Chewbacca speaks English in this footage from "The Empire Strikes Back"

I'm not a huge STAR WARS guy - enough to see THE FORCE AWAKENS in the theater within the first week, but not enough to see it on the first night.  (My geekdom is genetic, so I was bound to see it eventually.)  That said, I'm still kind of astonished that there hasn't been a lot of mention about this footage that was clearly not used in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK that shows Chewbacca speaking English in a severe accent.



Unlike some of the behind-the-scenes footage in which Peter Mayhew is just speaking his lines as filler, this seems more like the character speaking his dialogue "in character."  I'm reasonably sure this was never meant to be part of the film itself, but it's still a curiously finished segment that shows Mayhew was committed to the character, even when his lines were going to get replaced completely by the yowling noises we know today.

BLIND ALLEY (1981), a neo-noir short film from Elliot Lavine

Elliot Lavine is known around San Francisco as the programmer of the famous Roxie Theater from 1990 until 2003 and curator of many local film festivals featuring the best in classic cinema. But before he was programming festivals of film noir, he was making shorts based on the work he loved.  Here's 1981’s BLIND ALLEY, the botched robbery of the payroll out of a meat packing planet leads the thief in a world of paranoia, and the partner he left behind won’t leave well enough alone.

PROTEST - A short about a 1981 protest against CALIGULA

During the Vancouver release of 1981's Penthouse-produced all-star spectacle CALIGULA, the film's release found itself heavily protested due to "community standards," and this short doc features footage of the protests, mostly consisting of a bunch of people that readily admit to having never seen the movie in the first place.  Play faulty logic bingo! 

Good thing nobody can try to shut down the release of a movie today due to questionable content, right?

John Carpenter and Rankin-Bass present THE THING

The trailer for Carpenter's 1981 classic gets a remake using footage from Rankin-Bass's Christmas classics.  And it's amazing.  Why has this not been posted on every "cool stuff" blog around?

Thanks Todd Graham!

FLASH SIRLOIN (1981) is a homemade, restaurant-set FLASH GORDON homage

Oh, sure, it was made for about two bucks on a lazy weekend in 1981, but Chris Maxfield and John Torretta's 8mm-lensed little fan film (using no doubt unlicensed Queen music) has a sense of exuberance and fun that plenty of similar homemade films today lack.  This wasn't done to get famous, this was done because a bunch of guys had a lot of fun making a silly little movie.  HARDWARE WARS is the clear inspiration.

Update:  From what I can tell, it seems to be shot at this place in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, which is still open!

The late Mary Ann Mobley co-hosts the short-lived 1981 TV series "Wedding Day"

Mary Ann Mobley, who passed away yesterday at 75 after a battle with breast cancer, had a pretty amazing career -- the Mississippi native was crowned Miss America in 1959, co-starred with Elvis Presley in two films, had a music career and took over the role of Mrs. Drummond in the final seasons of "Diff'rent Strokes."  Before marrying Conrad Bain, however, she briefly hosted a different TV series about blending families, the short-lived "Wedding Day," broadcast in daytime during the summer of 1981.  Here she is introducing the program with her co-host, Huell Howser.

Morning Music Video: Crash Course in Science - "Cardboard Lamb"

Listen up, you Danceteria types!  Today's groovy oddity to get you going comes from Philadelphia-based post-punk band Crash Course in Science, who released these two and a half minutes of weirdness in 1981.

John Waters in a trailer for his 1981 film series "Shock Value"

What's on your agenda for today?  Whatever it is, it's probably not as great as staying home and watching the "Shock Value" film series promoted by the self-described puke king in 1981 around the time he released his book of the same name.  Coprophagia is promised.

The late Jan Hooks sings "I'm Commercial" to the tune of Helen Reddy

Jan Hooks had already had an extensive career in sketch comedy when she joined the cast of "Saturday Night Live" in 1986, from her early days as a member of The Groundlings to her roles on HBO's "Not Necessarily The News."  In between those outlets, however, she was a performer on "Tush," a sketch comedy show presented by journalist Bill Tush on the channel that would eventually become TBS.  Here's a rare clip from that show, featuring Hooks singing a scathingly funny song to the tune of Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman."

Watch This Thing - A forgotten 1981 ALIEN parody in the 17-minute ILLEGAL ALIEN

If you've ever thought to yourself, "Y'know, I wonder what ALIEN would be like if it had a deranged clown in it," you'll appreciate the 1981 short film ILLEGAL ALIEN. Or even if you haven't, as this short by Jeff Kwitny (later of BEYOND THE DOOR III and ICED) is a pretty clever, and quite funny take on Ridley Scott's classic film. It received some notoriety by being included in the VHS short film collection "Cinemagic" (aka "Fright Show") but seems to have fallen into obscurity since then.

Watch This Thing - Siskel and Ebert debate 1981's THE EVIL DEAD

"A thriller about hideous monsters in the basement of a vacation cottage." That's how Gene Siskel describes the 1981 "ghoulie" THE EVIL DEAD upon its original theatrical run. Neither approve, but Ebert complients Sam Raimi's craftsmanship. Meanwhile, Siskel's delicate sensibilities are offended.

Watch This Thing - A 1981 Disney animated short about smoking

Disney is certainly not an uncommon company when it comes to social interest films (just look up THE STORY OF MENSTRUATION) but this 1981 animated short about a dude ranch employee who tries cigarettes to impress a girl doesn't seem to have emerged on any of their compilations, even as a random bonus feature. Shame, as the animation style is pretty nifty, and the 16mm transfer here doesn't really do the colors any favors.  Director John Ewing was the layout artist on the Ralph Bakshi-animated "Spider-Man" animated series.