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Tag Archives: drive-in movie newspaper ads
1970s poster flashback: ‘Coffy’
A while back I was inspired to begin this recurring look at the poster art of 1970s movies after seeing the throwback-style poster for “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.”
Movies don’t get any groovier than “Coffy,” the 1973 blaxploitation flick starring Pam Grier in the title role. And the poster does justice to the movie’s storyline.
After her younger sister is hooked on drugs, Coffy, a nurse, sets out to kill as many drug dealers as possible.
It’s a pretty straightforward plot.
If you’ve never looked at it, check out the oddly-written Wikipedia page for the movie, complete with plot recap.
“Coffy uses her sexuality to seduce her would-be killers,” indeed.
And good lord, what an impression Grier made on a lot of us.
See what I mean?
1970s poster flashback: ‘Dillinger’
Excuse the lack of posts lately. It’s been a week, I’ll tell you that.
Last week when I posted the “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” 1970s-style poster here, I noted that it was a throwback to an entire era of cool movie posters.
Here’s the “Winter Soldier” poster, of course.
Here (and above) is the poster for “Dillinger,” a 1973 classic.
“Dillinger” was directed by John Milius, writer of such classic screenplays as the original “Conan” and “Red Dawn.”
“Dillinger” starred Warren Oates, a great character actor, as John Dillinger, the Depression-era bank robber.
“Dillinger” is remembered as a classic of its kind. And what a supporting cast: Ben Johnson, Harry Dean Stanton, Richard Dreyfuss (as Baby Face Nelson!) Geoffrey Lewis, Steve Kanaly (of “Dallas”), Frank McRae and so many others.
And it’s got a cool poster too.
‘Shocking’ drive-in movie ads!
There’s something about this weather that reminds me of going to drive-in movies.
Around here, we had two — the Muncie Drive-In and the Ski-Hi Drive-In — in or near the city and another — the Blackford County Drive-In — just to the north. The latter wasn’t the type of drive-in your parents took you to, however. The Blackford showed “adult” movies — porn, in other words.
As for the Muncie and the Ski-Hi, I spent many, many hours there as a kid and young adult.
One of my earliest drive-in moviegoing memories was of seeing the 1967 flick “Born Losers” at one of Muncie’s two drive-ins. “Born Losers” was a low-budget action movie that introduced the cult character of Billy Jack (played by Tom Laughlin), a returning Vietnam vet who takes on a motorcycle gang. The movie actually inspired sequels.
I remember seeing it with my parents and paternal grandmother. Why my parents decided to take me or my grandmother to a (in my memory) sleazy, bloody action movie I can’t imagine.
I just remember my grandmother nearly fainting into her concession-stand pizza after the bad guys push a young man’s face into the windshield of a car, resulting in a bloody, slobbery mess. Onscreen, I mean.
From time to time in this spot I’ll share some memories and some great old drive-in movie ads.
How about this one for a re-release of “The Mask” Not the Jim Carrey comedy but a bizarre 1961 horror movie about an ancient mask that has the power to drive people crazy. Some remember “The Mask” from the early 1980s, when it was re-released at the height of the 3-D revival.
This “midnight shock-a-thon” ad features not only “The Mask” but “The Bat,” probably a 1959 Vincent Price thriller and “Town Without Pity,” a 1961 Kirk Douglas movie that is sold, as you can tell from the ad, in the sleaziest way possible:
“The story of what four men did to a girl .. and what the town did to them!”
This ad has some exploitation/drive-in advertising gems, including “A free comb to all after your hair-raising experience!” I can hear it now: “Mom, Dad, can we go to the drive-in tonight? They’re giving away free combs!”
Lastly, how about the exploitation double-feature classic “I Drink Your Blood” and “I Eat Your Skin.” The former is a 1970 movie about Satanists terrorizing a town. The latter originally came out in 1964 and was about zombies. The combination of titles was drive-in movie gold.
The canny drive-in operator offered a free buffet of “skin chips and dip” and “flesh fries” and provided free Tums.
Who wouldn’t turn out for this drive-in combo?
keithroysdon 