Movie Movie (1978) on Netflix
PG19781h 45mComedyMusicalSport
Two 1930s-style stories share one bill. Joey Popchik, a poor young man, climbs into the ring to pay for his sister's eye operation. Producer Spats Baxter plans one last Broadway show.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb6.4/101,409 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
In Dynamite Hands, Joey Popchik sells food and attends night school, hoping to become a lawyer. When his sister's eyesight begins to fail and the doctor who could treat her charges about $25,000, he turns to prizefighting to raise the money. A gruff manager, Gloves Malloy, offers a handshake deal instead of a contract, with Peanuts working his corner. Between the features comes a preview of Zero Hour, set among World War I flying aces. In Baxter's Beauties of 1933, the producer Spats Baxter learns his time is short and sets out to stage one more Broadway hit, partly for a child he has never been able to face. Kitty Simpson, a young ingenue, comes to audition.
Cast
Show all 20 cast
- Rebecca Yorkas Kitty ("Baxter's Beauties of 1933")
- Clay Hodgesas Sailor Lawson
- Peter Staderas Barney Keegle (as Peter T. Stader)
- Jimmy Lennon Sr.as The Announcer (as James Lennon)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Movie Movie (1978)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Test previews led the filmmakers to cut a newsreel opening and a fake trailer, reshoot the ending of the Dynamite Hands segment in a single day, and add a new prologue with George Burns explaining what a double feature was.
- The film's poor box office performance, which producer Lew Grade blamed on weak distribution by Warner Bros., pushed Grade to set up his own distribution company, Associated Film Distribution, a move that ended up causing serious financial damage to him and his business.
- Writer Larry Gelbart originally pitched the project to Universal in 1975 under the title Double Feature, and said it took him and co-writer Sheldon Keller six weeks to write the script but six months to actually get paid for it.
- Universal disliked the finished script and let Gelbart take it elsewhere; he showed it to Martin Starger, the American representative of Lew Grade, and Grade, who had backed Gelbart's Sly Fox, agreed to finance Double Feature.
- The filmmakers shot on color stock that could be printed in either black-and-white or color, and the title was changed from Double Feature to Movie Movie because the original name was considered confusing.
