February 12, 2014

Flashback 1979 (part two) - MOONRAKER, ALIEN, THE BLACK HOLE, SCUM...

Continuing my look through British movie magazines published in 1979. Part 1 is here.





Always a favourite for the summer season, a new Bond movie. Moonraker was influenced by the sci-fi boom that started with Star Wars and there's even an awful in-joke referencing Close Encounters of the Third Kind. But 007 wasn't the only one to cash in. The rest of the year was dominated by outer space movies that had taken two years to get their special effects together...

Film Review, July




Film Review, July
Other summer movies include this late disco movie inspired by the dance competition of Saturday Night Fever. The Music Machine was named after the Camden nightclub (that's now Koko). Another disco dancer, another dance competition, but it's the views of 1970s' North London that I now enjoy.





Another British movie that's a little less summery. Scum burst onto the screen. Because the BBC had refused to show their 1977 version of it, the script was completely refilmed for the cinema, with many of the same cast including Ray Winstone in the lead. The main difference in this new adaption was that Carlin no longer has a male lover sharing his cell.

Films and Filming, July
There's rarely been such a violent and uncompromising British film. Scum portrays life in a boy's borstal for young offenders. The prison system complained about the film, while writer/director Alan Clarke insisted the events were all based in reality, the only licence taken was to compress the events into a single timeframe.

Films and Filming, July
While horror films had their violence and blood regularly censored, Scum packed many shocks for me as a teenager by being apparently uncut. Put me off borstal as well... 




Films and Filming, July
Werner Herzog's Nosferatu sneaked into cinemas before the new Hollywood adaption of Dracula. Klaus Kinski starred with Isabelle Adjani and Bruno Ganz.




Film Review, August
Ralph Bakshi's animated version of The Lord of the Rings ploughed through half the story of the trilogy in two hours. Problem was, Bakshi wasn't allowed to complete the story and make a second film. I waited thirty years for Peter Jackson's films to find out how the epic story ended! This version is undoubtedly an influence on the Jackson trilogy, with many scenes, characters and even accents carried over to the live-action films.

Photoplay, August




Film Review, August
The first movie for The Muppets. The Muppet Show was a raging success on TV, so let's make a movie. While Muppets used basic puppetry, Jim Henson pushed what was technically possible far further in this and The Great Muppet Caper (1981), and on to the limit with the non-Muppet fantasy, The Dark Crystal (1982).

 Note that this wordy advert was aimed at making sure the adults come and see it too.




Photoplay, August
"Star Wars with flying carpets...". Well. There are flying carpets in Arabian Adventure, but more importantly Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee!




Photoplay, August
Space adventure was big on TV and like Battlestar Galactica, the pilot movie for Buck Rogers in the 25th Century was also released in British cinemas, with a few extra, adult jokes.




Films Illustrated, September
Paul Schrader (above left) wrote and directed American Gigolo, casting Richard Gere (right) in the lead. The style and music of this story of an expensive male escort anticipated the 80s' obsessions with male fitness and grooming.




Film Review, September
Another BBC TV series with a big screen adaption, featuring Richard Beckinsale's final role. The actor passed away before the film appeared in cinemas. Note that the support film is the concert documentary about the first pop star from the west to perform in Russia. Elton John's recent Russian tour had a far rockier reception as he spoke out about the country's discriminatory laws against gay Russian citizens.




Film Review, September
A story of conspiracy and cost-cutting in the nuclear power industry, The China Syndrome was a fictional riff on elements of the Silkwood case (later filmed in 1983). This had an unexpected boost when a very similar meltdown event happened for real in Three Mile Island, two weeks after the US premiere!

Film Review, September
Fun to see Michael Douglas when he was young, hot, bearded and badly-dressed. But besides starring he also produced The China Syndrome. Note below the 16mm film camera was still being used for news gathering.

Photoplay, September




Films Illustrated, September
Drac's back! This time, as a big-budget adaption of the Broadway revival that played up the Count's sexuality but was subtle on fangs. Frank Langella repeated his stage role and this version was actually shot on location in England - but in Cornwall, not Whitby.


Dracula boasts Donald Pleasence as Dr Seward and Lawrence Olivier as Van Helsing (pictured below), with a lush score by John Williams (not pictured).

Film Review, October




Films Illustrated, September
The rush to use Harrison Ford as a leading man began as soon Star Wars was a hit. Presumably he wasn't yet fussy about scripts. Here he is with Lesley-Anne Down in the World War II romantic drama Hanover Street.






Advance publicity for The Village People movie Can't Stop The Music. Unfortunately the disco glitterball had burst by the time it was released the following summer.




Films and Filming, October
John Frankenheimer had made some superb films - The Manchurian Candidate, Seconds, Grand Prix, Birdman of Alcatraz, The Train... but Prophecy is far from his best. In fact, it's enjoyably terrible. With unconvincing rubber monsters, it compares badly to the far cheaper, earlier Grizzly for action and thrills. The lush cinematography and solid cast (Armand Assante, Talia Shire) work better as an eco-drama instead of a monster movie, with poor miniature work and a man-in-a-suit getting laughs even then.

Films and Filming, October





Alien's debut getting lost among the new releases. Ridley Scott wasn't yet a name, the cast wasn't 'A' list, the critics hadn't seen it yet...




Film Review, October
From the dates of these articles, and from what I remember, Scum and Quadrophenia both had standalone releases earlier in the year, but proved so popular that they quickly reappeared in this double-bill. Some bright spark eventually realised Ray Winstone was a highlight of both films, and That Summer and the star of the Scum TV play (1977) to name him a 'new face'...

Photoplay, November




Film Review, October
Any unused ideas that were too stupid for previous Airport films were then all thrown into this overloaded but entertaining disaster movie. The cockpit resembles an erotic dream with Sylvia Kristel (Emmanuelle) as an Air Stewardess and Alain Delon, the pilot.






'How to sell Alien' proved a problem for the sexy world of seventies' publicity. Sigourney Weaver's unflattering overalls has to be boosted by this glamorous model shoot...

Film Review, November
The Alien poster refused to give much away. It was a shock to finally see a full-length Alien in a photograph. More about the many early Alien magazines here.

Film Review, September


Film Review gave Alien a good spread inside, but another lousy front cover, lost amongst a Joan Collins sequel and a cheap Farrah Fawcett-Majors 'comedy'. The September release of Alien safely missed the Christmas duel of big-budget space movies...

Film Review, October
Alien's box office success meant that Film Review covered the film for a third month, this time with behind-the-scenes photos, including this rare upward angle of the full-size 'Navigator' set.

Film Review, November





In a spacey year, Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now finally hit cinemas. Marlon Brando's brief role was used heavily in the publicity. 




Films Illustrated, November
After the mammoth undertaking of the The Deep (1977), director Peter Yates probably fancied a smalltown drama with no special effects. Breaking Away is a cycling/coming-of-age comedy drama that gained him far better reviews. He was also ahead of the game with this young cast - pictured above are Jackie Earle Haley, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern and Dennis Christopher.




Film Review, November
The tape of things to come. Home video was still hugely expensive, the decks and the cassettes. But a lucky few could now watch family-favourites such as The Sound of Music and The Boston Strangler...




Photoplay, November
Cheech and Chong and, ahem, Stacy Keach in Up In Smoke. And Tom Skerritt has two movies in cinemas...




Film Review, November
Space wars! The battle of the Christmas movies! Star Trek - The Motion Picture opened in Leicester Square Odeon the day after The Black Hole opens at the Empire. But why choose? I saw both. To this day, I still consider The Black Hole a Christmas movie.

Films Illustrated, November
Films and Filming, October





All the movie magazine 'flashbacks' are linked in the sidebar at the right, as well as below...

Lawrence of Arabia and more from 1963

Blow Up, The Trip and more from 1967

Barbarella, Witchfinder General and more from 1968

Rosemary's Baby, When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth, Women In Love and more from 1969

M*A*S*H, Myra Breckinridge and more from 1970

The Devils, Deep End, double-bills and more from 1971








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4 comments:

  1. vwstieber12 February, 2014 17:13

    You only had to wait 3 years to see the animated LORD OF THE RINGS sequel, RETURN OF THE KING. Granted, it was not by Bakshi, but it had Orson Bean and John Huston returning. The script is pretty awful, with a good bit of the middle portion left out, but the art is quite nice.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Roger Edwards17 February, 2014 19:14

    It's actually a myth that the reason a sequel was never made was due to poor box office. The movie cost $4 million to make and took over $30 million at the box office.

    It's seems this excuse originated from United Artists themselves. The reality of the situation is that they had a tumultuous relationship with Ralph Bakshi and always struggled to "understand" the franchise. There simply wasn't the will to go there again with a second part.

    I believe there was some pre-production work done for the sequel.Some artwork on Bakshi's own site appears to show portions of Mordor.

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    Replies
    1. Mark Hodgson17 February, 2014 20:36

      Thank you, Roger. I'd no idea. I remembered the news that we weren't getting a sequel, but never heard why.

      Delete
  3. The Movie Waffler28 February, 2014 17:38

    What a great year! Just discovered this site, looking forward to digging through the archives

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