Poltergeist (V)

Another day in the middle of the week, in the middle of summer vacation. Another day with not much to do. Another day in which I saw Poltergeist at the Northpoint.

I wonder if the people who worked there noticed I had been there four previous times at this point? The theater was never very crowded on those weekend viewings, so maybe a 12-year-old girl by herself at the movies over and over gained a comment or two?

Probably not. They were most likely bored teenagers just a tad older than me.

Here are a couple more reviews I saved, one from the Examiner, and another from Trashola...

Poltergeist (3)

Five days after seeing Poltergeist for a second time, I went and saw it AGAIN.

Get used to it. Three more viewings to go!

Because of that, I'll limit this post to a few clippings. Below are some reviews; the big one's from the Examiner. The review is continued on the second scan.

Poltergeist ²

As I mentioned previously, I went to see Poltergeist a lot in the summer of 1982. There were a number of reasons for that, the first one being, I just loved the movie. That's probably the most important reason of all.

But it was also really easy to just go see it again and again. It was rated PG, so I could get in without a parent; the Northpoint was just one bus ride away (the 19 Polk) from where I lived; and school was out, most of my friends were away for the summer, and I was bored. It was better than sitting at home watching "The Brady Bunch" reruns all day, (which, don't get me wrong, I did a LOT).

One of the best things about the movie is the kids. Spielberg--aside from the travesty that was Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom--has a knack with child actors, and the kids in Poltergeist are cute without being cloying, especially the little girl...oh crap. What was her name in the movie again?



Right. Carol Anne!

But seriously, Heather O'Rourke really was a find; totally adorable, but also kind of spooky at times.



Sadly, she died young, and her death, combined with the murder of Dominique Dunne, (who played her teenage sister), and the subsequent deaths of some of the actors in the sequel, built up belief that there was some kind of "Poltergeist Curse" plaguing cast members. Except that, you know, two of those actors that died were already old or sick when they were cast in the sequel, so...

Perhaps the weirdest lingering effect of the early death of O'Rourke are the countless video tributes that you can find posted on YouTube today. Seriously, just search for "Heather O'Rourke tribute," and you've got yourself a day's worth of creepy entertainment.

I'll end this post with some more items from my Genre Book, this time just a couple of newspaper ads...

Poltergeist

On Wednesday, June 2nd, 1982, I went to a preview screening of Poltergeist. Preview screenings were always pretty exciting to me, and I got to go to a lot of them because my father worked for a company that did t-shirts and merchandising, and they would often get passes. When you're a kid, getting to see something before everyone else does feels great. This one was at the Northpoint Theater, and I think it was preceded by dinner across the street at Caesar's Restaurant. A fun night!

I'll just state this up front: I absolutely LOVED this movie. Adored. Which is why I ended up seeing it a total of SIX TIMES in the theater that year. Six times!!

I thought it was funny, and scary, and I loved the dynamic of the family, and it even made me cry a few times. (OK, a lot of times.) Yeah. I cried during Poltergeist. Puberty! It's a crazy thing.

Since I saw it so many times, (SIX!!) I'm going to save some of my thoughts on the movie for future posts about it. (SIX!) But I can say this: In rewatching it, I'm kind of amazed that I can still basically recite all the dialogue in it. It's embedded in my noggin.

And being that I loved the movie back then, I was compelled to write a review of it right away. It's really kind of, (OK, totally), embarrassing, but I'm just gonna suck it up and include it here for your amusement. (Click the image to magnify.)

In my review, I mention how there was a bit of controversy surrounding who actually directed the movie: Tobe Hooper, or producer Steven Spielberg. This was something I had read about in the Pink Section of the Chronicle, in the following article.

Back then, I didn't really give a crap, and really didn't understand who Tobe Hooper was, or the cache he had in the horror genre, as I had yet to see his The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Eventually I did, and could understand why there was serious doubt about him directing something as clichedly "Spielbergian" as Poltergeist. I'd like to think it was just a friendly collaboration, and the movie ended up with the best (and some of the worst) aspects of both the directors, (just watch the scene where the family is doing a patented "staring into the light" Spielberg moment, but what they're looking at is the complete destruction of their house; wonder and horror at the same time), but I have a feeling Spielberg probably did most of the heavy lifting...

I'll have more to say about just why I think I fell in love with the movie in some future posts, as well as some more newspaper clippings and articles...

Shoot the Moon

Shoot the Moon is a mess of a movie, but it's one that managed to stick with me for many years after seeing it.

And see it I did, that Saturday the 20th in 1982. I went with my parents, and it was playing at the Northpoint, which, looking back, seems an odd venue since it wasn't a movie that demanded a huge screen and Dolby stereo.

By 1982, director Alan Parker had made three movies, one of which--Bugsy Malone--I was a huge fan. (The other two, Midnight Express and Fame, were movies I'd eventually see, but I don't think I saw them at this point in 1982.) I think it was because of my fondness for Bugsy Malone, and because Shoot the Moon was a family drama that had some younger characters, that we decided it was an appropriate movie for a family outing. (Not that appropriate was really of much concern--I mean, just check all the previous posts to see that. But you get my point.)

The story is about the end of a marriage, with the disintegrating couple played by Diane Keaton and Albert Finney, and the affect their split has on the family, which includes four young daughters. The daughters are played by a pre-"Family Ties" Tina Yothers; a pre-"Growing Pains" Tracey Gold; Viveka Davis, who eventually appeared on "V"; and Dana Hill, who had been in some TV movies, and would eventually appear as the daughter in European Vacation. And she's the one who completely steals the movie. I wish I could offer a better clip of her in action, but you can see a bit of her in this scene from the movie's beginning; she's the one eavesdropping on the phone.



I say the movie is a mess because while it attempts to be a completely realistic portrait of divorce, the main characters do a lot of things that are completely unbelievable, culminating in one of the stupidest endings I've ever seen. (I'm not going to spoil it, but if you have seen it, I'd love to discuss it!)

But the performances make it worth watching, in particularly from Diane Keaton, who was at the peak of her fame, and, as previously mentioned, from Dana Hill who is completely heartbreaking as the daughter who just can't bring herself to forgive her dad's leaving. Karen Allen and Peter Weller round out the cast, as the mistress and the new boyfriend, respectively.

(Turns out, Karen Allen was in a lot of movies of my youth. The aforementioned The Wanderers; as well as Animal House; the ultimate, Raiders of the Lost Ark; and the oft-forgotten Starman. And you don't really see faces like hers anymore. I miss her!)

Also of note is the film's setting, which is the Bay Area, with a few scenes taking place at the Fairmont in San Francisco, and the rest set up around Point Reyes and Nicasio.

I'll end this with one more scene, which is an example of the movie at its best, and at its worst. And I'll say no more than that...

Pennies From Heaven

In the 80's in San Francisco, there were two theaters one always hoped a movie would end up playing: The Northpoint on Powell, close to Fisherman's Wharf, and the Coronet, out on Geary.

They were the two biggest theaters in town, boasted 70mm and Dolby Stereo, and most importantly, were single-screened venues.

The Coronet had standard seating, as well as a "loge," which was kind of like a balcony, but not. (Basically it was the part of the theater that looks like what most theaters these days look like, the so-called "stadium seating" set-up.)

The Northpoint, on the other hand, was just straight on floor  seating. No balcony, and no loge. This was usually fine, as long as no one tall sat in front of you. Also, you wouldn't want to get stuck sitting on the side aisles, since those were the smoking sections. (I remember having to sit there in 1977 when I saw The Goodbye Girl, and the person next to me was a chain smoker, so all my memories of that movie come with a smokey haze, and the sent of tobacco.)

Pennies From Heaven was playing at the Northpoint in 1982, and I saw it with my parents on New Year's Day. It was a movie I was keen on seeing for two reasons: I loved Steve Martin, and I had a fondness for lip-syncing movie musicals.

Well, a fondness for one, a BIG fondness, for Bugsy Malone, (which I saw in 1976 at the Coronet). I loved that movie so much I wore out the soundtrack record, and could lipsync to all of its songs better than the cast members themselves did.

Pennies From Heaven ended up being a flop, and I know I found it a bit perplexing. Of course, at the time I had no real awareness of its history, since I had not been exposed to the original Dennis Potter miniseries which aired in Britain, and wouldn't be exposed to it for years to come.

It's a goddamned depressing movie--complete with rape, murder, and the gallows--and certainly wasn't the thing I expected from my favorite comedian, Steve Martin. Nonetheless, I bought the soundtrack album (and still have it!) and the movie was probably what brought classic movie musicals to my consciousness, particularly the "Let's Face the Music and Dance" sequence.

In rewatching it, I understand even more why it was a flop. For one thing, Steve Martin's character is just a creep, and it's really hard to muster up any sympathy for him. It's been a while since I saw the BBC version, but I recall finding Bob Hoskins's take on the character much more likable. I think it's because Hoskins is such a tough looking little bruiser that his love for sentimental songs softens him up unexpectedly, and even though he does some pretty egregious things, when he bursts into song, you can't help but feel a little sorry for him

Martin's Arthur is just an oversexed jerk from the very beginning, and because he's handsome to begin with, he's not enough of an underdog to warrant any rooting for.

Pennies From Heaven is definitely an R-rated movie, but it wasn't unusual for me to go to R-rated movies as a 12-year-old. (You'll soon see even more proof of that.) But the sexual stuff in Pennies, like the lipstick on the nipples moment, definitely icked me out then. And it still kind of icks me out now, mainly because, once again, it just helps paint Martin's character as creepy.

I'm not a huge fan of musicals, but when I do like them, they tend to be really depressing musicals. This falls into that camp, for sure. And while as a whole I can't say I'm a huge fan of Pennies From Heaven, I can appreciate most of its musical moments, and can definitely thank it for introducing me to Christopher Walken, song and dance man: