If you watched Lunch with Casey at noon, you knew that Mel Jass’s Mattinee Movie would follow at 1. Mel would introduce whatever movie was coming up, and more importantly, he would promote local businesses, such as 10,000 Auto Parts, or Uncle John’s Pancake House.
I vividly recall watching some movies that are burned into my memory as a 5 or 6 year old kid. One was Invisible Agent, one of the many sequels to Universal’s Invisible Man. I was so freaked out by the Nazi’s torturing people that I turned it off. Funny how that sticks with me after 50 some years. The other movie I have vivid memories of is Roger Corman’s Little Shop of Horrors. Certainly a schlocky movie, but it terrified me when the flowers would open up with faces. I can vividly remember the main character constantly saying “I’m sorry.” Years later, in 1995, I was at the Famous Monsters convention in Los Angeles. Jonathan Haze was sitting in the autograph room. I yelled at him across the room, “Your movie scared the hell out of me when I was a kid.” Really! I did that.
Anyway, programs like the Mel Jass Matinee Movie actually played an important part of our movie culture. He presented great movies and he showed awful movies. For TV stations, it was about filling the space between commercials. But inadvertently, it preserved and introduced film literacy to the masses.
My friend, Uncle Mike, over on the Horror Incorporated blog site, posted about the impact of movie syndication in that television era. His context is a Pauline Kael essay that villainized the local television movie broadcasts for not taking a critical view of what are good or bad movies. Kael was a respected and very opinionated film critic who could make or break a movie. She made many valid points, but often missed the big picture (pardon the pun.)
In his post, Mike champions the local movie broadcasts for what they were. And he does it well. Please read his comments over on the Horror Incorporated blog page.
And funny how today we remember the great movies and the awful movies. And we remember Mel Jass.