< /seinfeld >
Posted on 08/17/2010 9:44:15 PM PDT by Hillarys Gate Cult
For years, the stars of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" found the funny in films that were never intended to be comedies. A poorly-written B-grade science fiction film like "This Island Earth" was, for instance, perfect fodder for the MST3K guys.
On August 19, Michael J. Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy will be back in theaters for live RiffTrax presentation of "Reefer Madness." A notorious propaganda film from the 1930's, this over-the-top movie shows the horrors that come with smoking marijuana.
(Excerpt) Read more at associatedcontent.com ...
I certainly recommend Bambi for everyone’s viewing pleasure. I saw those things in the mid 70s in Gainesville FL.
Yeah but couldn’t you say the same thing about alcohol?
“From the moment she woke up she had a craving for Doritos which don’t exist yet.”
Hulu!
Yes! They have many episodes on Netflix, most are streaming.
http://www.netflix.com/Search?v1=mst3k
You running for office? Will you highlight your pro abortion platform?
< /seinfeld >
Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream (2005)
The original book:
The DVD (filmed decades later):
They were made as exploitation films to show the things that the Hayes Code would not permit "legit" Hollywood studios to show (nudity, violence, et al).
As long as the "bad people" got theirs in the end, you could get away with showing a whole lot of sinning onscreen.
I came across that last night. They do mention “Reefer Madness” and “Freaks” as important ones.
PTWAH
You mean like the freedom for an adult to decide what to put into their own body? You may need Mommy Government to tell you what you can or can't smoke but the grown ups among us don't.
So kindly butt out.
Naw, the lesson is to "hit and run".
Don Sonney and David Friedman tell a number of stories about the film exploitation trade. "Back in the day" they would have to make the pitch to the local censor (Baltimore had its own censor up in the 1980s and they gave John Waters a real hard time with his films).
Anyway, they would make the appeal to the city council, leaders of the community, etc. and tell them how these films were "educational" about the horrors of drug abuse, white slavery, loose libidos, sexual ignorance, gambling, etc.
On at least one occasion, Don Sonney got run out of town for showing a hotter version of the film (maybe with an alternate title screen) than what he pitched to the civic leaders.
Two good documentaries on this:
(hosted by Ned Beatty) 
(bio-interview film with Dave Friedman and Don Sonney)
I’m going to make a movie about an illicit theater that still uses coconut oil and real butter in making delicious hot buttered popcorn.
I actually met Divine once. Still have the autographed picture around the house somewhere.
MGM originally buried Freaks after its original run. Reportedly the negative got tossed in the ocean. Tod Browning’s career never recovered.
Dwain Esper (the same guy behind Reefer Madness) bought the distribution rights from MGM and ran the movie on the exploitation circuit. The intro scroll we see in MGM’s version today was from his own modification.
Anton LeVey and someone else started up the Freaks film cult around 1960. MGM later claimed ownership even though it was really just strong arming Esper.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0260871/
Oddly enough, the midnight movie people claimed Esper’s Reefer Madness was public domain when he tried to enforce his copyright on the film.
I rented one of the RiffTrax discs (don’t recall which one, it was one of the early releases they had) and didn’t find it as funny as their earlier work. It seemed a lot more strained.
Any recommended titles that I should seek out?
It’s a funny movie, mostly unintentionally. The stoners I hung out with loved watching RM and all the anti-drug propaganda movies from that era while stoned. We were also during the era of the “this is your brain on drugs” PSAs, a friend put a collection of them on VHS that we enjoyed too.
I have my ticket for tomorrow night, but I’ll also mention Joel’s Cinematic Titanic. They have released a few DVDs, and their live shows are great.
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