Author Archives: Phil Hall

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The Bootleg Files: Fun on the Run

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BOOTLEG FILES 946: “Fun on the Run” (1949 short incorporating sequences from Abbott and Costello’s feature “Here Comes the Co-Eds”).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Only available in 16mm and 8mm formats.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: None.

One of the most contentious political issues today involves the presence of biological men who identify as transgender playing in women’s sports. But back in 1945, the idea of a man playing on a woman’s sports team was strictly the stuff of comedy – specifically, the Abbott and Costello feature “Here Comes the Co-Eds.”
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Ben-Hur (1959)

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William Wyler’s 1959 “Ben-Hur” is a film that generates respect, if not adulation. And there is no reason to feel guilty about not loving this mammoth three-and-a-half-hour epic. Gary Giddins, writing in the New York Sun, probably summed it up best: “Watching ‘Ben-Hur’ all at once is like sitting down to a 10-course meal and finding that every course consists of potato dumplings, except for the seventh, which is strawberry shortcake (that would be the chariot race).”

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Bugs Bunny’s Easter Special (1977)

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“Bugs Bunny’s Easter Special” marked the launch of a string of prime-time television specials that sliced-and-diced Golden Age cartoons with new animation into productions tied around a specific theme. In this case, the theme was Easter – the secular aspect of the holiday, not the religious celebration (thus, we never get to hear Bugs say, “I knew I shouldn’t have taken that left turn at Nazareth”).
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The Bootleg Files: In Search of Noah’s Ark

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BOOTLEG FILES 945: “In Search of Noah’s Ark” (1976 nonfiction feature from Sunn Classics).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: Three different VHS video releases.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Out of circulation for many years.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: None.

If you were going to the movies back in the 1970s, you must remember Sunn Classic Pictures, also known as Schick Sunn Classics. This small Utah company happily littered movie theaters in with films that promised to unlock the secrets of cryptozoology, paranormal activity, historical conspiracies and the more opaque corners of Biblical text. Each film produced by this Utah-based company was distributed with a blaring, carny-worthy marketing campaign that saturated local television stations and newspapers with bombastic advertisements that greatly exaggerated the depth and scope of the presentations. The company also four-walled the theaters where their films played, thus giving them a generous share of the box office.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Bugs and Daffy’s Carnival of the Animals (1976)

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The 1976 made-for-television special “Bugs and Daffy’s Carnival of the Animals” marked the first time since “False Hare” in 1964 that an original production starring Bugs Bunny was created by Warner Bros. Why did it take 12 years for Warner Bros. to bring Bugs back? And why did Warner Bros. wait until 1976 to produce an original prime time special featuring its animated characters?
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