Record #79 - Elvis - Original Soundtrack

Today's record is the soundtrack from the John Carpenter TV film ELVIS, starring Kurt Russell... but not sung by Kurt Russell. Because that wouldn't make any sense, now would it?

So this is the soundtrack to the John Carpenter TV movie ELVIS... obviously. This movie was his first released after Halloween and the TV movie Someone's Watching Me!, and was the first time that John Carpenter and Kurt Russell worked together. It's also Kurt Russell's first real grown-up film after making all those hundreds of Disney movies... WHICH I LOVE.

By the way, Now You See Him, Now You Don't is THE BEST. And when I met Kurt Russell that one time I told him how much I loved it, and he looked at me weirdly. I don't blame him.

Of course, after ELVIS, John Carpenter and Kurt Russell made the super groovy movies Escape from New York, Big Trouble in Little China, and Escape from LA. And hopefully they will make MORE MOVIES BECAUSE I WANT MORE MOVIES FROM JOHN CARPENTER AND KURT RUSSELL.

MORE MOOOOOVVVIIIEEEEEESSSSSSSS!!

Anywhoo, the soundtrack is all sung by this guy named Ronnie McDowell, who is a country musician and, apparently, an Elvis impersonator on the side.

Sooooo yeahhh, you should see this movie. You can get it on DVD and watch all 3 hours of it! Do iiiittttt.

And you can download the soundtrack HERE.

Record #6,000,001 - The Six Million Dollar Man "4 Exciting Christmas Adventures"

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Today's record is the fantasmagicalistic Six Million Dollar Man record "4 Exciting Christmas Adventures"! Hooray!

So the 1970s were weird... obviously. The Six Million Dollar Man was insanely popular, so they merchandised the crap out of it. There are t-shirts, shoes, action figures, and yes, Christmas records.

I'd like to point out that none of these stories are exciting. But one has a stereotypical German guy named Fritz! So I guess that makes the record pay for itself.

One of my favorite things about this kind of story records, is to compensate for the lack of images, they have to describe everything. This would be nice, if it didn't mean Steve Austin didn't have to talk to himself all the time. It's super awkward.

Also, I'm about 3000% sure that Lee Majors is not doing the voice of the Six Million Dollar Man. Buuuuut I could be wrong.

Well, here you go. Enjoy the non-excitement of these 4 exciting Christmas Adventures... or else Santa Claus will kill you. And if he doesn't, I will.

Download the record HERE.

The William Castle Memorabilia (Part 3)

And now, a message from the director of The Tingler, Mr. William Castle.

Today's post, which is presented in TEXT-O, is the exhibitor's instruction manual for the PERCEPTO gimmick for William Castle's classic film The Tingler!

I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO IT!

Well, luckily I have this PERCEPTO manual, and now I will forever know how to "do it".

So, in The Tingler, Vincent Price is this semi-evil doctor whose main goal in life is to prove that a creepy lobster-like creature grows in your spine when you are scared. And of course, he calls this spine tingling crustaceany thing The Tingler!

INTERESTING FACT -- The Tingler is the first film to show the movie-fied effects of the psychedelic drug LSD in a scene where Vincent Price freaks out on acid. 

WANNA SEE?!? OF COURSE YOU DO!!

When they originally showed the film in theaters, the great William Castle came up with an almost completely insane (and hilarious) gimmick -- during a scene where The Tingler gets loose in the theater, the theater owners would SHOCK certain seats with a joy buzzer type contraption which he entitled PERCEPTO! Genius. I can only hope that one day I can be PERCEPTO'd.

As you can see, this manual was sent to all the theater owners by Columbia Pictures to show them how to hook up these crazy things to the seats. They were apparently powered by car batteries, and controlled from the projection booth. They were cued by a moment where the screen goes black and Vincent Price yells...

"THE TINGLER IS LOOSE IN THE THEATER! 

EVERYBODY, SCREAM! SCREAM FOR YOUR LIVES!"

There was another part to the gimmick as well. The theater would hire a couple of girls to scream and freak out, running around the theater and fainting during the "SCREAM FOR YOUR LIVES!!" scene. They would then be dragged out on a stretcher by a couple of ushers, while the audience freaks out, or laughs at them for being stupidly scared.

GAH! I WANT TO SEE THIS IN A THEATER IN 1959! GIVE ME A DANG TIME MACHINE, YOU LAZY SCIENTIST JERKS!

You can download the PERCEPTO manual for The Tingler HERE!!

Oh, and if you're looking for an early Christmas gift for me, well you can just go buy me a Tingler.

Enjoy! And don't forget to SCREAM!! SCREAM FOR YOUR LIVES!!

A New Leaf -- Lobby Cards

So, in 1971 there was this movie called A New Leaf. It's one of the best comedies of all time, but almost nobody has seen it, because... well, I'm not sure. It is insanely hilarious. 

It's the story of a rich guy played by Walter Matthau who runs through his entire inheritance and decides to go against his better judgement (and perhaps attraction) and find a rich woman to marry... and kill. He eventually finds and marries the extremely annoying (but insanely rich) Henrietta, who's played by the writer and director Elaine May. 

This is by far, Walter Matthau's greatest role. He plays the stuck up rich snob role perfectly. His total annoyance with everything, but mostly with Elaine May's hilariously annoying character, is brilliantly performed.

To me, this is a perfect film.

Unfortunately, almost nobody knows about this classic. The film was taken away from Elaine May during post-production and more than an hour of the film was cut, including an entire subplot with a blackmailer. And just like Elaine May's other films, The Heartbreak Kid and Ishtar (yes, really), it's been sadly under-seen and underrated by the majority. But, hopefully that'll change soon, when it's finally released on DVD and Blu-Ray... thanks again to the gods at Olive Films.

Since it's finally being released on a digital format, I hereby present to you the awesome original lobby cards from this amazing movie. Enjoy!

The Girl in Gold Boots Memorabilia (Part 4 of 3)

So you thought the last post was the end, eh? No more of that stuff that movie about go-go dancers and drugs? You thought it was the end of my Girl in Gold Boots stuff, didn't you? Didn't you?!

Well, so did I. But then these things appeared on the electronic bay interweb site, and obviously I had to purchase them. 

So here we go, four more of the promotional photos from Ted V. Mikels' Girl in Gold Boots!

The ¡Three Amigos! Novelization

Hello there El Guapos and Guapettes, and welcome to today's post -- the ¡Three Amigos! novelization!

I don't have to tell you how much I love this film, since I'm sure you already know.

The novelization... well, not so much. It pretty much takes everything funny about the film and turns it into something like a depressing reenactment from America's Most Wanted. The jokes fall flat, the descriptions are terribly unpleasant, and for some reason they make Lucky Day a kind of abusive, self-centered jerk, which is kind of soul-crushing. 

One thing the author should be commended for though, is for doing the impossible -- making the "My Little Buttercup" song completely unbearable. Although, that's not really something to be proud of.

The best thing about this book (besides the photos) is the inclusion of a few of the deleted scenes in the story, including the introduction of the Amigos in the studio mansion and their interactions with their butler and maid. They also include the extended scene of the Amigos meeting with Harry Flugelman that's on the Blu-Ray which is pretty groovy, if you ask me.

Oddly, in the photos section of the book, they include a photo from a deleted scene that's not even represented in the book. It's a photo of Lucky and Ned tied to some sort of obscure torture device while Dusty shoots at what is apparently El Guapo.

Well, that's pretty much it. I'm not going to scan the entire book for you, because

     a) That'd take me a really long time.

     b) I don't feel like it.

     c) You can get the book for ONE PENNY on Amazon.com.

I did, however, scan the photo pages and, well, here they are.

CLICK on the photos to enable the ENLARGE-O-MATIC PHOTO EMBIGGENER®!!

A closer look at the photo from the deleted scene.

Have fun, I guess.