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: DOCTOR BUTCHER, M.D. (1981)

U.S. Premiere - September 18, 1981 - Philadelphia, PA

Although the IMDb and other sources claim DOCTOR BUTCHER, M.D. made its U.S. debut in New York on May 7th, 1982, the Italian gorefest from Aquarius Releasing actually had its premiere almost eight months earlier, opening in 13 theaters in the Philadelphia/South Jersey area (and the Naamans Drive-In in Claymont, DE) on September 18th, 1981.

Cincinnati, OH (below) and Syracuse, NY (not pictured) on October 2, 1981. The second feature in both cities was NURSE SHERRI.

(Below) Hartford, CT - October 16, 1981

(Below) West Palm Beach, FL - October 23, 1981

(Below) Chicago, IL - November 27, 1981

(Below) Chicago Loop double bill - November 27, 1981

(Below) Green Bay, WI - December 11, 1981

(Below) Los Angeles, CA - March 5, 1982

Also: Miami, FL (October 30, 1981); Baltimore & Washington, D.C. (April 16, 1982)

Movie Ad of the Week: SWEET TEMPTATIONS (1983)

LES CHIENS CHAUDS/THE HOT DOGS (1980), a Canadian comedy written and directed by Claude Fournier and starring Harry Reems, was acquired for U.S. distribution by Bedford Entertainment and released as COPS AND OTHER LOVERS in April 1983. By the time it arrived in Indianapolis on September 16, 1983, the title had been changed to SWEET TEMPTATIONS.

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: SORORITY HOUSE MASSACRE and HOUR OF THE ASSASSIN (1987)

Moviegoers in the New York area may have felt a slight case of déjà vu when they flipped to the weekend section of the Daily News on May 15, 1987 and saw this ad for HOUR OF THE ASSASSIN...

...because it's a recycling of the ad design for SORORITY HOUSE MASSACRE, which had breezed through New York one month earlier (April 10, 1987).

Movie Ad of the Week: THE DOORS MOVIE w/ THE BEST OF 60's ROCK (1982)

It's been many, many weeks since our last Movie Ad of the Week, so let's dig up a real curio for this return to form. In the tradition of THE BEATLES MEET STAR TREK, THE WORLD SERIES OF ROCK and other questionable rock compilations that played the midnight movie circuit during the late '70s and early '80s, a double bill of THE DOORS MOVIE and THE BEST OF '60s ROCK opened at the Willowbrook Cinema 4 in Wayne, NJ on April 9, 1982.

The Endangered List (Case File #149) - FOUND!

HAPPILY EVER AFTER (197?)

CAST

Mary Mendum (The Bride)

Dylan Green (Marvin)

Michael Hennesy (Hal)

Raina Barrett (Natalie)

Steve Hotchner (Ducky)

Jane Ziskind (Mrs. Ducky)

Les Schenkel (Howie)

Written & Directed

by

Ron Wertheim

Produced by

Don Walters & Norm Berns

Director of Photography

Joao Fernandes

Executive Producer

Les Baker

Running time: 79 minutes

SYNOPSIS

Once upon a time, the young man had promised to marry her. You’ve seen her – at the drugstore counter, sipping a Coke; bundled up at the football stadium grandstand; playing with her kitten on the front lawn, you know…the pretty kid with the long, blonde hair. The soft, faultless skin. The big blue eyes. Sweet, innocent and a little shy…you know her.

That’s the one he promised to marry…Once upon a time.

But, one night, very close to graduation, he brought her to his room at the fraternity house. She was a good girl, and so she felt a little tense and worried. She really didn’t mind making love to him, she was even beginning to enjoy it. But why…why was his roommate there…standing in the shadows…standing there watching them? Why did they laugh and wink at each other and why did their other ‘buddy’ just happen to come home early from a date? And why were they all over her…feeling, touching, using her? Once upon a time, he had promised to marry her…But that was a long time ago.

Now, she’s a very grown-up woman. She has not forgotten. In fact, she has thought of nothing else. She is quite, quite mad you see. And…she has a friend, but she really doesn’t like him. Maybe you’ve noticed him, hanging around outside the drugstore…glancing…no, staring at the pretty young girl at the counter. Or sitting in the grey car, watching her play with her kitten through his rearview mirror. You know the guy – balding, very quiet, wears glasses, could be anybody…nobody. He isn’t young anymore. In fact, he is going to die very soon. He has a disease…that is what he tells her, and he loves her. No, he worships her and will do anything for her, even kill…And that is exactly what she wants him to do.

So, off they go, to visit with the two old college ‘buddies,’ and like all reunions they have a wonderful time. Of course, the two guys are grown-up too, and married. Isn’t it fun to play the same games on their wives…to see them stripped and felt and humiliated and…killed. What a great reunion. Now she can laugh too. Now she’s very happily looking forward to…

Once upon a time the young man had promised to marry her. Now, he is ten years older, dissipated, beaten at the games of love by his delightfully cruel wife, and ready…wanting to play the last game. He wants to die.

Imagine, a lovely lady in a wedding gown, her blue eyes sparkle behind a lacy veil. In her delicate hand, a deadly revolver. Imagine, the man who long ago humiliated her, and caused her madness. Now she has returned…returned to kill. Imagine, a faceless man who worships this mad woman and is willing to take revenge for her as his last and only act of love before he dies. Imagine, a stunning, cruel wife, excited by the prospects of the scene. The quartet plays out slowly, violently, with much feeling. The rape of the wife, which is enjoyed with much relish…but by the victims. The transformation of the woman who has come to humiliate and kill but leaves with her old lover, her ‘prince.’ The beating of a dying man who cannot pull the trigger without the order from the woman he worships, a very charming scene.

The sun is setting…the woman’s madness seems to ebb, like the waves of the sea that she now stands before. In a few moments, she will join the man. There, in the honeymoon cottage overlooking the ocean. All is quiet and still as if time had disappeared and the wedding, forgotten so long ago, was about to happen. She doesn’t know that that at that moment they playfully act the lost ceremony and gently lay together in the moonlit cottage that the last game is silently spinning itself out. Imagine, the faceless man, left behind to take the blame for her crimes…brutally humiliating and murdering the sadistic woman he has been left with…as a victim. Imagine, as he speeds through the night towards the lovers. Imagine her face, young and radiant, as it hadn’t been since that moment ten years ago. Imagine as she turns in her lover’s arms to see him standing above them, with the deadly revolver. Seeing the smile of welcome on her lover’s face as the trigger is pulled.

She hears the man say, “I am not dying” …and now she must go away with him. Now she understands that she is trapped, and will never live…Happily Ever After…

MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE screening & soundtrack premiere in Brooklyn on Oct. 7th!

Hey gang! The New York City premiere of the HD restored MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE (1966) will be at the Nitehawk Cinema on Wednesday, October 7th at 7:30 P.M. and is being hosted by the folks at Ship to Shore Phono Co. In attendance will be uncredited vocalist Nicki Mathis who sang the two songs featured in the film, and our friend Tim Ferrante has been asked to moderate a Q&A with her! Ship to Shore will also host an after party where it launches its MANOS soundtrack LP. More info can be found here.

The jazz-centric score for Hal Warren's horror "Master"-piece is forthcoming from Brooklyn's own Ship to Shore Phono Co. The company sourced its audio from the 35mm soundtrack negative that was created for making theatrical release prints. The master tapes have never surfaced, thus leaving this 35mm neg as the closest one can get to the original recorded material. The company is offering three vinyl variants that will total a press run of 2000 LPs. Expected release date is the end of this month. More info about MANOS and how to buy the different vinyl color editions is here. Ship to Shore's soundtrack is timed to coincide with the Synapse Blu-ray DVD of the fully restored MANOS (release date: October 13, 2015). It's sourced from the original camera Ektachrome film.


That's right, Hal Warren didn't use negative film...it was shot using 16mm Ektachrome reversal stock!

Q&A with Nicki Mathis, vocalist of “Forgetting You” (the love theme from MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE) before the film moderated by Tim Ferrante, columnist for VideoScope Magazine. After the screening, there will be an after party at Lo-Res where attendees can purchase Ship to Shore’s Manos soundtrack LP.

Often lauded as one of the worst films of all time, Hal P. Warren’s notorious no-budget monstrosity MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE combines bizarre imagery, nonsensical dialog and an off-kilter funhouse score to create a memorably surreal experience. The poster claims “a cult of weird, horrible people who gather beautiful women only to deface them with a burning hand,” but…. we’re not too sure if that even happens.

See more at Nitehawk Cinema!

NIGHT OF THE JUGGLER in 35mm this Thursday at the Nitehawk!

Hey everyone! Chris P. will be at the Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn this Thursday night, August 13th, to introduce a rare 35mm showing of the amazing NIGHT OF THE JUGGLER! This event, part of the “The Deuce” screening series, has been in the works for almost two years, so we're expecting it to sell out. The show starts at 9:30 p.m. and, as always, there will be prizes and beer afterwards! For more details -- and a funny plot synopsis written by one of the Deuce guys -- head over to the event page.

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.

Movie Ad of the Week: THE OLD MASTER w/ DRAGON SQUAD (1982)

A kung fu double bill of THE OLD MASTER and DRAGON SQUAD opened at the Paramount Theater in Newark, NJ on January 1, 1982. The top attraction is a Joseph Kuo movie, SHI FU CHU MA (1979), while the second feature is SI DA TIAN WANG (1974), directed by and starring Jimmy Wang Yu, first released in the U.S. in 1975.

Mystery Movies Solved! CAMPUS TEASERS and NAUGHTY FRESHMEN

Thanks to Sebastian del Castillo of the American Genre Film Archive, who provided us with frame shots from a couple of AGFA prints, we've been able to ID two more mystery titles from the shadowy SRC Films. Not surprisingly, they're both SCHOOLGIRL REPORT movies. CAMPUS TEASERS, which began its drive-in tour in 1978, is SCHULMÄDCHEN-REPORT 10 (1976), while NAUGHTY FRESHMEN -- first spotted on the drive-in circuit in 1979, and erroneously attributed on the IMDb to two earlier movies -- is actually SCHULMÄDCHEN-REPORT 11 (1977).

Endangered Fest II is next month in Austin!

Holy schlock! Endangered Fest II is less than a month away, and except for the Facebook and Twitter announcements we made over a month ago, we've hardly done any promotion! Well, let's get to it now! On February 20th, the American Genre Film Archive and the Austin Film Society will present "The Endangered Fest II," the sequel to the 2013 program that unearthed Craig Denney's THE ASTROLOGER, and Temple of Schlock's Chris Poggiali will return as the co-host! Those who attended the first Fest not only experienced the first public screening in years of THE ASTROLOGER but also got to watch rare 35mm prints of HANGUP (a.k.a. SUPER DUDE), the final feature by veteran director Henry Hathaway; the hard-to-find English language version of ENSALADA BAUDELAIRE, which played in the U.S. as both ANDREA and SEX AND VIOLENCE; and Stu Segall’s THE DIRTY DOLLS, a sexploitation crime flick photographed by Gary Graver and starring John Alderman, Sharon Kelly and Lyllah Torena. As with the first Endangered Fest, the titles of the four films will not be revealed until minutes before the start of each screening. The only major change is the venue: Instead of the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz, Endangered Fest II will held be at the AFS at the Marchesa. More details here.

Movie Ad of the Week: NURSES REPORT w/ THE EXTERMINATOR (1975)

Here's an odd double bill that played two Buffalo drive-ins the week of April 16, 1975: An R-rated West German "sex report" and a PG-rated French thriller with Jean-Paul Belmondo! DER KRANKENSCHWESTERN-REPORT/NURSES REPORT (1972), a Walter Boos joint starring Doris Arden, Claudia Fielers and Ingrid Steeger, first surfaced in the U.S. in November 1973, sans an MPAA rating but labeled "For Adults Only" (It was submitted for a rating in early '74 and received an R). Philippe Labro's L'HERITIER (1973) hit New York City as THE INHERITOR on October 17, 1973 from Cine-Artists International. A month later, Peppercorn-Wormser acquired the film and released it throughout 1974 and '75 as THE EXTERMINATOR.

Watch It Now! OVERLAPPING SCENARIOS (2014) Directed by Eduardo Miyar

Hey everyone! Here's OVERLAPPING SCENARIOS (2014), a clever Florida-shot indie short from director Eduardo Miyar and writer Don Guarisco. Mondo-Digital's Nathaniel Thompson describes it as a "crafty short film that virtually defies classification for much of its running time," and we wholeheartedly agree. Not only is it really good, but it's also safe for work and absolutely free to view if you click on the embedded link below. Enjoy!

Movie Ad of the Week: SUPER FUZZ hits Yonkers! (May 14, 1982)

Avco Embassy began a really slow regional roll-out of the Terence Hill super(supahhhh!) comedy SUPER FUZZ in October 1981, and it took seven months for it to reach the New York City area. The B.S. Moss Movieland in Yonkers -- now home to the Alamo Drafthouse Yonkers -- was among the half dozen theaters in Westchester to book it on May 14, 1982. Tonight, SUPER FUZZ returns to the scene of the crime, in glorious 35mm, for one AGFA screening only! 7:00 pm! At the Alamo Drafthouse Yonkers! Introduced by Temple of Schlock's Chris Poggiali! Only $5.00! And if you're able to prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that the print being shown is the same one that played in the building 33 years ago, Chris will let you buy him a beer! Details here.

Movie Ad of the Week: FIREBIRD 2015 A.D. (1981)

Hot on the heels of THE LAST CHASE and GAS, two other Canadian tax shelter movies released in 1981 and inspired by the energy crisis of two years earlier, the not very prophetic FIREBIRD 2015 A.D. unveiled its budget-conscious depiction of the future to the residents of Madison, WI on September 4, 1981. The second feature, EARTHBOUND, is a UFO comedy from the makers of THE OUTER SPACE CONNECTION (1975) and HANGAR 18 (1980), starring Burl Ives and Meredith MacRae.

Happy New Year! We're still here!

The Temple will reopen this weekend!

Mystery Movie: THE STRANGE LOVE LIFE OF HITLER (1972)

An adult movie titled THE STRANGE LOVE LIFE OF HITLER opened in Seattle on March 31, 1972 with ad art swiped from LOVE CAMP 7. It could be a re-titling of that film, or it could be something else, like HITLER'S HOUSE OF PLEASURE...

...which opened in San Francisco with NAZI SLAVES in January 1971.

Movie Ad of the Week: GRINGO (1985) a.k.a. STORY OF A JUNKIE (1987)

GRINGO, Lech Kowalski's grim documentary about one-eyed East Village smack addict John Spaceley, opened at the Waverly Twin (now the IFC Center) on November 22, 1985.

The release expanded to three outer borough theaters in the RKO chain on April 25, 1986.

Troma acquired the film, changed the title to STORY OF A JUNKIE, and opened it at the 42nd Street Liberty on April 10, 1987, on a triple bill with FAT GUY GOES NUTZOID and THE TOXIC AVENGER. The DVD from Troma contains a Lech Kowalski audio commentary and an interview with producer Ann S. Barish.