Americathon

Americathon
August 10, 1979
United Artists
Comedy, Musical, Sci-Fi
VHS
B

My review of the "fotonovel" is here:
http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/11/americathon.html.  I'll add that the music really does make a difference, particularly the Beach Boys, "still together after 40 years," singing over the opening and closing credits.  I also think Monty's (Harvey Korman) answer to "My Way," which opens "My life, I'm loved and hated, yes, even envied because I'm gifted," is near perfect.  I still laughed out loud at the movie, during this umpteenth viewing, although not every joke works.  (There is an audible silence, like we're waiting for the laugh track, after the joke based on the picture below.)  The energy is sometimes off and the timeline makes no sense (Chet and Mouling disappear for days before they're kidnapped, and no one notices.)  Still, there are touches that I like, such as the surprisingly sweet (if not really) developed romance between Riegert's Eric and Chet's "old lady" (wife? girlfriend?) Lucy, played by Ritter's real life wife Nancy Morgan.  And any line about the ventriloquists is gold.

Peter Marshall plays a respected newsman and Chief Dan George the wealthy founder of NIKE, both nice bits of counter-casting.  Howard Hesseman is a sound-booth technician who often seems disgusted by what's being televised.  Meat Loaf is a daredevil who's so popular he comes back.  (Unlike the more dubious entertainers.)

Jerry Maren is still alive at 94, although he was in the Lollipop Guild in The Wizard of Oz and Little Professor Atom in At the Circus.  One of the musclemen, Dennis Tinerino, was Atlas in Hercules in New York, while Kal Szkalak was an athlete in Sextette.  May Boss, who plays Adele Miller (who boxes a young Jay Leno), was "Frail Old Lady" in Rabbit Test.  Rollin Moriyama and Mitsu Yashima, who pretend to be Chinese here, were the Japanese couple in the taxi in Foul Play.  (John Lone and Ben Fong Torres are part of their group of tourists.)

Selma Archerd, who's a "telethon phone celebrity" here, was a passenger in The Big Bus and would be Mrs. Williams in Can't Stop the Music.  Ventriloquist Jerry Layne would also be in Can't StM (and on Three's Company).  Fred Lerner, Commando #3, would be KAOS #2 in The Nude Bomb.  Gene LeBell, who plays the referee, was in I Wanna Hold Your Hand and would be in Going Ape!, while Sosimo Hernandez, who's Juan Flan here, would be "Flugist" in the latter movie.  I don't have the Del Rubio Triplets in any other movie, but I was delighted when they turned up on Married with Children as Peg's aunts.

The Muppet Movie

The Muppet Movie
June 22, 1979
Henson Associates
Children's, Comedy, Musical
DVD
B-

I'll always have a soft spot for this first of what would become many Muppet movies, this one released when I was eleven.  Yet I will admit that it's not as good as I remembered.  One of its strengths is also its greatest weakness.  There are lots of celebrity cameos, some of whom I've tagged, but most of these people aren't given much to do.  After all, if you're going to cast Richard Pryor, can't you give him something funnier to do than sell balloons to Gonzo?  Even the Muppets, and there are many of them, are for the most part not being used to their full potential.

In fact, the best sequences are mostly in the first half hour, with either Kermit on his own, singing the still lovable "Rainbow Connection" and (still impressive) riding a bicycle, or singing and joking with Fozzie.  (My favorite quote is later though: "Bear left," "Right, frog.")  As they pick up more passengers, the energy diffuses.  (Unlike in James Frawley's Big Bus.)  There are moments here and there, like the psychedelic painting of the Studebaker, and the always wonderful voice of Orson Welles, but not enough to quite put this in the good, let alone great, category.

Charles Durning is Doc Hopper, while Austin Pendleton, who plays his assistant Max, was Fred the Professor (the one who gets Jackie Gleason among others high) in Skidoo.  Muppet performer Robert Payne was in Beach Party, back when he was known as Bobby.  Twenty-year-old Tim Burton (yes, that Tim Burton) was an uncredited Muppet performer.  Tommy Madden, who's One-Eyed Midget, was a hospital visitor in Rabbit Test.  H. B. Haggerty, who's a lumberjack here, would be Awful Abdul in Million Dollar Mystery.  If you haven't seen the movie before (or it's been awhile), I'll let you spot the rest of the cameos.

The second and the second-best song, "Movin' Right Along"

Same Time, Next Year

Same Time, Next Year
November 22, 1978
Universal
Romance, Historical
VHS
B-

This is based on a play and it is still essentially a filmed play, since most of the scenes are between Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn, with a few very minor roles such as the waiters and "old Chalmers."  Also, nearly every moment takes place in the rented cottage the couple visit every year for a quarter century, although there are some nice outdoor shots of the ocean and cliffs.  Alda and Burstyn are good together and they held my interest throughout, although I didn't always buy the changes their characters go through over time.  Oddly enough, what I found most interesting this viewing was the changes in fashion, including George going from boxers in the '50s to red briefs in the '70s.  We don't see every year of their annual adulterous rendezvous, just '51, '61 (when she's pregnant), '66, '72 and '77.

The tone is a mix of drama and comedy.  My favorite moment is when, after Alda's character tells a story of his wife peeing on the carpet of one of his clients, Burstyn's character expresses fondness for this woman she's never met.  The film has a recurring corny but likable song, "The Last Time I Felt Like This," sung by Johnny Mathis and Jane Oliver.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
October 1978
Four Square Productions
Comedy, Sci-Fi, Musical
VHS
B

As a 1970s parody, I'd put this roughly halfway between Son of Blob and The Big Bus.  I first saw it as a kid, watching Elvira's presentation, and (despite a half dozen very politically incorrect jokes) it probably is best for kids, or those adults who can enjoy intelligent stupidity.  I won't get into a discussion of whether you can set out deliberately to make a bad film, but I will say it's a good job of a bad film, with the giant fake tomato on a skateboard standing out as a cheerful demonstration of what can be done on a proudly small budget.  The acting is generally over the top (except for the elderly couple who casually watch their grandbaby get eaten).  The songs are all classics of some sort, with "Puberty Love" by Ronny Desmond a cruel satire of Donny Osmond.  The script goes in all directions and has only a slight resemblance to linear storytelling.  (For instance, a lot of time goes by before Mason Dixon goes to his rendezvous at 10 a.m.)

Overall, I think it's more interesting than Plan Nine, although after so many viewings, some of the charm has faded for me, unlike my recent experience with The Big Bus, which impressed me more than ever.  This film had many sequels, but I found Return of the Killer Tomatoes (1988) so disappointing that I disliked George Clooney for about a decade.

Understandably, there's not much of a recognizable cast here.  (Jack Riley, of The Bob Newhart Show, is the biggest name.)  Eric Christmas, who's Senator Polk here, was the priest in Harold and Maude.  Alan Scharf, who plays Roberts, would be a clerk in Scavenger Hunt, while Art Koustik, who's the FIA Director here, would be a zoo director there.  D.J. Sullivan, who plays Mrs. Williams, would be "Sister" in Going Ape!

Goin' Coconuts

Goin' Coconuts
October 6, 1978
Osmond Entertainment
Comedy, Action, Musical
VHS
B-

My review of the novelization is here:  http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/11/goin-coconuts.html.  I'll just add a few things.  One, I like to read a lesbian subtext into the fact that Tricia is more interested in Marie (well, Marie's necklace) than in Donny.  Yes, the movie is wholesome-- despite some violence-- but it's slightly edgier than their variety show of that era.  There is mild racism, especially towards "Orientals."  A couple scenes will make you glad we live in an age of cell phones.  The music and the Hawaiian scenery make this somewhat more entertaining than the book.    It's not a great movie, but it's a pleasant time-passer, although if your tolerance for the Osmonds is low, definitely skip.

Marc Lawrence, who plays Webster, was Stiltskin in Foul Play and would be Torpedo in Super Fuzz.  Herb Edelman, who plays manager Sid, would be Dorothy's ex on The Golden Girls, while villain Ted Cassidy is best known as Lurch on The Addams Family.  Debbie, the girl that Donny falls for at the end of the movie is his wife to this day.  (They married a few months before this movie came out.)

"Cute, Marie, real cute."

Fairy Tales

Fairy Tales
August 1978
Charles Band Productions
Porn, Musical, Comedy, Fantasy
DVD
B

It's a sad day when a very low-budget soft-core porno has better music than a movie written by the Sherman brothers, but such is the case here.  Not only do you have Martha Reeves (yes, that Martha Reeves) singing the disco-licious "You'll Feel the Magic in Me," but the songs by the various fairy tale/ nursery rhyme characters range from cute to hilarious, with the unquestionable winner being Bo Peep's lament about life as a shepherdess:  "Welllll, it's not as I planned/ But throughout Fairyland/ I'm known as Little Bo Peep/ And alack or alas/ I am up to my ass/ In smelly old sheep/ And when first I found out/ What my job was about/ And what I really am/ I just didn't suspect/ How much dough I'd collect/ From the guy on the lam(b)...."  Angela Aames sings it with great gusto, and the deliberately phony tap-dancing further sells it.

The plot, such as it is, involves Prince Don Sparks (not particularly handsome, as he looks like he had a bad case of acne when younger, but likable enough) having to get an erection/have an orgasm/lose his virginity/sire an heir or lose his kingdom.  (It's not exactly clear.)  But only the mysterious and missing Princess Beauty makes him horny.  Still, he visits Fairyland on the advice of his advisors, including Prof. Irwin Corey (as incoherent as ever, but much smuttier).  Nai Bonet plays a role similar to that of the belly-dancer in John Goldfarb.  Angelo Rossito, who plays the midget Otto, was in The Perils of Pauline and Pufnstuf.  Robert Staats has probably the best lines (including a bit about aluminum siding), in the role of doorman Tommy Tucker at the "Old Lady's Shoe of Pleasure."

There's also a jive-talking black pimp, Snow White and her Dwarves, Andrews-Sisters-like dominatrices, a Frog Prince (played by the lyricist), and so on.  The movie loses some energy around the time the Italian vice inspector shows up (ironic since he was one of the screenwriters), but there is of course a happy ending.  The whole thing is only 76 minutes and is worth a look for the humor and music, although it's only sexy in comparison to The Erotic Adventures of Pinocchio.  As for succeeding as a fantasy, well, other than a cauldron and an off-camera transformation, the budget really limits that genre.

The Magic of Lassie

The Magic of Lassie
August 2, 1978
Lassie Productions
Children's, Drama, Musical
VHS
C

Corny and slow-moving as this movie is, you might find some interest in the songs, sung mostly by Pat and Debby Boone and written by the Sherman Brothers.  Unfortunately, the Shermans also wrote the script, which is not exactly gripping, even by the low standards of '70s kiddie flicks.  Jimmy Stewart, then 70, closed out his big-screen career in the role of the caring but crusty grandfather, and yes, he sings.  So does Mickey Rooney, in the role of manager to Mike Mazurki (one of the hoods in Some Like It Hot) as a wrestler named Apollo.

There are a few connections to another dog of a movie, C.H.O.M.P.S. from the following year.  Don Chaffey directed both.  Also, James Reynolds, Officer Wilson here (the one who says, "Right on") would be a reporter there, while William Flatley, one of the truck drivers, would be an engineer in that movie.

Much livelier and more colorful than the actual movie

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
July 24, 1978
Universal
Musical, Fantasy
VHS
B+

This may well be the most enjoyably bad movie I own.  I'd seen it many times, although not recently, and I still found myself laughing out loud this time.  Much of it was at the rich, creamy WTFness of the plot.  I think if any one of us were given the task of writing a story inspired by the music of (mostly) the Sgt. Pepper album and Abbey Road, no one would come up with anything remotely resembling the screenplay by Henry Edwards.  At least half of us would think to set the story in England, given not only stars Peter Frampton and the Gibbs, but also the lyrics of "A Day in a Life."  But we don't have the pointlessly vivid imagination of Henry Edwards.

Here's the link to my review of Edwards's novel inspired by the film:  http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/11/sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band.html.  Yes, I gave it an F+, while this I'm ranking quite a bit higher.  There are a few reasons for that.  One, some of the flaws in writing didn't make it onscreen, like all the extraneous characters.  (There is, however, a dog that romps with Billy and Strawberry in flashbacks, although it's entirely absent from the rest of the film.)  The egregious sexism is milder.  And, yes, it really makes a difference when you can see and hear the performances.  (Also, my criteria on that blog was different, ranking quality rather than enjoyment.)

Now I suppose I may as well say right up front that I have no beef with disco, not even the process of disco-fying uber-classic rock like the Beatles.  Except for a few notes that are clunkers, and yes, that syllable elongation that the Bee Gees do, their renditions, with and without Frampton, are actually pretty good.  I think Earth Wind & Fire's "Got to Get You Into My Life" and Aerosmith's "Come Together," while different than the originals, are good matches.  Then there are the contributions from the leading ladies, the understandably obscure Sandy Farina and Dianne Steinberg, as respectively Strawberry Fields and Lucy.  They're good singers, but, as happens with a lot of the songs, no one has thought through the lyrics, so that we have Strawberry singing about going down to herself and Lucy telling us about being in the sky (well, against a billboard) with her band, the Diamonds.  The worse examples though of the lyrics having little or nothing to do with what's happening onscreen are the misapplied "She's Leaving Home," "Getting Better" (when did Billy beat "his woman" and keep her apart from the things that she loved?), and most of all "Get Back."  (Unless Billy is the "mama" in the high heels and the lowneck sweater.)

Some of the songs are just straight up badly sung.  As with Lucille Ball in Mame, George Burns (Mr. Kite) was never known for his singing, even before decades as a smoker.  (By the way, this movie earns Burns the Longevity Award, since it was made 45 years after International House.  Even Groucho didn't make movies for that long, although he came close.)  Frankie Howerd and Steve Martin are other comics not known for their music.  (And, yes, I like "King Tut," but not for the singing.)  Even Alice Cooper fails to acquit himself, but then "Because" was never meant to be used for brainwashing.  Worst of all are the "computerettes" (digitally altered versions of the Bee Gees) who ruin a song or three.

Watching the movie this time, I was struck by how much of what was associated with the various villains-- plastic surgery, punkers in a video arcade, greed, and, yes, computers-- would all be considered good in the following decade.  But Good in the sense of Heartland and "kindness," and disco and men with shoulder-length soft hair and unbuttoned soft shirts, of course must triumph in the end.  Except for poor Frampton, whose career this pretty much killed.  The acting, Burns's aside, ranges from forgettable to embarrassing to excruciating.  If Chase and Hawn were one of the all time cutest screen couples in Foul Play, Frampton and Farina deserve some sort of award as perhaps the most brain-dead couple.  When in doubt, which is often, he wears a goofy grin, while I MSTed Mr. Kite's line about the threat of Strawberry being turned into a "mindless groupie": "Well, she's halfway there."  The Bee Gees at least have moments, Maurice especially, when they seem to be in on the joke of what a travesty this movie is.  No wonder their careers survived relatively unscathed.

Of "Our Guests at Heartland" in the big finale, Keith Allison was a waiter in Sextette; Stephen Bishop would go on to write the Oscar-nominated "It Might Be You" for Tootsie; Rick Derringer's "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" would pop up in The Spirit of '76; Randy Edelman would be the arranger for "Kumbaya" in Troop Beverly Hills; D.C. LaRue did a couple forgettable songs for Thank God It's Friday; Curtis Mayfield's "Mama Didn't Lie" would be one of the songs in the original Hairspray; Lee Oscar would contribute "Pass That Dutch" to Mean Girls; Frankie Valli had recently sung the theme to Grease, while Sha-Na-Na was the band at the big dance contest in that movie; Johnny Winter would contribute several songs to Roadie's soundtrack; and Gary Wright would appear on the soundtrack of Wayne's World ("Dream Weaver").  (And several of the guests ended up writing for the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 episode "Tormented.")

It's not entirely clear what Connie Stevens is doing there, to say nothing of Carol Channing, but at least they're known as singers as well as actresses.  The real question is how Barry "Dame Edna Everage" Humphries got in.

John Wheeler, who's Mr. Fields, was Judge Bregoff in Mame.  Ellen Travolta (John's sister) was a waitress in Grease, and though she's uncredited here, she's pretty recognizable in a couple scenes as some relative of the band.

Jeffrey Weissman was also in I Wanna Hold Your Hand and would be in Johnny Dangerously.  
Pat Crenshaw, looking older than his 59 years in the role of a Western Union delivery "boy," would be "Man Dying in Elevator" in The Gong Show Movie.  Stanley Coles, who's in Sgt. Pepper's band in the early scenes, would be a guard in Love at Stake.

You'd think Michael Schultz would never work again, but he directed, among many other things, Scavenger Hunt the next year.

It's sort of like the Pottersville sequence in "It's a Wonderful Life," only with extra cheese.

Foul Play

Foul Play
July 14, 1978
Paramount
Comedy, Mystery, Romance
DVD
B+

I saw this movie at the time, when I was 10, and even now watching the title sequence, with Barry Manilow singing "Ready to Take a Chance Again" (alternately belting it out and almost confiding it to us), as Goldie Hawn drives her little yellow VW Bug along the coast to San Francisco, gets to me in a way that no other title sequence does.  (I get shivers from "Hedwig's Theme" in every Harry Potter movie, but that has less to do with the visuals.)  Hawn plays an uncertain librarian, sometimes in big glasses, but there is the giggly Goldie side at some moments.  And yet, she's also thoroughly convincing as the "damsel in distress" who can sometimes rescue herself and try to solve the mystery of who's trying to kill her and why.  She furthermore has probably never looked so simultaneously beautiful and girl-next-door adorable.  She's well named Gloria Mundy, "glory of the world."

She's perfectly matched, comedically and romantically, with a post-Saturday Night Live Chevy Chase, at the peak of his looks, charm, and talent.  He plays a bumbling but clever cop named Tony, who's assigned to protect her, and there's a nice, very '70s moment, when she balances her feminism and her attraction to him.  He apologizes for his chauvinism, while still talking about her "ass," and they're more attracted than ever.  They have incredible chemistry together, such that I had to bump this up from a B to a B+.  I honestly can't think of a cuter film couple, but it's not just the way they look, but the way they talk and smile, and all they bring out in each other, like his sweetness and her mischief.  Interestingly, perhaps to keep the PG rating (despite the violence, drug use, and profanity, including the old ladies' dirty Scrabble game), we don't see Gloria and Tony do more than kiss, although it's very clear that they spend the night together at his place, and we see him wake up in just his jockey shorts.  The sex being offscreen allowed me to see this movie at such a tender age.

Meanwhile, however, there's the Stanley character played by Dudley Moore.  When Goldie needs a place to hide out, she approaches Stanley in a singles bar and asks him to take her home.  He of course thinks he's going to get lucky.  So while she's nervously peeking through binoculars-- "You're into that, too?"-- he gets his "pad" ready for a night to remember, with the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" record, blow-up dolls, a stag-film projector, and a bed that is almost indescribable.  In these days of Internet porn and all-- I'm considering seeing an R-rated comedy called "Sex Tape" this week-- the pad may seem a lot less shocking than it did 36 years ago, but it's still very tacky, and unlikely to impress Gloria.  She's less outraged than puzzled when she looks away from the window, but their paths will cross again.

The funniest moments probably belong to Billy Barty as a "dwarf" Bible salesman that Hawn attacks when she thinks he's one of the bad guys.  Both the attack, and her hospital visit later that day, are played just right by both Barty and Hawn.  Burgess Meredith also does well, as Hawn's protective landlord with the laughing pet snake.  Chuck McCann has a brief bit as the owner of the revival theater where Gloria first witnesses a death.

The movie was written and directed by Colin Higgins, seven years after Harold and Maude.  (And not long after Silver Streak, which I haven't seen since the time.)  It is for the most part successful, although I do think the last half hour is the weakest, with an Obligatory '70s, not Chase Scene, but Rush to Save the Day Scene, that involves things like driving the wrong way on a one-way street, car crashes, and ethnic and other stereotypes (like Italians who exclaim, "Mama mia!").  And while there's more at stake at the Mikado production than there was in the Night at the Opera finale, I don't think this sequence works entirely.  Still, it's great at the very end to see Chevy & Goldie go from smooching (they are a great team of smoochers) to shrugging and taking bows, as Mr. Manilow proclaims he's ready to take a chance again.  (And I'm not even a Manilow fan, except here.)  Both Chase and Hawn are great reactors, separately and as a team.  Like the rest of the movie, they walk a balance between realism and cartoon.

So how's the movie as a mystery?  Well, it's certainly suspenseful, and I remember being really scared as a kid, especially of the albino, but there are a lot of moments of putting convenient clues together, and the cigarette pack with the microfilm in it (probably the most dated of many dated elements in the movie) turns out to be a complete McGuffin.  If you just apply the Gilligan's Island Rule of Broadcasting, then you know that the television news is repeatedly reporting that the Pope will be visiting San Francisco soon, and thus you know whom the villains want to assassinate.  (When Foul Play was first scheduled to be shown on TV in 1981, it had to be postponed because of the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II.)  There are aspects that are homages to Hitchcock, some of which I get, some of which I don't.  I have the sense we're not meant to take the mystery entirely seriously, as when late in the film Tony says Gloria will have to identify the albino because she's the only one who's seen him and "he may be in disguise."  What, in colored contacts and a toupee?

Marc Lawrence, who plays Stiltskin ("The Dwarf"), would soon be another villain, Webster in Goin' Coconuts.  Rollin Moriyama and Mitsu Yashima, who play the Japanese couple in the taxi, would be Chinese in Americathon.  Marilyn Sokol, who plays Stella, would be Lulu in Can't Stop the Music.

Grease

Grease
June 16, 1978
Paramount
Musical, Comedy, Historical, Romance, Fantasy
VHS
B-

This is both a beloved "classic" and an entry in the Medveds' lists of turkeys.  I've seen it countless times and I still don't quite know what I think of it.  Well, if you must know, I guess I think it's a movie with good to great songs ("Hopelessly Devoted" probably the best of the lot, although much more '70s than '50s) and mostly not very likable characters.  It's hard to care about the romance between John Travolta (age 24) as Danny and Olivia Newton-John (29) as Sandy, when their personalities are such a poor fit, and the changes they make to prove to be worthy of each other seem pointless.  The secondary couple, Jeff Conaway (27) as Kenickie and Stockard Channing (34) as Rizzo, are much more interesting, she especially.  She's not exactly likable either, but she's got personality, has some of the best lines ("With relish" and the "defective typewriter" one in particular), and her "There Are Worse Things I Could Do" provides the only genuine emotion in the movie, raising this from a C+ to a B-.

As for the unlikability, the characters are often stupid and/or needlessly cruel, as when they mock nerdy Eddie Deezen.  They're not any nicer to their friends, including the way that Jan is called fat (while being asked out!), when she looks petite.  The characters in Grease 2 are no saints, but there's less mean-spiritedness in that film, so in some ways I like it better, although it's certainly worse written, directed, acted, sung, danced, etc.  (But then it's more clearly a so-bad-it's-good turkey.)

Still, yes, watch this film for the musical numbers, from the title track onward.  The songs will get stuck in your head, but you probably won't mind.  Chances are, you already know them.  (Well, maybe not the smuttier lines of "Greased Lightning," if you've seen an edited version of the movie.)

The mostly female school staff includes Eve Arden as Principal McGee, Dody Goodman as Arden's assistant Blanche, Fannie Flagg as Nurse Wilkins, and Alice Ghostley as the shop teacher Mrs. Murdock, but there's also Sid Caesar as Coach Calhoun.  Edd Byrnes plays lecherous National Bandstand host Vince Fontaine.  Joan Blondell is Vi the waitress.  Frankie Avalon is Frenchy's Teen Angel guardian.  Sha-Na-Na, almost a decade before/after Woodstock, is the band at the big dance.

I'm using the "Stigwood stalwarts" tag to cover the many dancers who perform not only here but also Sgt. Pepper and/or Grease 2:  Barbi Alison, Helena Adreyko, Jennifer Buchanan, Carol Culver, Cindy DeVore, Dennis Daniels, Larry Dusich, Deborah Fishman, John Robert Garrett, Sandra Gray, Mimi Lieber, Sean Moran, Bob Quinn, Greg Rosatti, Andy Roth, Lou Spadaccini, Judy Susman, Andy Tennant, and Richard Weisman.  Wendie Jo Sperber is also a dancer here.  (I think she's the girl in the pink dress and dark ponytails in the carnival scene at the end.)  Another dancer, Daniel Levans, would be assistant choreographer on Can't Stop the Music.

Also, Dennis Stewart, who plays Leo, would be a dancer in Sgt. Pepper, as well as Balmudo in Grease 2.  (He's the zit-faced leader of the rival gang.)  Dick Patterson, Mr. Rudie here, would be Mr. Spears in G2.  Didi Conn (26), as Frenchy (the one genuinely sweet character) would be the only one of the main "teenagers" to return for G2.  Scriptwriters Alan Carr and Bronte Woodard would co-write Can'tStM.  And choreographer Patricia Birch would direct G2. 

The "fantasy" tag is for the flying car at the end, and not for the surreal New York accents in sunny California.

Thank God It's Friday

Thank God It's Friday
May 19, 1978
Columbia
Comedy, Musical
VHS
C

This plays like one of the more forgettable episodes of The Love Boat, only with casual drug use and of course a disco setting.  There are different plot threads and characters, many of them involving romance, and they only somewhat overlap.  None of them is particularly interesting, and I can only recommend this movie for maybe half a dozen decent to good songs and a chance to spot a handful of people who went on to better things, notably Fame's Valerie Landsburg (playing a teen who's supposed to be a marvelous dancer, although we can't really tell from the brief sample) and poor Debra Winger, as a nice girl looking for a nice guy.

And there's Jeff Goldblum, still only 25 at that point, but looking older and reptilian as the sleazy owner of the Zoo disco.  His character tries to seduce Sue, played by Andrea Howard, who'd be the love interest in The Nude Bomb.  Her husband Dave is played by Mark Lonow, who'd be a Father of the Bride in The Wedding Singer.  

As for the music, Donna Summer sings the Oscar-winning "Last Dance" and three other songs, and the Commodores sing "Hot to Trot" and the classic "She's a Brick House."  Just about everything else is forgettable, except for the over-the-top title track, which makes the Columbia lady boogie down.

Phil Adams, who's Tarzan here, would be a "hood" in C.H.O.M.P.S.  Wade Collings would also dance in Can't Stop the Music.  MacIntyre Dixon, a bartender here, would have a more substantial role, as Cole Oyl in Popeye.  Paul Jabara, who plays Carl and performs (on the soundtrack rather than as Carl) "Disco Queen" and "Trapped in a Stairway," wrote not only "Last Dance" but "It's Raining Men," which plays in Bridget Jones's Diary among other movies.

Director Robert Klane went on to the Weekend at Bernie's movies, which I don't own.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand

I Wanna Hold Your Hand
April 21, 1978
Universal
Comedy, Musical, Historical
VHS
B-

This is an uneven but likable look at Beatlemania, covering roughly 24 hours, including the Fab Four's first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.  Except for some vintage footage and their songs on the soundtrack, we never actually see or hear the Beatles, but just catch glimpses of them.  The movie is from the perspective of eight teens (four girls and four guys), who have various misadventures in New York as they attempt to see the live performance.

My favorite moments are with 19-year-old Wendie Jo Sperber (later of Bosom Buddies), as the biggest fan out of the group from Jersey.  She meets her match in 21-year-old Eddie Deezen, who was sort of the go-to nerd in comedy movie casting for about a decade and would shortly appear in Grease.  (He seems to be quite the Beatles fan in real life, judging from his website:  http://www.eddiedeezen.com/beatles/.)  The two of them have an insane, adorkable energy separately but especially together.  The other plots and subplots vary in quality, but it's surprising that this was such a flop for Robert Zemeckis.  It's a cute little movie, which has ironically aged better than many of its contemporaries.  (And, yes, I feel that the changes between '64 and '78 warrant the "historical" tag.)

Dick Miller plays a policeman, as he did in Beach Ball.  Nick Pellegrino, "Lou the Guard," was one of The Big Bus's passengers.  Marc McClure, who plays Larry, was Annabel's crush Boris in Freaky Friday.  Bartender Bob Maroff was in Annie Hall.

Ironically, Jeffrey Weissman, who's a Ringo fan here, would be a "brainwashed youth" in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.  Gene LeBell, who's "Theater Core RTTST" (whatever that means), would be the referee in Americathon.  Leslie Hoffman would be in The Nude Bomb.  Poppy Lagos, who's a reporter here, would be "Sister" in Going Ape!, while Luke Andreas, who's the bribable police officer in the alley, would be "Carter" in that movie.  Will Jordan was an Ed Sullivan impersonator for four decades, and he wouldn't look much different in Down with Love a quarter century after this movie.

Sperber, Deezen, and Paul Newman's daughter

Rabbit Test

Rabbit Test
April 9, 1978
Laugh or Die Productions [These are the choices?]
Comedy, Romance
VHS
C+

Like Sextette, this shows how tacky the late '70s could get, but it's less enjoyably bad.  It does admittedly have more of a plot, the complications (medical and otherwise) faced by the world's first pregnant man, played by a young Billy Crystal, around the time he was making TV history as a gay main character on Soap.  The movie has a very slight resemblance to Miracle of Morgan's Creek, in that the unwed pregnancy shocks the whole world, but the reaction is more mixed here.  Also, like Trudy K., Crystal's Lionel Carpenter gives birth on Christmas, but it's a lot more blasphemous here, since the baby is possibly a Saviour.  (A deep-voiced star says, "Oh my God, it's a girl!!")  But then the whole movie is tasteless in just about every way imaginable, while Morgan's knew how to be suggestive without being PG-raunchy.

Then again, Joan Rivers (writer/director/over-actress in the role of a nurse) is no Preston Sturges.  If you're going to have a joke where an African waitress in rabbit ears and a swimsuit says, "I'm your jungle bunny," you've got to make it so outrageously funny that the viewer can't help but laugh, even if it's guiltily.  It's the same with jokes about (to take a few examples among many) incest, abortion, and urine.

Oddly enough, while there's none of the good-natured sweetness of Sextette (which loved even those it mocked), there is somehow a not bad romance here, between Crystal and his Russian Gypsy girlfriend, played by Joan Prather, who would find more success as Janet on Eight Is Enough.  And Doris Roberts, in the Doris Roberts Role of Crystal's mother (cf. Angie, Everybody Loves Raymond), is much better than her material.

There are two genuinely funny things in the movie: Richard Deacon's very phony toupee and a routine about a commemorative stamp.  Likely if you dare to watch this movie, it's going to have to be for the cast. Seemingly, nearly every actor and actress from the '70s you've heard of (or haven't) was in this flick, from a young Michael Keaton to Valerie Curtin and Suzanne Zenor from the first Three's Company pilot.  Rivers's Hollywood Squares colleagues (or at least game-show stalwarts) include George Gobel (as the President of the US), Fannie Flagg (as the First Lady), Peter Marshall (as himself), Jimmie "J. J." Walker (as an African ventriloquist), and Mr. Center Square himself, Paul Lynde, as the doctor whose rabbit dies.  Alice Ghostley is Lynde's nurse.  Billy Barty is Walker's black-face dummy.

This time Charlotte Rae plays Cousin Claire.  Roddy McDowall has a dual role, as the Gypsy grandmother and as Dr. D & C Fishbine.  (Hardy har har!)  Imogene Coca and/or Norman Fell plays his child.  (It's hard to tell in this movie.)  Hamilton Camp is some relation.

Ben Frommer, who's Mr. Sanchez, was "Man" in Plan Nine from Outer Space.  (Luckily, this isn't the extent of his resume.)  Intern William Callaway was a party guest in Annie Hall.  The role of the Japanese doctor was one of a handful that Rollin Moriyama would have in my late '70s movies.

Hospital visitor Tommy Madden would be One-Eyed Midget in The Muppet Movie.  May Boss, "Frail Old Lady," would be Adele Miller in Americathon.  (She was far from frail in real life and in fact was a stuntwoman, even up to 2003.)  Adam Anderson, the "Sobbing Sailor," would be a pilot in The Nude Bomb.  Rod Haase, who's the surfer on the bus, would be Wally in The Gong Show Movie.  Rosey Grier, who's the taxi driver, would be himself in The Gong SM.  Raymond O'Keefe, Bronco here, would be a man at the hospital in Nine to Five.  Shelley Morrison, who plays Mrs. Borzoni, would be Rosa the Maid in Troop Beverly Hills.

Sextette

Sextette
March 3, 1978
Crown International Pictures
Comedy, Musical
VHS
B-

From the opening lyrics that proclaim that Marlo Manners is "the female answer to Apollo" (I guess they didn't want to do a rhyme for "Venus") onward, this movie will have you scratching your head, shaking your head, dropping your jaw, and/or laughing affectionately and/or scornfully.  Even by the standards of an octogenarian Mae West sex comedy/ slash vanity production (if you thought they overdid the soft-focus on Lucy in Mame, you ain't seen nothin' yet), the movie makes little sense.  But if you start asking yourself questions like, "Why can't Marlo remember all her marriages and divorces?  Liz Taylor always managed it," or "Exactly how is this nutty scheme going to achieve world peace?", you probably won't be able to let go enough to get into the movie.  As it is, I can't say it's an enjoyably bad enough movie to hold up to more than a dozen viewings, but I still got things out of it this time, including of course being amused at the cast.

Of those I've tagged, three of them are Marlo's six (ish) husbands: Tony Curtis as Russian diplomat Alexei (hubby #2 or 3), Ringo as Polish (I think) film director Laszlo (#4), and George Hamilton as gangster Vance (#5).  (One husband, seen only in newspaper clippings, was a count.)  Number 6 (or 7) is Sir Michael Barrington, who turns out to be a spy.  Marlo's manager (Dom DeLuise) declares Sir MB is "bigger than 007," which would be ironic a dozen years later when Timothy Dalton (33 in '78) became James Bond.

As for Ken Hughes, he directed Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which is fortunate because this is a musical.  True, some people (like Dalton) seem to be reciting lyrics more than singing, but then there are others, like DeLuise, who are giving it their all.  Most of these songs are of '60s and '70s vintage, like DeLuise's "Honey Pie" and Dalton's "Love Will Keep Us Together." The script by Herbert Baker, who also wrote the screenplay for The Girl Can't Help It, is based on West's 1961 screenplay.  I have to say that, as high a tolerance as I have for double entrendres and innuendos, even such chestnuts as West delivers here (yes, even the "gun in your pocket" one), it does get to be a bit one-note after awhile, which is why I went with a B- rather than a B.

George Raft plays a gangster named "George."  Seventy-year-old Rollin Moriyama, who's the Japanese delegate here, would soon be a Japanese doctor in Rabbit Test, then get his most famous role, as a taxi passenger in Foul Play, before becoming Chinese for Americathon.  One of the athletes, Kal Szkalak, would also be in Americathon.  Keith Allison, who plays a waiter, was apparently a '60s teen idol and famous enough to be one of the "guests at Heartland" at the end of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.  Alice Cooper, who's almost unrecognizable here (he plays the glass piano and is greeted as Alice by DeLuise), would have a much more important role in Sgt. Pepper.  Ed Beheler seems to have made a bit of a career impersonating President Carter, but this is the only one of his six movies I own.  There are appearances by "journalists" Rona Barrett, Regis Philbin, and Gil Stratton playing themselves.  And the soon to be late Keith Moon plays a mad dress designer.

Pippi on the Run

Pippi on the Run
1977 (exact American release date unknown)
Nord Art/ G. G. Communications Inc.
Children's, Comedy, Fantasy, Musical
DVD
B

I think this is maybe a shade not as good as the other Inger Nilsson Pippi movie made specifically for the big screen, Pippi in the South Seas.  Run lacks the plot and action of its immediate predecessor.  To balance that, as the children and the movie meander, most of the scenes are set outdoors-- in woods, along a river, at a farm-- and this means nature shots, with lots of animals, from cows and a bull to badgers to owls to rabbits and a kitten.  This is the movie where Pippi is not simply strong but supernatural, able to turn a broken-down heap into her own version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by just flapping her arms and putting super glue in the tank.  She can also fly on a broomstick.

Tommy and Annika are as always along for the journey, and in fact goody-goody Annika's sudden preteen rebellion against her mother inspires the running away that takes up most of the movie.  Understandably, we see her and Tommy's parents (played as always by Fredrik Ohlsson and Öllegård Wellton) only at the beginning and end, and there are none of the usual villagers.  Instead, we get Conrad the inventor/peddler and the farm family, who provide much of the humor of the film in the way they interact with the trio, as during the dancing on the ceiling and the swearing contest.

I'm using a "musical" tag this time because the kids sing a lot, to raise their spirits and/or to raise money.  (Pippi leaves her gold pieces and Mr. Nilsson at home.  The horse ditches her for about an hour of the running time.)  It'd been awhile since I watched this movie (much longer than since watching the others), but having grown up with it, all the lyrics came back to me, like the ones about the "poor Turkish children who haven't any clothes."  I should note that even in the '70s, but especially now, I was struck by the cultural differences between the US and Sweden in regards to partial nudity of children.  There's nothing "inappropriate," but 9- or 10-year-old Annika would've been wearing an undershirt in the swimming scene if this were made in America.

Annie Hall

Annie Hall
April 20, 1977
United Artists
Comedy, Romance
VHS
B+

This is probably my favorite Woody Allen movie, but not because I saw it at the time.  I mean, I was 9, so I didn't get very many of the jokes then and most remembered it for the Snow White parody.  I started to appreciate it as a teenager, although I obviously get different things out of it now in middle age, having gone through the good and bad of so many romantic relationships.  It's easy to see why Annie Hall and Alvy Singer are drawn together and why they can't last, and it's interesting that this was made after Keaton and Allen broke up.

The script by Allen and Brickman is strong, with many quotable lines.  And the direction by Allen is equally good, with even the more unbelievable characters, like the one played by Shelley Duvall, believable within the world of the movie.  Although the movie is about Alvy & Annie, it also is about New York vs. California and a lot of other things.  I like that, like novelist George Meredith, Allen is able (at least at this point in his career and life) to include himself in his laundry list of what to mock.  Diane Keaton is absolutely lovable and charming here, but Annie has flaws of her own.

The supporting cast, only some of whom I've tagged, hold their own, including Goldblum with his one scene-stealing line.  Tony Roberts is much more relaxed here than he was in Star-Spangled Girl six years earlier, probably because the dialogue is so much better.  Carol Kane gives a fine early performance, as one of the women that illustrate Alvy's quote of the Groucho line about not wanting to belong to a club that would have him as a member.  Marshall McLuhan shows up as himself-- "If life were only like this!"-- and delivers a line that still cracks me up because it makes no sense yet is meant to be a put-down of a pseudo-intellectual: "You know nothing of my work!  You mean my whole fallacy is wrong."

There's a lot of fourth-wall-breaking, especially but not exclusively by Alvy.  One of the old ladies giving him advice on the street is seventy-six-year-old Paula Trueman, who would be Stick-Up Lady in Can't Stop the Music, as well as Woman on Telephone in Zelig, while another, sixty-nine-year-old Loretta Tupper, would be the music store owner in The Purple Rose of Cairo.  Another "street stranger" is Lou Picetti, who was the beauty pageant MC in Sleeper.  

One Lacey party guest, William Callaway, would be an intern in Rabbit Test.  Gary Muledeer, who's a man at the health food restaurant, would be Gary in The Gong Show Movie.  The two men who bother Alvy outside the theatre are Bob Maroff, who'd be a bartender in I Wanna Hold Your Hand, and Rick Petrucelli, who'd be a penny pitcher in Purple Rose.  "Coke fiend" John Doumanian would be a Greek waiter in Zelig and a Thanksgiving guest in Hannah and Her Sisters.  Hy Ansel, who's Joey Nichols, would play Mr. Waldbaum in Radio Days, which would feature Martin Rosenblatt, who's Alvy's uncle here, as Mr. Needleman.  One of the schoolteachers, Gary Allen, would be a board member in The Hudsucker Proxy.

Freaky Friday

Freaky Friday
January 21, 1977
Disney
Children's, Comedy, Fantasy
DVD
B

Please start with my review of the book, http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/08/freaky-friday.html, because I'm going to build on that....

Back?  OK, I think the film is about equal to the book, but, despite the Rodgers script, it's a very different creature, because, well, it's a movie, not just a filmed book.  This is seen in everything from the hokey green-screen to the cast that is heavy on the sitcom actors (Happy Days contributes both Al Delvecchio and Mickey Malph), but also includes such Hollywood vets as Iris Adrian (this time playing a bus passenger) and Patsy Kelly, not to mention Karen Smith from The Erotic Adventures of Pinocchio, Ruth Buzzi, Charlene Tilton, Dick Van Patten, etc., etc.!

Most prominent in that etc. is of course John "Gomez Addams" Astin, here playing the "oink oink" male chauvinist pig father and husband Bill Andrews perfectly, so that you can see why the transformed Annabel thinks he's a great dad and a lousy husband.  I love his slack-jawed reactions to the stunt water-skiing his wife does.

She's played by Barbara Harris, who maybe is a bit too immature when trying to seem 13 (although those were different times of course), but has a warmth and dippiness about her that totally sells her scenes.  Jodie Foster, already an acting veteran at 13, has to act prim and refined, which is in some ways tougher, but less of a show-stopping performance.  Sparky Marcus (9 playing 6) isn't much of a better actor than Shane Sinutko, but Ape-Face has always been one of my favorite kid-brother characters because he's so sweet but he also looks like he's having the time of his life, especially during this movie's version of the Obligatory Disney Chase Scene.

And, to use the vernacular, man!  Wow!  It doesn't get any more '70s than the ODCS in this one!  No less than half a dozen police cars are destroyed as the kids ride to the rescue in a red VW Bug.   It doesn't fit the timeframe of the story (unless Ellen Andrews is floating around a lot longer than it seems), and it doesn't really contribute anything, but it's fun nonetheless, in the way that the Typing class scene is fun.  They don't make them like this anymore.

No, I still haven't seen the '95 TV-movie, but I do want to note some things about the '03 version, on the assumption that I won't get a copy of it.  Ape-Face is much brattier there, and yes, the switching device is actually hokier than the green-screen wish.  Also, it is impossible to imagine in this film an awful line like Jamie Lee Curtis's about looking like The Crypt Keeper.  Annabel thinks her mom looks great, and she's right.

And, yes, the weird sexual subtext of the book is here in the '70s screen version, with Bill liking it when Ellen calls him Daddy, although Boris's crush on Mrs. Andrews is scaled back.  (He doesn't confess his love, like book-Boris does.)  Bill gets a sexy secretary in the movie, whom Ellen is suspicious of.  Mrs. Schmauss's remarks on Annabel's probable drug and alcohol use are kept intact from the book.  It's still G-rated Disney fun, but, as in The Shaggy D.A., things are not as squeaky clean at the Mouse House as they were in Walt's time.

I also must note that, while not a musical, there are three memorable aspects to the music: "I'd Like to Be You for a Day" over the opening credits captures the sweet, wistful side of the movie (under all the slapstick and farce); Annabel in Ellen's body likes to listen to the lamest "rock music" I've heard in a movie since, oh, Palm Springs Weekend; and the ODCS background music of course has a funky beat.

Marie Windsor, who plays Mrs. Murphy, was a nightclub patron about 35 years earlier in Playmates.  Dick Winslow, who's the man in the pool, was a photographer in The Swinger.  Dermott Downs, whose red hair looks even wilder here than it did a year or so earlier in Escape to Witch Mountain, is the guy who teases Annabel about her name.  Robert Karvelas, who's the silent diner customer that Annabel complains to, would resume his TV role as Larrabee for the big-screen version of Get Smart.  Ceil Cabot, who's Miss McGuirk, would also be in The Nude Bomb.  

The Shaggy D.A.

The Shaggy D.A.
December 17, 1976
Disney
Children's, Comedy, Fantasy
DVD
B-

Although this doesn't hold up as well as some of the other Disney live-action movies of the '70s, it's somewhat fun if you can get past the incredible-- even by the standards of kid flicks-- implausibility and silliness.  I mean, there's a scene where someone in an obvious dog costume is dressed as a roller derby girl and driving an ice cream truck!  And there's a pie fight just because there has to be pie fight, and vehicles crashing into police cars because that's what happens in Disney live-action movies of the '70s.  The special effects seem weaker than in Escape to Witch Mountain, but I think this is partly because the movie overall is extra unreal.  (Even the ice cream syrup looks off, like it's paint.)  Some of the silliness is interesting, like the celebrity-inspired voices (Bogie, Mae West, etc.) for the dogs in the pound, and there does seem to be a slightly dark edge to the movie under the froth-- with the title character's life in danger, and a link between politics and crime.  This film came out shortly after Carter was elected partly on the basis that he was an outsider untouched by Watergate and other corruption, and Wilby Daniels is planning to "clean up" the corruption in Medfield.  (I'm not an expert on Disney, but I think their backlot small towns of the '50s through '70s tended to have bland M-names like that.  I think it was Midvale in the Merlin Jones movies.)

This is of course a sequel to The Shaggy Dog, which, although based on Felix Salten's The Hound of Florence, was sort of Disney's answer to I Was a Teenage Werewolf, with Tommy Kirk rather than Michael Landon.  Dean Jones replaces Kirk here, now that Wilby is all grown-up, with a law career, a hot wife (the incomparable Suzanne Pleshette, unfortunately not given much to do), and a slightly bratty son.  (Shane Sinutko was in things like The ABC After-School Special, so I recognized him right away, but I've got to say he's not one of the better kid actors, particularly at Disney in the '70s.  His intonation here is frequently wrong and he has none of the naturalism and likability of Ike Eisenmann or Kim Richards, to say nothing of the star quality of Jodie Foster.)

Wilby, with the help of his family and an ice cream man named Tim (Tim Conway), must face Keenan Wynn and Vic Tayback as the villains, but I thought the real scene stealer was Wynn's yes-man Dick Van Patten, who has a sycophantic laugh that would make Ed McMahon jealous.  Jo Anne Worley appears as Tim's ice-cream-worker-by-day/ roller-derby-queen-by-night love interest.  Hans Conreid, with that marvelous voice, is well cast as a museum curator.  Pleshette has a telephone conversation with one of her then TV-husband's patients, John Fiedler as the pound manager.

This time Herb Vigran plays a bar patron, but he doesn't have any lines, while Iris Adrian is the "manageress" at the pie factory.  Warren Berlinger is Dip.  Roller rink announcer Dick Lane was the racetrack announcer in Dear Brigitte.  Benny Rubin, who's a waiter here, was Chicken Feather in The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini.  Milton Frome, who plays the auctioneer, was Ann-Margret's father in The Swinger.  Peter Renoudet, who's the roller derby ticket-taker, was a policeman in The Barefoot Executive.  Paul Sorensen played a policeman in Escape to WM as well, while policeman Hank Jones was Stan in Barefoot Exec.

Danny Wells, who plays a police official, would be Al in Goin' Coconuts.  Pat McCormick, who's Harry the bartender here, would be the carnival barker in Scavenger Hunt, which would feature Sinutko as Scott Motley.  This was Robert Stevenson's last big-screen directing job.

Hey, this was hilarious when I was 8!

The Big Bus

The Big Bus
June 23, 1976
Paramount
Comedy, Action
VHS
A-

This note-perfect parody of '70s disaster movies is not only in my opinion much more enjoyable than the more famous and successful Airplane (1980), but it's the most fun I've had with any of my movies since Some Like It Hot.  It's partly that I'm a '70s kid and I love the bright colors and tackiness of this Ford-era movie, especially on the title vehicle, including the Bicentennial dining room.  But it really is dead on, from its David Shire score (as overwrought as anything in the Airport movies, but with whimsical touches like a sample from "Home Sweet Home" when the "flags of all nations" are raised to slow down the bus), to the dialogue, with such quotable lines as Joseph Bologna defensively exclaiming "You eat one lousy foot-- they call you a cannibal!", and a pre-Benson Rene Auberjonois as a doubting priest taunting Ruth Gordon, "Where's your god now, old woman?"  I also love all the exchanges between a pre-Soap Richard Mulligan and a post-MASH Sally Kellerman as a soon to be divorced couple, as well as Richard B. Shull (around the time of Holmes and Yo-Yo) hitting all the cliches in his "I wanna live" speech when Lynn Redgrave seduces him in a tub.

It's a very big bus, with a swimming pool, a bowling alley, and a piano bar where Murphy Dunne (who wrote his own material) anticipates Bill Murray's lounge singer by a year or so.  The bus is nuclear-powered and on a non-stop trip from New York to Denver, although the scenery is very obviously Californian, from the street with the Thrifty's to the mountains.  And, yes, very '70s, with the sodas that poor Stockard Channing almost drowns in including Fanta and Fresca.

She's wonderful, the whole cast is wonderful!  I haven't even mentioned Larry Hagman as the doctor who insists that Harold Gould (wounded by a St. Christopher's medal) can't be moved, or Ned Beatty and Howard Hesseman as the bickering technicians, or Jose Ferrer and Stuart Margolin as villainous brothers (despite being born almost 30 years apart), or Vic Tayback in a tiny plum of a role as a bus driver who gets in a broken milk carton vs. broken candle bar fight.

I spent most of the time grinning, when I wasn't giggling.  This viewing, I was struck by the fact that it actually works on a story level.  I mean it's not just gags, there's actually a plot that's somewhat resolved.  (After a literal cliffhanger, the bus faces another disaster as the credits start rolling.)  And I don't think you have to have seen Earthquake, Towering Inferno, Poseidon Adventure, Airport, or Airport '75 (they still hadn't released '77 or Concorde at that point) to enjoy it, although it probably helps if you're a movie buff and can appreciate all the tropes.  Even on this viewing, I found new things to appreciate, like the Edith Head glasses on Redgrave's designer character.  Judging from the IMDB reviews and comments, as well as other online reviews, this movie doesn't do it for everyone, but I think if you like it, you'll like it a lot.

This time Vito Scotti plays a barber.  Harry Holcolmbe, who plays the older priest, was Capt. Malone in Escape to Witch Mountain.  Of the unnamed bus passengers, a few would go on to other cult/obscure movies I own: Selma Archerd to Americathon and Can't Stop the Music, Nick Pellegrino to I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Cynthia Szigeti to both The Gong Show Movie and Johnny Dangerously, and Andrew Winner to Valley Girl.

And James Frawley would go on to direct The Muppet Movie.

Infra-Man

Infra-Man
1975 (exact date unknown)
Sci-Fi, Action
Shaw Brothers
VHS
C+

I wanted to go with a higher grade on this, considering that there are times that it looks like the Krofft Brothers remaking Phantom Empire for a heavy-metal album cover.  But it's just not my genre and I got bored with all the fight scenes.