One of my absolute favorite memories in DIMP history comes from only this last year, when I had the honor of chatting with Larry Phillips over beers about the movies that we love.

The specific memory I will always cherish is while we were talking about the recent Poltergeist theatrical re-release. When I told him that it was being digitally projected from a DVD instead of being run off of a print, his pleasantly buzzed smile turned sour almost like a small part of him momentarily died inside. It isn’t that I was happy for his repulsed reaction, but I was thrilled that he had the same one I did. While based on our site and similar ones, it may seem that there are millions of fans of cinema such as us who respect every aspect and want nothing more than to revisit old films exactly as God, their $20 budgets their sweaty fat distributor and mafia financers intended them, we trash enthusiasts are a dying breed compared to the iPod sporting, modern yuppie who only is interested in the haute of technology. As a straddler of this line, an under 30 year old HDTV owning Blu-ray supporter who also owns a 1978 wood paneled Montgomery Wards television with a woodgrain Atari 2600 still attached just one room over, my existence is even more of an anomaly. I am the dodo, you could say. But I digress…

I bring up Larry not only because he’s one of the few people that I’ve ever met that understands the pain, hardships and good times that go along with being a trash cinema fan, but because he previously penned the reviews of Synapse’s 42nd Street Forever: Volume 1 and its follow-up The Deuce. Here I am now with the esteemed priviledge of following up those two reviews with the third entry into the series with the marquee-filling title, 42nd Street Forever: Volume 3 – Exploitation Explosion. The first two volumes covered damn near every style of grindhouse exploitation form blaxploitation to nunsploitation to sexploitation to WIP and back again so I think it’s only right to question Volume 3’s subtitle since it’s pretty much a given that exploitation is what you’ll be getting, and you’ll be getting it in spades. So while the subtitle may attempt to separate itself from the first two compilations, Volume 3 is pretty much more of the same – which in my world is fucking fantastic. If you like watching promotional trailers for films lost or otherwise unavailable, then you’ll dig this, if you didn’t like the first go around, you shouldn’t waste your time with this one.

I can’t thrill you with this history of the film trailer, or first-hand accounts of the grindhouse and rural drive-in experiences. Sadly, those experiences are lost on me so I’ll leave you to read Larry’s reviews for those excellent recaps. Instead, I’m jumping head first into this collection of faded and forgotten brilliance specifically to point out some of the highlights. These are the trailers on Exploitation Explosion that I found the most intriguing.

Jaguar Lives (1979
Take martial arts star Joe Lewis and bill him up to be the next Bruce Lee, Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen. That didn’t work out too well for you did it, Joe? Lewis may be an American ninja second only to Michael Dudikoff, but the guy has half his charisma, which makes him twice as sad. In this trailer you can watch Joe do incredible moves like, dodge a steel barrel thrown at him by side-stepping to the right and try as hard as possible to look like Robert Evans in his prime.

Enter the Ninja (1981)
As almost all of my buds who’ve watched the Ninja series (which also includes Revenge of the Ninja and Ninja III: The Domination) can attest there is little in this world that is more fun. The words Golan-Globus on a movie is the stamp of approval that meant more fun in the 1980s than the Official Nintendo Seal of Quality. Ninjas owned the decade and it all started here with some of the most insane deaths ever. This DVD was the first time I ever saw the trailer for the film, but it was worth it just to hear the opening theme which could have been written by me if I was six years old and asked to write a theme song to a Ninja movie. The lyrics? “Ninja, Ninja, Ninja, Ninja, Ninja, Ninja, Ninja, Ninja, Ninja, Ninja, Ninja, Ninja, Ninja, Ninja, Ninja, Ninja, Ninja, NinjAAAAAAAAAAAAA…” Also… Franco Nero!

Beyond the Door (1974)
This trailer rips off both The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby and makes no attempt to hide it – but damned if it isn’t creepy as fucking humanly possible. The Devil… the evil fetus… the HAIR! Everything about this trailer from its music, to the acting and to the film’s credit, the atmosphere it genuinely unsettling. I’ve always wanted to see this flick but I haven’t found a decent copy. I’ll be on the hunt now!

Patrick (1978)
Here’s a trailer for a film that looks genuinely interesting and compelling. Patrick is an Australian suspense flick about a man who’s completely paralyzed and yet has very strong psychic powers as a consolation prize. I’ve never even heard of this film, and I’m shocked to see that it actually did get a DVD release in the states (it’s OOP now) but Patrick is going to be a definite must see on my short list. Sure, it’s low budget, but it definitely looks as though the filmmakers took the subject manner at least as seriously as Patrick’s unibrow and that’s more than I expect from this type of film.

Phase IV (1974)
The fact that Phase IV isn’t on DVD is a crime against humanity. Why can’t I go to the Best Buy or Amazon.com right now and purchase a literate science fiction film with Nigel Davenport? For years I’ve heard about this film, and from some descriptions I even thought I might have seen it long ago. This trailer, which makes it look like the second coming of 2001: A Space Odyssey, leads me to believe I’ve been mistaken. Still, this is one of those trailers that leaves a lot of mystery and practically commands you to see the film. Such beautiful hypnotic imagery… time to go bootleg shopping…

Cheerleaders Wild Weekend (1979)
This sexploitation rarity, which I understand is a genre-crosser from the kidnapping flick to the stalker film to your standard nude romp, offers a fairly ridiculous trailer for a number of reasons. I enjoyed one cheerleader flashing the redneck pick-up truck driver behind him. The driver is amused but his “pecker” (the chicken riding shotgun) keeps distracting him (get it) and he drives into a fruit stand. It seems that in film history, regardless of the genre, if there is a fruit stand, there won’t be one for long. But what struck me the most interesting is the trailers proclamation at the end of the trailer, “There may be some of you out there who feel that 15 naked cheerleaders are not all that exciting. Well, ‘ho-ho’ on YOU!” I don’t even know what that means, but damn if I don’t feel scolded anyway and this guy thinks 15 naked cheerleaders is something that I would find pretty exciting.

The Penthouse (1967)
Out of all the trailers on Exploitation Explosion, none am I more intrigued with than The Penthouse. Peter Collinson’s film, from what little research I’ve done online, has been compared to Straw Dogs and The Last House on the Left for its depravity and general hopelessness. The trailer though, is nothing short of a masterpiece. Using a bold color-scheme no doubt out of Pop Art inspiration, every shot is extremely stylized and filmed from odd angles. The general plot is three strangers (two men and one woman) somehow hold a couple as prisoners in their own penthouse and do… I assume… very nasty things to them. The look and music sold me, but it doesn’t seem to be available in any market. This is the ultimate downfall of these trailer compilations – selling me on stuff I can’t buy.

Night Call Nurses (1972)
I hope I don’t sound too Morrissey by saying this, but sex, as awesome as it is, disappointingly never lived up to the fantasy fixation I had with Night Call Nurses (and other cheesy nurse sexploitation flicks) as a preteen. I expected that by the time I was seventeen, I would have been in and out of so many nurses that Wilt Chamberlain would be impressed by my figures. Goddamn you, Roger Corman. Goddamn you. They don’t even wear those hats anymore. You ruined my life. Oh, as for NCN – Dick Miller alert!

Happy Hooker Goes to Hollywood (1980)
OH MY GOD! Adam West just said, “Bouncy, bouncy!” SOLD! I have no idea how I’ve missed this one over the last 20 years of obsessive film watching.

Convoy (1978)
Second only to The Penthouse, Convoy, despite being made by Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch) and based on a popular song and starring the likes of Kris Kristofferson (Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore), Ali MacGraw (Love Story), Ernest Borgnine (The Poseidon Adventure) and Burt Young (Rocky) was entirely elusive to me until this trailer compilation. What is it? Action, Drama, Western on Wheels? Vanishing Point in an 18-Wheeler? No clue, but I have to find out, if for no other reason than to see why Ali MacGraw is attempting to be an African-American. Thank you Sam Peckinpah and all the cocaine you must have done to make this.

Of course, that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Trailers are included for 47 films all in all and every one is worth watching, from seeing the six-million dollar man fight the Killer Fish to John Saxon and Burt Young hunt down the creature of Blood Beach. Seeing Connie Stevens pretend she’s Pam Grier in Scorchy and learning the Cold War secrets of Telefon. Trailer fans and particularly fans of 70s-80s B-Movies would be doing themselves a disservice not picking up 42nd Street Forever: Volume 3 – Exploitation Explosion.

Complete list of trailers not previously mentioned – (May the Google search engine be DIMP’s friend!)
Sudden Death, The One Armed Executioner, Lightning Swords of Death, Five Fingers of Death, The Stranger & the Gunfighter, Demonoid, The Night Child, Devil Times Five, Jennifer, The Uncanny, The Pack, Alligator, Shark’s Treasure, Hot T-Shirts, Summer School Teachers, Gorp, King @$#! Frat, Prison Girls, 1,000 Convicts and a Woman, Chain Gang Women, The House by the Lake, The Young Nurses, Candy Stripe Nurses, The Life and Times of Xaviera Hollander, Survive!, Guyana – Cult of the Damned, Seven (1979), Savage Streets, High Ballin’, From Noon Till Three, Lies (1983), and finally Tattoo (1981) – semi-naked Maud Adams in her prime alert!

Presentation
While all of these trailers were no doubt treated with all the disrespect that Tupac had for Biggie – if not more, they have all been mastered here in “high-definition.” What does this mean to you? This shit is awfully shiny. They say you can’t polish a turd, but obviously some people know how to make shit shine like the sun. In other words, seeing as all these elements were taken from different sources, the original quality ran from ‘gee, that’s not so bad’ to ‘what moldy grave did this come from?’ Expect sound lines, expect print damage, expect an occasional pop – expect greatness in the only way to see it, exactly as a trailer would look theatrically in 1985. That is, a trailer for a 1973 film that had been buried under a petting zoo for at least eight years just now being shown in 1985.

In other words, the presentation is awesome. If you don’t understand this appeal, then you probably wouldn’t understand this disc’s existence anyway.

Extras
For the first time in the history of Synapse’s trailer compilations – FEATURES! Not only that, but goddamn great ones too!

Audio Commentary featuring Fangoria Managing Editor Michael Gingold, Film Historian Chris Poggiali and Avmaniacs Editor Edwin Samuelson –
So you have a movie that’s made entirely of trailers. Is that deserving of a commentary by people that, chances are, you don’t know? Hells yes it is! While I admittedly would have trouble differentiating one person from another as far as input, all three of these participants come to the commentary loaded with interesting information. You’ll hear about the histories of these films, interesting trivia, alternate titles, release information, various actors and much, much more. The overall vibe is that these three guys are having a lot of fun together talking about their hobby. Many commentary tracks have good content, but rare is the commentary that offers a great time. Watch this!

Vintage Television Spots – (6:59)
In a move that also requires kudos from this reviewer, Synapse has procured some old TV spots. You might think that this is solely going to be spots for what they already gave us trailers for, and based off of the first two spots for Jaguar Lives! and High Ballin’ you would be correct. Thankfully though, we get some new material as well, like the Sonny Chiba film Champion of Death, the 1978 comedy Seniors, survival epic The Last Survivor, religious biker film The Jesus Trip, and the more traditional biker flick Naked Angels. Commercials for the incomparable Billy Jack and Golden Needles close out this 1.33:1 (although properly pillarboxed for widescreen TVs) collection. Only complaint? I would have loved to hear the commentary go throughout this as well. A couple of the films, Seniors and Golden Needles, I had no knowledge of and their commercials tell little. Still, it’s better to have than to have not.

Fans wanted some perspective on the trailers, and with this third entry in the 42nd Street Forever series, Synapse has brought about extras that are a perfect compliment to the feature. I hope they continue along the same path for Volume 4.

The Bottom Line
The continuing saga of 42nd Street Forever now delivers its third dose of awesome. This time the hit is even better with the unexpected addition of bonus features that are actually worth watching. With complaints from genre fans about the non-inclusion of the faux trailers with Grindhouse’s DVD releases, and even more disconcerting, the continuing trend of removing trailers from re-releases (Sony, I’m looking at you!) everything about Exploitation Explosion feels oh-so right in a world gone wrong. Anyone interested needs to go out and get this (and the other) compilations.