#4 - Drive In Movie Memories (2001)
Is a very entertaining, but very slight documentary about the rise and fall of the drive-in in American culture. Archival photos and clips of vintage promo reels accompany interviews with people like Leonard Maltin, Joe Bob Briggs, and actual drive-in owners and employees. The documentary covers the origins of the drive-in, and how they morphed from somewhere for late-shift WWII factory workers to go into the teenaged passion pits of the 50s and 60s. Particular highlights are a tale of attempting to go to the drive-in in Alaska, and how Mel Brooks held the world premiere of Blazing Saddles at a drive-in, but it was for people who came in on horses.
I have some fond memories of the old Milford Twin drive-in, which became a Showcase Cinema before closing, and this documentary brought a few back. Of course, we still go to the drive-in out in Mansfield a couple of times every summer, but it's certainly not the same as it must have been a long time ago, even though Mansfield does use a few of the vintage intermission reels. If you have a chance to catch this, it's pretty good, even if it's entirely too brief for its subject matter.
I have some fond memories of the old Milford Twin drive-in, which became a Showcase Cinema before closing, and this documentary brought a few back. Of course, we still go to the drive-in out in Mansfield a couple of times every summer, but it's certainly not the same as it must have been a long time ago, even though Mansfield does use a few of the vintage intermission reels. If you have a chance to catch this, it's pretty good, even if it's entirely too brief for its subject matter.