Every Bugs Bunny Ever: No Parking Hare (1954)

Posted on April 23, 2025 by Phil Hall

No Parking Hare (1954)
Directed by Robert McKimson
Story by Sid Marcus
Animation by Charles McKimson, Phil DeLara, Rod Scribner, Herman Cohen
Music by Carl Stalling

Robert McKimson’s “No Parking Hare” is a reworking of Chuck Jones’ 1950 “Homeless Hare,” with Bugs Bunny pitted against a burly and surly construction worker trying to evict the rabbit from his subterranean residence so he can complete a major construction project. Jones’ film takes place in a urban setting, with Bugs being removed from a high-rise development site, while McKimson’s film takes place in an open environment where a freeway is being built.

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Boom! (1968)

Posted on April 21, 2025 by Phil Hall

If any film deserves a remake, it is “Boom!” Not a scene-for-scene remake of the infamously ghastly 1968 Joseph Losey film, but in a production that is aligned with the source material, Tennessee Williams’ short story “Man Bring This Up Road” that was later adapted as the Broadway drama “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore.”
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Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got (1985)

Posted on April 20, 2025 by Phil Hall

When Brigitte Berman’s “Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got” won the Academy Award as Best Documentary Feature Film for 1986, the Canadian production had yet to secure a theatrical release. Unfortunately for Berman, the film’s subject – clarinetist and band leader Artie Shaw – sued her to secure a greater share of potential box office profits. Due to the litigation, the film never played theatrically after its Oscar win – Shaw died in December 2024 and Berman’s production didn’t have its theatrical premiere until January 2024.
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The Bootleg Files: Monteith and Rand

Posted on April 18, 2025 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 903: “Monteith and Rand” (1979 Showtime special starring the comedy team of John Monteith and Suzanne Rand).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It fell through the cracks.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.

Last week, I saw a headline in the New York Times that said: “Suzanne Rand, Half of a Once-Popular Comedy Team, Dies at 75.” And my reaction to this news was: “Who?” I am not trying to be snarky or cruel, I honestly had no idea who she was. Upon reading the article, I discovered she was part of Monteith and Rand, a comedy team that was active in the late 1970s and the 1980s. But even though I was an active consumer of entertainment during those years – yes, I am that old – for the life of me I could not remember a comedy team called Monteith and Rand.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Bugs and Thugs (1954)

Posted on April 16, 2025 by Phil Hall

Bugs and Thugs (1954)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Music by Milt Franklyn
Animation by Manuel Perez, Ken Champin, Virgil Ross, Arthur Davis

Friz Freleng’s “Bugs and Thugs” is a reworking of his 1946 “Racketeer Rabbit” that pitted Bugs Bunny against the bank robbers Rocky and Hugo, which were caricatures of Edward G. Robinson and Peter Lorre. In this 1954 film, the criminals are originals – Rocky, a diminutive, stone-faced tough guy with a cigarette hanging from his lower lip and an outrageously oversized vertical fedora that obscured his eyes, and his large oafish partner Mugsy. Rocky had previously been used in Daffy Duck’s “Golden Yeggs” (1950) and the Sylvester and Tweety “Catty Cornered” (1953) with different (and more competent) oversized sidekicks.
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Rockshow (1980)

Posted on April 14, 2025 by Phil Hall

In the realm of concert films, “Rockshow” never seemed to get much love. The 1980 theatrical release – the first for the start-up Miramax – was relatively brief and not celebrated by either film or music critics. The initial home entertainment releases cut out several numbers, and then the film was out of circulation until a full restored re-release in 2013 that electrified Paul McCartney’s most die-hard fans but left everyone else mostly unmoved.
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The King of Kings (2025)

Posted on April 11, 2025 by Phil Hall

No other subject has been the focus of more films than the life of Jesus – and as the author of the book “Jesus Christ Movie Star,” I can attest that the subject has been covered since the late 19th century in nearly every imaginable manner within the range of sacred and profane.

To my happy surprise, there is an inventive new way of retelling this story. The new feature “The King of Kings” provides a computer animated version that is inspired by “The Life of Our Lord,” an unpublished manuscript by Charles Dickens that he wrote specifically for his young children. The resulting film is a clever and sincere work that is ideal for family viewing over the upcoming Easter holiday.
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