Dante's Inferno at the New Beverly

If you don't live in L.A., Blood on Satan's Claw is on TCM tonight.

Who's going tonight?

Seriously, fuck all of you.

Not tonight, but I might try to get out there for Hollywood Blvd. Now that I know what The Movie Orgy is, I'm really bummed that I'm going to miss it.

Trying to see if I can make it for Truck Turner.

Yeah, I'm holding out for Friday for Hollywood Blvd and Truck Turner. Just too busy tonight. Plus Mondo Cane holds no real interest for me.

Last night I came down with a case of the awesome. Quentin Tarantino showed up, and Edgar Wright introduced Joe Dante. Dante was in the lobby before and between, and was more than amicable. I got to talk to him about Mondo Cane, which is a pretty fascinating document, but the PG version of Goodbye Uncle Tom, which Dante talked about beforehand as being amazing (which it is). He confirmed my suspicions, in that the film was sold partly under the arthouse circuit where people would go for "art" but hoped for nudity, and that people believed it was true at the time. As we went back in for Zulu, Dante said "They still believe it."

Alas, Mary Woronov won't be there on Friday ("she got a job" was Dante's line), but Larry Cohen is coming out every night Sunday through Tuesday. Tomorrow night should be insane.

Damn, I might just end up at both screenings due to this even though I've got no interest in the first picture. At least the Beverly has pretty good Hot dogs.

It's been a long time since I've seen it, but Hollywood Blvd is pretty amusing. And it's chockful of boobs. I"m going to try my best to be there tomorrow.

Hmm, well I'll see. It's a combo of traffic and starvation. However I will not be in such a mad rush as I was with the Edgar Wright festival. However, more than likely I'll appear in work clothes. Knockoff Doctor Who here I come!

It was nice to meet the chewers who showed. I'm pretty personable, so if you come to more of these, feel free to hang out longer. Ed, Ratty, nice to meet you both.

Tonight: Awesome. I got my picture with DICK MOTHERFUCKING MILLER.

After Holywood Blvd. I went up to Dante and said "That has to be the most elaborate Robot Monster joke in cinema history, though it may be the only Robot Monster joke in cinema history." (I say this knowing Ro-Man showed up in Looney Tunes, but whatever) His response was something along the lines of "Yeah, but not many people get it." which was delivered as a wink. On the commentary they talk about how the driving sequence is interminable, but it's about a minute and a half, and I thought it was about ten minutes. But it isn't. HB is just chocked full of great jokes, and great boobs, and I have to admit I have this sort of queasy attraction to Mary Woronov. I say that because she's always seemed to be on half the side of lesbian, but she is insanely hot.

Truck Turner has three of my favorite lines ever:
"Nah, man I'm a fag."
"This ain't Sears and Roebucks, Nigga!"
and
"I got you beer!"

Man, I love that film. Also, Baby cart loaded with bagels. If you didn't make it tonight, tomorrow's a triple feature with the aforementioned films, and Gremlins 2 at midnight. God, I love Gremlins 2, but I probably won't make it.

Since Vilmos Zsigmond Joe Dante and Larry Cohen will be there on Tuesday, that's when I'll go next, and then Roger Corman on Thursday.

I really fucking wish I coulda made it this time.

Man, every line out of Nichelle Nichols mouth was obscene gold. I love how she tore into lines like: "Those bitches better be selling pussy in Iceland, because if they come back here, I'll cut their fucking throats!" Awesome. Gene Roddenberry must be smiling somewhere.

I though Candy Rialson was really cute. I'll always associate Woronov with Principal Togar, so that kills the sexiness a bit for me.

Nice meeting you and Devin both. I will most likely run into you all again in the next week or so. I'm definitely coming for "Horror Express" at minimum.

Not only was it great to meet another poster, it was fun hanging out with Ratty and have the extreme oddness of walking behind Diablo Cody and Edgar Wright on the way back to my car.

But those trailers were great, and the secret files of J. Edgar Hoover featured the longest cast introduction and most ridiculous Martin Luther King and FDR I've ever seen.

Also, I've never seen the loudest pimp outfits before in my life and also let's not forget the purest WTF ever seen in the form of Fritz the Kat knockoff "Dirty Duck".

I'm going tonight. I'm not going to stay for Gremlins 2, and I'm not sure whether I'll stay for Truck Turner (I've seen it twice, but it'll probably be a blast with a live crowd), but I have to see Hollywood Blvd.

Also, don't sleep on the Noir festival going on at the Egyptian this week. There are some amazing-looking films on the bill.

Fun night Saturday. I wasn't expecting any guests to show up, but ended up with Quentin T. and Dante introducing Hollywood Blvd. and Landis introduced Kaplan who introduced Truck Turner. I have to say, Hollywood Blvd. is a fun cultural artifact, but doesn't add up to much of a movie. Truck Turner is still a blast, though, and with a much better score than Shaft.

That's fucking awesome. Was it full at all?

Gremlins 2 was a shit ton of fun and Dante's intro and Q&A with Edgar was amazing.

No. I don't think it was even half a house. But it was a lot of fun for people who were there.

I was eavesdropping on Landis talking to Kaplan, and I don't know why he didn't mention this in his intro, but Landis swore he was a stuntman in a car crash in Truck Turner.

btw, I'm strongly in the pro-Waranov camp. That shot where she's up on the hill with the awesome boots shooting off pistols was just insanely hot. She's sort of my type, though.

And that Dirty Duck trailer was insane. They used to have that movie at the video store where I first started renting, but I never rented it because it just seemed like Fritz the Cat had covered all the ground. But it looked a lot cooler than I had imagined. Probably a movie better left to the imagination, though.

Glad to know I wasn't the only who thought the trailer to Dirty Duck was fucked up.

J. Edgar Hoover was agonizing. Worst thing I've ever seen at the New Bev.

The Sadist was fun, though.

The Sadist is mean. Agonizing, you say? Hrm. Going tonight. You going to go for Corman on Thursday?

I'm not sure yet. I hope so.

The good news is that I'm pretty sure Larry Cohen left immediately after introducing HOOVER, so feel free to bail without hurting the old bastard's feelings. I wish I would've.

I just remembered that Wrong is Right is playing this Friday. I may check that out seeing how I had never heard of this before and the premise sounds interesting.

Dante's going to be there tonight, so there may be a Q&A after. With Vilmos Zsigmond in attendance, who's to say how the order goes.

It was TERRIBLE.

I'll give it this: it was the most respectable Larry Cohen movie I've ever seen.

The Sadist had one fucking hell of a well-done climax. Perfectly staged, shot, paced, everything was spot-on. I was genuinely (and happily!) surprised by the ventilation of the movie's Big Talkin' hero, and still am chuckling to myself about the Third Man reference with the rattle snake pit death.

Front two rows tonight: Me, Clu Gulagher and Joe Dante (and his wife). Last night John Landis showed up to watch Private Files. I bailed after 20 minutes that I liked, but I was fucking tired, and thought I might be going Thursday for Corman, but too much shit piled up. Probably going Friday, though. They screened a Wrong is Right trailer, which was nuts.

The secret feature: THE SECOND CIVIL WAR.

Wrong is Right is great. I like TSCW quite a bit, though I could do with about 20% less James Earl Jones sermonizing. It was obviously made during the Clinton era. Great stuff, though.

John Saxon showed up, looking like he recently woke up from a nap. Told the best story ever. Someone in the audience asked what was it like working with Bruce Lee. He said "Whenever someone asks me 'what was it like' I always think of this incident from twenty years ago. I got up early in LA, and went to my car. As I was unlocking the door, a man popped up with a gun and said 'give me your keys and your... hey, you're John Saxon! What was it like working with Bruce Lee?'"

That must've brought the goddamn house down.

I'm flying in from Milwaukee tomorrow to catch the Movie Orgy. What has the attendance been like for these screenings? Anyone have any tips on what to check out in the area?

Not that bad, but considering the rarity of this screening and the fact that it's free, I'm definitely getting there early. I normally hit up the El Coyote beforehand for drinks and nachos. It's charming in its way, and as Joe Dante once told me, it's where Sharon Tate had her last meal. Have you been to LA before?

Saw Blood on Satan's Claw last night (or Satan's Skin, which is the actual British title). It's like a slow but moderately perverted version of The Crucible. It was not at all crowded last night.

Bummed that I'm missing Movie Orgy. Got to work late all week. Feh.

The last time I was in LA was 7 years ago when I was 15. I went to Austin last year to meet Joe Dante when he had his screening at the Alamo Drafthouse. At the time, when I asked about it, he had doubts whether Movie Orgy would ever be screened again. So I'm pretty pumped to get to see the film.

I called the New Beverly and they said to start to get in line around 5ish just to be safe. It's probably the most ridiculous vacation, but I'm flying in tomorrow around noon and then flying back wednesday morning at 6.

The Movie Orgy is the Rosetta Stone of Dante's career, and is one of those films - though no The Day the Clown Cried or the 12 hour cut of Greed - that I never thought I would get a chance to lay eyes on.

It was fucking amazing. And the standing ovation Joe Dante got at the end... it felt like a summation. One of my favorite nights in a theater ever.

Yeah, the way everyone turned to him standing and clapping and the look on his face, it was fucking wonderful. And for making a behemoth like that, he deserved it!

...

Damn. Wish I could have gone. Sounds great.

Though there's some public domain stuff in there, there's way too much non-PD (Duck Soup, King Kong, Elvis singing Hound Dog to a Hound Dog) for this to ever go legit. Some of the main films were:
Speed Crazy (New insta-cult fave if my row is to be believed)
Attack of the 50ft Woman
Beginning of the End
The Amazing Colossal Man
The Giant Claw (the fuckin' giant claw)

If you mixed those in with the "Sensitive People" aspirin ads, some re-edited TV stuff with equal parts cartoons, Nixon, counter-culture comedy bits, Andy Devine's singing animals, etc. You could maybe recreate it.

Now if only they would run Rolling Thunder. Come on New Bev!

The Movie Orgy was a really phenomenal theatrical experience. I honestly never thought I'd ever be able to see it, but not only did it live up to its lore, I thought it really exceeded it. There are so many wonderful things in this movie, it's sad that I won't be able to remember them all.

Speed Crazy can be purchased here http://www.raredvdworldwide.com/movies.htm

It was wonderful to sense how everyone in the theater was just waiting for the "crowding me" line every top a Speed Crazy segment popped up.

I loved the incredibly creepy clip from Andy's Gang with the cat and the mouse playing the instruments while he sung "Jesus Loves Me".

I know that Dante insists that this is a product of its time and some of the lines that people thought were funny in the 60s and 70s won't generate the same response with a modern audience. I think the opposite is true though, that there's probably material we found hilarious that didn't have as great a reaction during the original screening period.

For those that made it out, I'm glad that we got to share this experience. It seemed like everyone was really digging it. I worried that it would seem so silly to fly in just to see a movie, but I've been desperate to see this for years and last night was unforgettable.

I hope you're toothpaste has Gardol...because we all know that tooth decay hides in Saint Bernard outfits.

What was the name of that sensitive people aspirin?

So many great bits
-The son refusing to shoot targets
- The office needing to lay the guy off
- Students revolting

What am I forgetting?

That was the only time I've seen the film. The director introduced it and died a few weeks later.