Film Flashback December 13, 1978

We begin our trip back in time this week to what was showing in Murfreesboro, Tennessee on December 13, 1978 with a strange film in which Atticus Finch falls into some warped fabric of time becoming US diplomat Robert Thorn and perhaps due to the influence of his adopted son Damien he decides to mutate into Dr. Josef Mengele in the movie The Boys From Brazil. It's a rather bizarre turn to the dark side for actor Gregory Peck and the trailer shows him chewing up the scenery. Sir Laurence Olivier is also in the cast of this weird movie. I remember it showing up in the little HBO guide we'd get when we had cable and the blurb for it seemed pretty creepy scary to me. I have yet to see it and doubt I will, but the fact that YouTube advised me I might find the trailer offensive tempts me to want to watch it. It seems an odd movie to be showing around Christmas.

 I say let's skip that one and head to the outskirts of Murfreesboro to see what's playing at the theater I always called the Marlboro even though it was really the Marbro Drive In. You get a double shot of Cheri Caffaro tonight. Girls Are For Loving is a sleazy sexploitation film which involves insider trading and the CIA. She's Too Hot To Handle has Cheri playing a hit lady involved in spy capers in Manila. Both films are quite funky and fun.

The Martin Twin has got a couple of comedies. There's Almost Summer with Bruno Kirby and the very adorable Didi Conn. The title song is by Celebration featuring Mike Love with music by Brian Wilson. The other film playing is the now classic CHEECHyCHONG's Up In Smoke. It will make you feel very funny! Lots of great music in it too!

Bonus: The Daily News Journal would feature a family every year going out and shopping for Christmas. It was obvious that the places they visited had paid for these entries and the Martin Theatre made sure they were a part of these pieces that ran in November and December for years. I've been sharing them the last few weeks. Here's the one from 1978 that ran in the November 19th paper. The movies playing that week were National Lampoon's Animal House and Smokey And The Bandit. Not mentioned is the movie that the Mathieu family appears to be going to see: The Alaska Wilderness Adventure. It was a true story about a family moving to Alaska.