Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Now Playing: FEB. 7, 1962.

Let's start with the week's most eclectic double feature, now playing in Aliquippa, PA.


One, Two, Three has been opening around the country over the past month.The Cold War comedy was once notable as James Cagney's final film, but after Cagney re-emerged for Ragtime in 1981 the Billy Wilder film has had to get by on Wilder's reputation. The second feature features the adopted son of George Burns and Gracie Allen in what was most likely the best job he could get after the parents closed down their sitcom. It's readily available in the public domain and no doubt online as well. I've seen it but don't remember much about it.
In Baltimore, someone besides Roger Corman gets on the Edgar Allan Poe bandwagon.

This British production is actually virtually contemporary with Corman's genre-making House of Usher. Like Anatomy of a Psycho, it's in the public domain and available for online viewing.

Exploitation seems to be the order of the day across the land. Here's another British import arriving in Eugene OR.

Our feature is actually the fourth film in the Carry On series, and the people told that it picks up where Carry On Nurse, the second film, left off have presumably missed the third film, Carry On Teacher. In fact, Americans wouldn't see that film until October of this year. Meanwhile, we've encountered Twenty Plus Two already and are likely to meet it again; it's the sort of thing designed to be a second feature.
Let's add Bowling Green, KY, to our map with a stark looking piece of work.


Maury Dexter's film is so obscure that it doesn't even have an IMDB rating -- fewer than five people have rated it, though one has gone to the trouble of reviewing it. The star went by many names, but IMDB settles on "Steve Peck." The synopsis and review there hint that this may be a worthy subject for further study.

Finally, Pittsburgh PA becomes the pit of depravity tonight.


Erotica is the third feature film by Russ Meyer; it's described as a plotless nudie-cutie from the time before Meyer developed his characteristic story material. The second feature is from Republic serial ace William Witney, but has been described as a rip-off of Samuel Fuller's Pickup on South Street.
Staying in the Steel City, check this out:


What we're dealing with here is a 1954 Swedish movie, though we're not quite at the point when its Swedish origin would be an exploitation selling point. If you're thinking lesbian based on that ad, I'll see you and raise you incest -- an adult theme, indeed.

Can tomorrow possibly top this lineup? Time will tell....

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