Movie Ad of the Week: RUN RUN, JOE! (1974)

This widescreen Carlo Ponti production, filmed mostly on and around the island of Ischia as JOE AND MARGHERITO, was originally set to star Franco Nero and Peter Fonda in the respective titular roles, but when the chase comedy went before the Todd-AO lenses in late summer 1973, Keith Carradine had replaced Nero and Tom Skerritt was in the Fonda part. The pseudo Cinerama world premiere was held on April 11, 1974 ("Nothing in this Carlo Ponti presentation either requires or exploits the wrap-round presentation" sniffed Russell Davies of the Observer) at the Casino Theater in London, the same venue where the world premiere of a real three-strip Cinerama film, HOW THE WEST WAS WON, was held a dozen years earlier. By the time this two-hour-long Giuseppe Colizzi joint reached the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood on August 28, 1974 the title had been changed to RUN RUN, JOE! Los Angeles Times critic Kevin Thomas wrote, "The only thing that sets [it] apart from all the other mindless celebrations of violence and destruction is that it was shot in Cinerama." The film made only $7,500 at the Dome and was pulled from U.S. release.