Hollywood Boulevard (1976) - Joe Dante, Allan Arkush
Related: Hollywood - stock footage - 1976 - American cinema - Joe Dante
Hollywood Boulevard (1976) - Joe Dante, Allan Arkush
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Description
Hollywood Boulevard is a 1976 film by Joe Dante and Allan Arkush, starring Candice Rialson as an aspiring actress just arrived in Los Angeles, alongside more established actors such as Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov.
The movie is best known for its re-use of footage from other movies. Roger Corman offered to let Dante make a movie if he could keep the budget very low: Dante achieved this by writing a script about a B-movie studio where he could shoot plot scenes cheaply with the actors and intercut them with action sequences from other movies that Corman owned, such as Death Race 2000.
Although this wasn't an unusual technique for low-budget movies of the era, Hollywood Boulevard took it to extremes. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Boulevard_%28film%29 [Oct 2006]
Mark J. Sieber review
This film is one of my all time favorite slices of cheese. It's from the heyday of Roger Corman's New World Pictures and features many of that stock company, like Paul Bartel, Dick Miller, Mary Woronov, etc.
Two guys from Corman's trailer cutting department, Joe Dante and Allan Arkush, had a great idea: Cut action scenes from various New World Productions, add some comical footage, T&A, action, slasher mystery and a song by country rock legends Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, mix and stir and you have a wildly entertaining film. It's also one of the cheapest features ever produced by New World.
The story concerns an aspiring starlet, played by the beautiful Candice Rialson, who arrives in Hollywood to seek fame and fortune. After a blundering robbery attempt by buffonish thieves who tricked her, she meets agent Walter Paisley (Dick Miller, using the same name as his character from Corman's classic, A Bucket of Blood), and becomes a stuntwoman for Miracle Pictures ("If it's a good picture, it's a miracle"), a thinly disguised parody of Corman's low budget grindhouse production company, New World. She then becomes a Miracles big star, and wacky filmmaking ensues. Not to mention a behind-the-scenes killer, adding mysterious spice to the events.
This film is a lot of fun, worthy of many repeated viewings. At least for me. There are lots of industry in-jokes and gentle satire aimed at Roger Corman himself. It's never taken too seriously and every scene of it is delightful fun, especially for fans of Corman's particular brand of guerilla movie making. My only complaint is that Hollywood Boulevard 2 isn't included on the same disc. It's just as funny and entertaining as the first one. Here's hoping it will be among the next releases by Corman's New Concorde Home Video. Mark J. Sieber for amazon.com
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