Hollywood After Dark (The Film Crew)

Film Year:  1968
Genre:  Drama
Director:  John Hayes
Starring:  Rue McClanahan and a bunch of other women you don't want to see strip

The Movie

Initially titled Walk the Angry Beach, Hollywood After Dark is the tale of a pre-Golden Girls Rue McClanahan who moves out to California to be an actress and gets sucked into the sleazy world of stripping instead.

Fueled by the mindset that anything involves sex is disgusting and all female body parts are evil entities of hellish desire, Hollywood After Dark finds itself being a bit hypocritical since it wants it's audience to look at the half-naked women and get mildly turned on by the sleazy voyeuristic presentation.  So I'm confused whether the film is pro or con on all of this.  Regardless, it's a lackluster drama with no real storyline to speak of.

I can't really say too much about Hollywood After Dark, because if I had anything to say about it then that would imply that it gave me any actual content to mull over.  It's softcore exploitation, with a bit of violence thrown out there in case any male gaze was wondering when lady parts aren't onscreen.  Nowadays I can easily access porn through the internet and violence by going to Wal-Mart on the weekend, so this movie offers me nothing.  Maybe it served a base purpose way back when, but now it's just trash and riffing fodder.

The Riff

I've always had a fondness for the Film Crew.  Their run was brief, but there was something very charming about this ill-fated riffing series.  What I particularly enjoyed was the working stiff approach, distancing from the sci-fi concept of Mystery Science Theater and the professional comedian personas of Rifftrax, and playing blue-collar characters just trying to make it through the day.  It's a premise we can relate to and I personally would have enjoyed seeing a bit more of it.

"Uh, did we order an ass?"
"Well I have a standing order, personally."

But moving on to the star of the show, the Crew is thrown into the shady world of nudity, rape, and violence that is Hollywood After Dark.  As riffing fodder, this movie has a lot going for it.  It's about nothing, has a lot of silent scenes filled with inane choreography to harp on, and gives us a bunch of unlikable characters to make fun of.  Rue McClanahan is zeroed in on especially, as they make no secret about how she's the last person they'd want to see nude.  They're aggressive on her, with lines such as "She's actually less sexy than when she was on The Golden Girls." and "Rue's McClana-CAN!"  But Rue's actually the least sleazy character in the movie, so as tough as they can be on her it's really because she's the only recognizable person here.  The dreary world this movie portrays needs to be lightened up, and the Film Crew does exactly that.

The host segments kind of ease us into the Film Crew "lore," so to speak.  The opening gives us some context about the guys working for a man named Bob Honcho who believes every film should have a commentary track, regardless of whether it's a knowledgeable one or not.  It also establishes one mid-film host segment called a "Lunch Break," which is pretty self-explanatory.  Today's Lunch Break has Bill trying to get an unenthusiastic Mike and Kevin to throw out ideas on how to improve their work performance.  The finale consists of Mike and Kevin wishing to reenact a scene from the movie on Bill where the villain's head is bashed by a lamp, but Bill (though surprisingly eager to go through with it) questions the validity of the scene.

Hollywood After Dark runs a bit more blue than most of Mystery Science Theater, and that might be due to the film's subject matter.  This release isn't for the kiddies, but riffing fans may like what they see.  This first direct to video offering is quite promising and quite funny.

Good

The DVD

Originally slated for release in 2005 by Rhino Home Video to help cater to demand for more MST product, The Film Crew actually ran into a snag when Jim Mallon considered the production of this direct to video series a competitor for MST's DVD sales and threatened to pull his license.  The Film Crew sat on a shelf, finished but unreleased, for a few years until Shout Factory purchased all four episodes in 2007, a point in time where Mike, Kevin, and Bill had already moved on to Rifftrax.

The presentation of Hollywood After Dark is a bit ugly.  The film itself looks okay, though the Film Crew segments are a bit hard on the eyes.  Filmed in widescreen but presented in non-animorphic standard video (probably to work better with the full screen movie), these segments are fuzzy and look washed out, as they cause a bit of eye strain.  It's almost a relief to get back to the movie.  The audio sounds soft as well, and contains a bit of a quickie dubbing job where the Film Crew's boss Bob Rhino is redubbed "Bob Honcho," to further eliminate the connection to Rhino.

The sole bonus feature is an extra host segment called "An Ode to Lunch."  This simply has Bill walking out and speaking a sonnet to his lunch.  It runs about a minute and a half and is decently funny.