Sunday, January 15, 2012

Now Playing: 14-15 JAN. 1962

Once upon a time it was illegal in some places to show any movies on Sundays, just as it was illegal to stage live shows. By 1962 some theaters could open new programs on Sundays, with consequences in some places, like Miami, that might have confirmed the moralists' worst fears.


Lucky Pierre is another pre-gore manifestation of the industrious Herschell Gordon Lewis and is considered the seminal "nudie cutie" picture. The second feature has a more respectable German cast with familiar names like Gert (Goldfinger) Frobe, but this is just more proof of how fine the line was separating arthouse from grindhouse.

In some markets, like Daytona, exhibitors stuck with the proven product, and nothing was more proven than Mom and Dad.


The main attraction that Monday had been playing pretty much non-stop since 1945. It is now part of the National Film Registry, making its preservation a government imperative. As for the second feature, Something Weird has an unrevealing trailer up on YouTube.



Check in through the week for more amazing attractions from across the country.

2 comments:

Sam Juliano said...

As always I commend you for finding off-the-radar films in such a unique showacase. of course I do know Herschell Gordon Lewis, though not LUCKY PIERRE. The Something Weird trailer only seemed to display a series of words though.

Samuel Wilson said...

Sam, I suspect a trailer like that played in theaters that didn't regularly show shows like She Shoulda Said No and wouldn't want to visualize its attractions before the wrong crowd. Of course, I assume trailers with just words are cheaper, too.