What are some less famous movies I would see at a drive-in in the 1970s?
July 16, 2021 3:33 PM   Subscribe

Sure, if I went to the drive-in in 1978 I'd likely see Grease and perhaps a re-release of Star Wars and if I was lucky (unlucky depending on one's point of view) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but what are some deeper cuts?

For you see, the pandemic lockdown pushed me to turn our backyard into a projected movie paradise now that affordable projectors are a thing. So I've already run through all the usual suspects for great drive-in movie nights and now I want to get weird with it. Stuff like The Van, Rolling Thunder, Van Nuys Blvd and other tasty treats from the Crown International Pictures universe and others like it.
The films dont have to be bad though I have a fondness for trash like that, but I want to see the kinds of flicks that killed on the drive-in circuit only to be forgotten as soon as their run ceased. Fun fact: Youtube is a goldmine of lost titles from that era.
So what say ye?
posted by Senor Cardgage to Media & Arts (50 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
I saw a soft porn film called Pinocchio at a drive-in during the 70s, but even Wikipedia doesn’t know it exists.

One thing to know is that drive-ins often showed old movies. So I saw West Side Story at a drive-in at least five years after it came out. Also Yellow Submarine. And The Ghost and Mr. Chicken.
posted by FencingGal at 3:45 PM on July 16, 2021


Response by poster: "I saw a soft porn film called Pinocchio"

Don't tell me his nose....oh dear
posted by Senor Cardgage at 3:48 PM on July 16, 2021


I would suggest Heaven Can Wait, Jaws 2, and Damien: Omen II.
posted by cursed at 3:54 PM on July 16, 2021 [3 favorites]


a soft porn film called Pinocchio at a drive-in during the 70s, but even Wikipedia doesn’t know it exists

IMDB does, though.
posted by hanov3r at 3:57 PM on July 16, 2021 [1 favorite]


It was the era of horrible Jaws inspired flicks too, so things like Day of the Animals or The Swarm would be showing too.
posted by mark k at 4:05 PM on July 16, 2021


I remember my parents taking my sister and me along to a double feature of Semi-Tough and Saturday Night Fever, thought I was sound asleep before the end of the first movie. I would think a lot of Burt Reynolds' ouevre would fit the bill.
posted by bgrebs at 4:07 PM on July 16, 2021 [3 favorites]


If you were in Australia, you might have seen Stunt Rock

Also, Dead End Drive In. About eight years too late, but so on the nose.
posted by chrisulonic at 4:11 PM on July 16, 2021 [3 favorites]


The first movie that popped into my head was Kingdom of the Spiders, with William Shatner and Joan Collins.

And hey, look, there’s a whole Retro Drive-In Youtube channel.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 4:19 PM on July 16, 2021


Low-budget horror movies like House of/Night of Dark Shadows, English-dubbed giallo, rolling re-releases if Disney classics in addition to their new 1970’s releases (the “Apple Dumpling Gang” and “Love Bug” movies spring to mind).
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:20 PM on July 16, 2021


The Groove Tube is kind of similar to Kentucky Fried Movie. Low-budget comedy.

And disaster movies like The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno. And the spoof of those, Airplane.
posted by FencingGal at 4:39 PM on July 16, 2021 [2 favorites]


Convoy
posted by bluefrog at 4:39 PM on July 16, 2021 [8 favorites]




Close Encounters of the Third Kind was well known back then, but i wonder how well know it is today.
posted by slkinsey at 5:18 PM on July 16, 2021 [2 favorites]


In our small town, the drive-in was also the place that older potboilers went for revival. I particularly remember a double-bill of Peyton Place and Valley of the Dolls that played at least two weeks in the summer of '71.
posted by peakcomm at 5:32 PM on July 16, 2021


Death Race 2000. Primary attraction: Puns. Secondary attraction: Stallone, who calls someone a very large baked potato. Tertiary attraction: a medium-length diatribe against the French, the treacherous French, who crippled our once-great national economy and wrecked our telephone system!

Other "classic" Roger Corman-era movies include Big Bad Mama, Eaten Alive, Grand Theft Auto, Deathsport, Piranha, The Bees, Starcrash, Up From The Depths, Rock & Roll High School, Humanoids from the Deep, Battle Beyond the Stars, and Galaxy of Terror.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 5:45 PM on July 16, 2021 [2 favorites]


If it was a really cool drive-in, a double feature of The Warriors with Ralph Bakshi's Wizards.
posted by Rash at 5:47 PM on July 16, 2021 [1 favorite]




I remember going to a Jan Michael Vincent double feature of White Line Fever and Shadow of the Hawk.
posted by octothorpe at 5:53 PM on July 16, 2021


American Graffiti (1973)
posted by Juniper Toast at 5:59 PM on July 16, 2021 [2 favorites]


I remember seeing both The Big Fix and Thank God it's Friday in 1978. My teen self barely grasped the machinations of the former; but the latter was all the disco excess you could want, plus Jeff Goldblum. And of course one that I adore to this day- Foul Play.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 6:15 PM on July 16, 2021 [3 favorites]


Sorcerer! Not totally forgotten but definitely overshadowed by Friedkin's bigger movies. It's the kind of action adventure that would never get made today.
posted by mannequito at 6:16 PM on July 16, 2021 [1 favorite]


Race with the Devil!
posted by InkaLomax at 6:19 PM on July 16, 2021 [1 favorite]


The Best 200 Movies of the 1970s
For me, Drive In means action or horror, so I'd lean towards titles like:

The Day of the Jackal
The Exorcist
Midnight Express
Dog Day Afternoon
The China Syndrom
Marathon Man
Dirty Harry
Serpico
The French Connection
Chinatown
Foxy Brown
King Kong
Duel
Coma
Apocalypse Now
posted by willnot at 6:42 PM on July 16, 2021 [1 favorite]


Just last night I was watching "Farewell, My Lovely," the first of two 1970s Robert Mitchum movies based on the works of Ray Chandler. Sly Stallone and Harry Dean Stanton had a bit role in this one. The second one was "The Big Sleep."

Zardoz would've been great drive-through fare.

Seconding Sorcerer by Friedkin; It's based on the French movie and novel "The Wages of Fear," and would've been named that, but one of the trucks in which the characters travel is named Sorcerer. Truly a superb movie.

Freaky Friday, with Jodie Foster as the daughter, was in 1976, same year as Taxi Driver.

Love Story from 1970 is the reason Jennifer became the most popular baby name for girls from 1970 until it was unseated, finally, by Jessica in '85 (with Ashley licking at their heels). Presumably some of those Jennifers were conceived after the drive-in.

Westworld, 1973, was the first movie ever to show computer-generated images, as the audience was able to see the point-of-view of Yul Brenner's Gunslinger character.
posted by Sunburnt at 6:50 PM on July 16, 2021


Depending on when in 1978 you went, you might see Harper Valley PTA.
posted by brianogilvie at 7:07 PM on July 16, 2021 [1 favorite]


Most likely, you would have seen one of the top box office films: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Betsy, Saturday Night Fever, The Fury, The Goodbye Girl, House Calls, F.I.S.T., The Greek Tycoon, the reissue of American Graffiti, Capricorn One, Damien: Omen II, Jaws 2, Grease, the reissue of Star Wars, Hooper, Animal House, Midnight Express, Up In Smoke, Magic, and Superman.
posted by blob at 7:07 PM on July 16, 2021


Phantasm just squeaks by as a 1970's movie. Little Murders. Night of the Lepus. The Thing with Two Heads. Airport (and sequels). Sssssss. A Boy and His Dog. Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring. Logan's Run. Silent Running. I've never particularly been a fan, but maybe some Russ Meyer.
posted by gudrun at 8:31 PM on July 16, 2021 [1 favorite]


I was a kid with my parents, and I remember seeing; The Deep. Semi-Tough, North Dallas 40, and Logan’s Run.
posted by Miko at 8:49 PM on July 16, 2021 [2 favorites]


Close Encounters of the Third Kind was well known back then,…

Reminds me of seeing it a drive in next to the Welland canal. During one of the climactic UFO shots, a boat (covered in coloured lights) emerged from behind the far edge of the screen - a very disorienting visual for a bunch of teens on hash oil.

Also want to second Phantasm. It's great in many ways but I loved the fact that it features a 70s teenager who doesn’t own a car.
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:54 PM on July 16, 2021 [2 favorites]


It was probably late 60’s-ish, but I saw A Shot In The Dark at a drive in and it wa *terrifying*.
posted by dbmcd at 9:58 PM on July 16, 2021


Charley Varrick if you can find it.

Also Vanishing Point and Two Lane Blacktop as a double bill.
posted by philip-random at 10:05 PM on July 16, 2021 [1 favorite]


Vanishing Point
Two-Lane Blacktop
Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry
Night Moves
Conrack
Harold and Maude

All movies I saw at drive-ins, even when I wasn't old enough .
posted by kitten kaboodle at 10:11 PM on July 16, 2021


The key to a drive in movie, from my point of view, is that it doesn't require a lot of concentration, the plot points and characters are bigger than life, so it's easy to follow when you miss part going to the snack bar, gabbing with your buddies, or, um, fooling around in whatever manner. Too many slow sections or involved dialogue is wasted at the drive, so it needs to be punctuated with lots of little bits of activity to keep everyone involved, if they want to be. While every kind of movie could play at a drive in, the most "drive-innish" were those aimed at teens/young adults more than families since staying out late with your pals was a key feature. Being a bit weird and/or having lots of cars or outdoor scenes were also a plus.

A quick glance, top 50 movies that more or less fit those categories of varying genres and degrees of lasting fame, some already mentioned, not all are "good", and certainly not unproblematic. With apologies to whatever I've forgotten:

The Warriors
Phantasm
Ride with the Devil
Gone in 60 Seconds
Vanishing Point
The Fury
Last House on the Left
Scanners
The Car
Shock Waves
Motel Hell
Food of the Gods
Tourist Trap
White Line Fever
Gator Bait
Beware the Blob!
Mad Max
Up in Smoke
Death Race 2000
Cannonball
Laserblast
Equinox
Good Guys Wear Black
Assault on Precinct 13
Message from Space
Silver Streak
Capricorn One
Supervixens
Car Wash
The Mechanic
Westworld/Futureworld
The Jerk
The Eagle Has Landed
Orca
Ganja and Hess
Exorcist II: The Heretic
Piranha
The Harrad Experiment
The Wizard of Gore
Sleeper
Animal House
The Crazies
It's Alive
Phase IV
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
The Swarm
Beyond the Planet of the Apes
Live and Let Die
Enter the Dragon
1941
posted by gusottertrout at 1:11 AM on July 17, 2021 [4 favorites]


"200 Motels". Last movie I saw in a drive-in in 1971.
posted by james33 at 2:30 AM on July 17, 2021 [2 favorites]


Every Which Way But Loose

Edit: This one barely squeaks in - December 1978
posted by umber vowel at 7:02 AM on July 17, 2021




A local Drive-In that advertised on TV had a seemingly perpetual double bill of Tell Them Willie Boy is Here and A Man Called Horse.
posted by ovvl at 9:04 AM on July 17, 2021 [2 favorites]


Late night drive in movie memories were defined by Heavy Metal.
posted by dbiedny at 10:03 AM on July 17, 2021 [2 favorites]




I saw The Great Waldo Pepper at a drive-in in 1975

Starring Robert Redford and Susan Standing.
posted by ChodenKal at 4:28 PM on July 17, 2021


I’ve got to disagree with the idea that drive-ins weren’t really for families. Drive-ins were great for families, and most of my experience with them was as a child with my family. Often there would be a double feature - a Disney type of movie followed by a more serious movie, by which time the kids were usually asleep. I guess a triple feature if you count the opening cartoons. In fact, kids would sometimes just go in their pajamas, and a big bonus for the parents was that they could stay out late without hiring a sitter. Parents didn’t have to worry about kids bothering other patrons, and all the drive-ins I remember had small playgrounds in front of the screen. Kids would play until it got dark, then get in the car to watch the movie.
posted by FencingGal at 4:58 PM on July 17, 2021 [8 favorites]


We would too -- in 1960. I remember being carried into the house, late, after falling asleep in the back seat. But in '78? The drive-in was closed, paved-over, a memory -- the multiplex at the mall was where the family saw the new movie. But if you did still have one, according to The History of Drive-In Movie Theaters,
During the '70s oil crisis, people downsized their cars in order to save money on the inflated cost of gas, making it uncomfortable to watch movies at the drive-in. To make up for lost revenue, drive-ins began losing their family-friendly atmosphere by showing exploitation films like slasher horrors as well as adult content.
Now, the genre of film like the OP is looking for has a name, and the IMDB has a huge list at Psychotronic Cinema.
posted by Rash at 5:41 PM on July 17, 2021 [2 favorites]


I guess we were lucky to have one in the late 70s (Columbia, Missouri). I took my own kids to the drive-in at least a few times, and they were born in 79 and 81. Cars were smaller, but so were families. I had two kids, and my parents had four. Not sure what year we would have stopped going.
posted by FencingGal at 6:44 PM on July 17, 2021


I grew up going to the drive-in. We went probably every week. In the days before the ubiquity of home video, that’s where I saw all the Disney movies. Some of the drive-ins would have Family Night once a week and then go back to being seedy. I remember seeing posters in the concession stand for more lurid movies I know we never went to see.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:39 PM on July 17, 2021 [1 favorite]


I’ve got to disagree with the idea that drive-ins weren’t really for families.

Oh, sure, drive-ins were often attended by families. Heck I grew up three blocks from one such, but, sadly, my parents only took me there a couple times before it was torn down for development.

The distinction, I guess, is between the drive in theater and the drive in movie. The drive in theater could be a place for family outing acting as something like a second run theater playing popular hits for those who either couldn't see them in the regular theaters due to family constraints or who wanted to see them again or who wanted to take the kids to the first feature in hopes they'd fall asleep before the second so the adults could watch something they wanted. Drive-ins would sometimes get progressively more "grown up" as the night wore on.

But those were only one kind of drive in, there were others that specialized more in "drive-in" movies and late teen/early adult viewing. I have strong memories of hearing ads for a drive in that played Last House on the Left and, in rerelease, The Wizard of Gore, which was particularly memorable for the announced using the echo effect associated later with monster truck rallies, The Wizard of Gore..gore..gore. Anyway, drive-ins varied a lot by where one lived. I grew up in a city where there were a good number of drive-ins in the seventies, the one closer to the first ring suburbs playing the second run hits and some other more or less mainstream stuff, while those further out would get the weirder stuff. In small towns, the main theater in the area would get the respectable hits and the drive-ins often the more young adult driven stuff second run that wasn't for everyone, by some estimation, and maybe some cheap oddball film for the late show. I'm sure there were different set ups in other parts of the country too.

I don't know about big urban areas, I gather they had some options, but the standard seemed to be that "drive-in movies" as a thing in themselves were generally aimed at the young white audience, mostly male centered by the seventies with fewer romances, Ode to Billy Joe maybe being one, and fewer Beach Blanket Bingo style comedies, Grease being a throw back of sorts. Movies that might fit the same rough template of cost and style not aimed at white audiences, Pam Grier films or stuff like Blacula or Shaft and its sequels were generally considered "urban" so I don't think they had a big drive-in presence, but I could be wrong on that.
posted by gusottertrout at 7:51 PM on July 17, 2021 [2 favorites]


Cruising the bottom shelf of Prime Video I came across the 1978 comedy dud Record City, humor so dated it goes from being pathetic to almost anthropological, leaving me scratching my head that I ever lived in this foreign country. Gorilla suits, Frank Gorshin as the rabbi, etc. Almost no part of this 1978 made it into subsequent popular culture.
posted by bendybendy at 1:16 PM on July 20, 2021 [4 favorites]


. In fact, kids would sometimes just go in their pajamas, and a big bonus for the parents was that they could stay out late without hiring a sitter.

the golden age of station wagons.
posted by philip-random at 1:54 PM on July 20, 2021 [1 favorite]


I came across the 1978 comedy dud Record City

that is special indeed. Thank you.
posted by philip-random at 2:14 PM on July 20, 2021 [2 favorites]


> I don't know about big urban areas, I gather they had some options, but the standard seemed to be that "drive-in movies" as a thing in themselves were generally aimed at the young white audience

This probably depends a lot on where you were; I first saw "Beverly Hills Cop" in a drive-in in Kingston, Jamaica.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:10 PM on July 20, 2021


Most years I go to a vintage horror festival called the Drive-In Super Monster-Rama at a little drive-in near Pittsburgh. This year’s theme is “Giallopalooza!” If you type the name of the festival into google, a lot of the results are for previous years’ programs either on their Facebook page or on the drive-in’s web site. You may find some inspiration form some of them.

(One of my favorite memories was from a Vincent Price theme night. When they got to the scene in The Tingler where Vincent turns to the camera and says, “Scream! Scream for your lives!” we all laid on our horns, stuck our heads out our car windows, and screamed our lungs out to the stars. It was so awesome.)
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:06 PM on July 20, 2021 [1 favorite]


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