Full supporting programme

[ecofugal]

hi everyone,
I first started going to the cinema in the uk during the late 70s and 80s.
usually to my local ABC or Odeon.
Those days movie houses had a Full supporting programme
which i think meant adverts, trailers, pearl and dean logo, and a documentary

does anyone remember those awful mind numbing 50 minute documentaries and travlogs they use to show before the main feature.

they were usually about compelling subjects like Air traffic control in Belgium or the flying doctor of Australia or the wool industry in new zealand.
you were lucky to have a pulse by the time the main feature came around.

this kind of torture would make the Spanish inquisition blush!

[Richard1978]

Re: Full supporting programme

My former local Cinema, the still going Marple Regent, used to show those much spoofed "only five minutes from this cinema" style ads, made on very scratchy film, well into the 1990s.

[staffslad]

Re: Full supporting programme

Yes, I remember the documentaries that would often be shown to support the film. When I went to see Ghostbusters back in 1984 there was a supporting documentary about dray horses. The cinema was packed with kids and when the curtains opened there was a cheer followed by an almighty boo as the kids realised it wasn't the film but the documentary. I can also remember that 2 films were sometimes shown as double bills. In 1971 I went to see Up the Chastity Belt with Frankie Howard and it was supported by the Bearcats! pilot movie for the TV series--anyone remember that series from the early 70s starring Rod Taylor? Supporting Zombies--Dawn of the Dead--was The Great British Striptease, a striptease competition filmed in Blackpool and hosted by Bernard Manning and assisted by Sue Pollard--who remained dressed I hasten to add.

[darren]

Re: Full supporting programme

Ive vague memories of these but it seems they were not about the film to come.

Yes i do remember the trailers which i loved watching.

[angliaknight]

Re: Full supporting programme

Its seems a long time ago now when you got 2 films on the programme, some of the "B" movies are now cult classics that turn up on Talking pictures tv. One b movie that stuck in my mind, and i can't find any info' on it at all was a cheap exploitation mondo type documentary, quite graphic, featuring everything from trips to the dentist, operations, and nude modeling narrated by Kent Walton of tv wrestling fame possibly titled something like "the agony and the ecxtasy", but that seems to have gone forever.
BEARCATS yes i remember that car, quite a good tea time action series but didn't last very long.

[Richard1978]

Re: Full supporting programme

I remember there was a double feature in Carry On At Your Convenience, with a droll "people of the world" documentary followed by something called "The Sweet Glory Of Love" which didn't go down well with a woman on a date.

[angliaknight]

Re: Full supporting programme

people of the world, docu's was probably brought about by Mondo Cane in the '60s which spawned a whole new genre of entertainment and gave rise to todays reality tv, invented by the Italians it led to many sequels and copycat productions.

[staffslad]

Re: Full supporting programme

Bearcats was a good series. Yes, they had a cool car and I agree it was a shame it didn't last long.

I think the last double bills with two actual feature films I saw would have been in the early 80s. Sometimes a pair of second-run films would be paired together. Around 1982 I saw a double bill of Friday the 13th and Airplane! Around the same time I saw a double bill of Scum and Midnight Express--that was a depressing afternoon's viewing.

I can also recall short films, maybe 30-45 mins long sometimes being shown as supports to the film. Quite often they seemed to be supernatural. One I saw, possibly supporting My Bloody Valentine was about a couple moving into a haunted house. Also, occasionally a cartoon would be shown to pad out the programme, but that was fairly rare by the 80s in my experience.

[Richard1978]

Re: Full supporting programme

Cartoon shorts before a main film were very common up to the 1960s, & occasionally some family films have one shown before the main feature.

I remember Disney in the 1980s combined 2 medium length films together, one was Mickey's Chrismas Carol, but can't remember the other.

[big kid]

Re: Full supporting programme

i remember them. hated it when they came on. also hate the trailers for movies. they should just put the movie on.

[Richard1978]

Re: Full supporting programme

Either that or give a time when the film is actually starting, rather than the ads & trailers.

[DemonEyeX]

Re: Full supporting programme

The were some DVDs released a few years back called the Drive In Disc Collection.
These attemped to recreate the feeling of being at a drive in cinema in the '60s/'70's.
I own them, they are pretty good. You get 2 main features, with a countdown, adverts, an intermission, shorts, & other bits & bobs.
They use Dolby 5.1. The front right (or maybe left) speaker delivers the movie soundtrack, whilst the other speakers have the ambient noise from the drive in, argueing couples, snack sellers, stuff like that.
It worked fairly well, but I would love someone to attempt a British style one.
Similar, but UK ads & stuff.
I have made my own DVDs in this format, but without the surround sound stuff.
Would be awesome if Arrow or similar released some double bills in this format.

[staffslad]

Re: Full supporting programme

I have read reviews of those drive-in dvds but don't own any. A British version would, indeed, be interesting.

I don't mind too much the adverts, trailers and other bits; for me, it all went towards the experience of going to the pictures. There was something about those old, crackly Pearl and Dean advert reels that used to be almost comforting. Yes, they were cheap as chips and bang out-of-date (a garage ad in the 80s showing a mechanic tinkering with a 1960s Vauxhall Velox), but I always looked forward to those corny ads. Back in the 70s and 80s, going to the pictures was a 3 or 3.5 hour experience and you could stay in the theatre and watch the whole programme over again if you wanted to, or if you missed the first bit, no problem, you could still go in. Today it is so regimented. Everyone is trooped out before the next lot are let in. Yes, it is very slick nowadays and technical presentation in terms of sound and vision has improved a lot, but I think something has been lost in all that slickness and technical wizardry.

[Richard1978]

Re: Full supporting programme

The local cinema ads have been spoofed a few times, often the local Indian restaurant ones just 5 minutes from the cinema.

In Grease the drive-in is screening some 1950s interlude features, mostly when John Travolta is singing Sandy.