Some Glorious Pre-Code Costumes

These are from Footlight Parade, a 1933 Busby Berkeley musical starring James Cagney.

I Watch Bad Movies So You Don't Have To: Dreamaniac

Movies like Dreamaniac exist because you read a description like this:

A heavy-metal musician makes a deal with a satanic succubus to make him successful with women, in return for the succubus being able to feed on the girls.

And think, "Well I know this movie is going to be terrible but I have to know exactly what kind of terrible." Most of them are really boring because they're filmed in three days on a budget of $5 for maximum cash-in and don't even bother having a ridiculous premise. Dreamaniac is only mostly boring, with a lot of amusing moments.

The movie opens up with a dream-sequence-in-a-dream-sequence where they flash some boobs and blood because they know the audience and don't want to keep them waiting too long for their meat and potatoes. Our male lead Adam is some kind of loser metal musician who apparently accidentally summons a succubus by reading a book he has laying around. He makes a deal with her so he can be successful with the ladies. 

Before he wakes up from this sequence Adam takes a moment to be very impressed by Succubus Lady's rockin' stirrup leggings:

It's all very confusing because right after he makes this deal his girlfriend drops by and they have a quick romp after which she immediately leaves to go fetch her sister so they can prepare the house for a party to try and impress some sorority ladies. Little sis (Jodi) really wants in on this sorority which is apparently made up of snooty rich girls who don't like her very much but come to her party anyway. Some guys show up, one of whom has apparently given Succubus Lady a lift to the house. Adam is surprised by this, and then almost nothing happens for about 45 minutes to conserve budget.

During this dead time we get to observe the amazingly terrible outfits the wardrobe drone found for everyone.

Ugly Sweater Girl is stabbed in the head quickly so that something happens during this time. It is not very convincing.

Nobody notices that Ugly Sweater Girl is missing because they're all trying to have sex with each other, except the two sisters who are sad that their boyfriends are sexifying other women. They sit around in the kitchen drinking while Succubus Lady goes around killing everyone in various ways. Here are the ones I remember:

1. Tough Guy #1 - Goes off with Succubus Lady for some sexy time and she ties him to a pole with a live wire and electrocutes him. Not really sure how that works but hey. He comes back as a zombie (I think??) later and gets stabbed in the eye with a ski pole and stays dead.
2. Guy With Short Jean Shorts - Stabbed while drinking punch directly from the bowl like a dog. Succubus Lady makes this face before she stabs him:
3. Girl In Ugly Yellow Jumper - Stabbed in the shoulder with a poker from a fire place I hadn't previously noticed was there. Dies immediately from the wound.
4. Little Sis' Dumb Boyfriend - Succubus Lady bites his wiener off (not shown directly, implied through the magic of editing!) and he doesn't appear again so I think he bled to death.
5. Suit Jacket Man - Succubus Lady grabs his tie from the back and strangles him, I think. It was not a very coherent scene.

This leaves us with Adam, the two sisters and the Queen Sorority Bee. At this point Queen Sorority Bee suddenly decides that Adam is very handsome and she wishes to engage in sexual relations with him. They make out and he pulls Queenie's neck back and paints a ketchup line across her throat, killing her. Brutal.

The Sisters and Adam regroup, because they are unaware that he is also now a crazy murderer. This happens so that Big Sis can leave Little Sis alone with Adam, she leaves to go succubus hunting. After Big Sis has left, Little Sis reads some rad lyrics that Adam has written, realizes that he is crazy and tries to get away. However Adam has a knife covered in red Jello hanging around to threaten her with.

Big Sis gets back and sees Little Sis on the ground with blood on her shirt. She is sad but then Adam stumbles in with an obvious knife wound on his chest and Little Sis becomes clearly not dead. They run away.

After holding a ceremony to make it so Succubus Lady is killable, Big Sis arms herself with a very large drill and they go hunting for both the succubus and Adam.

There is a really boring chase scene, where the girls are running away from Adam after they've established that they're going to kill him. It climaxes with a scene that makes this whole movie worth it (and one that clearly ate up the bulk of the budget). Big Sis attacks Adam with the very large drill, ramming through his hand and his neck. After holding it up to his neck for about ten seconds his head pops off. I tried to find a clip of this scene embed but I could not, and I am so sorry for that. It is a real howler.

Finally, the movie is almost over. The girls confront the succubus and as they are about to dispose of her an orderly from a mental ward busts in to retrieve his patient! Whoops, she gets out some times, hope she didn't cause any trouble. My brain hurts.

Cut to: A clean-cut Adam sitting in a chair talking on the phone describing the movie we just watched as a "pulp novel he wrote in a week!" What should he call it? Succubus??

But two endings are not enough! Adam gets up, opens the door to the room and is stabbed by the figure from his first dream at the beginning of the movie. Credits roll. Everyone is very clever, I'm sure there was a lot of back patting going on after wrap. The last scene from Pieces made more sense than this. My brain hurts and it's time for a drink.

Movie Revivals in NYC, February Edition

January was a pretty boring month for revivals in NYC so I just skipped putting anything together. February looks to be way more interesting (for me). Here's what caught my eye:

Day	Date + Time	Movie	Location
Sunday	4th, 4pm	The Flowers of St Francis	Anthology Film Archives
Sunday	4th, 7:40pm	Little Fugitive	Film Forum
Friday	8th, 12am	The Tenant	IFC Film Center
Saturday	9th, 4:35pm	Gold Diggers of 1933	Film Forum
Sunday	10th, 5:30pm	Design for Living	Film Forum
Tuesday	12th, 7:30pm	The Bitter Tea of General Yen	Film Forum
Tuesday	12th, 9:15pm	The Emperor Jones	Film Forum
Saturday	16th, 5:10pm	42nd Street	Film Forum
Monday	18th, 7pm	Emitai	Anthology Film Archives
Tuesday	19th, 6:10pm	Roman Scandals	Film Forum
Tuesday	21th, 7:30pm	The Testament of Dr Mabuse	Film Forum
Friday	22nd, 12am	Jaws	IFC Film Center
Saturday	23rd, 11am	Young Mr Lincoln	IFC Film Center
Sunday	24th, 2pm	A Borrowed Life	Film Society of Lincoln Center
Wednesday	27th, 6pm	She Done Him Wrong	Film Forum

Of these I am definitely going to see The Flowers of St Francis, Design for Living and She Done Him Wrong. Anything else is extremely tentative.