cartoon, when he speaks to the audience about how Elmer and all the hunters back on Earth are going to be in for a big surprise due to his Neanderthal form when Bugs gets back to Earth.


Please join The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour in watching nine people play a sad song on their ukuleles - even though ukes are suppose to be the happiest instruments in the world.



You will be excused if you can't get rid of that smile of recognition, off your face for a while.


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 somewhat forgotten 1957 anti-war masterpiece, Paths of Glory by Stanley Kubrick. Based upon the controversial, semi-fictional 1935 novel of the same name by Humphrey Cobb, the film stars Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, and George Macready. Because of its harsh portrait of the French army, the film was initially banned in France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland. While this film is considered by many critics as one of Kubrick best films, the film did not win any significant American awards at the time of its release. The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour would like you to join us in watching this classic from Kubrick, Paths of Glory. So push away from the table, get comfortable and enjoy the film.



For box office reasons, Stanley Kubrick intended to impose a happy ending. After several draft scripts he changed his mind and restored the novel's original ending. Producer James B. Harris then had to inform studio executive Max E. Youngstein and risk rejection of the change. Harris managed by simply having the entire final script delivered without a memo of the changes, on the assumption that nobody in the studio would actually read it.


Before you go - once again, please keep Ukraine in your thoughts

I'm not sure if this is just whistling past a graveyard or the modern version of Nearer my God to Thee:



But it's oddly moving none the less



Demand Euphoria!