Oddball Films presents What the F(ilm)?! 16: You Can't Handle the Spoof!, an evening of some of the most bizarre, hilarious and insane films from our massive 16mm collection. This month, we're making a mockery of ourselves by offering you gut-busting parodies of Fellini, Bergman, Coppola, Lucas and more. May the farce be with you in the ridiculous Star Wars parody Hardware Wars (1978) replete with flying toasters, puppets, and z-grade special effects. See the horror, the horror of Porklips Now (1980) shot in San Francisco and featuring a war between butchers in Chinatown and a spot-on Brando impersonation. Play badminton against death in the Oscar-nominated Ingmar Bergman send-off De Düva (1968) starring a then-unknown Madeline Kahn speaking in mock Swedish. Fellini takes a hit in the uproarious short Two (1971) written by and starring Renee Taylor (The Nanny). Mel Brooks and Ernie Pintoff mock experimental animation in the Oscar-winning animated short The Critic (1963). Another Oscar nominee - the knee-slapping Political Posture (1984) mixes commercial modeling and political ads for one great-looking campaign. Turn the channel for more bizarre fake commercials like maidenform sweat socks and horse food made from dogs in Nut House Nuggets (1950s). Simian crime fighter Lancelot Link makes a monkey out of spy shows in the Oddball favorite Lancelot Link Secret Chimp: To Tell the Tooth (1971). Daffy Duck hits his head and dreams he's "Duck Twacy: Famous Detective" in Robert Clampett's brilliant cartoon The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946). Plus more spoofy surprises for the early birds!
Hardware Wars (Color, 1978)
"But basketball is a peaceful planet!"
Watch out for the Death Toaster in this insane Star Wars parody. Join Fluke Starbucker, Princess Anne-Droid, Ham Sandwich and a muppet as they battle Darph Nader and a fleet of flying toasters, waffle irons and more ridiculous appliances. Later turned into a feature film, this is the original outrageous short! A brand new acquisition, this bizarro gem is making its Oddball debut!
Porklips Now (Color, 1980)
Hilarious by some accounts, incredibly stupid by others, this spot-on low budget spoof of Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” made just one year later features Billy Gray (of Father Knows Best fame) as Dullard, a young barbecue chef who is sent into Chinatown to end the career of Fred "Madman" Mertz, an insane butcher who's cutting meat prices to pennies per pound. Filmed in San Francisco!
The Critic (Color, 1963)An animated Oscar winner from the great Ernie Pintoff - The Critic is Mel Brooks, sitting in a movie theater loudly describing/deriding what he seeds on the screen (a spoof of a Norman McLaren-styled animation). Brooks' old man character relentlessly rags on the experimental animation he's shown to hilarious effect.
Nut House Nuggets!! (B+W, 1950s)
This "Viewer's Digest” spoof of soap operas and other programs is a bizarre gem. Watch a simulated commercial for Gains Horse Food (made from dogs), a lodge meeting where a cake comes out of a dummy of a woman, "commercials" for Quigleys Menthol bubble-gum and Prudential Underarm Deodorant. "News bulletin" about a zookeeper who clawed a leopard to death." Later in a spoof of "amazing feats," a woman tells time by beating a baby carriage with a dead fish. The fish is 5 minutes slow, so they give her a watch!
Starring Kathy “Nut House Squirrel Girl". Brought to you by Maidenform Sweat Sox!
De Düva (Dir. George Coe/Antony Lover, B+W, 1968)
Nominated for an Oscar (Best Short Subject – Live Action) in 1969, this short parodies three of Ingmar Bergman’s films – Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, and The Silence. It also marked the first film role of Madeline Kahn. Speaking in mock Swedish, with English subtitles, a retired physicist with a hernia recalls, while sitting in an outhouse, a garden party he attended as a youth. In a game of badminton rather than chess, Death loses his intended victim because of a hilarious obstacle – a dirty pigeon. Director George Coe was one of the original cast members on the first three episodes of Saturday Night Live. And scriptwriter Sid Davis, who also plays the role of Death, is perhaps best known as a director/producer of educational safety films; he was also a long-time body double for John Wayne. (Tom Warner)
The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (Color, 1946, Robert Clampett)
Our screenings are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educational films, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.