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Bug (1975)
They released this on DVD?????
I saw this in it's original release in 1975 at my friendly neighborhood inner-city theater. As I recall, the coming attractions made it look way better than it turned out to be. A lot of people actually came to see the film based on the trailer, which was shown during another in a series of Bruce Lee "Fists of Fury/Chinese Connection" double features which were always incredibly popular in St. Louis back in those days.
Add to this the dearth of Sci-Fi themed films during this time...the period between "Battle For The Planet of the Apes" (1973) and "Star Wars" (1977) were rather lean for the genre. So my friends and I were down at the Lowe's State Theater on a Friday afternoon to eagerly see the premiere of "Bug".
As I recall, the bugs seemed to originate close to the red-hot core of the Earth. Which is why, apparently, they could ignite at will. I seem to remember some weird sort of sound they'd make to let the viewer know they were there. And of course, all the action took place in the requisite small town. I haven't seen the film for 33 years, but I remember the audience's reaction (an audience used to watching tough films like "SuperFly", "3 The Hard Way", "The Chinese Mack", etc at this theater)...they laughed and then they left....
Don't Knock the Rock (1956)
A few knocks for this film
This is yet another of a group of early R&R films with the same moral...."Parents, don't judge the music of your kids harshly...after all, you were a bunch of flappers back in your day, screaming '23 Skiddoo' while jitterbugging like crazy..." This film would have been better, MUCH better, if they actually had a Rock N Roll guy as the lead. But they had a Bing Crosby type, moaning out some pretty awful tunes. I'm sure there were some very restless teenagers in the theater when this film was released. They probably couldn't wait 'till the REAL rockers came on screen. Once that happened, the film came into it's own. As has been pointed out in earlier posts, these performances are the centerpiece of the film.
In addition to the musical numbers by Haley & the Comets, the Treniers and Little Richard, the dancing was pretty amazing in this movie. Young people of the past could really move, unlike today (also check out YouTube clips of Ronnie Spector dancing at the Pepppermint Lounge during The Beatles '64 tour; clips from the early 70's Soul Train line; and clips from the 80's film "Breakin'" to see what young folks could do during the past decades).
Another bright spot was the performance of Jana Lund as the bratty, teenage nymphet. She did an amazingly sultry dance when first spotted, and you just knew this kitten would be trouble. On top of that, Ms. Lund was wearing the most blatant example of a 50's "Balistic Missle Bra" since Janet Leigh in "Jet Pilot".
All in all, not a bad film, but not as good or as much fun as "Rock Around The Clock".