I went back to that salvation army store today and i ask them if they have ASH WEDNESDAY, The girl said no , but if you go next store they have TACO THURSDAY'S.
MELINDA was a film about black-Americans that was released in 1972. A glance at the production credits led many critics to hope that MELINDA would be superior to typical blaxploitation films of the era, as the director, writer and producer were African-American. The picture marked the directorial debut of African-American filmmaker Hugh A. Robertson, who had edited one of the first blaxploitation films, 1971's SHAFT, and was nominated for an Academy Award for his editing of the 1969 picture MIDNIGHT COWBOY. MELINDA’s script was written by Lonnie Elder III, who authored the award-winning play “Ceremonies in Dark Old Men” as well as the highly acclaimed film SOUNDER (1972). First-time producer Pervis Atkins was a former New Mexico State University football star.
MELINDA’s story concerns a disc jockey (Calvin Lockhart) who picks up a young woman named Melinda (Vonetta McGee) and takes her to a party. After a night of love-making, he awakens to find Melinda’s dead body. He then attempts to find out what happened, a journey that involves his ex-mistress (Rosalind Cash). The major cast members of MELINDA were well-regarded professionals. Bahamian-born Calvin Lockhart had been acting since 1961, but first caught moviegoers' attention in the supercharged urban films COTTON COMES TO HARLEM and HALLS OF ANGER (both 1970) before becoming a fairly steady fixture in the "blaxploitation" movies of the early-to-mid 1970s. Lockhart would continue to work into the late 1980s and early 1990s in films such as COMING TO AMERICA and PREDATOR 2. He died in 2007 at age 72.
Vonetta McGee had appeared in minor roles since the late 1960s, but had her breakout year in 1972 with major roles in the films MELINDA, BLACULA, and HAMMER. She had a lengthy acting career in films and television, with frequent appearances in such series as “Cagney and Lacey” and “L.A. Law.” McGee died in 2010 at age 65. Rosalind Cash first made an impression as the half-human love interest of Charlton Heston in THE OMEGA MAN. She appeared in her share of black films during the 1970s, such as UPTOWN SATURDAY NIGHT and CORNBREAD, EARL AND ME. Cash appeared almost exclusively in numerous television movies and series guest star roles from 1975 right up until she died in 1995 at age 56. MELINDA also marked the screen debut of action-star Jim Kelly (ENTER THE DRAGON), who at the time was a karate instructor.
Under the working title of “Hang Tough!”, filming began in mid-April 1972 and was completed just a month later. The picture was shot on location in various Los Angeles neighborhoods, with the interiors shot at M-G-M’s Culver City Studios. The film was scored by Jerry Butler and Jerry Peters. A 50-minute score and song LP was issued on Pride Records, but it has never appeared on CD.
MGM opened MELINDA in New York and Los Angeles on 16 August 1972. Despite the high hopes engendered by the production personnel involved, most critics sided with Variety’s “Murf” that even though MELINDA had “obvious ambitions” it was indeed just “another black-oriented contemporary crime exploitationer” due partially to Robertson’s “arch and fumbling pace” and Elder’s “torturous and fumbling plot.” In total agreement, Cue’s William Wolf wrote that what was “basically a bum murder-and-mayhem flick turns downright despicable” when “director Robertson revels gratuitously in endless blows, kicks, and bashings to head and groin (It hurts just to watch).” Wolf further charged that “the disappointing work of Elder” was “as awful as countless old Hollywood scripts (Unbelievable dialogue, less believable plot).” Even more appalled, the New York Daily News’ Kathleen Carroll just dumped one star on the film and declared “It’s an atrocity.”
MELINDA had a few defenders, among them Howard Thompson of the New York Times. Thompson “liked MELINDA” and commended it as “an engrossing tingler” highlighted by “eagle-eyed direction,” “a nimbly-turned script,” and “a good cast.” But the vast majority of critics agreed with Gary Arnold of The Washington Post who declared MELINDA “doggedly, assiduously trashy” and observed that “It’s a bit unusual to find a predominantly black crew packaging and peddling this merchandise to black audiences. (In a way it’s also a relief -- if MELINDA had been produced, directed and/or written by whites, one would immediately brand them as white racists, out to purvey a scurrilous image of black life.)”
According to a 28 August 1972 Boxoffice article, “first returns” and “general reaction” to MELINDA prompted the filmmakers to begin planning a sequel entitled “Frankie J.” Scheduled to begin filming in February 1973, the sequel was to continue the adventures of Frankie (Lockhart) and Terry (Cash), but the project was never made. The production personnel of MELINDA would later have mixed success. Director Robertson would direct only two more films, BIM (1974) and the 1987 production OBEAH, completed shortly before his death in 1988 at age 55. MELINDA was the only film produced by Pervis Atkins. Screenwriter Lonnie Elder III fared best. He turned his play “Ceremonies In Dark Old Men” into a TV movie and also wrote scripts for SOUNDER, PART 2 and the TV movie “A Woman Called Moses.” Elder died in 1996 at age 68.
The R-rated MELINDA has not appeared on any home video format. When the American Film Institute went looking for a print to view for its cataloging project, the only one that could be found was a print which had been edited for television and was missing approximately ten minutes.
They only found a print edited for TV, WHERE? I don't think it was ever shown on free TV in syndication. If it did ever play on cable it must have been years ago on some local outlet like a WHT, years ago in the New York metro area of sought.
THE BOY WHO CRIED WEREWOLF is a horror film directed by Nathan Juran and released by Universal in 1973. Although Nathan Juran won an Oscar for his art direction on 1941’s HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY, it is as a director that he is best known. After doing art direction on more than 25 films, he started directing low budget westerns in the early 1950s. Then, in the next ten years, Juran moved on to higher profile science fiction/fantasy films such as 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH (1957), THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1958), and JACK THE GIANT KILLER (1961). Starting in 1965, he directed exclusively in television (“Lost In Space,” “The Time Tunnel”), with only a single feature, 1970’s LAND RAIDERS, to his credit. The producer of THE BOY WHO CRIED WEREWOLF, Aaron Rosenberg, had been in Hollywood since 1948, and had such productions to his credit as Jimmy Stewart’s BEND OF THE RIVER and THE GLENN MILLER STORY, and Frank Sinatra’s TONY ROME and THE DETECTIVE. Rosenberg had also produced TV’s “Daniel Boone,” for which Nathan Juran had directed 29 episodes.
Juran had also worked before with WEREWOLF’s star Kerwin Mathews, who had starred in both THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD and JACK THE GIANT KILLER. Mathews was a mid-level star who appeared in films of nearly every genre, including fantasy (THE THREE WORLDS OF GULLIVER - 1960), war (THE LAST BLITZKRIEG - 1959), crime (MAN ON A STRING - 1960), science fiction (BATTLE BENEATH THE EARTH – 1967), and westerns (BARQUERO – 1970). Playing the boy in THE BOY WHO CRIED WEREWOLF was newcomer Scott Sealey, making his feature film debut. The boy’s mother was played by Elaine Devry, an actress who had been married to Mickey Rooney for most of the 1950s. Her most recent part had been a small role in 1971’s BLESS THE BEASTS AND CHILDREN.
Kerwin Mathews, Scott Sealey and Elaine Devry
The film’s original screenplay was by Bob Homel, Also an actor, Homel was making his screenwriting debut with THE BOY WHO CRIED WEREWOLF. He also had a small acting role in the film. The film’s musical score was by Ted Stovall, his only known film score.
As the title suggests, THE BOY WHO CRIED WEREWOLF concerns a young boy who claims to have seen a werewolf during a mountain hike with his father. His unbelieving parents send him to a psychiatrist, who recommends a return trip to the woods in order for the boy to face his fears. Location scenes were filmed in Redwood City, California. The 91-minute film opened in Los Angeles on 18 July 1973.
Although the film may have played some separate engagements, most of the country saw THE BOY WHO CRIED WEREWOLF as the lower half of a double bill with another Universal horror film, the snake movie SSSSSSS. This may have been the last official double feature ever released by Universal Pictures. SSSSSSS was the first film for Universal by executive producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown, the duo who would go on to executive produce THE STING and JAWS.
Here are two TV spots for the double feature:
THE BOY WHO CRIED WEREWOLF did not impress the critics, who agreed with Newsday’s Joseph Gelmis that the film was strictly “amateur night.” Variety’s “Beau” felt that the film’s “blend of folksy morality and tepid terror is probably too bland and silly for today’s audiences.” He also found the performances “underrehearsed, to put it kindly.” The New York Daily News’s Jerry Oster felt that THE BOY WHO CRIED WEREWOLF was “a movie without the least idea of what is necessary to make horror films horrible.”
The single exception to the bleak critical response was recorded in the Los Angeles Times, where Kevin Thomas defended the “serviceable, sometimes silly, but largely diverting” recycling “of traditional horror ingredients.” But to the contrary, the New York Times’ Howard Thompson, though noting “some amusing business toward the end as the thrashing werewolf tangles with a bunch of Jesus freaks,” found the picture “standard” and “slapdash.” And in suggesting that moviegoers would do well to “skip THE BOY WHO CRIED WEREWOLF,” Thompson received full support from Cue’s Donald J. Mayerson, who recommended that his readers simply “stay away.”
THE BOY WHO CRIED WEREWOLF played on HBO in 1974 but then dropped out of sight. It has never been issued on any home video format.
THE BOY WHO CRIED WEREWOLF turned out to be Nathan Juran’s last film. He retired at the age of 66, and lived until 2002 when he died at age 95. After one more film, Kerwin Mathews also retired. He died in 2007 at age 81. Scott Sealey never acted on screen again. Bob Homel never wrote or acted in a feature again. He died in 1980 at the young age of 48.
THE BOY WHO CRIED WOLF-73 -was shown on local TV stations in the later 70's early 80's in America[WABC -TV-] in New York for one..Film has also appeared on Cable TV about 8 years ago. But has been obscure of late.
To bob- Here is one of my most interesting search for a film, these days. Basically because in the last few years i have found so much- here is the story, and it bugs me because it was not a bad film. IN 1975 A DOUBLE FEATURE played at about 5 or 6 theatres in the New York area. The first film was BLOOD BATH, the second feature was BLOOD FEAST.first off, not the HERSHEL G LEWIS INFAMOUS ONE FROM 1963- and not THE BLOOD BATH which was a another title used for the 1966 WILLIAM CAMPBELL film TRACK OF THE VAMPIRE-Both these films were made in the 73 to 75 period. BLOOD BATH is the film i am most interested in finding, I saw the film at a theatre in QUEENS ,NEW YORK. BLOOD BATH was a low budget anthology tale made i believe in New York, one of the actors in the film[i don't know his name off hand] was a old man who was a regular, a doctor i believe for years on the daytime soap opera AS THE WORLD TURNS.Something tells me in the back of my head from what i heard years ago, that the company who made this film were the same company that made the notorious THE INCREDIBLE TORTURE SHOW-75.i HAVE NEVER HEARD OR SEEN ANYTHING ABOUT THIS EFFORT SINCE I SAW IT 38 YEARS AGO.any leads or knowledge of this film would be helpful.
I think this is the BLOOD BATH film you're looking for. I watched this video about 6 months ago. Not a very good film I'm afraid, but the extras on the disc (a feature-length commentary with the director and an interview with cast and crew: “Taking a Blood Bath – Making 70’s Indies in New York” (40 min.)) may make make it worthwhile.
On Universal and double features: they actually distributed two double features nationwide in 1980 and 1981, both featuring The Blues Brothers. The first one (released in November 1980) paired The Blues Brothers and The Jerk while the second one (released in June 1981) paired The Blues Brothers with Cheech and Chong's Next Movie.
Does anyone remember Biggles? A mid 80s adventure movie, a reworking of the classic British WW1 hero involving... time travel i think. i remember digging it as a kid, but i've never seen it come up since, not once. was it that bad?
This one is probably too lowbrow for this thread, but I think “Caltiki, the Immortal Monster” had some good ideas. Some of the scenes were inspired and well done. The acting was mostly atrocious, the dubbing terrible, special effects very low-tech but I thought the monster was not that bad, effect-wise, even scary in some scenes. This movie, a more graphic knockoff of “The Blob”, terrified me as a child. Anyone remember Caltiki?
TO NYBORG- BIGGLES, has been rare on cable over the years, i remember it was on the SCIFI CHANNEL a long time ago early, mid 90's. I thought it was not bad, nothing to write home about, it was i believe the last feature lenght film for Peter Cushing.I remember seeing it on You tube a while back.
TO JACKFU- yes i remember CATIKI as a kid as well, was on often on CHANNEL 9 [WOR-TV] IN NEW YORK.You said it. bad dubbing, low key effects yet some eerie scenes, for sure near the end, You can check it out on YOU TUBE, I saw it there a couple of years ago and my critical viewpoint of it was just like i thought as a kid.
Biggles was on TV in the UK at the back end of last year...it's not bad film at all...it's just a bad "Biggles" film. And yes, it was Cushing's last film, though he had a few years' peace to enjoy his birdwatching before he passed away a few years later.
Biggles was on TV in the UK at the back end of last year...it's not bad film at all...it's just a bad "Biggles" film. And yes, it was Cushing's last film, though he had a few years' peace to enjoy his birdwatching before he passed away a few years later.
aha, i traded tv in for netflix about a year ago. But at the rate the American one, which i switched to recently, pulls obscure films out of the bag, especially if it has been on cable, as dan the man pointed out, it's bound to turn up there sooner or later. it got the full works upon release though, in Europe at least, I remember having and reading the novelization n'everything.
