.

.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Worrell Peace!

Ernest Goes to Camp!  (Buena Vista Pictures, 1987)





Before the Camera:

Jim Varney  (The Expert)
Gailard Sartain  (Roadie)
Daniel Butler  (Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam - he's Slave Willie!)
Iron Eyes Cody  (A Man Called Horse)
Lyle Alzado  (Zapped Again!)
Victoria Racimo  (Choke Canyon)
Patrick Day  (Bandwagon)
Scott Menville (The voice of Robin in The Teen Titans)
Jacob Vargas  (Devil)
Danny Capri  (Who Framed Roger Rabbit?)
Hakeem Abdul-Samad  (Wildcats)
Andrew Woodworth  (Ghost in the Machine)
Larry Black  (Pure Country 2: The Gift)
Richard Speight Jr.  (Open Water 2: Adrift)
and
John Vernon  (Animal House)
as Sherman Krader



Behind the Camera:


Directed by John Cherry


Produced by Martin Erlichman, Elmo Williams and Stacy Williams


Written by John Cherry and Coke Sams






Wow, now here's a pop culture phenomenon for you. Jim Varney started shooting local and regional TV commercials as lovable dimwit Ernest P. Worrell in 1980. With each spot - for products as diverse as milk, car dealerships, and banks - featuring his neverending annoyance of unseen neighbor Vern, Ernest's  popularity and fame grew across the decade until he was a national commercial spokesman in commercials for Coke products like Mello Yello. It naturally developed from there to take the character to home video - and in the mid 80's there were comedy tapes like Hey Vern! It's My Family Album, which let the talented Varney indulge his penchant for crazy characters by telling Vern about some notable ancestors in the Worrell family. Of course they also released a compendium of several dozen of the Ernest TV commercials as The Ernest Film Festival and a Volume 2 of same. Then, in 1986, the production company behind Ernest made an honest-to-goodness feature film starring Varney with the wonderful title Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam. It turned out to be a completely off the wall comedy adventure with Varney essaying the title role, a would-be Bond villain named Dr. Otto von Schnick-Ick-Ick. There is a brief appearance by Ernest in the movie as well. This blog will be delving into Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam in more, er, earnest down the road, but today we're really here to talk about another flick in the Worrell ouevre. In 1987, with the Ernest character now a definitely known presence in pop culture, and a money maker as well, someone decided there needed to be an actual theatrically released Ernest movie. I'm not sure what went on behind the scenes in the development of the script - but it appears that early on it was decided to jettison Vern completely and just let Ernest go about his business in a very family friendly way - highly appropriate for a character seen exclusively thus far in G rated antics hawking products on television or in those inoffensive videos - well, except for Dr. Otto, which actually has some darker moments, but I'm not sure very many people saw that one...so....
    Ernest P. Worrell is the maintenance man at Kamp Kikakee, a kids summer camp. Ernest is a goodhearted and somewhat dimwitted guy whose main goal in life is to become a counselor at the camp. He gets his chance when the camp brings in some juvenile delinquents for a second chance program. They manage to put their first assigned counselor into the hospital, so Ernest is assigned to them as he is more disposable than the other established counselors. While much character comedy and slapstick ensues, bad guys show up in the form of construction mogul Sherman Krader (Vernon) and his foreman Bronk Stinson (Alzado). They want to buy Kamp Kikakee in order to raze the camp and set up mineral mining on the site. The camp's owner, Native American Chief St. Cloud (Cody in his final film role), refuses to sell, leading to chicanery and skullduggery getting mixed in with Ernest's character comedy and slapstick for the rest of the running time. KnowhutImean?


Ernest gives Jake's Eggs Erroneus the hairiest of eyeballs.
 
    Ernest Goes to Camp was produced as an independent movie, but got picked up for release by Buena Vista, the releasing arm of the Walt Disney Company. So that was kind of cool. Thankfully the character did not get co-opted by Disney, as they probably would have had Johnny Depp play Ernest in a $400 million dollar Gore Verbinski movie by now. I am a sucker for movies and movie series like this, which take a comic character and drop him (or her) into a different themed comic situation for each flick and let the running gags fly. I mean, that's certainly a blueprint for movie comedy going back to Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello, and The Bowery Boys. This movie isn't perfect, as it gets pretty sentimental pretty often, and is awfully PC with its treatment of Native American issues, but when the spotlight is looking for comedy and pratfalls and stays on Ernest, the movie is pretty danged funny, especially when he's interacting with camp chefs Jake (Sartain) and Eddie (Butler). It also gets a little edgier than a more recent family movie would, with Ernest on the receiving end of a pretty violent beating from Bronk, and Sherman Krader wielding a high powered rifle against Ernest in the climactic scene. The name actors in the cast all bring scads of value to the movie, especially Vernon; and it's great to see Iron Eyes Cody one last time. Everything else about the movie is workmanlike, nothing spectacular, and the movie is obviously pretty low-budget, but it also doesn't try to go beyond its means and keeps everything pretty down to earth.

Iron Eyes Cody and Jim Varney on set.

So, while it may not rank high on a list of "Important Cinema," it is a fun and goofy little movie that I can heartily recommend to Jim Varney or Ernest fans (of course) and anyone else who likes to watch chuckleheads tripping over stuff a lot.  All others need not apply.












Let's Get Out of Here ?


At approximately 1:18:05, one of John Vernon's henchmen realizes the combo of Jim Varney and Iron Eyes Cody is unbeatable.






Eye Candy ?

Victoria Racimo annoys me for some reason, so I'm going to say no. As she's the only female in the movie, that's an all-encompassing no.










Buddha Man's Capsule Review

Buddha Man says "Ernest Goes to Camp is some prime
unvarnished Varney."





Thanks for that one, Buddha M! And until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!

Monday, September 26, 2011

Maniacal Movie Poster Monday #36!

The International edition! (Check out the movie companies!)




Street People  (American International Pictures, 1976)






Roger Moore as a Sicilian hood. 'nuff said!








This Island Earth  (Universal International, 1955)



A very very cool movie - and it's got the Professor in it! I kinda feel like MST3K: The Movie should have chosen a different target for its one and only theatrical venture, but that's me.









Alley Cat  (Film Ventures International, 1984)



I've not seen this fairly obscure revenge melodrama - but I love that nobody in that picture up there is actually in that picture up there!





Until next time, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Saturday Night at the Movies! 9/24/11

Who cares what picture we see?


Well, my movie buddy niece Sandra and her pal Merriah certainly do, and they said it needed to be this one:















Yeah, it's a big goofy CGI cheesefest with a Syuh-Fyuh channel connection that keeps nudity and profanity off the table, but there's a bit of gore in the chomping, and it has enough silly fun to warrant a watch with friends and some adult beverages or whatever.

Always remember - if you're pulled off your jetski by the Sharktopus - it's not "AIIIEEEEEE!" It's not "BLEEAARGGHHH!"

It's "UUURRGGGHHHHH!!!!"


And the movie sits ready to watch on Blu-Ray, tonight even, should you decide that visiting me and watching a movie is on the agenda.



Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!

Friday, September 23, 2011

PSA A Go Go! 9/23/11


In the interests of using an announcement to serve the public, here's a public service announcement.






We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.


And until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Did they store Apollo 18 in Hangar 18?

Apollo 18  (Dimension Films, 2011)







Before the Camera:

Warren Christie  (TV's Alphas)
Lloyd Owen  (he was young Sean Connery in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles!)
and
Ryan Robbins  (Catwoman)
as
Lt. Colonel John Grey



Behind the Camera:


Directed by Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego


Produced by Timur Bekmambetov, Ron Schmidt, Jonathan Shore, Kathleen Switzer, Shawn Williamson, Michele Wolkoff, and Cody Zwieg

 
Written by Brian Miller and Cody Goodman
 
 
 
 
I think we officially now have to consider the 'found footage' thriller to be its own genre. We're definitely in double digits, and that's just from movies made this century!
 
This time out, according to an opening crawl, 84 hours of formerly classified NASA film footage has been pieced together to show what happened to Apollo 18, the true final mission to the moon. And since the official story has always been that Apollo 17 was the last moon trek, you know something big had to have happened up there for there to be such a massive and all-encompassing coverup.
 
 

Moonbuggy down! Moonbuggy down!
  
 
I initially attempted to put this together as though the movie is truly showing formerly classified NASA film, but since even the film admits it's a put-up job with end credits, I gave up and just put the real names in. I enjoy a good found footage movie - there's something about the idea that if the "footage" has been "found" something untoward must have happened to those who shot it, and watching the events leading up to that can be unsettling and full of dread. It worked for me with Blair Witch and both Paranormal Activity movies. This one, however, somehow doesn't work as well. There's no obvious reason why in the setup - you have a bare few characters, and you have the usual camera stuff - a couple mounted, and a couple moving around with the characters. I think the problem here is they just weren't able to bring the scary stuff up on a slow boil starting early and increasing across the running time. The bulk of the scares come in the last twenty minutes, and the final payoff is not all that it should be. To be sure, the actors are good, there are some okay scenes, and there a couple of truly creepy moments, but it's across almost an hour and a half and at premium theater seat pricing.
    This one gets a home video recommendation to completists of found footage flicks or NASA movies (they do a really nice job reproducing a very realistic moon mission); if you're not in one of those two eclectic groups you'll probably want to skip this one.






Let's Get Out of Here ?

Very roughly just past the hour mark, Warren Christie decides the Moon is a harsh mistress.






Eye Candy ?

The only ladies in the movie are briefly seen in home movie footage of a barbecue at one astronaut's home. So, no.








Buddha Man's Capsule Review
Buddha Man says "Apollo 18 isn't over the moon, taking a few too
many luna-tics of the clock to get to the scary stuff."




Summed that one up nicely, Buddha me lad! Thank you! And until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!

Monday, September 19, 2011

Maniacal Movie Poster Monday #35!



The Last Days of Man on Earth  (New World Pictures, 1974)


A hard to describe science fiction/spy thing from the ever eclectic director Robert (Dr. Phibes) Fuest.









Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!  (EVE Productions, 1965)




If you like movies where women kick tushie - this is one you need to see!














Tomb of Ligeia  (American-International, 1964)








One of the Roger Corman Poe classics. You got Robert Towne writing based on Edgar Allan; Rog directing, and the ever-incredible Vincent Price starring. And you haven't seen this why?




Until next time, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Saturday Night at the Movies! 9/17/11

Who cares what picture we see?


I'd be hard pressed to say whether or not Barbi Benton would - but regardless we're going with a special one tonight...wait, did I say one? Oh no, we'll go one better than one...because this is a


Special Saturday Night Double Feature!














What a great poster - that creature is not in the movie. I saw this one at the Drive-In - which is about as perfect as it gets for flicks like this one. I don't remember what the other feature was...but I think Deathstalker was first...in any case, it's definitely first in this double feature!






So, after a brief intermission...












Another great poster - we'll let the beasties in the back go - no, they're not in the movie, but they're barely in the poster...no, let's talk about those two main figures - that might be a slightly stylized Monique Gabrielle, which that blurb certainly seems to want us to think. But that guy is in no way, shape, or form John Terlesky. Still, they got the great Boris to let them use his terrific art for their flick, so this too gets a pass.




And these two sword and sorcery potboilers reside in DVD form in the video vault, and can be quickly popped in at any time - like this evening - if you wanted to come over and watch them with me.


Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Ghost of Buddha Manstein!

New thrills, as the Golden Headed Reviewer stalks again!









Rancho Deluxe (1975) A very low key and quirky 70's comedy, this casts Jeff Bridges (Tron) and Sam Waterston (Capricorn One) as two ne'er-do-wells out in Montana who rustle cattle to make ends meet. However, they do it slowly. One steer at a time, in fact, which they then hack up and give out to their various creditors in lieu of cash.

Elizabeth Ashley and the champagne of beers - Schlitz!
All of the livestock they bag comes from the fields of John Brown (Clifton James-Sheriff J.W. Pepper himself!) and his wife Elizabeth Ashley - two goofballs from Schenectady who have started ranching with their profits from a string of beauty parlors back east. Brown and his men Curt (Harry Dean Stanton - Repo Man) and Burt (Richard Bright - Al Neri from all three Godfather movies) can't seem to get a line on who is ripping off the cattle, so Brown finally hires Henry Beige (Slim Pickens - The Howling) a broken down old rustler-turned-detective who comes to town with a gorgeous and innocent (?) niece (Charlene Dallas - The Great Bank Hoax) to put a stop to the slow but steady thievery.

Despite being a very low key movie, there ARE helicopter stunts...
All of these characters prove to be fairly off kilter, and the movie is amusing throughout, with some choice lines of dialogue that you'll think about a moment before laughing. The movie is directed in an understated fashion by Frank Perry from a script by Thomas McGuane. The photography is extremely grainy, not sure if that was the intent from the get-go or if the movie was shot in extreme wide shot and some kind of optic zoom was used in post production to get in closer to the action, but either way the characters at times look like they're standing in a silver nitrate snowstorm. 
See the heavy grain in this shot?
(see picture)
Other bits of note: the twangy and fun musical score, provided by Jimmy Buffett (author McGuane's brother-in-law!) before he found the profits lay more in the "son of a son of a sailor" persona; Buffett's appearance in the movie briefly singing in a bar band in one scene; the cameo by the classic Pong game (as well as a couple of other veterans from the Jurassic period of video games) and the casting of Joe Spinell (Maniac) as Waterston's father, throwing on a little age makeup and giving the usually villainous actor a nice character part. All in all, if you're okay with a slightly leisurely pace and enjoy seeing characters who might have a screw or two loose interacting, you'll enjoy this slice of 70's pop cinema. Also with Patti D'Arbanville (The Boys Next Door).










Beast of Hollow Mountain (1956) Here's one of the Big Beastie movies of the 1950's, and this one has the distinction of a script by the great special effects man Willis O'Brien (King Kong '33), although weirdly he did not do the stop motion visual effects for the picture. This was also the first movie to bring to the Big Screen the rather novel concept of Cowboys & Dinosaurs, and it is in color! The story has some ranchers South of the Border facing the worst rustler ever: a Tyrannosaurus Rex, who as Roger Corman once put it "just kind of showed up one day." However, long before we get to see the big lug, we spend almost an hour in a fairly stodgy Western soap opera with only some off camera growls and aftermath scenes to let us know there's a dinosaur nearby. Finally, he does show up, and therein starts a running battle between ranch hand Guy Madison (famed as TV's Wild Bill Hickok) and the T Rex that takes up the last twenty minutes of the movie.

Somebody didn't feel like chicken tonight, chicken tonight...
 This was the kind of movie I always looked forward to on Saturday or Sunday afternoons. I somehow missed this one, though, until decades later when my new BFF MGM/HD turned up with a newly restored widescreen print. Now, I've also always liked the idea of Cowboys & Dinosaurs, and the other film made from O'Brien's story - 1969's Valley of Gwangi - has always been one of my favorites. It goes to show though, that a towering talent like Ray Harryhausen shows through - as both films have the same basic plot, but VoG is a far superior movie. Apparently the producers here bought O'Brien's story with promises to hire him for the effects, then reneged and did the dinosaur visuals themselves (?!) In addition to the usual stop motion, they also threw in some rod puppets and dinosaur feet on an effects guy for closeups.


Here's the Big Guy's entrance at the hour mark...


Rubber feet a go go....


Then the next cut and  - hey! where was that tail
in the previous shots?
 They also had some "replacement animation," where instead of an articulated model moving around, each frame is filled with a different model entirely, in this case sculpted from plaster in a series of successive poses. Seems like more work than building an old fashioned armature and putting some rubber skin on it, but what do I know? I just work here. The T Rex in the movie appears small, not in scale to the surroundings, but just as a small model used, which is extremely obvious and not helpful to the illusion at all. In any case, these effects do not have the stamp of quality of either O'Brien or Harryhausen, and when you're forced to wait an hour to see them, they end up coming off pretty sketchy, and keep the movie from crossing the entertainment finish line for anyone but stop motion completists. Skip it.




And I am finished. Please come back again, and until then, always remember - that's how remember is spelled.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Maniacal Movie Poster Monday #34!


It's the 250th post at Let's Get Out of Here! Woohoo!



Campus Swingers  (Hemisphere Pictures, 1973)











Missing in Action  (Cannon Films, 1984)

















Ruby  (Dimension Pictures, 1977)















Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Saturday Night at the Movies! 9/10/11

Who cares what picture we see?


Well, I'm thinking that Telly Savalas might have something to say about a date that counts up, so he might want us to pick something with a countdown..like this one...
















Kind of a 70's disaster movie (the "All-Star" cast) mixed with a government conspiracy thriller, this movie has lapses in logic and some silly moments, but overall is a pretty exciting flick and one I've purchased on DVD twice now...


Well worth a watch, and with two DVD copies, there's probably always one near at hand should you want to come watch it with me...even tonight, for example.


Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!

Monday, September 5, 2011

Maniacal Movie Poster Monday #33!




Color Me Blood Red  (Box Office Spectaculars, 1965)





The third in Herschell Gordon Lewis's "Blood Trilogy" - an artist discovers the perfect ingredient for the exact shade of red he likes to use in his art...can you guess what that ingredient is?







Switchblade Sisters  (Centaur Pictures Inc., 1975)




One of Quentin Tarantino's oft-mentioned faves - and one I've still not seen - although I've noticed it's in my instant Netflix queue now...













Force: Five  (American Cinema Releasing, 1981)




Yet another attempt by Enter the Dragon director Robert Clouse to replicate the success of that ultimate Bruce Lee classic with this semi-remake that tries to disguise the earlier story's theft by making the singular hero of Dragon a five person team. Another one I've always wanted to see, and it's escaped me for thirty years now...







Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Saturday Night at the Movies! 9/3/11

Who cares what picture we see?


I can only hope that Corbin Allred would, and there's little doubt in my mind that he'd go with this one...or six...









 
 


 
















Back in the 90's, Charles Band broke off from his R-rated horror and sci-fi movies with Moonbeam Entertainment, a video label designed for PG-rated family friendly fantasy fare. This was their epic, a 6 part megaseries that was like a low budget Harry Potter, only with less magic and more stop motion animation. It took me a long time, but I finally managed to track down all 6 parts, some on the original VHS and a couple on barebones DVD that will no doubt look exactly like the VHS in quality. I haven't yet watched them - maybe you'd care to join me for a Dusk-to-Dawn Josh Kirby marathon?

I know right where all six parts are, and we could watch this as soon as...tonight...if you were to care to come over!


Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

There's a bionic arm in my office...

And it's only one of several strange items I'm currently serving as caretaker to...


As usual, to get to the real story, I'm going to back waaaaaayyyyy up. I first met movie makeup guru Jeff Goodwin on the set of Super Mario Bros. back in the early 90's. He and I shared a great fondness for old movies, and the greats of movie makeup, like Lon Chaney and Dick Smith, so we became pals. Jeff had already at that point been a working professional in film for a decade, so I really enjoyed hearing his stories of working with North Carolina film legends like Earl Owensby, and being a part of Dino DeLaurentiis's DEG studios, which was a lot like the old studio days in Hollywood. Jeff would tell me he would finish Project A on Friday evening, and then promptly report to work Monday morning to start work on Project B, with no breaks of employment; just moving from one movie to the next. It has always sounded like an incredible time, and I sometimes wish I had skipped college and come straight here from high school in the mid-80's; if only I had known about the place then!



Here's a crappy cell phone pic from my scrapbook - Jeff
Goodwin on the right, me on the left, CBS TV movie Search
for Grace.


But I digress.



Over the course of the next decade Jeff and I worked together a lot, and as I was usually the production assistant in charge of coordinating the production's cast through makeup, hair, and wardrobe and getting them to set, I worked closely with him and his assistants.


Here's Jeff and I in the mid-90's on the beloved but short-lived
CBS series American Gothic. The actress in the chair is the
lovely Sarah Paulson, and I have no idea why I'm invading
their personal space to that extent. Guess I'm that guy. *sigh*

When the 21st century began, production work in southeastern North Carolina was mostly gone to Canada, and our lives pulled us away from working together. I moved on to work outside of the film industry (though I try to keep my little toe in through my old friendships, as my set invasion of Piranha 3DD showed) and Jeff moved to Rome, Italy because of the needs of family, and because there simply wasn't enough work here to keep food on the table.



Jeff and I have kept in touch, first through email, and more recently through social networking. Recently, a wonderful documentary project contacted Jeff about his work on the David Lynch movie Blue Velvet in the mid-80's. They wanted to interview him, and they wanted to interview him here in Wilmington on the actual locations from the original film! (This really is a very cool film project - if you'd like to read my earlier post about it you can find it here)

Jeff and Mr. Ear - the severed ear he created
for David Lynch's Blue Velvet.
So, Jeff returned to this area for the first time in a few years. In addition to his work on It's A Strange World - The Filming of Blue Velvet, Jeff was also planning to use his time here cataloging some items he's kept here in storage, and clearing some of them out to make better use of the storage space. He was also hoping that some of the items - props, costuming, and makeup pieces from different films over the years, might possibly be sold to fund a project he's gearing up.


Jeff and I with our longtime pal, fellow movie makeup guy
Rick Pour (Super 8) during Jeff's visit in July.



Well, some of the items that he ran across are not really collectible by movie buffs, so one evening when Jeff and our mutual friend Bill came by to watch some movies Jeff presented me with some pretty amazing items from some of the shows we worked on.

In addition to some carefully stored makeup pieces like the bug-gnawed cheek pieces he sculpted for Bruce Campbell to wear while being devoured by giant cockroaches in American Gothic, he also gave me pieces from some other movies and several items from Super Mario Bros. I was thrilled to have this stuff for my collection, and started planning where and how to display them.



Sometimes, it's like knowing a serial killer...Bruce Campbell's
chewed-up cheeks, American Gothic (1995)

Then, a few days later, Jeff called and asked me to join him at his storage area. He had a proposal for me.

When I arrived, Jeff showed me more amazing items from his collection, carefully packed away, like the life cast of Bruce Campbell used to sculpt the pieces he'd given me previously. Stuff like this was staying in storage.



Jeff mixed two batches of plaster for this one, one for the
face, and one for the chin.

Jeff then asked me if I would act as his business representative here in the United States to try to sell the items he was looking to divest from his collection. Knowing this was probably the subject Jeff wanted to discuss, I had already hit on the idea of contacting Profiles in History, the Hollywood memorabilia dealer featured on the Syuh-Fyuh channel series Hollywood Treasures. While I was there with Jeff, he also mentioned contacting Profiles in History, so it seemed like a fait accompli that I would be getting in touch with them.

I agreed to help Jeff out with this, and I also decided not to hang on to the Super Mario items if they were of interest to PiH, as I want to help Jeff out with this project. (Of course, if PiH is not interested in something, it may be staying in my collection. We shall see.)


After Jeff headed back home, my wondrous wife Suze and I photographed all of the items, and I've since emailed them to Profiles in History for examination. Here are the items, and where they came from:



Bob Hoskins's Mario jacket from Super Mario Bros. - presented to Jeff by Bob Hoskins at the end of production.


























Jaime Sommers's bionic arm from the last Bionic reunion movie: Bionic Ever After? (1994). This was used in a scene where bad guys perform surgery on a drugged Jaime, implanting a chip with a computer virus in it to make her bionics go haywire.






Closeup of the fine detail in the arm, and the "sabotage chip."






THWOMP Boot jet bullets - Super Mario Bros. Two are painted and finished, one is unpainted.





A blue one from the film.



Bene Gesserit dresses and Navigator costume - Dune (1984)




Navigator costume





Bene Gesserit dress






These came into Jeff's possession in a roundabout way. After Dune was shot in 1984, the costumes and props were transported to Wilmington NC, which was Dino DeLaurentiis's only studio space in the United States. Everything was put into storage. Well, a tropical storm blew through the area, and the storage warehouse was getting flooded. The head of production for DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group, Martha Schumacher, called Jeff and asked him to go over and grab anything he could - before it was all destroyed. Jeff loaded his car with costume pieces from Dune, which Schumacher then gave him!





Oreo Cookie pieces - Stephen King's Cat's Eye (1985)



Remember the little troll finds a cookie on the floor and tries it, spitting it out and throwing the cookie down in disgust?



Move magic - regular sized guy in troll
costume;
giant cookie made of plaster. Yum!






SPOILER ALERT for this last one if you haven't seen the movie!


The Very Dramatic Climactic Shopping Bag - and its main occupant- Stephen King's Cat's Eye (1985)



At the end of The Ledge segment, someone's been shopping, and they really got ahead on some sales....




Just a bag...but what's in the bag...?




Meet Ivana Myheadback! aka Marcia Cressner, played by Patricia Kalember.


How cool is that? And...breaking news...Profiles in History has gotten back to me - and they think there would be interest in nearly everything we sent pictures of, except, interestingly, any of the Super Mario Bros. stuff, which they seem to think would have no value. Not sure why there's no love for props and costuming from the very first movie based on a video game, but what do I know? I just work here.

I may post again if the stuff turns up in a catalog for one of PiH's auctions. Until then, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!