Archive.org

[Scottie]

I come bearing gifts of fortune and good will towards b-movie lovers everywhere. There is a website called www.archive.org that is packed with ancient film relics of the drive-in and b-movie era. The site is a virtual treasure trove for Jam Handy, public domain, cartoons, drive-in commercials, brick films (stop motion), and just about every other form of film entertainment you thought was lost to the public forever. And, just like a lending library, everything is free! They have lots of b-movies that have slipped into public doamin on their site, including but not limited to "The Wasp Woman," "Flash Gordon," "The General" (yes, Buster Keaton's The General), "Radar Men From The Moon," "The Giant Gila Monster," "The Phantom Planet," etc, etc... They even offer non-public domain movie such as Fritz Lang's "M" and many others!

I spent all last night watching the large assortment of drive-in commercials with slogans like "If you accidentally tear off a speaker, please return the speaker to the attendant." And the numerous attempts to bring the patrons to the concession stand to have "Italian pizza made with a real Italian recipe!" It amazed me to see the shoddiness with which these commericals were made. For one cigarette commercial they showed a cigarette dispenser and then a woman smoking one cigarette as she lights it, leans out of frame right, then back in to take a puff. It's as if the producer was sitting right next to the camera the whole time leaning out of his chair screaming "IT'S GOOD!" trying to finish the thing up quickly so he could run to his office and do a line before the next shoot began.

I'm on a found footage kick right now so I'll likely make some video out of the stuff I find in the archive.org archives. Since there's no rightful owner anymore and because there is such a plethora of images, sounds, and ideas, I just have to make something! I'll let you know how that goes when it goes.

[Ash]

You can also find the old, old, old school Badmovies.org message board pages back when this site first started.
It makes for some interesting reading.

[RCMerchant]

HOLY GUACAMOLE! I will check dis out! TANX!