Movie Night

1982's The Pirate Movie is a film that others might well describe as a "guilty pleasure," but I will do no such thing.  I genuinely enjoy it, and don't feel even a little embarrassed about that. The film, a send up/total bastardization of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera  The Pirates of Penzance, stars Christopher Atkins ( The Blue Lagoon ), Kristy McNichol ( Family , Empty Nest), and Ted Hamilton (this movie.  Seriously he hasn't done much else).  It was directed by Ken Annakin, and rushed into production after a proper   Pirates of Penzance film, starring Kevin Kline, was announced. (If you have the chance, watch that one as well, it's excellent...)  Pirate Movie was filmed in under three months and was met with derision and scorn upon release, including winning a Razzie award for worst song. Oh, did I mention this was a musical?  It's a musical. The film begins in 1980's Australia, with nerdy girl Mabel (McNichol) attending a pirate...

If there was ever a film that fits my premise, it's this 1953 oddity, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T .  Starring Hans Conried, Tommy Rettig, Mary Healy, and Peter Lind Hayes, directed by Roy Rowland (with uncredited re-shoots by Stanley Kramer), this movie was the only feature written by children's author Dr. Seuss, and it's failure as well as his poor treatment by the studio lead directly to his career change, giving the world classic books such as The Cat in the Hat and The Grinch. A young boy named Bart is forced by his single mother to take piano lessons under the tutelage of pompous, authoritarian Dr. Terwilliger while he'd much rather be outside playing.  He gripes to the plumber, Mr. Zabladowski, that his mom is being hypnotized by the pretensious doctor, but isn't believed.  Bart falls asleep at the piano, and enters into a surrealistic dream world where Dr. T is indeed controlling his mother, and he's being held captive in a giant Seussian fortress, fo...

Welcome to my blog, Movie Night!  This is going to be a page for movies that are a bit off the beaten path, often ones that most people haven't seen, or weird little cult flicks that deserve more of an audience.  I love big Hollywood blockbusters, but that's not what I want to write about.  I'm going to start off with a favorite of mine that has fallen out of the public consciousness since it came out, 1981's Zorro, The Gay Blade . Starring George Hamilton, Lauren Hutton, Ron Leibman, and Brenda Vaccaro, and directed by Peter Medak, Zorro, The Gay Blade , believe it or not, is a direct sequel to the 1940's classic The Mark of Zorro. George Hamilton plays Don Diego de la Vega, a womanizing playboy in 1840's California.  He's summoned home by his father, but when he arrives, he finds that his father has died in a riding accident, and his childhood friend, Esteban (Leibman) has become the acting alcalde (or magistrate) in his stead.  Esteban immediately r...