Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Now Playing: FEB. 15, 1962

In Baltimore this week, The Head rolls into town. The German import definitely has one of the most interesting print campaigns of the year so far.


The second feature dates all the way back to 1947. As you might have guessed, the Albert catered to black audiences -- or at least it took out big ads in the local black newspaper.
In San Antonio TX an enterprising drive-in takes advantage of the media frenzy surrounding John Glenn's wait to become the first American to orbit the earth.


One feature for every orbit Glenn would eventually take, plus a short -- pretty good deal.
Miami celebrates a different kind of flier -- if "celebrate" is the right word.

IMDB credits Hugo Grimaldi, who went on to do The Human Duplicators, as a co-director of this Toho film. I wonder whether footage was added to make the American release politically correct by 1962 standards. It may be, however, that 1961's Bridge to the Sun, part of a short-lived star buildup for James Shigeta, made moviegoers more receptive to the Japanese point of view.

From New York, here's World War II from the Croatian point of view.


France Stiglic's film scored an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign-Language Film of 1960; it lost to Ingmar Bergman's Virgin Spring. You can see the full film on YouTube but you'll have to speak the original language to figure it out.
And now for New York from the small-town exploitation/"art" movie point of view -- now playing in Pittsburgh.


Something Weird Video is selling this as a download, and here's what they have to say about it. The Johnny Olsen advertised is the future game-show announcer. The second feature, from 1952, stars Eva (Green Acres) Gabor as a tropical island native. The notion is so strange that I may as well embed the whole damn picture in its 62-minute splendor. It was originally uploaded to YouTube by flixvendor.



Finally, in Ocala FL, a slightly out-of-season documentary.


So as Bert Stern's film is one of the great jazz documentaries, of course I'll show you his footage of Chuck Berry, which jcbermu was good enough to upload. The lines weren't drawn so tightly then, kiddies....

And here's a link to the whole show. Meanwhile, that second feature is none other than Fritz Lang's The Indian Tomb, and that means we close with Debra Paget's cobra dance. elpatrixio uploaded it, and you, I suspect, will enjoy it.

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