Back in the days when it was still a novelty for rock bands to produce songs specifically for use in feature films, the bands and filmmakers tended to have more fun with the idea. This was particularly true in the case of The Zombies' collaboration with Otto Preminger for his suspenseful film, Bunny Lake Is Missing. The Zombies adapted their song "Just Out of Reach" for use in the trailer. Now titled, "Come on Time", this song cheekily warned viewers that, because of the shocking twist at the film's climax, no patrons would be admitted into the theater after the movie started. Although Bunny Lake Is Missing was not the first film to require viewers to show up before the movie started (Hitchcock's Psycho was a much more famous earlier example of a film to employ this rule), it was another example of a change in movie exhibition. Up until this point, movie goers could pay their 25 cents and walk into a movie whenever they damn well pleased. If someone walked in halfway through a movie, he or she would watch the rest of the movie and stay through the next showing, leaving whenever the movie got to the point where he or she walked in -- truly anathema to modern movie goers. The change in exhibition was a sign that movies were beginning to be respected on the same level as the other arts (one wouldn't start a book halfway through, for instance). It is astounding today that this seemingly logical manner of viewing movies would be such a foreign concept that an instructional song would have to be made informing viewers of it.
Here is trailer with the Zombies song:
1 comment:
Check out the DVD of Psycho. There's a vintage film from 1960 on it that explains in mind-numbing detail how this whole new "watch the movie from the beginning" system will work.
I remember my father stopped going to see movies in theatres when they implemented this policy across the board. I'm sure many others of his generation follwed suit. Some people just don't like change.
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