The Next CU:EVENT at the Egyptian Theatre.
Thursday, May 6th 7:30PM
CRIMINALLY UNKNOWN: FILM CREWS AMUCK!
CU is proud to present the ultimate FILM CREWS GONE CRAZY double bill. With an ultra rare 35mm double bill of EFFECTS and THE REAL THING aka TEENAGER! With special guests Dusty Nelson, John Harrison, Joseph Pilato, Pasquale Buba, Charles Hoyes from EFFECTS and Gerald Sindell and Sue Bernard from THE REAL THING! Screenwriter Josh Olson will be moderating the Q&A between films.
EFFECTS, a mind bending head trip decades ahead of it’s time. A labor of love for a small group of friends (members of the late 70’s Pittsburgh/George Romero circle.)
Without giving to much away, let’s just say, a lot like Mark Lester’s Class of 1984, what must have seen downright crazy then, is now ALL too believable. A festival run in 1980 garnered some nice reviews from Variety and others, but couldn’t save a film that had the balls, brains and death wish to alienate BOTH it’s potential audiences. Too much gore to be an art film and not enough to be a horror film, what your left with plays like a great lost Cronenberg film or a Jon Jost/John Cassavetes slasher movie, and one of the most genuinely CREEPY films ever made.
The film was in limbo for years, until John Harrison and Dusty Nelson finally managed to sort out the rights and amazingly SYNAPSE put out a deluxe special edition DVD, with tons of extras, including “After Effects”, an amazing documentary by Michael Felsher taking a look back at Pittsburgh film making in the 70’s. One of the best DVD extra docs ever thrown on a DVD.
That John still has a beautiful 35mm print of the film is just as amazing. A lucky few will get to see it firsthand on the giant Egyptian screen May 6th. EVERYONE who has EVER seen the film projected could probably fit in the Egyptian! After the film join Dusty Nelson, John Harrison, Joseph Pilato, Pasquale Buba and Charles Hoyes for a reunion/Q&A. You’d have to be nuts to be anywhere else.
From the Kings Court in Oakland to Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre, it’s been a long strange trip for EFFECTS.
I’ve wanted to show EFFECTS for years now…. as soon as i found out John had a 35mm print, and Dusty was close enough to come in for the screening, I penciled it in as my next CU Event, but what to show with it??? It could ONLY be one film, Gerald Sindell’s THE REAL THING aka TEENAGER. An even rougher, yet equally ambitious film about crazy film makers.
Gerald Sindell is one of my heroes. In 1971 he directed the greatest movie you’ve never heard of, a Douglas Sirk/Monte Hellman, killer bird, desert melodrama starring Hugh O’Brian and Elizabeth Ashley called HARPY!
I’d grown up convinced Jerrold Freedman (oddly the director of another one of the greatest movies you’ve never heard of, A COLD NIGHTS DEATH) had directed HARPY. I even went so far as to get into an argument with Jerrold at my William Graham Tribute at the Aero a few years ago :) He swore up and down he’d never directed a movie called HARPY! Years of staring at his name in Leonard Maltin guides, then on IMDB, convinced he was delusional. (Turns out it was all Leonard Maltins fault, he’d made the mistake in one of his guides a decade earlier, IMDB and others just ran with it… years of protest by Gerald and others online FINALLY gave the credit to the right Gerry…)
Amazingly, Gerald has a 35mm print of HARPY and as soon as i can work out the rights I’ll be screening that as another CU (preferably with A COLD NIGHTS DEATH! :)
Back to THE REAL THING aka TEENAGER. Gerald was approached by Peter Sharma and National Cinema Corporation, they were running low on product for their theater chain. I think Gerald managed to turn out THE REAL THING in like 6 or 7 days! Which isn’t THAT amazing in and of itself, Wynorski and Corman have done it in less. What makes THE REAL THING amazing is it’s insane ambition for such churned out theater chain filler. In a way Gerald seems to have lost it a bit, thinking he’s found “the real thing” a lot like his Corman like main character… and instead of a standard exploitation biker movie programmer, he reaches a little higher…. and chases his own real thing off a cliff. Like EFFECTS, it’s that ambition that gets you….. makes you sit back and forgive the rough spots, and a budget the size of a used car. The ONE sin you can forgive in a movie, especially a 5 figure seat of your pants programmer, is AMBITION, and like EFFECTS, THE REAL THING has that in spades.
National Cinema played it in their theaters…. it made it’s money back and disappeared. A decade later Jack Harris bought the rights, repackaged it and released it as TEENAGER, complete with VHS covers and blurbs that describe a completely different movie!? :)
So i knew WHAT i wanted to show…… but could i ever find a print?? Weeks and weeks of looking around…. no one had seen a 35mm print of The Real Thing in decades. I was ready to give up, when I made one last ditch attempt, and managed to track down a print in New Zealand. (which i never would have been able to get shipped in for this, but lucked out and the print was waiting in Texas for a boat ride home :)
Like with EFFECTS, i don’t want to say too much about the film. You’ll just have to see it for yourself. Come on down to the Egyptian on May 6th for one of the rarest 35mm prints you’re ever going to see, Gerald Sindell’s The Real Thing….. Catch it before it catches the boat back to New Zealand never to be seen again. You’ll also have a chance to talk to Gerald and the beautiful Sue Bernard (“Bernard of Hollywood’s” daughter and star of Russ Meyer’s Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill!). She struts thru THE REAL THING like a live wire, her scene at the market counter is a true classic, you can see a bit of it in the clip reel above. It’s such a shame she gave up acting. She’s raised a family and does a lot to preserve her father’s legacy, but watching her in that scene at the counter makes me wish she’d managed to juggle both just a little while longer…
Thursday, May 6 – 7:30 PM at the Egyptian Theatre
CRIMINALLY UNKNOWN: FILM CREWS AMUCK
Double Feature: EFFECTS, 1980, John Harrison, 84 min. Dir. Dusty Nelson. Cameraman Dominic (Joe Pilato from DAY OF THE DEAD) starts to wonder if his sleazy director (John Harrison) is making a horror film or a snuff film. This mind-bending meditation on the very nature of film and reality features great support work from Tom Savini, Charles Hoyes and Bernard McKenna.
TEENAGER, 1974, Jack H. Harris, 87 min. Dir. Gerald Seth Sindell. A deranged filmmaker arrives in a small town to shoot a biker movie and encourages his actors to fully live out their parts. Unfortunately, they take method acting to an extreme, turning the production into a snuff film! Great performances by Joe Warfield and Sue Bernard (FASTER PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL!) NOT ON DVD. Discussion between films with Dusty Nelson, John Harrison, Joseph Pilato, Pasquale Buba, Charles Hoyes, Gerald Sindell, and Sue Bernard!
EFFECTS
THE REAL THING
