Movie Ad of the Week: TO BE A ROSE (1981)

Filmed in the fall of 1973, William A. Levey's TO BE A ROSE - starring sexploitation starlet Sandra Dempsey - got picked up for distribution by Cinemation Industries in 1974, retitled THE PROSTITUTE, and submitted to the MPAA (which gave it an R rating). It was scheduled for a February '75 release that got pushed to June and then vanished from the schedule shortly before Cinemation filed for Chapter 11 in September. Company president Jerry Gross defaulted on loan payments of nearly $1.5 million the following March and two banks foreclosed, selling off Cinemation's library of 54 films at public auction (Sam Sherman's comments about that can be read here). Cannon acquired worldwide rights to the film at the 1981 Mifed Film Market and promoted it with this full-page ad in the October 14, 1981 issue of Variety. We don't know if the 1982 release from Cannon happened, but when Trans World Entertainment issued TO BE A ROSE on videocassette in 1988 the print that was used began with the Cinemation Industries logo and ended with the MPAA R rating tag.

Movie Ad of the Week: THOR THE CONQUEROR (1984)

We're as shocked as anyone that Cannon actually gave a theatrical release to THOR THE CONQUEROR, but here it is Oxford, AL on February 10, 1984. The umpteenth cheesy '80s Italian flick guilty of clonin' the barbarian, this one was directed by Anthony Richmond [Tonino Ricci] and stars Conrad Nichols [Bruno Minniti], the same duo that ripped off THE ROAD WARRIOR with the dopey one-two punch of RUSH (1983) and RAGE (1984). THOR is currently available on DVD for around $5.00 as part of Full Moon's Grindhouse Collection.

Movie Ad of the Week: THREE-WAY LOVE (1977)

Something from Cannon titled THREE-WAY LOVE -- directed by Lewis Scott and starring Paul Paige, Janet Loncar, and Jennifer Stuart -- opened in Murphysboro, IL on June 24, 1977. It's actually LA RAGAZZA DALLA PELLE DI LUNA/THE GIRL WITH THE MOON SKIN (1974), a.k.a. SEX OF THEIR BODIES and THE SINNER, directed by Luigi Scattini and starring Ugo Pagliai, Beba Loncar and Giacomo Rossi-Stewart.

Movie Ad of the Week: THE JAWS OF DEATH (1977)

THE JAWS OF DEATH, William Grefe's JAWS-meets-WILLARD mix starring Richard Jaeckel, began its regional release through Cannon in July of 1976. It opened in the New York City area on March 18, 1977 -- and now, almost 40 years later, one of those 35mm prints returns to Yonkers for one showing only tonight at 7:00 at the Alamo Drafthouse (definitely not the Park Hill where it originally played!) as this month's installment of the American Genre Film Archive series curated and introduced by Temple of Schlock's own Chris Poggiali! More info can be found here.

Clippings: 40 years ago today

Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi's FAREWELL UNCLE TOM opened in three New York City theaters on October 27, 1972.

It’s Hysteric, Not Historic

by Kathleen Carroll

“Farewell Uncle Tom,” at the Cinerama, RKO 59th St. and 86th St. Twin II, is purportedly an “inquest,” or an on-the-spot investigation of slavery in this country.

This investigation is conducted by those cinematic muckrakers, the creators of “Mondo Cane,” Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi. Posing as visiting journalists of the period, the filmmakers pretend to interview everyone from a slave breeder to Harriet Beecher Stowe. After confiding that she intends to write a book, she tells the “European” journalists: “I think I’ll call it ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin.’”

Having recreated our shady past in gross, stomach-turning detail, Jacopetti and Prosperi have the conceit to add a musical score that is pure Fellini. They claim that their film is based entirely on historical fact. But don’t be fooled. These two care nothing for historical accuracy.

What interests them is the hysterical fact, some sensational revelation that can startle or arouse.

What is so loathsome about their style of filmmaking is that they have the gall to pretend that their vulgar exposés are done for humanitarian purposes, when the only thing that appears to interest them is inciting an audience. Do yourself a favor: miss this movie.

(Daily News, 10/28/1972, p.2)

Movie Ad of the Week: "Four Times the Terror"

The previous Cannon four-pack movie ad that we ran -- The First Annual Chop-Saki Festival -- proved so popular with TOS readers that we decided to dig up another one. Here's "Four Times the Terror" from 1980, not long after Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus purchased the company from co-founders Dennis Friedland and Christopher Dewey. DRACULA'S LAST RITES (1980) is Dominic Paris' LAST RITES, the only film on the program that was acquired during the Golan and Globus regime. The second feature is Piers Haggard's BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW (a.k.a. SATAN'S SKIN), starring Patrick Wymark and Linda Hayden, first released by Cannon in 1971 on a double bill with BEAST IN THE CELLAR. Feature #3, BLOOD FEAST, is actually Emilio Miraglia's giallo THE LADY IN RED KILLS 7 TIMES/THE RED QUEEN KILLS 7 TIMES (1972), with Barbara Bouchet and Sybil Danning, which Cannon originally released in the U.S. in 1976 on a double bill with this program's final feature, BLOOD BATH (a.k.a. TERROR NIGHT IN THE CITY), a New York-lensed anthology horror flick by Joel M. Reed that co-stars Harve Presnell, Doris Roberts, Sonny Landham and P.J. Soles. Although this ad carries R ratings for all four features, the latter two were actually awarded PG ratings by the MPAA.

Movie Ad of the Week: "The First Annual Chop-Saki" festival (1974)

This action-packed program was put out by Cannon Releasing in 1974 to promote their latest martial arts acquisition, THE HONG KONG CONNECTION. The other three features -- THE THUNDER KICK, FISTS OF THE DOUBLE K and THE GODFATHERS OF HONG KONG -- had been released by Cannon the previous year.

Movie Ad of the Week: ALIEN CONTAMINATION (1981)

Luigi Cozzi's earthbound ALIEN knock-off CONTAMINATION (1980) opened in Miami, FL on June 12th, 1981 under the title ALIEN CONTAMINATION.

"'Cherry Hill High' Rated by Cherry Hill High Kids"

CHERRY HILL, N.J. – Life for high school students in this suburban community bears little similarity to the fun-filled, free-loving attitude portrayed in the film "Cherry Hill High." The R-rated picture is being shown at a number of drive-ins throughout Southern New Jersey and five local high school students were selected to act as critics for the film.

"There are no girls like that in the high school here," said one of the student-critics. "I'm still looking for them." One student-critic summed-up the sentiments of the group by stating: "This movie is the pits."

(Boxoffice, 11/21/1977)

PUSHING UP DAISIES (1973)

Four down-on-their-luck crooks -- Maddux (Ross Hagen), Kelly (Kelly Thordsen), Wilber (Hoke Howell) and A.J. (Eric Lidberg) -- drift from one small town to the next sticking up various businesses for chump change until Kelly and A.J. are caught and sent to a prison work farm. Maddux and Wilber bust them out with machine guns blazing, wasting half a dozen guards in the process, and the brainless crime spree is resumed. The four rob a bank while dressed in nun’s habits for no particular reason, then hop on motorcycles and take off across the desert for Mexico. After shooting it out with two state troopers, killing one and seriously wounding the other, they cross the border and blow all their loot on tequila and whores until the police arrive to take them in dead or alive.

Originally titled FIVE MINUTES OF FREEDOM, this superficial crime tale co-written by actor-producer Hagen and director Ivan Nagy needed a lot of script polishing to bring characters and situations into focus. Threadbare storyline plays like BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID meets THE WILD BUNCH, with motorcycles instead of horses and no comprehension of the themes of those films or what made them resonate with viewers. The comical tone established during the pre-credit intro vanishes the moment Thordsen and Lidberg's characters are incarcerated. Credit sequence, in which a black prisoner is harassed and killed by a sadistic redneck guard, might've been effective in another movie but comes across as just pointless in this one. Having the crooks dress up as nuns to rob a bank likewise serves no purpose, except to provide an eye-catching graphic for the film's poster and ad slick (Pic was released by Cannon in 1973). At least two of the four protagonists appear to be war veterans -- Maddux at one point claims to be an ex-Green Beret -- but they can't cut it as civilians and are even worse as criminals. There's no place at home for their kind of training, yet even this idea is only hinted at and never explored. Performances are fine considering the thesps have not much to work with and the action scenes well handled, but the cheap, grungy, claustrophobic sets are a detriment (interiors were shot entirely at Studio One in Hollywood) and Michael Neyman's unattractive photography doesn't help. Christopher George, fifth billed in the newspaper ads, actually does an uncredited cameo as a gas station attendant who gets knocked unconscious and robbed by the gang. Biggest thrill offered is the sight of busy character actor Thordsen, who almost always played cops (and usually in silly live-action Disney movies), in a lead role as a shabby lawbreaker.