366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 366

The Date: September 30

The Movie: The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

What Is It?: Space Jesus comes to Earth and warns that if we don’t quit the warring we’re going to get a serious, intergalactic spanking. Screenwriter Edmund H. North and director Robert Wise fashion the most intelligent and one of the most restrained science-fiction movies of the fifties, and Bernard Herrmann’s theremin-heavy score delivers classic sci-fi sounds. The open-ended ending is also refreshing. What will become of the Earth? Are we doomed? Or will we curb our war-like ways. Klaatu barrada nikto, daddy-o!

Why Today?: The Day the Earth Stood Still may chronicle the end of times for us earthlings. Today marks the end of times for 366 Days at the Drive-In. See you in Valhalla, folks.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 365

The Date: September 29

The Movie: The Wrong Man (1956)

What Is It?: Although it explores the director’s pet topic to the point that its title basically translates to Generic Alfred Hitchcock Movie, The Wrong Man is one of Hitch’s more unusual films because it is based on a true story and manages more sympathy for its characters than his usual brilliant exercises in style do. Really, there are no more heartbreaking people in the Hitchcock cannon than Manny Balestrero (Henry Fonda), a bass player wrongfully accused of being a “hold up man” (I can’t help but find that designation hilarious and wonder if there is a less awkward term for someone who holds places up), and his wife Rose (Vera Miles), who loses her grip on reality while going through the ordeal of her husband’s incarceration and trial. Wrenching stuff.

Why Today?: On this day in 1909, the real Manny Balestrero is born.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 364

The Date: September 28

The Movie: Strange Brew (1983)

What Is It?: Bob and Doug McKenzie— the dim, beer-swilling, Canuck alter-egos of Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis—stumble off of SCTV and onto the big screen in a story based on—no joke—Hamlet. If that source isn’t high-brow enough for you, Bergman’s favorite actor, Max Von Sydow, plays the villainous brewmeister of Elsinore Beer. Honestly, I have not seen Strange Brew in years, so I can’t vouch for whether or not it holds up, but I can say that when I first saw it as a kid, it made me laugh so hard that I puked cherry Pop-Tarts © all over the den carpet. True story.

Why Today?: Today is National Drink Beer Day. Take off, hoser.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 363

The Date: September 27

The Movie: Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)

What Is It?: Writer Cameron Crowe and director Amy Heckerling survey a landscape of shitty teen comedies and burn those flicks to the ground with one funnier, sexier, and more truthful than any previous movie about high school. Sean Penn is the ultimate burn out! Phoebe Cates is the ultimate dream girl! Judge Reinhold is the ultimate senior schlub! Robert Romanus is the ultimate douche bag! But it’s Jennifer Jason Leigh’s Stacy Hamilton who casts a spell of realism over all these caricatures… well, maybe not Penn’s Spicoli. That dude just wants to jam with the Stones.

Why Today?: On this day in 1979, Congress adds the U.S. Dept. of Education to the executive Branch.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 362

The Date: September 26

The Movie: And Now for Something Completely Different (1971)

What Is It?: Considered an inessential Monty Python movie because it merely glossed up TV sketches for U.S. movie audiences, the first Monty Python movie is still a superb best-of compilation and the higher production values often benefit the comedy. “The Restaurant Sketch” murders its small-screen equivalent!

Why Today?: Today is Lumberjack Day.

Much luck and love, Terry Jones!

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 361

The Date: September 25

The Movie: The Vault of Horror (1972)

What Is It?: Amicus’s second portmanteau to mine classic E.C. Comics for big-screen fodder isn’t quite as consistent as Tales from the Crypt, and the vampire makeup (a handful of joke-shop fangs) in “Midnight Mess” is laughable, but this is still a quality collection of spook stories. Best of the bunch is “Drawn and Quartered”, one of E.C.’s best stories and one of the best portmanteau episodes in the history of portmanteaus.

Why Today?: Today is Comic Book Day.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 360

The Date: September 24

The Movie: The Dark Crystal (1982)

What Is It?: Jim Henson and Frank Oz’s puppet fantasy looks like the tchotchke shelf of a head shop  brought to life. The gelfling heroes are bland, but the monsters, music, and atmosphere are magical.

Why Today?: On this day in 1936, Jim Henson is born.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 359

The Date: September 23

The Movie: Phantom of the Opera (1925)

What Is It?: The first true American horror film that looks like a full-blown, Hollywood production, trumpeting a cast of thousands and exquisite costumes and sets, particularly the Phantom’s underground labyrinth. As familiar as stills of Lon Chaney's face as Erik the Phantom are, the uninitiated may be surprised by how truly scary that puss is when moving on the screen. Here the Universal era and the golden age of horror begins.

 Why Today?: On this day in 1909, the serialized publication of Gaston Leroux’s novel begins in Le Gaulois.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 358

The Date: September 22

The Movie: The Wolf Man (1941)

What Is It?: Writer Curt Siodmak, director George Waggner, and makeup wizard Jack Pierce reinvent the werewolf. Much of what we now associate with lycanthropes—their aversion to silver, their association with the pentagram, their kinship with gypsies—leaped from Siodmak’s imagination. He also composed an ace nursery rhyme repeated infinitely throughout The Wolf Man and its sequels (“Even a man who is pure at heart and says his prayers by night / may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright”). The film’s other great innovation is the introduction of Lon Chaney, Jr., as the next successor in his father’s monster-movie-star legacy.

Why Today?: Today is the first day of autumn.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 357

The Date: September 21

The Movie: Carrie (1976)

What Is It?: Brian De Palma’s adaptation of Carrie is one of the best Stephen King (and De Palma) films because the story is focused with a relatable, emotionally resonant lead character. King and De Palma’s often-painful look at adolescence, and its disturbing, misfit wish-fulfillment finale, are offset by humor that while occasionally too silly for its own good (the sped-up tuxedo-modeling sequence), gives the film the flavor of an E.C. Comic.

Why Today?: On this day in 1947, Stephen King is born.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 356

The Date: September 20

The Movie: Stepford Wives (1975)

What Is It?: Despite being the creation of men, The Stepford Wives treads where no horror film had before and few have since: feminism. Katherine Ross is a young wife and mother with ambitions of becoming a photographer who “messed a little with women’s lib” while living in New York City. Now she and the family have moved to the pre-fab community of Stepford, Connecticut, where she is surrounded by submissive wives and husbands who gather to collude in the mysterious Stepford Men’s Association. Finding a likeminded ally in neighbor Paula Prentiss, Ross scratches through Stepford’s veneer and is horrified by what she discovers. Although its title wives have entered the vernacular as shorthand for subservient women, The Stepford Wives does not receive the attention it deserves as one of the sharpest films of its day.

Why Today?: Today is Wife Appreciation Day—think of today’s movie as a lesson in what not to do today.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 355

The Date: September 19

The Movie: Magical Mystery Tour (1967)

What Is It?: 45 years on from Beatlemania’s initial intensity, Magical Mystery Tour plays surprisingly well. It is, as the critics charged, indulgent, but that can be forgiven at a tight little 53 minutes well divided by six Beatle tunes. There’s no story to speak of, and the tour isn’t particularly magical or mysterious, but it’s hard to get bored, what with Victor Spinetti’s babbling sergeant, The Bonzo Dog Doodah Band’s uproarious performance of “Death Cab for Cutie”, John Lennon’s (disgustingly overcooked) spaghetti serving, Jessie Robins’s scene-stealing bickering with Nephew Ringo, and the precious opportunity to spend some time with the Fabs in their Sgt. Pepper’s-era psychedelic splendor.

Why Today?: On this day in 1967, The Beatles began filming the “I Am the Walrus” and “Blue Jay Way” sequences.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 354

The Date: September 18

The Movie: Serial Mom (1994)

What Is It?: John Waters does one of his “mainstream” movies, and it involves Kathleen Turner making obscene phone calls and executing everyone who commits a social faux pas, serial-killer obsessed Matthew Lillard whacking off to porn, small roles for former porn-star Traci Lord and former con Patty Hearst, and L7 as a band called Camel Toe that performs while emphasizing their…well, I think you can figure that out for yourself. Family fun for everyone who fell in love with Hairspray!

Why Today?: On this day in 1975, Patty Hearst is arrested.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 353

The Date: September 17

The Movie: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988)

What Is It?: The plot is about as insubstantial as Elvira’s wardrobe, but she keeps the movie rolling with her constant stream of Mae West/Borscht Belt one-liners and director James Signorelli does a pretty good Tim-Burton-on-a-tight-budget routine. Sure, the movie stifles once it gets to its one-millionth boob joke and the stupid pseudo-apocalyptic battle at the end, but most of Elvira: Mistress of the Dark is really entertaining. The church cook-out-turned-orgy scene really gives Edie McClurg a chance to shine.

Why Today?: On this day in 1951, Cassandra Peterson is born.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 352

The Date: September 16

The Movie: The Stepfather (1987)

What Is It?: Smack dab in the decade dominated by disposable slasher movies came a nut-with-a-knife flick that reached back to the psychologically complex films that inspired the genre. The Stepfather has far more in common with Psycho, Peeping Tom, and Repulsion, than Friday the 13th or Prom Night, and its quality has earned it a cult following that really deserves to be broader. Based on a true story, The Stepfather stars Terry O’Quinn as a deranged chameleon constantly on the look out for a new family to fulfill his perfect-Daddy fantasies. At its core, The Stepfather is a satire of conservative American ideals of the flag-waving, sweater-vest-and-pearls wearing nuclear family (the script was written during the Nixon era and filmed during Reagan’s reign), but it’s never jokey or goofy.

Why Today?: Today is Step Family Day.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 351

The Date: September 15

The Movie: The Kids Are Alright (1979)

What Is It?: This isn’t a “let’s sit back and reflect nicely on what a nice band the nice, old Who were” documentary.” This is complete anarchy. There are no gestures toward chronology, or telling the story of the band properly, or finding out what The Who’s colleagues thought of them (aside from a barely coherent rant from Tommy filmmaker Ken Russell). This is a movie in which Keith Moon conducts an interview while wearing a leather mask and getting whipped by a dominatrix. This is a movie in which John Entwistle goes skeet shooting with his collection of gold records (which he later joked were Roger Daltrey’s solo albums). This is a movie in which a really, really drunk Pete Townshend regales his drummer with a side-splitting story about how his doctor warned him that he’s going deaf. This is The Kids Are Alright. Put it on your television. Then throw your television out the window.

Why Today?: On this day in 1967, The Who appeared on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, which would be used as the first sequence in The Kids Are Alright a dozen years later.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 350

The Date: September 14

The Movie: Born to Kill (1947)

What Is It?: In Robert Wise’s gonzo noir, Lawrence Tierney marries a divorcee and ruins the lives of her and everyone she knows. The acting and story are great fun, but so is spotting all the flubs. This movie has the most gratuitous use of stunt people that look nothing like the actors for whom they’re subbing outside of an episode of “Batman”.

Why Today?: On this day in 2005, Robert Wise dies.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 349

The Date: September 13

The Movie: Wild at Heart (1990)

What Is It?: David Lynch makes his version of a rom-com by dropping Nick Cage as an outlaw Elvis impersonator and Laura Dern as his beloved Peanut into a 1965 Thunderbird and onto a nightmare road where they encounter private dicks, black angels, car-wreck victims, Tweety Bird-voiced bar flies, and Dern’s real-life mom Diane Ladd as the wickedest witch of a mom in North Carolina.

Why Today?: Today is National Peanut Day.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 348

The Date: September 12

The Movie: Quest for Fire (1981)

What Is It?: Jean-Jacques Annaud’s adaptation of J.H. Rosny’s novel is kind of like a feature-length version of the “Dawn of Man” sequence in 2001 without the sci-fi stuff. Prehistoric people hunt for fire, clash with each other, discover the value of making nice with intimidating animals, and engage in a little slapstick goofing and soft-core canoodling. The film gets really fascinating when they meet a more advanced tribe. No monoliths necessary here, though there are some pretty woolly looking mammoths.

Why Today?: On this day in 1940, four teens discover a collection of cave paintings in Lascaux, France.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 347

The Date: September 11

The Movie: The Grandmother (1970)

What Is It?: Even though it’s only a half-hour long, The Grandmother is still one of David Lynch’s finest films. His first attempt at storytelling bridges the painterly animations of “The Alphabet” and the live-action grim fairy tale of Eraserhead with the story of an abused boy who finds comfort from a grandmother he grows from seeds. The visuals are as dark and beautiful as the emotional content. A true piece of art.

Why Today?: Today is Grandparents Day.