Screen 13’s Sinful Cinema Tour – Getting Lucky at the Lucky Star in Brandon, Manitoba
5-29-71
One of the many projects I’m on is collecting a list of the DIs, Main Street Theaters, Strip Mall Boxes, Small 70’s Chains (Looking at you, Cinecom!), and other screens here and there where these crazy films played. It’s one thing to look into the movies, but it’s an incomplete experience without knowing where they were at. It was more than just Downtown and the Back Woods, it was everywhere!
The Lucky Star Drive In in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada (OK, just South of the city!) that had the classic policy of saving their Adult ticket flicks on the days when the kids were at home or elsewhere…although I’m sure a few sneaked in! It turned out to be a collection of wicked flicks and Exploitation shows that mainly are cult classics today. It did not matter if the films were the recent releases, but if they had something for the Over 18’s of the time.
I’ll try to find out when it closed up – reportedly the land is a car wash today. Still, with all of this greatness going on, it’s best to keep that time machine running to a time when you could go out and see these movies.
5-12-71 – A good double bill featuring the exploits of Jeannie Wife/Child (a favorite of Something Weird Video fans) and the Mondo-Mania of Primitive London. To be honest, the ad was for the second feature was far more emotive in the drawing than what happened in the film which was made in 1968.
2-23-71 – Mousey and his friends hit Canada in this Cinar Double Pack including Sign of Aquarius, the original version of what turned into Ghetto Freaks, and the little known Dare the Devil. Oddly, the ad for Sign of Aqarius was actually cencored in a couple of areas, but those were the days. Sadly, the support feature is lost to the wind with only the Radio Ad known to some movie fans.
6-26-71 – The Haven International release we knew about playing in LA crossed over to Canada. Turn On to Love was Directed by John G. Avildsen, who was starting out in Exploitation and later moved onto the critically acclaimed Joe and the super hits Rocky, Lean On Me, and The Karate Kid – things worked out like that back in the day!
7-10-71 – A Double Feature that burned up the screen (Ha! Ha!). Actually, Exploitation fans might want to check out Koji Wakamatsu’s Notorious Concubines, which was released in The US through Boxoffice International. I still wonder what Naked to Hell was, though!
7-26-75 – The Sunday and Monday show for this ad featured a film that could send you to Hell with a smile if that was your kind of thing. Schoolgirl flicks were the staple of the Sin-ema of the day starting with The Schoolgirl Report films that started around 1972 and played until about The Mid 80’s. The Sex Thief is a British Comedy that has been given a DVD release recently, and is not a bad film to waste time with although it did not have that long of a life in it’s original release.
6-8-74 – The Class of ’74 had a ball, but Olga’s Girls could have YOUR balls! I’m of the opinion that watching B&W tease and B and D in 1974 had a cool kink to it. I kind of wonder who caught these films back then.
Now here’s an opening!
12-26-74 – The Chesty Morgan classic Deadly Weapons showed with another presentation of Naked to Hell! There must have been something about that flick, but then again it was December and you needed something to warm you up with besides the car heater!
8-24-74 – One of the very few times I have seen an ad for Sex Obsessed, a Greek film that’s only known through it’s trailer. Cry Uncle was a sensation of the Adult Set of the time. As those car race ads screamed out, it was “SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!”
12-4-77 – Winding this up with the one and only Anita: Swedish Nymphet! On a Sunday, this was seriously preaching to the perverted…like us!
The Scene of Screen 13 