My daughter was never really into toys. Oh, sure, she had the standard cooking sets and a few stuffed animals and such but, growing up in a daycare, it wasn’t like she was jonesing for this or that. There was one toy that she liked, though, and that was “Fashion Pollys.” These toys were little dolls with rubber clothing and such and you could dress them and play with them and put them in their house or whatever. Michelle wasn’t into Barbies, but she was into “Fashion Pollys.” She had a large collection of these and really enjoyed playing with them.
One night we were at “Kay-Bee Toys” the mall and she was specifically looking for a certain “Polly” when she came across the one she wanted. I saw her from the front of the store see the one she wanted and pick it up. Even from forty feet I could see the excitement as she held the package and all the fun she would be having.
I felt similar the other day.
I love public domain films. The first reason is that they’re, indeed, movies. So I love my movies. The second reason is that they’re cheap. To understand the concept of public domain, think about a movie that someone made years ago that was copyrighted and paid for and people ran out to the local theatre and watched it. Spent their .10, saw it as part of a double-feature, came home happy. Well, over time, that film somehow lost its copyright. Somehow it had fallen into the public domain which meant that no one owned it any more. Anyone could take the film, show it, copy it, sell it...whatever. You know why Shakespeare’s plays are done over and over and over again? Well, beside the fact that they’re brilliant, they’re also in the public domain. You don’t have to pay Bill, or any of his relatives a dime. All those hundreds of free books on your Kindle? Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, Charles Dickens? Public Domain.
When I was growing up and got my first VCR, I was pumped. I was going to record every single possible movie I could record. I bought VHS tape after VHS tape and I’d load up on everything that was showing that pay channel. Movies mostly. Occasionally the special event (“Live Aid”) and when I didn’t have access to the movie channels, I’d wait for a “free weekend” and load up then, too. When I’d rent a box from Viacom for a Mike Tyson boxing match, I’d spend the weekend recording the movies, too. At a certain point I had amassed a collection of well over 3,000 movies.
Then the DVD took over.
It wasn’t long before someone realized they could make a buck with PD films and the new technology of the DVD. And, before you could say “Road to Bali,” PD films were being released right and left and I stood at the front of the line. The dollar tree would have double-feature films, sure they were crap but...THEY WERE A DOLLAR! Target had them, Fred Meyer had them, movie stores had them.
Then came “Mill Creek Entertainment.” They became THE PD film distributor. Their methodology would be to sell 50 movie packs. Yes. FIFTY! movie packs. Musicals, Westerns, “Classics,” Sci-Fi, Horror, etc. By genre would could buy them. Most of the time they were in the $20 range. .40 per film. For the cost of less than a Hershey Bar you could warm up next to Katherine Hepburn or Humphrey Bogart or Jesse Ventura or Christopher Lee or...
What about the films themselves? You need to ask? Really? Okay. The films really did run the gamut from classic films (“Nosferatu,” “The General,” “Road to Bali”) to absolute dreck (“Santa Claus Conquers the Martians,” etc.) and because they were in the PD, the quality was always a crapshoot, though Mill Creek always seemed to get some pretty good quality prints.
Now, knowing that just buying 50 pack after 50 pack was kind of insane, I decided to sit down and watch them. Most of these were pretty quick time wasters (“Hercules and the Moon Men,” “Robot Monster”) but going into these with little or no concept of what they contained (other than who starred), I would be more pleasantly surprised than disappointed. And don’t think that these films only came from 1920 or 1930. Some are from the 1980’s and 1990’s. Everything from “G” rated to “Unrated.”
Which brings me to Sunday. I haven’t watched a lot of PD films recently. I’ve been going through a collection of schlocky films off of Netflix. Films like “The Teacher” – meh –
or even worse: “Zombie Cop” with “Maximum Impact” – terrible TERRIBLE films, each barely over an hour in length. But why, you ask, do I watch terrible films?
Well, the first thing is that I learn more watching terrible films. I watched a great 62 minute film noir the other day entitled “High School Big Shot.” Done very well. Yes, acting wasn’t great. Yes, the 11 p.m. heist of a million dollars from a safe was obviously shot during the middle of the day and used a “night” filter on the camera to give the appearance of night (note: when you’re out at 11 p.m., you don’t often cast a shadow from the sun and/or moon). But it’s so much easier for me to learn when I see how I could do things better. When I watch “Saving Private Ryan” I’m so enthralled in the excellent story-telling and cinematography, I don’t have time or the wherewithal to think: “Looks like he used a wider angle lens for this shot. Interesting use of the POV of the soldier.”
On Sunday I had to run up to Target to check out a couple items and found that they were selling some “Mill Creek Entertainment” collections for $8.99 (less than .20 a film). Knowing that I’m getting a portable DVD player for Father’s Day (I bought it for myself, but will be unwrapping it on Sunday) – I sensed in me the excitement of, once again, delving back into cheesy films from the bygone area. My excitement, though not as pure and fun as Michelle’s with her “Fashion Polly,” was still there.
I loves me some PD films.
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