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.

Flashback 1979 (part one) - SUPERMAN, JAWS 2, THE WIZ, THE WARRIORS...

A look through British movie magazines published in 1979. Spread over two posts because it's picture-heavy... 


Photoplay Film Annual 1979

Revisiting the 1979 Photoplay Annual at the end of last year proved timely because I'd just seen Persistence of Vision, the documentary about how Richard Williams never completed this epic animated film The Thief and the Cobbler. Here he is in 1978 drawing caricatures of Vincent Price for the villain of the story.



Photoplay Film Annual 1979

This photo of Gene Wilder's Bel Air home in California includes a rare colour look at the portrait of his character's father in Young Frankenstein (1974). Er, I mean, Fronkensteen.

Film Review, January

The overdue sequel to The Guns of Navarone starring (pictured below) Harrison Ford, Robert Shaw (Jaws), Edward Fox (The Day of the Jackal) and Carl Weathers (halfway between Rocky and Predator). The bridge in the background is the target of their mission.

Photoplay Film Annual 1979

By the time Force 10 From Navarone was released, Robert Shaw had passed away, during the filming of Avalanche Express.



Film Review, January

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the cinema, Jaws returned. Jaws 2 followed Sweeney 2's lead by using a number '2' instead of the stuffy Roman numerals of Damien: Omen II and Exorcist II: The Heretic (and so on).

As you can see, Jaws 2 opened on Boxing Day. A summer movie in the USA that landed for the Christmas holidays in Britain!

Film Review, February

By the way, the ghastly half-eaten corpse of the killer whale was a full-sized prop built for the film. I know this because of the book of the making of the film - The Jaws 2 Log.

More about Jaws 2 here.

Film Review, February

As a general rule, I like Woody Allen films when he's trying to be funny and Clint Eastwood films when he isn't. I went to see it at the time because it was Clint, but the slapstick biker gang and orang-utan with terrible teeth haven't lured me back for a rewatch, despite Ruth Gordon.

Superman - The Movie landed before Christmas. Most of the newspaper stories focussed on Brando's salary. The publicity pushed the special visual effects developed for the flying sequences. The production team had experimented with some desperate methods to make human flight look realistic, including firing dummies out of a cannon. Wirework and bluescreen to the rescue!

Film Review, February

Film Review, May

Superman - The Movie proved so successful that it was still playing in West End cinemas six months after it had opened!






Films and Filming, February

Capricorn One is responsible for boosting the idea that the Moon missions were faked in a movie studio. The conspiracy angle is well portrayed but diluted by comedy and a heap of action. But the climactic helicopter chase scene is remains superbly thrilling.

More about Capricorn One here,



Film Review, March

Meanwhile, Britain was in a post-apocalyptic mood - the final Quatermass TV series was made independently (and shown on ITV) because the BBC thought Nigel Kneale's Quatermass script was too downbeat. Here's John Mills on the set of Ringstone Round. Also known as The Quatermass Conclusion.

More about Quatermass (1979) here.

America has always found Anthony Hopkins creepy. His first leading roles in the US were in horror films, long before The Silence of the Lambs - after Audrey Rose (1977) he had a hit with this creepy puppet murder mystery Magic.

Films and Filming, February

Photoplay, March

Damien: Omen II tracks the son of the Devil heading towards the White House. Anyone who stands in his way mysteriously removed by accidents and crazed animals... Notice above an early memorable role for Lance Henriksen, and the star of Roger Corman's The Tomb of Ligeia (1964), Elizabeth Shepherd (in red), returning to the horror genre as a haunted journalist with an unfortunate roadside manner.

After the success of The Omen, three sequels were announced. But Omen III: The Final Conflict wrapped up the story early.

More about Damien: Omen II here.



Film Review, April

Another winner based on an imaginative novel by Ira Levin (Rosemary's Baby, The Stepford Wives). The Boys From Brazil played upon then-current fears that many surviving senior Nazis were up to something in South America. Though surely Dr Mengele's ghoulish experience with cloning would surely have been welcomed in a dozen other countries?

Film Review, April

Philip Kaufman's (below right) Invasion of the Body Snatchers is more a sequel than a remake of the 1956 original. Kevin McCarthy (below left) even continues his role. Starring Donald Sutherland, Nancy Allen, Veronica Cartwright, Jeff Goldblum and Leonard Nimoy, it's found a new audience with new blu-ray releases in the UK and US.



Films and Filming, April

More about Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) here.

Battlestar Galactica first hit Britain as a movie, edited together from several TV episodes, mainly the first three of the series. The Sensurround rumble track added to the experience. Two more films were released before all the episodes were televised.



Film Review, June

Film Review, April

Despite not having a clue who was popular on Saturday Night Live (it was never broadcast in Britain), or what National Lampoon was and barely even knowing what a 'frat house' was, National Lampoon's Animal House was still a hit in Britain, serving as a skewed introduction to American college life.


When the war was over, Vietnam war films rapidly became a cliche. But The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now were major front-runners.


Photoplay, April

These early publicity photos from The Deer Hunter show the main characters in pre-war happiness. The photos that accompanied the reviews were usually from the shattering and controversial scenes of 'Russian roulette'.

Film Review, May

This was a huge hit for Robert De Niro and young Christopher Walken (above). The critics also praised John Cazale's performance, but publicity for the actor was more muted because he'd sadly passed away the previous year, The Deer Hunter his final film.

Photoplay, March





Film Review, May

Richard Beckinsale had also died prematurely, just as publicity was beginning for the BBC spin-off movie for Porridge, later released in the summer.






Film Review, May

I'd read about Fantasia but it still hadn't appeared on TV, like many of the major animated Disney films. This re-release was a rare chance to see it in the cinema with its original stereo sound restored.





Film Review, May

While Richard Williams was working on his tale of the Arabian Nights, this remake of The Thief of Baghdad arrived just before Arabian Adventure. Notice the completely insane pairing with another Spiderman live-action (TV) movie.

Film Review, May

After the success of Animal House, young director John Landis' previous comedy Kentucky Fried Movie had an overdue release in Britain. From the writers of Airplane, this sketch compilation is far less well-known, despite including a disaster movie spoof and the use of famous cameos with actors playing ridiculous situations straight-faced. 



Film Review, June

Here's director John Landis performing stunts in his fight with an escaped gorilla - actually a great Rick Baker suit. For their previous film together, John Landis had been made up by Baker as the titular missing link 'Schlock'. Later collaborations included extensive make-up effects in American Werewolf In London, Coming To America and Michael Jackson's Thriller. Baker had returned to low-budget films despite his extensive work on the 1976 King Kong blockbuster, for which he had very little credit.

Remake! The Wiz was an expansion of the hit Broadway musical that retold The Wizard of Oz with a black cast. Inventive reimaginings of the characters included early make-up effects from Stan Winston. The production substituted a tweaked version of Manhattan to represent Dorothy's journey to Oz, memorably the Brooklyn Bridge and the climax at the World Trade Centre. I'm not sure how this did in Britain but the double album soundtrack was certainly successful. 


Photoplay, May

Critics weren't fooled by 33 year-old Diana Ross playing Dorothy, but The Wiz needed star power. Richard Pryor has little more than a cameo and Michael Jackson was a rising pop star rather than a box office name. Note Joel Schumacher in the credits as screenwriter, building on his success with the script for Car Wash.

Photoplay, May

The title of the article says it all! Here's Kurt Russell portraying Elvis in a American TV movie directed by John Carpenter (this is before Escape From New York). Part of the rush to commemorate The King, who died in 1977. Kurt had been doing TV since his early run as a young star in Disney movies. This also known as Elvis - The Movie!

A sultry Jan-Michael Vincent as one of the three surfers up against Big Wednesday, written and directed by John Milius.

Film Review, June

Films Illustrated, June

After the critical success of Badlands, writer and director Terrence Malick spent a looooong time filming the epic western Days of Heaven. The exterior cinematography was mainly filmed during the 'magic hour' and the script was written during the shoot. The press savaged it because of the runaway budget and here it is opening at only one, smaller West End screen. Malick's continued attention to detail and refusal to rush into projects has encouraged his past work to be reappraised and celebrated.

Walter Hill's The Warriors had far more obvious appeal to teenaged me, and remains a mythic treat. The epic story of a street gang trying to elude every other in order to get to their home turf like, er, Dorothy. As in The Wiz, New York City is a romanticised backdrop, looking almost friendly compared to the nightmares encountered on this major location shoot around Manhattan.

Films and Filming, April

Gang violence was and is a huge problem and the tough image and promise of street fights made the Daily Mail do back flips as they continued to denounce 'screen violence'. Despite The Warriors only shedding one dribble of blood at the hands of the police. But actual gang fights in cinemas remained a problem in the US and the film had to be withdrawn there.

More about The Warriors here. 

My photos of The Warriors 'home turf' at Coney Island here.


Film Review, June

 

Film Review, June

The Lady Vanishes, the last official Hammer film for over thirty years was a successful Hitchcock remake but a long way from their roots of years of horror.