posted
Now I know a few of us have brought them up before because they defiantly are their own genre...especially their 80's movies. You see Crown International on a VHS and know it's gonna be a b-movie with some cheese.
I was looking at a VHS of a movie i'm gonna watch now and it got me thinking.....what's the story behind Crown International Pictures????
Well I found out if anyone is interested that they started as an independent film studio in 1959 and they are primarily known for low budget flicks, grindhouse cinema, biker films, exploitation films, and B-movie drive in fare.
Movies like TomBoy, My Chauffeur, My Tutor, Hunk, Jocks, My Mom's a Werewolf, Coach.
My question is has anyone seen The Virgin Queen of St. Francis High ??? I'm intrigued?
Posts: 2912 | Registered: Jun 2003 | Site Updates: 26
| IP: Logged |
Muffy Tepperman
Leopard-print Leotard Wearer.....
Member # 1551
posted
Oh, they did My Mom's A Werewolf? You don't say?
I love Tomboy (and all the others), and I think Virgin Queen Of St. Francis High is great. Crown International makes my favorite kinda films!
Posts: 929 | From: Deb to Tone | Registered: Dec 2004 | Site Updates: 37
| IP: Logged |
aTomiK
.... has green eyes as well....
Member # 6575
posted
The poster keeps making me think it's Jodie Foster or something? It's available to rent on Amazon so I may just do that over the next couple days........plus if Admirer says it great I gotta trust him he hasn't stirred me wrong so far? haha
Posts: 2912 | Registered: Jun 2003 | Site Updates: 26
| IP: Logged |
Valley Dated Julie From 'Valley Girl' (allegedly!)
Member # 1322
posted
Crown International Pictures are 80's b-movie rock stars.. My Chauffeur and My Tutor are probably the best known of the bunch, but movies like Coach and Double Exposure are really my favs looking through the catalog link. When I see there logo I know I'm in for some fun.
[ 02. February 2012, 19:30: Message edited by: Valley ]
Posts: 7845 | From: Smiling and glancing in awe in the back of a limo | Registered: Mar 2003 | Site Updates: 22
| IP: Logged |
Muffy Tepperman
Leopard-print Leotard Wearer.....
Member # 1551
posted
Of course you started an awesome topic Atomik! I'll try and watch it and get back to your topic about it Posts: 2912 | Registered: Jun 2003 | Site Updates: 26
| IP: Logged |
posted
Some of Crown-International's older titles wound up being made fun out of in the TV show "Mystery Science Theatre 3000"!
One of the ladies in "The Beach Girls" was a Playboy centerfold in the early 1980's and is now on one of those silly "Real Housewives Of..." reality-TV series.
IIRC, Crown-International was run by a husband-wife couple, Mark & Marilyn Tenser. I don't know if they are still there today.
Posts: 3385 | From: Sacramento, California, USA | Registered: Sep 2002 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
posted
StevenHW, absolutely dead on...Crown was run by a husband and wife team, the daughter and son-in-law of company founder "Red" Jacobs who was an old school film guy. (I believe that he worked at RKO!) Apparently, the company still exists today licensing its huge vault of titles to DVD, etc. As I recall, there was even a little Time Magazine article on them back around the time of the release of "Weekend Pass" on their extraordinarily good formula for success and marketing techniques (open on a holiday weekend at drive-ins, have some comedy, cute girls, etc.). Of course, I love the company very much for all the titles mentioned here--and gosh knows, I own all those Crown collections, including the couple put out by Rhino circa 2004 called "Horrible Horrors"--but we can't ever forget the best-titled Crown pic ever, "They Saved Hitler's Brain" (a/k/a "Madmen of Mandoras.") That title just makes me smile as one of the greatest movie titles ever, right up there with "Hell Comes to Frogtown," "Drag Me to Hell," "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies," and my all-time favorite title, the great Italian giallo, "Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key." (I've spent years trying to work that into a converstaion.) :-)
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
Valley Dated Julie From 'Valley Girl' (allegedly!)
Member # 1322
When Olympic Gold medalist Randy Rawlings is hired as a high school basketball coach, her new employers were not aware that she is would be a woman. After Randy forces them to honor their agreement, the school principal does everything he can to make her fail. Randy overcomes the doubters and succeeds in creating a winning team among other things..
We discussed other movies such as "My Tutor" and "Private Lessons" recently, but for me the best and most fun movie to enter the student/teacher terrority is "Coach". As a person that has played sports my entire life with a passion for basketball, watching "Coach" as a teenager was a blast.
The chemistry between Cathy Lee Crosby and Michael Biehn seemed genuine and rather sexy from the viewpoint of a teenager. Watching it again on the Too Cool For School DVD set was not quite the same, but still an enjoyable link to the past.
Okay.. for anyone that has seen "Coach" they will probably remember gawky Ned and the meaning of "Jabberwalky".
I posted this in the 70's section, but I doubt many folks have actually seen "Coach". The Too Cool For School Collection is worth purchasing for this movie alone. I still need to watch more of the movies, but it is was a bargain and I highly recommend.
Posts: 7845 | From: Smiling and glancing in awe in the back of a limo | Registered: Mar 2003 | Site Updates: 22
| IP: Logged |
posted
Thanks, Valley, for the memories! I hadn't thought about "Coach" and Cathy Lee Crosby in years. In the late 1970's, I worked as a projectionist at a drive-in. (At least I can say that I had one cool job before I die.) Anyway, we played a lot of Crown stuff, and I remember one week it was a double bill of "Coach" and the forgotten, weird, but very interesting "French Quarter," which is new to DVD. I have fond memories of lugging the heavy 35mm film cans from the side of the road every Thursday. (The prints were tossed off a passing Greyhound bus each week.) Man, those were the days... I miss them so much. Now drive-ins just show first-run and sub-run movies, nothing like the stuff Crown made. Even the weakest Crown picture had something going for it. After AIP and New World, they were my favorite exploitation distribution company. I have the two DVD sets of "Horrible Horrors" released by Rhino circa 2004, and they contain a lot of great Crown stuff, including the somewhat slow, but certainly well made and intriguing, "The Hearse." Viva la Crown and the Jacobs-Tenser families for making my adolescence a trip and a half!
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
Muffy Tepperman
Leopard-print Leotard Wearer.....
Member # 1551
quote:Originally posted by Crash: I have fond memories of lugging the heavy 35mm film cans from the side of the road every Thursday. (The prints were tossed off a passing Greyhound bus each week.)
Awesome memories Crash! I find that so hilarious they just chucked them on the side of the road.......Drive-ins in those days were the most fun.......I saw Return of the Jedi at the Drive-in and fondly remember seeing it larger then life above me while playing on the swing set below the screen.
For anyone that's interested there is a Drive-in Database of closed and still open theaters and has links and pictures on some:
posted
Thanks so much, Muffy! The prints really were chucked to the side of the road!!! My projectors at the drive-in even had the old carbon-arc lamps that actually burned these thick pieces of pencil lead. They were hot and dangerous! But my favorite part of the evening was about midway through the second feature when I got to plug in the mic and announce through the car speakers, "Snack bar closes in 15 minutes." (Just like in the old Cheech and Chong skit!) Oh, I forgot to mention that you had to sit outside the projection booth because of the build-up of carbon dioxide/monoxide from the burning carbon-arc lamps! If I ever get to heaven, I hope that they make me the official projectionist. I would show all the great movies from this forum!
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
aTomiK
.... has green eyes as well....
Member # 6575
posted
Great memories Crash! I enjoy reading them. AIP and New World sure were great companies...
Posts: 7054 | From: Finland | Registered: Feb 2008 | Site Updates: 7
| IP: Logged |
posted
Logan5, a drive-in close to me is showing eight horror films over two nights the second weekend in September, including "Frankenstein Created Woman," "The Oblong Box," and "Blood on Satan's Claw." They do it every year, but I always have something come up. This year, I'm there, dudes and dudettes. I'm glad you guys liked the stories.
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
Helen_S
Hiding behind the shower curtain.....
Member # 5804
posted
And to give you guys a flavor of the day-to-day workings of a drive-in when we weren't showing movies, here was the bane of my existence. I was always out with a screwdriver and pliers wiring the post speakers back on. The slide was actually part of the pre-show reel that we would run. It included the short warning you about pulling off the speakers, trailers, and snack bar stuff. We always played the National Anthem too! The present-day drive-ins that I've been to still run a pre-show and add a short from the Drive-In Theater Owners Associaton urging you to support your local drive-in! With the advent of FM radio sound, these speakers are now relics, but some drive-ins still maintain one row of speakers for fools who don't have car radios!
[ 22. August 2010, 11:02: Message edited by: Crash ]
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
posted
And another story: drive-in food. I can't begin to tell you about the horrors of eating anything that didn't come pre-wrapped. We used to keep huge garbage bags of leftover popcorn for the next night's show. So what if it was a little mushy? We also over-salted it to sell more soda. The less said about the burgers and hot dogs, the better. When I was a kid, I remember my old man warning me never to eat them because they were made of "tainted" meat. I never really understood what he meant, but it sure sounded scary. Anyway, here is a snap from a vintage drive-in ad. They call it "BBQ," but when you see it, I think that it can only charitably be called "dog barf." Enjoy because it's "prepared the Southern way"! (I'm sure that there is some drive-in in Texas still serving Castleberry's--and showing the intermission short!)
[ 22. August 2010, 15:12: Message edited by: Crash ]
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
aTomiK
.... has green eyes as well....
Member # 6575
posted
Here it is, my beloved "Hi-Way 219 Drive-In," in business since 1950! I forget to mention one salient feature: Miles from nowhere, it is located right next to a mink farm, so in the hot summer, the smell in the air wafting over the grounds is just horrendous. (I can't make this stuff up.) Unfortunately, there is no BBQ crap on the menu, but you can get an order of Wing Dings--if you dare--for $4.99.
[ 22. August 2010, 15:29: Message edited by: Crash ]
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
posted
when watching some YouTube videos a little while back crash i saw one about drive in theatres across the us and some guy was talking about having to change all his projectors over to these new digital ones and it was about i think $70,000 - $80,000 a pop and I can't remember how many screens they had but the initial outlay was pretty big bucks and then he went on to say how much of a cut the studios would take from ticket sales and from what I remember it was a colossal amount which left the theatre to have to more or less either make ends meet with food sales or basically go under!
I don't know how many drive in theatres have been lost over the years but you can see why some of these places don't survive.
I went to the movie theatre (not a drive in as we are not lucky enough to have them over here) for the first time in a few years a few weeks back to watch mad max fury road and when you add up all these costs,I think 2 adult tickets was about 23 UK pounds,2 x 3d glasses I think another 4 uk pounds,popcorn and a coke I think about another 7 or 8 pounds and then you got any additional travel costs it made for a pretty expensive night out and I can see why I don't go that often.
Infact One of the dailys over here done a survey not that long ago about the high costs of going to the cinema and how it is now putting people of going in there droves.
What is pretty sad!
[ 02. June 2015, 11:02: Message edited by: the young warrior ]
Posts: 3243 | From: canterbury united kingdom | Registered: Mar 2011 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
It's available to rent on Amazon so I may just do that over the next couple days........plus if Admirer says it great I gotta trust him he hasn't stirred me wrong so far? haha
![[Cool]](cool.gif)
Crash I hate you
