Moviedrome memories

[orgasmo]

Thinking back on the night I watched carnival of souls for the first time on Moviedrome presented by Alex Cox has inspired me to start a thread on the memories where you discovered rare horror films and exploitation classics for the first time thanks to this fantastic show.

I discovered John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 thanks to moviedrome-seeing that little girl get shot was a real shocker to be seen on terrestrial tv at the time for me.:D

[MarcMorris]

There's an excellent Moviedrome fan archive which lists all the movies broadcast by year.

The Moviedrome Archive (http://www.geocities.com/kurtodrome/drome.html)

[Companero]

Weird. I was checking out some of Alex Cox's Moviedrome intros at lunchtime - checked out those for PARALLAX VIEW and DJANGO KILL.

[Myersfan73]

Moviedrome gave me a broader appreciation of movies than anything I was reading or watching at the time it started to broadcast.
I loved the way the intro's got you raring to go once the feature started. You kinder knew you were in for a treat, love it or hate it there was always something to take from most of the movies shown.

Highlights in the 1988 season for me were:

The Wicker Man
Diva
Razorback
Barbarella
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
The Good The Bad and The Ugly

As sell through Video was in it's early stages, it was amazing to be able to record films you actually wanted to see to view time and time again.
I find it funny now looking back that I use to look forward to watching TV at the weekends(A lot of it). These days I spend my time watching my own collection and might only watch TV 4-6 hours a week and that's mostly the news.
How times change. Over the years the BBC have done some great movie seasons but somehow they've lost there way. Shame really but we can thank them for the memories.

[Oscar Deutsch]

Glad to see someone has posted a few more Moviedrome intros on YouTube, I still have a fair few on VHS that aren't up though - if anyone knows of a reliable bit of freeware that can transfer DVD to a format suitable for YouTube, I'll fire them up!

[MarcMorris]

MPEG Streamclip (http://www.squared5.com/)

[Oscar Deutsch]

Cheers, I'll check it out, and post the links to any interesting stuff I create out of it - if I can get it to work, that is! I seem to always have problems with tech stuff like this, I can't even get the sodding on-demand stuff on any of the TV channel websites to work!

But I feel sorry for today's impressionable teens, all these channels and none has anything like Moviedrome on - how is a love of the offbeat and interesting ever to be fostered now that the terrestrial channels have given up with film?? Surely there's a slot on BBC3 or BBC4 for an introduced cult movie every now and again??

[Wynter]

Looking at the list I must have started to watch Moviedrome in 92 because I remember Alex Cox introducing it and would have been about 12...

...the films that I really remember seeing on it were - Walker, The Hill, Talk Radio, The People Under the Stairs, Race with the Devil, 84 Charlie Mopic, Excalibur, The Warriors, Fahrenheit 451, Trespass, Funny Bones and The Osterman Weekend.

Seems quaint now but I can remember being amazed when Ed Harris picks up the copy of Time (I think) in Walker...

I remember when I started uni a couple of years back - after putting my hand up for the fiftieth time when a lecturer inquired as to whom had seen such and such a film someone asked me where I had seen all this stuff and I just said TV. I hadn't really thought about it until then but regular TV used to show such a brilliant selection of film. I suppose that nowadays people theoretically have more choice because it's all on DVD etc but that means you have to know what you are looking for. Back in the day the main channels were constantly running seasons of Kurosawa, Goddard, Welles etc etc or showcasing a particular country, time, genre, The Archers, Carry Ons and so on. Nowadays they don't and so there is no real chance of accidentally flicking onto something that you won't forget.

In these times of BBC spending being under review I think they should stop buying the big film premieres (we saw them all two years ago when we got the DVDs for Xmas), look towards the past and start showing some great / interesting films.

[Mark Y]

I still have the two Moviedrome brochures that reprinted Cox's intros to the films. The series featured an interesting and eclectic bunch of films. Even though availability of films on video was much more limited in the 80s and early 90s, ironically TV presented a lot of cult films that it was hard to see elsewhere. Terrestrial TV sucks these days in comparison.

[Oscar Deutsch]

OK people, let's say the BBC have decided to bring it back, and there's a shortage of suitable presenters, so you've been given the job...

So name your fantasy Moviedrome season, say around a dozen films you'd love to present that you think deserve being brought to the attention of a wider audience....

[Rich]

The films that really stood out for me at the time was the double bill of Alligator and Q The Winged Serpent, I had never seen either before and loved them both.

[MarcMorris]

I still have The Warriors recorded onto S-VHS which was shown back in 1997. It includes the original opening sequence not found anywhere else.

[jacksmith1983]

Would that be the one set in the daytime before the fateful gang meeting, where Cleon assigns the rest of the gang their roles?

The BBC also showed the same version featuring this opening again a few years later for a late night, post Match Of The Day airing on BBC1. I know this as I used to have an off air VHS recording taken from this airing.

[orgasmo]

OK people, let's say the BBC have decided to bring it back, and there's a shortage of suitable presenters, so you've been given the job...

So name your fantasy Moviedrome season, say around a dozen films you'd love to present that you think deserve being brought to the attention of a wider audience....

Sam Raimi,s marvelously underrated CRIMEWAVE deserves the Moviedrome treatment simply for existing in my personal first choice.The biggest crime committed being this one is so overlooked by his fans,let along the general public.
Ive always seen the two leads as a homicidal Laural an Hardy,(all that's missing being the bowler hats).
Amazingly Sam originally wanted Bruce Campbell in the lead roll for this.:eek:
Thats like having Seymour Claybourne being played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in a little shop of horrors.:eek:
A true cult favorite of mine with lovely twisted humor for a PG certificate.:D
Ill add more choices in time.

[guthrie!]

Hmm 12 moviedrome favs. 1. THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE. 2. DEATHLINE aka: RAW MEAT. 3. THE BELSTONE FOX. 4. BRONSON. 5. CALAMITY OF SNAKES. 6. DELIVERENCE. 7. THE FOG. 8. DIRTY HARRY/MAGNUM FORCE. 9. WITHNAIL AND I. 10. HOOKERS, PIMPS, HUSTLERS AND THEIR JOHNS (ok i know its a documentary but so is FAHRENHEIT 9/11 and that would fit here i think?). 11. FREAKS. and 12. SCUM/THREADS. Phew..there.:p

[WilsonBros]

One of the most laughable things that Cox ever said during one of his intros on Moviedrome was when he was introducing Manhunter and said that Brian Cox & Anthony Hopkins were "the spitting image of each other" - uh, yeah...

Kev W

[tobiaswragg]

Doesn't surprise me. In making Sid and Nancy he seemed to be going out of his way to cast actors who looked nothing at all like the people they were supposed to be. Honestly, it took me about half-an-hour to suss out that the Welsh bloke was supposed to be Johnny Rotten. No wonder Rotten took a dislike to Cox.

[finishominis]

I remember the intro to The Terminator where he just slagged it off before it was screened!

[tobiaswragg]

He did that with Johnny Guitar also.

If i may return to Sid and Nancy, it just occurred to me that Jones resembled a Bootleg Beatle, Cook a fat kid with special needs and McLaren a Glaswegian ned. I'll never forget the bit where he pulls out the shooter a la Dirty Harry.

[Rich]

I never realised The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue had been shown as part of the Moviedrome season, where was I? :confused:

[tobiaswragg]

I don't think any of the films mentioned in that post were shown. Presumably a windup.

[guthrie!]

I never realised The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue had been shown as part of the Moviedrome season, where was I? :confused:

Oops sorry mate that was just a wishlist for moviedrome! Sorry for confusion!!

[guthrie!]

I don't think any of the films mentioned in that post were shown. Presumably a windup.

Apologies to all i should have quoted Oscar Deutsh, it was just my personal moviedrome wishlist:) It certainly wasnt meant as a windup, honest.