Movies You Never See Anymore

[Dr. Bill Kobb]

Every now and then, a movie pops into my head and I think, back in the pre-cable days, you used to see that once or twice a year, but now you never see it on teevee. What gives? Some movies that I would love to see again that fall into this category are:

• West Side Story
• Riki Tiki Tavi
• The Point
• Horton Hears A Who?

I'm sure I can think of others. Can YOU think of any films that you miss that they never show any more?

I have some theories on a couple of them. West Side Story, though a musical, features switchblades, which(dispite kids these days carrying grenade-launchers into class) are totally verboten in U.S. society.
Riki Tiki Tavi--If memory serves, might have been considered offensive to a special-interest group i.e. depiction of Brit rule in India, or possibly the cobra-lobby managed to shut it down. I dunno.
The Point and Horton Hears A Who?--Both were some mighty weird cartoons, dispite being aimed at kids. They both had good messages, though. I forget the name of the Dr. Suess story about the tree-creature trying to save the forest, but it's obvious why they don't show that lil' environmental gem anymore.

 

[TklDuo-Drew]

Wizards - an animated movie from the mid-70s (I think)
Freaks - from the early 30s

I just remembered the cartoon "The Point". Seen it a few times and it was a good commentary on individualism. Concerns a kid born with a round head in a land full of pointy-headed people and he has to take a journey of some sort.


Drew

 

[Traveler]

One I used to see and liked was a movie called "The Warriors".It was this movie about a street gang wrongly accused of killing a charismatic gang leader.And,they had to fight there way back home.They had many battles with many street gangs.Was a pretty good flick.Set in New York.

I don't want to hear the word turkey til next year

 

[Knox The Hatter]

Disney's "Song Of The South". In other words, I can't be trusted to judge whether it is racist or not.

 

[natural tickler]

I sa the Warriors the other day on Cinemax. They don't show Bruce Lee movies much anymore

 

[Dr. Bill Kobb]

Bruce Lee's an excellent example. You can catch Enter The Dragon on one channel or another just about every weekend, and while it's a kick-assed flick, they never show any of his others. Good call!

The Warriors-Another good call! Yeah, they used to show this every now and then on regular teevee. Another of those movies I could watch over and over.

TklDuo-Drew--Yes! My "point" exactly! That's the one! The Point was a simple but thoughtful lil' `toon I'd love to see again.

I just remembered the name of that other Dr. Suess about the tree-creature. It was The Lorax!

Excellent call on that Disney flick, Song of the South, KNox the Hatter! Yeah, they shelved that one due to implied racism. It was great otherwise, though. Man, I'd love to see that again. Another Disney you could see almost every year at Halloween was their take on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It was a 1/2 hour animated bit that was actually pretty scary!

 

[natural tickler]

They also only show recently the first Nightmare On Elm Street, but not the others😀

 

[Dr. Bill Kobb]

Another good call, natural tickler! I wonder why that is? It's been years since I saw the second or third installments. Sometimes, you can catch the very last in the movie series. Do you remember the short-lived TV-series? I only saw one episode. It was before I was a rabid horror fan like I am now. The episode I saw was set in a hospital and was really over-the-top for a teevee show. Scary stuff. Beat the shiite outta that lame Friday the 13th show.

 

[grippedchimp]

I've not seen "Coming to America" in a LONG time. This was one of Eddie Murphy's funniest films, and it had Samuel L Jackson in a very early role. Best scene(s) in that film is where the people in the barber shop are arguing about famous Black boxers, and the Jewish guy mentions Rocky Marciano. All (maybe most) of them were played by Eddie and Arsenio Hall, to grat effect.

 

[Limeoutsider]

I've not seen "Coming to America" in a LONG time. This was one of Eddie Murphy's funniest films, and it had Samuel L Jackson in a very early role. Best scene(s) in that film is where the people in the barber shop are arguing about famous Black boxers, and the Jewish guy mentions Rocky Marciano. All (maybe most) of them were played by Eddie and Arsenio Hall, to grat effect.

They used to play that all the time on Comedy Central, like, 8 times a day, they usually start playing it in March or so. Unless UK Comedy Central is different. As fopr movies, I never see Hatari or Hell Fighters anymore, noth John Wayne Movies

 

[BigBrownEyes]

Anyone remember "Charlotte's Web?" That's an old classic that I've seen since I was a kid. Nearly, all the film names in this thread are available on Vid/DVD. So you still them, but you have to make a trip to you local vid store.

I have a copy of the orginal Grinch cartoon, and "Horton Hear A Who" is included on the video as a bonus. They don't seem to show any of the old Dr. Sues shows anymore, except for "The Grinch." Anymore remember the one about the creature that lived in the skinny tower, but you never actually got to see the creature?


I also have a copy of "Wizards." I don't remember that ever being shown on TV, except on cable. "The Warriors" is usually shown a couple times a year.

There's an old horror flick called "The Dunwich Horror" that I'd like to see again. I saw it when I was about 10 and it scared the crap out of me.

 

[Dr. Bill Kobb]

Those are some more excellent examples from gripped, Lime and Big. That is curious about the Dukes' movies. Used to be you couldn't NOT see them. Would almost be able to include Murphy's The Golden Child along with Coming To America, but I did see that it was on TBS or TNT late one night. I wonder what gives with Charlotte's Web? I only got to see it when it premiered...

So, The Dunwich Horror is pretty good? Cool! I just scored it in a tape-trade!

And then there's the old Tarzan movies. Used to see those every weekend in the mornings. May be a PC-factor in those being unavailable. Just a hunch.

 

[phatteus]

Yrah, "The Song of the South" was a good one, I only saw it once in the theatre... I don't remember it being quite racist.. did they consider Uncle Remus a typical Southern Black stereotype? Hey, folks, guess what? He was, and it's not racism when you try to glorify a culture. (Let's ban Tom Cruise's "The Last Samurai" because it is racist against Japanese people... or... against white people who think they're Japanese... What the Hell is that movie supposed to be about, anyway?)

You never see "Time Bandits" anymore, or "The Warriors" (I think Dr. Kobb mentioned that one)

Also two of my favorite films of all time, which they never put on TV are "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!"

Oh well, I guess that's what makes movies great. It is my opinion that the Video Casette Recorder or VCR ruined classic movies because it made these films too accessable. When you see "It's A Wonderful Life" for the thirty-seventh time on video, you don't quite appreciate it as much as you do seeing "West Side Story" for the second time ever on Bravo.

This has been "My Two Cents"

 

[CurtWild]

the wraith......used to be on all the f`n time when i was younger.i`m gonna have to by a bootleg copy off ebay since it is now out of print and never put on dvd.

 

[BigBrownEyes]

I wouldn't go so far as to say the Dunwich Horror is good. I saw it on TV about 20 years ago and I thought it was scary at the time. But I haven't seen it again in all these years. I don't know what I'd think of it now. Maybe it's good. Check it out and let me know.

I miss the days when they used to run horror flicks late Friday and Saturday night. Some of them were pretty cheesy, but there was just something fun about watching an old horror film at 1am-3am in the morning.

Does anyone remember an old horror flick called "Psychomania?" It was about a biker gang in England (I think), who found out they could kill themselves and come back as industructible zombies. There was another one called "Death Dream" that used to run on Insomniac Theatre fairly often. In that one, a young man who had been reported as killed in Viet Nam returned to his family's home as a type of vampire/monster. I never managed to stay awake to see how it ended. The last thing I remember is that he killed the family dog for barking at him. Ahhhh, memories...

 

[ticklishbbw]

I miss the days when they used to run horror flicks late Friday and Saturday night. Some of them were pretty cheesy, but there was just something fun about watching an old orror film at 1am-3am in the morning.

I miss those days as well. At one time it was easy to find a horror movie on, late night, on the weekends. No more. All you see now are infomercials. Ugh!!!

In addition to a lot of the old horror movies I'd love to see, there was an old 70's movie called Assault on Precinct 13. For some reason I loved watching that movie. I was very young the first time I saw it, but still remember it well. Haven't seen it on TV in a long time. I also remember humming the background music for weeks after watching it!

tbbw

 

[giantfan121262]

some movies I haven't seen in a long time were "Texas Chain Saw Massacre" or some of Alfred Hitchcock's movies such as "Psycho" or "The Birds"

 

[BigBrownEyes]

Assault on Precinct 13

Yes, I remember that one. That one is rarely played on TV. I saw it once on a Saturday afternoon.

If I'm not mistaken, that was John Carpenter's first film. He later went on to make classics, like Halloween and Escape From New York. His earlier films always included a catchy score that sticks with you long after you've seen the movie. He used to write his own music for his films.

I used to be a big John Carpenter fan, but I can't even remember the last decent film he's directed.

 

[ticklishbbw]

Re: Assault on Precinct 13

If I'm not mistaken, that was John Carpenter's first film. He later went on to make classics, like Halloween and Escape From New York. His earlier films always included a catchy score that sticks with you long after you've seen the movie. He used to write his own music for his films.

I used to be a big John Carpenter fan, but I can't even remember the last decent film he's directed.

I think you're right, it was a John Carpenter film. That would explain why I liked it so much. I was addicted to all his horror flicks when I was growing up. I think I had the script to Halloween and The Fog memorized! LOL

tbbw

 

[Dr. Bill Kobb]

Yeah, fans on the horror-boards are really hard on Carpenter for not coming out with any good stuff in awhile. I still have alot of respect for the many great movies he did contribute to the genre.

Don't worry, BigBrownEyes, I have really peculiar tastes in films. So, there's a good chance I'll dig The Dunwich Horror on some level or other(after all, it's based on a story by one of my favorite authors, H.P.Lovecraft).
AMC's actually been doing an admirable job of keeping the late-nite-horror-thing going on Fridays. They play some semi-obscure treats along with the better known classics. Personally, I think someone should come out with a "B"-movie channel. There's tons of neglected, hilariously inept sleaze, horror, sci-fi, jungle, sword and sandle and other rarities out there that would make for better viewing than the many channels I've deleted from my clicker.
For instance, there's
Psychomania! What an insane movie! I have that on tape BigBrownEyes! Classic Line: "You can only die once, after that, no one and nothing can harm you." "Oh man! What are we waiting for!".

Time Bandits-Now there's one I'd like to catch again. Yet another good call. Arguably my fave Terry Gilliam flick. Brazil has got to be right up there with it, though, and I haven't seen anyone play it in awhile, either.

Never seen Death Dream or The Wraith and now y'all have me intrigued...

 

[BigBrownEyes]

Good luck trying to catch "Death Dream." It seems to be hidden away in a vault somewhere. It stars the actor who found the horse head in his bed in "The Godfather."

The cheesiest horror flick I've ever seen on a Sat. afternoon was "Desciple Of Death." There was one unintentionally hilarious scene. A vampire was walking through a building and came to a door. Rather than just open the door, he waved his hand in the air and the door flew open by itself. It was just a shameful exercise of his power! 😛

 

[JoBelle]

On the other side of the coin...

Years ago, you could watch It's a Wonderful Life on one or two winter chilled nights. It was worthy of scheduling a cup of cocoa just to catch it. Then ...who was it? Turner I think.....they bought the rights to it and it's been played near to death. Let's not even go into the "colorized" version. *vomit*

I got a copy years ago as a gift and I ignore all the time it's shown on tv and watch it one night with friends over popcorn and warm bevvies.

Sigh, television sucks.

Jo

 

[Dr. Bill Kobb]

My Non-Existent Attention-Span

Teevee does suck, mainly for all the commercials they bombard you with. My big Christmas must-see every year is A Christmas Story. There's no point in purchasing it, though, as TNT(or is it TBS) always plays it in a 24-hour marathon every year.

I can probably score a VHS-print of Death Dream or nearly anything one can think of from the dozens of bad-video catalogs I have laying around the Labs.

phatteus mentioned the Beatles movies Help! and A Hard Days Night earlier in the thread. I just got done reading in a cinema mag that both are currently out of circulation on VHS and DVD, though they are occassionally sighted on the shelves at Blockbuster and other video rental places. Another one I used to see every year was The Beatles Yellow Submarine. Been ages since I saw that trippy `toon.

 

[TklDuo-Drew]

Me and Venray were discussing the movie "Troll" last night. That was another offbeat one not seen much anymore.
I remember seeing "The Wraith" a ton of times back in the late 80s. Always got a kick out of the punk who snorted WD40.

Drew

 

[giantfan121262]

One movie I haven't seen in a long time was "Betrayed", starring Tom Beringer and Debra Winger. Winger plays an FBI agent who is assigned to a case to infilterate a Neo Nazi group, Tom Beringer plays the leader of that group. Winger and Beringer fall in love and she gets "in too deep". It was a great movie which, come to think of it, never saw on TV (Cable or Network).