Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Daffy Duck Looney Tunes cartoon, the 1947 Mexican Joyride , directed by Arthur Davis.
Daffy suggests a Good Neighbor Policy, a reference to the United States' foreign policy towards nations in Central and South America during the 1930s. The "Good Neighbor Policy" suggestions mentioned were cigarettes, sparkling champagne and gin rummy.
Before the start of our feature presentation, the staff of ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour would like to share with you a fun montage we saw the other day, featuring the closing shots of 120 different films -
The video must have taken Casper Langbak of CLS Videos quite a while to put this video together. We've attached a link here, to see which films were included in their order of appearance.
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 1962 classic surrealist film from his Mexican period, The Exterminating Angel, directed by Luis Buñuel, and starring Silvia Pinal, Jacqueline Andere, José Baviera, Augusto Benedico, Luis Beristáin, Antonio Bravo, and Claudio Brook. After briefly returning to his native Spain from his Mexican exile to direct Viridiana, Buñuel went back to Mexico to make The Exterminating Angel after the Vatican denounced the previous film and the Spanish banned it. The film has alternately been described as a comedy or a horror film, but neither description do the film justice. The film was critically acclaimed upon release and has only grown in stature. Despite its acclaim (both contemporaneous and otherwise), Buñuel often said he considered The Exterminating Angel a failure. Mostly, he regretted not being able to proceed along a more “cannibalistic” trajectory. As always, The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour would like you to join us in watching The Exterminating Angel. So push away from the table, get comfortable and enjoy the film.
(If you need to, don't forget to turn on the English captions.)
Luis Buñuel expressed frustration in regards to the film's low budget and the lack of amenities available on set in Mexico. As an example of these hardships, Buñuel recalled that the film operated on such an austere budget that he could not even afford to purchase fine table napkins for the dinner party scenes, nor could such napkins be easily obtained in Mexico at the time. He was only able to procure one such cloth napkin for a close-up shot of the dinner table when the film's makeup artist brought one from her home.
Demand Euphoria!
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