Flashback 1981 - FLASH! CLASH! SLASH!

A selection of pages from British movie magazines of 1981. 

The highlight of 1980's Christmas holidays was easily Dino De Laurentiis' Flash Gordon, which didn't need much advertising with Queen's theme song riding high in the charts.

Photoplay, January

The above advert pinpoints when Flash Gordon opened in London and then around the country. The superb artwork is by Renato Casaro. (Film On Paper interview Renato Casaro).

Photoplay, January

Flash Gordon was played by Sam Jones, then almost completely unknown. These magazines had to remind us that he'd had a brief role in Blake Edwards' 10, playing Bo Derek's boyfriend.

Film Review, January

Unusually, Film Review ran an offer on original Flash Gordon film posters - UK quads for only 95p each! I've not seen official cinema posters being officially sold like this before or since! Yes, I've still got one.

Photoplay, January

The Stuntman was fun, with Peter O' Toole playing a crazed movie director (who he based on David Lean!). This article points out it was delayed in getting released, having been shot in 1978. It appeared in cinemas later in the year.

Photoplay, January

Director Richard Rush (kneeling), Peter O'Toole and Steve Railsback making The Stuntman.

Film Review, January

A tribute to Steve McQueen who'd passed away in November, 1980. In Britain, we'd only just seen his last film The Hunter.

To kick off a busy summer, here comes Superman... II. The newspapers were buzzing about how Richard Donner, Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman had left the production when they discovered they'd made two films, while only being paid for one. Well, that was the story. The producers had performed a similar trick with The Three/Four Musketeers. Having lost the director, Richard Lester completed this second film, Susannah York replaced Marlon Brando as Superman's parental guidance, and Gene Hackman's scenes were very obviously finished with a body double (who mostly kept his back to the camera). Despite all this, the film was hugely successful and an enjoyable crowd-pleaser with just the right amount of humour. Years later, Richard Donner released his own Director's Cut on DVD, notably less humorous than Richard Lester's approach.

Films and Filming, April

While General Zod is the most memorable character in the film, Terence Stamp's face isn't even shown in the artwork (just the back of his head!) and he doesn't get a 'supporting cast' photo either.

Film Review, May

British film had a great boost from Chariots of Fire, again given free publicity from the hit single from Vangelis' soundtrack. The story of olympic runners didn't inspire me into the cinema though. Ben Cross (top left) emerged as the star of the film, but his career soon descended into US horror movies. His 'opponent' Ian Charleson (top right) later starred in Dario Argento's Opera (1987) but died far too young, soon afterwards.

Film Review, May

A far more interesting British film appeared at the same time. The Long Good Friday is the twisty tale of ambitious London gangsters. It also nailed the political mood of a country about to embrace Thatcherist consumerism. It established Bob Hoskins as a star and, for a while, Helen Mirren.

Film Review, May

Robin Williams' first starring role. I went to see Robert Altman's Popeye because Mork and Mindy was funny. Before buying my ticket, I was unaware that this was a musical, and also an origin story where Popeye took his sweet time becoming Popeye. Shelley Duvall appeared a great deal happier in this than she had in the previous year's The Shining.

Film Review, May

Here's a great double-page spread of Disney's Herbie Goes Bananas and... David Cronenberg's Scanners! No, it wasn't a double-bill.

Film Review, May

David Cronenberg continued with his run of graphic 'body horror' movies. Because of Scanners' science-fiction element, and a lack of violence featuring guns or knives, the moments of explosive gore bypassed any censor cuts. Videodrome wouldn't be so lucky...

Film Review, June

Weird paste-up poster with a lousy tagline. Posters were losing their touch. Especially in underselling a gutsy action-packed thriller like Nighthawks. With Rutger Hauer as a baddy, just before Blade Runner.

Film Review, June

Halloween and Friday the 13th had initiated the decade of the slasher. Tobe Hooper joined in with the weirdly bloodless The Funhouse, here supported by My Bloody Valentine, which wasn't bloody because much of the gore had been censored. Only the recent DVD special edition restored the scenes we'd first seen in the pages of Fangoria.

Film Review, July

Another Canadian horror classic (again with the bloodiest bits removed), Happy Birthday To Me is now more enjoyable as a whodunnit.

Film Review, July

The clear winner at the box office - Friday continued to thirteen. I remember seeing this on the afternoon of July 29th that year, in order to escape the blanket media coverage of Charles and Diana's wedding.

Film Review, July

Another summer, another Roger Moore Bond movie. There were far fewer gadgets in For Your Eyes Only as Bond came down to Earth (after Moonraker) for a tough, stunt-heavy, spy adventure.

Sword and sorcery films were a parallel genre to compete or cash in with the fantasy adventure of Star Wars mania. 

Film Review, August

Even Clash of the Titans' Bubo the clockwork owl had a whiff of R2-D2. It was Ray Harryhausen's final feature film.

Film Review, August

John Boorman's Excalibur had an interesting cast, but reminded me too much of Monty Python and The Holy Grail without the laughs. Well it still got a few laughs.

Film Review, August

Another Muppet movie - they became regular events for a few years.

Film Review, August

Time Bandits, Terry Gilliam's dark fairy tale, featured a couple of Python cameos, like his first solo film Jabberwocky. But here he'd imagined a spectacular time-travelling story and the special effects to visualise them, culminating in Good literally fighting Evil. Like The Long Good Friday, this was produced by Handmade Films.

Film Review, August

Another big summer movie was of course Raiders of the Lost Ark, though the poster art looked pretty drab in black and white. The many action set pieces and supernatural climax took me completely by surprise - I thought the poster completely undersold it!

Film Review, August

In the seventies, Ken Russell had a great run of making interesting new films almost yearly. But there was a gap after Valentino for a couple of years while he made Altered States, followed by an even longer gap before his controversial Crimes of Passion. In 1981, I was happy to see my first, first-run Ken Russell movie in the cinema. The bonus being that it was science fiction,with special effects by make-up maestro Dick Smith. The climax of the film may now only be familiar for inspiring the pop video for A-ha's 'Take On Me'!

Film Review, October

The film confirmed William Hurt as a star, and co-star Blair Brown is also still working, appearing recently as a regular cast member in J.J. Abrams' TV series Fringe. Both actors had to endure unusual and arduous full-body make-ups for the film. Much more about Altered States here.

Film Review, October

The Omen movie series was first announced as four films, but wound up as a trilogy (Omen IV was a TV movie). The best things about The Final Conflict are Sam Neill as the adult Damien and Jerry Goldsmith's grandiose soundtrack

Film Review, October

A busy summer continued with another from John Carpenter's run of cult classics. Kurt Russell had already starred before for Carpenter, in Elvis - The Movie!

Film Review, October

Michael Mann's first film Thief hit the UK with the title changed to Violent Streets. 

Films Illustrated, November

Another masterful Brian De Palma horror-edged thriller, his third with Nancy Allen. 

Films Illustrated, November

George Romero took a break from zombies with Knightriders, originally planned as knights on horseback rather than on motorbikes. I don't remember this getting a very wide release in the UK though.

Cinema, Winter Special

Cinema! A new magazine that lasted most of the following year (but infuriatingly displays no dates anywhere). The low quality pulpy paper, apart from a few splashy colour pages, weren't as attractive as the reviews and articles from many of the Starburst regulars. the first front cover (above) features hot property William Hurt in Body Heat.

Cinema, Winter Special

Rare photo of Harrison Ford and his sons Ben and Willard. Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark had already confirmed his star status.

Films Illustrated, December

For patrons of the sci-fi superstores of Forbidden Planet, there's plenty of history in this advert from the end of 1981. It mentions that Forbidden Planet began in London in 1978, then opened the New York store early in 1981. Then, in London, it splits into two shops - one for comics and books, the other for movie magazines and memorabilia. After this, it moved round the corner to New Oxford Street, before settling at its present site on Shaftesbury Avenue.

See more magazine flashbacks - here's 1980 - Apocalypse Now and The Empire Strikes Back... The other Flashbacks are linked in the sidebar at right.