WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR-65-This ahead of it's time film starring the late Sal mineo and Juliet Prowse was one of those films that young kids trying to stay up late on a friday night in the late 60's and early 70's to see something naughty, they couldn't find anywhere else in the pre cable, video DVD days, WOR- TV- CH -9 IN NEW YORK show this film a bunch of times and it has 60's sleaze dripping all over the place in wonderful b/w, at a time black and white was just about on it's way out in feature length films, despite being drench in morbid details it is a pretty effective film with some gritty nice shots of a by gone New York of the 60's. By the mid 70's the film left the syndication packages in America and vanished from the airwaves, i wonder if cable ever show it?, possibly never? hard find on video, i think it might be on You Tube, but another film that has gone from common exposure in the 60's and 70's to nearly no exposure since, Any comments
Years ago a paper called THE TABLET-i believe that was it, which was put out by the Catholic church would list in a section of the paper, what films on free TV that week in New York they rated as -C- MEANING CONDEMN-So there was always a few young boys seeing that, would try to catch those films on TV in the late 60's and early 70's. Some of those films were, Who killed Teddy bear-65- Party Girl-58- The Balcony-63- Man of the west-58- Experiment in terror-62- etc etc etc.
The word used most often in reviews to describe WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR? is “sleazy.” The film provides an unvarnished look at New York’s 42nd street/Times Square and its denizens during the mid-1960s. The story, filmed in noirish black and white, is full of psychosexual pathologies. Aside from the leads Sal Mineo and Juliet Prowse, the cast features comedian Jan Murray as a police detective, Broadway regular Elaine Stritch as a lesbian, and a young Daniel J. Travanti (going under the name Dan Travanty) in a bit part.
The film was directed by Joseph Cates, father of actress Phoebe Cates. The musical score was by the little known Charlie Calello. But a title song, “Who Killed Teddy Bear?,” was composed by Al Kasha and Bob Gaudio. Al Kasha later teamed with Joel Hirschhorn to compose two Oscar-nominated songs of the early 1970s: "The Song from The Poseidon Adventure (The Morning After)" and "We May Never Love Like This Again" from THE TOWERING INFERNO.
WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR? was released on 6 October 1965 by Magna Pictures Distribution. Sal Mineo had hoped that the film would jump-start his career, but it quickly sank without much notice. In recent years, the film has gained a cult following and has been compared to TAXI DRIVER in its portrait of the seedy side of New York. It has been shown at repertory houses both in the U.S. and overseas. Reportedly, the film exists in its original 94-minute version as well as a 91-minute cut that is missing a few scenes. The film was banned in Britain for decades, only recently being shown there. But now, while there is no legal video of the film available in the U.S., it has been issued on an all-region PAL DVD in Britain.
DECOY FOR TERROR[PLAYGIRL KILLER] 65-70-if you think this is already confusing see this film if you can find it and see how confused you then will be, This psycho crime film has Neil Sadaka singing songs in between the carnage and the biggest horror is when Neil tries to do something that is called acting in a few scenes.Film got very limited theatrical release in the 60's was sold to syndication in the early 70's where local stations showed it a few times like WOR-TV-CH-9- in New York, yep, them again, and then it has pretty much vanished from the airwaves free TV[no cable]might be somewhere on DVD, not on You Tube currently.Perfect for TCM underground. Any comments?
DECOY FOR TERROR[PLAYGIRL KILLER] 65-70-if you think this is already confusing see this film if you can find it and see how confused you then will be, This psycho crime film has Neil Sadaka singing songs in between the carnage and the biggest horror is when Neil tries to do something that is called acting in a few scenes.Film got very limited theatrical release in the 60's was sold to syndication in the early 70's where local stations showed it a few times like WOR-TV-CH-9- in New York, yep, them again, and then it has pretty much vanished from the airwaves free TV[no cable]might be somewhere on DVD, not on You Tube currently.Perfect for TCM underground. Any comments?
If PLAYGIRL KILLER ever received a U.S. theatrical release, there is no evidence of it. It does appear as if this Montreal-lensed thriller opened in Canada on 26 July 1968, distributed by Astral Films. Starring Jean Christopher and William Kerwin, the film also goes by the titles DECOY FOR TERROR and PORTRAIT OF FEAR.
This thriller was reportedly made on a budget of $150,000 by Maxwell A. Sendel Film Productions. The film was directed by Erick Santamaria, and William Kerwin teamed up with his younger brother, Harry, to write the script. PLAYGIRL KILLER is often compared to the David Freidman/Herschel Gordon Lewis film COLOR ME BLOOD RED (the third film in their "Blood" trilogy), but the films are actually quite different. It is easy for those who have not seen the film to draw lines between them, since William Kerwin was in the first two films of the Blood trilogy, both BLOOD FEAST and 2000 MANIACS. And there are other similarities to those films as well, including saturated colour, a minimalist jazz score, bare sets and even a fake radio broadcast that proclaims "killer on the loose!"
PLAYGIRL KILLER was syndicated around TV by New World and supposedly turned up on that company's videocassette label in the mid-'80s (with a later reissue by Anchor Bay under the Starmaker label). It was released in 1999 as a DVD on the Platinum label, and reportedly offers a surprisingly sharp appearance with some good color.
Bob Di M: "The score for BEN was by Walter Scharf, who also composed “Ben’s Song” (with lyrics by Don Black), which was sung by Michael Jackson. The song received an Academy Award nomination for Best Song and won a Golden Globe for Best Original Song. It became one of Jackson’s most popular hits and was recorded by several other singers. But how many people hearing it today realize that it is a love song sung to a rat?
sorry to nip back to that Bob but that always made me laugh too. The amount of girls who wanted to "slow dance" to that Michael Jackson song at the end of discos in mid 70s and half way through the song and if you didnt like em much and fancied their mate instead you could spoil the moment by whispering in their ear "You know this song is about a rat, dont you" and they wouldn't hear of it and always had some romantic theory!!
I think film was an X cert on release in UK so a lot of kids of the 70s wouldnt have seen it then.
"He was a rat! His whole family was rats. He woulda growed up to be a rat. "
THE MAN IN HALF MOON STREET-44-This was a top notch thriller which was remade by hammer in 59 The man who could cheat death-59- with Christopher Lee and Anton Diffring, Nils Asther is fine as a man who finds eternal life in dubious ways, Miklos Roza 's score is a definite plus, The film was in syndication way way back in the 60's early 70's then it vanished from free TV, cable has ignore it for decades[Calling TCM] couldn't find it on video - DVD folks?-Movies like this and it's obscurity[many of them are] can be annoying when people may say something negative about the Horror SCiFi genre, yet there are many good genre films most people don't see, this is one of them.caught up with it on YES, good old You Tube- however this one has a weak print, it skips as well at times, Any comments?
I actually found myself in Half Moon street the other day, it's not far from Oxford Street, London. It's funny how there's thousands of films just forgotten (& some with big stars) while a very few others get endlessly shown on TV & released on DVD/BD.
To Cinemascope you said it my friend you said it, i would just like to change one word in what you said, quote- It is SAD there are thousands of films just forgotten while a very few others get endlessly shown on TV etc etc, I am sure our friend BOB- would also agree with that sentiment.a real, real shame,, thank God, to relieve some of this there is VIDEO, DVD and YOU TUBE.If you saw the ending of the man in half moon street, it might have also been the mood i was in but when the guy tells the girl go forward don't look back, it got to me, don't get the wrong impression what he did , his actions were wrong, but just the idea of it all, the deep meaning behind the remark, hit me, fine film.Now if only TCM or somebody can give a few million people one night to get a chance to see it.
VOICES- 1979-this film starring Amy Irving pretty much came and went on it's theatrical run, got shown a little on cable a year or two afterward, as many films do the past 3 decades on cable but except for a rare showing on THIS- NETWORK, a year or so ago it has been pretty obscure the past decades, it was on video in the 80's DVD- folks?.i felt it was a ok drama but it had a nice musical score by Jimmy[Macarthur Park] Webb. Any comments?
I saw VOICES about a year ago. Michael Ontkean (television’s “The Rookies”) plays a struggling musician who falls in love with a deaf girl played by Amy Irving. Filmed in Hoboken NJ, the film was released by MGM/UA on 14 March 1979.
VOICES was the only feature film directed by Robert Markowitz, a prolific television director who directed such TV movies as “Kojak: The Belarus File” and “The Tuskegee Airmen.” The film was the first script by writer John Herzfeld, who went on to write and direct Charlize Theron’s breakout film “2 Days In the Valley” in 1996.
VOICES has a memorable score by Jimmy Webb, the songwriter behind "By The Time I Get To Phoenix," "MacArthur Park," and "Wichita Lineman." His song "I Will Always Wait for You" is one of the film's highlights . More music is provided by Willie Nelson, Burton Cummings, Tom Petty, and the Atlanta Rhythm Section. A 31-minute score and song soundtrack LP was issued on Planet Records, but has not been issued on CD.
VOICES met with moderate disapproval by the critics. In the New York Times, Janet Maslin thought the material was thin, but liked the lead players: “Ontkean is considerably more likable than his material. . . . [Irving] has an appealing uneasiness that might work better in less sugary roles.” And Frank Rich of Time, referring to a then-current spate of “modest, old-fashioned tearjerkers,” called it “the latest in a chain of look-alike films.”
VOICES is available as a made-on-demand DVD from the Warner Archive.
I can't contribute anything to this thread except to say it's one of the best here. Just because you two are the only ones posting, more or less, don't forget you have a lot of lurkers.
INTERLUDE-68-not to be confused with the earlier version from 57, this love story, has what i feel is one of the best Georges Delerue scores of all, Was shown on the CBS network in the 70's was put into syndication shortly afterward and shown on stations in America in the 70's, however film has not been on TV in a long long time[Cable ignores it] was hard to find on Video[was it ever on Video] how about DVD? can't find film on You Tube-Any comments?
INTERLUDE was a British film released in the U.S. on 2 July 1968 by Columbia Pictures. Although the film had an original script, it was compared to two other U.S. films with comparable story lines—David O. Selznick’s INTERMEZZO and Universal’s similarly titled INTERLUDE. (INTERMEZZO (1939) was directed by Gregory Ratoff and starred Leslie Howard and Ingrid Bergman. The 1957 INTERLUDE was directed by Douglas Sirk and starred Rossano Brazzi and June Allyson.)
The 1968 INTERLUDE starred Oskar Werner, Barbara Ferris, Virginia Maskell, and Donald Sutherland. Maskell was nominated for a BAFTA Award as Best Supporting Actress. (Sadly, INTERLUDE was Virginia Maskell’s last film. She died from a drug overdose on January 25, 1968 at the age of 31.) The film concerns a symphony conductor and a former journalist who look back on a brief affair that they had. It was filmed on location in London and Rye, England.
Because of the protagonist’s occupation, in addition to Georges Delerue’s score, the film is filled with classical music from Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Dvorak, Rachmaninov, Brahms, and Albinoni, which is played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Ernest Fleischmann. The 40-minute soundtrack LP that was issued on the Colgems label had 24 minutes of this classical music, and only 16 minutes of Delerue’s score.
In 2005, Disques CinéMusique issued a synthesizer re-creation of Delerue’s score with 24 minutes of music.
The film was not well received in the U.S. from critics who, by 1968, were expecting edgier fare at the cinema. Judith Crist called it “An incredible piece of pap.” Renata Adler of the New York Times said that “the narrative is so weak there is nothing for [the characters] to do but to meet, have an affair, and part.,” Hollis Alpert of Saturday Review “couldn’t believe it for a moment.” Time magazine was a little more accommodating in calling it a “bouquet of primrose and bittersweet.” But it was Variety that was most positive, terming the film “Excellent.” Its reviewer, “Murf,” cited the film’s “strong writing, superior acting, and first-rate direction,” and termed the film “a powerful personal drama.”
Never released on videotape in the U.S., the film has recently been made available as a made-on-demand DVD as part of Sony’s Choice Collection.
THE ANONYMOUS VENETIAN-70-This drama from Italy which has a solid music score from Stelvio Cipriani, after it's theatrical run was shown in the 70's in syndication for a while. However for the past few decades it has been a hard find on cable TV, never saw it on video, DVD?, can't find it on You Tube, it stars Tony Musante, wore out my LP soundtrack of it years ago. Any comments?
THE ANONYMOUS VENETIAN was a 1970 Italian film that Allied Artists released in an English-language version in the U.S. on 14 September 1971. It starred Tony Musante and Florinda Bolkan as an unsuccessful musician-conductor and his estranged wife. As its title suggests, the production was filmed on location in Venice.The film was the first of five directorial efforts by Enrico Maria Salerno, who as an actor appeared in over 100 productions. He also co-wrote the script.
When THE ANONYMOUS VENETIAN opened in Italy, Variety’s Rome correspondent said that although the film was “a two-character dramatic promenade through Venice,” it also had a “soap opera quality that, while not haunting, [could] bring tears to the eyes of many” and perhaps account for “boxoffice at home.” The prediction proved accurate, as THE ANONYMOUS VENETIAN quickly became one of 1970’s top grossers in Italy. But not so in the U.S., where most critics agreed with Newsday’s Jerry Parker that “what we get is an expensive tour of Venice” burdened with “sometimes irreverent commentary (“My God the water stinks.”)" and a plot that reminded one of “a kind of Venetian LOVE STORY.”
In fact, a number of critics compared the film to LOVE STORY, even though THE ANONYMOUS VENETIAN was produced first. The Village Voice called it “a mongoloid offspring of LOVE STORY and DEATH IN VENICE.” Cue magazine’s William Wolf said “Even the music to this intended tearjerker has the familiar ring of the theme from LOVE STORY.” But in a mixed notice, the New York Daily News’ Kathleen Carroll declared that a comparison to LOVE STORY was “unfair.” “There is nothing mawkish about this film, nor is it the sleek, well-manufactured tearjerker that LOVE STORY was,” she wrote. Carroll particularly liked Florinda Bolkan, whom she called “the film’s greatest asset . . . who with her striking—if not beautiful—features looks like a woman who has suffered through loving well, if not wisely.”
Those critics who didn’t compare the film to LOVE STORY just found THE ANONYMOUS VENETIAN to be “completely worthless” (Roger Ebert) and “bad enough to be quite funny” (Vincent Canby).
As noted by Dan, the most appreciated aspect of the film has been its Stelvio Cipriani score, which has been released on CD at least a half dozen times. The film itself was released on a hard-to-find cassette in 2000, and on an even-harder-to-find PAL DVD, that had no English-subtitles.
TERROR IN THE WAX MUSEUM-73-one might call this a low budget version of the big vet cast stars who would show up in those 70's disaster films, YES Cinerama again-we have here Ray Milland, Elsa Lanchestor Broderick Crawford, John Carridine, Maurice Evans, Louie Hayward, Patric Knowles, Shani Wallis etc, a good musical score by George Duning [in the twilight of his career] i found the film to be basically run of the mill, it got a one week booking in much of the country on a double feature in it's theatrical release, was shown on the ABC NETWORK in the late 70's[heavily edited into a 90 minute spot], was in syndication for a while in the 80's , but then it vanished from the airways[never saw it listed on cable], not currently on YOU TUBE,It was on video in the 80's= DVD?-any comments?
TERROR IN THE WAX MUSEUM, a co-production of Fenady Associates and Bing Crosby Productions (BCP), premiered in Los Angeles on 16 May 1973. Because its distributor, Cinerama Releasing, had no studio facilities of its own, the film was shot at BCP’s home studio, Paramount, from October to December of 1972. The film was the first of only two features directed by long-time television director Georg Fenady. The second feature, for the same production team, was 1974’s ARNOLD. The two films were essentially shot back-to-back, with some of the same actors (Elsa Lanchester, Patric Knowles, Shani Wallis, Steven Marlo, Ben Wright and Leslie Thompson).
Fenady began his directing career with the series “Combat!” and went on to direct episodes of “Emergency!,” “Quincy,” and “Knight Rider,” among many other series and TV movies. Perhaps it’s no surprise that TERROR IN THE WAX MUSEUM feels more like a TV movie than a theatrical release. The film was produced by Fenady’s older brother, Andrew J. Fenady, and the screenplay was written from his (Andrew's) story.
Dan mentioned the cast of second-tier stars. In addition to these actors, the production used twelve members of the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts Pageant of the Masters, a popular southern California "Living Picture" troupe, to portray the wax figures in the film. Incidentally, TERROR IN THE WAX MUSEUM marked the final feature film appearance of actor Louis Hayward (1909--1985).
RAY MILLAND
Set in 19th century London, the plot followed the usual “murder in the wax museum” story of others before it. In this film, however, the murderer's identity is not revealed to the audience until the final shot of the murderer-victim wax figure tableau. Various reviews give the length of the film as anywhere from 90 to 95 minutes.
After being issued on videotape, the film dropped out of view. One blogger notes that the film played on WNEW’s (Channel 5, New York) “Drive-in Theater” movie program on 28 September 1985. Among the reasons for the film’s lack of appearance on DVD: (1) its quality; (2) its likely owner’s (Paramount) disinterest in releasing deep catalog titles on DVD, and (3) the curious fact that although there is a copyright statement for Bing Crosby Productions listed onscreen, TERROR IN THE WAX MUSEUM was never actually registered for copyright.
That was a fun coming attraction, yes i remember when that movie got shown on WNEW TV CH 5 IN New York-very well, i was watching it, then took the subway into the city to direct a few scenes with my crew on one of my movies i did in the 80's.
