Hello!

CineSavant correspondent Martin Hennessee sends along a link that I may have used before, but details like that never daunt this proud bastion of democratic journalism.

Martin’s link is a full fifteen-minute reel of teaser promos, entitled

Cannon Films Promo Reel ’86 – Half of These Were Never Made!
The ‘half of these films were never made’ line is no exaggeration. Cannon’s modus operandi was to barnstorm commercial film festivals, to promote their upcoming product. But the promo reels they showed in their sales suites didn’t really match what they had in production. In an addendum to my review for Mark Hartley’s documentary  Electric Boogaloo, The Wild Untold Story Of Cannon Films,  we explained how I came to Cannon early in 1987 to cut TV spots, at first for their ‘fairy tales’ series. I was soon churning out these trade show promos, that were produced by Elizabeth Beckman and illustrated with her graphic artwork, stills, and film clips.

This 25-minute reel is from a few months before my arrival, and covers many genuine Cannon films in their production pipeline. Believe me, a movie called ‘It Ate Cleveland’ was indeed on the ‘coming up’ lists for quite a while. But we note at least six impressive-sounding projects with name stars that indeed never came to pass. The reel makes it look as if Cannon were a major studio producing scores of high-profile mainstream movies. For all we know, the ‘announcements’ of upcoming features with John Travolta and Anthony Quinn were only in the discussion stage.

Also noted, the promo for  Powaqqatsi is called North/South; when I did my follow-up promo, using workprint snips from the real film, it was to be called North/South Powaqqatsi. And Marvel fans will note the promo for a live-action epic based on Spiderman — which at the time couldn’t find funding traction. Who in Hollywood wanted to make a movie about a comic character other than Superman?  This particular promo names no star actor, but Spiderman stayed in our ‘coming soon’ lineup all the way through 1988 — each time updated with a new, lesser actor. This happened with more than one doomed project … the first names would be Robert Redford or Richard Gere, but eventually they’d slot in Michael Dudikoff!

 

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We just reviewed Edward Dmytryk’s filmed-in-England ‘exile’ thriller Obsession, aka The Hidden Room, and a second viewing revealed something fun.

We always watch medium-close ‘drive-away’ shots in movies, to see if the film crew is reflected on the window of an exiting vehicle. It’s often the case that two lovers in a car are suddenly revealed to have a whole audience watching them.

↑  One shot in Obsession is especially revealing. The police inspector played by Naunton Wayne dismisses a van that’s been waiting for him, and as it drives off we get a split-second reflection of none other than Edward Dmytryk himself, attentively watching the take. Behind the director is a line of about eight crew people, standing still and staring. We can see (barely) the notebook of the continuity person, on the right side of the frame.

It’s Dmytryk, all right, forging ahead with his show while wondering if he’ll really have to report back to prison in the states. Pretty impressive …

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson