Wednesday, February 17, 2016

42nd STREET MEMORIES

Last night's viewing was Calum Waddell's 2015 documentary 42nd Street Memories: The Rise and Fall of America's Most Notorious Street, which is included as one of the special features on the new Grindhouse blu-ray release of Pieces. I'd love to see a documentary someday that actually focuses on the people who ran and supplied films to those great 42nd street cinemas, but 42nd Street Memories was a fine and entertaining 80 minute documentary that has various notables sharing their stories of visiting the area and the movie palaces there during its seedy heyday of the late-1960's to mid-1980's, with lots of great photos and vintage film clips (mostly sourced from old exploitation films that were shot in the area). Some of the talking heads sharing their amusing and/or interesting memories and observations include Richard W. Haines, Greydon Clark, Joe Dante, Jeff Lieberman, Frank Henenlotter, Lynn Lowry, Debbie Rochon, Veronica Hart, Roy Frumkes, Buddy Giovinazzo and others. I felt like taking a long cleansing bath after watching it, so I guess the documentary did its job.