Movie Ad of the Week: LET ME DIE A WOMAN (1979)

Doris Wishman's X-rated sex change semi-documentary LET ME DIE A WOMAN -- released by "Hygiene Films" (a.k.a. Max J. Rosenberg's Dynamite Entertainment) -- opened at one drive-in theater in Green Bay, WI on July 6, 1979.

Rosenberg discusses LET ME DIE A WOMAN in the above article, which appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News on March 23, 1979 and also includes quotes from Leslie, the subject of the film.

The Endangered List (Case File #152 )

THE PRESIDENT MUST DIE (1981)

Directed by

James L. Conway

Produced by

Charles E. Sellier, Jr.

Written by

James L. Conway

and

Cliff Osmond

Photography

by

Paul Hipp

Edited by

Trevor Jolly

Music by

Don Perry

Assistant Director

Leon Dudevoir

Costumes

Julie Staheli

Design

Paul Staheli

Chip Radaelli

A
Sunn Classic Pictures
production

Released by

Jensen Farley Pictures

MPAA rating: G

***

Excerpts from
“Making Movies the Computer Way”
by Patricia Morrisroe
Parade magazine
(February 2-3, 1980, p.16)

Welcome to the age of computerized entertainment, where movies are conceived, created and marketed like boxes of breakfast cereal. The idea was not the brainchild of IBM, however, but of a Mormon organization in Park City, Utah, called Sunn Classic Pictures.

Since 1974, thanks to its new testing system, Sunn has produced an unbroken chain of “hits” – 17 movies that have each grossed an average of $14 million. Its most successful picture, IN SEARCH OF NOAH’S ARK, made for only $360,000, has returned $28 million at the box-office. By using cost-cutting devices, such as small casts of little-known actors and non-union crews, Sunn can spend huge amounts on expensive but well-timed television advertisements. As a result, audiences flock to see their “limited run” movies. In a business where six out of seven films lose money, Sunn’s pictures regularly gross 30 times their production costs, a ration enjoyed by only a handful of films in history.

The inspiration behind Sunn’s approach is its president, Charles E. Sellier Jr., 36, a Mormon convert who attributes his good fortune to two important factors: God and the computer.

In 1971, Sellier was hired by American National Enterprises, the originators of a scheme known as “four-walling,” whereby a movie company rents selected theaters for a flat fee and gets all the box-office dollars instead of giving theaters a percentage of the gross in exchange for paying their own overhead. This technique, combined with hefty amounts of TV advertisements, benefits smaller film companies like Sunn which otherwise might never get their movies shown. “Because we pay for the use of the theater,” Sellier says, “we have to make sure our product is completely attuned to the audience. If nobody comes, we lose a lot of money.”

Sellier’s first major step in assuring the profitability of his pictures was selecting his audience and determining their tastes. Through a computerized test-marketing system, Sellier identified his main target group: working-class families who attend films only once or twice a year. In pinpointing this market, Sellier had found an unexplored resource. “Only 23 percent of the U.S. population sees movies with any sort of regularity,” he says. “Hollywood is just not making the kind of films that turn on the other 77 percent. All we did was find an angle that other people weren’t pursuing.”

Under Sellier’s system, the audience practically designs every aspect of the film themselves. Each month researchers are dispatched across the country to question potential moviegoers on unusual ideas, newspaper articles, current books, or anything else that might get them out of the house and into the theater.

Once the most popular ideas are collated, Sunn’s research teams are sent out again. This time the man-on-street is asked to help flesh out the concepts. Take, for example, the research conducted for THE PRESIDENT MUST DIE, a docu-drama on the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

“After feeding our data into the computer,” explains screenwriter Brian Russell, “we went with the conspiracy theory – the premise that was closest to what the majority believed.” What if the computer had pinned the blame solely on Oswald? “We would have gone with that angle instead,” Russell says. “We’re interested in drama, not politics.”

Movie Ads of the Week: The Many Faces of Alfred Sole's COMMUNION

COMMUNION - Corpus Christi, TX - July 22, 1977

THE MASK MURDERS - La Crosse, WI - August 12, 1977

ALICE, SWEET ALICE - Decatur, IL - May 12, 1978

HOLY TERROR - Philadelphia, PA - June 4, 1981

Movie Ads of the Week: MOUNTAINTOP MOTEL (1983) a.k.a. HORRORS AT MOUNTAINTOP MOTEL (1984) and MOUNTAINTOP MOTEL MASSACRE (1986)

Jim McCullough's low-budget regional horror film MOUNTAINTOP MOTEL -- rated R by the MPAA -- opened in one theater in Opelousas, LA on July 15, 1983.

Under the title HORRORS AT MOUNTAINTOP MOTEL, it opened at the Meadowbrook 6 in Jackson, MS on December 14, 1984.

New World Pictures gave it a wider release in 1986 as MOUNTAINTOP MOTEL MASSACRE.

The Endangered List (Case File #151)

GET IT ON! (1977)

Starring
Gordon Haight
Jacqueline Kaye
Stuart Taylor
Constance Yelverton
Gene Hamilton
Susan Baldwin
Roger Rose
Dan Specter
Owen Akar
Craig Johnson
Don Markcity

Music by
Craig Johnson

Director of Photography
William De Diego

Associate Producers
Francis L. Bacon
Alvin J. Sims

Executive Producer
Irv Apatoff

Assistant Director
John Tenorio

Produced and Directed
by
Greg H. Sims

A
Nucleus Films Production
presentation

Rating: PG (unofficial)

Release date
December 16, 1977 (San Bernardino, CA)

Movie Ad of the Week: SEX AND THE SINGLE PARENT (1982)

Ten years after Avco Embassy tried to market Krishna Shah's offbeat domestic drama RIVALS (1972) as a horror thriller -- frequently paired with THE SPORTING CLUB, and always without success -- Jack H. Harris reissued it as SEX AND THE SINGLE PARENT. Meanwhile, the film was showing on television (as RIVALS) around the same time, as was a TV movie titled SEX AND THE SINGLE PARENT, originally aired on CBS in 1979 and starring Mike Farrell and Susan St. James.

Longview, TX - October 1, 1982

Zacherley - R.I.P.

Ghoul-bye to the Cool Ghoul
by The Keeper of the Pit

Hey horror folks and fans out there ev'ry scare! And that said, here ghouls: The news, almost said grues, of the loss of Zacherley so close to Horrorween has us around fear in such a state we can hardly spook. Great guy. The first time the luvva my wife and I met Zach was at one of the very first Chiller Theatres, back at the theatre, where we had the ghouled luck to land a spot at the back wall of the downstairs, hexed to Zach, us and him's elf sharing the whole back wall half and half, Zach on the left, us to the right, I SAID fright.

Zach sees us dragging boxes and signage, sees "The Poster Pit," sez "Poster Pit, what a name. Where ya outta?" You know, words to that effect. Next thing I knew fellow "Pennsylvania person" and Zach and us were off to the races like Pocono body's business. Plus, he kept, okay, I SAID Keeped, directing folks at his adjacent table to check us out "hexed gore," because "They got one great ghoulection!" And he said it, not me, so I hope I haunt being Pencil-vain, ya?

This routine we had went on over the years of shows, when we always stopped at the other guy's tables, told each other the slayfest. And now, may I warn some readers about a little reality check. Yep, Zach and I any given show shot the back on the ole farm shite. One fine Saturday morning we're standing in a crowd of thousands waiting to be let into the Chiller Dealer Room hall, where, I SAID scare, hopefully Zach and us'ns might each make, ahem, a haul.

Heedless to slay, we eeek!-ventually got onto all the awful things happen to animals, barnyard or household pets. I believe it was his brother he told me about, who was a veterinarian. It was a long morning wait to get in the show, but we Zach and I could crack jokes "Gah, gore!" ... and it was a horror crowd, where folks who get squeamish over fantasy or even reality generally can't "B" found.

We'd abat run out on all the bad things that can happen to pets and gored livestock, some animal-inflicted, some human same. We knew we were drawing a crowd, but we were losing 'em by the time we hit debeaking chickens. See, there was this thing chickens did, they liked pecking at the dangling mess of their fellow penmate's condition. See, there was a disease or condition most-often called "chicken blow-out," and when the chicken with it tried to go about its business, the poor creature's intestines would start to trail behind them. Which got worse in that then their fellow captive creatures, being born peckers, simply had to walk behind them picking the trailing, uh, tines, which by then were sometimes several feet long, snake-like, gray, bloody. Spreading more disease the hole slime.

Then scare was discussing the who does what when one needs to. When a farm dog gets into a tousle with a skunk, who gets to hold said creature's whole reeking fulla sharp nasty quills, and who gets to pull 'em out? Whoever does what, trust me, neither guy can be rewarded with nearly enough fi-dough.

Zach, ever scientific, would of curse get into it, ask if I remembered what med ya put in the chickens' water fountains to prevent such conditions from spreading. I did. By the time he got to which job was worse with pigs, castrating them or holding them down for such needs-must-be done brutality, we found ourselves in minutes no longer standing way, way back in line to fright in front of the entrance. And behind us had changed from grumbling and pushing in line noises to a stampede of folks with suddenly anyscare but around us with excuses like "Ooops, I left an autograph item up in the room." And these were hard-core horror fans who knew from the ghouled stuff, like they'd seen "It Came And Left A Mess" with "Glob At First Fright" on a double-chill at the old Grue-Slay Drive-In. Fact, that day, we coulda given Zach's brother, who no doubt knew human anatomy likewise, plenty of upset stomach (w)urk!

Spooking of urky stomachs, again, sorry to have given anyone any degree of queasiness in this piece, but then, wasn't that Zach's job, same as as any of his horror hosts? You know, the ole "Hey, this movie's so ghouled it haunt half-bat." I mean, think on it: Ed Wood any of the gore-iginal horror movie m.c.s have survived the censorly cut had they NOT while hosting their fear features dispensed with the puns and punch dyin's? I stink rot!

So here's, dare I say Pit, tomb the best of them all, by now no doubt up in horror movie heaven draggin' a certain Creighton Tull a"rowl"nd by a Long Chaney. (Hey, ya can get away witch such stuff when yer position in same quarters is so horror high and Karlofty!)

John Zacherle

September 26, 1918 - October 27, 2016

Movie Ad of the Week: NINJA, GRAND MASTERS OF DEATH (1988)

Three years after the Ocean Shores videocassette was issued, Tso Nam Lee's A LIFE OF NINJA (1983) a.k.a. DEADLY LIFE OF A NINJA, opened in four theaters in Albuquerque, NM on November 11, 1988 under the title NINJA, GRAND MASTERS OF DEATH, sporting a 1986 copyright date and an R rating it wouldn't officially earn until April 1990.

Movie Ad of the Week: Ed Wood's NECROMANIA (1972-1983)

Akron, OH - January 24, 1972

Kansas City, MO - August 2, 1972

San Antonio, TX - February 3, 1973

Detroit, MI - April 4, 1973

(as TALE OF WEIRD LOVE)

Manchester, NH - June 15, 1973

Akron, OH - February 4, 1974

Rochester, NY - May 22, 1974

Keyport, NJ - November 9, 1974

Los Angeles, CA - June 15, 1975

Corpus Christi, TX - November 2, 1976

St. Louis, MO - May 15, 1977

Philadelphia, PA - November 24, 1978

Albuquerque, NM - July 24, 1981

Albuquerque, NM - May 16, 1983

Herschell Gordon Lewis - R.I.P.

"B"-gore Scare Was HD, At FEAST We Had H. G.!

by Don K. Barbecue

I figure true grue Temple of Schlocksters already heard, but if you haunt, Herschell Gordon Lewis has died. Witch takes me hack: Ah yessss, I can see it as if it were(wolf) Unca Festerday: my younger brother and me my own elf as lads on the highest bleachers of the local racetrack a scare amount of summers aghoul. I can see us even howl, as in we howled cuz we couldn't hear much of the drive-in sounds of monster movies and trailers of terror at the adjacent to the track shout-gore theatre: a plight of course grue to our heads already taking in sizable soundage from the next door to the race track, where we sat waiting for our dad to leave from down at the Pits. Still, even unheard drive-in horror flicks not quite experienced in the drive-in were the beasts from time tomb slime. Specially when we "EEEeeek!"-caisonally could hear a good scream from some hapless heroine across the two lots, honest engines. By witch I demean, see the next pair a'grabs.

Gore, put another way: we got to the track all those times by way of our dad's bringing us there, in that we were too young to get our own cars, I said let alone drive-in.

It was in such a monsterously horrible for hearing Kongdition we first learned of H. G.'s messier than anyone else's in its slime monster piece of horror, BLOOD FEAST, and I hoodon't know if I've ever been the same. All fangs to a trailer of terror told across the way: for this soon-tomb-"B"-showing weeks slayed her pic as seen in that trailer screamed tomb have not monsters slow munch, jest people hackting Kongpletely crazy. And I swear, over all that racket from the races below us we could, honest, hear real not reel women in real cars at the drive-in, yelling stuff like "No, we're not watching the rest of this movie, take me home NOW!" from timed tomb slimes. Rot to mention Kongplaints like "Key ripes, people in these movies are crazier than yer aunt Edna." Yeah, times were different then, of curse, and just the scumming attraction to BLOOD FEAST, state of its own, I SAID bone art as it was, made folks run from their vehicles for the rest rooms at speeds only approachable by a smellestial body. Meaning, natch, that night saw many tossed out of vehicle snack boxes that approached the speed of a vomit comet. Yup, H. G. Lewis fright then and scare had gore-fected a grue type of terror film, where even just the trailer slash scumming attraction of itself, reely and gruely, was state of the barf!

Of curse, times rattlin' chainsed fright "B" gore the end of that long aghoul bloodgest of a decade, when a fellow Pennsylvanian of mine made a little movie witch likewise tested people's terror quotient called NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, witch your humble scare-rator caught at a loco drive-in. But that's another double creature feature story, and oh wotta pair of scare! Two bad no one ever made a fear flick entitled NIGHT OF THE LIVING EDNA, I said DEAD, witch no doubt could have likewise maid for many roamin' hands and rushin' fingers guys having to quick hustle their drive-in dates home by the droves before it even got to "They're coming to get you, Barbed Bra."

Whoa, sudden flash from Horror Heaven: H. G. Lewis and William Castle are getting tombgether to film something, like fright away! I mean, sheesh, there must "B" someTHING in the air upscare! Why, ... wait, news, I SAID grues flash: There is something in the air upscare with those very titans of high-flyin' horror, and that's straight from St. Michael Myers! Not to mention St. Peter Cushing, who says "Yeah, that Herschell really got the Gore Done!"

Herschell Gordon Lewis

June 15, 1926 - September 26, 2016

Mystery Movie solved! GIRLS IN BONDAGE (1979)

Over six years ago, we posted a Mystery Movie entry for the HOUSE OF SHAME/GIRLS IN BONDAGE double bill in which we surmised that one of these films, probably HOUSE OF SHAME, was a re-titling of THE CULT (a.k.a. THE LOVE CULT, THE MANSON MASSACRE and TOGETHER GIRLS), #26 on our Endangered List. It turns out we were partly correct. Thanks to the tireless efforts of T.O.S. correspondent Mike MacCollum, who attended the Pandemonium Picture Show event at the Skyline Drive-In in Shelbyville, IN this past weekend, we now have confirmation that GIRLS IN BONDAGE is another title for THE CULT. Thanks, Mike!

One down, one to go. Now what film do we think is hiding behind the HOUSE OF SHAME title? Our guess: THE HOUSE THAT VANISHED.

Movie Ad of the Week: HOMEBODIES (1974)

World Premiere - Friday, August 30, 1974 - Cincinnati, OH

HOMEBODIES, Larry Yust's unfairly neglected black comedy/horror movie, had its world premiere in two theaters in Cincinnati -- the city where it was filmed -- on August 30, 1974.

Movie Ad of the Week: UNDERGROUND HI-JACK (1975)

UNDERGROUND HI-JACK is a title United Artists used in the newspaper ads for THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE when the film opened in Kansas City, MO on January 25, 1975.

Under this title, the film returned to KC on February 3, 1976 as the third feature to WIPEOUT! and RIPPED OFF, two Italian imports from Cinema Shares.

WIPEOUT! is Fernando Di Leo's THE BOSS, starring Henry Silva, Richard Conte and Gianni Garko. Based on Peter McCurtin's novel Mafioso, it was filmed in 1972 but first released in the U.S. in 1975. RIPPED OFF (a.k.a. THE BOXER) was shot in Albuquerque in 1971 as TOUGH GUY but released in Italy as UN UOMO DALLA PELLE DURA (A MAN WITH THICK SKIN). Another stateside '75 release, it stars Robert Blake, Catherine Spaak, Ernest Borgnine, Gabriele Ferzetti, and Tomas Milian.

Movie Ad of the Week: BAD GIRLS DORMITORY (1986)

The micro-budgeted women's prison pic BAD GIRLS DORMITORY, filmed in New York City in 1984 by the husband and wife team of writer-director Tim Kincaid and producer Cynthia DePaula, opened in five theaters in the New York City area on March 28, 1986.

Movie Ad of the Week: RAW NERVE (1991)

Glenn Ford's final theatrical feature, the David A. Prior low-budgeter RAW NERVE, opened in seven Los Angeles area theaters (including the Egyptian!) on June 28, 1991.

Movie Ad of the Week: BRAINWAVES (1982) a.k.a. MIND GAMES (1983)

Motion Picture Marketing opened Ulli Lommel's horror pic BRAINWAVES in Cincinnati, OH on November 19, 1982. When their promo campaigns failed to impress Lommel, MPM returned both this film and THE DEVONSVILLE TERROR to him so he could seek distribution elsewhere. Theatrical bookings for THE DEVONSVILLE TERROR were handled by Cineworld Pictures, while BRAINWAVES was picked up by Comworld Pictures and rechristened MIND GAMES (It was later edited for a PG rating and re-titled SHADOW OF DEATH). Both films were released on videocassette by Embassy Home Entertainment.

MIND GAMES in Decatur, IL - April 22, 1983

Mystery Movie solved! KUNG FU COPS (1975)

Thanks to the ad above (Louisville, Kentucky - January 28, 1977) and additional help from Video Watchdog's John Charles, we've come to the conclusion that KUNG FU COPS is the U.S. release title of NAN ZI HAN (1973), a.k.a. SMUGGLERS and KUNG FU GANGBUSTERS.

The Endangered List (Case File #150)

THE GREAT BALLOON RACE (1977)

Starring
Chris Robinson
Frank Gifford
Terry Moore
Ted Cassidy

Special Appearances
by
Cab Calloway
Phyllis Diller
Bert Parks
Frankie Laine
Norm Crosby

Produced by
Paul Holm

Written and Directd
by
Chris Robinson

MPAA rating: PG

Release dates
January 3, 1977 (Palm Beach, FL)
April 29, 1977 (Boca Raton, FL)

Movie Ad of the Week: THE DEATH OF BRUCE LEE w/ MR. DEATH (1977)

A double feature of death from Howard Mahler Films -- THE DEATH OF BRUCE LEE and MR. DEATH -- opened in Louisville, KY on November 18, 1977. THE DEATH OF BRUCE LEE is a re-release of THE BLACK DRAGON'S REVENGE (1975), starring Ron Van Clief and Charles Bonet. The second feature, MR. DEATH, is a re-release of Jim Sotos' THE LAST VICTIM, starring Tanya Roberts, Ron Max, and Nancy Allen. Although it carries an R rating here, the film actually received a PG from the MPAA in January 1976. When it was re-released as FORCED ENTRY in 1983 by Sotos' own company, Century International, it was edited for re-rating and got an R.

Movie Ad of the Week: PLEASE! DON'T GO IN THE BEDROOM (1973)

The IMDb lists DON'T GO IN THE BEDROOM as a "pre-release" title for José Ramón Larraz's SCREAM AND DIE, with a U.S. release date of October 1974 as THE HOUSE THAT VANISHED -- but here it is at the Trail Drive-in theater in Lake Worth, FL on December 7th, 1973 under the title PLEASE! DON'T GO IN THE BEDROOM. Big thanks to long-time friend Jon Putnam for sending this one our way.