The National Amusement Theater chain has been running a weekly double-feature of old (and obviously public-domain) horror/SF films during the month of October, ending this week with a four-film marathon of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA, WHITE ZOMBIE & CHAMBER OF HORRORS: THE DOOR WITH SEVEN LOCKS.

I had been curious about these double-features, but my schedule kept me so busy that I never got a chance to see any until this past week when the double-feature was THE LAST MAN ON EARTH & DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS. I took my wife and a co-worker/friend of hers with admission being $5.

The prints, as I suspected, were obviously from DVDs (or a variation of some type) with the print of LAST MAN ON EARTH being a blurry AIP Television edition that had been stretched to fill 4/5th of the screen, squatting Vincent Price to that of about ... oh, five foot six. With his larky frame, they almost could get away with it, but when Morgan's wife shows up in the flashback with hair that engulfs the screen like some bizarre hairy version of the Flying Nun ... well, it was a bit painful, actually. This print also had the titles cut off as one would have suspected for a television print, with "merican Internatio" being the studio behind it from what one could tell from what was on the screen.

Shame that the recent MGM Midnight Movies print could not have been used. Yet, I suspect that even if those in charge at the theater had even thought of doing so, they probably were sent a specific print that they were told to use.

DEVIL GIRL played much better, albeit with everyone still very squat and with noses much too long, thanks to the source used. The second feature played somewhat better with the audience than the first, thanks to the less-serious tone of the film, but even so both went over well enough to get some good-natured applause when all was said and done.

Surprisingly, the double-feature was well-attended, with about half the theater filled up. Perhaps this may convince the theater chain to do more such shows in the future and hopefully with better projection methods as well. (Well, one can always dream, at least.) I was worried as to how my wife and her friend would react it, as I had practically dragged them to see it with me (can't help it - I love LAST MAN ON EARTH and have seen it dozens of times). Fortunately for me, they loved seeing them and have already talked a couple of others into going as a group to see the four-movie marathon this coming Wednesday.

So, after that long story, has anyone else attended one of these? How did it go?

BTW, the link to the info about the marathon for anyone that might be interested in more details is here.

Why would I pay to watch blurry, poorly projected, squeezed prints when I can watch all those films at home for free? That's no putdown, I'm just curious what the attraction is.

None taken, as I had no way of knowing that would be the case until I was there in the theater.

I think the best part of it all for myself was being in there with an audience. Surprisingly, it was clear from the reactions of those in attendance that they had never seen either film, and they seemed to appreciate even these blurry, stretched prints. I had expected more of a MST3K-induced audience, but that wasn't the case.

Then again, these may be the same people attended a 25th anniversary showing of PLANET OF THE APES that were SHOCKED (SHOCKED, I tell you) by the ending. :lol:

Here's another question: are these showings legal? The FBI warning we're forced to endure on every DVD we watch clearly states (doesn't it?) that exhibiting it for a paying audience is prohibited.

I once attended a midnight showing at a theater of THE BIG LEBOWSKI that turned out to be a blurry pan-and-scan 1.33 DVD that bled off the top and bottom of the screen and had murky sound. Even worse, it was apparently some kind of military screener copy, so occasionally a subtitle saying something like, "Property of U.S. Army. Any public exhibition is prohibited," would pop up. Worst $5 I ever spent. How can that possibly be legal?