Green Beret goes berserk!

Aside from being present with Richard Bakalyan in 'The Delinquents', I thought I'd share a piece of Tom Laughlin before the name Billy Jack became a brand, as he rightly suggests. I guess the film was originally released with promotion aimed less toward pacifism and more to the sex and biker angle of the times. A Billy Jack by any other name would still smell as sweet though, I'm sure.




Also, as Don Henderson, Billy Jack did write and direct some nice fare for the drive-in crowd.

black stamp mosters

Over at the Greenbriar Picture Shows, John McElwee remembers the marketing campaign for the stateside release of the Hammer double bill, THE GORGON and THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY'S TOMB. To the first 10,000 people (an exhinbitors soaking wet dream) in line - FREE Black Stamps! He also goes through his latest R2 dvd purchases including ANNE OF THE INDIES and MERRILL'S MARAUDERS.

Excuse me Dr. Klahn, but what would Billy Jack do?

I just learned from Varietyasiaonline, actor and hapkido teacher Bong Soo Han has passed away on January 8th, 2007. Visit Grand Mater Bong Soo Han's International Hapkido Federation. G.M.B.S.H is proabably best known for his portayal of Dr. Klan in the Enter the Dragon send up in Kentuky Fried Movie. I wonder if he and Master Hwang In Shik ever got in a scrap...

As I was surfing for a posting on my other blog, I found www.billyjack.com.

And there I learned of a "New Exit Strategy for Iraq"


and also "Why Iraq worse than Vietnam". And then there is that old favourite, "The Bush Doctrine of World Domination Through Military Force". I also discovered that, "The new Billy Jack film will be the first film to launch a multi-faceted Moral, Political, Psychological & Spiritual Revolution restoring America to its core principle of being 'the Only Nation Founded for a Moral Purpose' and the core of all morality, 'Know thyself.'"





I found this interview with Tom Laughlin, who starred, co-wrote, produced and directed the Billy Jack series with his wife Delores Taylor (who also appeared in the movies) where actively crusades against domestic violence, lecturing at the University of Nebraska Lincoln and talks about the trouble with O.J. Simpson.

But on his website, you can see a recent video taped message where a thinner version of himself talks about his plan to make a NEW Billy Jack movie. And it will be: The only film investment to guarantee you, in a worst case basis, 100% of your investment plus a 12% interest per annum (or 25%) Return in 24 months… and a high probability, though no guarantee of a 300-400% return in three years. How? Because of three words – Presales, Controversy, and the Billy Jack Brand, with its huge following. He actually makes some interesting points:

“If a picture is intelligently controversial with an intense appeal to a large enough demographic base who strongly support the film, but is intelligent enough so that other demographic groups opposed to the picture must go see it, it will become a box office mega-hit, and it doesn’t matter what the subject is.

“A documentary is lucky to generate $5-$10 million at the US box office. Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, an over-the-top screed that passionately preached to his choir, did an astonishing $125 million at the US box office alone. (Disney who put up $5 million to make the picture was so afraid of the controversy, they would not release it, and it would have never been released had Bob Weinstein from Miramax bought it from Disney and released it.)

“Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, an extremely controversial religious film no major studio/distributor would handle, did over $360 million in the US alone, putting it in the top ten US films of all time, because it had an intense pre-existing following and generated enormous controversy- just like Billy Jack’s new film.

“Deep Throat is still the most profitable film of all time having been made for $5,000, and having grossed over $600 million. When it was first released it was just another pornographic film, and then the Catholic Church banned it, and the brilliant lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, inflamed the controversy into front page headlines when various cities and communities also banned it.

“Controversy - the correct kind – sells. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a political film, a religious film, or hard core pornography.

“Billy Jack’s Moral Revolution will be one of the most controversial films worldwide ever made, appealing strongly to a huge worldwide demographic base, and opposed just as strongly by the pro-war/pro-Bush base."

He also predicts that the opening weekend of the new Billy Jack with be in the top ten! Hmmm... if it worked for ROCKY BALBOA. What about the new RAMBO...? I wonder. This film will also be the most powerful way of setting America back on track! Wow! Clearly Tom has not mastered the art of the quick pitch, but I do admire him as he seems to be taking a page from the success of the LEFT BEHIND series and the art of the pre-sale. Is 21st century America ready to have "One Tin Soldier" cued up...?

If you are a qualified investor and would like more information or the investment packet, contact him!

Or if you are not up to producing his new movie, just buy one of his books:

• 9 Indespensable Ingredients to Writing a Hit
• The Psychology of Cancer
• Jungian Psychology, Vol. 2 ("written by Tom Laughlin at the request of 8 of Carl Jung's closest disciples, and personally edited by Marie Louise von Fraznz, Jung's closest colleague"!)

meanwhile at the Alamo...

Oh The Alamo! That cinematic pleasure palace where you can swill a beer and gourge on good food AND watch wild flicks. But that is only if you live in Austin. Boo Hoo... The FREE Weird Wednesdays line-up for this month includes THE ABDUCTORS - "She's like an Asbury Park bricklayer's wet dream."



Or try out GET MEAN - "a Spaghetti Western where the cigarillo-chomping man with no name wanders around medieval Europe fighting fur-clad barbarians with broadswords".



Or sample Terror Thursday with THE INCUBUS ("this Canadian shockblast is the most misogynistic film in Terror Thursday history").

Oh well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Check out these swank Alamo tees that you can get at Mondo Tees...

does your grandfather smell like Ash?

20th Century Babylon

The former movie theatres of the once vital city of Detroit.


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Monorail!


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You may remember this location from 8 Mile.



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More arresting images at this vital website - The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit.

If I were at The Michigan Film Office, I'd be crossing my fingers that someone out there is planning to remake The Omega Man.

A Celebration of Dick

I was first lured into the dubious hobby of collecting old film paper by thinking how cool it would be to have some posters from the stellar career of Richard Bakalyan and now, seven years on, it's too late to back out and I know too much to be let go.

I remember reading about him in an essay on juvenile delinquency movies in the ReSearch book, 'Incredibly Strange Films', and I instantly knew the face from his '60s and '70s roles in Disney fare alongside some guest appearances on the TV shows that I watched as a kid. Although I prefer my exploitation films in the truer vein of exploitation and all, I am not overly strict and I certainly can't help but love the fact that somebody looked at Richard and saw that he was the perfect street thug and his destiny was written in wet cement with the handle of a switchblade. Anyway, this is sort of where it started for me and so I'll start here now. Things will tend to get less respectable from now on with occasionsal breaks for decency.


Richard's first J.D. film in 1957. He's on the far right looking misanthropic, bored and unable to be told anything he doesn't already know, Pops. A Robert Altman film.


1958 and one of my all time favourite posters from the genre. The glory of American International Pictures.


1958 once more and Richard is holding the guy and smoking a cigarette with little concern towards his own health or the well-being of those around him.


Rounding out the same year with a stunning example of the artwork used for advertising what were essentially 'lesser' films aimed at teens and the older squares who feared them the most.


Dick rides shotgun.

are you a jaws man or an orca man?

The year is 1978. A team of 12 year olds have decided to make a Super8 film of their own based on Jaws...

and speaking of the French...

After doing my regular visit to The Groovy Age of Horror blog (your one stop for fumetti and sexy nurses in distress) I found a link to Zines, a new blog from France (?) filled with scans of French fantasy film mags with lots of saucy and sexy photos (NOT SAFE FOR WORK!) based around the films of Jesse Franco, Jean Rollin, Lucio Fulci, Christina Lindberg, Terrence Fisher and more! Visit often! These are only a few of the pics I found that are "safe". Safe is bad...

morts-vivants et autres monstres

This dispatch comes from the esteemed Hal Kelly, editor Trash Compactor, of one of the best of the wave of deviant film zines that sprung out of Toronto in the late 80s and early 90s (including Kill Baby!, SubTerranea, Panicos, Tame, She and of course, Asian Eye).

In October of 1990 my wife Angela and I spent a week in Paris visiting friends. Close to where they lived at the time was Le Brady, a nice little theatre that specialized in showing horror films and had a suitably fantastic facade. It wasn't very big inside and it probably only sat a couple of hundred or so people. It was narrow, kind of like the old Rio on Yonge Street in Toronto, but with an aisle that went down the side of the house instead of the middle. It was like a regular theatre, clean and in good shape with no riff raft stalking the back rows, but it was still fun! As you can see from the pictures, at the time it was showing King of New York (mostly on the strength of Abel Ferra's splatter reputation after Driller Killer I
suppose) and Demons (this weblink loads up and plays the theme while you read the entry!). I also remember seeing Charles Band's Laser Blast there. Any anybody else ever been there? Does anybody know if Le Brady is still operating? Probably not...

Good news Hal! Looks like Le Brady is still up and running, but it appears to have lost its cool and creey facade. Proof can be found here and here.

drive-in Kowloon style...

Just got this pic and link from a cinema enthusiast that I know in Hong Kong - their first (?) drive-in! Don't have a car? Fear not, they have 40 fixed seats in American classic cars! Plus, coming soon, an outdoor BBQ restaurant! It costs HK$100 ($15 Canadian) for the "parking fee" and the first "patron" and then HK$50 for the second "patron" and HK$40 for any subsequent patrons. So the maximum cost would be around $28CDN for a carload, however they are only showing one film, no double or tripple bills. And I have a sneaking suspicion that it is video projection too. Not knocking it, but I think they still have something to learn. You could have a tripple bill of A BETTER TOMORROW 1-3, CHINESE GHOST STORY 1-3 or INFERNAL AFFAIRS 1-3! That's a lot more exciting than their current feature that is running - NANA 2.
Or imagine getting caught in the middle of a Triad street gang fight while watching a YOUNG AND DANGEROUS marathon...

the Black Dragon speaks!

From kung fu disciple Marc in nyc. Maybe you will see Grandmaster Ron defend the virtue of a yound lady in distress...

Museum of the Moving Image, NYC
Fist & Sword celebrates Black History Month
An Afternoon with Ron Van Clief
Sunday, February 18, 2:00 p.m.

Ron Van Clief, one of the first African-American martial-arts film stars, will discuss his career in a program accompanied by clips from the movies and TV shows in which he starred, choreographed, or served as stunt man including: Black Dragon, Super Weapon, Way of the Black Dragon, The Squeeze, Kung Fu Fever, Bamboo Trap, Fist of Fear, Touch of Death, Fight to Death, Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon, Oz, Colorz of Rage, The Sopranos, Blazin, Coalition. Grandmaster Van Clief has trained in and taught martial arts for over 40 years and is a five-time World Champion.

That 70's Drac

The trailer for Dracula A.D. 1972 - Christopher Lee as one of the holy trinity of swinging seventies vampires (along with George Hamilton and Frank Langella). You couldn't see Bela Lugosi or Gary Oldman's Dracula hanging out with Bianca Jagger at Studio 54.

And as I watched the trailer, just as I remarked how much Dracula resembled Z-Man, the narrator says "He's waiting to freak you out!"

Stop The Bus!

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New Years Evil

This one is timely! Good times when Dion Conflict presented this a few years at the Royal and handed out noise makers, instructing us to use them evey time we heard the word "Evil!" A hoot! Dion - still have your print?

what evil does at Christmas...

Okay, a little late with this posting, but look what I found when looking for a trailer for CHRISTMAS EVIL - an ad for a Spanish cable station...

Cops Vs. Thugs!

"Gangsters and cops are the same. They both respect codes and laws. They were drop-outs who couldn’t get good jobs."

the quoteable kinski...

Happy Holidays! We'd like to offer you a Christmas present to you from the cinema staff here at Popcorn and Sticky Floors. Seventy-seven, yes, count 'em, - 77 Klaus Kinski quotes! Christmas dinner painfully slow and dull? Then zip things up by dishing out Kinski quotes! Some truly golden choices here, including:

"I sell myself for the highest price. Exactly like a prostitute. There is no difference."

"I am like a wild animal who is behind bars. I need air! I need space!"

"I am not the Jesus of the official church tolerated by those in power. I am not your superstar."

"I am your fairy tale. Your dream. Your wishes and desires, and I am your thirst and your hunger and your food and your drink."

"I just come from Tokyo, Hong Kong, long flight, I am exhausted. "

"I knew there were, in myself, the souls of millions of people who lived centuries ago; not just people but animals, plants, the elements, things, even, matter. All of these exist in me."

"I make movies for money, exclusively for money."

"I never said money is freedom! I said money buys freedom. BUYS! What does that mean, money is freedom? This is ridiculous: Money is freedom. It means nothing."

hill vs kinski

Just found this clip (in Italian) on youtube of the opening fight between Klaus Kinski and Terrance Hill in A GENIUS, TWO PARTNERS AND A DUPE...

my new fave spaghetti of the hour...

One evening when I was in Barcelona this past October, I hung out with some friends at an apartment and one of the guys popped on a dvd of A GENIUS, TWO PARTNERS AND A DUPE (aka Un Genio, Due Compari, Un Pollo), a Terrence Hill (MY NAME IS NOBDY, TRINITY) Italian western comedy starring Patrick McGoohan (!) as the baddie, Quebecois (aka French Canadian) pop singer Robert Charlebois (in France at this point, Charlebous was an outlandish figure in a Montreal Canadiens hockey sweater who sang to the accompaniment of a jazz-rock group, becoming a novelty in French pop music) as the half Indian bumbler, the sweet actress Miou Miou, and Klaus Kinski as the oppenent in the introduction to Hill's character! Supposedly the opening sequence had been shot by Sergio Leone, but either way, we were all hooked! Fast and funny with a Morricone score I had never heard!

Plus there is a chase scene that I think proves the influence of Hill comedies on Jackie Chan besides the usually referenced Buster Keaton.

As per usual, the film is not available through any legit North American sources. We watched the Spanish release on dvd. Why the bias against Italian Westerns on this continent? Here is a link over at Shobary's Spaghetti Westerns for more pics and info on the film. There are some decent companies like Wild East releasing spaghetti westerns on NA dvdand for more info go to A Fistful of DVDs, a database of releases.

Ennio Face!

Next year's Academy Awards telecast just became worth watching - they're giving Ennio Morricone an honorary Oscar! He was nominated five times but never won. You know they're going to get Eastwood to present it to him.

No Glove, No Love

Mind-boggling lyrics for the opening titles of the John Saxon/Rosey Grier revenge film The Glove!

and on the subject of posters...

Just stumbled across Posterwire, a blog on posters that has some interesting postings:

- The Weinstein Company decision to run a contest to design a Factory Girl movie poster, the downloadable contest kit, and more accurate simulation of the film poster design process...

- 50 Cent is accusing Hollywood of double standards after seeing the new James Bond holding a gun in posters for Casino Royale - a year after billboards of him sporting a weapon caused a furore

- a link heavy posting leading to all kinds of glorious images of film posters where the key art subject matter are the many creatures (and monsters) found in the "wild kingdom"

Will make a point of keeping an eye out for updates on this site in the future.

nasty time two...

Going to make you work for this one. Check out the new poster for HOSTEL 2 and the teaser trailer for THE HILLS HAVE EYES 2. Not adding any opinions on those films, just observing marketing trends...

my Keach post

Seeing Jesse's post about the dynamic pairing of Roger Moore and Stacey Keach brought THE DION BROTHERS aka THE GRAVY TRAIN to mind. I had a copy of this on VHS but don't know where it went to. A smartly scripted working class crime caper film, BROTHERS is an under rated gem. Recently screened at The Best of the QT Fest (and read more about that event here and here), there has been some new buzz about this film scripted by Terrence Malick and directed by Jack Starrett had a great grindhouse track record (RACE WITH THE DEVIL, THE LOSERS, CLEOPATRA JONES) and also did episodes of "The Dukes of Hazzard", the 1978 series "Big Bob Johnson and His Fantastic Speed Circus" (starring Charles Napier and George 'Buck' Flower!), "Starsky and Hutch", the short lived TV spin off "Beyond Westworld", in addition to doing acting in "The A-Team", "Hunter", "Knight Rider", "Hill Street Blues", BLAZING SADDLES and even RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD.


No trailer for the film online, but check out this great monologue by the Keachster in the opening credits and a fun little bathtub scene.

Bondsploitation

I had a Moore-gasm when I stumbled across this - the trailer for The Executioners, starring the wimpiest of the Bonds, Roger Moore, cashing in on his action movie success by starring in this raunchy Italian action film, with Stacy Keach as his sidekick no less! Watch and learn...


Why didn't Roger do any of the voices on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas?

"Sorcerers...Come Out To Play-yayy!"

This goes out to all you Warriors trailer fans... (I feel like that all-night DJ... nowhere to run, nowhere to hide...)

The trailer for William Friedkin's seventies remake of The Wages of Fear starring Roy Scheider; in retrospect, perhaps the wrong guy to be given the keys to a truck full of nitro.

cinema of the damned!

Got these fine snaps sent to me from director Jonathan King, the man who brought the world the gruesomely funny BLACK SHEEP. These were from one of the cinemas at the San Sebastian Horror and Fantasy Film Festival which was terrorized by his bloodthirsty flock! However the film premiered in Toronto and you can check out video coverage of the sheep on red carpet here.

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The Nutty Projector

Jerry Lewis was a filmmaking visionary in the sixties. Besides pioneering the use of video assist on sets (and what sets they were), he launched a chain of movie theatres!

Jerry Lewis Cinemas (or The National Cinema Corporation) were franchise operations, almost like a fast-food chain business model - small screening rooms (between 100 and 350 seats) and push-button technology for both the projection and concessions. Ads for the company boasted "an entire theater can be operated by as few as two persons." and the low overhead against potential box office and concession sales were very attractive selling points.

But Lewis imposed an inviolate condition on the chain dictating only PG and G-rated fare would be screened. It was Lewis' attempt to stem what he perceived to be the tide of degeneracy in movies in the late sixties. Predictably, within a couple of years his cinema chain was starved for content. Many theatres closed and many others of course became XXX theatres, resulting in legal battles between National Cinema Corporation and its theatre owners.

I saw one of the remaining Jerry Lewis Cinemas in suburban Buffalo in 1988 - it looked shut down but it was open, showing second-run titles at discount prices.

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