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Summer is winding down, so we thought we'd salute the lazy, crazy, hazy days with a drive-in memory from our drive-in dean, Dan Sweet, featuring a...
By Dan Sweet Watching the new Anchor Bay Hammer Films documentary Flesh and Blood brought back happy memories of a Hammer "dusk-till-dawn" horror marathon at the late, lamented Jolly Roger Drive-In. The Jolly Roger was located in a suburb of Cincinnati. The time would have been about 1974 or 1975 because it was in the grand old days before I got married in 1976 (been happily divorced since 1983). Saw the newspaper ad and just KNEW I had to be there! A quadruple feature: Countess Dracula, Horror of Frankenstein, Plague of the Zombies, and The Mummy’s Shroud. I saw Plague Of The Zombies on original release, but had never seen the others. My uncles and I jumped in the car and ended up at the Jolly Roger.
It was one of those magical nights when you are exactly where you want to be and doing exactly what you want to do. As far as I can remember the J.R. had a huge parking area wider than it was deep so you didn’t want to get too far off to one side. We entered the snack bar and to our amazement there was a coffin with the lid closed! A bit of showmanship like the old days. The food was typical early Seventies quality: stale popcorn and mystery meat "hamburgers" washed down with lots of weak-tasting soda. The movies started and I thought I’d get to see the sexy shots of Ingrid Pitt that were in the monster magazines. Wrong! Found out later these were either trimmed by the releasing company or never in the film to begin with--like The Mummy’s Shroud publicity pics with the heroine wearing an extremely (was there any other kind in a Hammer movie?) low-cut nightgown.
I actively hated Horror of Frankenstein the first time I saw it. Tried too hard to be a lampoon of The Curse of Frankenstein. The only interesting aspect was trying to figure out how the costumer made Veronica Carlson look flat chested in the early scenes. Must have taken yards of bandages to bind those hooters down! As the years passed I’ve learned to tolerate this movie but that’s only because of the lovely Ms. Carlson’s twin talents.
The Mummy’s Shroud is still my favorite Hammer mummy movie next to the original The Mummy. An undead servant that just won’t take no for an answer, scenery-chewing villains, and the leading lady’s boobs (even if the nightgown scenes weren’t there). Plague of the Zombies still packed a punch. The cemetery nightmare scene gives me the creeps. Low boob content, but high on the atmosphere meter.
After the last movie I arrived home and got to sleep with visions of Hammer horror (and boobs) in my head. Went to sleep that night counting breasts jumping a fence. Needless to say my brother and I went to the Jolly Roger the next night and I saw the same four movies again. Oh yeah: every time I went to the J.R. they showed Woody Woodpecker cartoons. Way cool! Never did get to see what was inside the coffin! The J.R. has long been torn down and warehouses are located there now. My brother Mike and I only went to the J.R. one other time: a double feature of Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger and the Jan Michael-Vincent "thriller" Shadow Of The Hawk. Haven't seen the last one in years but seems I liked it more because Chief Dan George co-starred and Sinbad's tiger looked like a poorly stuffed toy plus the "ghouls" rising up from the flames was too much of a Jason And The Argonauts rip-off for my taste. Nobody did this stuff like Harryhausen, but... One of my uncles and my brother are dead now and I want to thank Renfield for the chance to re-live some happy times with them. Hang in there and save the parking space next to the concession stand for me. We will, Dan, thanks! Somehow, a Hammer horror marathon isn't the same without stale drive-in popcorn and watered-down soda pop! Cheers! Article copyright Dan Sweet |
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