Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Hollywood Boulevard (1976)


Director: Joe Dante & Allan Arkush

Starring: Dick Miller (!!!), Candice Rialson, Mary Woronov and Paul Bartel

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: The street where starlets are made!

Plot: At Hollywood B movie factory Miracle Pictures, a good movie really is a miracle. Aspiring actress Candy Hope is looking for her big break, but what she gets instead is a part in Miracle's latest oeuvre. She's happy anyway -- until somebody starts killing off the film's starlets.



My Rating: 5.5/10

Would I watch it again? Nope.

#34 on Drive-In Delirium Volume 1 (part of the TRAILER TRASH PROJECT)

Mary McQueen is the killer. Oops. Spoilers.

So how badly do you rate a comedy that you don't find funny? Maybe I just wasn't in the mood. I don't know.

The good...

Dick Miller, one of the greatest character actors ever. He's great as the talent agent and he gets a lot of screen time.


Mary Woronov. She needs to have my babies. You may remember her from the previous year's DEATH RACE 2000 as Calamity Jane.


Nudity. There's plenty of it. And not that jacked-up fake tits shit you got starting in the 1980s.


The cars from DEATH RACE 2000!


Paul Bartel (director of DEATH RACE 2000) as the maniacal director.


The AWESOMELY cheezy music video by Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen performing, "Everybody's Doin' It". It's catchy as hell!



A room covered with cool movie posters!


Did I mention Dick Miller?

The not so good...

I barely laughed at anything that wasn't Dick Miller.

WAY too much footage from Corman's films used as the "movie within a movie". At first it was cute but that soon wore off as it was done far too much. You'd have the girls do this...


and then this...


It sounds like a hoot but the novelty wears off. It's hilarious when used in a movie that's not trying to be funny.


There's some clear talent in front of (but not all of the actors - Candice Rialson playing the lead, Candy, doesn't fare as well) and behind the camera. But there's only so much you can do with weak material. I'm sure they did the best they could with what they had to work with. Hell, they had 10 days to shoot and only $60k to work with. But Dick Miller is a riot!


I had more fun watching the following Q&A after a 2008 screening. I think had I seen these first I would have dug the picture more than I did...or didn't. The last video is the trailer with commentary, btw. It's definitely worth seeing.








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