Movie Ad of the Week: WEAPONS OF DEATH (1981)

Writer-director Paul Kyriazi's third martial arts feature, WEAPONS OF DEATH, opened in Miami, FL on July 24, 1981. To learn more about this film and others by Kyriazi, including his unreleased kung fu comedy NINJA BUSTERS (1984), check out this post by our friend William S. Wilson of Video Junkie Strikes Back from Beyond the Grave

A Jack Starrett/William Smith double feature to screen in Philadelphia on 7/26

Hey there! I'll be at the Philadelphia Mausoleum of Contemporary Art on Friday, July 26 to introduce 16mm screenings of two movies starring William Smith and directed by Jack Starrett: RUN, ANGEL, RUN! (1969) and HOLLYWOOD MAN (1976). The show starts at 7:30 pm. The event site is here, the press release is below. I hope to see some of you there! -- Chris Poggiali

FINAL FRIDAY FILMS AT THE MAUSOLEUM

Introducing a new monthly 16mm double-feature from Exhumed Films and Cinedelphia.com

Exhumed Films, Philadelphia’s long-running genre film programmers, are teaming with Cinedelphia.com, the online center of Philadelphia’s film community, to present a monthly double-feature of rarely screened films. The series will be held on the final Friday of every month and will feature thematically-related movies projected on 16mm.

The ongoing series debuts on Friday, July 26 and will feature two films from director Jack Starrett and star William Smith:

RUN, ANGEL, RUN! (1969)

Motorcycle gang member Angel reveals the secret inner workings of his club to a journalist and is then forced to go on the run with his girlfriend in tow. Actor Jack Starrett’s directorial breakout hit and William Smith’s first role in a biker film, a genre that he would go on to dominate.

HOLLYWOOD MAN (1976)

Smith stars as Rafe Stoker, a movie producer who gets mixed up with the mob while trying to raise completion funds for his new biker picture. Co-written by Smith, the film is a somewhat autobiographical tale of the toils and tribulations that come with working in the low-budget biker movie industry.

Philadelphia Mausoleum of Contemporary Art (PhilaMOCA)
531 N. 12th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19123

http://www.philamoca.org
http://www.exhumedfilms.com
http://www.cinedelphia.com

Movie Ad of the Week: DELUSION (1981) / THE HOUSE WHERE DEATH LIVES (1984)

Alan Beattie's DELUSION (1981), starring Patricia Pearcy, David Hayward, Simone Griffeth and Joseph Cotten, opened in Santa Fe, NM on January 23, 1981. It was the last release from The International Picture Show Company, the indie that brought U.S. audiences SOLDIER OF ORANGE (1979), THE VISITOR (1980), WHERE TIME BEGAN (1978), the Tim Conway comedies THE BILLION DOLLAR HOBO (1977) and THEY WENT THAT-A-WAY & THAT-A-WAY (1978), and THE MAGIC OF LASSIE (1978).

Three years later, Beattie's movie arrived in 32 "Aquarius Showcase Theatres" in the New York area as THE HOUSE WHERE DEATH LIVES (February 3, 1984) from New American Films, a short-lived company co-owned by filmmaker Tim Kincaid and his wife, Cynthia DePaula.

Movie Ad of the Week: BRUCE LEE'S ORIGINAL SCREEN TEST (1974)

Veteran producer and distributor Laurence Joachim first released the 7-minute Bruce Lee screen test in 1974 as a bonus attraction with THE GREEN HORNET (a.k.a. TALES OF THE GREEN HORNET), the first of two feature films he and his son Marco prepared from episodes of the ABC TV series (1966-1967) that introduced Lee to American audiences as Kato, the Green Hornet's sidekick. Joachim kept the screen test in theatrical rotation for the next half dozen years, using it to support his other Dragon-titled releases: FURY OF THE DRAGON (a.k.a. GREEN HORNET II), RAGE OF THE DRAGON, DRAGON'S INFERNO, DRAGON ON FIRE, and CALL ME DRAGON (a.k.a. BRUCE LEE AGAINST SUPERMEN), in which Lee imitator Bruce Li steps into the role of Kato!

Hartford, CT - November 27, 1974

Primos, PA - December 31, 1976

Hartford, CT - October 27, 1978

Los Angeles, CA - October 10, 1980

The Endangered List (Case File #137)

THE MERMAID (1973)

Starring

Rene Bond

Peggy Church

Robyn Whiting [Jacqueline Giroux}

Directed by

Ronnie Runningboard

[Dan Martin]

An

Argon Production

Released by

Freeway Films Corporation

Running time: 84 minutes

PLOT SYNOPSIS

This may sound a little fishy to you, but the producer swears every word of the story is true. A drunken old salt in a tough waterfront dive relates to the younger seamen present the story of his marriage to a mermaid and the resulting issue of that marriage ... four little barracudas, one-fourth fish and three-fourths human.

A quartet of the listeners believe him and set forth to find the mermaid and her daughters. They do. A fabulous shore dinner ensues.

The sailors dig it, and all ends happily, as it should, with the younger sailors embarking upon the sea of life with their newfound mermaidettes.

For the story behind this obscure nudie cutie, check out David Friedman's audio commentary on the Something Weird DVD of THE ADULT VERSION OF JEKYLL & HIDE.

Movie Ad of the Week: THE BEST OF SEX AND VIOLENCE (1982)

The Charles Band-produced trailer compilation THE BEST OF SEX AND VIOLENCE (1981) played midnight shows in 14 Chicago area theaters on February 5-6, 1982 as a presentation of The Alternative Film Society, a New Jersey-based organization that “four-walled” theaters for midnight movie screenings and dusk-to-dawn shows in the early 1980s. Under the title SCREAMS OF FLESH AND BLOOD, this "comic look at Hollywood's wildest moments" filled out many of the Society’s “5 Deranged Features” programs at drive-ins during the summers of 1982 and ’83 (We wrote about those here), even though it was already available on home video through Band’s Wizard Video label. Since none of the movies pictured in the ad (THE DIRT GANG, WEREWOLVES ON WHEELS, two different GINGER flicks) have anything to do with THE BEST OF SEX AND VIOLENCE, here's a list of the 28 trailers that do appear in the film: BURY ME AN ANGEL; THE DOBERMAN GANG; TUNNELVISION; THE SIN OF ADAM AND EVE; ALICE IN WONDERLAND; CINDERELLA; FAIRY TALES; EMANUELLE AROUND THE WORLD; TANYA'S ISLAND; I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE; TOURIST TRAP; THE BOOGEY MAN; ZOMBIE; THE SINGLE GIRLS; THE WORKING GIRLS; THE MANHANDLERS; DR. MINX; TRUCK STOP WOMEN; THE TWILIGHT PEOPLE; BEYOND ATLANTIS; THE DEVIL'S WEDDING NIGHT; SWEET SUGAR; TERMINAL ISLAND; EBONY, IVORY & JADE; DR. BLACK & MR. HYDE; DOLEMITE; THE HUMAN TORNADO; DISCO GODFATHER.