Movie Ad of the Week: JIVEASSP (1976)

This forgotten concert film starring Larry Raspberry & the Highsteppers -- the "world's most famous (unknown) rock & roll band" according to Creem magazine -- also features appearances by Jerry Lee Lewis, Leon Russell and Professor Longhair. There's no IMDb entry, but the few credits we have for JIVEASSP are as follows: it was produced by Jack Canson, directed and photographed by Richard Kooris, and edited by Ted Nicolaou. The ad above is from the Lubbock, TX opening on August 27th, 1976. Raspberry is selling a VHS of JIVEASSP on his website. The trailer can be seen here.

Del Rio, TX - August 27th, 1976

Harlingen, TX - September 3rd, 1976

Longview, TX - September 17th, 1976

Salina, KS - October 8th, 1976

Colorado Springs, CO - October 15, 1976

Fort Myers, FL - November 12th, 1976

Los Angeles - March 10th, 1977

The Endangered List (Case File #162)

Never released on any home video format or shown on TV: the 1976 re-release version of THE FINAL COMEDOWN (1972), with additional scenes directed by Allan Arkush.

BLAST(1976)

Starring
Billy Dee Williams (Johnny Johnson)
D’Urville Martin (Billy Joe Ashley)
Celia Kaye (Rene Freeman)
Raymond St. Jacques (Imir)
Sam Laws [appears in BLAST version only]
R.G. Armstrong (Mr. Freeman)
Maidie Norman (Mrs. Johnson)
Ed Cambridge (Dr. Smalls)
Billy Durkin (Michael Freeman)
Morris D. Erby (Mr. Johnson)
Pamela Jones (Luanna)

with
Cal Wilson
John Johnson
Rhonda Brown
Clifford Choice
Marlene Czernin
Nate Esformes
Nana Fitz
Sam Gilman
Jarrod Johnson
Andrzej Krakowski
Judy Morris
Ernest Robinson
Clifford Strong
Herman Washington
Vernon Waters

Written, Produced, Directed
by
Frank Arthur Wilson
[Oscar Williams and Allan Arkush]

Cinematography by
William B. Kaplan

Stunt Coordinator/Stunt Driver
Conrad E. Palmisano

Additional Photography [BLAST version]
Roderick Young

Edited by
Dick Van Enger, Jr.

Music by
Wade Marcus

Performed by
Grant Green

Production Manager
Andrzej Krakowski

Sound Effects Editor
Richard Sperber

Stunt Coordinator
Ernest Robinson

First Assistant Camera
Clifford Mosby

Grip
Bob Warden

Music Supervisor
Donald C. Hahn

Moog Synthesizer
Edd Kalehoff

Music Arranger
Wade Marcus

Music Editor
Michael McCroskey

Running time: 75 minutes

MPAA rating: R

Released by
New World Pictures

excerpt from
"Roger to Rookies: Make it Cheap"
by Patrick Goldstein
American Film
January-February 1985, pg.36-43

Detroit - May 31, 1972

Detroit - November 24, 1976

Movie Ad of the Week: The Many Faces of PEOPLETOYS (1974)

The "psycho kids on the rampage" shocker PEOPLETOYS -- which Sean MacGregor began directing but David Sheldon finished -- opened in Hampton, VA on May 10, 1974. The film apparently didn't do much business under this title...

...so distributor Jerry Gross retitled it THE HORRIBLE HOUSE ON THE HILL and tried a new ad campaign modeled after THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and its effective "It's only a movie, only a movie, only a movie..." tag line. The ad above is from Pittsburgh, PA on November 1st, 1974.

A year later, Gross was playing the film in some territories as 5 O'CLOCK KILLERS. Here it is in Kokomo, IN on October 15th, 1975.

After Gross' company Cinemation Industries went bankrupt in early 1976, Seymour Borde & Associates acquired the movie and rechristened it DEVIL TIMES FIVE, the title it's retained for over 40 years. Above is the ad for its Bakersfield, CA opening on February 11, 1977.

Movie Ad of the Week: WITHOUT A STITCH (1970) a.k.a. THE GOLDEN VIRGIN (1973)

The English-subtitled sex comedy WITHOUT A STITCH, a Jack H. Harris import from Denmark starring Anne Grete ("pronounced GREAT!" as the ads state), opened in Pittsburgh, PA on May 20th, 1970. The X rating was self-imposed. Grove Press published the paperback tie-in edition of Jens Bjørneboe's source novel.

Three years later, still in its subtitled form, the film turned up in San Antonio, TX as THE GOLDEN VIRGIN, advertised again with a self-applied X even though Harris submitted it for a rating the same year (1973) and it received an R.

Movie Ads of the Week: PAPERBACK HERO (1974) a.k.a. ROUGHNECK (1975)

PAPERBACK HERO, a Canadian-made drama starring Keir Dullea and Elizabeth Ashley, opened in Reno, NV on June 19th, 1974.

It was still knocking around the country eight months later when it arrived in St. Cloud, MN on February 7th, 1975.

Nine months after that, it hit Indianapolis under the title ROUGHNECK on November 28th, 1975.