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Films with Universal appeal now on Netflix streaming (1 Viewer)

Louis Letizia

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Universal just put some never on video gems up on netflix streaming. Most excited about W.C. Fields and Me . I can finally watch it on my big screen. Hulu used to show this but only on your pc. Walk Proud The 1979 Robby Benson drama that caused a sensation when riots started in California outside theaters. 1979 was the Year of the Gang movie with The Warriors , Boulevard Nights , Sunnyside , Walk Proud ,The Wanderers and Boardwalk all opening within 7 months of each other. Robby Bensons film was filmed under the title Gang, but Universal got cold feet when the other films listed here caused problems in the Winter and Spring. Walk Proud and Sunnyside from American International has never received video release. Both films had lowkey distribution in theaters . I'm anxious to see this as it was Bensons last big role (discounting 1980s barely released Die Laughing before he dwindled in starpower. The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County -talk about obscure! Starring Bonanzas Hoss-this family film has never played cable or been on video. I'm getting excited that Universal is dipping deep into its vaults. Out of print dvds of Minnie and Moscowitz , They Might Be Giants are also being streamed -hopefully with an eye out for rereleases.
 

RBailey

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Louis Letizia said:
Universal just put some never on video gems up on netflix streaming. The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County -talk about obscure! Starring Bonanzas Hoss-this family film has never played cable or been on video. Another obscure Universal I'd like to see is "Did You Hear The One About The Traveling Saleslady?" with Phyllis Diller, Bob Denver, Joe Flynn and David Hartman. Saw this on a double feature with Don Knotts' "How to Frame a Figg".
 

Bob Cashill

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Netfix is also streaming Universal's THE CHOIRBOYS, THE PROMISE, and KING OF THE HILL (93) on Netflix.
 

walter o

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THE PROMISE is out on DVD, but regrettably full frame (I believe it was shot in scope). Is the one on netflix in widescreen?
 

Jeffrey:K

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Nice to hear that W.C. Fields and Me hasn't disappeared completely.


Speaking of Universal obscurities, I'd be really impressed if Checkered Flag or Crash made an appearance. I don't think that one has been seen since its network TV airing in the early 1980s.
 

Louis Letizia

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CHECKERED FLAG OR CRASH is now up! CouldAlmost Summer finally make it? Would love to see that as well as Nunzio, Fast Charlie the Moonbeam Rider, FM , Story of a Teenager , King of the Mountain , The Gong Show Movie , Beyond the Reef, The Bawdy Adventures of Tom Jones, The Boy Who Cried Werewolf , The Black Windmill , Sidecar Racers , Taking Off , The Last Movie-to name just a few
 

NY2LA

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Louis Letizia said:
Universal just put some never on video gems up on netflix streaming. Most excited about W.C. Fields and Me . I can finally watch it on my big screen. Hulu used to show this but only on your pc. Walk Proud The 1979 Robby Benson drama that caused a sensation when riots started in California outside theaters.
Ahh, where WC Fields and Me goes, so goes Gable and Lombard. And so there it is also on streaming Netfilx. They came out about the same time and It's like Uni always marketed them as a pair.... A pair of inexpensive almost TV movies made with Uni contract players, guilty pleasures, both. Both got soundtrack albums when they came out and I bought them. In a similar vein I recommend Malice In Wonderland with Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Alexander as Hedda and Louella. I mentioned that movie to a golden era Hollywood director, and he was incredulous that Taylor played Louella, whom he described as "an old bag." Speaking of Rare Benson, "Modern Love" anyone?
 

Louis Letizia

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The Gable and Lombard main musical theme is awesome.I still hum it till today! Didn't know there was a soundtrack. W.C. Fields and Me came out in March 1976 and G & L in February. Both received abominable reviews but whereas Gable and Lombard did respectable business , Fields was a complete flop. Hollywood was on a early cinema craze in the early/mid 70s. Others were Inserts, The Day of the Locust , Won Ton Ton The Dog Who Saved Hollywood, The Wild Party and Nickelodeon all from '75/'76 as well as the compilation film Thats Entertainment! , That's Entertainment : Part 2 and America at the Movies
 

Jon Hertzberg

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Louis Letizia said:
Universal just put some never on video gems up on netflix streaming. Most excited about W.C. Fields and Me . I can finally watch it on my big screen. Hulu used to show this but only on your pc. Walk Proud The 1979 Robby Benson drama that caused a sensation when riots started in California outside theaters. 1979 was the Year of the Gang movie with The Warriors , Boulevard Nights , Sunnyside , Walk Proud ,The Wanderers and Boardwalk all opening within 7 months of each other.
You really can't exclude Orion's OVER THE EDGE from this group. Initially slated to be Orion's first-ever release, Jonathan Kaplan's film was deemed a "gang picture" and shelved by the studio because of the violence that occurred at showings of THE WARRIORS and BOULEVARD NIGHTS. Later, Orion's THE WANDERERS and Uni's WALK PROUD also saw their releases limited and curtailed by the aforementioned violence. IIRC, AIP's DEFIANCE was also delayed (until 1980) because of its gang content. THE WARRIORS itself was pulled from many screens by the studio and had its strong box office run cut short...it had made a lot of money up until then and had momentum so there's no telling how much more $$ it could have made at the box office. THE WANDERERS and THE WARRIORS were in production in NYC at the same time in the summer of '78, but Paramount rushed the completion of THE WARRIORS so that it would be the first gang film out of the chute, hitting screens in February of '79. The studios clearly didn't foresee the strong and sometimes violent reaction these films would inspire in some audience members. If they had an inkling, perhaps Orion and Phil Kaufman, for instance, would have tried harder to beat THE WARRIORS to the multiplex. BOULEVARD NIGHTS and WALK PROUD faced additional criticism from Latino groups; FORT APACHE THE BRONX would later come under similar fire for its unflattering portrayal of Latinos.
 

Jon Hertzberg

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Louis Letizia said:
CHECKERED FLAG OR CRASH is now up! CouldAlmost Summer finally make it? Would love to see that as well as Nunzio, Fast Charlie the Moonbeam Rider, FM , Story of a Teenager , King of the Mountain , The Gong Show Movie , Beyond the Reef, The Bawdy Adventures of Tom Jones, The Boy Who Cried Werewolf , The Black Windmill , Sidecar Racers , Taking Off , The Last Movie-to name just a few
THE BLACK WINDMILL and TAKING OFF are cheaply available on DVD and / or Blu-ray in other regions.
 

Louis Letizia

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I see your point about Over the Edge, clearly the best of the crop of gang related films. While it should have been Orions(thru WB) maiden release (I believe A Little Romanceholds that title)-it had a very abortive release pattern. It never played New York in its 1979 run until after it played HBO. Even after that -it had only a token release in 1983 after Matt Dillon became a star and in the wake of WBs own The Outsiders with Dillon being released. Its a great film and didnt deserve this fate of being a boxoffice flop. In fact The Warriors was the only bonafide hit of the bunch. It was not only the film itself that caused a stir but the great poster art also caused controversy to the point that the newspaper ad in the opening Friday went from the detailed poster to a stark white poster (ad) the following Friday with the font emblazoned over it. I cannot remember a poster causing such a commotion until Paramont (again) caused a ruckus with its (again) stark white ad for Mommie Dearest and only a wire hanger showing . The direct opposite happend -this ad was pulled immediately wheres tThe Warriors stark white ad remained. I cannot imagine much controversy ensuing today. I believe the last film to be pulled from theaters was TriStars Silent Night Deadly Night nearly 30 years ago. But I may be wrong. Distribution and studios back then took chances. The Great Santini went on to a nice theatrical run after it premiered on HBO (as The Ace), and WB rereleased The Road Warrior to arthouses after its national run Long gone are the days when the Friday after the Oscar saw full page ads boasting Oscar winners. But I am seeing the pendulum swing a little. Even though its on bluray and dvd , , Paramount has kept Hugo n na nice amount of theaters where its doing well and Midnight in Paris has stayed continuously in theaters since opening last May. Encouraging
 

NY2LA

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Louis Letizia said:
The Gable and Lombard main musical theme is awesome.I still hum it till today! Didn't know there was a soundtrack. W.C. Fields and Me came out in March 1976 and G & L in February. Both received abominable reviews but whereas Gable and Lombard did respectable business , Fields was a complete flop. Hollywood was on a early cinema craze in the early/mid 70s. Others were Inserts, The Day of the Locust , Won Ton Ton The Dog Who Saved Hollywood and Nickelodeon all from '75/'76 as well as the compilation film Thats Entertainment! , That's Entertainment : Part 2 and America at the Movies
Geez, I saw all but one of those (inserts) in a theatre in NY when they came out. Fans of musicals should take a close look at the thoroughly modern outfit the female lead wears in Won Ton Ton... Maybe Gable and Lombard did better at the BO being first out of the gate before WC. (Michel Legrand) (Henry Mancini!)
 

Richard V

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Louis Letizia said:
The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County -talk about obscure! Starring Bonanzas Hoss-this family film has never played cable or been on video.
I saw this movie a couple of months ago on Encore Westerns, and I think it has been shown there several other times.
 

Louis Letizia

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if the films were half as good as the scores -these would be true classics instead of camp classics.The poster art was beautiful.
 

Jon Hertzberg

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Louis Letizia said:
I see your point about Over the Edge, clearly the best of the crop of gang related films. While it should have been Orions(thru WB) maiden release (I believe A Little Romanceholds that title)-it had a very abortive release pattern. It never played New York in its 1979 run until after it played HBO. Even after that -it had only a token release in 1983 after Matt Dillon became a star and in the wake of WBs own The Outsiders with Dillon being released. Its a great film and didnt deserve this fate of being a boxoffice flop. In fact The Warriors was the only bonafide hit of the bunch. It was not only the film itself that caused a stir but the great poster art also caused controversy to the point that the newspaper ad in the opening Friday went from the detailed poster to a stark white poster (ad) the following Friday with the font emblazoned over it.
Yes, I'm quite familiar with OVER THE EDGE's abortive release, which I mentioned in my previous post. Done lots of reading and research about it and all of the aforementioned films over the years. As you probably know, it had its NY premiere as part of an "off the radar" / "best films you haven't seen" series at Joe Papp's theater in '81. This was predated Dillon's popularity from OUTSIDERS, TEX, RUMBLEFISH, etc., but was after he earned his bona fides from LITTLE DARLINGS and MY BODYGUARD. OVER THE EDGE couldn't really be labelled a box office flop since it never had a proper theatrical release. Indeed, I'm also quite familiar with THE WARRIORS poster art and the changes Paramount made to it. I have some copies somewhere that I made from old microfilms of newspaper ads at the time.
 

Jon Hertzberg

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Louis Letizia said:
But I am seeing the pendulum swing a little. Even though its on bluray and dvd , , Paramount has kept Hugo n na nice amount of theaters where its doing well and Midnight in Paris has stayed continuously in theaters since opening last May. Encouraging
This would seem to follow a pretty common release pattern for nominated and winning films after the Academy Awards. Nothing really new there. In addition to your examples of the pendulum swinging, THE ARTIST has only now opened wide nationally--after its big win.
 

Jon Hertzberg

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Jon Hertzberg said:
Yes, I'm quite familiar with OVER THE EDGE's abortive release, which I mentioned in my previous post. Done lots of reading and research about it and all of the aforementioned films over the years. As you probably know, it had its NY premiere as part of an "off the radar" / "best films you haven't seen" series at Joe Papp's theater in '81. This was predated Dillon's popularity from OUTSIDERS, TEX, RUMBLEFISH, etc., but was after he earned his bona fides from LITTLE DARLINGS and MY BODYGUARD. OVER THE EDGE couldn't really be labelled a box office flop since it never had a proper theatrical release. Indeed, I'm also quite familiar with THE WARRIORS poster art and the changes Paramount made to it. I have some copies somewhere that I made from old microfilms of newspaper ads at the time.
Canby's review from '81 of OVER THE EDGE. This led to an extended area run. An oral history in Vice details the Papp screening and other facts about the film's release history.
 

Louis Letizia

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Its always a pleasure to get reference materials on a subject you are passionate about-I thank you for that and your knowledge. While I never studied film (only classes here and there), I have always read film history, I have all the volumes up until 2000 of the NY Times Film Reviews (a wealth of info there) and love discussing all things film-especially with this group and with people who know much more than I. My obsession with films -esp 60s-80s went as far as scrapbooking newspaper ads in binders with Variety grosses of each week on index cards next to the ads, and a check list of reviewers reactions. If there was a change in ad style -I'd devote a whole page to one film (sort of like a homemade slick), and always had a full page Daily News and Times(when applicable ) that would fold out. It was a fun hobby that lasted from 1973 to about 1985. I had forgotten of the Joseph Papp series-a very nice idea. I was too young to remember or go to the great Thalia series that showed films that never opened in NY. Looking at what opened there -Homebodies , Dandy-the All American Girl, Visit to a Chiefs Son and others, I'm fasninated at what did not get a full NY release. But, I do not think any of the Thalia presentations ever broke out and had an extended run like Over the Edge. As you and others have pointed out, revival houses are now just showing dvd's , not film. I am very curious of the Lincoln Centers festival of digital revivals coming up. A very clever thing to do -and if done correctly might be very convinvcing. Retro houses -for me-is to see movies that Ive never seen and or unavailable anywhere else or to see a remastered classic on film. Anyone know if the 40th Anniversary rerelease of The Godfather on March 2 to 55 theaters was successful? (It bypassed NY. I believe Lawrence of Arabia will be back on the big screen for its 50th anniversary. Its refreshing to see revivals of classics NOT in 3D.
 

Camps

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Got WC Fields and Me in my Netflix Instant queue! As a ginormous Fields fan, have been dying to see this. Thanks for the heads-up, Louis!
 

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