THE PHANTOM OF HOLLYWOOD (1974)

Originally broadcast on CBS on Feb. 12, 1974, THE PHANTOM OF HOLLYWOOD is a largely forgettable film except for the better-than-the-story-deserves cast and the fact that the majority of the movie was filmed on MGM's legendary backlot (Lot 2 to be exact) right before it was sold and razed!

Mirroring real life events (MGM was in dire financial trouble back in the 1970's), a once legendary movie studio is in dire financial trouble and must sell off some of their backlot to stay afloat.  Trouble comes when a mysterious masked "phantom", who lives on the backlot, catches wind of this news and starts killing everybody.  He even kidnaps a studio exec's daughter.  In order to flush him out of hiding, the studio starts bulldozing everything.

Medium pace, interesting cast (John Ireland, Peter Lawford, Jackie Coogan, Broderick Crawford, Peter Haskell, Jack Cassidy), average acting (John Ireland is the best of the lot), various film clips from stuff like GRAND HOTEL, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935) and DINNER AT EIGHT, dumb as hell ending.  

As a classic Hollywood fan, THE PHANTOM OF HOLLYWOOD was bittersweet because it really was neat seeing all of those cool old Hollywood sets, but then seeing them destroyed kinda hurt.  Still, I'm glad I watched it.

The building facade in the above and below pictures appears to be the same, but yet nothing else matches.

I SAW WHAT YOU DID (1965)

Three young girls (who are as naive as they are stupid) spend an evening prank calling random people. One of their calls triggers a psychotic guy (John Ireland) into murdering his wife and then later on, when they call back saying "I know what you did and I know who you are." he flips out again and murders his nosy neighbor (Joan Crawford)!  Now the only thing he needs to do is silence the person on the phone.

Logic and reality are thrown far, far out the window, but it doesn't matter because I SAW WHAT YOU DID is so campy that I don't see how anybody could watch it and not laugh themselves silly. On the one hand, it tries to pass itself off as a thriller, while at the same time the music would be more suited for a Scooby-Doo cartoon and the teenage girls are just so carefree it's hilarious. Especially towards the end. Holy shit, I don't think I've seen anybody so carefree about nearly getting murdered since THE YOUNG GRADUATES!

John Ireland does a great job as the unhinged killer, Joan Crawford is Joan Crawford and the two actresses playing the teenage girls...well, they're not very good, but their goofy acting actually adds to the charm of the movie. If you're looking for a real horror movie then you'll be disappointed, but if you're just looking for something funny to giggle at then I SAW WHAT YOU DID should fit the bill.

It was kinda interesting to see how this film turned the tables on the infamous PSYCHO shower scene (with the killer being in the shower and the victim being outside) and how the feel and look (especially towards the end) of the movie actually foreshadowed many of the Slasher films that would follow in the coming decades.

Remake - I Saw What You Did (1988)