The 80s Movie Podcast
We’re your ticket to the movies! Since 2019, film historian and former critic Edward A. Havens III has carefully curated a unique cinematic journey through 1980s films, covering a wide variety of aspects of cinema of the day, from distributors barely remembered and films long forgotten, to the biggest actors and filmmakers of the decade.
S7 E1 · Thu, January 30, 2025
Collision Course
On this episode, our first episode of our seventh season and first in more than six months, our host apologizes for baiting and switching episodes, explains the long delay, and talks about the only movie ever made to star comedian and talk show host Jay Leno.
S5 E6 · Thu, July 11, 2024
The 1980s Films of Susan Seidelman: Desperately Seeking Susan
On this episode, we’re going to continue with our series on the 1980s movies of director Susan Seidelman, talking about her biggest hit film, 1985’s Desperately Seeking Susan.
S6 E5 · Fri, June 21, 2024
Brats
We pause our retrospective on the 1980s movies of director Susan Seidelman to examine Andrew McCarthy new Hulu documentary about the Brat Pack and how a single article in 1985 may or may not have affect his career and the careers of many of his co-stars and friends.
S6 E4 · Wed, June 12, 2024
The 1980s Films of Susan Seidelman: Smithereens
On this episode, we’re going to start a miniseries on the 1980s films from director Susan Seidelman. Like last year, with Martha Coolidge, I want to highlight at least one female filmmaker each year from the decade that made a significant impact on filmmaking and culture as a whole, and Ms. Seidelman definitely fits that description.
S6 E3 · Mon, May 27, 2024
Crimewave
On this episode, we’re going to tackle a movie from the early 1980s that, if made today with the same pedigree, would cause movie geeks and cinephiles to lose their freaking minds over. But because this was made early in their careers, most people are only tangentially aware of its existence, let alone have actually seen it. We’re talking about the 1986 Sam Raimi/Coen Brothers collaboration, Crimewave.
S6 E2 · Mon, May 13, 2024
Smokey and the Bandit Part 3
Our first episode returning from paternity leave takes us back to 1983, and one of two sequel bombs Universal made with Jackie Gleason that year, Smokey and the Bandit Part 3. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it’s The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. On this episode, we’ll be covering one of the oddest Part 3 movies to ever be made. Smokey and the Bandit 3. But before we do, I owe you, loyal listener an apology and an explanation. Originally, this episode was supposed to be about the movies of H.B. “Toby” Halicki, who brought car chase films back to life in the mid-70s with his smash hit Gone in 60 Seconds. Part of the reason I wanted to do this episode was to highlight a filmmaker who doesn’t get much love from film aficionados anymore, and part because this was the movie that literally made me the person I became. My mom was dating Toby during the making of the movie, a spent a number of days on the set as a five year old, and I even got featured in a scene. And I thought it would be fun to get my mom to open up about a part of her life after my parents’ divorce that I don’t remember much of. And it turned into the discussion that made me question everything I became. Much of which I will cover when I find the courage to revisit that topic, hopefully in time for the 50th anniversary this July. So, for now, and to kind of stick with the car theme this episode was originally going to be about, we’re going to do a quick take on one of the most bizarre, and most altered, movies to ever come out of Hollywood. As you may remember, Smokey and the Bandit was a 1977 hit film from stuntman turned director Hal Needham. Needham and Burt Reynolds has become friends in the early 1960s, and Needham would end up living in Reynolds’ pool house for nearly a dozen years in the 60s and 70s. Reynolds would talk director Robert Aldrich into hiring Needham to be the 2nd unit director and stunt coordinator for the car chase scene Aldrich’s 1974 classic The Longest Yard, and Reynolds would hire Needham to be his 2nd Unit Director on his own 1976 directorial debut, Gator. While on the set of Gator, the two men would talk about the movie Needham wanted to make his own directorial debut on, a low-budget B movie about a cat and mouse chase between a bootlegger and a sheriff as they tried to outwit each other across several state lines. As a friend, Reynolds would ask Needham to read the script. The “script” was a series of hand-written notes on a legal pad. He had come up with the idea during the making of Gator, when the Teamster transportation captain brought some Coors beer to the production team. And, believe it or not, in 1975, it was illegal to sell or transport Coors beer out of states West
S6 E1 · Fri, January 12, 2024
Threads
Welcome to the first episode of our sixth season, the first of three episodes to begin the new year before our two month hiatus. This episode, we do our first ever Listener Freebie, letting Lee Thompson, one of our biggest supporters in the United Kingdom, pick the movie we cover this episode. Lee chose the 1984 British television drama Threads, and we are proud to talk about this hidden gem.
S5 E28 · Fri, December 29, 2023
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
For our final episode of 2023, the podcast takes a look back at the history of one of the best and most popular films of the decade, 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
S5 E27 · Fri, December 01, 2023
Deep in the Heart (aka Handgun)
On this week's episode, we talk about a movie that was buried by one of the major American distributors back in 1984, due to its similarity to a Clint Eastwood movie they were making at the time, and how it's finally going to get a second chance with viewers forty years later. Tony Garnett's Deep in the Heart.
S5 E26 · Sun, November 26, 2023
Chattanooga Choo Choo
This week, we go back to the 1984 summer movie season, with one of the most forgotten movies of the decade, for good reason: Chattanooga Choo Choo, starring Barbara Eden, George Kennedy, Melissa Sue Anderson, Christopher McDonald, Joe Namath, and Joe Namath's 1969 Super Bowl III championship ring.
S5 E25 · Fri, November 10, 2023
UFOria
On this week's episode, we talk about a rarity amongst 80s movies, one that is an oldie, a goodie, an obscurity, and one of the best reviewed movies of all the years it was released. John Binder's 1980 debut, UFOria. Or is it 1984? Or 1985? 1986? Listen in and find out.
S5 E24 · Thu, October 26, 2023
The Orphans 6
This week, we look back at another three films for whom their releases would be the only theatrical release for their respective distributors. It's Part 6 of our ongoing series, The Orphans. Would you like to know more? ----more---- This week's films are: Heartbreaker (1983, Frank Zuniga, from Monarex) Hells Angels Forever (1983, Leon Gast and and Kevin Keating and Richard Chase, RKR Releasing) Mother Lode (1982, Charlton Heston, Agamemnon Films)
S5 E23 · Thu, October 19, 2023
The Orphans 5
On this episode, we’re going to do something we haven’t done in nearly a year and a half. Dedicate a show to films for whom their release was the only release ever done by a particular distributor. The Orphans. Since it’s very hard to do a full show on a distributor that only ever released one movie, I collect these orphans like a crazy cat person collects felines, and every so often unleash them grouped together so they can have their moment in the spotlight. Would you like to know more? ----more----
S5 E22 · Mon, October 09, 2023
Motion Picture Marketing
This week, we spend a bit of our time on Motion Picture Marketing, the oddly named early 80s independent distributor who made their name repackaging European horror films from the 1970s with new titles and new graphics to make them feel new. This policy was so successful, so quickly for them, they could jump right into producing their own films within a year of their founding. Would you like to know more?
S5 E21 · Fri, September 15, 2023
Miramax Films - Part Five
We finally complete our mini-series on the 1980s movies released by Miramax Films in 1989, a year that included sex, lies, and videotape, and My Left Foot. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it’s The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. On this episode, we complete our look back at the 1980s theatrical releases for Miramax Films. And, for the final time, a reminder that we are not celebrating Bob and Harvey Weinstein, but reminiscing about the movies they had no involvement in making. We cannot talk about cinema in the 1980s without talking about Miramax, and I really wanted to get it out of the way, once and for all. As we left Part 4, Miramax was on its way to winning its first Academy Award, Billie August’s Pelle the Conquerer, the Scandinavian film that would be second film in a row from Denmark that would win for Best Foreign Language Film. In fact, the first two films Miramax would release in 1989, the Australian film Warm Night on a Slow Moving Train and the Anthony Perkins slasher film Edge of Sanity, would not arrive in theatres until the Friday after the Academy Awards ceremony that year, which was being held on the last Wednesday in March. Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train stars Wendy Hughes, the talented Australian actress who, sadly, is best remembered today as Lt. Commander Nella Daren, one of Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s few love interests, on a 1993 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, as Jenny, a prostitute working a weekend train to Sydney, who is seduced by a man on the train, unaware that he plans on tricking her to kill someone for him. Colin Friels, another great Aussie actor who unfortunately is best known for playing the corrupt head of Strack Industries in Sam Raimi’s Darkman, plays the unnamed man who will do anything to get what he wants. Director Bob Ellis and his co-screenwriter Denny Lawrence came up with the idea for the film while they themselves were traveling on a weekend train to Sydney, with the idea that each client the call girl met on the train would represent some part of the Australian male. Funding the $2.5m film was really simple… provided they cast Hughes in the lead role. Ellis and Lawrence weren’t against Hughes as an actress. Any film would be lucky to have her in the lead. They just felt she she didn’t have the right kind of sex appeal for this specific character. Miramax would open the film in six theatres, including the Cineplex Beverly Center in Los Angeles and the Fashion Village 8 in Orlando, on March 31st. There were two versions of the movie prepared, one that ran 130 minutes and the other just 91. Miramax would go with the 91 minute version of the film for the American release, and most of the critics would note how clunky and confusing the fi
S5 E20 · Thu, August 24, 2023
Miramax Films - Part Four
We continue our miniseries on the 1980s movies distributed by Miramax Films, with a look at the films released in 1988. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it’s The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. On this episode, we finally continue with the next part of our look back at the 1980s movies distributed by Miramax Films, specifically looking at 1988. But before we get there, I must issue another mea culpa. In our episode on the 1987 movies from Miramax, I mentioned that a Kiefer Sutherland movie called Crazy Moon never played in another theatre after its disastrous one week Oscar qualifying run in Los Angeles in December 1987. I was wrong. While doing research on this episode, I found one New York City playdate for the film, in early February 1988. It grossed a very dismal $3200 at the 545 seat Festival Theatre during its first weekend, and would be gone after seven days. Sorry for the misinformation. 1988 would be a watershed year for the company, as one of the movies they acquired for distribution would change the course of documentary filmmaking as we knew it, and another would give a much beloved actor his first Academy Award nomination while giving the company its first Oscar win. But before we get to those two movies, there’s a whole bunch of others to talk about first. Of the twelve movies Miramax would release in 1988, only four were from America. The rest would be a from a mixture of mostly Anglo-Saxon countries like the UK, Canada, France and Sweden, although there would be one Spanish film in there. Their first release of the new year, Le Grand Chemin, told the story of a timid nine-year-old boy from Paris who spends one summer vacation in a small town in Brittany. His mother has lodged the boy with her friend and her friend’s husband while Mom has another baby. The boy makes friends with a slightly older girl next door, and learns about life from her. Richard Bohringer, who plays the friend’s husband, and Anémone, who plays the pregnant mother, both won Cesars, the French equivalent to the Oscars, in their respective lead categories, and the film would be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of 1987 by the National Board of Review. Miramax, who had picked up the film at Cannes several months earlier, waited until January 22nd, 1988, to release it in America, first at the Paris Theatre in midtown Manhattan, where it would gross a very impressive $41k in its first three days. In its second week, it would drop less than 25% of its opening weekend audience, bringing in another $31k. But shortly after that, the expected Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film did not come, and business on the film slowed to a trickle. But it kept chugg
S5 E19 · Sat, August 12, 2023
Rampage
On this week's episode, we remember William Friedkin, who passed away this past Tuesday, looking back at one of his lesser known directing efforts, Rampage. ----more---- From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it’s The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. Originally, this week was supposed to be the fourth episode of our continuing miniseries on the 1980s movies released by Miramax Films. I was fully committed to making it so, but then the world learned that Academy Award-winning filmmaker William Friedkin passed away on Tuesday. I had already done an episode on his best movie from the decade, 1985’s To Live and Die in L.A., so I decided I would cover another film Friedkin made in the 80s that isn’t as talked about or as well known as The French Connection or The Exorcist or To Live and Die in L.A. Rampage. Now, some of you who do know the film might try and point that the film was released in 1992, by Miramax Films of all companies, and you’d be correct. However, I did say I was going to cover another film of his MADE in the 80s, which is also true when it comes to Rampage. So let’s get to the story, shall we? Born in Chicago in 1935, William Friedkin was inspired to become a filmmaker after seeing Citizen Kane as a young man, and by 1962, he was already directing television movies. He’d make his feature directing debut with Good Times in 1967, a fluffy Sonny and Cher comedy which finds Sonny Bono having only ten days to rewrite the screenplay for their first movie, because the script to the movie they agreed to was an absolute stinker. Which, ironically, is a fairly good assessment of the final film. The film, which was essentially a bigger budget version of their weekly variety television series shot mostly on location at an African-themed amusement park in Northern California and the couple’s home in Encino, was not well received by either critics or audiences. But by the time Good Times came out, Friedkin was already working on his next movie, The Night They Raided Minsky’s. A comedy co-written by future television legend Norman Lear, Minsky’s featured Swedish actress Britt Ekland, better known at the time as the wife of Peter Sellers, as a naive young Amish woman who leaves the farm in Pennsylvania looking to become an actress in religious stage plays in New York City. Instead, she becomes a dancer in a burlesque show and essentially ends up inventing the strip tease. The all-star cast included Dr. No himself, Joseph Wiseman, Elliott Gould, Jack Burns, Bert Lahr, and Jason Robards, Jr., who was a late replacement for Alan Alda, who himself was a replacement for Tony Curtis. Friedkin was dreaming big for this movie, and was able to convince New York City mayor John V. Lindsay to delay the demolition of an entire period authentic block of 26t
S5 E18 · Fri, August 04, 2023
Miramax Films: Part Three
This week, we continue out look back at the films released by Miramax in the 1980s, focusing on 1987. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California. The Entertainment Capital of the World. It’s the 80s Movie Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. On this episode, we are continuing our miniseries on the movies released by Miramax Films in the 1980s, concentrating on their releases from 1987, the year Miramax would begin its climb towards the top of the independent distribution mountain. The first film Miramax would release in 1987 was Lizzie Borden’s Working Girls. And yes, Lizzie Borden is her birth name. Sort of. Her name was originally Linda Elizabeth Borden, and at the age of eleven, when she learned about the infamous accused double murderer, she told her parents she wanted to only be addressed as Lizzie. At the age of 18, after graduating high school and heading off to the private women’s liberal arts college Wellesley, she would legally change her name to Lizzie Borden. After graduating with a fine arts degree, Borden would move to New York City, where she held a variety of jobs, including being both a painter and an art critic for the influential Artforum magazine, until she attended a retrospective of Jean-Luc Godard movies, when she was inspired to become a filmmaker herself. Her first film, shot in 1974, was a documentary, Regrouping, about four female artists who were part of a collective that incorporated avant-garde techniques borrowed from performance art, as the collective slowly breaks apart. One of the four artists was a twenty-three year old painter who would later make film history herself as the first female director to win the Academy Award for Best Director, Kathryn Bigelow. But Regrouping didn’t get much attention when it was released in 1976, and it would take Borden five years to make her first dramatic narrative, Born in Flames, another movie which would also feature Ms. Bigelow in a supporting role. Borden would not only write, produce and direct this film about two different groups of feminists who operate pirate radio stations in New York City which ends with the bombing of the broadcast antenna atop the World Trade Center, she would also edit the film and act as one of the cinematographers. The film would become one of the first instances of Afrofuturism in film, and would become a cultural touchstone in 2016 when a restored print of the film screened around the world to great critical acclaim, and would tie for 243rd place in the 2022 Sight and Sound poll of The Greatest Films Ever Made. Other films that tied with include Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels, Woody Allen’s Annie Hall, David Cronenberg’s Videodrome, and Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. A Yes, it’s that good, and it would cost only $30k to produce. B
S5 E17 · Thu, July 27, 2023
Oklahoma Smugglers
On this episode, your intrepid host falls down a rabbit hole while doing research for one thing, and ends up discovering something "new" that must be investigated further, the 1987 action/comedy Oklahoma Smugglers. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it’s The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. You were probably expecting the third part of the Miramax Films in the 1980s series, and we will get to that one the next episode. But as often happens while I’m researching, I’ll fall down a rabbit hole that piques my interest, and this time, it was not only discovering a film I had never heard of, but it fits within a larger discussion about disappearing media. But before we get started, I need to send out a thank you to Matthew Martin, who contacted me via email after our previous episode. I had mentioned I couldn’t find any American playdates for the Brian Trenchard-Smith movie The Quest around the time of its supposed release date of May 1st, 1986. Matthew sent me an ad from the local Spokane newspaper The Spokesman-Review dated July 18th, 1986, which shows the movie playing on two screens in Spokane, including a drive-in where it shared a screen with “co-hit” Young Sherlock Holmes. With that help, I was also able to find The Quest playing on five screens in the Seattle/Tacoma area and two in Spokane on July 11th, where it grossed a not very impressive $14,200. In its second week in the region, it would drop down to just three screens, and the gross would fall to just $2800, before disappearing at the end of that second week. Thank you to Matthew for that find, which gave me an idea. On a lark, I tried searching for the movie again, this time using the director’s last name and any day in 1986, and ended up finding 35 playdates for The Quest in Los Angeles, matinees only on Saturday, October 25th and Sunday, October 26th, one to three shows each day on just those two days. Miramax did not report grosses. And this is probably the most anyone has talked about The Quest and its lack of American box office. And with that, we’re done with it. For now. On this episode, we’re going to talk about one of the many movies from the 1980s that has literally disappeared from the landscape. What I mean by that is that it was an independently made film that was given a Southern regional release in the South in 1987, has never been released on video since its sole VHS release in 1988, and isn’t available on any currently widely used video platform, physical or streaming. I’ll try to talk about this movie, Oklahoma Smugglers, as much as I can in a moment, but this problem of disappearing movies has been a problem for nearly a century. I highlight this as there has been a number of announcements recently about streaming-only shows and
S5 E16 · Fri, July 14, 2023
Miramax Films - Part Two
On this episode, we are continuing our miniseries on the movies released by Miramax Films in the 1980s, specifically looking at the films they released between 1984 and 1986. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California. The Entertainment Capital of the World. It’s the 80s Movie Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. On this episode, we are continuing our miniseries on the movies released by Miramax Films in the 1980s. And, in case you did not listen to Part 1 yet, let me reiterate that the focus here will be on the films and the creatives, not the Weinsteins. The Weinsteins did not have a hand in the production of any of the movies Miramax released in the 1980s, and that Miramax logo and the names associated with it should not stop anyone from enjoying some very well made movies because they now have an unfortunate association with two spineless chucklenuts who proclivities would not be known by the outside world for decades to come. Well, there is one movie this episode where we must talk about the Weinsteins as the creatives, but when talking about that film, “creatives” is a derisive pejorative. We ended our previous episode at the end of 1983. Miramax had one minor hit film in The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball, thanks in large part to the film’s association with members of the still beloved Monty Python comedy troupe, who hadn’t released any material since The Life of Brian in 1979. 1984 would be the start of year five of the company, and they were still in need of something to make their name. Being a truly independent film company in 1984 was not easy. There were fewer than 20,000 movie screens in the entire country back then, compared to nearly 40,000 today. National video store chains like Blockbuster did not exist, and the few cable channels that did exist played mostly Hollywood films. There was no social media for images and clips to go viral. For comparison’s sake, in A24’s first five years, from its founding in August 2012 to July 2017, the company would have a number of hit films, including The Bling Ring, The Lobster, Spring Breakers, and The Witch, release movies from some of indie cinema’s most respected names, including Andrea Arnold, Robert Eggers, Atom Egoyan, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Lynn Shelton, Trey Edward Shults, Gus Van Sant, and Denis Villeneuve, and released several Academy Award winning movies, including the Amy Winehouse documentary Amy, Alex Garland’s Ex Machina, Lenny Abrahamson’s Room and Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight, which would upset front runner La La Land for the Best Picture of 2016. But instead of leaning into the American independent cinema world the way Cinecom and Island were doing with the likes of Jonathan Demme and John Sayles, Miramax would dip their toes further into the world of international cinema. </
S5 E15 · Thu, June 22, 2023
Miramax Films - Part One
On this episode, we’re going to start a miniseries that I’ve been dreading doing, not because of the films this company produced and/or released during the 1980s, but because it means shining any kind of light on a serial sexual assaulter and his enabling brother. But one cannot do a show like this, talking about the movies of the 1980s, and completely ignore Miramax Films. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California. The Entertainment Capital of the World. It’s the 80s Movie Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens/ Thank you for listening today. On this episode, we’re going to start a miniseries that I’ve been dreading doing, not because of the films this company produced and/or released during the 1980s, but because it means shining any kind of light on a serial sexual assaulter and his enabling brother. But one cannot do a show like this, talking about the movies of the 1980s, and completely ignore Miramax Films. But I am not here to defend Harvey Weinstein. I am not here to make him look good. My focus for this series, however many they end up being, will focus on the films and the filmmakers. Because it’s important to note that the Weinsteins did not have a hand in the production of any of the movies Miramax released in the 1980s, and the two that they did have a hand in making, one a horror film, the other a comedy that would be the only film the Weinsteins would ever direct themselves, were distributed by companies other than Miramax. But before I do begin, I want to disclose my own personal history with the Weinsteins. As you may know, I was a movie theatre manager for Landmark Theatres in the mid 1990s, running their NuWilshire Theatre in Santa Monica. The theatre was acquired by Landmark from Mann Theatres in 1992, and quickly became a hot destination for arthouse films for those who didn’t want to deal with the hassle of trying to get to the Laemmle Monica 4 about a mile away, situated in a very busy area right off the beach, full of tourists who don’t know how to park properly and making a general nuisance of themselves to the locals. One of the first movies to play at the NuWilshire after Landmark acquired it was Quentin Tarantino’s debut film, Reservoir Dogs, which was released by Miramax in the fall of 1992. The NuWilshire quickly became a sort of lucky charm to Harvey Weinstein, which I would learn when I left the Cineplex Beverly Center in June 1993 to take over the NuWilshire from my friend Will, the great-grandson of William Fox, the founder of Fox Films, who was being promoted to district manager and personally recommended me to replace him. During my two plus years at the NuWilshire, I fielded a number of calls from Harvey Weinstein. Not his secretary. Not his marketing people. Harvey himself. Harvey took a great interest in the theatre, and regularly wanted feedback about how his films wer
S5 E14 · Thu, June 08, 2023
Plain Clothes
Our miniseries on the 1980s movies of director Martha Coolidge ends with a look back at her 1988 film Plain Clothes. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it’s The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. On this episode, we’re going to complete our miniseries on the 1980s films of director Martha Coolidge with her little seen 1988 movie Plain Clothes. When we last left Ms. Coolidge, she had just seen her 1985 film Real Genius get lost in the mix between a number of similarly themed movies, although it would eventually find its audience through home video and repeated cable airings throughout the rest of the decade. Shortly after the release of Real Genius, she would pick out her next project, a comedy mystery called Glory Days. Written by Dan Vining, Glory Days was one of a number of television and movie scripts floating around Hollywood that featured a supposedly young looking cop who goes undercover as a student at a high school. Whatever Coolidge saw in it, she would quickly get to work making it her own, hiring a young writer working at Paramount Studios named A. Scott Frank to help her rewrite the script. Coolidge had been impressed by one of his screenplays, a Neo-noir romantic mystery thriller called Dead Again, and felt Frank was the right person to help her add some extra mystery to the Glory Days screenplay. While Frank and Coolidge would keep some elements of the original Glory Days script, including having the undercover cop’s high school identity, Nick Springsteen, be a distant relative of the famous rock star from whose song the script had taken its title. But Coolidge would have Frank add a younger brother for the cop, and add a murdered teacher, who the younger brother is accused of killing, to give the film something extra to work towards. For the cast, Coolidge would go with a mix of newcomers in the main roles, with some industry veterans to fill out the supporting cast. When casting began in early 1987, Coolidge looked at dozens of actors for the lead role of Nick Dunbar, but she was particularly struck by thirty-two year old Arliss Howard, whose film work had been limited to supporting roles in two movies, but was expected to become a star once his role in Stanley Kubrick’s next project, Full Metal Jacket, opened later in the summer. Twenty-five year old Suzy Amis, a former model who, like Arlisss, had limited film work in supporting roles, would be cast as Robin, a teacher at the school who Nick develops a crush on while undercover. The supporting cast would include George Wendt from Cheers, Laura Dern’s mother Diane Ladd, an Oscar nominee for her role as Flo in Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, veteran character actor Seymour Cassel, an Oscar n
S5 E13 · Thu, May 18, 2023
Real Genius
On this episode, we continue our informal miniseries on the 1980s movies of director Martha Coolidge with a look back at her 1985 under appreciated classic, Real Genius. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it’s The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. Before we hop in to today’s episode, I want to thank every person listening, from whatever part of the planet you’re at. Over the nearly four years I’ve been doing this podcast, we’ve had listeners from 171 of the 197 countries, and occasionally it’s very surreal for this California kid who didn’t amount to much of anything growing to think there are people in Myanmar and the Ukraine and other countries dealing with war within their borders who still find time to listen to new episodes of a podcast about 33 plus year old mostly American movies when they’re released. I don’t take your listenership lightly, and I just want you to know that I truly appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, with that, I would like to welcome you all to Part Three of our informal miniseries on the 1980s movies of director Martha Coolidge. When we left Ms. Coolidge on our previous episode, her movie Joy of Sex had bombed, miserably. But, lucky for her, she had already been hired to work on Real Genius before Joy of Sex had been released. The script for Real Genius, co-written by Neal Israel and Pat Proft, the writers of Bachelor Party, had been floating around Hollywood for a few years. It would tell the story of a highly intelligent high school kid named Mitch who would be recruited to attend a prestigious CalTech-like college called Pacific Tech, where he would be teamed with another genius, Chris, to build a special laser with their professor, not knowing the laser is to be used as a weapon to take out enemy combatants from a drone-like plane 30,000 feet above the Earth. ABC Motion Pictures, a theatrical subsidy of the American television network geared towards creating movies that could be successful in theatres before playing on television, would acquire the screenplay in the early 1980s, but after the relative failure of a number of their initial projects, including National Lampoon’s Class Reunion and Young Doctors in Love, would sell the project off to Columbia Pictures, who would make the film one of the first slate of films to be produced by their sister company Tri-Star Pictures, a joint venture between Columbia, the cable network Home Box Office, and, ironically, the CBS television network, which was also created towards creating movies that could be successful in theatres before playing on television. Tri-Star would assign Brian Grazer, a television producer at Paramount who had segued to movies after meeting with Ron Howard during the actor’s last years on Happy Days, producing Howard’s 1982 film Night Shi
S5 E12 · Fri, May 05, 2023
Joy of Sex
This week, we continue with the Martha Coolidge lovefest with her one truly awful movie, Joy of Sex. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it’s The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. Last week, we talked about Martha Coolidge and her 1983 comedy Valley Girl, which celebrated the fortieth anniversary of its release this past Saturday. Today, we’re going to continue talking about Martha Coolidge’s 1980s movies with her follow up effort, Joy of Sex. And, as always, before we get to the main story, there’s some back story to the story we need to visit first. In 1972, British scientist Alex Comfort published the titillatingly titled The Joy of Sex. If you know the book, you know it’s just a bunch of artful drawings of a man and a woman performing various sexual acts, a “how to” manual for the curious and adventurous. Set up to mimic cooking books like Joy of Cooking, Joy of Sex covered the gamut of sexual acts, and would spend more than a year on the New York Times bestseller list, including three months at the top of the list. It wasn’t the kind of book anyone could possibly conceive a major Hollywood studio might ever be interested in making into a movie. And you’d be right. Sort of. When a producer named Tom Moore bought the movie rights to the book in 1975, for $100,000 and 20% of the film’s profit, Moore really only wanted the title, because he thought a movie called “Joy of Sex” would be a highly commercial prospect to the millions of people who had purchased the book over the years, especially since porn chic was still kind of “in” at the time. In 1976, Moore would team with Paramount Pictures to further develop the project. They would hire British comedian, actor and writer Dudley Moore to structure the movie as a series of short vignettes not unlike Woody Allen’s Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex But We’re Afraid to Ask. Moore was more interested in writing a single story, about someone not unlike himself in his early 40s coming to grips with being sexually hung up during the era of free love. Moore and the studio could not come to an agreement over the direction of the story, and Moore would, maybe not so ironically, sign on the play a character not unlike himself, in his early 40s, coming to grips with being sexually hung up during the era of free love, in Blake Edwards’ 10. Still wanting to pursue the idea of the movie as a series of short vignettes not unlike Woody Allen’s Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex But We’re Afraid to Ask, Paramount next approached the British comedy troupe Monty Python to work on it, since that’s basically what they did for 45 episodes of their BBC show between 1969 and 1974. But since they had just found success with their first movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, they decided to concentrate their e
S5 E11 · Thu, April 27, 2023
Valley Girl
This week, we take a look back at a movie celebrating the fortieth anniversary of its theatrical release this coming Saturday, a movie that made a star of its unconventional lead actor, and helped make its director one of a number of exciting female filmmakers to break through in the early part of the decade. The movie Martha Coolidge's 1983 comedy Valley Girl, starring Nicolas Cage and Deborah Foreman. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it’s The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. On this episode, we’re going to be looking back at a movie that will be celebrating the fortieth anniversary of its original theatrical release. A movie that would turn one of its leads into a star, and thrust its director into the mainstream, at least for a short time. We’re talking about the 1983 Martha Coolidge film Valley Girl, which is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its release this Saturday, with a special screening tonight, Thursday, April 27th 2023, at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood with its director, doing a Q&A session after the show. But, as always, before we get to Valley Girl, we head back in time. A whole eleven months, in fact. To May 1982. That month, the avant-garde musical genius known as Frank Zappa released his 35th album, Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch. Released on Zappa’s own Barking Pumpkin record label, Drowning Witch would feature a song he co-wrote with his fourteen year old daughter Moon Unit Zappa. Frank would regularly hear his daughter make fun of the young female mallrats she would encounter throughout her days, and one night, Frank would be noodling around in his home recording studio when inspiration struck. He would head up to Moon’s room, wake her up and bring her down to the studio, asking her to just repeat in that silly Valspeak voice she did all the crazy things she heard being said at parties, bar mitzvahs and the Sherman Oaks Galleria shopping center, which would become famous just a couple months later as the mall where many of the kids from Ridgemont High worked in Amy Heckerling’s breakthrough movie, Fast Times at Ridgemont High. For about an hour, Frank would record Moon spouting off typical valley girl phrases, before he sent her back up to her room to go back to sleep. In a couple days, Frank Zappa would bring his band, which at the time included guitar virtuoso Steve Vai in his first major musical gig, into the home studio to lay down the music to this weird little song he wrote around his daughter’s vocals. “Valley Girl” wold not be a celebration of the San Fernando Valley, an area Zappa described as “a most depressing place,” or the way these young ladies presented themselves. Zappa in general hated boring generic repetitive music, but “Valley
S5 E10 · Thu, April 20, 2023
Into the Night
On this episode, we do our first deep dive into the John Landis filmography, to talk about one of his lesser celebrated film, the 1985 Jeff Goldblum/Michelle Pfeiffer morbid comedy Into the Night. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it’s The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. Long time listeners to this show know that I am not the biggest fan of John Landis, the person. I’ve spoken about Landis, and especially about his irresponsibility and seeming callousness when it comes to the helicopter accident on the set of his segment for the 1983 film The Twilight Zone which took the lives of actors Vic Morrow, Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen, enough where I don’t wish to rehash it once again. But when one does a podcast that celebrates the movies of the 1980s, every once in a while, one is going to have to talk about John Landis and his movies. He did direct eight movies, one documentary and a segment in an anthology film during the decade, and several of them, both before and after the 1982 helicopter accident, are actually pretty good films. For this episode, we’re going to talk about one of his lesser known and celebrated films from the decade, despite its stacked cast. We’re talking about 1985’s Into the Night. But, as always, before we get to Into the Night, some backstory. John David Landis was born in Chicago in 1950, but his family moved to Los Angeles when he was four months old. While he grew up in the City of Angels, he still considers himself a Chicagoan, which is an important factoid to point out a little later in his life. After graduating from high school in 1968, Landis got his first job in the film industry the way many a young man and woman did in those days: through the mail room at a major studio, his being Twentieth Century-Fox. He wasn’t all that fond of the mail room. Even since he had seen The 7th Voyage of Sinbad at the age of eight, he knew he wanted to be a filmmaker, and you’re not going to become a filmmaker in the mail room. By chance, he would get a job as a production assistant on the Clint Eastwood/Telly Savalas World War II comedy/drama Kelly’s Heroes, despite the fact that the film would be shooting in Yugoslavia. During the shoot, he would become friendly with the film’s co-stars Don Rickles and Donald Sutherland. When the assistant director on the film got sick and had to go back to the United States, Landis positioned himself to be the logical, and readily available, replacement. Once Kelly’s Heroes finished shooting, Landis would spend his time working on other films that were shooting in Italy and the United Kingdom. It is said he was a stuntman on Sergio Leone’s The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, but I’m going to call shenanigans on that one, as the film was made
S5 E9 · Thu, April 06, 2023
Up the Academy
This week's episode takes a look back at the career of trailblazing independent filmmaker Robert Downey, father of Robert Downey, Jr., and his single foray into the world of Hollywood filmmaking, Mad Magazine Presents Up the Academy. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it’s The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. On this episode, we follow up on a movie based on a series of articles from a humor magazine that was trying to build their brand name by slapping their name on movies with a movie that was sponsored by a humor magazine trying to build their brand name by slapping their name on movies not unlike the other humor magazine had been doing but ended up removing their name from the movie, and boy is brain already fried and we’re not even a minute into the episode. We’re talking about Robert Downey’s 1980 comedy Up the Academy. But, as always, before we get to Up the Academy, let’s hit the backstory. If you know the name Robert Downey, it’s likely because you know his son. Robert Downey, Jr. You know, Iron Man. Yes, Robert Downey, Jr. is a repo baby. Maybe you’ve seen the documentary he made about his dad, Sr., that was released by Netflix last year. But it’s more than likely you’ve never heard of Robert Downey, Sr., who, ironically, was a junior himself like his son. Robert Downey was born Robert John Elias, Jr. in New York City in 1936, the son of a model and a manager of hotels and restaurants. His parents would divorce when he was young, and his mom would remarry while Robert was still in school. Robert Elias, Jr. would take the last name of his stepfather when he enlisted in the Army, in part because was wanted to get away from home but he was technically too young to actually join the Army. He would invent a whole new persona for himself, and he would, by his own estimate, spend the vast majority of his military career in the stockade, where he wrote his first novel, which still has never been published. After leaving the Army, Downey would spend some time playing semi-pro baseball, not quite good enough to go pro, spending his time away from the game writing plays he hoped to take, if not to Broadway, at least off-Broadway. But he would not make his mark in the arts until 1961, when Downey started to write and direct low-budget counterculture short films, starting with Ball’s Bluff, about a Civil War soldier who wakes up in New York City’s Central Park a century later. In 1969, he would write and direct a satirical film about the only black executive at a Madison Avenue advertising firm who is, through a strange circumstance, becomes the head of the firm when its chairman unexpectedly passes away. Featuring a cameo by Mel Brooks Putney Swope was the perfect anti-establishment f
S5 E8 · Thu, March 23, 2023
O.C and Stiggs
On this episode, we talk about the great American filmmaker Robert Altman, and what is arguably the worst movie of his six decade, thirty-five film career: his 1987 atrocity O.C. and Stiggs. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it’s The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. On this episode, we’re going to talk about one of the strangest movies to come out of the decade, not only for its material, but for who directed it. Robert Altman’s O.C. and Stiggs. As always, before we get to the O.C. and Stiggs, we will be going a little further back in time. Although he is not every cineaste’s cup of tea, it is generally acknowledged that Robert Altman was one of the best filmmakers to ever work in cinema. But he wasn’t an immediate success when he broke into the industry. Born in Kansas City in February 1925, Robert Altman would join the US Army Air Force after graduating high school, as many a young man would do in the days of World War II. He would train to be a pilot, and he would fly more than 50 missions during the war as part of the 307th Bomb Group, operating in the Pacific Theatre. They would help liberate prisoners of war held in Japanese POW Camps from Okinawa to Manila after the victory over Japan lead to the end of World War II in that part of the world. After the war, Altman would move to Los Angeles to break into the movies, and he would even succeed in selling a screenplay to RKO Pictures called Bodyguard, a film noir story shot in 1948 starring Lawrence Tierney and Priscilla Lane, but on the final film, he would only share a “Story by” credit with his then-writing partner, George W. George. But by 1950, he’d be back in Kansas City, where he would direct more than 65 industrial films over the course of three years, before heading back to Los Angeles with the experience he would need to take another shot. Altman would spend a few years directing episodes of a drama series called Pulse of the City on the DuMont television network and a syndicated police drama called The Sheriff of Cochise, but he wouldn’t get his first feature directing gig until 1957, when a businessman in Kansas City would hire the thirty-two year old to write and direct a movie locally. That film, The Delinquents, cost only $60k to make, and would be purchased for release by United Artists for $150k. The first film to star future Billy Jack writer/director/star Tom Laughlin, The Delinquents would gross more than a million dollars in theatres, a very good sum back in those days, but despite the success of the film, the only work Altman could get outside of television was co-directing The James Dean Story, a documentary set up at Warner Brothers to capitalize on the interest in the actor after dying in a car accident two years earlie
S5 E7 · Thu, March 09, 2023
Vestron Pictures - Part Three
This week, we finish our three part episode on the 1980s distribution company Vestron Pictures. ----more---- The movies discussed on this week's episode are: The Adventures of a Gnome Named Gnorm (1990, Stan Winston) Big Man on Campus (1989, Jeremy Paul Kagan) Dream a Little Dream (1989, Marc Rocco) Earth Girls Are Easy (1989, Julien Temple) Far From Home (1989, Meiert Avis) Paperhouse (1989, Bernard Rose) Parents (1989, Bob Balaban) The Rainbow (1989, Ken Russell) Wonderland (1989, Philip Saville) TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it’s The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. At the end of the previous episode, Vestron Pictures was starting to experience the turbulence a number of independent distributors faced when they had a successful film too soon out of the gate, and the direction of the company seemingly changes to go chasing more waterfalls instead of sticking to the rivers and the lakes they were used to. Welcome to Part Three of our miniseries. As we enter 1989, Vestron is seriously in trouble. More money has gone out then has come back in. It seems that they needed one more hit to keep going for a while longer. But if you were to look at their release schedule for the year, which included a pickup from the recently bankrupt DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group, there wasn’t really anything that felt like it could be a Dirty Dancing-like break out, except for maybe the pickup from the recently bankrupt DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group. But we’ll get there in a moment. Their first film from 1989 is a certifiable cult film if there ever was one, but the problem with this label is that the film tagged as so was not a success upon its initial theatrical release. Bob Balaban, the beloved character actor who had been regularly seen on screen since his memorable debut in Midnight Cowboy twenty years earlier, would make his directorial debut with the black comedy horror film Parents. Bryan Madorsky stars as Michael Laemle, a ten year old boy living in the California suburbs in the 1950s, who starts to suspect mom and dad, played by Mary Beth Hurt and Randy Quaid, might be cannibals. It’s a strange but fun little movie, and even Ken Russell would compare it favorably over David Lynch’s Blue Velvet during one contemporary interview, but sadly, it would take far more time for the film to find its audience than Vestron could afford. Opening in 94 theatres on January 27th, the $3m Parents could not overcome a series of negative reviews from critics, and it would only gross $278k in its first three days. Vestron would not strike any additional prints of the film, and would cycle the ones they did have around the country for several months, but after four months, the film coul
S5 E6 · Sat, March 04, 2023
Vestron Pictures - Part Two
We continue our look back at the movies released by independent distributor Vestron Pictures, focusing on their 1988 releases. ----more---- The movies discussed on this episode, all released by Vestron Pictures in 1988 unless otherwise noted, include: Amsterdamned (Dick Maas) And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim) The Beat (Paul Mones) Burning Secret (Andrew Birkin) Call Me (Sollace Mitchell) The Family (Ettore Scola) Gothic (Ken Russell, 1987) The Lair of the White Worm (Ken Russell) Midnight Crossing (Roger Holzberg) Paramedics (Stuart Margolin) The Pointsman (Jos Stelling) Salome's Last Dance (Ken Russell) Promised Land (Michael Hoffman) The Unholy (Camilo Vila) Waxwork (Anthony Hickox) TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it’s The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. At the end of the previous episode, Vestron Pictures was celebrating the best year of its two year history. Dirty Dancing had become one of the most beloved movies of the year, and Anna was becoming a major awards contender, thanks to a powerhouse performance by veteran actress Sally Kirkland. And at the 60th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the films of 1987, Dirty Dancing would win the Oscar for Best Original Song, while Anna would be nominated for Best Actress, and The Dead for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Costumes. Surely, things could only go up from there, right? Welcome to Part Two of our miniseries. But before we get started, I’m issuing a rare mea culpa. I need to add another Vestron movie which I completely missed on the previous episode, because it factors in to today’s episode. Which, of course, starts before our story begins. In the 1970s, there were very few filmmakers like the flamboyant Ken Russell. So unique a visual storyteller was Russell, it’s nigh impossible to accurately describe him in a verbal or textual manner. Those who have seen The Devils, Tommy or Altered States know just how special Russell was as a filmmaker. By the late 1980s, the hits had dried up, and Russell was in a different kind of artistic stage, wanting to make somewhat faithful adaptations of late 19th and early 20th century UK authors. Vestron was looking to work with some prestigious filmmakers, to help build their cache in the filmmaking community, and Russell saw the opportunity to hopefully find a new home with this new distributor not unlike the one he had with Warner Brothers in the early 70s that brought forth several of his strongest movies. In June 1986, Russell began production on a gothic horror film entitled, appropriately enough, Gothic, which depicted a fictionalized version of a real life meeting between Mary Godwin, Percy Shelley, John William Polidori and Claire Clairemon
S5 E5 · Mon, February 20, 2023
Vestron Pictures - Part One
The first of a two-part series on the short-lived 80s American distribution company responsible for Dirty Dancing. ----more---- The movies covered on this episode: Alpine (1987, Fredi M. Murer) Anna (1987, Yurek Bogayevicz) Billy Galvin (1986, John Grey) Blood Diner (1987, Jackie Kong) China Girl (1987, Abel Ferrera) The Dead (1987, John Huston) Dirty Dancing (1987, Emile Ardolino) Malcolm (1986, Nadia Tess) Personal Services (1987, Terry Jones) Slaughter High (1986, Mark Ezra and Peter Litten and George Dugdale) Steel Dawn (1987, Lance Hook) Street Trash (1987, Jim Muro) TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it’s The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. Have you ever thought “I should do this thing” but then you never get around to it, until something completely random happens that reminds you that you were going to do this thing a long time ago? For this week’s episode, that kick in the keister was a post on Twitter from someone I don’t follow being retweeted by the great film critic and essayist Walter Chaw, someone I do follow, that showed a Blu-ray cover of the 1987 Walter Hill film Extreme Prejudice. You see, Walter Chaw has recently released a book about the life and career of Walter Hill, and this other person was showing off their new purchase. That in and of itself wasn’t the kick in the butt. That was the logo of the disc’s distributor. Vestron Video. A company that went out of business more than thirty years before, that unbeknownst to me had been resurrected by the current owner of the trademark, Lionsgate Films, as a specialty label for a certain kind of film like Ken Russell’s Gothic, Beyond Re-Animator, CHUD 2, and, for some reason, Walter Hill’s Neo-Western featuring Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe and Rip Torn. For those of you from the 80s, you remember at least one of Vestron Pictures’ movies. I guarantee it. But before we get there, we, as always, must go back a little further back in time. The year is 1981. Time Magazine is amongst the most popular magazines in the world, while their sister publication, Life, was renowned for their stunning photographs printed on glossy color paper of a larger size than most magazines. In the late 1970s, Time-Life added a video production and distribution company to ever-growing media empire that also included television stations, cable channels, book clubs, and compilation record box sets. But Time Life Home Video didn’t quite take off the way the company had expected, and they decided to concentrate its lucrative cable businesses like HBO. The company would move Austin Furst, an executive from HBO, over to dismantle the assets of Time-Life Films. And while Furst would sell off the production and distrib
S5 E4 · Thu, February 09, 2023
The Marvel Cinematic Universe of the 1980s
This week, we talk about the 1980s Marvel Cinematic Universe that could have been, and eventually was. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it’s The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the undisputed king of intellectual property in the entertainment industry. As of February 9th, 2023, the day I record this episode, there have been thirty full length motion pictures part of the MCU in the past fifteen years, with a combined global ticket sales of $28 billion, as well as twenty television shows that have been seen by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. It is a entertainment juggernaut that does not appear to be going away anytime soon. This comes as a total shock to many of us who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, who were witness of cheaply produced television shows featuring hokey special effects and a roster of has-beens and never weres in the cast. Superman was the king of superheroes at the movies, in large part because, believe it or not, there hadn’t even been a movie based on a Marvel Comics character released into theatres until the summer of 1986. But not for lack of trying. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today. A brief history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the 1980s. But first, as always, some backstory. Now, I am not approaching this as a comic fan. When I was growing up in the 80s, I collected comics, but my collection was limited to Marvel’s Star Wars series, Marvel’s ROM The SpaceKnight, and Marvel’s two-issue Blade Runner comic adaptation in 1982. So I apologize to Marvel comics fans if I relay some of this information incorrectly. I have tried to do my due diligence when it comes to my research. Marvel Comics got its start as Timely Comics back in 1939. On August 31, 1939, Timely would release its first comic, titled Marvel Comics, which would feature a number of short stories featuring versions of characters that would become long-running staples of the eventual publishing house that would bear the comic’s name, including The Angel, a version of The Human Torch who was actually an android hero, and Namor the Submariner, who was originally created for a unpublished comic that was supposed to be given to kids when they attended their local movie theatre during a Saturday matinee. That comic issue would quickly sell out its initial 80,000 print run, as well as its second run, which would put another 800,000 copies out to the marketplace. The Vision would be another character introduced on the pages of Marvel Comics, in November 1940. In December 1940, Timely would introduce their next big character, Captain America, who would find instant success thanks to its front cover depicting Cap punching Adolph Hitler squ
S5 E3 · Fri, January 27, 2023
The Abyss
On this, our 100th episode, we eschew any silly self-congratulatory show to get right into one of James Cameron's most under appreciated films, his 1989 anti-nuke allegory The Abyss. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it’s The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. We're finally here. Episode 100. In the word of the immortal Owen Wilson, wow. But rather than throw myself a celebratory show basking in my own modesty, we’re just going to get right into another episode. And this week’s featured film is one of my favorites of the decade. A film that should have been a hit, that still informs the work of its director more than thirty years later. But, as always, a little backstory. As I quite regularly say on this show, I often do not know what I’m going to be talking about on the next episode as I put the finishing touches on the last one. And once again, this was the case when I completed the show last week, on Escape to Victory, although for a change, I finished the episode a day earlier than I usually do, so that would give me more time to think about what would be next. Thursday, Friday, Saturday. All gone. Still have no clue what I’m going to write about. Sunday arrives, and my wife and I decide to go see Avatar: The Way of Water in 3D at our local IMAX theatre. I was hesitant to see the film, because the first one literally broke my brain in 2009, and I’m still not 100% sure I fully recovered. It didn’t break my brain because it was some kind of staggering work of heartbreaking genius, but because the friend who thought he was being kind by buying me a ticket to see it at a different local IMAX theatre misread the seating chart for the theatre and got me a ticket in the very front row of the theatre. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a movie in IMAX 3D, but that first row is not the most advantageous place to watch an IMAX movie in 3D. But because the theatre was otherwise sold out, I sat there, watching Avatar in 3D from the worst possible seat in the house, and I could not think straight for a week. I actually called off work for a few days, which was easy to do considering I was the boss at my theatre, but I have definitely seen a cognitive decline since I saw Avatar in IMAX 3D in the worst possible conditions. I’ve never felt the need to see it again, and I was fine not seeing the new one. But my wife wanted to see it, and we had discount tickets to the theatre, so off we went. Thankfully, this time, I chose the seats for myself, and got us some very good seats in a not very crowded theatre, nearly in the spot that would be the ideal viewing position for that specific theatre. And I actually enjoyed the movie. There are very few filmmakers who c
S5 E2 · Fri, January 20, 2023
Escape to Victory
For our second episode of 2023, we look back, as we did with Neil Diamond's only starring role last week, at the one and only acting role the late, great football star Pelé would ever make: Escape to Victory, a football-themed World War II drama that would also feature Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone and Max von Sydow. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it’s The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. On December 29th, while this show was on hiatus, the football world lost Edson Arantes de Nascimento, the legend known around the world by his single word nickname, Pelé. Even if you weren’t a particular fan of football in the 1960s and 1970s, you more than likely knew who Pelé was. The International Olympic Committee named him the Athlete of the Century in 1999. Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most important people of the Twentieth Century. In the Brazilian city of Santos, where a fifteen year old Pelé got his professional start in 1956, a museum dedicated to all things Pelé opened in 2014, with more than 2400 items devoted to his life and careers. After he retired from football in 1977, in an exhibition game between the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League, where Pelé had been playing for three years, and Santos, his former club of nineteen years, Pelé would become a global ambassador for the sport, and record an album of music alongside fellow Brazilian Sergio Mendes to accompany a documentary about his life. And because this is a podcast about 80s movies, he would, of course, attempt a career in motion pictures. And those who were going to be responsible for making Pelé a movie star were not going to take any chances. Because Pelé was the most famous footballer on the planet, the movie was going to somehow be about football. American film producer Freddie Fields and his partner on the film, future Carolco Films co-owner Mario Kassar, would find their story for Escape to Victory in a Hungarian movie from 1961 called Two Halves in Hell. The film was based on a tale of a 1942 football match between German soldiers and their Ukrainian prisoners of war during World War II, known as the Death Match. That film, directed by Zoltán Fábri, would win several awards at film festivals worldwide, and was ripe for the American remake treatment. However, there would need to be some changes to the story. The action would be moved from Soviet Russia to France, and the character being built for Pelé, Corporal Luis Fernandez, would be identified as being from Trinidad, as Brazil would not enter the European theatre of war until July of 1944. While the script was being written, Fields and Kassar would get busy putting the film together. In July 1979, it was announced
S5 E1 · Thu, January 12, 2023
The Jazz Singer
Welcome to our first episode of the new year, which is also our first episode of Season 5. Thank you for continuing to join us on this amazing journey. On today's episode, we head back to Christmas of 1980, when pop music superstar Neil Diamond would be making his feature acting debut in a new version of The Jazz Singer. ----more---- EPISODE TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the entertainment capital of the world, this is The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. It’s 2023, which means we are starting our fifth season. And for our first episode of this new season, we’re going back to the end of 1980, to take a look back at what was supposed to be the launch of a new phase in the career of one of music’s biggest stars. That musical star was Neil Diamond, and this would end up becoming his one and only attempt to act in a motion picture. We’re talking about The Jazz Singer. As I have said time and time again, I don’t really have a plan for this show. I talk about the movies and subjects I talk about often on a whim. I’ll hear about something and I’ll be reminded of something, and a few days later, I’ve got an episode researched, written, recorded, edited and out there in the world. As I was working on the previous episode, about The War of the Roses just before my trip to Thailand, I saw a video of Neil Diamond singing Sweet Caroline on opening night of A Beautiful Noise, a new Broadway musical about the life and music of Mr. Diamond. I hadn’t noticed Diamond had stopped performing live five years earlier due to a diagnosis of Parkinson’s, and it was very touching to watch a thousand people joyously singing along with the man. But as I was watching that video, I was reminded of The Jazz Singer, a movie we previously covered very lightly three years ago as part of our episode on the distribution company Associated Film Distribution. I was reminded that I haven’t seen the movie in over forty years, even though I remember rather enjoying it when it opened in theatres in December 1980. I think I saw it four or five times over the course of a month, and I even went out and bought the soundtrack album, which I easily listened to a hundred times before the start of summer. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves yet again. The Jazz Singer began its life in 1917, when Samson Raphaelson, a twenty-three year old undergraduate at the University of Illinois, attended a performance of Robinson Crusoe, Jr., in Champaign, IL. The star of that show was thirty-year-old Al Jolson, a Russian-born Jew who had been a popular performer on Broadway stages for fifteen years by this point, regularly performing in blackface. After graduation, Raphaelson would become an advertising executive in New York City, but on the side, he would write stories. One short story, called “The Da
S4 E30 · Tue, December 13, 2022
The War of the Roses
On this actual final episode of 2022, we take a look back at our favorite Christmas movie of the decade, Danny DeVito's 1989 film The War of the Roses. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT Hello, and welcome to The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. Before we get started, yes, I said our previous episode, on Michael Jackson’s Thriller, was going to be our last episode of 2022. When I wrote that, and when I said that, I meant it. But then, after publishing that episode, I got to thinking about Christmas, and some of my favorite Christmas movies, and it reminded me I have considering doing an episode about my favorite Christmas movie from the 1980s, and decided to make myself an unintentional liar by coming back one more time. So, for the final time in 2022, this time for real, I present this new episode of The 80s Movie Podcast. This time, we’ll be talking about Danny DeVito’s best film as a director, The War of the Roses. The genesis of War of the Roses was a novel by American author and playwright Warren Adler. After graduating from NYU with a degree in English literature, in a class that included Mario Puzo, the author of The Godfather, and William Styron, who won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel The Confessions of Nat Turner, Adler paved an interesting road before becoming a novelist. He worked as a journalist at the New York Daily News, before becoming the editor of the Queens Post, an independent weekly newspaper devoted to all things happening in that New York City borough. He would buy four radio stations and a television station in New York City, before opening his own advertising and public relations firm in Washington D.C. Adler would create ads for politicians, businesses and communities all across the nation. In fact, it was Warren Adler who would create the name of the DC complex whose name is now synonymous with high crimes: Watergate. In 1974, he would sell the firm, and the stations, after the publication of his first novel, Undertow. The War of the Roses would be Adler’s seventh novel to be published in as many years, and the first of four to be published in 1981 alone. The novel follows Jonathan and Barbara Rose, who, initially, seem to be the perfect couple. He has a thriving career as a lawyer, she is an up-an-coming entrepreneur with an exceptional pâté recipe. Their extravagant home holds a collection of antiquities purchased over the years, and they enjoy their life with their children Evie and Josh. One day, Jonathan suffers what seems to be a heart attack, to which Barbara responds by asking for a divorce. Very quickly, their mutual love turns to a destructive hatred, especially after Jonathan, trying to save his marriage despite his wife’s de facto declaration of lost love for her husband, decides to invoke an old state law that allows a husba
S4 E29 · Wed, November 30, 2022
Thriller
On our final episode of 2022, we look back at the music video/mini-movie for Michael Jackson's Thriller, on the fortieth anniversary on the release of the album which bore its name. ----more---- Transcript: Hello, and welcome to The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. If you’re listening to this episode as I release it, on November 30th, 2022, today is the fortieth anniversary of the release of the biggest album ever released, Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Over the course of those forty years, it has sold more than seventy million copies. It won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards. A performance of one of its signature songs, Billie Jean, for a televised concert celebrating the 25th anniversary of Motown Records would introduce The Moonwalk to an astonished audience, first in the auditorium and then on TV screens around the world. The album was so big, even MTV couldn’t ignore it. Michael Jackson would become the first black artist to be put into regular rotation on the two year old cable channel. So what does all this have to do with movies, you ask. That’s a good question. Because out of this album came one of the most iconic moments in the entertainment industry. Not just for MTV or the music industry, but for the emerging home video industry that needed that one thing to become mainstream. The music video for the album’s title song, Thriller. Thriller was the sixth solo album by Michael Jackson, even though he was still a member of The Jacksons band alongside his brothers Jackie, Jermaine, Marlon, Randy and Tito. Although The Jacksons were still selling millions of albums with each release, Michael’s 1979 solo album Off the Wall made him a solo star, selling more than ten million copies worldwide in its first year of release, almost as much as all of the previous Jacksons albums combined. After the completion of The Jackson’s 1980 album Triumph, Jackson would re-team with his Off the Wall producer, the legendary Quincy Jones, to try and craft a new album that would blow Off the Wall out of the water. Jackson wanted every song on the album to be a killer. Every song a hit. Over the course of 1981 and 1982, Jackson and Jones would work on no less than thirty songs that could be included on the final album, and assembled some of the biggest names in the music industry to play on it, including David Foster, James Ingram, Paul McCartney, Rob Temperton, Eddie Van Halen, and the members of the band Toto, who were having a great 1982 already with the release of their fourth album, which featured such seminal hits at Africa and Rosanna. Recording on the album would begin in April 1982 with the Jackson-penned The Girl is Mine, a duet with Paul McCartney that Jackson hoped would become even bigger than Ebony and Ivory, the former Beatle’s duet with Stevie Wonder which had been released a few weeks earlier and was be the number
S4 E28 · Mon, November 28, 2022
Less Than Zero
This episode looks at the 1984 debut novel by Bret Easton Ellis, and its 1987 film adaptation. ----more---- Hello, and welcome to The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. On this episode, we’re going to talk about 80s author Bret Easton Ellis and his 1985 novel Less Than Zero, the literal polar opposite of last week’s subjects, Jay McInerney and his 1984 novel Bright Lights, Big City. As I mentioned last week, McInerney was twenty-nine when he published Bright Lights, Big City. What I forgot to mention was that he was born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut, halfway between Boston and New York City, and he would a part of that elite East Coast community that befits the upper class child of a corporate executive. Bret Easton Ellis was born and raised in Los Angeles. His father was a property developer, and his parents would divorce when he was 18. He would attend high school at The Buckley School, a college prep school in nearby Sherman Oaks, whose other famous alumni include a who’s who of modern pop culture history, including Paul Thomas Anderson, Tucker Carlson, Laura Dern, Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Alyssa Milano, Matthew Perry, and Nicole Richie. So they both grew up fairly well off. And they both would attend tony colleges in New England. Ellis would attend Bennington College in Vermont, a private liberal arts college whose alumni include fellow writers Jonathan Lethem and Donna Tartt, who would both graduate from Bennington the same year as Ellis, 1986. While still attending The Buckley School, the then sixteen year old Ellis would start writing the book he would call Less Than Zero, after the Elvis Costello song. The story would follow a protagonist not unlike Bret Easton Ellis and his adventures through a high school not unlike Buckley. Unlike the final product, Ellis’s first draft of Less Than Zero wore its heart on its sleeve, and was written in the third person. Ellis would do a couple of rewrites of the novel during his final years at Buckley and his first years at Bennington, until his creative writing professor, true crime novelist Joe McGinness, suggested to the young writer that he revert his story back to the first person, which Ellis was at first hesitant to do. But once he did start to rewrite the story as a traditional novel, everything seemed to click. Ellis would have his book finished by the end of the year, and McGinniss was so impressed with the final product that he would submit it to his own agent to send out to publishers. Bret Easton Ellis was only a second year student at the time. And because timing is everything in life, Less Than Zero was being submitted to publishers just as Bright Lights, Big City was tearing up the best seller charts, and the publisher Simon and Schuster would purchase the rights to the book for $5,000. When the book was published in June 1985, Ellis just finished h
S4 E27 · Fri, November 18, 2022
Bright Lights, Big City
On this episode, we travel back to 1984, and the days when a "young adult" novel included lots of drugs and partying and absolutely no sparkly vampires or dystopian warrior girls. We're talking about Jay McInerney's groundbreaking novel, Bright Lights, Big City, and its 1988 film version starring Michael J. Fox and Keifer Sutherland. ----more---- Hello, and welcome to The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. The original 1984 front cover for Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City If you were a young adult in the late 1980s, there’s a very good chance that you started reading more adult-y books thanks to an imprint called Vintage Contemporaries. Quality books at an affordable paperback price point, with their uniform and intrinsically 80s designed covers, bold cover and spine fonts, and mix of first-time writers and cult authors who never quite broke through to the mainstream, the Vintage Contemporary series would be an immediate hit when it was first launched in September 1984. The first set of releases would include such novels as Raymond Carver’s Cathedral and Thomas McGuane’s The Bushwhacked Piano, but the one that would set the bar for the entire series was the first novel by a twenty-nine year old former fact checker at the New Yorker magazine. The writer was Jay McInerney, and his novel was Bright Lights, Big City. The original 1984 front cover for Raymond Carver's Cathedral Bright Lights, Big City would set a template for twenty something writers in the 1980s. A protagonist not unlike the writer themselves, with a not-so-secret drug addiction, and often written in the second person, You, which was not a usual literary choice at the time. The nameless protagonist, You, is a divorced twenty-four year old wannabe writer who works as fact-checker at a major upscale magazine in New York City, for which he once dreamed of writing for. You is recently divorced from Amanda, an aspiring model he had met while going to school in Kansas City. You would move to New York City earlier in the year with her when her modeling career was starting to talk off. While in Paris for Fashion Week, Amanda called You to inform him their marriage was over, and that she was leaving him for another man. You continues to hope Amanda will return to him, and when it’s clear she won’t, he not only becomes obsessed with everything about her that left in their apartment, he begins to slide into reckless abandon at the clubs they used to frequent, and becoming heavily addicted to cocaine, which then affects his performance at work. A chance encounter with Amanda at an event in the city leads You to a public humiliation, which makes him starts to realize that his behavior is not because his wife left him, but a manifestation of the grief he still feel
S4 E26 · Thu, November 10, 2022
Round Midnight
Today's show takes a look at the classic 1986 French drama about jazz, Bertrand Tavernier's Round Midnight.
S4 E25 · Fri, November 04, 2022
Positive I.D.
This episode, we cover a movie from 1987 which was distributed by a major studio in 1987 but is all but unknown today, Andy Anderson's Positive I.D.
S4 E24 · Wed, November 02, 2022
Generation Gap: The A Nightmare on Elm Street series
Your humble host and podcasting guru Jeff Townsend talk about the Nightmare on Elm Street series from their different generational points of view. ----more---- On this episode, we are going to complete our miniseries on the Nightmare on Elm Street series with a discussion between myself and Jeff Townsend, the Podcast Father , about the movies. I know how most people of my generation, Gen X, feel about these movies. I was there to see it firsthand, first as a film goer, then as a theatre manager. What I wanted to get was an opinion from the generation after mine, and Jeff fits that bill. He wouldn’t be born until after the third movie in the series, The Dream Warriors, was released into theatres, placing him squarely in the Millennial generation.
S4 E23 · Mon, October 31, 2022
A Brief History of the Nightmare on Elm Street series
As required by Section 107-14-8 of the Podcast Code, every movie podcast must do a horror-themed show during the month of October. We thus fulfill our requirement by offering this first part of a two-part series on the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. ----more---- The films discussed on this episode include: Deadly Blessing (Wes Craven, 1981) Freddy vs. Jason (2003, Ronny Yu) Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991, Rachel Talalay) The Hills Have Eyes (Wes Craven, 1977) The Last House on the Left (Wes Craven, 1972) A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven, 1984) A Nightmare on Elm Street (Samuel Bayer, 2010) A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (Jack Sholder, 1985) A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors (Chuck Russell, 1987) A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (Renny Harlin, 1988) A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (Stephen Hopkins, 1989) Wes Craven's New Nightmare (Wes Craven, 1994)
S4 E22 · Wed, October 26, 2022
Amos Poe Is Our Friend and Needs Our Help
On this episode, we talk about one of the most influential yet lesser known figures of the 1970s and 1980s independent cinema movement, and how he needs our help today. Please allow me to introduce you to Amos Poe, and explain to you why he needs our help today. If you feel like helping Amos Poe after you listen to the episode, you can make a donation through the GoFundMe page set up by his friends.
S4 E21 · Fri, October 21, 2022
Prince of Darkness
This week, we look back at one of John Carpenter's lesser appreciated works, which was released 35 years ago this week.
S4 E20 · Thu, October 13, 2022
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
On this episode, we dive into the deep end of the 8th Dimension to talk about how one of the best movies of the 1980s was able to escape from the minds of writer Earl Mac Rauch and director W.D. Richter and into our consciousness, 1984's The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.
S4 E19 · Thu, September 29, 2022
Walker
We complete our miniseries on the 1980s movies of Alex Cox by looking at his most controversial film.
S4 E18 · Thu, September 22, 2022
Straight to Hell
On this episode, we continue a look back at the 80s movie of iconoclastic British filmmaker Alex Cox with his wacky 1987 movie Straight to Hell.
S4 E17 · Fri, September 16, 2022
Sid and Nancy
On this episode, your humble host talks about one of his favorite movies of the decade, and apologizes for a chance in plans.
S4 E16 · Wed, August 31, 2022
Silent Night, Deadly Night: Part 2
On this episode, we reflect on the recent unfortunate late summer release of an Easter-themed movie by looking back to the 1987 unfortunate late spring release of a Christmas-themed horror movie, Silent Night, Deadly Night: Part 2.
S4 E15 · Sat, July 16, 2022
The Cineplex Beverly Center
On this episode, we take a look back not at the career of an actor or director, nor about a specific movie or a distributor, but at a movie theatre that opened forty years ago today, that would change the course of the theatrical exhibition industry forever: The Cineplex Beverly Center. ----more---- The Beverly Center and its flagship movie theatre, the first theatre in America to have a double-digit number of screens under one roof, opened on July 16th, 1982, and the theatre would quickly become one of the busiest movie theatres in the country, and whose success would help drive an astounding wave of new builds and acquisitions that would take Cineplex from a single theatre complex in Toronto to the biggest exhibitor in North America in less than ten years. In addition to the host's personal recollections of working at the theatre in the 1990s, the 2000s and the 2010s, we also talk to film historian, author and UCSB professor Ross Melnick about the impact the theatre had on the entire film industry.
S4 E14 · Mon, July 11, 2022
Ross Melnick
On this episode, we speak with film historian, author and UCSB professor Ross Melnick about his new book, his 80s cinema class, and five films from the decade he thinks you should watch again. ----more---- Ross Melnick was also named as a 2017 Academy Film Scholar, one of only two film scholars who were bestowed this honor by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. His new book, Hollywood Embassies: How Movie Theatres Projected American Power Around the World, has just been released by Columbia University Press, and it has been a great honor to have him guest on the show. The movies we discussed on this episode include: A Better Tomorrow (1986, John Woo) Cruising (1980, William Freidkin) El Norte (1983, Gregory Nava) Escape from Liberty Cinema (1990, Wojciech Marczewski) Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986, John Hughes) Moscow on the Hudson (1984, Paul Mazursky) Radio Days (1987, Woody Allen) Reds (1981, Warren Beatty) Soul Man (1986, Steve Miner)* To Live and Die in L.A. (1985, William Freidkin) *Although discussed during the episode, neither Mr. Havens nor Mr. Melnick condones the viewing of Soul Man.
Trailer · Mon, June 20, 2022
The 80s Movie Podcast Trailer
From distributors barely remembered and films long forgotten, to the biggest actors and filmmakers of the decade, The 80s Movies Podcast is your ticket to the movies.
S4 E13 · Mon, June 20, 2022
The Assassination Game
On this episode, your host, film historian Edward A. Havens III, delves deep into the 80s film vault to visit one of the movies from the 1980s he had known about for forty years but had never gotten around to seeing: Nick Castle's 1982 directorial debut, The Assassination Game. ----more---- Castle would go on to a career that included writing and/or directing such films as The Boy Who Could Fly, Dennis the Menace, Hook, and The Last Stafighter, but his first stop as a writer and director would be on this lower-budgeted comedy which would be the first major film for such actors as Bruce Abbott, Linda Hamilton, Michael Winslow, and future Oscar winner Forest Whitaker. Distributed by New World Pictures in 1982, the film would be known by several monikers over its lifetime, including The Assassination Game, TAG, TAG: The Assassination Game, Kiss Me Kill Me, and Everybody Gets It In the End. The opening day Los Angeles Times quarter-page ad for TAG, April 23rd, 1982 The one-sheet for the renamed TAG: The Assassination Game The one-sheet for the renamed Everybody Gets It In the End! The one-sheet for the renamed Kiss Me, Kill Me
S4 E12 · Sun, June 12, 2022
Young Einstein
On this episode, we discuss one of the biggest hit films ever in Australian cinema, that was pretty much ignored in the rest of the world, Yahoo Serious' Young Einstein. ----more---- Yes, you read that right. Yahoo Serious was the name of the director of Young Einstein. And its main star. And it's co-writer, co-producer, supervising editor, and he even wrote and sang a song or two on the soundtrack. A true modern renaissance man. We also have a brief history of Australian cinema, the 1970s New Wave of filmmakers like Gillian Anderson, Bruce Beresford, George Miller and Peter Weir who would put Australia on the global cinematic map once and for all, and a scrappy art school student would make, and then remake, himself and his debut movie.
S4 E11 · Sun, June 05, 2022
Happy Together
On this episode, film historian and host Edward A. Havens III briefly talks about one of the quintessential 80s movies, that didn't actually come out until May 1990. Mel Damski's Happy Together. ----more---- We talk about the creation of the movie, its two lead stars (Patrick Dempsey and Helen Slater), and the one supporting actor who would go on to become one of Hollywood's most successful actors for the next thirty years. Patrick Dempsey in a scene from Happy Together Dan Schneider in a scene from Happy Together
S4 E10 · Mon, May 23, 2022
A Brief History of the First Blood Movies
On this episode, we take a look back at the history of the First Blood movies. ----more---- From its beginnings as an idea by Penn State English student David Morrell in 1968 to its publication as a novel in 1972, First Blood would spend nearly a decade in development in hell, attracting filmmakers like Richard Brooks (The Blackboard Jungle, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Elmer Gantry, In Cold Blood), John Frankenheimer (The Birdman of Alcatraz, Black Sunday, The Manchurian Candidate), Sydney Pollack (They Shoot Horses Don't They?, Three Days of the Condor, The Way We Were), and Martin Ritt (Hud, The Long Hot Summer), before it would finally go into production in Canada in 1981. The films discussed in this episode, in order of release: First Blood (1982, Ted Kotcheff) Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985, George P. Cosmatos) Rambo III (1988, Peter MacDonald) Rambo (2008, Sylvester Stallone) Rambo: Last Blood (2019, Adrian Grünberg)
S4 E9 · Mon, May 09, 2022
This Podcast is Rated PG-13
On this episode of The 80s Movie Podcast, we work our way through the history of American movie censorship, the creation of the MPAA rating system, what lead to the creation of the PG-13 rating in 1984, and examine how little has changed in the battle for morality in entertainment has changed in the past 100 years. ----more---- Movies discussed during this episode include: The Flamingo Kid (1984, Garry Marshall) Gremlins (1984, Joe Dante) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984, Steven Spielberg) The Man with the Golden Arm (Otto Preminger, 1955) The Moon is Blue (Otto Preminger, 1953) The Outlaw (Howard Hughes, 1943) The Pawnbroker (Sidley Lumet, 1964) Red Dawn (1984, John Milius) Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966, Mike Nichols)
S4 E8 · Wed, April 27, 2022
American Cinema Releasing
This episode, we take a look back at the short-lived production and distribution company American Cinema Releasing, pioneers of two ways of finding financing for independent films and releasing them into theatres, and the company responsible for making Chuck Norris a star. ----more---- Movies discussed on this episode include: Beatlemania (1981, Joseph Manduke) Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (1981, Clive Donner) Cheaper to Keep Her (1981, Ken Annakin) Dirt (1979, Eric Karson) The Entity (1983, Sidney J. Furie) Fade to Black (1980, Vernon Zimmerman) A Force of One (1979, Paul Aaron) Force: Five (1981, Robert Clouse) Good Guys Wear Black (1978, Ted Post) High Risk (1981, Stewart Raffill) I, the Jury (1982, Richard T. Heffron) The Late, Great Planet Earth (1978, Robert Amram and Rolf Forsberg) The Octagon (1980, Eric Karson) Silent Scream (1979, Denny Harris) Tough Enough (1983, Richard Fleischer)
S4 E7 · Mon, April 11, 2022
The 3-D Movie Craze of the 1980s
On this episode, we discuss the history of 3-D movies, and take a look at the ones that were made and released during the 1980s. ----more---- The titles discussed during this episode include: Amityville 3 (1983, Richard Fleischer) Bwana Devil (1952, Arch Oboler) Chain Gang (1984, Worth Keeter) Comin' At Ya! (1981, Fernandino Baldi) Dial M for Murder (1954, Alfred Hitchcock) Friday the 13th Part III (1982, Steve Miner) Hit the Road Running (1987, Worth Keeter) Hot Heir (1984, Worth Keeter) House of Wax (1953, Andre DeToth) Hyperspace [AKA Gremloids] (1984, Todd Durham) Jaws 3 (1983, Joe Alves) The Man from M.A.R.S. (1922, Roy William Neill) The Man Who Wasn't There (1983, Bruce Malmuth) Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn (1983, Charles Band) Parasite (1982, Charles Band) The Power of Love (1922, Harry K. Fairall) Rottweiler [AKA The Dogs of Hell] (1983, Worth Keeter) Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983, Lamont Johnson) Starchaser: The Legend of Orin (1985, Steven Hahn) Tales from the Third Dimension (1984, Todd Durham, Worth Keeter, Thom McIntyre, Earl Owensby) The Treasure of the Four Crowns (1983, Fernandino Baldi)
S4 E6 · Mon, March 14, 2022
Baseball Movies of the 1980s
In time for the start of the baseball season, we talk about the numerous baseball movies that were made for movie and television screens during the 1980s. ----more---- Movies discussed during this episode include: Amazing Grace and Chuck (1987, Mike Newell) Blue Skies Again (1983, Richard Michaels) Brewster's Millions (1985, Walter Hill) Bull Durham (1988, Ron Shelton) The Comeback Kid (1980, Peter Levin) Don't Look Back: The Story of Leroy 'Satchel' Paige (1981, Richard A. Colla) Eight Men Out (1988, John Sayles) Field of Dreams (1989, Phil Alden Robinson) Long Gone (1987, Martin Davidson) Major League (1989, David S. Ward) The Natural (1984, Barry Levinson) Night Game (1989, Peter Masterson) Only the Ball Was White (1981, Ken Solarz) The Slugger's Wife (1985, Hal Ashby) Stealing Home (1988, Steven Kampmann and William Porter [as Will Aldis]) Tiger Town (1983, Alan Shapiro) Trading Hearts (1988, Neil Leifer) A Winner Never Quits (1986, Mel Damski)
S4 E5 · Mon, February 28, 2022
Peter Bogdanovich and They All Laughed
On this episode, we take a look back at the life and career of director Peter Bogdanovich, with a focus on his forgotten 1981 comedy They All Laughed, and the love affair with one of the film’s leading ladies, Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten, which would lead to her murder at the hands of her estranged husband, Paul Snider.
S4 E4 · Fri, February 11, 2022
The Orphans: Part 4 - Dennis Hopper and Out of the Blue
On this episode, your host, film critic and historian Edward A. Havens III, talks about the late, great Dennis Hopper, his mostly forgotten 1980 film Out of the Blue, and how it is getting a new lease on life in 2022. ----more---- The original 1983 theatrical one-sheet for Out of the Blue Dennis Hopper in a scene from Out of the Blue
S4 E3 · Fri, January 28, 2022
John Sayles in the 1980s: Part 2
On this episode, film critic and historian Edward A. Havens III concludes his two-part look back at the 1980s films of one of cinema's truly gifted storytellers, John Sayles. ----more---- We talk about his three movies from the second half of the decade, as well as many of the films he would make after the end of the 1980s. The movies discussed in this episode, all directed by John Sayles, include: Brother from Another Planet (1994) City of Hope (1991) Eight Men Out (1988) Limbo (1999) Lone Star (1996) Matewan (1987) Men with Guns (1998) Passion Fish (1992) The Secret of Roan Inish (1994) Silver City (2004)
S4 E2 · Thu, January 20, 2022
John Sayles in the 1980s: Part 1
On this episode, film critic and historian Edward A. Havens III begins a two-part look back at the 1980s films of one of cinema's truly gifted storytellers, John Sayles. ----more---- We talk about his beginnings in upstate New York, his college years, where he would meet several of his regular future collaborators, his early career as an author, his time as a screenwriter for the legendary film producer Roger Corman, and into the first three movies of his filmmaking career. The movies discussed in this episode include: Alligator (1980, Lewis Teague) Baby, It's You (1983, John Sayles) Battle Beyond the Stars (1980, Jimmy T. Murikami) The Big Chill (1983, Lawrence Kasdan) E.T. The Extraterrestrial (1982, Steven Spielberg) The Lady in Red (1979, Lewis Teague) Lianna (1983, John Sayles) Piranha (1978, Joe Dante) Poltergeist (1982, Tobe Hooper) The Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980, John Sayles)
S4 E1 · Thu, January 06, 2022
The Orphans: Part 3
This episode continues an irregular series that takes a look back at a minor cinematic phenomenon that happened more often in the 1980s than in any other decade: the one-time-only distribution company. Today, we’ll be talking about the 1980 movie Union City, which featured the film debut of Blondie lead singer Deborah Harry, the 1981 Canadian erotic drama Head-On, which would not get released in America until 1985 and under a much different title, and the 1985 dystopian sci-fi action drama Wired to Kill, which was both one of the earliest films to star fan-favorite Tom "Tiny" Lister Jr. and be the last film to feature fan-favorite Merrick Butrick.
S3 E31 · Sat, December 25, 2021
Christmas 1981 at the Movies
On this episode, film critic and historian Edward A. Havens III takes his Wayback Machine back forty years, to look back at the movies you could have seen after Christmas dinner in 1981. ----more---- The movies covered during this episode include (released in 1981, unless otherwise noted): Absence of Malice (Sydney Pollack) Arthur (Steve Gordon) Atlantic City (Louis Malle) Buddy Buddy (Billy Wilder) Chariots of Fire (Hugh Hudson) Cinderella (1950, Clyde Geronimi and Hamilton Luske and Wilfred Jackson) Four Friends (Arthur Penn) The French Lieutenant's Woman (Karel Reisz) Gallipoli (Peter Weir) Ghost Story (John Irvin) Heartbeeps (Allan Arkush) Modern Problems (Ken Shapiro) Montenegro (Dušan Makavejev) My Dinner With Andre (Louis Malle) Napoleon (1927, Abel Gance) Neighbors (John G. Avildsen) On Golden Pond (Mark Rydell) Only When I Laugh (Glenn Jordan) Pennies from Heaven (Herbert Ross) Ragtime (Miloš Forman) Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg) Reds (Warren Beatty) Rollover (Alan J. Pakula) Sharkey's Machine (Burt Reynolds) Taps (Harold Becker) They All Laughed (Peter Bogdanovich) Time Bandits (Terry Gilliam) Whose Life Is It Anyway? (John Badham)
S3 E30 · Fri, December 10, 2021
The Orphans: Part 2
This episode continues an irregular series that takes a look back at a minor cinematic phenomenon that happened more often in the 1980s than in any other decade: the one-time-only distribution company. ----more---- We talk about the 1985 cocaine crime drama The Texas Godfather, featuring Vince Edwards and Paul L. Smith, the 1986 comedy Vasectomy: A Delicate Matter, starring Paul Sorvino, Abe Vigoda and Lorne Greene, and the 1986 gender switch comedy Willy/Milly (aka I Was a Teenage Boy, aka Something Special), starring Pamela Segall, Patty Duke, John Glover and Seth Green.
S3 E29 · Fri, November 26, 2021
The Orphans
This episode begins an irregular series that will take a look back at a minor cinematic phenomenon that happened more often in the 1980s than in any other decade: a one-time-only distribution company. ----more---- We talk about the 1980 Tinto Brass erotic historical drama Caligula, starring Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, and Peter O'Toole, and the 1985 Bud Yorkin family drama Twice in a Lifetime, featuring Gene Hackman, Ellen Burstyn, Ann-Margret, Amy Madigan, Ally Sheedy, and Brian Dennehy.
S3 E28 · Fri, November 12, 2021
Who in the Hell Was Alan Smithee, and Why Did He Make So Many Bad Movies
On this very special episode of the podcast, we discuss the life, career, and death of Alan Smithee, one of the most prolific filmmakers of the 1980s... who never actually directed a film, or, really, ever even existed. It's a twisted tale of incompetence, greed, and saving face. ----more---- The movies discussed in this episode: Accidental Love (2015, Stephen Greene) An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (1998, Alan Smithee) Appointment With Fear (1985, Alan Smithee) The Barking Dog (1978, Alan Smithee) The Birds II (1994, Alan Smithee) Catchfire (1990, Alan Smithee) City in Fear (1980, Alan Smithee) Death of a Gunfighter (1969, Alan Smithee) Dune (1984, David Lynch) Eep! (2010, Ellen Smith) Exposed (2016, Declan Dale) Fade In (1975, Alan Smithee) Ghost Fever (1987, Alan Smithee) The Guardian (1990, William Friedkin) Gunhead (1989, Alan Smithee) Gypsy Angels (1980, Alan Smithee) Heat (1995, Michael Mann) Hellraiser IV: Bloodline (1994, Alan Smithee) I Love New York (1987, Alan Smithee) The Insider (1999, Michael Mann) Let's Get Harry (1986, Alan Smithee) Morgan Stewart's Coming Home (1987, Alan Smithee) New York Ninja (1984/2021, John Liu) The Shrimp on the Barbie (1990, Alan Smithee) Stitches (1985, Alan Smithee) Student Bodies (1981, Mickey Rose) Supernova (2000, Thomas Lee) Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983, John Landis) Woman Wanted (1999, Alan Smithee)
S3 E27 · Fri, October 29, 2021
A Brief History of the Halloween Movies
In this very special episode, we do something that only 13,948 other podcasts have already done or are in the process of doing this week: taking a look back at the Halloween movies. ----more---- The movies covered in this episode: Halloween (1978, John Carpenter) Halloween II (1981, Rick Rosenthal) Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982, Tommy Lee Wallace) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988, Dwight H. Little) Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989, Dominique Othenin-Girard) Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995, Joe Chapelle) Halloween: H20 (1998, Steve Miner) Halloween: Resurrection (2002, Rick Rosenthal) Halloween (2007, Rob Zombie) Halloween II (2009, Rob Zombie) Halloween (2018, David Gordon Green) Halloween Kills (2021, David Gordon Green) Halloween Ends (2022, David Gordon Green)
S3 E26 · Fri, October 15, 2021
The Films of Bill Forsyth
In this episode, we discuss the career of one of the best filmmakers to come out of 80s cinema: Scottish filmmaker Bill Forsyth. Oh, you've never heard of him? Or you're only familiar with one of his films? Join us on a cinematic journey through the career of a filmmaker who regularly revisited themes of loneliness, isolation, and alienation, and made them hilarious, touching, and poignant. ----more---- The films discussed during this episode (all directed by Bill Forsyth): That Sinking Feeling (1979) Gregory's Girl (1981) Local Hero (1983) Comfort and Joy (1984) Housekeeping (1987) Breaking In (1989) Being Human (1994) Gregory's Two Girls (1999)
S3 E25 · Thu, August 19, 2021
Dollar Houses
On this very special episode of The FilmJerk Podcast, we talk not about a specific movie or filmmaker or actor or distribution company, but of a moviegoing concept that was huge in the 1980s but has all but disappeared from the movie-going landscape: the dollar house. AKA the discount house, the bargain house, and the second run theatre.
S3 E24 · Wed, July 21, 2021
The United Film Distribution Company and Taurus Entertainment: Part Three
As we conclude our multi-part miniseries, The United Film Distribution Company, one of the first distributors to be operated by a motion picture exhibition company, has become Taurus Entertainment, and will go on one of the worst runs of film releases any distribution company has ever had. ----more---- Before you listen to this episode, please make sure you have already listened to Parts One and Two of this series, as some things discussed on this episode are continuations of ideas and items discussed in the other episodes. The movies discussed during this episode include: Angel Town (1990, Eric Karson) Best of the Best (1989, Robert Radler) Beverly Hills Brats (1989, Jim Sotos) Black Eagle (1988, Eric Karson) BraveStarr: The Movie (1988, Tom Tataranowicz) Class of 1999 (1990, Mark L. Lester) Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (1988, Bill Couterie) Domino (1989, Ivana Massetti) Elliot Fauman, Ph. D. (1990, Ric Klass) Fist Fighter (1989, Frank Zuniga) Ghoulies Go to College (1991, John Carl Buechler) Heaven Becomes Hell (1989, Mickey Nivelli) The Invisible Kid (1988, Avery Crounse) Martians Go Home (1990, David Odell) Miss Firecracker (1989, Thomas Schlamme) Mortuary Academy (1988, Zane Levitt) Old Explorers (1990, Bill Polhad) On the Make (1989, Sam Hurwitz) Rachel River (1989, Sandy Smolan) Slaughterhouse Rock (1988, Dimitri Logothetis) The Shaman (1988, Michael Yakub) A Shock to the System (1990, Jan Egleson) Spontaneous Combustion (1990, Tobe Hooper) Two Evil Eyes (1991, George A. Romero and Dario Argento) Wired (1989, Larry Peerce)
S3 E23 · Thu, July 08, 2021
The United Film Distribution Company and Taurus Entertainment: Part Two
We continue our multi-part miniseries on The United Film Distribution Company and Taurus Entertainment, one of the first distributors to be operated by a motion picture exhibition company. This week, we talk about several of their biggest successes, including Mark L. Lester's Class of 1984, Richard Hiltzik's Sleepaway Camp, and the Gone With the Wind of zombie movies, George A. Romero's Day of the Dead. ----more---- Titles covered during this episode: 1990: The Brox Warriors (1983, Enzo Castellari) Choke Canyon (1986, Chuck Bail) Day of the Dead (1985, George A. Romero) Double Exposure (1987, Nico Mastorakis) Flanagan (1985, Scott D. Goldstein) The Jigsaw Man (1983, Terrence Young) Retribution (1987, Guy Magar) Sleepaway Camp (1983, Robert Hiltzik) Terminal Entry (1988, John Kincaide)
S3 E22 · Wed, June 23, 2021
The United Film Distribution Company and Taurus Entertainment: Part One
We begin a multi-part miniseries on The United Film Distribution Company and Taurus Entertainment, one of the first distributors to be operated by a motion picture exhibition company, who teamed with filmmaker George A. Romero to produce and/or distribute several of his most popular and enduring movies, including Dawn of the Dead and Creepshow. ----more---- The movies discussed in this episode include: Class of 1984 (1982, Mark L. Lester) Creepshow (1982, George A. Romero) Dawn of the Dead (1978, Geroge A. Romero) Death Screams (1982, David Nelson) The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977, John Landis) Knightriders (1981, George A. Romero) Lion of the Desert (1981, Moustapha Akkad) Mother’s Day (1980, Charles Kaufman) Q: The Winged Serpent (1982, Larry Cohen) The Sinful Bed (1973, Ralf Gregan) Sitting Ducks (1980, Henry Jaglom) Tintorera: Killer Shark (1978, René Cardona Jr.)
S3 E21 · Thu, June 17, 2021
The Grounded Genre of 80s Movies: Part 2
This episode completes a two-part miniseries on an interesting concept in examining genre movies in the 80s, Grounded Genre. Joining us for this miniseries is our very special guest Sarah Bullion, an award-winning director, producer and screenwriter who also spent ten years on sets as a prop master and second assistant director.
S3 E20 · Mon, June 14, 2021
The Grounded Genre of 80s Movies - Part 1
This episode starts a two-part miniseries on an interesting concept in examining genre movies in the 80s, Grounded Genre. Joining us for this miniseries is our very special guest Sarah Bullion, an award-winning director, producer and screenwriter who also spent ten years on sets as a prop master and second assistant director.
S3 E19 · Tue, June 01, 2021
FilmDallas Pictures
This week, we take a look back at the quick rise and even quicker fall of FilmDallas Pictures, which began its life as a Texas-based film investment company in 1983. After helping to produce two Oscar-winning films in 1984, they would take a leap of faith to become a film distribution company, only to be completely gone from the film industry by the end of 1988. ----more---- On this episode, we discuss: Choose Me (1984, Alan Rudolph) Da (1988, Matt Clark) The Dirt Bike Kid (1985, Hoite Caston) Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985, Herbert Babenco) Man Facing Southeast (1986, Elisio Subiela) Night Zoo (1988, Jean-Claude Lauzon) Patti Rocks (1988, David Burton Morris) The Right-Hand Man (1987, Di Drew) Spike of Bensonhurst (1988, Paul Morrissey) Subway to the Stars (1988, Carlos Diegues) The Trip to Bountiful (1985, Peter Masterson).
S3 E18 · Fri, May 21, 2021
Blue Thunder and WarGames
On this week's episode of The FilmJerk Podcast, we examine how one filmmaker, John Badham, would end up with the rare feat of having two hits movies, Blue Thunder and WarGames, released only three weeks apart.
S3 E17 · Thu, May 13, 2021
Raging Bull
On this week's episode, we complete our dive into the Martin Scorsese Cinematic Universe of the 1980s, with the history behind his masterpiece Raging Bull, as well as a personal remembrance of the film by the host.
S3 E16 · Wed, May 05, 2021
The King of Comedy
On this week's episode, we continue our dive into the Martin Scorsese Cinematic Universe of the 1980s, with a look back at his oft-misinterpreted 1983 classic, The King of Comedy.
S3 E15 · Thu, April 29, 2021
After Hours
This week, we continue our look back at the 1980s movies of Martin Scorsese, with a look back at After Hours, the last low-budget, small-scale, intimate movie he'd ever make.
S3 E14 · Thu, April 22, 2021
The Last Temptation of Christ
This week, we continue our look back at the 1980s movies of Martin Scorsese, concentrating on the movie that inarguably changed the direction of his career: The Last Temptation of Christ.
S3 E13 · Thu, April 08, 2021
The Color of Money
This week, we start an irregular look back at the 1980s movies of Martin Scorsese, starting with what, for me, is his best film of the decade: The Color of Money.
S3 E12 · Thu, April 01, 2021
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains
This week, we take a look back at a movie shot in 1980, and would sit on the proverbial shelf until it premiered on basic cable in 1984, becoming a cult film and inspiring an early 1990s music revolution. Lou Adler's Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains. ----more---- The original theatrical one-sheet for the movie. Ray Winstone and Paul Simonon Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains
S3 E11 · Fri, March 26, 2021
Albert Brooks and Lost in America
This week's episode takes a look back at the career of writer, director and actor Albert Brooks and his brilliant 1985 comedy Lost in America.
S3 E10 · Wed, March 10, 2021
Ralph Bakshi and American Pop
This week's episode takes a look back at the career of Ralph Bakshi and his pioneering 1981 animated rock musical American Pop.
S3 E9 · Thu, March 04, 2021
Some Kind of Wonderful
This week's episode takes a look at the best movie in the John Hughes canon: 1987's Some Kind of Wonderful. ----more---- The original 1987 theatrical one-sheet for the movie. Some Kind of Wonderful Paramount Pictures Released February 27th, 1987 Director: Howard Deutch Producer and Writer: John Hughes Elias Koteas and Eric Stoltz in a scene from the movie Stars: Eric Stoltz (Keith Nelson) Mary Stuart Masterson (Susan Watts) Lea Thompson (Amanda Jones) Craig Sheffer (Hardy Jenns) Elias Koteas (Duncan) Two production stills from the movie. Running Time: 1hr 35m Aspect Ratio: Flat 1.85:1 Sound: Dolby Stereo
S3 E8 · Thu, February 25, 2021
Scotti Brothers Pictures
This week's episode takes a look back at the short-lived 1980s distribution company, Scotti Brothers Pictures. ----more---- The titles discussed during this episode include: Death of a Soldier (1986, Phillipe Mora) Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! (1989, Jean-Claude Lord) Eye of the Tiger (1986, Richard C. Sarafian) He's My Girl (1987, Gabrielle Beaumont) In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro (1986, Raju Patel) The Iron Triangle (1989, Eric Weston) Lady Beware (1987, Karen Arthur) Stealing Heaven (1989, Clive Donner) The Valley of the Dolls (1967, Mark Robson)
S3 E7 · Thu, February 18, 2021
Barry Levinson in the 1980s
This week's episode takes a look back at the 1980s movies directed by Academy Award winner Barry Levinson, as well as several of the films he wrote in the 1970s before becoming a director. ----more---- The titles discussed during this episode include: ...And Justice for All (1979, Norman Jewison) Avalon (1990, Barry Levinson) Bugsy (1991, Barry Levinson) Diner (1982, Barry Levinson) Good Morning, Vietnam (1987, Barry Levinson) High Anxiety (1978, Mel Brooks) Inside Moves (1980, Richard Donner) The Natural (1984, Barry Levinson) Rain Man (1988, Barry Levinson) Silent Movie (1976, Mel Brooks) Tin Men (1987, Barry Levinson) Toys (1992, Barry Levinson) Young Sherlock Holmes (1985, Barry Levinson) Tim Daly, Mickey Rourke, Daniel Stern, Kevin Bacon, Steve Guttenberg and Paul Reiser in a scene from Diner Robin Williams in a scene from Good Morning, Vietnam Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman in a scene from Rain Man
S3 E6 · Wed, February 10, 2021
Sigourney Weaver
This week's episode takes a look back at the 1980s movies starring three time Academy Award nominee Sigourney Weaver. ----more---- Sigourney Weaver in a scene from Ghostbusters (1984) The titles discussed during this episode include: Alien (1979, Ridley Scott) Aliens (1986, James Cameron) Annie Hall (1977, Woody Allen) Deal of the Century (1983, William Friedkin) Eyewitness (1981, Peter Yates) Ghostbusters (1984, Ivan Reitman) Ghostbusters II (1989, Ivan Reitman) Gorillas in the Mist (1988, Michael Apted) Half Moon Street (1986, Bob Swaim) Madman (1978, Dan Cohen) One Woman or Two (1986, Daniel Vigne) Working Girl (1988, Mike Nichols) The Year of Living Dangerously (1983, Peter Weir)
S3 E5 · Wed, February 03, 2021
Empire Pictures: Part Three
On this episode of The FilmJerk Podcast, we complete our three-part miniseries on the 80s movie production and distribution company, Empire Pictures, discussing dozens of films they announced at one time but never ended making. ----more---- Since none of these movies were actually made, the dates listed are the years the films were first announced, along with the intended director of said film, when one was assigned at the time of announcement. In a few cases, there'll be multiple years, titles and/or directors listed, as some projects would change between the two announcement dates: AlterEgo (1985, no director announced/1986, Peter Manoogian) Apparatus (1986, Larry Cohen) Arsenal (1985, no director announced) Barbarian Women (1986, no director announced) Battlebots (1986, Michael Miner/retitled Murdercycle in 1987) Berserker (1986, Stuart Gordon) Bimbo Barbeque (1988, Anita Rosenberg) Bloodless (1987, no director listed) Bloody Bess (1986, Stuart Gordon) Barbara Crampton in test shots for the unmade Stuart Gordon film Bloody Bess. The Bottled City of Shandar (1986, no director listed) Cassex (1985, no director listed) The Colony (1987, no director listed) Congo (1986, no director listed) Crimelord (1985, no director listed) Creepozoids 2 (1988, David DeCoteau) Decapitron (1986, Peter Manoogian) The Dirty Filthy Slime (1988, no director listed) Doctor Mortalis (1986, no director listed) Dolls 2 (1988, Stuart Gordon) Dream Invaders (1987, no director listed) Dreams in the Witchhouse (1987, Stuart Gordon) Entangled (1987, no director listed) Fiends (1987, no director listed) Floater (1988, Tobe Hooper) Home of the Stars (1988, Albert Band) Hotel Dick (1988, no director listed) Huntress (1987, David Schmoeller) I Eat Cannibals (1986, Ted Nicolaou) InHuman (1986, no director listed) Intruder (1987, Tobe Hooper) Journeys Through the Dark Zone (1984, Charles Band/1986, Danny Bilson) L.A.B.C. (1986, George Kerrigan) Leatherbabies (1983, James Davidson) Lurking Fear (1986, Stuart Gordon) Mindmaster (1986, no director listed) Mirrorworlds (1987, no director listed) Pand Evil (1987, Gorman Bechard) Parasite 2 in 3D (1983, Charles Band) The Primevals (1985, David Allen and Charles Band) Shackled (1984, Charles Band [as Robert Amante]) The Shadow over Innsmouth (1985, Stuart Gordon) Shadows and Whispers (1987, David Schmoeller) Show No Mercy (1986, Peter Manoogian) Sly Fox (1987, Arthur Penn) Space Sluts in the Slammer (1987, no director listed) Subterraneans (1987, no director listed) Test Tube Teens from the Year 2000 (1987, no director listed) Tomb (1986, Robert Clark) Vulcana
S3 E4 · Wed, January 27, 2021
Empire Pictures: Part Two
On this episode, we continue our mini-series on the movies of Empire Pictures, concentrating on the films they released theatrically in 1988 and 1989, all the movies they would release directly to video, a summation of the decline of Empire Pictures, and what happened to Empire Pictures head Charles Band after he left the company. ----more---- The titles discussed during this episode include (direct to video titles in italics ): Arena (1991, Peter Manoogian) Assault of the Killer Bimbos (1988, Anita Rosenberg) Buy and Cell (1989, Robert Boris) The Caller (1989, Arthur Allen Seidelman) Catacombs (1993, David Schmoeller) Cellar Dweller (1988, John Carl Buechler) Cemetery High (1989, Gorman Bechard) Deadly Weapon (1989, Michael Miner) Dr. Alien (1989, David DeCoteau) Galactic Gigolo (1988, Gorman Bechard) Ghost Town (1989, Richard Governor) Ghost Warrior (1986, J. Larry Carroll) Grotesque (1988, Joe Tornatore) Intruder (1989, Scott Spiegel) Mutant Hunt (1987, Tim Kincaid) Necropolis (1987, Bruce Hickey) The Occultist (1989, Tim Kincaid) Pulse Pounders (2012/13/??, Charles Band) Prison (1988, Renny Harlin) Robot Jox (1990, Stuart Gordon) Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (1988, David DeCoteau) Spellcaster (1992, Rafal Zielinski) Valet Girls (1987, Rafal Zielinski) Zombiethon (1987, Ken Dixon)
S3 E3 · Wed, January 20, 2021
Empire Pictures: Part One
In this episode, we take a look back at Empire Pictures, one of the more successful independent film distributors of the 1980s, responsible for two classic adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft stories, Re-Animator and From Beyond, the Gremlins ripoff Ghoulies (that wasn't actually a ripoff of Gremlins), and some of the most titillating movie titles to ever exist.----more---- Barbara Crampton in a scene from Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator The titles discussed during this episode include: The Alchemist (1985, Charles Band) Breeders (1986, Tim Kincaid) Crawlspace (1986, David Schmoeller) Creepozoids (1987, David DeCoteau) Dolls (1987, Stuart Gordon) Dreamaniac (1986, David DeCoteau) Dungeonmaster (1984, Dave Allen and Charles Band and John Carl Buechler and Steven Ford and Peter Manoogian and Ted Nicolaou and Rosemarie Turko) Eliminators (1986, Peter Manoogian) From Beyond (1986, Stuart Gordon) The original theatrical one-sheet for From Beyond Ghoulies (1985, Luca Bercovici) Ghoulies II (1987, Albert Band) The Princess Academy (1987, Bruce Block) Psychos in Love (1987, Gorman Bechard) Rawhead Rex (1987, George Pavlou) Re-Animator (1985, Stuart Gordon) The original theatrical one-sheet for Re-Animator Savage Island (1985, Ted Nicolaou) Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity (1987, Ken Dixon) The original theatrical one sheet for Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity Terrorvision (1986, Ted Nicolaou) Trancers (1985, Charles Band) Transmutations (1986, George Pavlou) Troll (1986, John Carl Buechler) Walking the Edge (1985, Norbert Meisel) White Slave (1985, Mario Gariazzo [under the name Roy Garrett]) Wicked Lips (1986, Albert Pyun) Zone Troopers (1985, Danny Bilson)
S3 E2 · Sun, January 10, 2021
Wisdom
Today's episode takes a look back at Emilio Estevez's 1986 directorial debut, Wisdom. Twenty-three when he started production, Estevez would become the youngest person to write, direct and star in a studio feature film. The modern would-be Bonnie and Clyde action drama would also star Demi Moore (who was also engaged to Mr. Estevez at the time of production), Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright and William Allen Young. ----more---- The original 1986 theatrical one-sheet for Wisdom Press photos from the press kit
S3 E1 · Mon, January 04, 2021
St. Elmo’s Fire
This week's episode takes a look back at the spectacular train wreck that was Joel Schumacher's 1985 hit film. St. Elmo's Fire. ----more---- Original 1985 Theatrical One-Sheet for St. Elmo's Fire Demi Moore Joel Schumacher directing Rob Lowe on the set of St. Elmo's Fire
S2 E31 · Mon, December 21, 2020
Talk Radio
On this episode, we take a look back at the 1988 Oliver Stone drama Talk Radio, the first time the writer and director would direct a screenplay from material created by someone else. That someone else was Eric Bogosian, the writer and star of the off-Broadway play the movie would be adapting. ----more---- The original 1988 Theatrical One-Sheet for Talk Radio Eric Bogosian as radio talk show host Barry Champlain (foreground), and John Pankow and Alec Baldwin (background) Writer/Star Eric Bogosian
S2 E30 · Wed, December 16, 2020
David Puttnam at Columbia Pictures: Part 4
We continue our miniseries on British film producer David Puttnam and the films he would make or acquire during his brief run as the head of Columbia Pictures, by taking a look at the movies Puttnam would approve or acquire that were released between July 1989 and March 1990, as well as a summary of several Puttnam-developed films that would never get made or released, Puttnam's life after the studio, and a personal commentary on the state of cinema today, and the continual mistreatment of the Puttnam films, thirty-three years later. ----more---- David Puttnam, in an undated photo, during his time as the head of Columbia Pictures, 1986-1987 The titles discussed during this episode include: Bad Karma (Producer: Deborah Blum, Never Made) The Big Picture (Christopher Guest, September 1989) Blind Luck (Producer: Craig Zadan, Never Made) Bloodhounds of Broadway (Howard Brookner, November 1989) Eat a Bowl of Tea (Wayne Wang, July 1989) The Far Side (Alan Rudolph, Never Made) 40 - Just Like America (Director Unknown, Never Released) Flying Blind (Vince DePersio, July 1990) Me and Him (Doris Dörrie, August 1989) Napoli (Writers: Dick Clement and Ian Le Frenias, Never Made) Old Gringo (Luis Puenzo, October 1989) Time of the Gypsies (Emir Kusturica, February 1990) To Kill a Priest (Angieszka Holland, October 1989) Toys (Barry Levinson, December 1992 from 20th Century Fox) Untitled Richard Brooks DeMille/Mankiewicz Drama (Never Made) Untitled Stanley Kramer Chernobyl Drama (Never Made) Lord David Puttnam, in recent times The original 1989 Theatrical One-Sheet for Christopher Guest's The Big Picture The original 1989 Theatrical One-Sheet for Doris Dorrie's Me and Him
S2 E29 · Mon, December 14, 2020
David Puttnam at Columbia Pictures: Part 3
We continue our miniseries on British film producer David Puttnam and the films he would make or acquire during his brief run as the head of Columbia Pictures, by taking a look at the movies Puttnam would approve or acquire that were released between July 1988 and March 1989. ----more---- Uma Thurman in a scene from Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen ----more---- The titles discussed during this episode include: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (Terry Gilliam, March 1989) The Beast (Kevin Reynolds, September 1988) Hanussen (István Szabó, March 1989) The New Adventures of Pippi Longstalking (Ken Annakin, July 1988) Physical Evidence (Michael Crichton, January 1989) Punchline (David Seltzer, September 1988) Rocket Gibraltar (Daniel Petrie, September 1988) Things Change (David Mamet, October 1988) True Believer (Joseph Ruben, February 1989) Vibes (Ken Kwapis, August 1988) The 1988 Theatrical One-Sheet for Kevin Reynolds' The Beast (aka The Beast of War)
S2 E28 · Mon, December 07, 2020
David Puttnam at Columbia Pictures: Part 2
We continue our miniseries on British film producer David Puttnam and the films he would make or acquire during his brief run as the head of Columbia Pictures, by taking a look at the first batch of 16 movies Puttnam would approve or acquire, released between September 1987 and June 1988. ----more---- Original 1988 Theatrical One-Sheet for Spike Lee's School Daze The titles discussed during this episode include: The Big Easy (Jim McBride, August 1987) The Big Town (Ben Bolt, September 1987) Hope and Glory (John Boorman, October 1987) Housekeeping (Bill Forsyth, November 1987) The Last Emperor (Bernardo Bertolucci, November 1987) Leonard Part 6 (Paul Weiland, December 1987) Little Nikita (Richard Benjamin, March 1988) Pulse (Paul Golding, March 1988) School Daze (Spike Lee, February 1988) Someone to Watch Over Me (Ridley Scott, October 1987) Stars and Bars (Pat O'Connor, March 1988) The Stranger (Adolfo Aristarian, December 1987) A Time of Destiny (Gregory Nava, April 1988) Vice Versa (Brian Gilbert, March 1988) White Mischief (Michael Radford, April 1988) Zelly and Me (Tina Rathborne, April 1988) Spike Lee, Giancarlo Esposito, Larry Fishburne and the cast of School Daze Original 1988 Theatrical One-Sheet for Pat O'Connor's Stars and Bars
S2 E27 · Mon, November 30, 2020
David Puttnam at Columbia Pictures: Part 1
We begin our miniseries on British film producer David Puttnam and the films he would make or acquire during his brief run as the head of Columbia Pictures by taking a look at the man himself, and how he was able to build a career in filmmaking that would lead him to become the last major filmmaker to head a major studio. ----more---- David Puttnam receives the Academy Award for Best Picture for producing Chariots of Fire from Hollywood legend Loretta Young, March 29, 1982 Producer David Puttnam with film cans listing some of the titles he produced during his career.
S2 E26 · Mon, November 23, 2020
Kiss and The Elder
On this episode, we take a look back at the 1981 Kiss album that was supposed to launch a global entertainment juggernaut, with a movie, a soundtrack album, a tour to support the movie and soundtrack album, a sequel movie, a sequel soundtrack and a sequel tour to support the sequel movie and sequel soundtrack. Music from "The Elder." ----more---- The Cover of "Music from 'The Elder'" Who is that unmasked man? This was supposed to help listeners understand this nonsense better?
S2 E25 · Mon, November 16, 2020
The Management Company Entertainment Group
Today's episode talks about the Management Company Entertainment Group, or MCEG, who would only release four films over the course of nineteen months, while also producing one of the biggest hits of 1989. ----more---- The movies discussed during this episode: Boris and Natasha (1992, Charles Martin Smith) Breaking the Rules (1992, Neal Israel) Catch Me If You Can (1989, Stephen Sommers) Chains of Gold (1991, Rob Holcolm) The Chocolate War (1988, Keith Gordon) C.H.U.D. 2: Bud the Chud (1990, John Irving) Cold Heaven (1992, Nicolas Roeg) Convicts (1990, Peter Masterson) Fatal Charm (1992, Fritz Kiersch [as Alan Smithee]) The Fourth War (1990, John Frankenheimer) Getting It Right (1989, Randal Kleiser) Home Movies (1980, Brian De Palma) Limit Up (1990, Richard Martini) Look Who's Talking (1989, Amy Heckerling) Look Who's Talking Too (1990, Amy Heckerling) Slipping Into Darkness (1988, Eleanor Gaver) Without You, I'm Nothing (1990, John Boskovich)
S2 E24 · Fri, November 13, 2020
Top 80s Movies With Michael Hourigan: Part 3
On this third and final part of a three part series, host Edward Havens continues to discuss favorite 80s movies, the state of streaming services today, religion, books, movie theatres, wrestling and so much more with his brother-in-law, Ph. D. student Michael Hourigan. ----more---- Man Facing Southeast (FilmDallas, 1988) Amongst the movies discussed during this episode: Birdy (1984, Alan Parker) The Breakfast Club (1985, John Hughes) The Chocolate War (1988, Keith Gordon) Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986, John Hughes) Home Alone (1990, Chris Columbus) Man Facing Southeast (1986, Eliseo Subiela) Out of Bounds (1986, Richard Tuggle) The Princess Bride (1987, Rob Reiner) Popeye (1980, Robert Altman) Saved! (2004, Brian Dannelly) Sixteen Candles (1984, John Hughes) Starman (1984, John Carpenter) Uncle Buck (1989, John Hughes) Used Cars (1980, Robert Zemeckis)
S2 E23 · Wed, November 11, 2020
Top 80s Movies With Michael Hourigan: Part 2
On this second part of a three part series, host Edward Havens continues to discuss favorite 80s movies, the state of streaming services today, religion, books, movie theatres, wrestling and so much more with his brother-in-law, Ph. D. student Michael Hourigan. ----more---- Amongst the movies discussed during this episode: Blade Runner (1982, Ridley Scott) Blade Runner 2049 (2017, Denis Villeneuve) The Breakfast Club (1985, John Hughes) Bull Durham (1988, Ron Shelton) The Color of Money (1986, Martin Scorsese) Diner (1982, Barry Levinson) The Empire Strikes Back (1980, Irvin Kershner) Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986, John Hughes) Garden State (2004, Zack Braff) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008, Steven Spielberg) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984, Steven Spielberg) Mad Max: Fury Road (2015, George Miller) Mission: Impossible 2 (2000, John Woo) Pineapple Express (2008, David Gordon Green) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981, Steven Spielberg) St. Elmo's Fire (1985, Joel Schumacher) Star Wars (1977, George Lucas) Untitled Furiosa Prequel (2023, George Miller) Used Cars (1980, Robert Zemeckis)
S2 E22 · Mon, November 09, 2020
Top 80s Movies with Michael Hourigan: Part 1
On this first part of a three part series, host Edward Havens discusses favorite 80s movies, the state of streaming services today, religion, books, movie theatres and so much more with his brother-in-law, Ph. D. student Michael Hourigan. ----more---- Amongst the movies discussed during this episodes are: Aloha (2016, Cameron Crowe) Back to the Future (1985, Robert Zemeckis) Back to the Future 2 (1989, Robert Zemeckis) Back to the Future 3 (1990, Robert Zemeckis) The Blues Brothers (1980, John Landis) Brazil (1985, Terry Gilliam) Death Becomes Her (1992, Robert Zemeckis) Dune (1984, David Lynch) Field of Dreams (1989, Phil Alden Robinson) Forrest Gump (1994, Robert Zemeckis) Fury Road (2015, George Miller) The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009, Terry Gilliam) The Irishman (2019, Martin Scorsese) The Last Temptation of Christ (1988, Martin Scorsese) Local Hero (1983, Bill Forsyth) The Natural (1984, Barry Levinson) My Neighbor Totoro (1988, Hayao Miyazaki) Raider of the Lost Ark (1981, Steven Spielberg) Raging Bull (1980, Martin Scorsese) Romancing the Stone (1984, Robert Zemeckis) The Road Warrior (1982, George Miller) The Right Stuff (1983, Philip Kaufman) Say Anything... (1989, Cameron Crowe) Silence (2016, Martin Scorsese) TRON (1982, Steven Lisberger) The Untouchables (1987, Brian De Palma) Wings of Desire (1988, Wim Wenders)
S2 E21 · Tue, October 27, 2020
Three O’Clock High
This episode takes a look at creation, production and release of Phil Joanou's underrated 1987 teen comedy Three O'Clock High, produced (and then unproduced) by Steven Spielberg and his Amblin Entertainment. ----more---- Original 1987 Theatrical One-Sheet for Three O'Clock High
S2 E20 · Mon, October 19, 2020
To Live and Die in L.A.
This episode takes a look at creation, production and release of the classic 1985 action thriller To Live and Die in L.A. ----more----
S2 E19 · Tue, October 13, 2020
Troma Films in the 1980s
This episode takes a look at the 1980s theatrical releases for New York City-based independent production company and distributor Troma Films, including the 1980s horror-comedy classic The Toxic Avenger. ----more---- The movies discussed during this episode: Class of Nuke Em High (Lloyd Kaufman [as Samuel Weil] and Richard W. Haines, December 1986) Fat Guy Goes Nutzoid! (John Golden, September 1986) The First Turn-On (Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman [as Samuel Weil], October 1984) Lust for Freedom (Eric Louzil, February 1988) Monster in the Closet (Bob Dahlin, January 1987) Mother's Day (Charles Kaufman, September 1980) Splatter University (Richard W. Haines, July 1984) Squeeze Play (Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman [as Samuel Weil], May 1981) Stuck on You!! (Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman [as Samuel Weil], October 1983) Student Confidential (Richard Horian, December 1987) Surf Nazis Must Die (Peter George, July 1987) The Toxic Avenger (Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman [as Samuel Weil], April 1986) The Toxic Avenger Part II (Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman, February 1989) The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie (Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman, November 1989) Troma's War ((Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman [as Samuel Weil], December 1987) Waitress! (Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman [as Samuel Weil], September 1982) When Nature Calls (Charles Kaufman, September 1985)
S2 E18 · Mon, September 28, 2020
Killer Klowns from Outer Space
This episode takes a look at the Chiodo Brothers' 1988 cult horror-comedy classic Killer Klowns from Outer Space, featuring a remembrance from my best friend and former FilmJerk contributor Dick Hollywood on his one day as a Killer Klown during shooting. ----more---- Original 1988 KKFOS Theatrical Poster Bronco (left) and Dick Hollywood (right) as Killer Klowns
S2 E17 · Mon, September 14, 2020
Musician Filmmakers
In today's episode, we take a look at the debut films of five filmmakers who got their start as musicians. ----more---- Forbidden Zone (Richard Elfman, March 1982) Home of the Brave (Laurie Anderson, April 1986) True Stories (David Byrne, October 1986) Under the Cherry Moon (Prince, July 1986) Yentl (Barbra Streisand, December 1983)
S2 E16 · Tue, September 01, 2020
The DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group
Today's episode talks about the DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group, born from the ashes of Embassy Pictures in the fall of 1985, only to spectacularly flame out after two years, but able to make one true masterpiece and several modern classics in such a short amount of time. ----more---- The movies discussed during this episode: The Bedroom Window (January 1987, Curtis Hanson) Blue Velvet (September 1986, David Lynch) Crimes of the Heart (December 1986, Bruce Beresford) Date with an Angel (November 1987, Tom McLaughlin) Evil Dead II (March 1987, Sam Raimi) From the Hip (February 1987, Bob Clark) Hiding Out (November 1987, Bob Giraldi) King Kong Lives (December 1986, John Guillerman) Manhunter (August 1986, Michael Mann) Maximum Overdrive (July 1986, Stephen King) Million Dollar Mystery (June 1987, Richard Fleischer) My Little Pony: The Movie (June 1986, Michael Joens) Near Dark (October 1987, Kathryn Bigelow) Raw Deal (June 1986, John Irvin) The Transformers: The Movie (August 1986, Nelson Shin) Radioactive Dreams (September 1986, Albert Pyun) Tai-Pan (November 1986, Daryl Duke) Trick or Treat (October 1986, Charles Martin Smith) The Trouble with Spies (December 1987, Burt Kennedy) Weeds (October 1987, John Hancock)
S2 E15 · Mon, August 17, 2020
Tapeheads
This episode takes a look at the under-appreciated 1988 comedy Tapeheads, starring John Cusack and Tim Robbins. ----more----
S2 E14 · Wed, July 29, 2020
The Weintraub Entertainment Group
This episode takes a look at the Weintraub Entertainment Group, which would release only six movies in less than a year before going bankrupt. ----more---- Those films were: The Big Blue (Luc Besson, August 1988) Fresh Horses (David Anspaugh, November 1988) Listen to Me (Douglas Day Stewart, May 1989) She's Out of Control (Stan Dragoti, April 1989) My Stepmother is an Alien (Richard Benjamin, December 1988) Troop Beverly Hills (Jeff Kanew, March 1989)
S2 E13 · Mon, July 27, 2020
The Summer of 1986 - Part Three
This episode is the third and final part of an occasionally personal journey through one of the better summers for films during the 1980s: the summer of 1986. ----more---- This episode covers the following movies first released in August of 1986 (unless otherwise noted): Armed and Dangerous (Mark L. Lester) Black Joy (Anthony Simmons) Born American (Renny Harlin) The Boy Who Could Fly (Nick Castle) Bullies (Paul Lynch) Caravaggio (Derek Jarmin) Choke Canyon (Chuck Ball) The Dirt Bike Kid (Hoite C. Caston, November 1985) Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (Emir Kusturica) Extremities (Robert M. Young) 50/50 (Uwe Brandner) A Fine Mess (Blake Edwards) The Fly (David Cronenberg) Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives (Tom McLoughlin) Good to Go (Blaine Novak) Hard Travelling (Dan Bessie) Howard the Duck (Willard Huyck) L’Amour En Douce (Edouard Molinaro, never officially released in the United States) The Liberation of Auschwitz (Irmgard von zur Muhlen) A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later (Claude Lelouch) Manhunter (Michael Mann) My American Cousin (Sandy Wilson) Night of the Creeps (Fred Dekker) Next Summer (Nadine Trintignant) No Surrender (Peter Smith) One Crazy Summer (Savage Steve Holland) Reform School Girls (Tom DeSimone) A Room With a View (James Ivory, April 1986) Shanghai Surprise (Jim Goddard) She's Gotta Have It (Spike Lee) Stand By Me (Rob Reiner) Steaming (Joseph Losey) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (Tobe Hooper) Thrashin' (David Winters) Touch and Go (Robert Mandel) The Transformers: The Movie (Nelson Shin) Twist and Shout (Bille August) Weekend (Eric Rohmer)
S2 E12 · Mon, July 20, 2020
The Summer of 1986 - Part Two
This episode is the second part of a three-part, occasionally personal, journey through one of the better summers for films during the 1980s: the summer of 1986. ----more---- This episode covers the following movies released in July of 1986: About Last Night (Ed Zwick) Aliens (James Cameron) The Assam Garden (Mary McMurray) Big Trouble in Little China (John Carpenter) Club Paradise (Harold Ramis) Echo Park (Robert Dornhelm) The Flight of the Navigator (Randall Kleiser) The Girl in the Picture (Cary Parker) The Great Mouse Detective (Ron Clements, Burny Mattinson, Dave Michener, John Musker) Haunted Honeymoon (Gene Wilder) Heartburn (Mike Nichols) Heaven, Earth, Man (Laurens C. Postma) Lamb (Colin Gregg) Malcolm (Nadia Tass) Maximum Overdrive (Stephen King) Meantime (Mike Leigh) Men (Doris Dörrie) Miracles (Jim Kouf) Nothing in Common (Garry Marshall) Out of Bounds (Richard Tuggle) The Patriot (Frank Harris) Psycho III (Anthony Perkins) Pirates (Roman Polanski) Rainy Day Friends (Gary Kent) Roller Blade (Donald G. Jackson) Robotech: The Movie (Noboru Ishiguro and Carl Macek) Sacred Hearts (Barbara Rennie) Saving Grace (Robert M. Young) She’ll Be Wearing Pink Pajamas (John Goldschmidt) Sincerely Charlotte (Caroline Huppert) Under the Cherry Moon (Prince) Vamp (Richard Wenk) Walter and June (Stephen Frears) Zina (Ken McMullen)
S2 E11 · Mon, July 06, 2020
The Summer of 1986 - Part One
This episode is the first part of a three-part, occasionally personal, journey through one of the better summers for films during the 1980s: the summer of 1986. This episode covers the following movies released in May and June of 1986, except otherwise noted: American Anthem (Albert Magnoli) Back to School (Alan Metter) Belizaire the Cajun (Glen Pitre) Big Trouble (John Cassavetes) Cobra (George P. Cosmatos) The Cosmic Eye (Faith Hubley) Crawlspace (David Schmoeller) Dangerously Close (Albert Pyun) Death of a Soldier (Phillipe Mora) Demons (Lamberto Bava) The Eyes of the Bird (Gabriel Auer) Ferris Bueller's Day Off (John Hughes) Fire with Fire (Duncan Gibbons) Floodstage (David Dawkins) French Quarter Undercover (Joe Catalanotto and Patrick C. Poole) Funny Dirty Little War (Hector Olivera) Gone in 60 Seconds (July 1974, H.B. Halicki) A Great Wall (Peter Wang) Hard Choices (Rick King) Home of the Brave (Laurie Anderson) In Nome Del Papa Re (Luigi Magni) In the Shadows of Kilimanjaro (Raju Patel) Invaders from Mars (Tobe Hooper) Jake Speed (Andrew Lane) The Karate Kid Part 2 (John G. Avildsen) Killer Party (William Freut) Labyrinth (Jim Henson) Legal Eagles (Ivan Reitman) The Manhattan Project (Marshall Brickman) Mona Lisa (Neil Jordan) My Little Pony: The Movie (Michael Joens) Never Too Young to Die (Gil Bettman) Not Quite Paradise (Lewis Gilbert) On the Edge (Rob Nilsson) Poltergeist II: The Other Side (Brian Gibson) Raw Deal (John Irvin) Ronja Robbersdaughter (Tage Danielsson) Running Scared (Peter Hyams) Ruthless People (David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker) Say Yes (Larry Yust) Sex Appeal (Chuck Vincent) Short Circuit (John Badham) Signal 7 (Rob Nilsson) Space Camp (Harry Winer) Spring Symphony (Peter Schamoni) Sweet Liberty (Alan Alda) Tea in the Harem (Mehdi Charef) Top Gun (Tony Scott) Vagabond (Agnes Varda) Vamp (Richard Wenk) Whatever Happened to Kerouac? (Richard Lerner and Lewis McAdams)
S2 E10 · Thu, June 18, 2020
Orion Pictures: Part 5
This episode completes a mini-series of episodes on Orion Pictures, perhaps the best independent distributor not just of the 1980s but of all time. ----more---- This episode covers the following Orion movies released during 1989: Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (Stephen Herek) Camille Claudel (Bruno Nuytten) Chocolat (Clare Denis) Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen) Erik the Viking (Terry Jones) Farewell to the King (John Milius) Field of Honor (Jean-Pierre Denis) Great Balls of Fire! (Jim McBride) Heart of Dixie (Martin Davidson) Lost Angels (Hugh Hudson) Murmur of the Heart (Louis Malle) The Music Teacher (Gerard Corbiau) Mystery Train (Jim Jarmusch) The Package (Andrew Davis) Prancer (John Hancock) She-Devil (Susan Seidelman) The Reader (Michel Deville) Rude Awakening (David Greenwalt and Aaron Russo) Speed Zone (Jim Drake) UHF (Jim Levey) Valmont (Milos Forman) Additionally, we discuss the fortunes of the company in the 1990s, including Dances with Wolves (1990, Kevin Costner) and Silence of the Lambs (1991, Jonathan Demme), and beyond...
S2 E9 · Sun, May 31, 2020
May 23rd, 1980
Today's episode takes a look at the films playing in theatres on May 23rd, 1980, a very special weekend for movies, with not one but two inarguable classics being released the same week. The movies discussed this episode: All That Jazz (1979, Bob Fosse) American Gigolo (1980, Paul Schrader) Apocalypse Now (1979, Francis Ford Coppola) Being There (1979, Hal Ashby) Best Boy (1979, Ira Wohl) The Black Stallion (1979, Carroll Ballard) Blood Feud (1978, Lina Wertmüller) Charles et Lucie (1980, Nelly Kaplan) Coal Miner's Daughter (1980, Michael Apted) Die Laughing (1980, Jeff Werner) The Empire Strikes Back (1980, Irvin Kirshner) The Europeans (1979, James Ivory) Fame (1980, Alan Parker) Fantasia (1941, multiple directors) Friday the 13th (1980, Sean S. Cunningham) The Gong Show Movie (1980, Chuck Barris) The Hollywood Knights (1980, Floyd Mutrux) Home Movies (1980, Brian De Palma) Kill or Be Killed (1976, Ivan Hall) Knife in the Head (1978, Reinhard Hauff) Kramer vs. Kramer (1979, Robert Benton) La Cage Aux Folles (1978, Edouard Molinaro) Lady and the Tramp (1955, multiple directors) Little Darlings (1980, Ronald F. Maxwell) The Long Riders (1980, Walter Hill) The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978, Rainer Werner Fassbinder) Meetings with Remarkable Men (1979, Peter Brook) My Brilliant Career (1979, Gillian Armstrong) Norma Rae (1979, Martin Ritt) The Nude Bomb (1980, Clive Donner) On the Nickel (1980, Ralph Waite) The Shining (1980, Stanley Kubrick) Soupçon (1979, Jean-Charles Tacchella) 'Til Marriage Do Us Part (1974, Luigi Comencini) The Tin Drum (1979, Volker Schlöndorff) Tom Horn (1980, William Wiard) Where the Buffalo Roam (1980, Art Linson) Why Shoot the Teacher? (1977, Sylvio Narizzano) Winds of Change [aka Metamorphoses] (1978, Takashi Masunaga)
S2 E8 · Mon, May 18, 2020
Orion Pictures: Part 4
This episode continues a mini-series of episodes on Orion Pictures, perhaps the best independent distributor not just of the 1980s but of all time. This episode covers the following Orion movies released during 1987 and 1988: Another Woman (1988, Woody Allen) Au Revior, Les Enfants (1987, Louis Malle) Babette's Feast (1988, Gabriel Axel) The Believers (1987, John Schlesinger) Best Seller (1987, John Flynn) Boyfriends and Girlfriends (1988, Eric Rohmer) Bull Durham (1988, Ron Shelton) Cherry 2000 (1987, Steve De Jarnatt) Colors (1988, Dennis Hopper) The Couch Trip (1988, Michael Ritchie) Devil in the Flesh (1987, Marco Bellochio) Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988, Frank Oz) Dominick and Eugene (1988, Robert M. Young) Eight Men Out (1988, John Sayles) End of the Line (1987, Jay Russell) Hey Babu Riba (1987, Jovan Acin) Hotel Colonial (1987, Cinzia Torrini) House of Cards (1987, David Mamet) The House on Carroll Street (1988, Peter Yates) The In Crowd (1988, Mark Rosenthal) Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring (1987, Claude Berri) Johnny Be Good (1988, Bud Smith) Lionheart (1987, Franklin J. Shaffner) Loose Connections (1988, Richard Eyre) Mac and Me (1988, Stewart Raffill) Making Mr. Right (1987, Susan Seidelman) Malone (1987, Harvey Cokliss) Married to the Mob (1988, Jonathan Demme) Mississippi Burning (1988, Alan Parker) Monkey Shines (1988, George A. Romero) A Month in the Country (1987, Pat O'Connor) No Man's Land (1987, Peter Werner) No Way Out (1987, Roger Donaldson) One Woman or Two (1987, Daniel Vigne) Radio Days (1987, Woody Allen) Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1987, Alan Clarke) Robocop (1987, Paul Verhoeven) September (1987, Woody Allen) Throw Momma From the Train (1987, Danny DeVito) The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988, Philip Kaufman) Wings of Desire (1988, Wim Wenders) Without a Clue (1988, Thom Eberhardt) Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988, Pedro Almodovar)
S2 E7 · Tue, May 05, 2020
Orion Pictures: Part 3
This episode continues a mini-series of episodes on Orion Pictures, perhaps the best independent distributor not just of the 1980s but of all time. ----more---- This episode covers the following Orion movies released during 1985 and 1986: Absolute Beginners (1986, Julien Temple) A.K. (1986, Chris Marker) At Close Range (1986, James Foley) Back to School (1986, Alan Metter) The Bay Boy (1985, Daniel Petrie) Beer (1985, Patrick Kelly) Came a Hot Friday (1985, Ian Mune) Code of Silence (1985, Andrew Davis) Colonel Redl (1985, István Szabó) Desperately Seeking Susan (1985, Susan Seidelman) Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart (1985, Wayne Wang) The Falcon and the Snowman (1985, John Schlesinger) Flesh and Blood (1985, Paul Verhoeven) Foreign Body (1986, Ronald Neame) F/X (1986, Robert Mandel) A Great Wall (1986, Peter Wang) The Green Ray [aka Summer] (1986, Eric Rohmer) Hannah and Her Sisters (1986, Woody Allen) Haunted Honeymoon (1986, Gene Wilder) The Heavenly Kid (1985, Cary Medoway) Henry IV (1985, Marco Bellochio) Hoosiers (1986, David Anspaugh) Just Between Friends (1986, Allan Burns) The Longshot (1986, Paul Bartel) MacArthur's Children (1985, Masahiro Shinoda) Maxie (1985, Paul Aaron) The Mean Season (1985, Phillip Borsos) Miracles (1986, Jim Kouf) My Beautiful Laundrette (1986, Stephen Frears) My New Partner (1985, Claude Zidi) Opposing Force [aka Hellcamp] (1986, Eric Karson) The Piece Maker (1986, Brian De Palma [never made]) Platoon (1986, Oliver Stone) The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985, Woody Allen) Ran (1985, Akira Kurosawa) Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985, Guy Hamilton) Restless Natives (1986, Michael Hoffman) Return of the Living Dead (1985, Dan O'Bannon) The Sacrifice (1986, Andrei Tarkovsky) Secret Admirer (1985, David Greenwalt) Something Wild (1986, Jonathan Demme) ¡Three Amigos! (1986, John Landis) Where the Green Ants Dream (1985, Werner Herzog)
S2 E6 · Sat, April 25, 2020
Orion Pictures: Part 2
This episode continues a mini-series of episodes on Orion Pictures, perhaps the best independent distributor not just of the 1980s but of all time. This episode covers the following Orion movies released during 1983 and 1984: Amadeus (1984, Miloš Forman) Amityville 3-D (1983, Richard Fleischer) Another Country (1984, Marek Kanievska) Beat Street (1984, Stan Lathan) The Bounty (1984, Roger Donaldson) Breathless (1983, Jim McBride) Broadway Danny Rose (1984, Woody Allen) Carmen (1984, Carlos Saura) Cheech & Chong's The Corsican Brothers (1984, Tommy Chong) Class (1983, Lewis John Carlino) The Cotton Club (1984, Francis Ford Coppola) Easy Money (1983, James Signorelli) Full Moon in Paris (1984, Eric Rohmer) Gorky Park (1983, Michael Apted) Harry and Son (1984, Paul Newman) Heartbreakers (1984, Bobby Roth) The Hotel New Hampshire (1984, Tony Richardson) Lone Wolf McQuade (1983, Steve Carver) Old Enough (1984, Marisa Silver) Pauline at the Beach (1983, Eric Rohmer) Privates on Parade (1984, Michael Blakemore) Scandalous (1984, Rob Cohen) Scrubbers (1984, Mai Zetterling) Strange Invaders (1983, Michael Laughlin) Strangers Kiss (1984, Matthew Chapman) Sugar Cane Alley (1984, Euzhan Palcy) Swann in Love (1984, Volker Schlöndorff) The Terminator (1984, James Cameron) Under Fire (1983, Roger Spottiswoode) Up the Creek (1984, Robert Butler) The Woman in Red (1984, Gene Wilder) Yellowbeard (1983, Mel Damski) Zelig (1983, Woody Allen)
S2 E5 · Mon, April 13, 2020
Orion Pictures: Part 1
This episode starts a mini-series of episodes on Orion Pictures, perhaps the best independent distributor not just of the 1980s but of all time. This episode will cover the first five years of their history (1978-1982), as well as some backstory going all the way back to 1951 in order to set their success story up. ----more---- The movies discussed during this episode: Amityville II: The Possession (1982, Damiano Damiani) Arthur (1981, Steve Gordon) The Awakening (1980, Mike Newell) Caddyshack (1980, Harold Ramis) Die Laughing (1980, Jeff Werner) The Escape Artist (1982, Caleb Deschanel) Excalibur (1981, John Boorman) The Fiendish Plot of Fu Manchu (1980, Piers Haggard) First Blood (1982, Ted Kotcheff) The Great Santini (1979, Lewis Jon Carlino) Hammett (1982, Wim Wenders) The Hand (1981, Oliver Stone) Heartbeat (1980, John Bynum) A Little Romance (1979, George Roy Hill) A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (1982, Woody Allen) Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979, Terry Jones) Over the Edge (1979, Jonathan Kaplan) Prince in the City (1981, Sidney Lumet) Promises in the Dark (1979, Jerome Hellman) Rollover (1981, Alan J. Pakula) Sharky's Machine (1981, Burt Reynolds) Simon (1980, Marshall Brickman) Sphinx (1981, Franklin J. Schaffner) Split Image (1982, Ted Kotcheff) 10 (1979, Blake Edwards) Time After Time (1979, Nicholas Meyer) Under the Rainbow (1981, Steve Rash) The Wanderers (1979, Philip Kaufman) Wolfen (1981, Michael Wadleigh)
S2 E4 · Wed, April 08, 2020
Hemdale Films
This episode takes a look at Hemdale Films, an outfit that started in 1967 and is better known as the production company behind The Terminator, Platoon and The Last Emperor, whose turn to theatrical exhibition was mired by a plethora of lawsuits and yielded one true masterpiece and one classic weird movie. ----more---- The movies discussed during this episode: Blood Red (1989, Peter Masterson) The Boost (1988, Harold Becker) Burke and Wills (1987, Graeme Clifford) Buster (1988, David Green) Cohen and Tate (1989, Eric Red) Criminal Law (1989, Martin Campbell) Defence of the Realm (1986, David Drury) The Everlasting Secret Family (1989, Michael Thornhill) Ha-Holmim/Once We Were Dreamers/Unsettled Land (1989, Uri Barbash) High Season (1988, Clare Peploe) The Howling 2 (1985, Phillipe Mora) Inside Out (1987, Robert Taicher) A Killing Affair (1988, Richard C. Sarafian) The Last Emperor (1987, Bernardo Bertolucci) Love at Stake (1987, John Moffitt) Made in USA (1987, Ken Friedman) Miracle Mile (1989, Steve De Jarnatt) My Little Girl (1987, Connie Kaiserman) Out Cold (1989, Malcolm Mowbray) River's Edge (1987, Tim Hunter) Salvador (1986, Oliver Stone) Scenes from the Goldmine (1987, Marc Rocco) Shag: The Movie (1989, Zelda Barron) Staying Together (1989, Lee Grant) Supergrass (1988, Peter Richardson) The Tale of Ruby Rose (1988, Roger Scholes) The Terminator (1984, James Cameron) The Time Guardian (1989, Brian Hannant) Vampire's Kiss (1989, Robert Bierman) War Party (1988, Franc Roddam) The Whistle Blower (1987, Simon Langton)
S2 E3 · Mon, March 30, 2020
IRS Records
This episode, we're doing something a little different, taking a look at the history of the record company International Record Syndicate, or IRS Records, one of the best record labels of the 80s. Yes, we still talk about movies, one from 1982 that features live performances by some of the best punk and new wave bands from England and the US. The original 1982 theatrical one-sheet for Urgh! A Music War The LP cover for the movie's soundtrack Klaus Nomi in a scene from the movie The Go-Go's pose after performing for the cameras
S2 E2 · Mon, February 24, 2020
Associated Film Distribution
The FilmJerk Podcast is a regular podcast, covering a wide variety of aspects of 1980s cinema. This episode takes a look at the history of Associated Film Distribution, a short-lived theatrical distribution company who, as we are starting to notice, was able to have one big hit film during their very brief tenure as a theatrical distributor. A movie that asks the burning question of the day: why are there so many songs about rainbows?
S2 E1 · Mon, February 17, 2020
Don Simpson
The FilmJerk Podcast is a regular podcast, covering a wide variety of aspects of 1980s cinema. This episode takes a short look at the life and career of Don Simpson, one of the most successful producers of the 1980s.
S1 E5 · Sun, October 27, 2019
Steven Spielberg in the 1980s: The Producer and Writer
The FilmJerk Podcast is a regular podcast, covering a wide variety of aspects of 1980s cinema. This episode takes a look at the 1980s films written and/or produced by Steven Spielberg.
S1 E4 · Mon, September 09, 2019
My Favorite Year, 1982
The FilmJerk Podcast is a regular podcast, covering a wide variety of aspects of 1980s cinema. This episode takes a look at the films that make an impact on a certain teenager during an important year of personal change.
S1 E3 · Tue, August 20, 2019
Steven Spielberg in the 1980s - The Director
The FilmJerk Podcast is a regular podcast, covering a wide variety of aspects of 1980s cinema. This episode takes a look at the 1980s films directed by Steven Spielberg.
S1 E2 · Wed, August 14, 2019
Jensen/Farley Pictures
The FilmJerk Podcast is a regular podcast, covering a wide variety of aspects of 1980s cinema. This episode takes a look at the films of 1980s distributor Jensen/Farley Pictures, who primarily specialized, oddly enough for a company run by Mormons, in teen sex comedies and horror films.
S1 E1 · Thu, August 08, 2019
John Hughes
This week's episode takes a look at the 1980s films of writer, producer and director John Hughes, who passed away ten years ago this week.
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