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Murder on the Roof (1930) Pressbook

An all-talking production! Boy, that must have been quite a thrill to theater audiences when talking pictures replaced the silents. Earlier pressbooks used newsprint, which didn’t hold up well over the years; but this one for Murder on the Roof has lots of promotion, with newspaper ads, a book tie-in, and fashions to highlight.

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Murder on the Roof Pressbook 01

Orgy of the Dead (1965) Pressbook

I caught Orgy of the Dead many, many years ago, late one night. For the life of me I can’t remember where, but it may have been a late-night showing on some UHF channel. I was naughty, even then, and UHF had lax standards. After Criswell introduces this magnum opus “I am Criswell. For years, I have told the almost unbelievable, related the unreal and showed it to be more than a fact. Now I tell a tale of the threshold people, so astounding that some of you may faint. This is a story of those in the twilight time. Once human, now monsters, in a void between the living and the dead. Monsters to be pitied, monsters to be despised. A night with the ghouls, the ghouls reborn from the innermost depths of the world,” it goes on and on with topless burlesque dancers and a few monsters standing around a lot. My threshold for amusement dropped out after about 20 minutes. The pressbook for this odd entry into the nudie cutie sub-genre is rather small but also filled with topless women.

I’ve gone all prude and whited out the naughty bits for the sake of not offending anyone with this alluring image, but you can see all the naughty bits in the unexpurgated pressbook.

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Junior G-Men (1940) Pressbook

One of my guilty pleasures is watching the antics of the East Side Kids (aka Dead End Kids, Little Tough Guys, The Bowery Boys) troupe’s antics. Here they join with the FBI to foil terrorists. A surprising number of movies were made with various iterations of the boys, all starting from a serious play that moved onto the big screen, then an ongoing series of more light-hearted movies.

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This Gun For Hire (1942) Pressbook

Veronica Lake is wonderful as a singing magician and Alan Ladd is a block of dangerous ice as Philip Raven, a killer for hire. Their chemistry, the great Laird Cregar as a cunning but squeamish villain, and Robert Preston as the dogged lawman hot on their trail, makes for a solid and classic noir.

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This Gun For Hire Pressbook 01

Cole Bros. Circus Program (1938)

For circus buffs, here's the Cole Bros. Circus program for 1938. After moving to Long Island (New York) some years ago, I discovered Cole Bros. one hot summer day. They would put down stakes for their big top a few times before I ventured into the magic of that bygone era. I had seen Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus a few times at Madison Square Garden, and here on the Island at the Nassau Coliseum, but being in the big tent, up close to the caged lions (I kept running through exit scenarios in case of trouble as I watched), there's been nothing like it ever since. I know that animal treatment was a problem, but there was still something special, nostalgic, and sad about it all. When I was way to young to worry about names and social politics, my dad took me to Madison Square Garden to see Ringling Bros. for the first time. I went looking for the freak show, in high hopes of finally seeing up close what I had only seen through television shows and movies. You can't imagine how crestfallen I was when I found out there was none. To me, the freaks, the sideshow acts, they were the real performers of the circus. Of note to Western movie fans, cowboy star Ken Maynard toured with the Circus and has a write-up.

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Cole Brothers Circus 01

Tight Spot (1955) Pressbook

Like a little ginger cheesecake with your film noir? Here’s Ginger Rogers in Tight Spot, a movie with some kick as she’s manhandled by the cops and the criminals. Brian Keith plays the big lug who falls for her tight legs and snippy personality. Edward G. Robinson looks short in every scene but acts big as usual. The cast is gold, the dialog a bit too sappy, but this one’s a keeper even without the dancing.

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Green Magic (1953) Pressbook

An Italian documentary capturing yet another excursion into the jungle, which seemed very big (think travelogue with exploitation tossed in) up until the 1960s. Now with the Internet and cable channel shows, the big screen isn’t needed anymore to show us the wild and exotic. Of course, there’s straight to DVD for that now, too. I’d love to have one of those kid mask giveaways. That’s another thing about today’s movies, no fun giveaways to promote a showing at the local theater. Bummer.

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Green Magic Pressbook 01

The Range Busters (1940) Pressbook

Ray “Crash” Corrigan was a stuntman, western B movie star, and noted for putting on a mean gorilla costume now and then. I’m not sure if the “Crash” part of his name came from his stunt work or his appearance in the Undersea Kingdom (1936) serial. Some sources relate it to his being in the serial, since Flash Gordon, with Larry “Buster” Crabbe, came out around the same time and Republic’s publicity wanted a hero to buzz off of the “Flash” name. We tend to forget how often stunt people fill in for the actors or in critical roles where life and limb are at a premium. During the serial and western cinema days, many actors were stunt people too. It certainly saved money for the studios.

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Love-Slaves of the Amazons (1957) Pressbook

Curt Siodmak strikes again. He can’t seem to stay out of the jungle. Surprisingly, this movie gets a 6.5 rating on IMDb. Ah, I miss the good old days of cinema where savage women captured men to make them their love slaves, deep in some jungle somewhere. Ancient civilization, current civilization, no matter; everyone needs some love-slaving at some point, jungle or not. This one was paired with The Monolith Monsters on a double bill. Now that’s some date-movie combo if ever there was one.

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Slaves of the Amazon Pressbook 01

My Gun is Quick (1957) Pressbook

I bet his gun is short too. My favorite Hammer movie (no, not THAT Hammer) is Kiss Me Deadly. I guess most men would love to have million dollar dames, a gun, and an attitude to make the other two work well together, but that age of movie mystique, with girls swooning over a macho macho man who hits as hard as he can take it, doesn’t quite work with today’s audiences unless the name is Bond, James Bond. The “Spillane Dames” are no longer a natural for excitement, and I can’t say that’s a sorry-to-see-that-go thing. As a period piece, it’s engagingly “huh, they got away with that?”; as a plot enticement for today’s audiences, it no longer has any worth or should have. But I still like to watch Mike Hammer bust it up with his fists and red hot lips.

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The Gay Ranchero (1948) Pressbook

I’m not sure how gay the ranchero can be when crooks try to take over the local airport, but I’ll let you determine that when you see the movie. What I like about cowboy movies in the 1930s and 40s is how they meshed home on the range with planes, trains, and automobiles on the tarmac. Most of us forget the transitional time between the wild wild west and the mild mild urban and suburban sprawl that moved America past the plains and into the asphalt age. If you haven’t caught the movie serials, The Phantom Empire and Undersea Kingdom, they take the technological swing to meld the more mechanized cowboy with an ancient civilization that itself was mechanized with cheeky robots and death rays. And a cool wheeled-ride that purrs like a dinosaur.

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