Obscure movies that you remember from your youth

[Free For All]

Oh yeah, I remember that one now. Yes, it gave me some nightmares for sure. Very creepy.

[B. Clugston]

Jack and the Witch, a dubbed Japanese animated film with some surreal touches.

The German Lesson, an excellent German mini-series based on Siegfried Lenz' book.

The Lathe of Heaven, which PBS thankfully resuscitated a few years back. (The remake was shite.)

And another vote for Beneath the Planet of the Apes. I was spellbound watching that as a young fella' in my aunt's poolside cabana. Watching it as an adult, it doesn't hold up well and the church service scene is almost laughable.

Edited September 11, 2008 by B. Clugston

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

I'm old enough that I saw The Thing, Them, and Invaders from Mars in movie theaters when they were first released. They scared the shit of of me.

Yep, to the max!

That scene where they swarmed the navy vessel that was manned by a skeleton crew...with the one ant crashing through the glass partition to get at the radio operator who was frantically sending out Mayday Mayday....!.

[BruceH]

Saw this movie i was 7 or 8 years old, it kind of fascinated me, never heard of it afterwards, never bothered knowing the title or the name of the actors. But when Jurassic Park came out, first thing came out of my mind was hey that story is familiar.

No doubt that has a lot to do with the fact that they were both written by Michael Crichton. Well, Westworld written by him, Jurassic Park based on the book by Crichton. He even DIRECTED Westworld. He's never been shy about returning to the same themes and story structures again and again.

[Jazzmoose]

Besides that i gotta say my favourites as a youngster were Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill

Oh, man; I still have to crank up a Trinity movie once in a while!

[Michael Weiss]

Maybe someone can identify this movie for me.

Nevermind, I got it: The Young Savages, 1961, directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Burt Lancaster. Either my parents or the babysitter f'ed up that night; that's no movie for a 5-year old.

Just watched "The Young Savages." I thought I heard Harold Land!

(David Amram score)

[Matthew]

This is on Hulu

I remember watching Wild In The Streets and thinking "Okay, that was really a strange movie..."

Edited March 12, 2010 by Matthew

[kinuta]

Rubbish from my childhood

[BillF]

[kinuta]

Not obscure but neither is The Caddy.

Remember seeing this with ' mimam'ndad '.

Edited March 12, 2010 by kinuta

[BillF]

Remember seeing this with ' mimam'ndad '.

Me, too! But just with Dad to see these naval epics!

[BillF]

Obviously no longer under parental guidance when I saw these:

[Van Basten II]

I was not technically a youth when I saw The girl can't help it but I still remember it well

[BERIGAN]

Never saw this thread before! 7 years later, I can explain to Rooster why the Last of Sheila made such an impression on him.

Gee, I thought Genevieve was a cute little film.

Zombie movies never bothered me, cuz even as a kid I was thinking, quit shooting them in the chest, just shoot out their knees!

So Zombies, Westworld, no problems...a 1975 made for TV movie, Guilty or Innocent: The Sam Sheppard Murder Case(Starring George Peppard) really bothered me! Even though the murder took place in the 50's, I convinced myself that in the 70's the killer was clearly out to kill...me! I think I slept in my parents bed for the next 2-3.........decades!

A really obscure movie I recall from the 70's that no one has ever heard of. It ran on TV(but may have been a film) was about 3 women that end up in some small town(Car broke down?) and I think they are held by some bad guys, and the only way for any of them to get away, one woman has to stay behind, and that means her death!

I think the last shot has the other 2 women being flown out by helicopter.

It's been at least 30 years since I saw this, I and I just remember thinking it was terrible that one girl had to die so the others could live. But, thinking back on it, why would they kill, instead of just keep the one woman?? Why couldn't they go back and save her later???

Don't know who was in it, the name of the film...nothing....

Edited March 12, 2010 by BERIGAN

[brownie]

A couple of years after the end of WWII, going to the cinema with mom and dad was a once a week affair.

I don't remember the featured film that week but at intermission there was a trailer for the following week's film, Michael Curtiz 'Captain Blood'. The sea battle scenes were hypnotizing!

I was back in the cinema house the next week to watch and be thrilled by the movie.

I still get kicks out of watching it when it plays on TV (I miss the Henri Langlois Cinemathèque when films of this kind were shown on the giant screen in near-perfect condition!).

[BeBop]

I haven't seen a movie, video, television in 30 years, but I remember a couple of experiences. (I realize that at least two of these films aren't obscure. But this is the sum total of my movie recollections. Well, almost.)

I remember liking Blues Brothers, for reasons that are probably obvious. (Hey, I was unsophisticated then...just like now.)

I remember seeing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest at a drive in with my parents. They decided to stick qround for the second feature: Rancho Deluxe. There was some sort of sex scene early in the film, and my dad burned rubber out of there.

[BillF]

Never forgot this one as it scared me so much as a small kid! I guess we can call it "obscure" too, as it's never been released on DVD.

[Free For All]

I worked as a movie theatre projectionist while in high school in the 70s. I saw lots of 70s movies, good & bad.....

[Larry Kart]

"The Window" (1949) -- starring Bobby Driscoll, directed by Ted Tetzlaff, based on a story by Cornell Woolrich. Saw it at age seven, and it fried my little brain.

Here's an account of what happens, borrowed and slightly modified from that of another similarly traumatized guy:

One of the movies that made a big impression on me was The Window. In the story, a young boy (Driscoll) who is known for telling tall tales climbs up the fire escape to sleep outside on a hot New York night. He wakes up in the middle of the night, looks inside the window of his upstairs’ neighbor’s apartment, and witnesses a murder. The boy tells his parents (Arthur Kennedy and Barbara Hale) and the police, but nobody will believe him. His parents take him upstairs to apologize to the neighbors (Paul Stewart and Ruth Roman). They realize the kid knows, and he must be silenced. The fear it put in the pit of my stomach -- the image of Stewart's prematurely grey hair, black bushy eyebrows, sharp-featured face, and semi-crazed penetrating eyes -- was quite something.

[medjuck]

A lot of these are far from obscure. It's interesting how many of them made an impression because they were about children.

[Larry Kart]

More on The Window, with images:

http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/55/window.php

Paul Stewart, from the film:

[Jazzmoose]

Does Freebie and the Bean count as obscure? I always thought it was a popular well known movie but have come across very view that ever saw it, or at least remember seeing it.

That one stands out in my mind because I saw it in a theater in San Francisco (the one on Market that would have a double feature of films nearing the end of their run, if by some miracle it's still there), and I was completely distracted by the location shots. I'd never seen locations in a movie that I was actually familiar with.

The really odd part is that at time my family only had a black & white TV!

Remember how frustrating it was back in the sixties to hear that booming voice announce the title of the show, then follow up with "IN COLOR!" Asshole.

I remember watching Wild In The Streets and thinking "Okay, that was really a strange movie..."

That's probably my favorite cheapie movie of all time!

[Quincy]

skullduggery with burt reynolds

gargoyles with cornel wilde

Gargoyles

That made a huge impression on me. If anyone wants to see a 5 minute condensed version check below. If you don't want the masterpiece spoiled quit after about a minute, just enough time to see the cool evil gargoyle and hear his awesome altered voice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59Kz6G8174w

Silly as it is it made me appreciate seeing Notre Dame all the more (when I was 11), plus I credit it for getting me into R.E.M. at the ground floor.

Edited March 12, 2010 by Quincy

[GA Russell]

I saw Rancho DeLuxe on TV in the late 70s, and, it's funny...I remember loving it like it was my new favorite film of all time, but today I remember very little about it. I think that if I saw it again it would be like seeing it for the first time.

[BruceH]

There was this movie that I saw at a drive-in when I was a kid, "Beneath the Planet of the Apes"---oh, wait. Already told that one. Twice. (Sorry.)