Film Flashback May 15, 1979

Today's film flashback got eaten by zombies. My whole post full of movie summaries and pithy comments did not get saved. All of it gone in a split second. So instead of that glittering prize of a post you're going to have to settle for this one. May 15, 1979 was a Tuesday in Murfreesboro so that meant bargain seats at the Martin Twin.

Your choices on this spring night were Take Down and Dawn Of The Dead. If you wanted to see George A. Romero's Dawn Of The Dead you had to be at least 17 to get into it. It is the classic zombie tale set in the actual Monroeville Mall in Pennsylvania. The special effects are by Tom Savini and the music by Goblin. I didn't see it then since I was only 12, but I've seen it many times over the year and it never disappoints.

Take Down does boast the former and forever Marcia Brady, Maureen McCormick, so I am surprised I haven't seen it as I try to see anything with former Brady's in it. I couldn't find the trailer for it, but the whole film is on YouTube at this time so I'll put it in this post and see how long it lasts. The plot is about a snobbish teacher taking over the coaching duties of a wrestling team.

Norma Rae is playing over at Cinema One featuring an Academy Award winning performance from Sally Field. She plays a single mother who tries to unionize a textile factory. I've never seen it, but I do like Sally Field so I should take the time to view it one of these days. 

The other bargain choice for the night was on the north side of town at the Marbro Drive In. You never knew what you'd get there. Some nights it might be typical grindhouse fare, Academy Award winners, or children's films. On this night it was teenage comedy movies. Hometown U.S.A. is an American Graffiti homage (it wouldn't be nice to say ripoff) directed by Max Baer Jr. of The Beverly Hillbillies fame. It's about teenagers in the Fifties cruising around and had played at the Martin Twin just the week before. Cheering Section is about a high school football player wooing the coach's daughter. One reviewer at IMDB called it a "total waste of celluloid." I could not find trailers for either film so thus ends this film flashback. I'll be back next week with another of these posts if blogger doesn't eat it too. I don't think I could take another one gobbled up by ether net zombies. I will leave you with the Goblin "Dawn Of The Dead Theme" however and a giant ad that was in the May 11, 1979 DNJ.

GOBLIN