ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour (483)

Thank you for joining us today

Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Porky Pig Looney Tunes cartoon, the 1939 Looney Tunes Polar Pals directed by Bob Clampett



When Porky Pig takes a shower, he uses a towel marked Grand Hotel, the title of a 1932 MGM movie


We are in the middle of Passover and Easter is almost upon us. The staff of The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour is either still digesting Aunt Sadie's leaden Matza Balls or taking meticulous notes about where they are going to hide the Easter eggs, (they don't want a repeat of the 2008 missing eggs disaster - don't ask.) We figured why not get a bit of religious instruction from our old pal Robin Williams -



It's hard to believe that he's been gone for these 12 years. (We can only imagine what he'd have to say about our fearless leader.)
 

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 1989 comedy-drama Do the Right Thing, directed by Spike Lee and starring Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Spike Lee, Bill Nunn, John Turturro, John Savage, Martin Lawrence, and Rosie Perez. The film was a major critical and commercial success, grossing $37.3 million worldwide against a production budget of $6.2 million. Spike Lee became the first person of color to be nominated for both Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards.

During the 1990 Oscar ceremony, while announcing the Best Picture nominees, Kim Basinger caused controversy when she departed from her scripted remarks and said, “We’ve got five great films here, and they’re great for one reason: because they tell the truth. But there is one film missing from this list that deserves to be on it because, ironically, it might tell the biggest truth of all—and that’s Do the Right Thing.” Spike Lee later thanked her in a 2019 episode of the podcast Unspooled.

Please find a comfortable chair, dim the lights, and join us here at the ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour as we watch this thought provoking movie: Do the Right Thing.



According to Spike Lee, the casting of Rosie Perez came about during a birthday party he was hosting at a club in Los Angeles. When the R&B song Da Butt by Experience Unlimited from Lee’s previous film School Daze started playing, a spontaneous “butt contest” broke out. Lee noticed Perez dancing on top of a speaker and told her to come down, fearing she might fall and injure herself - and that he might be sued. Security eventually had to step in to get her down, after which she unleashed a stream of profanity at Lee. He was struck by her voice and soon discovered that they were both from the same part of Brooklyn. On the spot, he offered her the role of Mookie’s girlfriend, deciding the character would be Puerto Rican.

Perez, however, has told the story differently in interviews. She claims that Lee himself started the contest to see which Black woman had the biggest butt. She also said she initially thought Lee was hitting on her and ignored him, not realizing until later that he was offering her a role in one of his films.



Demand Euphoria!