It was a Thursday night in Murfreesboro, Tennessee on April 3, 1980. New movies usually started on Friday so it would be your last chance to see Scavenger Hunt or the offerings at the Marbro Drive In. We'll begin at Cinema One this week. Scavenger Hunt is mildly amusing with Richard Benjamin, Ruth Gordon, and Scatman Crothers featured among many stars of the time. It's in the spirit of It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World. It's directed by Michael Schulz who also directed one of my favorite comedies of the Seventies Car Wash.
The Marbro Drive In has what is billed as 3 BIG HITS, but I think that's just advertising hyperbole in this case. Toga Party was originally titled Pelvis when it was first released in 1977, but it was rebadged in an attempt to ride in the coattails of National Lampoon's Animal House's success. It's about a guy moving to New York to make it in the music business. I haven't seen it, but the few reviews I've found say it is terrible and the scenes I saw in the Schlockmeisters review on YouTube seem to go out of their way to be offensive. Watch at your own risk as it definitely NSFW, but, really, it's perfect drive in fodder. Note: there is no actual toga party in the film according to Schlockmeisters.
The Young Graduates released in 1971 looks like it could be fun to see. It's one of many late 60's and early 70's movies about the youth culture of the time. A young girl has a fling with a married teacher, get's pregnant, and then goes on a road trip to Big Sur. It was billed with the tagline "A Report Card On The Love Generation."
Kidnapped Coed was originally titled Date With A Kidnapper. The Coed in the title ends up helping her kidnapper in a fairly standard film trope, but Leslie Rivers and Jack Canon play their roles very well in this B movie thriller. It's worth a watch sometime.
What's left to see in Murfreesboro on this night in the past? The Martin Twin offers up a country music success story and a summer camp comedy which turned out to be much deeper than to be expected.
Sissy Spacek won a Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter. Spacek does her own singing in the film. It's a straight biographical film which shows Loretta's life from her humble beginnings in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky to her rise to become a country music superstar. The movie is good and I did see it in the theater, but I'm a much bigger fan of Tammy Wynette and Tanya Tucker. There is a concert scene in the movie shot at Municipal Auditorium which I will cover in a Sunday Showcase review in a couple of weeks.
Little Darlings is the other movie on offer at the Martin on this evening. I doubt this movie could be made today as the main plot is two fifteen year girls betting who would lose their virginity first while at summer camp. Tatum O'Neal plays the rich girl Ferris while Kristy McNichol plays Angel who just happens to be a poor girl from the other side of the tracks. Hey a stuck up rich girl and a lower class tomboy....that sounds like Blair and Jo from The Facts Of Life.
What was marketed with an emphasis on sex and comedy the film is actually not exploitative. There is nuance in the story with quite a bit of drama. The character Ferris lies about a counselor and almost ruins his career, while Angel pairs off with Randy, played by Matt Dillon, and this experience leaves her in an emotionally uneasy state. Kristy McNichol is incredible as Angel. This is a film I wanted to see at the theater, but it was R rated so I had to wait until it came on cable. Even then I had to watch it on my black and white TV in my room with the sound down low. The movie is not available in the US on DVD or Blu-ray probably due to music licensing issues. You can stream it on Amazon for a couple of bucks at this time. I should watch it again. I couldn't find a trailer, but here's Siskel and Ebert's review of it....they both say no to it and I've added a nice Held Over ad from the next week.
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