Author Archives: Phil Hall

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Pre-Hysterical Hare (1958)

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Pre-Hysterical Hare (1958)
Directed by Robert McKimson
Story by Tedd Pierce
Animation by Ted Bonnicksen, Warren Batchelder, Tom Ray, George Grandpré
Music by John Seely

It’s rabbit season and Bugs Bunny tries to evade rifle-toting Elmer Fudd. Bugs balls into an underground cave with prehistoric wall paintings and a giant powder horn that serves as a time capsule from 10,000 BC, with instructions for an opening in 1960 AD. Bugs opens the powder horn and finds a reel of film. Bugs returns to his hole-in-the-ground residence and loads the film into a projector. The film opens with title credits announcing “A Micronesian Film Documentary in Breathtaking Cro-Magnonscope. Color by Neanderthal Color.” To Bugs’ surprise, the film focuses on his prehistoric ancestor, a saber-toothed rabbit, who is being pursued by the caveman Elmer Fuddstone.
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The Bootleg Files: Hedda

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BOOTLEG FILES 923: “Hedda” (1975 film version of Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler” starring Glenda Jackson and Patrick Stewart).

LAST SEEN: On the Russian OK.ru site.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: On VHS video.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: There seems to be a rights clearance issue.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Damn, I hope so.

When the Academy Award nominations for 1975 were announced, Glenda Jackson was among the Best Actress nominees for her performance in “Hedda,” an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler” produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company under the direction of Trevor Nunn. The likelihood of Jackson winning the Oscar was nil, only because she already won two Best Actress Oscars within the previous five years – for “Women in Love” (1970) and “A Touch of Class” (1973) – and the Academy was not going to give her a third award in such a short period of time. Jackson was aware of that situation, which may explain why she was the only woman in that category who did not attend the Oscar ceremony.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Knighty Knight Bugs

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Knighty Knight Bugs (1958)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Animation by Gerry Chiniquy, Arthur Davis, Virgil Ross
Music by Milt Franklyn

When you consider how many cartoons featuring Bugs Bunny are now celebrated as animation classics, it is bizarre to realize that only three cartoons featuring the top star of the Warner Bros. animation studio were nominated for the Academy Award. Even more peculiar was the fact the three cartoons that were nominated – “A Wild Hare” (1940), “Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt” (1941), and “Knight Knight Bugs” (1958) – were far from the best of the Bugs Bunny series.

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Bud and Lou (1978)

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Biopics of legendary entertainers rarely work, if only because it requires actors to achieve the impossible effect of duplicating the charisma and nuances of the stars they are supposed to be imitating. The classics of this genre work when the headliners give their own personalities and quirks into their roles rather than trying to create a reasonable facsimile of the stars they were hired to reenact. Thus, James Cagney did a great James Cagney in “Yankee Doodle Dandy” while Barbra Streisand was the perfect Barbra Streisand in “Funny Girl” – no one ever confused them for George M. Cohan and Fanny Brice, even though they were supposed to be recreated the performing styles of those respective talents.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Now, Hare This (1958)

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Now, Hare This (1958)
Directed by Robert McKimson
Story by Tedd Pierce
Animation by Tom Ray, George Grandpre, Ted Bonnicksen, and Warren Batchelder
Music by Milt Franklyn

B.B. Wolf wants to have a rabbit for dinner but lacks the brains and skills to catch Bugs Bunny through traditional means. He conspires with his giggly little nephew to outsmart the rabbit through fairy tale scenarios. The wolves first try to trick Bugs into participating in the Little Red Riding Hood story, and when that fails they seek to use the Goldilocks and the Three Bears story to trap him. Of course, Bugs is too smart to be fooled and B.B. gets battered as his plans go badly awry. In the end, B.B. manages to have a rabbit for dinner – with Bugs sharing a meal at the dining room table with a disgruntled B.B. and his giddy nephew.
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I’ve Got to Sing a Torch Song (1933)

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During the 1930s, several animated shorts presented silly caricatures of celebrities in unlikely situations. The 1933 Warner Bros. offering “I’ve Got to Sing a Torch Song” is among the most interesting of this mini-genre, with some genuinely amusing gags involving the big names of the day.

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