Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Porky Pig Looney Tunes cartoon, the 1938 Porky's Phoney Express, (co-starring Daffy Duck,) directed by Cal Howard and Cal Dalton. (Please note - this short is rarely aired today due to Native American stereotyping.)
This is the first cartoon that was directed by Cal Dalton and Cal Howard, as Friz Freleng had left Warner Bros. at the time to work at MGM. Howard would only direct two more cartoons after this (Katnip Kollege and A-Lad-In Bagdad) before moving to Fleischer Studios. He was replaced by Ben Hardaway, while Dalton would remain as co-director until Freleng returned in 1940.
The staff of The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour and I stumbled upon this clip from about 30 years ago that it still quite relevant today as it was then:
I truly fear that the sarcasm will go right over the heads of those who need to see this
We’ve selected another entry from the excellent reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, edited by Steven Jay Schneider. Today’s film is the 1981 Neo-noir drama Body Heat, directed by Lawrence Kasdan and starring William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Richard Crenna, Ted Danson, J. A. Preston, and Mickey Rourke. This was the directorial debut of Lawrence Kasdan. Prior to this film, Kasdan had written Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark for George Lucas, and was in the process of writing Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi. Kasdan was unaware for many years that Lucas had acted as a guarantor to Ladd Company studio head Alan Ladd Jr., offering his own fee as collateral in case Kasdan went over budget, thereby covering any potential overages.
This was Kathleen Turner’s film debut. At the time, she was compared to 1940s film-noir icon Lauren Bacall because of her performance in Body Heat. Other Bacall/Turner parallels include the fact that Bacall’s debut film, To Have and Have Not, has been called one of the most sensational debuts in film history and made her a star. Likewise, Turner’s debut in this film - playing a character similar to Bacall’s - has also been hailed as one of the most sensational in cinema history and launched her to stardom. So please, find a comfy chair and join us here at The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour as we watch this steamy classic - Body Heat.
Almost unbelievably, Kathleen Turner was initially turned down for an audition because she had no film credits. She later said, “All I knew was that the role of Matty Walker was the best part written for a woman in so many years. I tried to get an audition, but I had no film experience and was unable to get one.” About four months later, Turner was in Los Angeles pursuing a role in another picture when, with the part still uncast, she was finally granted an audition. She recalled, “They gave me a copy of the script, and I immediately wanted it. After that reading, they set up a screen test [with William Hurt]. I’d never tested for a film before, and it was pretty scary… walking into a studio, having makeup men and everybody turn you into their idea of what Matty should be.”
Demand Euphoria!
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