Holiday Remix of the Return of the Son of Terrible Movies Promo Blowout! [Pt. 3]

[To read Pt. 1 of this series, click here, and for Pt. 2, click here.]

Having established the importance of the late night horror movie programs, The World's Most Terrible Movies and Son of Terrible Movies, in my personal development as a movie fanatic, I still have some unfinished business to impart to you. Namely, I have just a few more promos from these programs that I have not shared yet, and a couple of them tie rather coincidentally to both the time of year and to a recent major release currently in movie theatres at this moment.

Promos for local television tend to be rather bland, but every once in a while, you see something different and special. In the late '70s, Richard Gay and his fellow staffers at KIMO-TV were clearly having fun with a phenomenon that was still pretty fresh back then, but which is having a massive, worldwide resurgence right now: Star Wars. Perhaps you have heard of it. In the promo above, film reels have a laser battle in space with a microphone or a stack of dixie cups on top of a microphone, or something like that. Sure, it is about as cheap as cheap can be, and is all the more wonderful for it. Seeing something like this on late night TV was what utter joy was all about for a kid, especially one who was already stoked from dreams of joining the rebellion thanks to Star Wars mania.

The World's Most Terrible Movies programs weren't always relegated to late night, however. They also sometimes moved around on the KIMO-TV Channel 13 schedule depending on the situation; for example, Christmas. The promo above for Santa Claus Conquers the Martians was for an afternoon showing on Christmas Day. I was introduced to this film on a similar showing, though not the one being promoted, a few years earlier on one of the local channels (my memory has it as Channel 2, the NBC affiliate, KTUU). It was probably the first truly awful film that I saw where I realized it was awful but was enjoying it tremendously at the same time. For kids, you either love or hate something, and watching something purposefully because you are aware that it is bad really wasn't a thing back then for the junior set. I'm still not sure it is, though as an adult, I do it almost weekly.

Some films that were shown on the programs didn't really stick with me, at least in my accessible memory. The promo above for 1974's The Night of the Sorcerers, from Tombs of the Blind Dead auteur Amando de Ossorio, is one that I do not remember seeing, though it is likely that I may have. If I had seen it on one of the Terrible Movies shows, however, I can't imagine I would have forgotten it for a very certain reason. If you watch the promo about two-thirds of the way through, there is what is popularly known as a "nipslip," in this case, it seems that when they were editing the promo, they either accidentally (or purposely) left in a quick shot of a nipple. Since one of the reasons I loved to stay up to watch the early Hammers and other '60s and '70s horrors was for the ladies, I am mad that I can't remember this one. I wonder if they showed the film unedited as well?

Going in the opposite direction, they also occasionally showed much older classic horror films too. The promo above for 1932's The Mystery of the Wax Museum is an example. By no means a "terrible" movie, unless you just outright hate horror films, Mystery would be remade in 1953 in 3D as House of Wax with Vincent Price. I love both versions, but this one has its stamp on history as well. A daring picture that has "pre-code" elements such as drug use and language, Mystery was one of two Warners' pictures released (Doctor X being the other) that were the last narrative films made using the two-strip Technicolor process. Definitely worth a visit for a variety of reasons, but my main one is the lovely Fay Wray. I can never get enough of her.

One more bit for this go-around. The promo I remember most from The World's Most Terrible Movies show was the one above where a long-haired guy goes fishing in what I believe is Ship Creek in Anchorage and catches a movie reel. He even clubs it after catching it, and then has another passing fisherman take a picture of him with his catch. This clip definitely has the most Alaskan flair to it out of all the promos, not something I normally take pride in, but I will say this particular one always stuck with me the most. It may be that now I am down in Southern California that I have became more protective of my Alaskan status. I have never cared for the thought of belonging to a particular culture or group, but I will admit that growing up in a certain environment does color how you approach or perceive every other thing you encounter in your life.

I hope you enjoyed the third part of my ongoing feature on The World's Most Terrible Movies program. I would once again like to thank Richard Gay, who created and produced the show, for contacting me a few years ago and allowing me to use his catalog of clips online. And if you have not read the first two parts, links to each article are at the top of this post.

You can also watch all of the clips on The Cinema 4 Pylon YouTube channel.

[Note: The fourth and final part of this series will be posted in October 2016.]