Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

Thanks for the tip, but unfortunately I can't get TCM in the UK. At least not the good, US version. :-(

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

I went ahead and checked it. Thanks.

For those looking for a 1920's entry, I've got five words for ya:
Eveready Harton in Buried Treasure

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

#5 film watched was Sledgehammer:1983. Pretty good shot on video slasher (or should I say smasher since the weapon of choice is a sledgehammer). You get to see Ted Prior in one of his first roles a few years before Deadly Prey. I found out that a sequel to Deadly Prey exists. Its called Deadlist Prey:2013. I'm tracking this puppy down.

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

$1,000,000 is reasonably low. Sure.

Sure.

And added. Always amazed how many of these guys slip through the cracks.

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

I found Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky on YouTube and thought I'd give it a try since some of you were talking about it. It was pretty awesome. Thanks for the recommendation!

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

Just noticed Time Warner added Epix this month. I'm digging this Epix Drive-in. Some movies aren't quite Drive-in, though.

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

This evening, I made some green curry and sat down to watched Pushover, another film from my new film nor box set. Thankfully, it was better than City of Fear. The film is most notable as Kim Novak’s debute. She plays the girlfriend of a known bank robber, and Fred MacMurray is the hapless police detective sent to investigate her. The sexual tension between the two is palpable, so you know the situation is going to end well. It’s a tense film that really kept me guessing when it came to characters’ motivations. The leads are both excellent, and it’s no wonder that Novak went on to play other mysterious female characters.

The film also features a secondary plot revolving around MacMurray’s partner (Philip Carey) who becomes interested in Novak’s neighbor (Dorothy Malone). It could have been very silly and off-putting, but the two hold their own and deliver great performances. While looking up Philip Carey’s filmography, I noticed that he’s in The Nebraskan which is playing at a theater MacMurray and Novak patronize. Also, E.G. Marshall shows up as MacMurray and Carey’s boss.

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

Just finished Death Wish. That HAS to be the mother of all "before they were famous" movies. I'm sure I must have seen this as a child, but I'm counting it as a new movie for me.

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

That's a new change Caligula, within the last month or two. Last year it was all drive in fare.

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

Last year, I seem to remember that quite a few of the things I picked to watch were 'just' bad, rather than entertaining. This year is immeasurably better! Hilarious, bizarre, utterly nonsensical... and all on Amazon Prime:

Scream of the Bikini, The Sex Thief, The Fat Spy and Brain Smasher... A Love Story. All brilliant in their own way, only one of them seemed to remember to have a coherent plot (Sex Thief), and all of them containing the sort of (inadvertent) wit and brilliant lines that make bad acting palatable!

Best of the lot is The Fat Spy that manages to be a grail quest, a musical, a beach movie, possibly spy-fi and also feature Jayne Mansfield! I really have no idea what was happening, or why it opened with a pre-credits song that had no relevance to anything but included a dire harmonica solo for even less reason than the song itself..! Some of the songs were surprisingly good (nor sure if they were original or not), and the first few were very reminiscent of (or were) Beach Boys ones. It's very odd: roses of eternal life, teenagers hunting a shipwreck, possibly imaginary characters... utterly brilliant!

Scream of the Bikini is even weirder. Strangely dubbed, faintly timeless, relentlessly faked driving and casual dim-blonde-supermodels shooting people and masquerading as spies. The plot echoes Batman (1966) in a few respects; the action is sub-Bond and the dubbed dialogue is a Nigerian Prince level of mangle with a lot of precise non-contractions and some very vague translation. Also, one of the actors is credited as "Gregorio Peck," and... well. Here's some samples from the script:


Brain Smasher... A Love Story with Teri Hatcher is pretty entertaining, too. The titular smasher is a bouncer, not anything science fictiony, which allows for the following exchange: "Most people call me Sam." "Most folks call me 'Brain Smasher'." "...oh..." Much of the comic scripting revolves around mistaking a Chinese Lotus brotherhood for Ninjas - "We are not ninjas!" Ninjas are Japanese.. - and something about world class botanists. Flowers again, just like the fat spy..!

The Sex Thief was the first film directed by Martin (Bond) Campbell, and for the British who remember/know about such things, the title character is - says the Internet - the Milk Tray Man! I can't decide (or be bothered to check) whether the Milk Tray adverts led to Sex Thief or vice versa, but thematically there ought to be a link. It's quite a good film, lots of nudity and a very manly man, with a sub-plot of police peddling porn..

Jean Paul Belmondo's Le Professional (did I imagine someone else saying they were starting with this? I think that's how it wound up on my list, but... can't see anything now.) is easily so far the most 'proper' film I've seen. And is really good. Plus, it almost has the greatest assassin escape plan in the history of film. Faintly unbelievable, but the gall and bravado on display is just boggling. What a great film.

Also interesting, and of particular note for anyone with AMAZON PRIME is the 45m mini-documentary After Sunset: The Life and Times of the Drive-In Theater which does just roughly what it says it will: the filmmakers take a road trip around a number of drive ins, lamenting their passing and celebrating those that survive. With comment by talking heads including John Carpenter.

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

I thought Blue Hawaii popped up on Prime when I searched the other day... and now IMDb is saying Love Me Tender, Paradise, Hawaiian Style and Easy Come, Easy Go instead/as well.

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

Today is Doris Day's 90th birthday. Too bad there aren't many challenges here that would fit her filmography--certainly not this one. Just the comedy and Academy Award ones, as far as I can tell.

However, this Saturday, April 5, Roger Corman turns 88, so there's plenty there to choose from.

I have this one, plus quite a few others in different sets:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...eL._SY300_.jpg

My immediate plan is to watch THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM (1961), which I don't believe I've ever seen in its entirety.

And Monday, April 7th, is Jackie Chan's 60th, plenty there as well.

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Jackie-Chan-C...qlTUQ~~_35.JPG

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

Thanks so much for the info! A few days ago I did a search and no Amazon Instant results came up, but I see them now! I may have to check out a couple more films before month's end.

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

I've got Amazon Prime as well, and was looking for movies that would be pertinent to the Challenge. I'd actually seen The Fat Spy a month or so ago (It was mentioned on a "Fifty Worst Films" doc I'd seen before) and, even though it was pretty cheesy, I enjoyed it for what it was. Johnny Tillotson, the guy that played Dodo (the one that found the mermaid), actually had a few hits himself. I may watch it again for the Challenge.

One film I saw on Prime that looked interesting was Hell's Highway: The True Story of Highway Safety Films. Hey, you can't get more exploitation than that!

Tony

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

Haven't decided if I'm going to upgrade, as I already have the movie on DVD, and I don't know of any extras on the BD. However, King Kong vs. Godzilla has joined Godzilla vs Hedorah in getting the BD treatment. Too bad the other Showa films won't be released till after the challenge is over, and the DVDs are OOP, fetching exorbitant prices.

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

Jackie shares his birthday with Francis Ford Coppola (Matt Groening likes to remind me of this in his Futurama and Simpsons calendars, which I buy every year). So I guess if you wanna honor both and stay true to the challenge, you could throw in Dementia 13

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

After two nights of 3 hour trailer marathons, I'm going to take a break tonight and watch MST3K Hercules and the Captive Women or the documentary ntnon suggested After Sunset: The Life and Times of the Drive-In Theater or maybe both (after I watch tonight's Community). I'll finish off the last two trailer compilation discs Friday and Saturday.

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

I put a few notable birthdays and deaths from the Safe List on post 4. Right now I've just gone through the Director/Producer list. A few biggies coming up in William Castle, Roger Corman and John Waters.

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

L'Immortelle just got released on blu-ray this week from Redemption Films (on the safe list) but definitely doesn't fit with the spirit of the challenge. Just a heads up to anyone that may have been thinking about watching it for the challenge. Great film though.

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

I have a quick list question. Today I watched an Elvis movie that was on Amazon Prime. When the list says bonus for an Elvis movie does that count as a separate bonus item or does it also count for the singer category? I am just curious since I want to complete as many of the categories as I can on the list by the time the month is over and want to know if I need to plan for another movie with a singer or group in it.

Other than Paradise, Hawaiian Style, I also watched one of Uwe Boll's latest today with his remake of Suddenly. That was at least mediocre, but the combination of these two movies has left me unmotivated to watch anything this evening even though I have time to watch a movie or two. I'll have to try to recover my motivation before the evening is lost.

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

Was watching other stuff during the day, so my first movie of the day was kind of a late start today. Was in the mood for some kaiju, so I put in Godzilla, King of the Monsters. I have the Japanese versions of a lot of kaiju too, but the dubbed versions just seem more in the spirit of the challenge to me.

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

You'll need a different singer to complete the category. Elvis made so many he earned his own category.

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

15 minutes into Raiders Of The Sun... I love these post-nuke Road Warrior/Warriors type ripoffs. Italy damn near perfected the trashy cheese style of it in the 80s

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

I grabbed that Corman set from my local library the other day and watched X:The Man With X-Ray Eyes. it was pretty good. Ray Milland is fantastic plus you've got Don Rickles and "That Guy" Dick Miller in a small uncredited role.

Re: Fifth Annual Drive-in/Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge April 1-30 2014
 

Okay, cool. That is what I suspected. Does anyone have any recommendations on this front?