Oddball Films presents Vintage Halloween Cinema Spooktacular, a program of vintage 16mm films to get us in the mood for All Hallows' Eve with cartoons, ridiculous educational films, giant genitalia costumes, Satanic smut, witches, ghouls and made-for-tv terrors. Halloween Safety (1985) gives us valuable lessons about awesome robot costumes, horrible face makeup and of course, tainted candy. One man heads out to the Halloween parade in Greenwich Village dressed like a real dick in the mini-doc Halloweenie (1986, print courtesy of the Jenni Olson Queer Archive). Comic strip Krazy Kat comes back to the big screen to fight off ghosts and other haunts, while his puppy fights with a skeleton in the silly romp Krazy Kat in Krazy Spooks (1933). Be careful what you wish for, you might just bring back the undead in the classic tale of horror: The Monkey's Paw (1979). Visit a seance to bring back the ghost of the greatest illusionist of all time in a segment of Houdini Never Died (1978), narrated by Burgess Meredith. Bud and Lou meet up with Frankenstein's monster, Dracula and the Wolfman for one crazy monster-mash in the ridiculous condensed version of Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein (1944). With rockin' musical breaks featuring some interpretive-dancing spectres in an Old-West ghost town from John Byner's Something Else (1970), the dancing witches of Ida Lupino's La Strega (1962), and Stone Cold Dead in the Market (1946), a Soundie about justifiable homicide. Plus, a coffin full of Horror Movie Trailers, Sweet Treats, Scary Surprises and more!
Date: Friday, October 28th, 2016 at 8:00pm
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilms.com or (415) 558-8117
Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com
Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com
Halloween Safety (Color, 1985)
Using a poorly animated Jack o’lantern and the simplest English possible, the perils of All Hallows Eve are trotted out to teach kids that there’s no way they’ll be safe without a grown-up. Designed to insult anyone over the age of 4, this gem will have you reaching for a razorblade apple in no time.
Halloweenie (1986, Color, print courtesy of the Jenni Olson Archive)
A ridiculous mini-doc about Bill Daughton and his creation of a six-foot penis costume at the Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village, New York. See Daughton dressed up in the giant penis costume, walking around campus, catching the subway, and chatting with people about the costume on his way to the Halloween Parade. People come up and lick the costume, or even kiss it. At the end of the parade, Daughton ceremoniously throws the costume in the Hudson and watches it float away.
Stone Cold Dead in the Market (B+W, 1946)
Big Band leader and 1930’s Broadway starlet Gracie Barrie sings a lovely little ditty about a wife’s revenge on her cheating husband.
Burlesque queen Betty Dolan brings new meaning to the phrase dancing with the devil. Cleverly costumed, Miss Dolan's right hand is the hand of the devil and she can't stop it from trying to get to third base. Strange and erotic on many different levels, it must be seen to be believed!
John Byner's Something Else (Color, 1970, Excerpt)
In a rockin' spooktacular clip from this eclectic musical variety show, the Action Faction dancers don ghoulish garb and get down in a ghost town. These whirling ghosts will get your hairs on end and your feet a tappin'!
In a rockin' spooktacular clip from this eclectic musical variety show, the Action Faction dancers don ghoulish garb and get down in a ghost town. These whirling ghosts will get your hairs on end and your feet a tappin'!
Krazy Kat jumps back to the screen from the comic strip, (looking a lot like one Mr. M. Mouse) to battle ghosts, skeletons and gorillas in this silly short. Krazy Kat and his sweetheart (with a curiously tiny puppy in tow), head into a haunted house and squeal at everything! The puppy tangles with a skeleton to adorable and hilarious effect, but when the danger becomes real, will they be able to fight off a Poe-esque twist?
The Monkey's Paw (Color, 1978)
A classic tale of horror originally scribed by W.W. Jacobs and adapted by Martha Moran. An old man is given a mysterious monkey's paw as a gift and told it will grant him three wishes, but each will come with a price. When the man's son is killed as a result of one of his wishes, he asks to have his son returned from the grave, but that will have its own horrific consequences.
Houdini Never Died (B+W/Color, 1978, excerpt)Harry Houdini is perhaps the best-known magician and escape artist in American popular memory. In addition to his death-defying feats, he was also committed to debunking spiritualism and otherworldly claims. His magic was grounded in the physicality of his acts; they were simply fantastic escapes and illusions, rather than something supernatural. Both sides of Houdini are on display in this fascinating documentary, which contains rarely-seen archival footage of Houdini, narrated by Burgess Meredith. In this excerpt witness the yearly seance held to attempt to conjure the spirit of the infamous Houdini.
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (B+W, 1944, condensed version)
Curator’s BiographyKat Shuchter is a graduate of UC Berkeley in Film Studies. She is a filmmaker, artist and esoteric film hoarder. She has helped program shows at the PFA, The Nuart and Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater and was crowned “Found Footage Queen” of Los Angeles, 2009. She has programmed over 250 shows at Oddball on everything from puberty primers to experimental animation.About Oddball Films
Oddball Films is a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like The Nice Guys and Milk, documentaries like The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Silicon Valley, Kurt Cobain: The Montage of Heck, television programs like Transparent and Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.
Our screenings are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educational films, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.