My review was written in March 1988 after watching the program on Imagine Video cassette.
"Drive-In Madness!" is an entertaining compilation and interview video which addresses two marginal topics rather than the field implied in its title: the film distributor Independent-International Pictures, and the phenomenon of George A. Romero's 1968 horror film "Night of the Living Dead". As such, tape will be of interest to advanced buffs but a definitive study of drive-ins and their programming remains to be done.
Videomaker Tim Ferrante mixes in equal measure entertaining coming attractions' trailers with informative interview material, all connected by James Karen' wraparound narration. Ignoring the primary contributions of such distributors as AIP, Crown International, Boxoffice International, Fanfare and 1970s New World, he zeroes in on Samuel M. Sherman's Independent-International Pictures. Illustrated by colorful and often imaginative trailers, Sherman provides the history of his company and encapsulates numerous programming trends ranging from horror & sci-fi films to biker pictures and softcore sex romps. Other source of trailers here is Empire Pictures, which is quite misleading since Empire's films belong to the post-drive-in era.
Romero, John Russo and Russell Streiner give a lot of info about "Night of the Living Dead" and its creation from a personal point of view, while Romero's subsequent collaborator Tom Savinin provides an enthusiastic description of how films and filmgoing (particularly seeing Cagney in "Man of 1000 Faces") shape his life and career.
Too much trivia is the tape's main fault, particularly as Streiner repeatedly overestimates the ult appeal and importance of a line of dialog he enunciated in "Night of the Living Dead" or when marginal fantasy film starlets Bobbie Bresee and Linnea Quigley give gushy recollections about their careers. Ferrante is closer to the mark with a monolog by #1 fan Forry Ackerman at his Ackermansion; interviews with more longtime veterans, perhaps thesps from the '50s, would have hit the spot.
Tape offers very little in the way of analyzing the drive-in biz or its decline; recurring staged footage of a young couple (Kevin Kindlin, Sheila McKenna) necking in their car at a Pittsburgh ozoner simply reinforces the cliches about passion pits. It's not pointed out how drive-ins provided low-income families with an economical night out at the movies, nor how the programming shifted away from indie films to playing the same first-run major pictures as hardtops (due to new saturation release patterns) long before home video took hold.
Upbeat conclusion here that because of home video "the new drive-in theater is the living room" is unconvincing and misses the whole point and fun of piling into the old jalopy and heading for the cloverleaf.
"Drive-In Madness!" is an entertaining compilation and interview video which addresses two marginal topics rather than the field implied in its title: the film distributor Independent-International Pictures, and the phenomenon of George A. Romero's 1968 horror film "Night of the Living Dead". As such, tape will be of interest to advanced buffs but a definitive study of drive-ins and their programming remains to be done.
Videomaker Tim Ferrante mixes in equal measure entertaining coming attractions' trailers with informative interview material, all connected by James Karen' wraparound narration. Ignoring the primary contributions of such distributors as AIP, Crown International, Boxoffice International, Fanfare and 1970s New World, he zeroes in on Samuel M. Sherman's Independent-International Pictures. Illustrated by colorful and often imaginative trailers, Sherman provides the history of his company and encapsulates numerous programming trends ranging from horror & sci-fi films to biker pictures and softcore sex romps. Other source of trailers here is Empire Pictures, which is quite misleading since Empire's films belong to the post-drive-in era.
Romero, John Russo and Russell Streiner give a lot of info about "Night of the Living Dead" and its creation from a personal point of view, while Romero's subsequent collaborator Tom Savinin provides an enthusiastic description of how films and filmgoing (particularly seeing Cagney in "Man of 1000 Faces") shape his life and career.
Too much trivia is the tape's main fault, particularly as Streiner repeatedly overestimates the ult appeal and importance of a line of dialog he enunciated in "Night of the Living Dead" or when marginal fantasy film starlets Bobbie Bresee and Linnea Quigley give gushy recollections about their careers. Ferrante is closer to the mark with a monolog by #1 fan Forry Ackerman at his Ackermansion; interviews with more longtime veterans, perhaps thesps from the '50s, would have hit the spot.
Tape offers very little in the way of analyzing the drive-in biz or its decline; recurring staged footage of a young couple (Kevin Kindlin, Sheila McKenna) necking in their car at a Pittsburgh ozoner simply reinforces the cliches about passion pits. It's not pointed out how drive-ins provided low-income families with an economical night out at the movies, nor how the programming shifted away from indie films to playing the same first-run major pictures as hardtops (due to new saturation release patterns) long before home video took hold.
Upbeat conclusion here that because of home video "the new drive-in theater is the living room" is unconvincing and misses the whole point and fun of piling into the old jalopy and heading for the cloverleaf.