Saturday, April 07, 2012

Po-Man's April update

Hey folks! Chris here with a couple of announcements...

Dave Konow and I have written an article about Crown International Pictures, one of the longest-running and most important companies in exploitation movie history. You'll find it in Rue Morgue #121, now available at a newsstand or bookstore near you.

A week or so back, I participated in a TCM Movie Morlocks blog post for Paul Gaita and Richard Harland Smith in which I (and several other movie maniacs) answered the question "What's the weirdest movie you've ever seen?" Instead of choosing just one movie that I probably wasn't in the mood to spend a couple of hundred words with anyway, I zeroed in on three movies I did feel comfortable writing about, all of them pretty weird but none of them the quote-unquote weirdest. I think I overthought the question. For instance, I didn't single out PSYCHED BY THE 4D WITCH because I figured someone else just had to be covering that wacky thing -- and I was wrong. Then there's that bizarro Russ Meyer-styled comedy from Hong Kong that I watched at the -- "Shut up, Chris!" "Oh, all right!" Here's the post! Big thanks to Paul and RHS for including me in the survey.

The editors of Cinema Retro magazine recently approached me about contributing material to their upcoming special issue dedicated to THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972). One article I'll be submitting this week is an interview with artist Mort Künstler, who painted the stunning one-sheet as well as another equally impressive but lesser-known piece of promo art for the blockbuster movie. I will also be participating in a panel discussion scheduled to occur before a 40th anniversary screening of THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (35mm vault print!) on Saturday, April 28th at the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre. I never knew I was a "Poseidon expert" but that's what they're calling me here. If you live in the New York-New Jersey area, try to attend. It'll be a good time.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice article about Crown International, but I wish it was much longer! There are have multiple books about AIP and Hammer, but the full Crown story has yet to be told.

Pat Cardi said...

All I can say is i was in Horror High, an independent film. The executive producer signed a contract with Crown and that was the last he saw of our film or any chance of getting the investors money back. Typical distributor Horror story. These guys need to be taken to court, but all the weiners who made these films are either too weak or stupid to fight back. The owner of Horror High/Twisted Brain buckled under and wimped out. I'm done.