Film Flashback August 21, 1981

Let's journey back to the age of myth when a now empty building once showed movies to people seeking entertainment, and air conditioning during the heat of summer. Clash of the Titans was playing at Cinema_One on August 21, 1981 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. I might very well have been in the audience on that day or perhaps I was over at the Martin Twin as I have seen 3 of the films playing there on this week.

Clash of the Titans was a big budget film about Perseus with lots of awesome Ray Harryhausen stop motion animation. He ticks off Thetis and falls in love with Princess Andromeda. There's a mechanical owl named Bubo and a flying horse named Bill.....no wait, it's Pegasus! Sir Laurence Olivier plays Zeus! Harry Hamlin in his pre-law days portrays Perseus. The movie combines myths freely and that's part of the fun. The Greek sea monster was named Cetus while Kraken came from Norwegian myth, but Kraken does sound better. I went to see this one as soon as I could having devoured books of mythology as a child. I loved it then and still do today.

Release the kraken!

Stripes was one of the movies playing at the Martin Twin. Since it was R rated the Bill Murray hit army flick was out of the question for me I saw Honky Tonk Freeway instead. I watched Stripes years later and found it hilarious. One my favorite actors Warren Oates plays the drill sergeant. Murray is John Winger who talks his best friend Russell Ziskey, played by Harold Ramis, into joining the army. John Candy as Dewey "Ox" Oxberger is a bonus treat. P.J. Soles as Stella is super cute as Murray's Winger introduces her to kitchen gadgets. This is a two in one film with its boot camp scenes in the first half and then becoming a military/spy spoof in the second half. 

Honky Tonk Freeway is a strange Altmanesque movie about a small Florida town called Ticlaw being bypassed by a new highway. John Schlesinger (who won an Oscar for directing Midnight Cowboy) helmed this box office bomb which reportedly lost up to 22 million dollars. When their attempt to bribe the highway commission fails to get them the off ramp the town led by their mayor, played by William Devane, paint the town pink and then blow up a bridge so highway travelers have to go through Ticlaw. There is a water skiing elephant too. The enjoyment comes from all of the different people who end up in the town. Lots of B and C level actors feature in it along with an A lister like Terri Garr who I love. I saw this one at the Martin and enjoyed it. I can understand why it bombed. There's lots of action, but with so many characters to keep up with it's a hard film to get engaged with because as soon as you become vested in a set of characters you move on to others. I've seen it recently and it's not a bad movie, but it's not great either.

Dat's dah fact jack!

Son, there ain't no draft no more.

Yep...goin to the Super Bowl.

The first movie about cannonball run races, The Gumball Rally, was in my last film flashback, and here we have the one actually written by Brock Yates called The Cannonball Run starring Burt Reynolds as J.J. McClure  and a plethora of other big stars. Hal Needham directed this romp about an unsanctioned cross country race so you count on awesome car stunts. It had gone through it's original theatre run and was now playing the Marbro. I saw this movie the first week it was out and thought it was pretty good. Farrah Fawcett was gorgeous. Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. were fantastic. This was one of Jackie Chan's first US roles. Dom DeLuise got on my nerves though. 

Burt Reynolds's classic W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings was also showing at the Marbro on this night. I could have swore I wrote about this film before, but I can't find it if I have. I love this movie which was shot in and around Nashville. The movie was being shown regularly on television by this date so it's just on the bill in order to have a Burt double feature plus you get the strangeness of both characters going by two initials. This film hasn't come out on DVD as far as I know, but the whole movie is on YouTube. The plot is simple: Burt is a grifter/gas station robber who befriends a country band while trying to avoid the law. He ends up becoming their manager and tries to get them on the Grand Ole Opry. Art Carney plays the detective assigned to catch W.W. and Don Williams and Furry Lewis have roles too. It's one of my favorite Burt Reynolds movies.

What about a black Trans-Am...no that's been done.

I don't give a dog about no Tennessee Vols.