Sizemore: Moviedrome

If you're British and a film fan you'll probably remember a great movie programme called Moviedrome. It first aired about 12 years ago now and was the baby of producer Nick Jones and director Alex Cox. It opened the British public up to a host of classic and cult movies, most of which wouldn't have got a screening if it were not for Moviedrome. Presented in weirdly cool style by Cox, the viewer would get a brief summery of why a movie like The California Dolls should be seen, cardboard extras and all, as a classic or why Warren Oates was the best American actor ever. The title of Moviedrome carried on after Cox left to concentrate on his own movies but with a bland new host and a weak line up of movies it was never quite the same. I owe a lot to the original few seasons of this programme as it introduced me to actors like Robert Blake in Electra Guide in Blue (who went on to be the scary bastard in Lost Highway directed by David Lynch), directors like Monte Hellman and movies like The Big Silence. I would tape every Moviedrome offering religiously and I'm sorry to say that most of those tapes are now showing their age (I'm recollecting all the movies on DVD as we speak) but I did recently find the old guides that accompanied the series which I sent off for the grand sum of £2.75 each. I decided to reproduce those guides here so that maybe you guys can track down some of these cult oddities - some of the films mentioned have become pretty mainstream staples, The Terminator for example, but how many of you remember Night of the Comet ?

 

Moviedrome : The Guide by Alex Cox and Nick Jones All the cult films in this collection appeared in the first season of BBC2's hightly popular Moviedrome, hosted by Alex Cox. What is a cult film? A cult film is one that has a passionate following, but does not appeal to everyone. James Bond movies are not cult films, but chainsaw movies are. Just because a film has become a cult movie does not automaticall guarantee quality. Some are very bad; others are very, very good. Some make an awful lot of money at the box office; others make no money at all. Some are considered quality films; others are exploitation movies. One thing cult movies do have in common is that they are all genre films - for example gangster films or westerns. They also have a tendency to slosh over from one genre into another, so that a scince fiction film might also be a detective movie, or vice versa. They share common themes as well, themes that are found in all drama: love, murder and greed. All the movies chosen for Moviedrome - culled from the BBC library with the addition of a few personal selections - are acknowledged as cult films. Some are popular favourites, others are not, but every one has an element - a performance, musical score, opening sequence or whatever - that makes them greatly worth watching.

Contents Ace in the Hole Alligator Alphaville An American Werewolf in London Assault on Precinct 13 Barbarella The Big Silence (Il Grande Silenzio) Big Wednesday Brazil The Buddy Holly Story A Bullet for the General (QuienSabe?) The California Dolls Dead of Night Diva D.O.A. Down by Law Electra Guide in Blue Fat City Five Easy Pieces The Fly Get Carter Goin' South The Good , the Bad and the ugly The Grissom Gang The Hired Hand The Honeymoon Killers The Incredible Shrinking Man Invasion of the Body Snatchers Jabberwocky Johnny Guitar The Last Picture Show The Long Hair of Death The Loved One The Man Who Fell to Earth The Man with the X-ray Eyes Night of the Comet One-Eyed Jacks One from the Heart The Parallax View The Phenix City Story Q - The Winged Serpent Razorback Rumblefish Stardust Memories Sunset Boulevard Sweet Smell of Success The Terminator The Thing from Another World THX 1138 Trancers Two-Lane Blacktop Ulzana's Raid Walk on the Wild Side A Wedding The Wicker Man Yojimbo