Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Movies Featuring Projectionists as Characters

This is topic Movies Featuring Projectionists as Characters in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 01-05-2014, 07:03 PM:

Joseph Holmes, the person who took the recently posted (and here on Film-Tech, critically lambasted) photos showing the last days of film projection in New York area, has cobbled up a short comprised of clips of movies that have scenes taking place in a projection booth. He missed a few that I can think of, but there were more than I thought there would be. It's a fun watch and worth twelve minutes out of your future:

Projection: 85 Years of the Projection Booth in Movies

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 01-05-2014, 07:49 PM:

Glad to see that Fritz Lang's Clash by Night (IMO one of his most underrated films) got a mention at 6'27" and 8'40". The gremlins' "film done wrong" rendition of Snow White deserved a little more screen time, though.

It must have been an expensive nightmare to clear all those clips.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 01-05-2014, 08:30 PM:

Really good job. Also: "Drive In" had booth scenes. maybe also any Spielberg film involving a drive in screen being blown down. Louis

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 01-05-2014, 09:21 PM:

quote: Louis Bornwasser
"Drive In" had booth scenes.

I ran a print of "Drive-In" at a horror film festival a couple of years ago.
I don't know if it was done intentionally or not, but in the projection room
scene, the reel end alarm (in the movie) started going off at almost the exact
same moment as the actual reel-end alarm in my booth, since the scene occurs
near the end of the reel. Mabye it was just a coincidence, but if not, it was
pretty well done! (Of course if you ran platters, you missed it)

ALSO, although not a 'movie'--> I happened to catch an old episode of DRAGNET on
TV about a month ago in which the perp turns out to be the relief projectionist at
the local theater, the last few minutes of the show take place up in the booth.

The TV epsiode was was a re-make of an earlier RADIO VERSION of the same story,
and the dialoge script, in which the projectionist describes making a 'switchover'
as well as (accurately!)discussing union payroll rules can be heard here:
Dragnet- "The Big Quack"
> The 'booth scene' starts at 17min into the program. <

. . . and I'm sure we're all familiar with the several "Columbo" episodes whose
plots involve projection rooms, which have been discussed in earlier message threads.

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 01-06-2014, 12:29 AM:

"TARGETS"-1968... Karloff's last Screen Appearance. Best Projection Booth Scene yet. You even get to see him thread the Projector,etc. Poor guy ends up getting shot by the Maniac Sniper hidden in the outdoor theater Screen. Peter Bogdanovich
Directed....Looked like XL's with Mighty 90 Lamps.

Great Cult Flick!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063671/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 01-07-2014, 08:58 PM:

Almost Forgot:Dennis Quaid in "COME SEE THE PARADISE"-1990

Quaid in Los Angeles Little Tokyo 1936-Gets a Projectionist
Job at the PARADISE THEATER. Falls in love with the Boss's Daughter...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099291/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_48

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 01-07-2014, 09:39 PM:

Fight Club?

[evil]

Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 01-07-2014, 11:09 PM:

Best not mention the booth scene from Fight Club, people here get pissed.

A recent movie not included in the short, but which should have been, is a little scene horror flick called The Vanishing on 7th Street, which stars John Leguizamo as an off-duty AMC projectionist who valiantly tries to save a group of strangers from encroaching evil. The first few scenes take place in what is supposedly an AMC booth in Detroit.

Posted by Joe Elliott (Member # 4006) on 01-09-2014, 01:14 AM:

Fight club was in there at 5:00. I looked for Bulletproof Monk. It is in there according to the credits, but I didn't find it.

Posted by Jeffry L. Johnson (Member # 453) on 01-09-2014, 02:33 PM:

Yay, it includes the following.

Wim Wenders' Im Lauf der Zeit follows a projection tech to cinema projection booths.

Night of the Comet

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 01-09-2014, 09:35 PM:

"THE INNER CIRCLE" -1991

The true story of Ivan Sanchin, the KGB officer who was Stalin's private film projectionist from 1939 until the dictator's death.
This was an excellent film.Lots of Projection Booth Footage with TOM HULCE as Ivan Sanchin.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103838/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_12

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 01-10-2014, 10:12 AM:

The Smallest Show on Earth (peter seller as Mr Quill)
The Picture Show Man (australia)
Matinee
The Projectionist
Family Way (UK)

Posted by Donald Brown (Member # 5427) on 01-10-2014, 03:08 PM:

A true drive-in classic, Drive-In Massacre, featured a rather unflattering portrayal of a projectionist in the booth of the outdoor theatre where much of the story unspooled.
With so much of the industry already digital and so many major drive-ins just reflections of memory, even this release seems nostalgic today!
Don Brown

Posted by Christopher Crouch (Member # 3784) on 01-10-2014, 10:30 PM:

quote: Donald Brown
A true drive-in classic, Drive-In Massacre, featured a rather unflattering portrayal of a projectionist in the booth of the outdoor theatre where much of the story unspooled.

The ultimate drive-in movie: A killer wielding a full length sword, "hard boiled" detectives going undercover in drag, a drive-in pervert, a manager who greets each customer with a personal insult, topless scene with an actress in a bad wig (which almost falls off), decapitation fx via a mannequin head, a pointless storyline tangent in a warehouse (featuring one of the movie's screenwriters, the late Buck Flowers, chasing his real life daughter), z level production values, and a "the killer is loose at your theatre" ending; all shot by a crew that was better known for their porn output at the time.

Unintentionally hilarious fight scene in the film's "grand" finale. Despite the projector being shown in a standard position near the port window and the characters fighting behind the projector, the two combatants somehow manage to cast clear, full body, shadows of their battle on screen, from inside the booth.

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 01-11-2014, 05:20 PM:

quote: Steve Matz
"TARGETS"-1968... Karloff's last Screen Appearance. Best Projection Booth Scene yet. You even get to see him thread the Projector,etc. Poor guy ends up getting shot by the Maniac Sniper hidden in the outdoor theater Screen. Peter Bogdanovich
Directed....Looked like XL's with Mighty 90 Lamps.

Said projectionist, Byron Betz, was the drive-in's actual projectionist.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 01-11-2014, 08:10 PM:

I haven't had a chance to watch the video yet, but there is a scene in The Postman (Kevin Costner) which has a projectionist.

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 01-12-2014, 06:29 PM:

quote: Steve Matz
"TARGETS"-1968... Karloff's last Screen Appearance. Best Projection Booth Scene yet. You even get to see him thread the Projector,etc. Poor guy ends up getting shot by the Maniac Sniper hidden in the outdoor theater Screen. Peter Bogdanovich
Directed....Looked like XL's with Mighty 90 Lamps.

Said projectionist, Byron Betz, was the drive-in's actual projectionist.

When I was looking at Screen Credits for this Film I saw the man that gets shot in the Phone Booth was M*A*S*H* actor Mike Farrell(B.J.Hunnicut) must have been a struggling actor back then. Screen Credit just says "man in phone booth.

I was also looking at Trivia and was wondering if anyone up here resides in RESEDA,CAIFORNIA. The Drive-in was called the RESEDA. I was just wondering what resides on that Property Today.(Please don't say a TARGET STORE)

TRIVIA FROM IMDB:

Drive-in scenes were shot at the since-closed Reseda Drive-In Theatre in Reseda, CA, as clearly shown on the marquee and screen tower. Early in the movie, the Sepulveda Drive-In in Van Nuys is briefly shown in the background as Bobby drives down the highway. On the DVD commentary, Peter Bogdanovich incorrectly credits this as being the Reseda Drive-In.

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 01-12-2014, 10:34 PM:

doesn't surprise me that Alfredo in 'Cinema Paradiso' is the most famous 'projectionist' character.

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 01-14-2014, 03:34 PM:

quote: Steve Matz
I was also looking at Trivia and was wondering if anyone up here resides in RESEDA,CAIFORNIA. The Drive-in was called the RESEDA. I was just wondering what resides on that Property Today.(Please don't say a TARGET STORE)

Industrial park.

Posted by Timothy Eiler (Member # 383) on 02-13-2014, 01:22 PM:

From 1993 Last Action Hero

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 02-14-2014, 12:38 AM:

I guess you could count the "Gremlins" as Characters in the Film with their name.When they thread up the projector to show Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs...

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-14-2014, 11:50 AM:

Since Snow White wasn't in release at that time, I'm surprised Disney didn't make them use their most recent animated flick.

Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 03-20-2014, 11:10 PM:

Late model Simplex in Arrested Development S2:ep18

Slightly off topic, but not worth starting a new thread.

Currently on Netflix

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 03-21-2014, 01:19 AM:

When the original "THE BLOB" came out in 1958 I was only 9 years old. I remember after seeing the part where the BLOB is coming out the Projection and Viewing Port windows.Everytime I went back to that Theater for the following few weeks I was always looking up at the Projection Ports through out what ever was Playing to make sure nothing was coming out those Ports.

I'm glad I got over that; You miss a lot of the Movie your watching worrying if that OLE BLOB is gonna get you or not..LOL! [uhoh]

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 03-29-2014, 07:24 PM:

HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD (1976) by Joe Dante & Allan Arkush

Drive-in projectionist/rapist (!)

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 03-29-2014, 07:56 PM:

Steve Matz previously mentioned "Come See the Paradise". My favorite line from that film: Dennis Quaid's character finds out that the previous projectionist (a Japanese immigrant) at that theater had committed suicide. Quaid's response, "What'd he do, miss a changeover?"

Posted by Michael Coate (Member # 757) on 03-29-2014, 08:57 PM:

quote: Steve Matz
I guess you could count the "Gremlins" as Characters in the Film with their name.When they thread up the projector to show Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs...

quote: Mike Blakesley
Since Snow White wasn't in release at that time, I'm surprised Disney didn't make them use their most recent animated flick.

One of the numerous re-releases of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was during the summer of 1983, which coincided with the period of time "Gremlins" was in production. So, in a sense, "Snow White" was Disney's then-most-recent animated flick.