Inaugurated in 1981, this annual 24-hour marathon of B (and Z) movies runs Friday and Saturday, January 24 and 25, at Northwestern Univ. Norris Center, 1999 Campus Dr., Evanston. Tickets are $20, $10 after 8:00 am Saturday; for more information call 847-491-2378.
Cool as Ice
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Better than it might have been, given the limitations of this kind of brand-name filmmaking. Saddled with an outworn but still salable concept, director Mike Hodges faces the unenviable task of re-inventing a fairy tale: his competition is our childhood memories of the material, colored with a sweep and grandeur that the old Universal serials, when we see them as adults, don’t really have. Hodges doesn’t shirk his duties, and though his 1980 film lapses too often into easy facetiousness, much of it feels surprisingly substantial. The action moves smoothly and logically, finding a rhythm that engages your attention despite the patent lack of inspiration and genuine commitment. A respectable time waster. With Sam J. Jones, Melody Anderson, and a highly entertaining Max von Sydow as Ming. 110 min. (DK) (9:25)
Bela Lugosi died during the making of this low-budget science fiction programmer, but that didn’t faze director Edward Wood: the Lugosi footage, which consists of the actor skulking around a suburban garage, is replayed over and over, to highly surreal effect. Wood is notorious for his 1952 transvestite saga Glen or Glenda? (aka I Changed My Sex), but for my money this 1959 effort is twice as strange and appealing in its undisguised incompetence. J. Hoberman of the Village Voice has made a case for Wood as an unconscious avant-gardist; there’s no denying that his blunders are unusually creative and oddly expressive. With Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Joanna Lee, and, of course, Lyle Talbot. 79 min. (DK) To be preceded by Mike Jittlov’s short film The Wizard of Speed and Time. (11:45)
Porno king Bill Osco, together with Howard Ziehm, presents a $2 million takeoff on the perennial camp classic, but this 1974 effort never gets off the ground, betraying its lack of inspiration with second-rate puns and laughable acting. The idea of making something fresh (and dirty) out of such quaint material seemed a good one, but the end product doesn’t justify the intention. The animation sequences are surprisingly good, though. 90 min. (DD) (3:00 am)
No Holds Barred
Kung fu meets break dancing in a musical produced by Motown’s Berry Gordy and directed by Michael Schultz (Car Wash). With Taimak, Vanity, Julius J. Carry III, Chris Murney, Leo O’Brien, and Faith Prince. The late Gene Siskel once selected this 1985 feature for a series devoted to local critics’ “guilty pleasures.” 109 min. (11:20 am)
