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DRIVE-IN TRAILER PARK: BOND MOTS
This week at the Drive-in Trailer Park it’s James Bond week. To commemorate the release of the 21st official 007 movie, Casino Royale, I’m reaching back to about 1973 for a drive-in ad culled from the early ‘70s re-release of a Connery Bond triple feature, most likely intended to make the transition to the Roger Moore era a smoother one. The ozoner was getting rid for a double feature comprised of faux porn and a barely raunchy sex comedy starring Larry Hagman and Joan Collins, so it’s unlikley anyone mourned this partciular eviction for too long, even if the new tenants were anywhere from eight to 12 years old. Seems that the ad copy guy at the newspaper was having a bit of fun at Her Majesty’s operative’s expense, however—“No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to have thighs!”And then a nod to Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, author of the novel Cheaper by the Dozen (with her brother Frank Gilbreth Jr.) who died last week of natural causes at the age of 98.
I could not find a trailer for the 1950 film version of Cheaper by the Dozen (although trailers for the crass Steve Martin remake and its sequel are all over the Internet), so I’ve settled for the Clifton Webb connection— here then is Webb, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Wagner and a host of others starring in Jean Negulesco’s 1953 Titanic.Then there’s the trailer for my favorite 007 movie.
Finally, I was so excited about stumbling upon this last trailer that I don’t even care that it relates neither to James Bond or Clifton Webb. I only knew that I must post it, a trailer for one of my favorite drive-in classics of the mid ‘70s, a kung fu-spaghetti western hybrid starring Lee Van Cleef and Lo Lieh in The Stranger and the Gunfighter.
3 comments:
I've always wanted to see that Larry Hagman movie, because it was written and directed by the same guy who made The President's Analyst!
I want to see the Stranger and the Gunfighter now... Van Cleef, western and martial arts and what sounds like morricone... it has it all.
Flickhead: If I'd realized that before I posted, I would've mentioned it, particularly since Jim Emerson recently chose The President's Analyst as one of his funniest movies. You both have convinced me to move TPA to the top of my Netflix queue!
MC: I can only say that I saw The Stranger and the Gunfighter four out of the five nights it played at my local drive-in in the mid-70s. It obviously did it for me when I was 14! Thirty-four years have swept by since I last saw the movie, so I can't say how it'll hold up, but I eagerly await its inevitable appearance on DVD. I suspect it'll still be a good time!
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