Holiday Regret/ Rifftrax Watch: The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)

I like how you can see Harrison Ford thinking about literally anything but where he is in this moment

Watched:  11/22/2021

Format:  YouTube

Viewing:  third?

Decade:  1970's

Director:  Steve Binder

Hubris, thy name is Signal Watch.  

Jamie put up three options for us to watch the other night, and I was like "ha ha!  I'm feeling daffy!  Let's watch The Star Wars Holiday Special!  It'll be great with Rifftrax!"  

Friends, it was not great.

Look, Rifftrax is/ are fun, but they can't turn a broken sewer line into the fountain in front of the Bellagio.  It's more about standing there, cracking wise at the broken sewer line.  I mean, Lucas disavowed and tried to hide the existence of the Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) for decades, but early tape decks and bootlegs at sci-fi conventions kept it alive and kicking despite best efforts to quash this thing's existence.  

Star Wars was once upon a time a thing where there wasn't that much of it - unlike today's Disney-fueled production factory, we got a movie every three years and then some occasional oddball items.  But every attempt to expand beyond the narrow confines of the feature films seemed to be met in disaster.  I was jamming to Christmas in the Stars as a kid (a record that drives Jamie into a fury when I put it on), live-action Ewok movies, an Ewok cartoon and a Droid cartoon, all of which were...  not great.  But I hadn't even heard of the Holiday Special until college.

PODCAST: "The Man Who Would Be King" (1975) - a Signal Watch Canon episode w/ SimonUK and Ryan

Watched: 10/15/2021

Format:  Amazon Streaming

Viewing: First

Decade:  1970's

Director:  John Huston

For more ways to listen

Two wayward souls, maybe a bit past their prime and in over their heads, seek fortune and glory - and that's just our podcasters. Join SimonUK and Ryan as we head into poorly charted territory and look into a film featuring two of our favorite film stars in an adventure that probably needed some better planning.  But you gotta admire the moxie.

The Signal Watch PodCast · 169: "The Man Who Would Be King" (1975) - a Signal Watch Canon Episode w/ SimonUK and Ryan

Music:

Theme from The Man Who Would Be King - Maurice Jarre

Canon Playlist 

The Signal Watch PodCast · The Signal Watch Canon

Elvira Halloween Watch: Messiah of Evil (1973)

Watched:  10/31/2021

Format:  Elvira Special on Shudder

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1970's

Director:  Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz

A while back, JAL suggested we watch this film together, and I was "ok" and then things occurred and that didn't happen.  But as we were prepping to get together for a film, I noticed that this was the fourth entry in Elvira's 4 film 40th Anniversary celebration on Shudder.  I asked Justin, and he said "oh, yes.  Watch with Elvira."  And so I did.

Elvira seemed quite taken/ amused by the movie.  So that's a good sign in my book.  She broke into the film several times, not least because she was excited Elisha Cook Jr. was in the movie, and so say we all.  Anyway, if you've got Shudder, check out Messiah of Evil (1973) as part of her 4-film cycle.  

This movie very much wants to be a horror film in a certain classic sense of horror - of creeping dread and mystery slowly overtaking our heroes as they succumb to madness, violence of others, etc...  Letters are read from people not in the story who are gone missing.  People wander languidly in a dream-like state.  Our narrator starts off confined to an insane asylum, warning us of doom before telling her tale.  It's that kind of film.

It's not *that* bad.  The pacing is a mess, as are a lot of low-budget horror films from this era that think they're building tension but they're... killing time.  But it has two legit actors pop up as guest stars (Royal Dano being the other), and had two - frankly- really good, creepy murder sequences that feel like an electric jolt in this otherwise plodding movie.  

I don't think this movie is dumb, but it just feels like it's not quite sure what to do about its limitations.  And all of the actors seem like they're on Quaaludes.  So when you add zombie cultists into the mix...  and I have every reason to believe all of this was intentional.  

The pair behind the movie, Huyck and Katz, went on to do work on good movies, including American Graffiti.  And bad movies (Howard the Duck).  It's one of the folks in famous-people film circles who didn't quite become famous themselves.  

Anyway - check it out sometime!  And we can figure out why the main guy refuses to ever be seen without a vest on.

Halloween Musical Watch: Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Watched:  10/30/2021

Format:  Hulu

Viewing:  Unknown

Decade:   1970's

Director:  Jim Sharman

There must be plenty of academia written on The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975).  And yet, I find it a bit difficult to discuss.

I was fifteen, just moved back to Spring, TX and in the burbs when my mom - not sure what else to do with friendless 'ol me on the weekends - did what she did for a few months when we first got there, and took me to the local video emporium.*   I'd rent 3 or 4 movies and that's what I'd do when my parents turned in and the insomnia that has defined my entire life kicked in.  And among the tapes - I picked up the 15th Anniversary edition of Rocky Horror Picture Show.  

 I had heard of Rocky Horror when I was maybe 13, but had no real concept.  When I was 14 and still in Austin, some friends suggested we all go to a midnight screening.  Austin was, for reasons that make sense if you knew it at the time, one of the first cities outside of New York or LA to have a regular midnight screening of the movie.  I think it was at its semi-permanent location of Northcross Mall by that time.  And my mom greenlit me going - until about 72 hours before it was time to go, and I don't know what he teacher friends told her, but suddenly I was not going. 

Hammer Watch: The Scars of Dracula (1970)

Watched:  10/28/2021

Format:  YouTubeTV

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1970's

Director:  Roy Ward Baker

Christopher Lee played Dracula 10 times on film, 7 times for Hammer, this being the 5th outing for Hammer.  This Dracula film is one of 9 movies Christopher Lee starred in during the year 1970, when he was still sort of doing lines as Drac, and not just standing there or growling.  

Anyway, the man was supernaturally prolific.  

Japan Horror Halloween Watch: Hausu/ House (1977)

Watched:  10/22/2021

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1970's

Director:  Nobuhiko Ôbayashi

Uh.

I don't know what I just watched, but it was maybe the best thing ever? 

I mean, truly, I could not look away.  This movie is batshit, and I love batshit.  Like, it starts out batshit and just keeps going, changing and getting better.  I can truly say, I did not know what was going to happen next.  

Anyway, any attempt to describe the movie is a fool's errand, so I will not.  But I will definitely be rotating this into my scary movie faves.

PODCAST: "Dawn of the Dead" (1978) & (2004) - Halloween 2021 - Horror Sequels w/ SimonUK and Ryan

 

Watched:  08/25 & 08/31/2021

Format:  YouTube and Amazon

Viewing:  at least second for both

Decade:  1970's and 2000's

Director:  George Romero and Zack Snyder

For more ways to listen

SimonUK and Ryan celebrate Halloween by taking a bite out of the sequel to the zombie movie that started it all, and which some consider the most delicious of the genre. We also discuss the 21st Century reanimation of the same idea. Join us for a Halloween horror discussion fit to wake the dead.

The Signal Watch PodCast · 165: "Dawn Of The Dead" (1978) and (2004) - Halloween 2021 - Horror Sequels w/ SimonUK and Ryan

Music:

L'alba dei morti viventi - Goblin, Dawn of the Dead/ Zombi Soundtrack

What the World Needs Now (Is Love, Sweet Love) - Burt Bacharach

Halloween 2021 Playlist!

The Signal Watch PodCast · Halloween 2021 - Horror Sequels

Roller Watch: Unholy Rollers (1972)

Watched:  09/18/2021

Format:  TCM Underground

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1970's

Director:  Vernon Zimmerman

Probably most famous for its editor of all things (a young lad name of Martin Scorsese), it's a Roger Corman movie about the rise and fall of a wayward young woman with a temper who finds stardom in the Roller Derby!

Starring Claudia Jennings - a person I'm surprised hasn't had a movie made about her life - it's a no-budget production that mostly relies on the drift in what you could show on a screen in 1972, and that meant lots of casual partial nudity.  Which was what I associated with Roger Corman when I first knew who he was as a teen, and isn't really accurate.  

The movie also has, oddly, Joe E. Tata! of 90210 fame, and Kathleen Freeman looking like she doesn't want to be there more than usual.

Look, it's a cheap and trashy movie, and that's the fun of it.  I didn't tune into Unholy Rollers (1972) because I was expecting a David Lean film.  That it shifts gears and tries to tell a story about the perils of roller derby stardom is almost weird.  But if the movie lasts long enough, I guess it's going to tell some kind of story one way or another.  I'm just not sure why they went for a downbeat ending.  

I mean, it's not Mean Streets downbeat, but it's also not a "and she skated happily ever after".

Anyway.  It does a great job of explaining and showing off roller derby, and made me miss going to bouts.

70's Thriller Watch: Klute (1971)

Watched:  08/18/2021

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1970's

Director:  Alan J. Pakula

In, I believe, 1996 the assistant manager at Camelot Records found out I was a film major.  

"Have you seen Klute?" she asked.

"No.  What is it?"

"Jane Fonda.  Donald Sutherland.  She's a hooker and he's a detective."

"Huh.  I'll need to check that out."

She'd check in weekly, really, to see if I'd seen it yet, and to be truthful, every time I went to rent it at I Love Video, it was checked out.  Or lost.  I didn't know, but it wasn't in.  But, yeah.

So, here we are, Jill.  25 years later, I finally watched Klute (1971).

Well, Klute is, actually, a very good movie.  Two thumbs up.  I dug it.  Nice, grimy pre-punk New York, Donald Sutherland nailing quiet intensity that I am sure made someone swoon.  Fonda maybe a little patrician for the role, but that's kind of the point, I think.  

Sutherland does play a private investigator, John Klute, searching for an executive who went missing a long time before.  The clues are scant, except for a letter that matches several that a call girl (Fonda) received, shortly after getting beat up by a john she barely remembers, one of a sea of faces.  

Noir Watch: Farewell, My Lovely (1975)

Watched:  08/09/2021

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1970's

Director:  Dick Richards

I've read the Raymond Chandler novel upon which Farewell, My Lovely (1975) is based a couple of times, and seen the Dick Powell-starring 1944 film adaptation Murder, My Sweet (1944) a handful of times.  I do appreciate the 1970's neo-noir movement and the adaptations or interpretations I've seen, but there's always such a layer of 1960's or 1970's-ness all over the films, you feel like they can't get out of their own way making sure you know "we have updated this for modern times".

This movie, however, is a period piece, adhering as close to the source material as possible, with a definite romanticism for the genre, the book and the movies which it inspired.  While some updating occurs, the politics of the 1970's are only thinly layered on, and the story does take place just prior to WWII (the novel was released in 1940), but with the not insubstantial casting choice of a 58 year old Robert Mitchum.  And, look, you'll never catch me saying a negative thing about Mitchum, but this may be about 15 years too old for the character, no matter who that actor is.  The script changes the novel enough to take Mitchum's age into account here and there, and I absolutely get why the filmmakers were thrilled to get him.  Mitchum would have been ideal casting for a production from '50-'57.  

PODCAST: "Meatballs" (1979) - a Signal Watch Canon Episode w/ JAL and Ryan

Watched:  07/28/2021

Format:  Justin's backyard

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1970's

Director:  Ivan Reitman

For more ways to listen

JAL and I have some margaritas, watch a movie outside and then record a podcast outside about a movie that takes place outside. It's maybe ground zero for what became a genre unto itself in the 1980's (the camp movie), and a subgenre of the "misfits vs. the preps" - but this one actually has some heart! And some great gags. Join us after a few margaritas and this will all make more sense. FAIR WARNING: this is the most wandering podcast ever recorded here at The Signal Watch.

The Signal Watch PodCast · 155: "Meatballs" (1979) - a Canon Film watch w/ JAL and Ryan

Music:

Are You Ready For The Summer? - North Star Camp Chorus, Meatballs OST

Meatballs - Rick Dees, Meatballs OST

Signal Watch Canon:

The Signal Watch PodCast · The Signal Watch Canon

Murder Watch: The Last of Sheila (1973)

Watched:  07/20/2021

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1970's

Director:  Herbert Ross

What a weird combo of talent on this film.

I recorded this on my DVR when Rian Johnson indicated it had helped inspire the sequel to Knives Out, recently filming in the French Riviera, where this film, The Last of Sheila (1973), takes place.  

I did not know that it was written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins - two guys not known for Hollywood movie scripts.  Then, it was directed by Herbert Ross, who you may know as the director of The Secret of My Success or Footloose.  The cast is small, but as in Agatha Christie style, everyone has to carry their weight.  

But what a cast:  James Coburn as a movie producer, Dyan Cannon as a talent agent, James Mason as a director past his prime, Raquel Welch as a starlet with a past, Ian McShane as her iffy boyfriend, Richard Benjamin as a screenwriter seeing his career fail, and Joan Hackett as his heiress wife.

The titular Sheila dies in the opening scene, the victim of a hit-and-run as she drunkenly leaves a party to walk her Bel-Air neighborhood.  A year later, Coburn invites a handful of the attendees to his yacht in the South of France for a week of games, one of which is a game of his own making.

I won't say anything else.  No spoilers.  But the movie is a murder mystery with more twists than an industrial drill.

Go check it out sometime.  

Neo-Noir Mitchum Watch: The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)

Watched:  07/16/2021

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1970's

Director:  Peter Yates

I've been hearing about this one for a while, and I can see why.  Mitchum was in a weird period here where he was far older than in his prime two decades earlier, but his age and everything he'd done to himself for his adult life comes with him when he shows up in a role.  Add in his bona fides as part of the noir movement and his already naturalistic (if swaggerish) acting style, and he fits into the era well.  That said, I've not seen his outings as Marlowe, so that's soon, I think.

It's funny, I've definitely had the same thoughts that I saw reflected in this article from The Ringer that I read yesterday about the 1990's neo-noir movement.  Particularly the thought that resonated was that the 1990's noir movement had as much or more to do with filmmakers of the 1990's wanting to make movies like they grew up with in the 1970's than it had to do with anyone wanting to remake Kiss of Death (which they did, and is not the original, but it's fine).  And, likewise, the filmmakers of the 1970's using noir tropes to say something about the same world that insisted on Donnie and Marie.

Neo-Noir Watch: Remember My Name (1978)

Watched:  07/13/2021

Format:  TCM Underground on TCM

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1970's

Director:  Alan Rudolph

Into it.  

A late 1970's sorta-thriller where the viewer slowly puts the pieces together as you watch a clearly broken woman arrive in LA and then target a couple who don't seem to know her.  

Remember My Name (1978) stars Geraldine Chaplin (daughter of Charlie) as an ex-con who seems a bit off, even for the actions she's taking.  Frankly, Chaplin is pretty great here, working in a sort of breezy, Altman-esque manner (Altman produced the film).  Weirdly, Chaplin is still wildly prolific, but is working in corners that means I just haven't seen her in much - and didn't know who she was when I did see her.  

Watch Party Watch: The Creeping Flesh (1973)

Watched:  07/12/2021

Format:  Amazon Watch Party

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1970's

Director:  Freddie Francis

I had no expectations whatsoever of this film, but figured it might be okay as it co-starred Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.  Anyway, The Creeping Flesh (1973) is not a Hammer Horror film, but feels like a sister film to The Horror Express.  

Why, Signal Watch? you may ask.  Well, dear reader, this movie is about bringing the remains of an unknown being from New Guinea into someone's house and then shit gets weird/ scary.  That movie is about a scientist moving the remains of an unknown being from China to Europe via the Trans-Siberian Express and, in transit, shit gets weird/ scary.  

This one has a very different take - possibly including a form of evil that's a literal virus with very pronounced flagella.  Also, a crazy daughter.   Add in Lee as an amoral scientist/ custodian of an insane asylum, and a frazzled Cushing as a gentleman scientist, and...  there's nothing not to like.  

PODCAST: "Theatre of Blood" (1973) - A Signal Watch Horror Canon PodCast w/ SimonUK and Ryan

Watched:  07/07/2021

Format:  DVD

Viewing:  Second

Decade:  1970's

Director:  Douglas Hickox

For more ways to listen

SimonUK and Ryan take the stage to talk a 1970's Brit-horror favorite! Join us as we soliloquize on a film that goes deep on The Bard, delivers Vincent Price in fine form, gives us Diana Rigg in a look I doubt she sported much in public, and plenty of chills, thrills and camp gallows humor! It's a big cast having a grand time at the grand guignol!

The Signal Watch PodCast · "Theatre of Blood" (1973) - a Signal Watch Horror Canon PodCast w/ SimonUK and Ryan

Music

Theatre of Blood Main Theme - Michael J Lewis

Theatre of Blood, Edwina's Theme - Michael J Lewis

 

Canon Playlist

The Signal Watch PodCast · The Signal Watch Canon

Neo-Noir Watch: Night Moves (1975)

Watched:  07/03/2021

Format:  Criterion Channel

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1970's

Director:  Arthur Penn

46 years on, it's curious to watch a movie that was doing 1970's meta-commentary on hard-boiled detective stories of the 20's - 1950's in books and movies (and radio and early TV),  and know that we're about as far from 1975 as Night Moves was from the earliest Black Mask detective stories.  We've also processed and analyzed the 1970's movie era as much as any as directors leveraged the 1960's collapse of the studio system to tell stories TV could not, carrying with them the cynicism of the era.  

The obvious comparison is to The Long Goodbye, based on one of the final Chandler-penned Philip Marlowe novels.  But while that book was a metacommentary on... any number of things even in its 1950's release window and lended itself naturally to a 1970's adaptation, Night Moves exists in our world, in which everyone knows who Sam Spade is from the books and whatnot, and makes jokes about detectives thinking they're heroes of those books.*

Shark Watch: Jaws 2 (1978)

Watched:  06/21/2021

Format:  Amazon Streaming

Viewing: First

Decade:  1970's

Director:  Jeannot Szwarc

I've seen the original Jaws probably 20 times, but as part of my day waiting for the AC repairman, and as yesterday was the 46th anniversary of the release of Jaws, I figured... maybe give that sequel a spin?

Jaws 2 (1978) arrived 3 years after the original, and had some of the band still in place.  Scheider and Lorraine Gary reprised their roles, as well as Murray Hamilton as Mayor Vaughn, our canary in the coal mine that politicians don't actually have to worry about disasters or deaths they cause through incompetence so long as people refuse to ever admit maybe the voted for the wrong person.  

Screenwriter Carl Gottlieb is back, as well as the same producers David Brown and Richard Zanuck.  Even John Williams.

But, yeah, it's not Spielberg.  Instead we got Jeannot Szwarc, who you may say:  what else did he do?

Pam Grier Watch: Friday Foster (1975)

Watched:  06/20/2021

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1970's

Director:   Arthur Marks

Friday Foster (1975) comes late in Pam Grier's starring roles in the "blaxploitation" cycle of films.  Curiously, it's also based on a comic strip that ran from 1970-74, which I plan to track down.  But - as you can see by the release date on the movie, the strip was defunct by the time the movie arrived.

From what I saw on the internet, the strip and movie had some things in common, but reversed the course of Friday's career - making her start as a model and wind up as a photographer/ reporter for Glance Magazine.  

Horror Watch Party: Burnt Offerings (1976)

Watched:  06/01/2021

Format:  Amazon Watch Party

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1970's

Director:  Dan Curtis

I liked this one!  A haunted house movie filmed in the country house I'm familiar with from A View to a Kill.  But Burnt Offerings is in the mode of haunted house film I quite like, from The Haunting to The Shining.  But maybe a lot more indirect than those films?

The cast is small, but contains Burgess Meredith (briefly), Bette Davis, Karen Black, Oliver Reed and Anthony James.  Also, the kid who grew up to become Jeff in Girls Just Want to Have Fun.  

I have also realized talking about the movie any more will spoil it, so I'm gonna shut up.