Our first stop is Jackson Heights Plaza to see what's playing at the Martin Twin. Stand up comic Steve Martin becomes a movie star and future all time great with the Carl Reiner flick The Jerk. This is one I wasn't allowed to see due to its R rated. I was allowed to see his HBO special and even buy his book Cruel Shoes, but R rated films were out of the question. I was only 13 and should have been smart enough to sneak into the movie, but instead I went and saw Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I had to learn about The Jerk from my more savvy friends. My school bus driver (bus 84!), Bart Yeagan, would sometimes play Martin's albums if there were no elementary age kids on the bus. I finally saw the movie a few years later either on cable or regular television. I didn't find it as amusing as I thought it would be. Too much hype in my head I suppose. It is a really funny film that has grown on me over the years.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a film that was very successful at the time which relaunched the franchise, but it didn't get great reviews. I vividly remember going to see it. I was into sci-fi, but had never been a huge fan of the show. I wouldn't really get into the TV show until it was rerun a few years later on Channel 17. The movie was a big event and I didn't want to miss it. It was slow and it did spend lots of time on reintroducing the principal cast, but I didn't mind the endless shuttle rides to the Enterprise. The special effects were well done and the main plot was engaging. Here's a review from a future Nashville Scene editor; a then 14 year old Jim Ridley featured in the Murfreesboro Press. You should be able to click and zoom to make it readable. Jim passed away much too young in 2016 and I have loved his writing since he began as a teenager.
The Cinema One was showing The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh which I didn't get to see there, but I would end up watching repeatedly on HBO. It starred Julius Erving and Jonathan Winters along with Stockard Channing. It wasn't a big hit. I think it's considered a flop, but it made some money. It's no flop with me. The scene where Dr. J as Moses Guthrie just shoots hoop in a deserted playground court alone is worth the price of admission for me....heck I could watch him do only that for 2 hours and be happy. It's a silly sports comedy about how an astrologer named Mona Mondieu, played by Stockard, arranges for the Pittsburgh basketball team to be filled with compatible Pisces which turns them into winners. I think this movie deserves a Criterion release just because the versions that are floating around now are all cut up for some reason. May the fish be with you.
The Marbro Drive-In had a pair of great films on January 10, 1980. Alien was on its second run and if you missed it the first time the drive-in would have been a fun place to see it. I would see it when it played HBO managing to talk my mother into letting me see an R rated film. It's the classic haunted house in space movie that you need to see if you haven't. Race With The Devil is a real corker starring Warren Oates, Peter Fonda, and Loretta Swit. A couple of vacationing couples witness a Satanic sacrifice and then are chased all over while driving a Winnebago. Warren Oates's character drives a motorcycle into some water and falls off then mutters the line, "I'm getting too old for this shit" so take that Lethal Weapon movies. It's ludicrous, but is downright creepy and it has a quintessential 70's ending.
If you're curious about what channels were carried on Murfreesboro cable back in early 1980, the guide is below. WTBS and KTVU were favorites along with HBO, but the one I loved the most was Nickelodeon. I might have to write a post about those early Murfreesboro cable days. Another film flashback will be released on January 17.
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