Mystery Movies solved!

In a Mystery Movie post from nearly four years ago, we surmised that ONE-NIGHT STAND was a re-release of PETS (1973) going solely on actress Candice Rialson's presence in the one newspaper ad we turned up. Based on evidence that has recently come into our possession -- the ad above, from a Madison, Wisconsin showing on September 4, 1981 -- it appears that we were correct in our supposition. The co-feature, OFFICE GIRLS, is a West German "sex report" originally released stateside in 1972 by International Producers Corporation (IPC), the same company that unleashed PETS a year later. Raphael Nussbaum, the vice president of IPC (and director of PETS), later headed Burbank International Pictures, the company that still owned PETS and OFFICE GIRLS when home video rights for both were licensed to Imperial Video Corporation in 1983, along with other IPC and Burbank releases like THE CONTRACT, 2069: A SEX ODYSSEY and BARBED WIRE DOLLS.

An anonymous comment, also dating back to 2010, suggested HOT TO TROT was a re-release of Lucio Fulci's ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER, first released in the U.S. by GGP Releasing in 1971. We now have confirmation that this is correct, ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER was indeed re-released as HOT TO TROT beginning in 1979.

Our friend Raleigh Bronkowski of Screen 13 has figured out that BLACK BELT SOUL BROTHER is LONG XING DAO SHOU JIN ZHONG JUN (1978), better known as THE MAGNIFICENT and DRAGON MASTER, starring Carter Wong, Chen Sing, Casanova Wong, and Doris Chen.

While we're at it, let's tackle two additional Mystery Movies, INSIDE LAURA ANTONELLI and VALIUM HIGH, which we never posted about because we couldn't find decent graphics for either of them...

INSIDE LAURA ANTONELLI, which played U.S. theaters in 1979 to cash in on the higher profile Antonelli imports released in the States the same year (THE INNOCENT, WIFEMISTRESS, THE DIVINE NYMPH), is another re-titling of Massimo Dallamano's LE MALIZIE DI VENERE (1969), which had already played stateside as DEVIL IN THE FLESH, FIRE IN THE FLESH, and SCHOOL GIRL TEMPTATIONS.

VALIUM HIGH, which Clark Film Releasing had on the drive-in circuit during the summer of 1978, is a re-titling of THE STUDENT BODY (1976), directed by Gus Trikonis and starring Jillian Kesner, June Fairchild and Janice Heiden. It was re-released again in 1981 as CLASSROOM TEASERS.

Movie Ad of the Week: THE BLACK CAT (1984)

Lucio Fulci's THE BLACK CAT (1981), which received limited theatrical exposure in the U.S. through World Northal, opened in a dozen New York-area theaters (including the RKO Proctors here in New Rochelle) on February 4th, 1984.

One-Sheet of the Week: THE DEMON IS LOOSE (1989)

MURDEROCK - UCCIDE A PASSO DI DANZA / MURDER ROCK / SLASHDANCE (1984)

U.S. release in 1989 as THE DEMON IS LOOSE

EL BARBARO at the Cine 1 & 2

Last week, in my post about TWISTED NIGHTMARE, I wrote that I had seen the bloody Australian thriller VICIOUS! in the West Side Cinema twin back in December of 1988. I described the theater as "a roachtrap basement porno house that was taking a half-assed shot at legitimacy," which is true, but I didn't mention that for at least ten years prior to its stint as a skin palace, the West Side had been Times Square's big Spanish-language showcase, the Cine 1 & 2. I never went inside while it was the Cine 1 & 2, but I certainly remember when EL BARBARO opened there on December 26th, 1985. I only bring this up because EL BARBARO is the Spanish-language version of Lucio Fulci's CONQUEST, which United Film Distribution had opened in the New York tri-state area in April of 1984, over a year-and-a-half earlier; it had even played for several weeks at the Rivoli (shortly before it became the UA Twin), a stone's throw from the Cine 1 & 2. In fact, CONQUEST had already been out on VHS for at least six months by this point, because I had rented it back in May or June of '85 -- yet here it was getting a full-blown opening at the Cine 1 & 2: posters, lobby cards, banners, and even a life-size cardboard standee of Jorge Rivero on the sidewalk out front! God, do I miss the old Times Square.

After the theater operated as the West Side Cinema in the late '80s, it was renamed the Show Follies and went back to porn. When Rudy Giuliani's asinine 60/40 zoning law went into effect -- stores and theaters were deemed adult businesses if more than 40% of their merchandise consisted of porn -- the owner switched to more mainstream fare, and in its final days it was a video grindhouse not unlike the Roxy III on 42nd Street. I recall standing outside this theater in early 2002 with Video Watchdog's John Charles and Richard Harland Smith, the three of us trying to figure out who in their right mind would pay $8.00 to see the Steve Reeves LAST DAYS OF POMPEII and some early '90s direct-to-video Troy Donahue actioner on a lousy video projection system.

Below are some screen grabs of the Cine 1 & 2 as it appears in the Sonny Chiba movie THE BODYGUARD (1976).