So after the last movie of the day shift, followed by a (of course) fun episode of The Untouchables (“Ya Yelllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!”), and Chad R’s quiz on demon movies–one in a walk by first time attendee Cullen–we broke for dinner.
A few years ago I showed the WC Fields movie Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, I apparently helped usher in a new era where we can show completely mainstream movies. So Sandy opened up the night shift with Destry Rides Again, a wonderful Jimmy Stewart western that he showed because “everyone should have seen at least on Marlene Dietrich movie.” No grousing at seeing a real movie was heard, and the next time anyone who hadn’t seen it before sees Blazing Saddles, they’ll get what Madeline Kahn was doing.
The next film was Buddha’s Palm, which I had just stumbled across on YouTube that very week. Sandy was in because a look at the trailer revealed exactly the kind of super-gonzo Hong Kong kung fu movie everyone loves, only with characters also shooting cartoon beams. Well, we didn’t know what we were in for. It was pretty clearly a much longer work, like ten hours or something, cut down so that everything was 90 straight minutes of crazy action with was no breathing room. It was exhausting. You don’t watch Buddha’s Palm–you survive it.
We ended things with our traditional T-Rex movie. Back came ol’ Karel Zeman (Invention for Destruction) for the second time that day. It was my childhood favorite Journey to the Beginning of Time. They used to show this on Garfield Goose when I was a tot, cut until into little daily snippets. I always remembered it this way:
Announcer over a black card: “JOURNEY TO THE BEGINNING OF TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME: CHAPTER 37 THE STEGOSAURUS!”
Cut to boys on a raft. One points to the shore, says “Look, a stegasourus!” and we cut over to see a dinosaur.
Cut to black card. The Announcer: “JOIN US TOMORROW FOR ANOTHER EXCITING CHAPTER OF JOURNEY OF THE BEGINNING OF TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!!!”
So four or five young lads go to a museum to learn about dinosaurs and end up on a raft down a river. As they travel they are taken further into the prehistoric past. It’s pretty great, and chock full of not just dinosaurs but other examples of prehistoric weirdness.
Happy Friday and weekend, everyone. Watch something stupid.
