WEIRD WEDNESDAY: Vampire Circus (1972)
Directed by Robert Young, with a screenplay by Judson Kinberg and a story by George Baxt and Wilbur Stark, Vampire Circus is pretty great. Young hadn’t made a movie with the studio, so he was surprised that when he tried to get an extra week of filming, they just took the movie to be edited. […]
WEIRD WEDNESDAY: Unholy Rollers (1972)
Roller derby was once one of the most popular sports on UHF TV, vying with pro wrestling for ratings and attendance. And much like its cousins in the squared circle, it had predetermined finishes and storylines. Don’t blame me for breaking kayfabe—Unholy Rollers does this right off the bat, explaining how everything has to go […]
WEIRD WEDNESDAY: The Twilight People (1972)
Turns out The Island of Dr. Moreau is the next one over from Blood Island. This Filipino-lensed production was directed by the always dependable Eddie Romero and stars the equally trustworthy John Ashley. It’s everything you want it to be — trashy, goofy, transcendent. Matt Farrell (Ashley) is kidnapped by Neva Gordon (Pat Woodall, The […]
WEIRD WEDNESDAY: Toys Are Not for Children (1972)
Man, I never would have survived the 1970s. It was too full of sin and sleaze, too many drugs, too many cults. I’m reminded of this every single time I watch a piece of cinematic insanity from that most bonkers of all decades. What can you say about a movie that starts with a young […]
September Drive-In Super Monster-Rama 2026: Gargoyles (1972)
September Drive-In Super Monster-Rama is back at The Riverside Drive-In Theatre, September 19 and 20, 2025. Two big nights with four feature films each night include: When I was a kid, I remember asking my dad what movies he thought were scary. He answered Night of the Living Dead and Gargoyles, so I was always nervous to […]
WEIRD WEDNESDAY: The Swinging Co-eds (1972)
When you doubt what a movie is and it’s playing at a drive-in in the 70s, chances are it’s a Schoolgirl Report movie. Also known as Sex at the Olympics and Girls Who Came to Munich, this is—like those films—a stitched-together carousel of softcore vignettes set against the backdrop of Munich 1972 that has absolutely […]
WEIRD WEDNESDAY: Sweet Sugar (1972)
Sugar Bowman (Phyllis Davis, who played Susan Lake in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls) takes a deal to serve two years working on Dr. John’s (Angus Duncan) sugarcane plantation rather than go to prison for a crime she didn’t commit. When she’s not out in the fields cutting crops with a machete all day, she […]
WEIRD WEDNESDAY: Swedish Wildcats (1972)
If you are going to dive headfirst into the sleazy, sun-dappled depths of Euro-exploitation, you need a maestro at the helm. Enter Joseph W. Sarno, the undisputed auteur of adult cinema who treated trashy premises like high art. With 1972’s Swedish Wildcats, Sarno takes us across the Atlantic for a film that’s part sleazy melodrama, […]
CBS LATE MOVIE: 43: The Richard Petty Story (1972)
EDITOR’S NOTE: 43: The Richard Petty Story was on the CBS Late Movie on May 13, 1987. When this biopic about NASCAR’s winningest driver was made, stock-car racing hadn’t yet vaulted from regional popularity in the South to nationwide notoriety. Races didn’t find their way to national television until a few years later, so that […]
CBS LATE MOVIE: Ben (1972)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Ben was on the CBS Late Movie on February 21, 1975 and March 11, 1977. I knew the Michael Jackson song “Ben” a hell of a lot better than Ben the movie, but now, I’ve crossed over into the sewer, and I know both. If you remember Willard—and who could forget?—Willard Stiles got completely overwhelmed and […]
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