Everything new is old again
September 15, 2009 9:37 PM   Subscribe

Movie trailers: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1951), starring Charlton Heston, Gregory Peck, and Peter Lorre; Forrest Gump (1949), starring Jimmy Stewart. From the creator of Ghostbusters (1954), with Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, and Dean Martin. via I Watch Stuff
posted by You Should See the Other Guy (25 comments total) 44 users marked this as a favorite
 
Very, very clever. I was so sucked in.
posted by tellurian at 9:47 PM on September 15, 2009


Ha! Neat.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:48 PM on September 15, 2009


That Ghostbusters is a tough act to follow, but the Raiders is pretty damn close.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 9:54 PM on September 15, 2009


"What? Why are they just posting trai-- Ohh, sweeeeeet."
posted by cobwebberies at 10:02 PM on September 15, 2009


What's up Doc?
posted by Mblue at 10:05 PM on September 15, 2009


I totally fell for the Forrest Gump trailer. I was all, "I didn't know this was a remake! Why didn't I know about the original Jimmy Stewart film? How could I have ... oh. It's a fake."
posted by brina at 10:31 PM on September 15, 2009


Brilliant...

Are these remakes? "No, they are not relations, sir!"
posted by salishsea at 11:54 PM on September 15, 2009


Wow. Pretty amazing. How did he find all these clips?
posted by dealing away at 1:01 AM on September 16, 2009


Cripes, Peter Lorre was an oily little bugger.
posted by bwg at 3:14 AM on September 16, 2009


Heston as Indiana Jones? Where do I sign?
posted by Scoo at 4:48 AM on September 16, 2009


"Where's my hat?"

Priceless.
posted by nax at 5:38 AM on September 16, 2009


Perfect, and +1 for any post to some Peter Lorre goodness.

REEEECK! REEEECK! HIDE MEEE!
posted by jquinby at 5:40 AM on September 16, 2009


Perfect, and +1 for any post to some Peter Lorre goodness.

"I have arranged this display for ... for all of you people to ... to come here this evening and I ... I know you have been searched, but, what you ... you don't realize is, is that in the back of the Maltese Falcon, I have it ..."
posted by bwg at 6:39 AM on September 16, 2009 [2 favorites]


Holy shit, did you just make a Friends of Mr. Cairo reference? I thought I was the only one!
posted by Horace Rumpole at 6:49 AM on September 16, 2009


I have arranged this display...

I could't find it last time I searched, but there's an apocryphal story of Peter Lorre attending Bela Lugosi's funeral. He looked at (into?) the casket and said

"Maybe we should drive a stake through his heart...just to be sure."

It's funnier if you say it like him.

And all the better if you can do it without lapsing into a series of Ren and Stimpy jokes. I, for one, cannot.
posted by jquinby at 6:51 AM on September 16, 2009


From the Ghostbusters trailer, there's a link to The Ghost Busters intro from the live-action show that ran from 1975 to 1976, and featured a gorilla. I thought there was a Ghostbusters show in the 1980s from T&C with Thrilla Gorilla, but all I'm finding is Filmation's Ghostbusters (intro), which is takes from the 1975/6 show.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:17 AM on September 16, 2009


What it shows is how Raiders really did owe its existence to a long line of movie tradition. If you tried to do the same thing with Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skulls you'd have about a 10 second trailer. CGI wackiness doesn't really derive from the form. If I wanted an over-the-top stuntfest, I'd go watch SuperDave.
posted by rikschell at 7:23 AM on September 16, 2009 [1 favorite]


So, when the Ghostbusters trailer started floating around the internet a month or so ago, I got really excited, because it reminded me of how much movies from the 80's were drawing on material from the 30's through 50's. Ghostbusters took Abbott and Costello themes and ran with them in a more modern direction. Indiana Jones was an homage to older action serials (as wonderfully shown with the trailer here.) Hell, even Gremlins did a ton of this. I watched the movie recently, and as soon as I saw the Bank lady marching down the street with the snowman's head, I thought of the Wizard of Oz and Elmira Gulch going after Toto.

Anyway, since I noticed this, I want to see more. These trailers are scratching that itch a bit, but any recommendations for 80's films drawing on inspiration from older films?
posted by piratebowling at 7:31 AM on September 16, 2009 [1 favorite]


There's "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" which actually intercuts clips from classic Film Noir.
posted by borges at 9:11 AM on September 16, 2009


The Goonies would be Our Gang for the 80s, I reckon.
posted by entropicamericana at 9:38 AM on September 16, 2009


Nicely done. The technical giveaway (as opposed to the common-sense giveaway): the rotating 3D and elaborate fading transitions on the titles. Classy, but not the kind of thing they did in the old-timey days.
posted by bicyclefish at 10:22 AM on September 16, 2009


There's "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" which actually intercuts clips from classic Film Noir.

There's also the oft-forgotten "Nothing Lasts Forever," which is the inverse of "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid." Instead of great noir scenes, it uses as much generic stock footage as possible. With Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, and many more on a bus trip to the moon to find love and fulfill the prophecy of the Earth's homeless people, who secretly control the world. If only Gilliam would have got a hold of this.

Almost impossible to find in its original version, as the legal mess of paying for distribution rights to the footage is almost impossible. Although, if you look in enough places on the web, you'll find it.
posted by chambers at 11:08 AM on September 16, 2009 [1 favorite]


almost impossible to find an illegitimate version it seems....
posted by imaswinger at 11:40 AM on September 16, 2009


Holy shit, did you just make a Friends of Mr. Cairo reference? I thought I was the only one!

Yes ... yes I did ... I still like that song ... a lot.
posted by bwg at 5:05 PM on September 16, 2009


The wizard of oz is a remake of silent film
posted by fightoplankton at 5:57 PM on September 16, 2009


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