Welcome, all lovers of Bruce Lee movies! Welcome to my Radio Spot Reliquary.
Prior to the success of Enter The Dragon, Bruce Lee had found fame in Hong Kong cinema, and starred in two successful films, The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972). As their success grew, United States film distributors decided to release them to American markets. After redubbing The Big Boss with new dialog, new music cues and editing, it was released under the title Fists of Fury. Oddly, Lee’s second film Fist of Fury had already been released in a limited run under the title The Chinese Connection. Both proved to be successful in America and Bruce Lee was on his way to worldwide stardom with Enter The Dragon. …
Welcome, all lovers of martial arts tournament movies! Welcome to my Radio Spot Reliquary.
After the success of TV’s Kung Fu pilot movie and their hit Five Fingers of Death, Warner Brothers Studio decided to go big and produce a blockbuster martial arts film using an American/Chinese cast and a star of Chinese-produced martial arts films named Bruce Lee.
Fans of the TV show The Green Hornet already knew Bruce Lee as Kato, the Kung-Fu master sidekick of the Green Hornet. After guest spots on a few TV series, Lee went to Hong Kong to begin a career in film and soon became a major star with the films The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, and The Way of the Dragon, with Chuck Norris. In 1972 he was tapped as the lead in that new joint Hong Kong/Hollywood production which would eventually be named Enter The Dragon.
Released in August, 1973, it became an instant world-wide hit and propelled Bruce Lee to martial arts legend. Sadly, Lee died shortly after its release, but interest in his three earlier movies, now titled Fists of Fury, The Chinese Connection and The Return of the Dragon (released in 1974) received new interest. A cobbled together unfinished film titled Game of Death was released later in 1978.
Enter The Dragon is now considered a classic of martial arts film making and led the way for the worldwide interest in martial arts. Lee choreographed the fight scenes, making them more believable, and doing away with the gravity-defying stunts, such as leaping twenty feet in the air to clash with opponents. The film was shot in the usual style of photographing without sound, the audio portion of the film’s voices, music and sound effects added in post production. Having the music and sound effects elements separate made worldwide dubbing easier and more uniform.
The movie brought together many top martial arts practitioners such as Lee, Americans John Saxon, Jim Kelly, and Bob Wall, and Chinese stars Shih Kien, Bolo Yeung, Sammo Hung (uncredited) and a newcomer stunt extra named Jackie Chan. Many memorable scenes are featured including the showdown between Lee and Wall, Lee taking on Kien’s entire army of warriors, and the climactic scene between Kien and Lee in a mirrored room.
Enter The Dragon went on to be voted the best martial arts film of all time. Warner Brothers went all out in its advertising campaign and the following radio spots highlight the action and draw of the film. Listen!
Lee! Roper! Williams! Han! O’Hara! Bolo! Boards…don’t hit back! Enter The Dragon!! (ZC Note: And that awesome score by Lalo Schifrin!)
Welcome, all lovers of martial arts movies! Welcome to my Radio Spot Reliquary.
The 1970s was an interesting decade of movies and TV shows. Theatrical movies exhibited a new kind of freedom, both in subject matter and screen permissiveness. Teen angst, biker movies, sexploitation, blaxploitation, social issues, and graphic horror all began to explore new boundaries. Believe it or not, one solitary TV show, airing as a pilot movie and later turning into a series because of popular demand, created a genre which took Hollywood by storm, and opened up a whole new world of viewing excitement.
Lobby Card courtesy of Hong Kong Film Net on Facebook
In February, 1972, an ABC-TV/Warner Brothers made-for TV movie called Kung Fu hit the airwaves. When it was shown again in the summer, its popularity skyrocketed. Demand was overwhelming, and a new TV series was born. It was a new concept: a half-Chinese, half American fugitive named Kwai Chang Caine flees to Old West America after having been raised as an orphan in a Shaolin temple in China. The movie featured flashbacks showing his education in the Tao Te Ching ancient Taoist philosophy and of his training in the Chinese martial art of Kung Fu. After killing the Chinese emperor’s nephew in revenge for murdering his beloved master Po, Caine flees to America with a bounty on his head, and also to find his long lost half-brother, Danny. The movie blended the ancient Chinese wisdom with the ruggedness of the Old West and Caine’s attempts to fit into this alien world. Audiences embraced the principles taught and marveled at his fighting skill, showcasing the five fighting styles of Kung Fu he had learned: the Mantis, the Crane, the Snake, the Tiger, and the Dragon. This was unlike anything TV audiences had seen before, and they went nuts over it.
The series ran for three seasons, ending in April, 1975. But it’s what happened during that time that was incredible for the motion picture industry.
In February, 1973, Warner Brothers Studio took a financial gamble on a 1972 Hong Kong Shaw Brothers Studio martial arts film called King Boxer and released it in the US as Five Fingers of Death in March, 1973. It was unlike anything American theatergoers had seen or heard before. Fans were amazed at the fighting techniques shown with its overly-loud contact sounds and the various “ki-yas” of the fighters. This movie took Kung Fu’s restrained fighting scenes to a whole new level, and fans ate it up. Plus, it had a story of an underdog overcoming all kinds of odds to become victorious, so it had a good moral lesson as well. It went on to be one of the most profitable films of 1973.
Five Fingers of Death was responsible for beginning the North American Karate/Kung Fu movie craze of the 1970s, with over 30 martial arts films being released in 1973 alone. Today, no action movie exists without heavy doses of martial arts fighting, whether it’s Karate, Kung Fu, Wing Chun, Muay Thai, Aikido, or any blends and combinations thereof. All heroes today are skilled in martial arts of some sort.
I remember when Five Fingers of Death came out in 1973, and it caused a sensation. Everybody went to see it, and martial arts schools began opening up everywhere. People had heard of Karate – about busting boards and having your hands registered with the police department as lethal weapons – but little else, and not much about Kung Fu, which held onto its tradition of teaching only to full-blooded Chinese. That would soon change as the 70s wore on, especially after another certain martial arts film masterpiece opened later in 1973. Thankfully, people eventually learned about the discipline, honor, and skills the arts taught and a lot of the exaggerated claims and false perceptions disappeared.
So now, though, put on your gi or your Kung Fu uniform, assume your beginning stance, and listen to radio spots for the movie that started it all.
Chi-hao! Ying-ying! Ms. Yen! Master Sung! Master Chin-pei! Chen Lang! Han Lung! Tung-shan! The Iron Fist! Five Fingers of Death!!
Welcome, all lovers of movies to TV series! Welcome to my Radio Spot Reliquary.
The late seventies to early eighties was a great time for fans of science fiction and adventure movies. The original Star Wars trilogy had completed its history-making theatrical run, and titles such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, ET, John Carpenter’s The Thing, and Tron captured fans with their on-screen wonders. And so, it only seemed natural that TV would capitalize on such successes.
Looking back at TV in that time frame, five stand-outs come to mind: The Incredible Hulk, The A Team, and V (that Jane Badler was smokin’!). Also making their appearance were two science fiction space operas that had their pilot episodes released as feature-length theatrical films before settling in on the little screen.
Producer and writer Glen A. Larson, who, in the late seventies had already written and produced many TV series beginning with The Fugitive in 1966, saw the success of Star Wars and hoped to capitalize on its popularity by creating his own space opera Battlestar Galactica. Shot as a miniseries for ABC Television, it was first released as an edited theatrical film in limited worldwide markets in an attempt to recover some of its $8 million budget. The complete version was shown on TV on September 17, 1978, and immediately went into production as a weekly series. The complete pilot version, released in Sensurround, was released by Universal in the US as a feature film.
Battlestar Galactica 1978 publicity still with Maren Jensen, Lorne Greene, and Richard Hatch
Sensurround, first used in the motion picture Earthquake (1974), was a process which added a super low frequency audio channel to the soundtrack which produced extremely low sounds that allowed filmgoers to feel as well as hear the low rumblings. It literally shook the walls! This process was later refined and used in home audio and theater set-ups as an added subwoofer speaker.
While Battlestar Galactica was in production, Larson was also working with Universal to develop a pilot film based on character Buck Rogers, which would be the basis for another TV series. It was decided to also release it first as a theatrical release, and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century proved successful. Six months later, the series premiered on NBC TV on September 20, 1979, and ran for two seasons.
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century 1979 movie scene with Erin Grey, Gil Gerard, Pamela Hensley, and Henry Silva.
As to be expected, the films fared well at the box office but suffered at the hands of TV execs in their TV runs. Story lines were watered down, characters re-invented, and weak plot lines expanded. Despite their short-lived runs, their imaginative special effects and characters remain popular with fans today in both incarnations.
The following radio spots are for the theatrical releases of these two innovative movies. So, fasten your seat belts, and let’s blast off!
Adama! Apollo! Starbuck! Cylons! Buck! Twiki! Wilma! Princess Ardala! Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century!
A SPECIAL NOTE…OR TWO: Many thanks to Wikipedia for supplying the info this poor writer used to try and decipher the confusing and overlapping bits of movie and TV history this story involved. I hope it made sense. Oh, and for those of you wondering, Glen A. Larson was indeed one of the members of the pop group “The Four Preps” in the late fifties and on. Great group and super harmonies!
Welcome, all lovers of space operas! Welcome to my Radio Spot Reliquary.
Ahh…the holidays: Time for family, friends and fun. And time for binge-watching favorite movies!
I love science fiction movies, especially outer space adventures. Spaceships, aliens, laser weapons, space torpedoes, spaceship dogfights, distant planets and people in peril. Those types of movies have always been in demand and have been some of the best-loved sci-fi movies.
Just the mere mention of the character’s names conjures up images of amazing scenes, damsels in distress and action, action, action! Names like Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Rocky Jones, Tom Corbett, Captain Video, Commando Cody and Col. Steve Zodiac (how many of you remember that name?) promised non-stop action on both the big screen and on TV. For kids growing up in movie theaters and in front of the television, it was true escapism at its best.
To be expected, the movies and characters created very loyal fan bases, and many arguments developed over which character, serial or movie was best. That continues to this day as the two most endearing movie franchises continue to offer fans fodder for discussion and argument. Of course, I reference the two which have ingrained themselves into the psyche of modern society: Star Wars and Star Trek. …
Here we are in a new year, and the last one ended in a whirl of activity. The last time we visited, Halloween was upon us. It was a magic time here in Squirrel Hollow with lots of fun and excitement. The kids had a ball. Let me tell you about it.
Everyone went out of their way to ensure that their houses were as creepily decorated as possible, and that treats of all sorts were plentiful for the trick or treaters. Before the night arrived, we heard that a school in an adjacent community was sponsoring a huge “Trunk or Treat” event and they went all out promoting it. That aggravated many of our town’s Halloween fans and we wondered what we could do to offset the draw of this event. Leave it to good old Uncle Oscar, caretaker at Witchwood Cemetery, to come through. After conferring with all the residents, it was decided to hold our first “Crypt or Treat” event ahead of our usual Monster Bash.
All of the crypts, tombs and graves at the cemetery were opened and decorated with all sorts of Halloween fare. The residents really got into it and offered up all kinds of ghoulish and ghastly treats for the visiting, costumed children. We held it starting at 8:30 PM, just after most kids finished terrorizing the neighborhood houses for treats. This allowed them time to visit the cemetery residents and still make it home at a decent hour in time for bed. At midnight, of course, the Monster Bash was held. The feedback was all positive and the kids had a blast, getting treats from the residents and trying to decide who had the scariest costumes, the corpses and decayed bodies or the kids. It was a graveyard smash!
Thanksgiving came and, after dinners with all the families, my great granddaughter, Grizelda, approached me saying her school was having a Christmas fundraiser to help needy families in Squirrel Hollow and surrounding communities. She was out soliciting donations for items to be rummaged off the week before Christmas. She wondered if I would be able to come up with enough of my homemade Witch’s Brew to help her out. I said sure, and asked how much. She said 400 gallons would probably be enough.
When I came to, I asked her if she was certain she needed that much. She said my Brew was known far and wide and was sure to be a bestseller. I told her I would have to get started right away and it would require me working practically day and night. She said she would help. I said OK.
Needless to say, we met the deadline and I was worn out. However, we were able to raise enough money to provide a nice Christmas dinner and toys to one hundred of the most needy families. They were grateful, our community felt good, and the true spirit of giving was nurtured. It was a magnificent Christmas in Squirrel Hollow.
I recovered just enough to see in the New Year with family and friends. We toasted each others’ health and wished for untold blessings to be ours in the coming year.
When things settled down and returned to normal, I began to think of all the blessings 2025 had brought and pondered what new opportunities would arise in 2026. It was then I realized that I had neglected my articles to Zombos’ Closet! I was mortified! It was hard to shift mental gears from holiday activities to radio spots. What would I do?
I fretted and worried. I called up Zombos’ Closet on the computer and, lo and behold, there was my answer. Zombos had featured a pressbook to Dawn of the Dead (1978), courtesy ofIt Came From Hollywood. That was it! I could offer a great tie-in!
Donald Sutherland is beside himself in Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1978
Welcome, all lovers of remakes (are there any?)! Welcome to my Radio Spot Reliquary.
Remakes! Sequels! Is there anything new?
I hear and read it all the time: People are sick of going to the movies and seeing the same things over and over again, or hearing about a new reworking of an old standard. Is there not anything new coming out of Hollywood? Is all new creativity lost? Is it all about finances and the belief that redoing a former blockbuster hit will once again generate the same amount of revenue?
Successful remakes are hard to find. Usually remakes are made of older movies with the idea of modernizing them to appeal to a fresh audience. Some are redone to highlight improved technology. Some work, some don’t. The ones that work have one thing in common: they are remade by fans of the original and want to do it in homage. With all that said, two remakes stand out to me and definitely work: John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), and 1978’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It is this latter movie I want to feature today.
The first version, filmed in 1955 and released in 1956, was well received and has achieved classic status. Its black and white photography gave it a Film Noir look which helped with the sense of paranoia and fear. It is played with all seriousness and the danger builds quickly as more and more residents of the small town of Santa Mira report that their closest family members are somehow different – changed with no emotions. Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter play the hapless couple who slowly sees their circle of friends and the townspeople they love change to become alien visitors who want to capture them and turn them into “pod people.”
Since it was so successful, filmmaker fans in the late 1970s decided to re-envision it, setting it in a large city – San Francisco – and producing it in color. Reviewers liked it and gave credit for its new approach. However, it lost its small town charm and tragedy with events now taking place within a city of countless, nameless individuals being taken over in large numbers. Close friends are changed, so the lack of trust and paranoia are still present, only the threat now exists on a much larger scale. The practical special effects are more advanced than the original, and the sound of the hatching pods is much more organic and alien. The newer version goes into more depth about the origin of the space seeds and the assimilation process, and, to its credit, fixes the original’s flaw in the lover’s reveal at the end. They are two different-looking movies and I enjoy both of them. In fact, they complement each other.
Which do you prefer?
Here are six spots for the 1978 release…three mono spots and three spots in stereo. The stereo spots are basically the same with minor differences, but the mixing is a little sharper and the background effects are more pronounced. Spots for the 1956 version are harder to find than an unopened seed pod. Granny Creech and I are both looking. Maybe someday…
Space seeds! Pods! Pod people! Don’t go to sleep! No emotions! Leonard Nimoy! Invasion of the Body Snatchers!
If you have radio spots you would like to share or talk about with Gary (the Radio Spots Guy), you can reach him at [email protected].
ZC Update: Zombos’ pod-person has been found and destroyed after Gary noticed that he mistakenly said Elliot Gould instead of Donald Sutherland in the photo caption.
Welcome, all lovers of things that go bump in the night! Welcome to my Radio Spot Reliquary. To follow up on my post, Dracula, Yorga, and Frankenstein Oh, My!, here are more vampires than you can shake a stake at.
Barbara Jefford and Mike Raven in Lust for a Vampire
Welcome, all lovers of things that go bump in the night! Welcome to my Radio Spot Reliquary.
Listen…it’s that time of year again for crunching leaves, cool, howling winds, and the sound of spooks and monsters of all kinds.
Take a deep breath: Do you smell it? That unmistakable smell of burning pumpkin, caused by the candle flame licking the base of carved-out lids of eerily illuminated jack-o-lanterns sitting ominously on the porches of households eagerly awaiting the arrival of dozens of ghastly apparitions demanding treats of various kinds. Can you taste it? The sweet taste of hauntingly delicious goodies, from chocolate to peppermint, and everything in between.
Can you feel it? The apprehension of not knowing what is coming to visit your house. Who or what is behind that mask you see staring into your eyes, into your soul? Is it friend…or foe?
Fear! Terror! Horror! Trick or Treat! Tricks with no treat! Nowhere to run! The night ‘he’ came home! The night no one came home! Halloween….One, Two and Three!!!
Halloween
Halloween II
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Nick Castle holding up his inner monster, Michael Myers
If you have radio spots you would like to share or talk about with Gary (the Radio Spots Guy), you can reach him at [email protected].
Welcome, all lovers of vampires and monsters! Welcome to my Radio Spot Reliquary.
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so I guess it comes as no surprise that the makers of horror movies would capitalize on the tried and true names of horror to seek box office success.
As I was clearing out some of my radio spot files I saw that the vampire and monster-making genres still had some energy left after the great Hammer films had run their courses. Feature vampire lovelies and gruesomely-made monsters and the audiences were sure to come, right? Evidently.
I have come up with eighteen titles of screen shockers that took the Dracula and Frankenstein legends to new directions, many with increasing doses of gore and female nudity. As the 1970s unfolded, the screen became more exploitative. Many of these films lacked quality, but some were adequate. Liberties were taken with the original canon legends, and stories were created to make use of the screen’s new-found freedoms.
So, here are the spots. Most are quite good…some are overly screamed. See how many of these bring back memories…and nightmares.
Blood! Fangs! Crosses! Corpses! Beautiful, and sometimes nude, women in peril! Cadavers! Body parts! Mad labs! Monsters! Dracula and Frankenstein movies continue!
Welcome, all lovers of double features! Welcome to my Radio Spot Reliquary.
Well, I was rummaging through my files when I saw that my radio spot tribute to Hammer vampire movies was incomplete: I found two more. And, they were part of some Hammer Films double features which included a mummy sequel and three Frankenstein films! So, I thought I would introduce the Frankenstein and Mummy sagas here also. Confusing? Well, let me explain…
Last time I featured two Dracula movies which headlined two double features, one containing zombies and the other an occult adventure. This time the two vampire movies take the backseat to two Frankenstein movies and the third double feature has a mummy movie taking the backseat to a Frankenstein film! Whew! It’s not as complicated as it sounds.
First off, we journey to 1967 for Frankenstein Created Woman, a play on And God Created Woman from 1956, and The Mummy’s Shroud, third in Hammer’s Mummy series. Peter Cushing returns as Baron Frankenstein but Christopher Lee is absent from the former.
Second, from 1970, we have Horror of Frankenstein and Scars of Dracula, with Ralph Bates in the first and Christopher Lee in the second.
Lastly, from 1974, there’s Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell paired with Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter. Peter Cushing again reprises his role as the good doctor in this, the final chapter of the Frankenstein saga, and Horst Janson stars as Captain Kronos, chasing vampires who drain the youth instead of blood from their victims.
Sadly, none of these double feature radio spots highlight any theater handouts.
The movies were winding down and the radio spots tried to capture the old glamour, but time and movie culture were taking their tolls. They are still fun, though, especially as two spots for the Horror/Scars double feature hold on to the puns from an earlier marketing angle. But it’s sad to think these spots were at the end of such glorious Hammer traditions.
Murders! Corpses! Body parts! Vampires! Bats! Good vs Evil! Tombs! Bandages! Ancient curses! More gorgeous women in peril! Three Hammer double features! Bonus! I just found two spots each for the single releases of Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell and Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter. Enjoy!
Horror of Frankenstein and Scars of Dracula
Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter
Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell and Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter
Welcome, all lovers of the movies that drain you! Welcome to my Radio Spot Reliquary.
Many thanks go out to my friend, the ever-vivacious Granny Creech, for filling in for me and doing the spots for Dracula Has Risen From the Grave. I was busy elsewhere and just couldn’t fit it in to meet Ol’ Zombos’ schedule. He’s a real stickler about things like that, and I knew I’d be in big trouble with the old guy if I were late, so Granny saved my skin, what little there is left of it.
Anyway, in keeping with my original plan, here are spots for two more Hammer vampire treasures, Dracula: Prince of Darkness and Dracula A.D. 1972. …
