While the majority of film scholars will hail “Duck Soup” and “A Night at the Opera” as the best of the Marx Brothers movies, my go-to Marx mayhem is their 1931 “Monkey Business.” Part of my devotion is emotional – this was the first Marx film I saw, back when I was around 10 years old and WNEW-TV Channel 5 in New York City would broadcast the film. And part of my devotion is intellectual – I genuinely believe it is the crazy siblings’ best film.
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BOOTLEG FILES 880: “The Apocalypse Now Workprint” (five-hour version of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 classic).
LAST SEEN: On Internet Archive and YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Coppola doesn’t want this to be commercially released.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Nope.
I have a confession to make: I never liked “Apocalypse Now.” I’ve seen it several times, and with each new viewing I wished that my indifference to the film would be replaced with a sudden awakening of belated appreciation. I was hopeful that the longer “Apocalypse Now Redux” would trigger a positive response, but I found that more annoying than the original.
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Available now from 88 Films (US)
Following an affair, a pair of adulterers decides to kill her husband, leading them into a life they did not expect. Expectations aren’t met, common goals are unclear, and sadness awaits.
While looking for true paranormal phenomena, a crew attempting to film a reality show stumbles upon more than they bargained for.
A young woman living a mute-by-choice society finds herself hunted by a cult who want her for nefarious reasons.
Bushy Hare (1950)
Directed by Robert McKimson
Written by Warren Foster
Animation by Phil De Lara, J.C. Melendez, Charles McKimson, Rod Scribner
Music by Carl Stalling
On several occasions, the Warner Bros. animators placed Bugs Bunny up against one-shot foes designed to plumb humor from politically incorrect stereotypes. In “Bushy Hare,” the antagonist is supposed to be an Aboriginal Australian. However, the Termite Terrace gang obviously knew nothing about Aboriginal Australians and instead created an all-purpose (albeit light tan skinned) wild man in a red loincloth who sports bushy hair and a beard and throws a boomerang and a spear while screaming unintelligibly. No one in America seemed to mind or notice any problems until June 2001 when Cartoon Network pulled it from its “June Bugs” marathon along with other shorts featuring racial and ethnic stereotype characters.
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Following his wife’s murder in a seemingly random hit, an Army Ranger decides to take things in his own hands to solve the case. Permanently.