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1985

Not Nothing Without You

Pia FrankenbergDirectsFilm Appearance0 Comments

Noisy_MarthaFrankenberg writes, directs and stars in this comedy (renamed as Noisy Martha in 1987). Co-starring Klaus Bueb as Alfred. 

Martha, at 25, is a single mother, a painter, a filmmaker, impulsive, insecure, happy and unhappy. Financially well off through no fault of her own, her biggest problem, as she sees it, is her superficiality. Then there is Alfred, a decade older than Martha and all the more lost for it, he always seems to have misplaced something… something he thought he’d taken with him, back in ’68. Martha can’t cut it with men, Alfred likewise with women.

28 Jan, 1985

We Are The World documentary

Michael JacksonTV Appearance0 Comments

Jackson releases a behind-the-scenes look at the making of We are the World. Jackson chose to write the song with a group of multi-racial popular singers to sing as an ensemble to fight the famine in Africa. The documentary is hosted by Jane Fonda.

First I’d like to thank God and I’d like to just thank you for choosing Lionel and myself to write We are the World. I thank Quincy Jones who’s the greatest producer to me. I’d also like to say when you leave here, remember the children.

9 Dec, 1984

Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground) performance

Michael JacksonMusic PerformanceTV Appearance0 Comments

Jackson performs Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground) with the Jacksons in Los Angeles, California on the Victory tour. Jackson does a solo song and dance performance with a call and response from the audience where he reminds them that this is the final tour with his brothers.

The Jacksons Victory Tour final!! "Shake your Body" (rare) HQ

8 Jun, 1984

Ghostbusters

Dan AykroydFilm Appearance0 Comments

Aykroyd plays Dr. Raymond Stantz, a parapsychologist turned ghostbuster who, along with his compatriots Dr. Peter Venkman and Dr. Egon Spengler, works to rid Manhattan of ghosts and poltergeists in Ghostbusters, directed by Ivan Reitman. Co-starring Bill Murray, Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson.

I believe that 50% of Ghostbusters’ success is due to Sigourney, Moranis, Ramis and my writing and Reitman’s direction. And 50% was Murray and his presence as a leading man – he’s the greatest. He just brings such great energy and creativity and he brings the audience because they love that kind of hung dog who had such vulnerability. Really, I owe a lot to Billy.

Ghostbusters (1984) - Official® Trailer [HD]

9 Mar, 1984

Children of the Corn

Stephen KingFilm Appearance0 Comments

King’s Children of the Corn is adapted into a feature-length film. The tale was originally released as a short story in his compilation book, Night Shift. It’s a story of a twelve-year-old preacher who convinces all the kids in a rural neighborhood to kill everyone over eighteen for Jesus. King originally wrote the screen play for the film adaptation of Children of the Corn, but his version was thrown out due to having too much dialogue and back-story. Instead, a much more violent/gory version with more conventional narrative style was written by George Goldsmith and used for the film. Directed by Fritz Kiersch and starring Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton, the film grosses $14.5 million after being made on a minimal budget of $800 thousand.

Children of the Corn (1984) Trailer

9 Dec, 1983

Christine

Stephen KingFilm Appearance0 Comments

John Carpenter directs the film adaptation of King’s novel, starring Keith Gordon. The film grosses $21 million after being made on a $9.7 million budget. King approved of all the work done on the film, apart from one major difference from his original novel. In King’s version, Christine was haunted by the spirit of a previous owner. In Carpenter’s version, the car is haunted from the very moment it’s built. When asked why he made Christine a 1958 Fury:

Because they’re almost totally forgotten cars. They were the most mundane fifties car that I could remember. I didn’t want a car that already had a legend attached to it like the fifties Thunderbird, the Ford Galaxies etc. […] Seriously, I don’t know how Chrysler feels about Christine, anymore than I know how the Ford Company feels about Cujo, in which a woman is stranded in a Pinto. But they should feel happy, because it’s a pretty lively car and it lasts a long time. It’s like a Timex watch, it takes a licking and goes on ticking.

22 Jun, 1983

The Survivors

Robin WilliamsFilm Appearance0 Comments

Williams portrays Donald Quinelle, an executive who is fired from his job in Michael Ritchie’s comedy. He goes to a diner and meets Sonny Paluso (Walter Matthau) who owns a gas station that was blown up.  The two of them witness a robbery and the hit man threatens to kill them. Quinelle becomes obsessed with guns as a way to protect himself from the mob and enrolls in a survivalist training school in the mountains of Vermont. Co-starring Jerry Reed, James Wainwright, and Annie McEnroe. Ritchie:

Walter [Matthau] becomes straight man to Robin, and then Robin is straight man to him. That doesn’t happen in great comedy teams, where they form a pattern; Dean Martin is always in a certain relationship with Jerry Lewis, or Abbott is with Costello. Instead, with Walter and Danny or Walter and Robin, you have this balance constantly shifting.

The Survivors - Trailer

23 Jul, 1982

The World According to Garp

Robin WilliamsFilm Appearance0 Comments

Based on the novel by John Irving, Williams plays T.S. Garp – an only child conceived when his single mother has sex with a brain-damaged soldier in her nursing care, in this drama directed by George Roy Hil. Garp’s life from birth to death is punctuated by events such as: marriage and infidelity, parenting and the loss of a child, social and political activism, fame and death threats. Co-starring, Mary Beth Hurt. Helen Holm,  Glenn Close and Jenny Fields.

I started off just improvising like crazy. And [director] George Roy Hill made a face like a weasel in a wind tunnel and I then I went, ‘Not good?’ And he went [breathes deep and whispers], ‘Just say the words.’

21 May, 1982

Mad Max 2

Mel GibsonFilm Appearance0 Comments

In the second of the series, Gibson plays Max, a former Australian policeman, who is living in the post-apocalyptic outback as a warrior who agrees to help a community of survivors living in a gasoline refinery. He defends them and their gasoline supplies from evil barbarian warriors. Co-starring  Bruce Spence and Emil Minty,

We filmed in the only place nobody would go, where the turd wranglers would drop all their sh–. It wasn’t glamorous at all. It was low-budget. Twenty-five guys in the crew. You didn’t have a trailer. You want to change your costume? Go over to the side of the road and strip down. That was it.

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior - Official® Trailer 1 [HD]