Monday, November 30, 2009

The SANTA CLAUS 50th Anniversary Gift Set is now available!



Just in time for the holidays!!! Introducing the "SANTA CLAUS 50th ANNIVERSARY GIFT SET," a great holiday companion for the MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 VOLUME XVI dvd box set (which includes the infamous SANTA CLAUS episode)... or any cult film fan!

Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the K. Gordon Murray matinee classic, SANTA CLAUS, with this unique set... available exclusively at the Ballyhoo Motion Pictures Ebay Store!!! The GIFT SET includes:

-- One (1) 11x17 inch "SANTA CLAUS: 50th Anniversary Poster" printed on medium/glossy paper stock

-- Three (3) 4x6 inch SANTA CLAUS postcards (three separate artworks)

-- One (1) SANTA CLAUS button set (two 1.5 inch buttons) with packaging

-- One (1) collectable YOUNG AMERICA HORROR CLUB 2.25 inch button

-- One (1) WONDER WORLD OF K. GORDON MURRAY 2.25 inch button

-- One (1) surprise "retro" gift! It could be anything! Cult film DVD's, magic kits... you name it!

All this for only $16.99 plus shipping and handling! But hurry, this offer won't last long!

While you are at our Ballyhoo store, check out some of our other exclusive items... including a ROBOT vs. THE AZTEC MUMMY T-shirt, a K. GORDON MURRAY POSTER SET, and more!!!

Here's the link: http://stores.ebay.com/Ballyhoo-Motion-Pictures-Store

Sunday, November 29, 2009

One-Sheet of the Week: SEX CLINIC '74 (1973)



JUNGE MÄDCHEN MÖGEN'S HEISS, HAUSFRAUEN NOCH HEISSER / MÄDCHEN KOMM, DIE LIEBE JUCKT / HOT DOG UND BANANEIS(1973)

U.S. release beginning in December of 1973 as SEX CLINIC '74

Also released as CRACKAJACKS


Saturday, November 28, 2009

The Endangered List (Case File #54)



THE BLUE HOUR (1971)

Starring
Ann Chapman
and
Edward Blessington

Directed by
Ron Nicholas
and
Serge Goncheroff

Produced by
Carl Hittleman

Executive Producer
LeRoy Klein

Music by
Harry Fields

A
Grads Corporation
release

In Color
82 minutes
MPAA rating: X

PLOT

This story is about two people whose relationship is falling apart. David is a young architect whose dream is to build an ecological sound city. Tanya is a girl from Greece who wants a family. The two are living together and David is busy raising money so that he and Tanya can go to Canada. Something is wrong and they both know it. Tanya says in the beginning of the story “that her head is so hung up with her past that she can’t get herself together today”. The story shows how this happens to people. We see different things come up between David and Tanya in their everyday that “triggers” her similar past experience. Then through the use of flashbacks we see all the traumatic experience in Tanya’s life. Slowly we trace her life from the most current relationship that she has had with men back to her early life in Greece and her first love affair with a young priest. The priest kills himself and sets Tanya’s life on a road to

America to live with her uncle on a farm in California. The uncle is a lonely man who has lived by himself since his arrival in America. After a period of time he begins to think of Tanya more as a woman than his niece. After a few futile attempts on the part of the uncle Tanya decides that she wants to try to have a relationship with him. After a terrible experience in bed with him Tanya leaves. A man picks her up and takes her into Los Angeles to work in a modeling agency of questionable reputation. The time she spends at the agency is a degrading experience for her. She meets a young man who is a teacher. Through his kindness and love for her she finds the strength to try and leave her work. In their attempt to escape the teacher is killed and Tanya is once again on her own. David enters her life and the world seems different except that her past haunts her. It controls her life. The only way she is able to free herself is to go back and relive her past. Until she understands why she is there is no way for her to exist as a whole person in the present. The startling climax of the film is this moment where we see what reafly happens between her and the young priest. She had blamed herself for his death. ‘I didn’t kill him. I didn’t. In two hours it will be morning and it will be the first day of the rest of my life”. Our story ends with David and Tanya on their way to Canada. David with the money for his city and Tanya with herself.


BOXOFFICE review

A young architect (Edward Blessington), with dreams of building an ecologically sound city, and a young Greek girl (Ann Chapman), who seeks only to find herself, in aftermath of a tragic love affair in her homeland with a young priest, meet in modern-day Los Angeles. Only in telling her new love what happened across the ocean, with no sparing of details, can the girl free herself of emotional hangup. There are several deaths along the way. The two young people embark on a new life in Canada. LeRoy Klein was executive producer, Carl Hittleman producer, and Ron Nicholas and Serge Goncheroff the co-directors. The photography is strikingly effective and the score by Harry Fields is touching in its mood.

[Boxoffice BookinGuide, January 10, 1972, p. 10]

Friday, November 27, 2009

NOW SHOWING -- November 27, 1982



Here are some of the movies that were in theatrical distribution twenty-seven years ago today (November 27th, 1982) and quite possibly were playing at a theatre near you!

ALONE IN THE DARK
ANNIE
BRIMSTONE AND TREACLE
BUGS BUNNY’S 3RD MOVIE: 1001 RABBIT TALES
THE BURNING
CALIGULA
THE CHOSEN
COME BACK TO THE 5 & DIME, JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN
THE CONCRETE JUNGLE
CREEPSHOW
THE DESTROYERS / CHALLENGE OF THE NINJA
EATING RAOUL
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
THE ESCAPE ARTIST
E.T.
FANTASIA (re-release)
FIRST BLOOD
FIVE DAYS ONE SUMMER
FITZCARRALDO
48 HRS.
HEARTACHES
HEIDI’S SONG
HOMEWORK
HORROR PLANET
THE LAST UNICORN
THE MISSIONARY
MY FAVORITE YEAR
AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN
RETURN OF THE MASTER KILLER / THE MASTER KILLER
THE SECRET OF NIMH
SMITHEREENS
STILL OF THE NIGHT
TIME BANDITS
THE TOY
VICTOR/VICTORIA
YOL


Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Paulie D. meets Tom Savini



I met Tom and he told me to tell you: buy your older sister THE LOST BOYS: THE TRIBE on DVD for Christmas. Then laugh at her because she thought she was sooo cool; she didn't know there was a sequel, did she? Fehh. Tom Savini's in it, fool, and I pray to sweet baby Jesus you saw Tom as "Sex Machine" in Rodriquez's FROM DUSK 'TIL DAWN. If you didn't, then your reliability is really becoming questionable.

AND: keep your eyes peeled for his big year in '10, as Tom will break through to A-list status when MACHETE, ELDORADO and THE DEAD MATTER all squeeze out to some form of watchable media. There's actually a chance you could catch MACHETE if you live in a major city. The cast alone is a head-shaking explosion of raunchy possibility: DeNiro, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, Seagal -- and yes that's Steven -- Rose McGowan, and Danny Trejo reprising the title role from GRINDHOUSE's faux trailers. With any luck, Savini will get a couple minutes in the waterfall scene, too. He's due. -- P. DeCirce

Monday, November 23, 2009

Happy Birthday JEANNE BELL


Playboy's Miss October 1969
Star of TNT JACKSON
and Ebony Fist Award winner

JEANNE BELL








Sunday, November 22, 2009

One-Sheet of the Week: HOW TO SCORE WITH GIRLS (1980)



CRY YOUR PURPLE HEART OUT (1973)


Released in 1976

Re-released by NMD Film Distributing in 1980
as HOW TO SCORE WITH GIRLS

Saturday, November 21, 2009

The latest news from Ballyhoo Motion Pictures

Our friend Daniel Griffith of Ballyhoo Motion Pictures has been so busy producing different projects this year that we're beginning to wonder if he's really who he says he is and not the Energizer rabbit in disguise or Tanner from Lawrence Block's "Thief Who Couldn't Sleep" novels operating under an alias. I'm not even going to attempt a rundown of everything "Keeps-going-and-going-Griffith" is working on at the moment, mainly because I'd like to get some sleep sometime this weekend, but I encourage you all to visit his blog, his jam-packed YouTube page, and a few other Facebook, MySpace and web pages dedicated to his myriad projects. One of the latest is "Everybodies Doin' the Shanty Tramp," an all-new documentary short that will appear on Something Weird's upcoming, digitally restored disc of K. Gordon Murray's SHANTY TRAMP.


Another is "Santa Claus Conquers the Devil," a featurette celebrating the 50th anniversary of Murray's most beloved matinee presentation, René Cardona's SANTA CLAUS (1959), which will be included in Shout! Factory's MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 VOL. XVI (due out in December). For more information on these and other Murray-related marvels -- including Daniel's soon-to-be-released documentary, THE WONDER WORLD OF K. GORDON MURRAY -- visit the Wonder World now!

39 years ago today...



...some lucky brats in Levittown, PA got to meet the Banana Splits!

Friday, November 20, 2009

NOW SHOWING -- November 20, 1970



Here are some of the movies that were in theatrical distribution thirty-nine years ago today (November 20th, 1970) and quite possibly were playing at a theatre near you!

AIRPORT
BIRTH OF A NATION (re-release)
BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL (AFRICANUS SEXUALIS)
CATCH-22
THE CHRISTMAS THAT ALMOST WASN’T
COUGAR COUNTRY
COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE
DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE
DIRTY DINGUS MAGEE
ELVIS – THAT’S THE WAY IT IS
EYE OF THE CAT
FANTASIA (re-release)
FIVE EASY PIECES
I WALK THE LINE
IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD (re-release)
JOE


THE LADY OF MONZA
LOVERS AND OTHER STRANGERS
MASH
THE MCKENZIE BREAK
“Mr. Magoo’s Holiday Festival”
99 WOMEN
NO BLADE OF GRASS
THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH
PATTON
PIECES OF DREAMS
RABBIT, RUN
RYAN’S DAUGHTER
RIDE HARD, RIDE WILD
RPM
SCROOGE
SUNFLOWER
SWEET TASTE OF JOY
THIS, THAT AND THE OTHER
TORA! TORA! TORA!
THE TRAVELING EXECUTIONER
THE VAMPIRE LOVERS
THE WIZARD OF OZ (re-release)
WUSA



Thursday, November 19, 2009

Steve Hawkes!





















Big thanks to John Charles for the articles and inspiration.

Monday, November 16, 2009

The Endangered List (Case File #53)



SLAVES (1969)

Directed by
Herbert J. Biberman

Written by
Herbert J. Biberman
John O. Killens
and
Alida Sherman

Produced by
Philip Langner

Cinematography by
Joseph C. Brun

Edited by
Sidney Mayers

Music by
Bobby Scott

Art Direction
Burr Smidt

Costume Design
Laurence Gross and Robert Magahay

CAST
Dionne Warwick (Cassy)
Ossie Davis (Luke)
Stephen Boyd (MacKay)
Marilyn Clark (Mrs. Bennett)
Gale Sondergaard (New Orleans Lady)
Nancy Coleman (Mrs. Stillwell)
Julius Harris (Shadrach)
David Huddleston (Holland)
Eva Jessye (Julie)
Barbara Ann Teer (Esther)
James Heath (Luther)
Aldine King (Emmeline)
Robert Kya-Hill (Jericho)

SONGS
"Slaves"
"Another Mornin'"
"Lullaby"
Performed by Dionne Warwick

A
Theatre Guild Films Production
in association with
The Walter Reade Organization, Inc.

Released by
Continental Distributing

Color by Movielab
Running time: 110 minutes

Original soundtrack available from Skye
Novelization by John O. Killens published by Pyramid

Released unrated in 1969
MPAA rating (1979): R
Re-released by 21st Century Distribution in 1981









from BOXOFFICE

THE STORY
Ossie Davis and his family have long been the trusted slaves of kind master Sheppard Strudwick. Although he hates the system and has vowed never to sell a slave, Strudwick is forced to sell Davis to pay a debt. On the auction block in New Orleans, Davis is bought by crafty plantation owner Stephen Boyd who lives in splendor with his alcoholic slave mistress, Dionne Warwick. Warwick is attracted to Davis’ fire and pride, but he rejects her in the cotton fields. Boyd is being courted by a married neighbor (Eva Jessye) who shocks her female friends with her outspoken opinions about slavery and southern womanhood. Davis steals liberation papers from Boyd and plans to escape, as does Miss Warwick. The elaborate plot fails, and Davis is flogged to death by an angry Boyd. A faithful servant in the plantation house then sets fire to the cotton sheds, allowing Miss Warwick to make good her escape with the aid of Miss Jessye.

EXPLOITIPS
The unique plot and setting should be stressed, since slavery is certainly part of contemporary social issues. The appearance of Miss Warwick will be a powerful attraction, and her recording of the title song has real potential. School groups, civic organizations and the like should be interested.

REVIEW
As an exploitation attraction, Continental’s “Slaves” certainly has a lot going for it. It’s the first film in quite a long time to deal in dramatic terms with the institution of slavery in the Old South, thus providing a unique plot and setting that should get plenty of attention. The Theatre Guild Films production also marks the screen debut of Dionne Warwick, one of the hottest female singers in the country, with a flock of gold records to her credit and she’s naturally a built-in attraction for the all-important youth audience. Saturation bookings and a hard sell will have to put it over, for the film itself is banal, predictable and technically inept, with the editing faintly reminiscent of St. Vitus dance. Stephen Boyd and Ossie Dance co-star as master and slave, but the film is so poorly constructed that, except for a few short moments, the potential histrionic fireworks just fizzle. Miss Warwick looks stunning, but any real judgment concerning her future as an actress will have to await a better showcase. Herbert J. Biberman is credited with the direction and his wife (Gale Sondergaard) makes a brief but welcome appearance. Philip Langner produced.

Boxoffice, May 19, 1969 pg. 4202


VARIETY review

The boxoffice success of “Slaves” will likely depend on the mood and conditions of the black-white situation at the time of the film’s general release. It has a good premise and adequate acting, but a rather choppy script and uneven direction in attempting to depict conditions of American slaves in the pre-Civil War South.

Production aspects of the film are good. The music is superior to the script, the colors are muted but clear when focusing on the faces of the principals, the extras were well chosen. The sets are realistic and although the script needs tightening, it does carry fairly well.

“Slaves” tells the story of a heroic, Christian black man (Ossie Davis) who in 1850 is sold by his master, a liberal horsebreeder in Kentucky, in order to save the few remaining slaves on the owner’s farm. He is bought by a highly intelligent but somewhat brutal plantation owner in Mississippi (Stephen Boyd). Boyd’s mistress is a black spitfire (Dionne Warwick) who wants to rebel against her master and finds the strength and means through Davis.

Their plan of escape is, of course, impossible and doomed before it gets off the ground. But Davis proves himself the better man when he chooses to fight and die for his cause rather than accept Boyd’s bribe of freedom and turn on his brethren.

The film’s philosophy is a bit heavy handed. The Christian slave, at first trusting solely in God, learns he must help himself to freedom and salvation.

The attempts at realistic portrayal of what the situations were like are admirable. Sympathetic slave owners are shown as well as hard driving profiteers. How white men used black girls as concubines is revealed, and how some white men cared for keeping families together while others -- usually because of economic gain -- chose to break the family unit and actually breed slaves. There is even a short speech by Boyd pointing up the economic and social upheavals which will ensue should the slaves be freed and sent North.

Miss Warwick makes a creditable screen debut. She is just okay in some scenes, but shows great dramatic potential in others. The soundtrack utilizes five songs written by Bobby Scott and sung by the actress, although she doesn’t actually sing in the part of Cassy, the African-oriented mistress.

Boyd is fine as the stern, philosophic slave trader, whose father is a minister back in Boston. Davis does not physically appear virile -- lessening the subplot suggestion that Miss Warwick lusts for him over Boyd -- but he does generate a warmth and strength of purpose.

Gale Dondergaard, wife of director and scripter Herbert J. Biberman, makes a brief and welcome screen appearance. Others good in character roles include Barbara Ann Teer as Davis’ wife, and Marilyn Clark as Boyd’s white neighbor who aids in the final escape.

“Slaves” will probably have a limited market, but should find its own level and with the help of Miss Warwick and Davis should pull well in urban areas. The film is the first by Theatre Guild Films and the first Biberman has directed in some time. – Rela.

Variety, May 7, 1969