42ND STREET FOREVER, VOL. 5: ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE CINEMA
U.S.A. | 2009
 Featuring
Charlton Heston, Sonny Chiba
Nancy Kwan , Franco Nero
Sid Haig, Anne Randall
Leslie Uggams, Lee Majors
Color, B&W | 99 Minutes | Not Rated
Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC)
Synapse Films
Hold your mouse pointer over an image for a pop-up caption
42ND STREET FOREVER, VOL. 5
(Reviewed)
Still available!
42ND STREET FOREVER: XXX-TREME
 
 
Review by
Rod Barnett
Film:8
DVD:8
The fifth volume of Synapse's series of trailer collections is a great example of how to keep a good thing going. The previous four DVDs centered on trailers that would've been seen in a grindhouse theater on 42nd Street in New York at some time in the 1970s or '80s. Those discs did a great job of recreating the grimy feel of the rundown joints that'd play anything for an audience that may or may not give a damn what was on the screen. This time out the company decided to enlist the aid of some new people, calling the folks that run the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas to ask them to become part of the show. The Alamo is a unique movie theater in that it's also a full bar and restaurant operated by real movie fans with a taste for the strange and outrageous. Famous for years as the place to experience movie marathons, genre-themed nights, screenings of vintage exploitation films and guest appearances from hundreds of filmmakers and stars, the place looms large over cult film fandom. Over the past ten years of seeking out 35mm prints of any kind of bizarre cinema the Alamo has put together a huge archive of trailers to show the stunned and often surprised crowds before the main modern day features. There have even been several all night 'trailer-a-thons' showing nothing but hours of trailers from all over the world to a happy audience. Synapse has worked with the owner and the film programmers of the Alamo to select some of the wildest of this vast collection and have restored them for DVD as a recreation of one of those long nights of trailer after trailer after trailer... and have tossed in a few bonuses as well.
    The disc begins with one of those great vintage public service ads that attempted to explain clearly what the MPAA movie ratings system means and how to use it. This is one of the most entertaining of its type, simply because it's done by "Chuck" Heston (as he introduces himself). Dating from the early '70s and filmed on a tennis court, Chuck smoothly explains what it's all about with an emphasis firmly on parental responsibility. Heston was always a smooth, charming actor and his charisma shines even in this bit of throwaway ephemera. It's so fun to watch him slickly run through his lines that you almost don’t notice just how bad a player the fellow on the court behind him is — I don’t think the guy knew which end of his racket to swing at the balls whizzing past his head.
    The trailers are once again divided into broad genre groupings and we start with martial arts action movies. First up is A Life of Ninja and it looks like a blast. I'm not sure when female mud wrestling became part of ninja training but I'm all for it. The movie avoids sexism charges by having its deadly shower scene involve a nude man attacked by a female ninja while slow motion is used to "expose all the ninja secrets". Wow. Sting of the Dragon Master is more female martial arts action from the early '70s but looks less interesting. The Bodyguard is the well known Sonny Chiba vehicle made to capitalize on the success of 1974's The Street Fighter. The trailer describes it as "a vicious massacre of bloody revenge" and the bits shown here certainly seem to back up that assertion. Viva Chiba indeed! Mad Monkey Kung Fu is a Shaw Brothers film that invites you to "step beyond kung fu" and demonstrates three different "monkey" styles of martial arts. It looks like a lot of fun but the 3 Stooges-style humor doesn't appeal to me. Wonder Women is a Philippines-made film that tries to throw everything an exploitation movie could possibly contain on the screen: nudity, sword violence, shotgun battles, chases and even slo-mo cockfighting. Toss in stars Nancy Kwan and Ross Hagen and you've got yourself a ready made party. Lucky Seven is a Hong Kong film that's one part Little Rascals comedy short and one part mean-spirited kung fu actioner. The trailer employs just about every kind of juvenile humor imaginable and even though the fights between kids and adults look very well choreographed I can't picture ever watching the whole movie.
    After a short promo informing theater patrons that the theater is "scientifically air conditioned" we have the nearly wordless trailer for the Franco Nero movie The Shark Hunter. I've seen this preview before and from the evidence onscreen I have no idea what the film is about other than hunting sharks, but it was directed by Enzo Castellari so I'd love to check it out. The next group of previews revolve around sex movies and begins with nature documentary Birds Do It, Bees Do It. The movie purports to be a frank look at animal sexual activity and looks to be quite pretty and arty. On the other hand Bert I. Gordon's Let's Do It is a cheesy sex comedy from 1983 with a trailer that doesn't make it stand out from that crowd at all. How far Mr. BIG fell! Chatterbox is the legendary 'bad' movie about a young woman whose vagina suddenly develops a voice of its own. The organ has a lot to say and embarks on a singing career much to her host's chagrin. It looks to be just a slightly raunchy showbiz comedy with a novel/ridiculous central conceit. I wouldn't mind seeing it just because of its reputation. Danish Sex Acts is exactly what the title suggests it is — a skin flick about sex. I do hope the film isn't in slow motion like the entire trailer. Group Marriage is one of those movies that could only have come from the 1970s. Three couples live together in one big house and decide to all get married to each other. Of course, square society doesn't understand and eventually divorce enters the picture. All that we get for Violated is a teaser with a voice-over and text crawl telling us that the film is "so horrific that we can only tell you about it". Worked on me! Caged Virgins is the American retitling of Jean Rollin's strange horror tale Requiem for a Vampire. It's the story of two young girls trapped in a haunted chateau packed with nudity, sex and big-fanged vampires. I quite like the movie and this trailer even has a brief shot of the amazing image of a bat hanging from the public hair of a female vamp. Incredible what you could get away with in France, huh?
    After an ad for BBQ sandwich meat we move into the science fiction section of the collection. Message from Space is a Japanese Star Wars rip-off with Vic Morrow as the hero. It looks supremely silly and the one time I tried to watch the film years ago I fell asleep (but I have to admit the trailer is great). The Terrornauts is a British SF effort from 1967 that looks typically low budget for a film that feels the need to tout that its "in color" right beneath the title. Mind Warp is an alternate title for the Roger Corman-produced Galaxy of Terror. An amazing piece of post-Alien horror, it mines that film's tone but adds some mystical BS all its own. Part of the appeal is a wild cast (Eddie Albert, Erin Moran, Sid Haig, Ray Walston, Zalman King) and an infamous alien rape scene. You have been warned. Rounding out the short sci-fi grouping is the teaser for the abysmal Megaforce (1982). If ever a film stank, this one does — and the trailer shows you a few of the reasons. This turkey used to play on infinite repeat on HBO in my youth and I'm pretty sure the movie screens in Hell run it nightly.
    Next are some action movie previews led by Zebra Force, about a team of extralegal vigilantes taking on the Mob. Blazing Battle is an Indonesian war film that appears to a dead serious take on the evils of Japanese imperialism and looks like it might actually be a good movie. (Even the cheesy model plane crashes look cool.) James Tout: Operation O.N.E. is a spy spoof that plays with the Bond films and includes several winking nods to the Connery movies, right down to the theme song that parrots Goldfinger's perfectly. Strangely, the trailer is not in English although subtitles are included to help out. International Secret Police stars Chiba before he was "Sonny" but the film looks to be as much fun as the ones he would make later in his career, with lots of running, fighting and explosions. (The onscreen English needed a proof-read before being added to the image!) Machine Gun McCain is an Italian-made crime film with one hell of a cast: John Cassavetes is McCain, a convict just released from prison, Peter Falk is mob boss gone legit running a Las Vegas Casino and Britt Ekland is the girl McCain marries. The trailer doesn't give much info away about the plot or even how the characters know each other but it looks fantastic. Stacey is a female private eye not afraid of bad guys or of parading around nude to get her job done. The trailer doesn't tell you much about the movie but it looks like great '70s exploitation. Lightning Bolt is a spy film about a quip-tossing American agent (Anthony Eisley, The Mighty Gorga) investigating missiles destroyed by a megalomaniac billionaire — paging Mr. Bond! Mission Thunderbolt appears to be a tale of professional assassins in Asia but it's hard to tell amid the action. This trailer gets points for shamelessly stealing music from Pink Floyd's The Wall.
    The following collection is of comedic movies beginning with 3 Supermen in the West. This is one of a series of Italian slapstick comedies that place three costumed 'superheroes' in various genres and allowing hilarity to ensue. Or not. Since most of the gags involve comedic sped-up action set to funny music or fight scenes with strategically hidden trampolines your laugh meter may read this differently than mine. Pretty Maids All in a Row is a Roger Vadim drama about a sexually promiscuous high school teacher (Rock Hudson) caught up in an investigation of a student murder on campus. I've wanted to see this curiosity for years and with a cast that includes Telly Savalas, Roddy McDowell and Angie Dickenson, can you blame me? The teaser trailer for Putney Swope is an entertaining musical interlude that sells young interracial romance as natural and beautiful — surely a message not widely accepted in 1969. Norman, Is That You? is a Redd Foxx vehicle in which he tries to come to terms with his grown son being homosexual. Although it looks like a comedy and moves like a comedy I wasn't laughing very much at the dated antics in the preview. Even Pearl Bailey as Foxx's wife wasn't doing much for me.
    Next are two movies from the 'Redneck Action' category that demonstrate the two extremes the sub-genre swung between. Redneck County relates the sad tale of a famous black singing celebrity vacationing in the country by herself and running afoul of the locals. Leslie Uggams plays the singer and, as the trailer makes clear, she eventually exacts vengeance in some cruel ways. Any movie with Ms. Uggams, Shelly Winters and Slim Pickens as a racist sheriff is a must see in my book. Moonrunners is a classic good ol’ boy movie that quite obviously was the template for redneck TV series The Dukes of Hazzard. There can be no doubt as the film is about southern moonshiners, car chases and dynamite-tipped arrows with no less than Waylon Jennings narrating and providing the music. I hope the producers of this film got a nice check from the TV show.
    A few science fiction/fantasy clips pop up (after an advert for "Flavo" Shrimp Rolls), with the best being The Fabulous World of Jules Verne. A fascinating black & white film that makes extensive use of "Mystimation", a stop-motion animation method used to create the underwater effects. The film has what looks to be an intentionally cartoonish effects style that really catches the eye. You've not seen anything quite like it and I wish the film were more easily available. The Magic Christmas Tree is a painfully amateurish-looking family film about a talking tree that I cannot imagine sitting through sober. Ditto Pinocchio's Birthday Party, which has live actors on poorly rendered stage sets and painted backdrops relating poorly animated fairy tales. The Magic Kite features a boy whisked away to China by a genie. It's G-rated silliness but the Beijing travelogue footage looks great. The Secret of the Magic Island is about "a storybook land of enchantment" which means it's about a place where animals act like humans... You know, going to carnivals, cooking pies and drinking to excess. The villain of this lame-looking thing is a "space monkey" which almost makes it look better than I bet it is.
    In the final stretch we have a trio of low-rent adventure pics topped with a dollop of exploitative horror. "Johnny Kissmuller Jr." headlines the egregious plagiarism of Karzan, Master of the Jungle. Charles B. Pierce's The Norseman is a wonderfully bad Viking film with Lee (Six Million Dollar Man) Majors as the star and several NFL players as his crew. It's the first Viking vs. American Indians movie I'm aware of but it wouldn't be the last. Majors doesn't make a very convincing leader of berserk fighters but the sight of Jack Elam playing at being some kind of mystic seer is worth a lot of laughs. Sorceress is a '80s sword & sorcery film with twin girls trained as magician warriors battling an evil wizard. It looks incredibly cheesy and I must see it! The trailer actually name checks Dungeons & Dragons. Terror in the Wax Museum from 1973 is an all-star period piece with Ray Milland, John Carradine, Elsa (Bride of Frankenstein) Lanchester, Maurice Evans, Brodrick Crawford and a half dozen other past-their-prime actors. I have no idea if the film is any good with its 'wax figures coming to life to stalk victims' story but I'd love to find out. The Manson Murders purports to show the infamous 1969 murder spree as it really happened but the conspicuously low budget look makes me doubt that. The Devil Within Her is a film I've been mixing up with a different movie from the mid-1970s for years. I guess this is natural since its another in the long line of Rosemary's Baby rip-offs with the added interest of being crossed with elements of The Exorcist for good measure. That it stars Joan Collins as the mother-to-be and Donald Pleasence as a threatening presence adds to my desire to check it out. Last, and some would say least, is Slaughter Rock, a relic from the 1980s about four dead rockers imprisoned on Alcatraz island but now somehow haunting a group of teenagers. Said kids venture to the shut down prison to purge the ghosts all to the tune of Devo music. This thing looks so bad it might be required viewing.
The DVD is remastered and is enhanced for widescreen TVs showing each trailer in its correct aspect ratio. Of course, some of these previews look better than others but that's to be expected with vintage elements of this type; scratches, dirt and missing frames crop up regularly. For me it just adds to the charm. Once again the Synapse team have added a commentary track for the run of the trailers but this time out it's handled by The Alamo's owner Tim League and head programmers Lars Nilsen and Zack Carlson. These three have clearly personally chosen these trailers and when one of their entries comes onscreen that person speaks up with information. Often the info relates to the film in question but sometimes they have a story to relate involving showing the trailer at The Alamo. This is a great track full of interesting tidbits and funny stories that made me look at some of the trailers much more closely. I might never have spotted that little kung fu girl in Lucky Seven slamming face first into the concrete floor without their mention of it. I know I shouldn't laugh but it's in slow motion and looks hysterical.
    There is one more extra on the disc, a 30-minute documentary about the Alamo Drafthouse that has the three commentators tell the history of the theater, explain its mission and show how they operate the place. It's an innocuous piece that most folks won't watch more than once but I’m glad it was offered.
    Overall this is another home run for the folks at Synapse. I can't wait for Volume 6. 10/01/09
NOTE This DVD encountered legal issues — involving the Alamo Drafthouse Theater, not Synapse Films — just prior to its announced Sept. 29, 2009 release. Per Synapse's Don May, this matter has been resolved and the disc will now street on October 27th.
HOME | REVIEWS | TOP