All Creatures Will Make Merry Under Pain Of Death

Flash Gordon
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern

Show poster designed by Tom Bifulco

The first Thursday Thread-Up of the 2025 season is one of my all time favorite movies based on a comic - the 1980 Mike Hodges cult classic Flash Gordon.

Flash Gordon premiered in theaters when I was five months old, so it's not something that I ever had the opportunity to see during its initial run in theaters.  It's one of the many movies that I got to see for the first time when I worked for Blowout Video when I was a teenager.  It's about as campy as you can get with performances and special effects that are over the top in every possible way, and it's a hell of a lot of fun!  The 35mm print that we got to see was a restrike from the early 90's and the colors were crisp and vivid.  This was an incredible way to kick off the second annual Thursday Thread-Up series.

Your Ucipital Mapilary Is Quite Beautiful

Suspicion

The Gap Theatre - Wind Gap, PA
This Wednesday, The Gap Theatre served up an appetizer for what we all hope is the first annual Alfred Hitchcock weekend at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater with a 35mm screening of the 1941 film noir classic: Suspicion.

Suspicion premiered on November 14th, 1941.  It tells the story of a young woman named Lina (played by Joan Fontaine) who comes from a wealthy family with parents who believe that she'll grow old as a spinster.  She meets and falls in love with Johnnie (played by Cary Grant), who is equal parts charming and dishonest.  It's only after the two get married and go on a honeymoon world tour that Lina learns that her husband has no job, no money, a gambling addiction, and has borrowed money that he has no ability, and possibly no intention, to pay back.  She catches him in numerous lies, any one of which would result in an immediate divorce a few decades after this film was made, and she is given reason to suspect that he is a murderer who is plotting her death.

It's an excellent film with a performance from Joan Fontaine for which she won Best Actress at the 14th Academy Awards.  This ended up being the only acting performance that earned an Oscar in any of Hitchcock's films.

This was my first time seeing Suspicion.  I went into the theater as a completely blank slate with no knowledge of the plot whatsoever.  Experiences like this never cease to amaze me.  It's 2025, and I got to sit in a movie theater that opened three years after the end of World War II and watch a 35mm print of an Alfred Hitchcock film that was released 84 years ago that was absolutely new to me in every way.  The only thing I knew about it was what you could tell from the poster.  For the 99 minutes that this movie is on the screen, you are as close to time travel as you can get.

I thought it was an incredible movie.  The only thing I wasn't crazy about was the ending, which I found to be overly forgiving and borderline schmaltzy.  After the credits rolled, I learned that Hitchcock wanted to end the movie in a much different way that was closer to the novel on which the screenplay was based, but studio meddling from RKO Pictures forced him to go in a different direction to protect the image of their stars.  It's really a shame, because the final scene that Hitchcock wanted to film would have made this a much more memorable film.

Suspicion is currently available to stream with a Hulu subscription.  As always, my recommendation is that you go into this with as little knowledge about the plot as possible.  Don't look up the synopsis.  Don't even read the summary on Hulu.  Hell, I already told you too much about it here.  Even if the ending isn't as good as what the director had in mind, it's still a great film that is well worth watching today.

A Coke And A Slice With A Side Of Cheese Fries

Four D's Pizza

Hometown Farmers Market - Tamaqua, PA

There's so many good things to eat at the Hometown Farmer's Market that I sometimes overlook the very tasty pizza stand in the center of the lower building.  This tastes very much like the pizza that we used to get after a ballgame when I played Little League in the 80's.

The cheese fries were also very tasty.  They came from a different stand that's a little further down in the building.

You can keep your high-end restaurants.  I'll take a pizza parlor, diner, or food truck every time.

Mario And Link Drink Sharkleberry Finn

Kool Aid Koolers advertisement
Kraft Foods (May 1991)
Nintendo and Kool-Aid partnered up for quite a few promotions in the late 80's and early 90's.  One such promotion had Nintendo Power Puzzlers, which were games like the kind that you'd find in an activity book, and tips for popular NES games printed on the back of Kool Aid Koolers box drinks.  This advertisement for these drink boxes was published in the May 1991 issue of Sports Illustrated For Kids.

I haven't been able to find too many images of the Nintendo Power Puzzlers games other than this advertisement and a few images from this commercial.

I'm not sure what was going on to cause these to not be available in Maine, but we had them in Pennsylvania.

Retro Neapolitan

Farmers Ice Cream Carton

Farmer's Dairy - Hazleton, PA
If you grew up in Hazleton in the 1980's, there's a pretty good chance that you had one of these in your freezer at some point in your life.

This was available for sale at the Slatington Marketplace earlier this year.

Our Names Will Be Written On A Thousand Walls

Candyman
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
The first Sunday night of the 2025 season was an early 90's horror flick that kicked off a franchise, the 1992 TriStars Pictures film Candyman.

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern

Show poster designed by Tom Bifulco

I'm glad to see that the commemorative tickets based on Andrew Kern's incredible banner art have returned for the 2025 season.

Gates opened at 5:00 for the annual Halfway To Halloween vendor market with thirty different vendors set up in the first few rows and around the concession building.

Prior to showtime, there was a nice tribute to Tony Todd who passed away five months ago.  The actor is best known in the horror community for his starring role as the title character in the Candyman franchise, but his career extended far beyond that series with prominent roles in movies such as Platoon, Night Of The Dead '90, The Crow, Wishmaster, and the Final Destination series.

Last, but not least, they screened an original 1992 35mm print of the movie that made Tony Todd a horror movie icon: Candyman.  It's been a long time since I've watched this.  I saw it for the first time in the mid 90's on VHS as a rental from Heights Terrace Video, and I'm pretty sure that I haven't watched it all the way through since them.  As is often the case, seeing it on the big screen at the drive-in gave me a new level of appreciation for this horror classic.

If You Want To View Paradise, Simply Look Around And View It

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory / The Wizard Of Oz
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
This weekend was the official opening of the Mahoning Drive-In Theater.

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern

The traditional opening weekend at the Mahoning is a screening of The Wizard of Oz and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory on 35mm.  For the past few years, they've flipped the order of the films on Saturday night, which is the night that we were on the lot.

Actor Paris Themmen was in attendance on Friday and Saturday to meet fans, take pictures, and sign autographs.  He plays Mike Teavee, the television-obsessed Golden Ticket holder in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  I've always gotten a kick out of this character because unlike Augustus, Violet, and Veruca, he's perfectly happy with his fate after misbehaving at the Chocolate Factory.  

The new black popcorn bucket for the 2025 season was available at the concession stand.  We picked one up on Thursday night, and it will be put to good use this season.  On Saturday night, my wife and I split an order of the special food for the weekend, which was the Wonka Fries.  These are hot crinkle cut french fries topped with a chocolate and caramel sauce and marshmallow goo.  They're a lot tastier than I thought they were going to be, but half of an order is more than enough.

This year marks our third time seeing Willy Wonka and The Wizard Of Oz at the drive-in.  It's been an annual tradition to mark Opening Weekend at the drive-in since long before we started coming here, and it never fails to draw in a big crowd of folks who spent the winter waiting for the drive-in to open, as well as people who are discovering this place for the first time.

 

Rob showed two cartoons on 35mm during intermission.  The first was the 1957 Woody Woodpecker short: Round Trip To Mars.  In this cartoon, Professor Dingledong builds a rocketship and attempts to use it to launch himself to Mars, but he ends up crashing back down to Earth where he attempts to capture Woody, who he believes to be a Martian.  You can stream it on B98.tv, which is a website that I've never heard of before today, so proceed with caution.

The second cartoon was from Rob's own collection, and it's one of the most well-known Merrie Melodies shorts of all time, the 1955 Chuck Jones cartoon: One Froggy Evening.  This short was the first appearance of Michigan J Frog, who would later become famous as the mascot for the WB Network in the 90's and early 2000's.  This is another one that I couldn't find on YouTube, but you can watch it on B98.tv.  I wish I knew enough about that website to recommend it because it looks pretty cool.  It seems like it's something built by fans of classic cartoons, but I haven't been able to find any information about who built it or when it began.

The second movie of Saturday night was the most watched and well-known film in the history of motion pictures: The Wizard Of Oz.  If you ever have an opportunity to see this film on the big screen, I highly recommend that you take advantage of it.  It's an experience that you won't forget.

 

And that's a wrap on Opening Weekend 2025.  There's a lot of awesome nights that have already been scheduled on the calendar for this season with many more that have yet to be announced.

She Thinks She Missed The Train To Mars

You'd Prefer An Astronaut
Hum (1995)
The third studio album from Illinois alternative rock band Hum was released thirty years ago today.

Stars
Hum (1995)

She thinks she missed the train to Mars

She's out back counting stars

She's not at work, she's not at school, she's not in bed

I think I finally broke her

I bring her home everything I want, and nothing that she needs

I thought she'd be there holding daisies

She always waits for me

She thinks she missed the train to Mars

She's out back counting stars

I found her out back, sitting naked

Looking up and looking dead

A crumpled yellow piece of paper, with seven nines and tens

I thought she'd be there holding daisies

She always waits for me

She thinks she missed the train to Mars

She's out back counting stars

Back On The Lot

2025 Patreon Screening #1
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
After 23 weeks, we are back at our happy place to kick off our fifth year coming to the Mahoning Drive-In Theater.

They're have been a few changes made over the winter.  Sandy has a brand new shed outside of the concession building where t-shirts and other merchandise will be sold.  For reasons known only to her, Sandy seems gets upset when people call it a "shed" or a "shack" and prefers that people call it the Mahoning Merch Market, so I'll do my best to pretend that it's not a shed when I refer to it in the future.

The snack bar has also had a few changes, including the removal of the large table under the tv and the addition of a large drinks cooler near the register.  The VHS wall has also now been split with half of it now dedicated to sealed VHS tapes.  Some of these are new old stock.  Others are more recent releases, including some of the films on VHS that have been released by Shudder over the past few years.

Our first 35mm film of the season was the 1983 Filipino action flick: The One Armed Executioner.  I loved every minute of this movie.  It a film that tries like hell to be a Hollywood-style action blockbuster, and the sincerity behind it makes the cheesy acting performances that much better.  I'm hesitant to say that it falls into the "so bad it's good", not because it isn't good but because it's too well made to dismiss it as a bad movie.  This easily makes my top five movies that I've seen on the lot for a Patreon screening.

This isn't a movie that I'd recommend to everyone, but I thought it was great.  If you're interested, you can stream it on YouTube and Tubi.  The copy that has been uploaded to YouTube is more crisp, but it has a large "for preview purposes only" watermark at the top of the screen throughout the film.

If you want a much more competent review of The One Armed Executioner, it has been covered by Quentin Tarantino on his Video Archives Podcast.  Click play above to listen.

Rediscovering The Bomb

The Market: Antiques, Crafts, and Collectibles
Laurel Mall - Hazleton, PA
This store opened in the Laurel Mall in October 2024, but this was my first time stopping by.  It's sort of like Black Diamond or the Slatington Marketplace, but on a much smaller scale.  It's made up of vendors who rent space to display their merchandise, all of which you pay for at a single cash register in the middle of the store.

One of the things that I'm always on the lookout for in places like this are Garbage Pail Kids; specifically the ones that came out when I was a kid in the mid to late 80's.  These are getting pretty hard to find these days.  Topps brought the product line back in 2003, and they've produced dozens of different series over the past twenty years.  The new ones are alright, but I really don't have much interest in collecting these sets other than to buy the occasional sticker, like the ones that spoofed Bryce Harper and Joe Bob Briggs.

One of the vendors had a sign to announce to customers that they had Garbage Pail Kids for sale.  They were kept in three-ring binders in a locked case so I couldn't immediately see what they were, but based on the Funko Pop toys and other merchandise near the sign, I thought that the cards they had were probably from the 2000's.  But, I thought "what the hell" and asked the man at the cash register to unlock the case so that I could take a look at what they had, and I'm very glad that I did.

Not only did they have a good selection of Garbage Pail Kids from the 80's, but many of them were from Series 1 and 2 which I almost never find outside of a card show.  And right there in the center of the first page of the binder of cards was the holy grail: Sticker #8a - Adam Bomb.  It wasn't in gem mint condition, but I've never been picky about that sort of thing.  As long as the card isn't wrecked and the price is fair for the shape that the card is in, I'm in.  This one checked both of those boxes, so for the first time since the six year old me foolishly peeled this sticker and stuck it on the swing set in my grandparents back yard, I am the proud owner of the flagship card in the Garbage Pail Kids series.

I ended up getting these four cards from Series One and about a half dozen others from Series Two.  None of them are in fantastic condition, but you really couldn't beat the price.  The Geeky Gary card was 99 cents. There are ones on eBay right now in worse shape than this one that are selling for over ten bucks.  I don't think I'd ever pay collectors prices for these, but it's kind of fun to try to put together a full set just on what happens to pop up at yard sales, flea markets, and places like this store in the Laurel Mall.