Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Daffy Duck Looney Tunes cartoon, the 1940 You Ought to Be in Pictures, (co-starring Porky Pig,) directed by Friz Freleng. (This is one of the longest-running Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts ever produced.)
(Sorry for the colorized version.) To keep the short on-budget, relatively few special effects were used to marry the animation and live action. Where possible, the crew simply took still pictures of the office background and had them enlarged and placed directly on the animation stand.
Before the start of our feature presentation, ACME Eagle Hand Soap would like you let you know that you may be disturbed by the next segment. Remember the awful joke about how Corona beer is made? Well, there is a beer from Singapore that's made that way
All I can say is, Thank God we're mostly Gin people here. Bombay Sapphire gin! Nary a trace of urine involved.
We've picked another entry from the excellent reference book, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die by Steven Jay Schneider. Today's film is the 1959 romantic drama, Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro), directed by Marcel Camus and starring Marpessa Dawn, and Breno Mello. It's soundtrack written by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Luiz Bonfá, introduced the bossa nova to a wider international audience. The film is an adaptation of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in Rio de Janeiro during Carnaval. While the film has won many awards, including the Palme D'Or and the Academy Award, upon it’s initial release, many critics and intellectuals felt the final product exploited rather than supported Black Brazilian culture by glossing over the poverty in the slums. The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour would like you to join us in watching the Black Orpheus, and make up your own mind. So push away from the table, get comfortable and enjoy the film.
Shooting on location did not come without its share of challenges. Marcel Camus, already on a limited budget, quickly ran out of money. According to an interview he gave to Time Magazine, in order to cut corners, Camus took to pinching pennies on meals and sleeping on the beach rather than in hotels. When he was down to his last $17, Brazil's then president Juscelino Kubitschek helped Camus procure some filming equipment from the country's army in order to help the production out. "The poverty was not such a bad thing in the long run," said Camus. "I spent so much time trailing around on foot, just looking, that in the end I had a deep awareness of Brazil. With money, I would never have made the same film. Everything would have been done too quickly."
Demand Euphoria!
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