This Saturday: 30th Anniversary KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival

The KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival returns to Foothill College this Saturday. Against all odds, we are back for our 30th Anniversary Show!




As fate would have it, the guys who produce this extravaganza, curators du jour Sci Fi Bob Ekman, Paul F. Etcheverry and Scott Moon, will be on KFJC plugging the heck out of it from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday evening!




On hand: our distinctive hallucinatory excursion through the irritated bowels of popular culture.

This includes 1950's commercials, phantasmagorical and forgotten animated cartoons, Z-movie trailers, Pre-Code musical excerpts, monster movie clips, oddball TV shows and, of course, bloopers.



Also on the bill: whatever unintentionally funny educational or advertising films and the campiest of uber-campy musical shorts (Soundies, Snader Telescriptions and especially Scopitones).

It's that time of year, so we'll run whatever cheesy Christmas films we can find.

In other words, we proudly present yet another freewheeling improvised program of questionable entertainment, a veritable winter harvest of pop culture mayhem.



When: Saturday, December 10, 2022 at 7:00 PM
Where: Room 5015, Foothill College campus
12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills (El Monte exit off 280)
Why: We like cheesy movies.
How Much? $5 Donation Benefits KFJC.
Parking: Lot #5 and Rumor has it that there will be Free Parking!
Public Transit: Cal Train and VTA
Info: Foothill College Transportation & Parking.



Arrive early, as the shows often sell out. Doors open at 6:00 p.m.



Be seeing you!





KFJC "listen & obey" poster by Judy Zillen. "Greetings from the Psychotronix Film Festival" postcard by Scott Moon. KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival "Evolution" graphic by Sci Fi Bob Ekman.

Movie Screenings - At Long Last - Are Back!

Much of this blog over the past 15+ years has been devoted to plugging screenings. Love classic movies, so am quite pleased to finish 2022 going to actual public screenings. Movie events we love in Northern California and have promoted repeatedly here: silent movies at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, the Psychotronix Film Festival, Noir City and San Francisco Silent Film Festival. The Psychotronix shows, at Foothill College and the Orinda Theatre, express a love of film humor, intentional and unintentional, in all its forms



After experiencing an extended period that included a year of lockdown and NO SCREENINGS, ZERO, NONE (!!!) for way too long, it boggles the mind that there are actually two classic film events in one geographic area on the same day.



Next Saturday A Day Of Silents plays the Castro Theatre while the Psychotronix Film Festival presents its 2022 Christmas show at the Orinda Theatre. Here’s a cool trailer promoting the latter. . .



Now, in all honesty, the guy who writes this blog co-founded the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival with Sci Fi Bob Ekman and KFJC’s intrepid movie soundtrack expert Robert Emmett back in 1992.



Bob Wilkins/Creature Features historian and publisher of Planet X magazine Scott Moon of Cinema Insomnia joined the merry band of psychotronic 16mm purveyors in 1997.



After yours truly moved to upstate New York, Sci Fi Bob and Scott have carried on and continue to carry on the Psychotronix spirit and brand with a series of shows at the Orinda Theatre, beginning in 2016.

I'm very proud of the work I did with Sci Fi Bob and Scott, both talented, knowledgeable, resourceful and inspired film collector/curator/programmers.



We shall return to Foothill College for the 30th Anniversary KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival on December 10!

Also on December 3, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival presents A Day Of Silents at San Francisco's Castro Theatre.



There will be tributes to Sessue Hayakawa in The Cheat, Anna May Wong in The Toll Of The Sea, and the new SFSFF/Cinématheque Française restoration of the 1921 film Pour Don Carlos starring Parisian producer-director-scriptwriter-actress Musidora.



Hands-down, our favorite from A Day Of Silents is Marion Davies and William Haines in King Vidor's Show People.



The tribute to Davies, the great movie comedienne of silents and early talkies, will be introduced by biographer Lara Gabrielle, author of Captain of Her Soul: The Life of Marion Davies.

If you are a blog reader geographically in the greater San Francisco Bay Area on December 3, we suggest doing both events - first checking out the early shows of A Day Of Silents.

And then, it's time to head for the Orinda Theatre to see the Christmas Psychotronix.



In closing, we note that the excellent Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum has re-opened and is doing programs every other Saturday at the Edison Theater!

Wide World Of Crap-tastic Cartoons, Part 1 - Made For TV

Your Blogmeister freely admits it - he likes terrible cartoons. No, make that horrid cartoons that were (shudder) MADE FOR TELEVISION!



Today's post will commence the "how low can you go" exercise with a cartoon that satisfies the prime "ineptly made" and "nonexistent storyline" requirements, Robert Capeheart's The Magic Of Oz.



Daring to ask yet further just what elements make a crap-tastic TV-toon, author/film historian Jerry Beck and Frank Conniff (from MST3K and Cinematic Titanic) devoted an entire show, Cartoon Dump, to skewering both cartoons of the ilk of The Magic Of Oz - so bad it doesn't even have an imdb entry - and such well-meaning but dreadful children's shows as The New Zoo Review.



We'll serve up some Cartoon Dump clips at the end of this posting, after presenting just a few of the show's odiferous headliners, starting with The Big World Of Little Adam and Spunky & Tadpole by Beverly Hills Productions.



To make a crap-tastic cartoon, what Frank Zappa termed "cheepnis" is not enough! After all, in the late 1940's, Jay Ward and Alex Anderson figured out how to make entertaining cartoons on no budget; write exceptionally funny scripts, closer to a Bob & Ray radio show than to Mickey Mouse - and spend the budget on damn funny voice actors. Voila - Jay Ward Productions' witty Crusader Rabbit and (later) Adventures Of Rocky & Bullwinkle series.

Frankly, other criteria must be met for inclusion in the cinematic dung heap. Animation? Nonexistent. Music? Canned, cheesy or preferably both. Character designs? Ugggg-leeeee! Storylines? Don't make me laugh!



The sum total of all these elements must add up to something both head-shakingly awful and unintentionally humorous.



Scoring a Grand Slam with two outs in the 9th and a 3-0 deficit in all of these departments, and only ever-so-slightly less stunningly inept than The Magic Of Oz, would be the cartoons by bargain basement Sam Singer Productions.



On a minimal budget and auto pilot, Sam Singer Productions created the always execrable Bucky & Pepito and ever-excruciating Pow Wow The Indian Boy.





My personal "worst ever" candidate would be Trans-Lux Productions' The Mighty Hercules.



Even though there are, amazingly, cheaper TV cartoon shows than this - and, no kidding, talented veteran New York animators were hired to provide the occasional full animation moments that are interspersed between the hours of limited animation on this and other Trans-Lux productions - unquestionably there's something horribly wrong with the series as a whole.



Nothing compares in sheer WTF factor to these Hercules cartoons, which still manage to compel otherwise responsible, upstanding adults to imitate the astonishingly irritating Newton The Centaur ("Helena wants to jump your bones Herc. . . Helena wants to jump your bones Herc") out of sheer spite for the annoying little bastard.



Making Hanna-Barbera TV toons look incredible would be those series produced using the patented Synchro-Vox technique, which involved superimposing live-action human lips on the macho cartoon characters.







The Synchro-Vox cartoons often get laughs just from how incongruous the live-action lips look on these ultra-heroic comic book style characters.



Here's the Synchro-Vox Valhalla: an unsold pilot for a prospective series based on the Moon Mullins comic strip!



The Cartoon Dump extravaganzas at the Steve Allen Theatre in Hollywood presented a veritable Dishonor Roll of made-for-TV monstrosities.







Funny, every one of these animated abominations in today's post entertained this blogger, for whom approximately 99.3512% of all sitcoms produced since the second Bob Newhart Show constitute a rare form of torture. Such low art on a lower budget as Bucky & Pepito seems like high art compared to the 21st century market-researched drivel from broadcast TV and such cable sources of agony as Disney Channel and Nickelodeon.

Yet More Trailers From Bad - I Mean Misunderstood - Films

To brazenly and shamelessly purloin a phrase from Mr. Lobo of Cinema Insomnia, "they're not bad films - just misunderstood."

On The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson: The Amazing Criswell

Yes, not all that fresh from Criswell's star turn in Plan 9 From Outer Space, A.K.A. The Magnificent Ambersons of B-movie auteur Edward D. Wood, Junior: a film that manages to be entertaining, incoherent and a textbook case of critic Andrew Sarris' auteur theory.



The amazing one appeared on one of this blogger's all-time favorite television programs, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (note Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog thanks, grovels and genuflects before whoever posted this clip, since television history - thanks to the fact that stations, always looking at that business bottom line, taped over damn near everything to save money - was neither preserved for posterity or posterior).



Alas, it could be argued that Criswell's fortunes did not exactly skyrocket after a stint hobnobbing with Johnny on The Tonight Show. Here is the amazing one's next gig: the introduction to the mind-numbingly inept entry in the "nudie horror" genre Orgy Of The Dead (1965 - screenplay by Ed Wood).

We can only hope that some conscientious film archivist will find, buried inside the same deep, dark cool cave that contains complete, pristine 35mm nitrate prints of Tod Browning's London After Midnight, F.W. Murnau's 4 Devils and Emile Cohl's "The Newlyweds" cartoons, a stack of ultra-rare kinescopes featuring Sid Caesar, Steve Allen and, of course, Ernie Kovacs.

Trailers From Ed Wood Movies

As your correspondent is dealing with jet lag and a full week of fighting a losing battle with "gravel pit" throat - persistent cough - fatigue - general bleccchness (as well as the happier problem of prolonged astonishment over the 2010 Giants' World Series victory), he is yet again way, way too damn lazy to write much of anything.

That said, here are theatrical trailers plugging the entertainingly execrable "cinema on a shoestring"- invariably sans the possession of an actual shoestring - of Edward D. Wood, Jr.







Can you "top" those trailers? Er. . .uh. . . in a strong effort to at least equal them in sheer WTF value, here's Bela Lugosi, waxing poetic in Wood's Citizen Kane, the 1953 opus Glen Or Glenda, A.K.A. I Changed My Sex.



The barrage of bizarreness continues with the worst starring performance by a guy in drag - including The Milton Berle Show - from Glen Or Glenda, sometimes known as Look Back In Angora.

Lobotronic Film Fest on June 7

On June 7th Lobotronic promises a monstrously good time to benefit the inaugural year of the Sacramento Horror Film Festival, (October 19th-21st).

The “Lobotronic Film Show” showcases a parade of bizarre short films, monster movie trailers, vintage commercials and twisted cartoons that might otherwise go unseen by mainstream audiences. Last year’s midnight Lobotronic at the Studio Theater in Sacramento quickly sold out! Because the crowd was so enthusiastic, the 2-hour show was spontaneously extended to 4 hours. Even at 4 AM the audience was still crying for more!

This year’s event promises to be even better with an earlier start time and 3 rooms of entertainment! In addition, this year’s event will be held at Willemina’s fabulous Restaurant and Bar in Old Sacramento, which offers, in addition to a full bar, an extensive menu of creative deep fried food, like the deep fried pizza, the deep fried pickle, and the amazing “Scotch Egg!” which is a hard boiled egg covered in sausage, breaded and deep fried! The “Lobotronic Film Show” will be hosted by, nationally syndicated Horror Host, Mr. Lobo and, cult sensation and comic book heroine, The Queen of Trash! This formidable couple has also signed on to host the upcoming Sacramento Horror Film Festival at the Colonial Theater this Fall. The Sacramento Horror Film Festival will also feature a Lobotronic Film Show as part of its programming.

One night only! The “Lobotronic Film Show” starts at 9pm on Thursday, June 7th, at Willemina’s Restaurant and Bar (1023 Front Street, Old Sacramento). 21 and over only. The admission is $8. All proceeds will go to support the inaugural year of The Sacramento Horror Film Festival in October. Come out and support Sacramento’s esoteric cinema scene! Photos and more details (including advance ticket information) can be found at

www.Sachorrorfilmfest.com

Thanks For One Amazing Show

Thanks to all of you who made the 15th Anniversary KFJC Psychotronix "Cinco de Psycho" Film Festival a memorable night. Psychotronic Bob, Austin Space, Robert Emmett, Psychotronic Scott, horror host Mr. Lobo, Erik "Mighty Megafant" Yee and his "time machine", the always-fetching Queen Of Trash, a helpful group of KFJC volunteers and our old friend and invaluable crew member from countless shows through the 1990's, Mr. Irwin Swan.

Oh - and yes, thank you, the audience, for rockin' the house!

15th Anniversary KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival

The 15th anniversary KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival arrives seven months early - just in case we find that "Joan Crawford Family At Christmastime" reel in time to concoct a truly festive holiday program in December - and offers a veritable gurgling cauldron of pop culture cheese destined to cast aspersions on many a Cinco De Mayo memory.

We promise to show only the most unintentionally hilarious 1950's commercials and "educational" films, bizarrest obscure classic cartoons, trailers from the worst movies, the most double-entendre packed Pre-Code shorts, the cheapest international monster movies, the campiest musical shorts, the most surreal silent movie clips and TV programs that should never have aired.

The KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival
When: May 5, 2007, 7:00 to 11:30 PM
Where: Room 5015 on the Foothill College campus, Los Altos Hills, El Monte exit off of Highway 280
Who: Hosted by Robert Emmett of KFJC-FM's "Norman Bates Memorial Soundtrack Show"
Why: We like cheesy movies.
How Much: $5 Donation to Benefit KFJC and $2 for Parking
Park: Lot #5 right before the Brown Trailers - follow the signs

The shows often sell out. Doors open at 6:00 p.m.

Halloween Trailers #4: Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster

Halloween Trailers #3 (Jack Broder Productions)

No doubt this 1952 Jack Broder Productions epic, Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla, was featured on Count Floyd's Monster Chiller Horror Theatre - the week before "Dr. Tongue's 3-D House Of Pancakes". . . or perhaps two weeks before "Dr. Tongue's 3-D House Of Stewardesses". Oooooooh, it's scarrrrr-yyyy, all right, particular those shameless Martin & Lewis imitators.

You gotta love schlockmeister producer Jack Broder, several steps down from such talented low-budget filmmakers as Roger Corman and Russ Meyer, but several steps up from Jerry Warren, Doris Fish and the immortal Edward D. Wood Jr. Broder also featured the ever-hard-working "guy in a gorilla suit" prominently in his 1951 opus Bride Of The Gorilla.

Can't watch this trailer without thinking of my favorite line from a movie made in the past 20 years, the moment when, in Tim Burton's inspired 1994 biopic Ed Wood, Martin Landau, as a down on his luck and strung-out Lugosi) laments "No one gives two f^*&!%^ks for Bela."

Halloween Trailers #2 (Hammer Films, again)

Because, as far as I'm concerned, pulchritude beats standard-issue gore, thrills and chills every time, here's another Hammer Films trailer, this one for Countess Dracula, starring the drop-dead (hey, it is a horror flick) gorgeous Ingrid Pitt.

Halloween Trailers #1 (Hammer Films)

While I look forward to tonight's "Midnight Movie Massacre", hosted by Mr. Lobo of Cinema Insomnia, as part of the Shock It To Me Fest at San Francisco's Castro Theatre, here, to keep us going until then, is the trailer to Hammer Films' Curse of Frankenstein.