Film Flashback March 27, 1979

Dateline: March 27, 1979. 

My age: 12

City: Murfreesboro

State: Tennessee

Grade: 6th at Mitchell-Neilson Elementary

Teachers: Mrs. Pittenger home room and English, Mr. Price social studies, Mrs. Adkerson math, Mrs. Cantrell science, Coach Hedrick gym, Mrs. Kidd music. There was an art teacher too, but I forget her name. Mrs. Davis also taught English and we went to a roller skating party along with her class.

That's the setting for this week's Film Flashback. Martin Twin has a tearjerker drama and a Star Wars inspired (that sounds better than rip off, right) space caper.

Ice Castles stars Lynn-Holly Johnson and Robby Benson. Lynn-Holly Johnson plays a competitive figure skater who makes a comeback after an accident blinds her. Johnson was an actual ice skater who had toured as a member of the Ice Capades. I've seen bits of this one over the years, but don't recall ever seeing the whole movie. Female figure skating was very popular with the success of Peggy Fleming in 1968 and Dorothy Hamill in the 1976 Olympics. 

Starcrash is a bonkers space adventure starring former child evangelist Marjoe Gortner. David Hasselhof and Christopher Plummer are also in this ridiculous tale about fighting the evil Count Zarth Arn. The trailer should clue you in to the level of insanity present in this B movie. 

The Marbro Drive-In has a couple more B movies on offer. There's Groove Tube which must have inspired The Kentucky Fried Movie. It's a bunch of skits poking fun at television. Then there's the slightly raunchy Flesh Gordon which spoofs the original Flash Gordon serials. Emperor Wang of the planet Porno is going to unleash his devious Sex Ray on Earth which will turn us all into sex fiends. I've never seen it, but remember seeing the title when I was a teenager and I imagined it was really smutty. Judging by the trailer it's not as smutty as I thought and the special effects do look decent for a budget exploitation movie. 

The best offering of this week was over the Cinema One. The Ralph Bakshi directed The Lord of the Rings would play for two weeks at Cinema One. I think everyone is familiar with the tale of Frodo by now, but in the late Seventies being a fan of Tolkien meant you were probably weren't completely in the mainstream although The Silmarillion had been a pretty big bestseller. The librarian at Mitchell-Neilson recommended I read The Hobbit back in 3rd grade and I never looked back. 

Hope to see you again next week as we jump forward a year.