Bonus Film Flashback Force Edition July 15, 1977 (Han Shot First!)

If you lived in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and you saw Star Wars in the the theatre before July 15, 1977 you went to a different county to do it because Star Wars didn't arrive at the Cinema_One until this date 43 years ago. It debuted in Nashville on June 17, 1977 at Cinema North and South and was one of the movies which played the Hermitage Four's grand opening. I didn't see Star Wars during the first week or so at the Cinema. It was probably a couple of weeks later when I went with my mother to view it. The theater was packed and we sat in the very last row. It was quite thrilling and really perfect viewing for a 10 year old boy who was already mad for outer space thanks to the Apollo missions and a steady diet of Asimov's science fiction and non-fiction books from the library. I'm not going to write about the film itself as I believe everyone is either familiar with it or will become familiar with it. Pop culture wise the movie was a behemoth dominating mass media and the public imagination that year. You really had to be there to truly understand it. I ended up with a few Star Wars figures later that year, but never snagged one of those sweet Millennium Falcon toys. I played Star Wars with friends, but I actually liked my Micronauts figures more and would often incorporate them into our own imaginary Star Wars saga. Baron Karza fit right in with Darth Vader. One thing I do remember well is that nobody ever wanted to play as Luke. He was much too immature in the movie and he came across as whiney at times (which was the point of course). We all wanted to be Han Solo. After all, he shot first and I will never forgive Lucas for tampering with his own damn movie when it was perfect the way it was originally in 1977.

Trivia: The Woody Guthrie biopic Bound For Glory was the movie that played the Cinema_One right before the Star Wars run. The Other Side of Midnight was the movie that played after the first almost 6 week run ended. Star Wars was the Cinema_One's greatest box office hit at this point in time which makes sense. You could see the movie for just a $1 on the last night it ran August 25, 1977 per the ad ran in the Daily News Journal.

Nashville ad from June 12, 1977 Sunday Showcase

Original trailer

August 25, 1977 Ad

Star Wars toy commercial

Across town at Jackson Heights Plaza the Martin Twin was offering Smokey and the Bandit and Greased Lightning. I've written about Smokey and the Bandit before as it played several times in various theaters in 1977 and 1978. When it played on HBO later on I would watch it over and over. I watched the horribly edited version on network television when it premiered. It was and still is one of my favorite movies of all time and, luckily, Hal Needham never went back to tinker with it like Lucas did with Star Wars. 

I didn't see Greased Lightning at the theater. Even though it was rated PG, Richard Pryor was well known to my parents as being a foul mouthed comedian so my parents weren't going to let me see that one. Which is a shame as it would have nice to see on the big screen. It's the story of NASCAR's first black racer Wendell Scott and the film also features Pam Grier. It's no Star Wars or Smokey and the Bandit, but it's pretty good.  

TV spots 1977

Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper: The Ballad of Wendell Scott

Marbro Drive-In has couple of movies. One is the 1975 William Castle production Bug all about mutant cockroaches which can start fires. The tagline's for this bonkers film are great:

They Look Like Rocks...Possess A High Intelligence...Have No Eyes...And Eat Ashes...They Travel In Your Car Exhaust...They Make Fire...They Kill.

You may be their next meal!

They kill...

The Picture You See With Your Eyes Closed.

Out of the worst nightmare!

The other movie playing there is the 1976 remake of King Kong. I wanted to see this one in the theatre, but had to wait to see it on network television years later. My friend K.D. had a poster of Kong standing atop the World Trade Center Twin Towers in his bedroom. I thought that was pretty cool. It's not a bad remake, but the 1933 original is still mind blowing to this day. 

William Castle was something else

Film Flashback June 19, 1977

June 19, 1977 was a Sunday so it's a perfect afternoon and evening to see some movies. Here is what was playing in Murfreesboro, Tennessee on that date. The Marbro has a couple of movies that probably wouldn't do much business with the after evening church service crowd....or perhaps they would. 

Girls On The Road from 1972 is about a couple of girls who pick up a Vietnam war veteran on their way to a hippie encounter session. Ralph Waite of The Waltons fame plays the hippie guru. A serial killer begins knocking girls off and it might be the Vietnam veteran played by Michael Ontkean probably most known for Slap Shot and the television show The Rookies. It's quite typical of youth exploitation films of its time. 

The other cinema classic at the Marbro is Satan's Cheerleaders which is about a janitor at a high school kidnapping the cheerleaders to use for a coven's rituals. One thing he didn't count on was one of the girl's is a witch herself and there's this head scratcher too....the coven needs to sacrifice a virgin so I don't know what the janitor was thinking as there were no virginal cheerleaders in Seventies b-movies.  I have never seen this film, but the trailers are definitely enticing. The Munsters Yvonne De Carlo is in the movie. 

Girls On The Road trailer

Satans Cheerleaders trailer for PG version

And another different trailer

Cinema_One's matinee offering The Last Tycoon which is the last movie directed by Elia Kazan. It boasts an all star cast with Tony Curtis, Robert Mitchum, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Jeanne Moreau, and Donald Pleasence to name but a few. F. Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished novel was about a Hollywood producer working himself to death so it was perfect fodder for a movie. I have not seen this movie, but I have liked most of the film's I've seen directed by Kazan so I may have to view it someday.

The Last Tycoon trailer

I had yet to see Smokey and the Bandit which was in its 4th big week at the Martin Twin, but it would still be playing when I did see it during the 2nd week of July. I've written about this movie before when it played at Cinema_One on January 31, 1978 so you can read my original summary there if you like. Suffice it to say, I love this movie and if not for a little space opera called Star Wars it might have been the top money maker of 1977. 

The Buford Pusser movie franchise's Final Chapter: Walking Tall was also playing and the Walking Tall films always did well at the Martin. Bo Svenson reprises his role as Pusser after taking over in the second film in the series. The real life Buford Pusser used to make personal appearances at car dealerships after the first film was released and was going to play himself in the sequel before dying in a one car accident when his Corvette struck an embankment at high speed in 1974. He was and still is a folk legend here in Tennessee. Final Chapter recounts lots of the events from the first 2 films and then ends with Pusser's death. Somehow it became a television series a few years later. I must admit I enjoyed the TV show and the first movie, but not this one. 

80 thousand dollars

Final Chapter Walking Tall shout factory trailer

Film Flashback January 31, 1978

It was a Tuesday in Murfreesboro, Tennessee on January 31, 1978. It got up to 31 degrees that day. You could stay in and watch Happy Days or you could go out and see the Fonz on the big screen. Except he's not the Fonz in Heroes. He's Vietnam War vet Jack Dunne suffering from post traumatic stress disorder who busts out of the mental hospital with a dream of starting a worm farm. Then he meets Carol Bell on a bus. Sally Field plays a woman about to be married having second thoughts. Harrison Ford is in it too. I believe I did talk my mother into letting me see this one alone at the Martin Twin while she went shopping since it had Henry Winkler in it. The Fonz was the absolute apex of pop culture television alpha males back then. Heroes ran often on HBO in 1979 and I definitely saw it several times on television. I wanted to like it, but it's just not that good a movie. Comedy and drama is hard to mix. 

My mother went with me to see Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot. It's terrible, but it's about Bigfoot so all is forgiven. I was Bigfoot and Loch Ness monster crazed in the 70's as most little boys were. There were sightings of Bigfoot and lake monsters all over the place. This movie was in its 3rd big week at a time when movies didn't usually stick around that long since there were only 5 screens in all of Rutherford County. The outdoor footage is pretty well done, but there's no real story there. The whole movie is on YouTube. 

Smokey and the Bandit was back on the big screen again in Murfreesboro playing at Cinema One. If not for Star Wars, the Burt Reynolds smash would have been the biggest movie of 1977. I had seen it way back in July of '77 at the Martin Twin with my cousins who were visiting from Memphis and Mississippi. I loved it then and I still love it today. I'm pretty sure I've seen this movie more than any other. Sally Field plays another would be bride running off from her wedding in this case. Jackie Gleason shines as Buford T. Justice of Portague County which is not a real county in Texas. Jerry Reed's music and acting chops enliven the proceedings too. The boys over at Redneck Matinee have a podcast dedicated to this classic trucker movie. The movie belongs to the Bandit though. Burt Reynolds's good ol' boy charm is perfected here. It's not his best movie, but it is essential viewing for its CB radio chatter and vision of the new South which was on the rise in the Seventies. I recommend you skip the sequels. 

The Marbro Drive-In has a couple of movies on their last night. Rod Steiger plays Benito Mussolini in The Last 4 Days which is about Mussolini's failed attempt to escape the Italian partisans. It is paired with Girls In Trouble  which is somehow billed as a comedy about ladies various attempts at having abortions. I think I would have to skip that night at the Marbro. There's an Italian language trailer for The Last 4 Days and Rod Steiger is intense as El Duce. I couldn't find one for Girls In Trouble. As Siskel and Ebert liked to say. The balcony is closed. Another Film Flashback will be posted next Friday at 6AM barring some major catastrophe.