Outside the Imperial Six theatre — remember that? those? — on Yonge Street we stood, monitoring the colour television monitors which unreeled clips from the movies on offer.
Should we make a bee-line for producer Irwin Allen's new epic, The Swarm, or take a promised ride with some novice's Corvette Summer?
This could take some time, and it did, believe me. Deciding some years later what VHS tape should be rented from the local video store had nothing on trying to pick between two new hot summer films — ones aimed perfectly at teenagers.
Corvette Summer, starring that Mark Hamill guy from the summer before, was a pleasant surprise. It was entertaining and had some good characterizations: an order of abundant fun in a darkened movie theatre on a summer's day.
As for The Swarm? Word got around quickly regarding the cinestatic disaster from the "Master of Disaster". James and I must have known. The Towering Inferno from four years earlier was a towering achievement for Mr Allen, but his bee-movie turned on him and kicked his ass.
"... and James and Simon avoided getting stung at the ticket wicket."
2 comments:
I saw both of these films when they were "Movies of the Week" on TV. For its 1980 TV premiere, CORVETTE SUMMER (with the tagline, "featuring Mark Hamill, who you loved in STAR WARS") for some reason was shown over two consecutive nights in two one-hour instalments. How odd to break up a two-hour movie over two nights. (Granted, they did the same thing for the TV premiere of the cinematic masterpiece RESCUE FROM GILLIGAN'S ISLAND.) Perhaps this way, both chunks of the movie ended at 9 PM, so young STAR WARS fans could still see it before going to bed? Who knows?
Anyway, my grandmother and I watched the first half of CORVETTE SUMMER as I was staying overnight at her place (for reasons I no longer remember - my ironclad longterm memory does have its dents), and saw the second half back at home the next night. My grandmother told my mother we watched the first half, and that the story involved a hooker, which of course made my mother very concerned. (As if I didn't know what a prostitute was at age 12.) She was also nervous I went to see SUPERMAN II because he and Lois Lane go to bed together. (As if I didn't want to do the same with Margot Kidder.) Anyway, I haven't seen CORVETTE SUMMER since, but it probably fared better as a kind of undemanding small screen affair. Still, from that point on, I've had a crush on Annie Potts (as I'm sure many other 12-year old boys had when they saw this).
THE SWARM I saw on NBC's Tuesday Night Movie in 1983. I remember next to nothing about the movie, so therefore it must've been mediocre (I've not seen it since, either), though I do concede there is a great scene with Henry Fonda's character, sacrificing his own life to develop an anti-venom. One footnote: Roger Ebert was once asked for his thoughts on the most ridiculous Oscar nominations. Top of the list? Nominating Best Costume Design for THE SWARM. Well, yeah, they blew a lot of money clothing its huge veteran cast... too bad most of it had so little to do.
Thanks for the your story! Much appreciated. Yeah, moms are funny, aren't they? A friend of mine, a big Star Wars fan, was not allowed to see STAR WARS in 1977 due to his mother's concern about the (potential for) onscreen violence. He was nine, as was my brother at the time. I thought it odd when he told me that story. He did get to see it in the summer of 1978, however. (His mom is a smart lady, however. She told him that the "Darth Vader" theme introduced in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK is reminiscent of "The Funeral March". It is, indeed!) By way of example, my dad took me to see BATTLE OF BRITAIN in 1969. Needless to say, there's violence in that pic. I was eight. My mom had no problem with me seeing that pic, even though she, being a Brit, knew exactly what the film was about.
Thanks again!
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