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What’s Leaving HBO: April 2016

Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Each month, several films and TV shows leave HBO’s catalogue. We provide a list of departing titles so you can watch them before they’re gone forever (or are just available on a different site). For more comprehensive coverage of the best titles available on HBO and elsewhere, check out Vulture’s What to Stream Now hub, which is updated throughout the month.

No stinking badges: Blazing Saddles (1974)

Mel Brooks’s spoof of the Western hasn’t aged perfectly, but its gags still have a higher hit rate than pretty much any genre satire you’ll find today. Come for the broad cowboy gags, stay for Madeline Kahn’s very specific send-up of Marlene Dietrich, which is among the best, or at least most ludicrous, work she’s done. Leaving April 30.

From Chimpan-A to Chimpanzee: Planet of the Apes (1968), Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), Escape From the Planet of the Apes (1971), Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), Battle of the Planet of the Apes (1978)

You might have seen Charlton Heston wailing in front of the Statue of Liberty in Planet of the Apes, but have you seen the eerie telepathic mutants in Beneath the Planet of the Apes? Or the monkey gun-squads in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes? Now is your chance. Soak in all the B-plus movie glory before it’s too late. Leaving April 30.

They call me Mr. Tibbs: In the Heat of the Night (1967)

The 1968 Best Picture winner follows a black detective in a small Southern town. Sydney Poitier and Rod Steiger star as the unlikely pair investigating the murder together, forming a tentative alliance amid the increasingly explosive dangers of racism in the South. Leaving April 30.

All the neuroses: Annie Hall (1977), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

Two of Woody Allen’s best films leave HBO this month. Annie Hall is closer to your typical rom-com (mostly because it set the pattern for a whole slew of them), while Hannah and Her Sisters is more of a family, and generational, portrait. Choose one, or watch both, and then find yourself wandering the streets, unburdening on passersby all your anxieties. Leaving April 30.

… and Cheryl Strayed: Wild (2014)

Reese Witherspoon reenacts Cheryl Strayed’s solo trek along the Pacific Crest Trail, accumulating blisters and leaving cloying inspirational quotes along the way. The beauty here is in the Hudson River School-like cinematography, in Laura Dern’s performance as the coolest of cool moms, and in Witherspoon’s blend of anger, selfishness, and perseverance. Leaving April 30.

Leaving April 30
Annie Hall (1977)
Battle of the Planet of the Apes
(1978)
Beneath the Planet of the Apes
(1970)
Blazing Saddles
(1974)
Carrie
(1976)
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)
Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Mystic Pizza (1988)
Night at the Museum (2006)
Once (2007)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Revenge of the Nerds (1984)
Superman Returns (2006)
Taken 3 (2014)
Unbroken (2014)
Wild (2014)

For more details on the best film and television available online, consult Vulture’s What to Stream Now hub.

What’s Leaving HBO: April 2016