“The Funniest Comedian I Ever Ate” (July, 1963)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Call Me Bwana (1963) Danjaq :: Eon Productions :: United Artists / EP: Harry Saltzman / P: Albert R. Broccoli / AP: Stanley Sopel / D: Gordon Douglas / W: Nate Monaster, Johanna Harwood, Mort Lachman, Bill Larkin / C: Ted Moore / E: Peter R. Hunt / M: Muir Mathieson, Monty Norman / S: Bob Hope, Anita Ekberg, Edie Adams, Lionel Jeffries, Percy Herbert

Random Drive-In Mash-Up :: Set Your Sights on the Tastiest Game of All. (September, 1973)

 

 

 

 

 

The SHOCK of Your Life! Plus Multiple other Thrils, Chills, Terrors and Amazements! Also, Communists. (April, 1952)

 

 

 

Jungle Headhunters (1951) RKO Radio Pictures / P: Julian Lesser / W: Joseph Ansein, Larry Lansburgh / S: Lewis Cotlow

The Whip Hand (1951) RKO Radio Pictures / EP: Howard Hughes / P: Lewis J. Rachmil / D: William Cameron Menzies / W: George Bricker, Frank L. Moss, Roy Hamilton, Stanley Rubin / C: Nicholas Musuraca / E: Robert Golden / M: Paul Sawtell / S: Carla Balenda, Elliott Reid, Edgar Barrier, Raymond Burr, Lurene Tuttle

Second Run Showcase :: A Great New Thrill in Movie Enjoyment! (March, 1954)

 

 

 

Bit of a CinemaScope hangover, here. But I just love the moxie of The Island theater not backing down from the big boys with their new “Wide-Vision Screen”!

The CinemaScope Blogathon :: Takes You Into a Realm of Entertainment Never Photographed Before! (March, 1954)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The post is part of ClassicBecky’s Brain Food and Wide Screen World’s CinemaScope Blogathon. Be sure click on over and check out all the other wonderful entries. And be sure to check out all the other CinemaScope ads already posted with this handy linkage.

Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953) Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation / EP: Darryl F. Zanuck / P: Robert Bassler / D: Robert D. Webb / W: A.I. Bezzerides / C: Edward Cronjager / E: William Reynolds / M: Bernard Herrmann / S: Robert Wagner, Terry Moore, Gilbert Roland, J. Carrol Naish, Richard Boone

Trapped in the Forbidden Amazon! Horror from a Lost Age! Biggest Double-Excitment Show of Them All! (December, 1956)

 

 

 

 
Curucu, Beast of the Amazon (1956) Jewel Productions :: Universal Pictures / P: Richard Kay, Harry Rybnick / AP: Edward B. Barison, Jeffrey Mitchell / D: Curt Siodmak / W: Curt Siodmak / C: Rudolf Icsey / E: Terry O. Morse / M: Raoul Kraushaar / S: John Bromfield, Beverly Garland, Tom Payne, Harvey Chalk, Larri Thomas

The Mole People (1956) Universal International Pictures :: Universal Pictures / P: William Alland / D: Virgil W. Vogel / W: László Görög / C: Ellis W. Carter / E: Irving Birnbaum / M: Heinz Roemheld, Hans J. Salter, Herman Stein / S: John Agar, Cynthia Patrick, Hugh Beaumont, Alan Napier, Nestor Paiva

Man Against Man, Man Against Beast! (July, 1956)

 

 

 

 

The Proud Ones (1956) Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation / P: Robert L. Jacks / D: Robert D. Webb / W: Edmund H. North, Joseph Petracca, Verne Athanas (novel) / C: Lucien Ballard / E: Hugh S. Fowler / S: Robert Ryan, Virginia Mayo, Jeffrey Hunter, Walter Brennan, Arthur O’Connell

Manfish (1956) Planet Filmplays :: United Artists / P: W. Lee Wilder / D: W. Lee Wilder / W: Myles Wilder, Joel Murcott, Edgar Allan Poe (story) / C: Scotty Welbourne / E: Gerald Turney-Smith / M: Albert Elms / S: John Bromfield, Lon Chaney Jr., Victor Jory, Barbara Nichols, Tessa Prendergast

It’s BIG! It’s FUN! Thrill and Horror Show! (May, 1965)

 

 

 

The Most Exciting Original Motion Picture Event of All Time! (December, 1976)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
“No one cry when JAWS die. But when the monkey die, people gonna cry. Intellectuals gonna love Kong; even film buffs who love the first Kong gonna love ours. Why? Because I give them no crap. I no spend two, three million to do quick business. I spend 24 million on my Kong. I give them quality. I got here a great love story, a great adventure. And she rated PG. For everybody.” .

                             — Dino De Laurentiis / TIME Magazine ’76

 
I remember the pre-release publicity blitzkrieg for Dino De Laurentiis’ much ballyhooed remake hitting big in the fall of ’76, mostly because I remember the back to school shopping where I pitched one helluva fit to get a tablet with a picture of a royally pissed off Kong shredding through a giant wall.
 

 
I had no idea who John Berkey was back then, but I think we can all agree that if the finished product had turned out just half as good as his promotional artwork, we’d all probably have fonder memories of the 1976 version of King Kong instead of the lingering aftertaste of the giant turd-burger it turned out to be. But the eternal question still remains: Just what the hell is that smoldering thing Kong is holding in his other hand? It started life as a jet, right?
 

Right.

 
Anyhooo … Over the subsequent years since I finally saw its broadcast premiere as a movie of the week, my feelings on this film have softened a bit. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still no damned good but it can be watched and enjoyed and celebrated for its myriad of faults. From Jessica Lange’s vapid Dwan, to Jeff Bridges’ proto-Dude, to Lorenzo Semple’s groan inducing, male chauvinist pig ape script, to the Big D’s failure to deliver the goods, F/X wise, and Rick Baker’s noble but ultimately futile attempts to bail them all out, one can only watch and boggle at how bad it is. Yeah, I’m still a little bitter and peeved about the lack of other monsters on Skull Island. I mean…
 

What? A giant snake? That’s it?

 
Where the @#%* were the dinosaurs? He’s supposed to wrassle dinosaurs, not a giant phallic symbol! You already covered that at the wall with that big greasy pole and the giant glory hole made of reeds and palm fronds! Okay, maybe I’m still a whole lot of bitter and peeved about that.
 

 
Ah well, at least I’ll always have my Burger King collectible glasses.
 

 
King Kong (1976) Dino De Laurentiis Company :: Paramount Pictures / EP: Federico De Laurentiis, Christian Ferry / P: Dino De Laurentiis / D: John Guillermin / W: Lorenzo Semple Jr. / C: Richard H. Kline / E: Ralph E. Winters / M: John Barry / S: Jessica Lange, Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodin, Rene Auberjonois, Julius Harris, Ed Lauter

Second Run Showcase :: A Prehistoric Mountain of Hair and Muscle (August, 1933)

 

 

Other Points of Interest:

First run King Kong ads at the Morgue.

Full film review of King Kong at 3B Theater.

The poster campaign for King Kong at the Archive.

King Kong (1933) RKO Radio Pictures / EP: David O. Selznick / P: Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack / D: Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack / W: James Creelman, Ruth Rose, Edgar Wallace (story) / C: Eddie Linden, Vernon Walker, J.O. Taylor / E: Ted Cheesman / M: Max Steiner / S: Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot, Frank Reicher, Noble Johnson