Cereal At Midnight: Pop Culture in Analog

Buckle up and prepare for Turbo Boost as we talk to Nick Nugent, the author of THE KNIGHT RIDER COMPANION !  Learn the origins of K.I.T.T. and hear behind-the-scenes stories about creator Glen A. Larson and David Hasselhoff as we take a shadowy flight into the world of a man who does not exist! knightridercompanion.com NRNDesign.com Facebook.com/KnightRiderCompanion @KRCompanion on Twitter and Instagram Order the book at: Amazon Barnes and Noble Black Pawn Press Stay up to date on everything happening with Cereal At Midnight with these links: CerealAtMidnight.com Shop: CerealAtMidnight.Threadless.com Ebay.com/usr/cerealatmidnight Patreon.com/CerealAtMidnight Facebook.com/CerealMidnight Twitter: CerealMidnight Instagram: CerealMidnight Letterboxd: CerealAtMidnite

1972's King Boxer , better known to U.S. kung fu fans as Five Fingers of Death,  is one of the more iconic entries in the seventies martial arts cycle. The moment the film begins, pop culture vultures will recognize the splashy red title screen accompanied by the distinct siren-like musical cue that millions of viewers know from Kill Bill , but that originated here (or more accurately, in the title sequence of the TV drama Ironside ). Furthermore, many of these Asian fighting flicks tend to repeat many of the same plots and action beats from movie to movie--one of many similarities to spaghetti westerns--but King Boxer  looms large in the pantheon as the grandfather of so much that was to follow. Part of this is because it was smartly exported to multiple markets by the Shaw Brothers and became a smash hit all over world, but especially in America where audiences were just starting their love affair with these hyper-violent tales of revenge and honor. In fact, it was the Warner Br

Hitting screens just months after a star-making splash in the Elvis vehicle Viva Las Vegas,  1964's Kitten with a Whip  is a showcase for Ann-Margret. The Swedish-American actress had already been in State Fair  and Bye Bye Birdie,  establishing herself as an up-and-coming sensation for the teen set, but if her celebrity status was confirmed by her big-screen romp with Elvis, then Kitten with a Whip  cemented her budding reputation as a sixties sex symbol.  In Kitten with a Whip , the actress plays Jody, an escaped reform school student who is literally on the run when we first meet her. Chased by guards, she manages to dodge her pursuers and escape to a suburban neighborhood where she ducks into a house, wanders into a child's room, and collapses into the empty bed. It's precisely then that the owner arrives: a political candidate named David (John Forsythe, TV's Bachelor Father, best remembered as the disembodied voice of Charles Townsend on Charlie's Angels...&qu

The latest releases from Imprint Films have arrived at Cereal At Midnight headquarters and they are HOT! Could this be the best batch of releases from Imprint so far? Check out the video to find out why Heath thinks so! Order yours at viavision.com.au , JBHiFi.com.au , or in the U.S. from DeepDiscount.com and DiabolikDVD.com CerealAtMidnight.com Shop: CerealAtMidnight.Threadless.com Ebay.com/usr/cerealatmidnight Patreon.com/CerealAtMidnight Facebook.com/CerealMidnight Twitter: CerealMidnight Instagram: CerealMidnight Letterboxd: CerealAtMidnite

Created at the pinnacle of the political paranoia thriller trend, 1974's The Parallax View is one of many tales to confide that we are being watched, controlled, and manipulated by shadowy forces. Such paranoia has been around for ages, but it seems to have reached a fever pitch during the seventies against the backdrop of Watergate and a total erosion of faith with our leaders, coupled with a sense of dread as faceless corporations achieved more power than anyone had previously imagined.  The Parallax View  stars Warren Beatty ( Dick Tracy ) as a reporter and a former-alcoholic who is one of the witnesses of a political assassination. Three years after the murder, six of those witnesses have turned up dead: from Beatty's cynical and disinterested perspective, the deaths are easily explained: heart attacks, accidents, nothing suspicious. But when his friend (Paula Prentiss) believes she's uncovered a conspiracy and then herself ends up dead, Beatty can't deny that his o

1955 was a big year for Roger Corman. He made his directorial debut (the western Five Guns West ) and proceeded to direct or co-direct no less than four films that year, culminating with Day the World Ended  at the end of '55. There are no shortage of post-nuke movies to come out of the Cold War paranoia of the 1950s, but this is Corman's mid-fifties take on the same subject matter that would soon be revisited in movies like The Last Man on Earth  and The World, The Flesh and the Devil .  In the film, humanity has largely eradicated itself with the atomic bomb. A few survivors remain in the post-nuclear fallout; some huddle together, trying to isolate themselves away from the dangers of the outside world and the mutants that wander the ruins. Others travel in search of shelter, provisions, and maybe finding others who can help.  It's here that our story begins and we meet our small cast of characters. Paul Birch ( Queen of Outer Space, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance ) is

Cereal At Midnight's Westerns Spotlight series returns! Saddle up, pard'ner, our cattle drive through one of cinema's most prolific and beloved genres continues!  Western Spotlight Vol. 1 The Naked Spur Review Quantez Review CerealAtMidnight.com Shop: CerealAtMidnight.Threadless.com Ebay.com/usr/cerealatmidnight Patreon.com/CerealAtMidnight Facebook.com/CerealMidnight Twitter: CerealMidnight Instagram: CerealMidnight Letterboxd: CerealAtMidnite

Welcome to CLASSIC FILM FLAVORS, a new series in which Heath is joined by Golden Age super fan Vanessa Buttino! In our inaugural episode, we discuss Mae West, Hitchcock, and some truly shocking pre-Code craziness.  If you like what you see, the party doesn't stop here: after the episode ended, we kept the cameras rolling for a 15-minute chat about Angels with Dirty Faces, the current state of classic film fandom, and the shocking number of restorations being released on disc. This extra content is available EXCLUSIVELY on Patreon! (Patreon.com/CerealAtMidnight) Follow Vanessa on Twitter @VanessaButtino  Be sure to check out other videos with Vanessa: Was Thelma Todd Murdered? Hollywood, the Mob, and an Unsolved Mystery Cancel This! An Open Discussion About Cancel Culture British Holiday TV Specials High Fidelity: Is the Series Better Than the Film? Pre-Code Primer: Exploring the Allure of Forbidden Hollywood CerealAtMidnight.com Shop: CerealAtMidnight.Threadless.com Ebay.com/usr/ce

Waylon Jennings was not only a leading figure of the outlaw country movement, he was also one of the few true mavericks who helped to establish it in the first place, opening the door for countless other musicians to look like they wanted and to play music like they wanted. But it wasn't just his long hair and beard that made him an outlaw, or the fact that his songs often had one foot in rock and roll (he was, after all, a protege of Buddy Holly and was fired from a disc jockey job after playing two Little Richard records in a row); Jennings never was one to bow to conformity, and had no interest in bowing to anyone's expectations.  But before his outlaw fame, he was just a young, clean-cut and pompadoured performer trying to make a living singing the music that he loved.  Now Cherry Red Records has released four of Waylon's earliest and hardest-to-find albums on two CDs, complete with new liner notes by Tony Byworth, who provides necessary context for this period of the

Chang Cheh was one of the most famed and prolific directors of martial arts cinema, composing ballets of violence and blood-spattered brawls in a way that was both artful and pleasing to the masses. 1975's Disciples of Shaolin  represents something of an anomaly in his ouvre in that it's more of a drama than outright battle film, though when the action arrives, the gore isn't far behind.  At the center of the film is Alexander Fu Sheng, a young star (emphasis on star ) who embodies all of the cocky confidence and swagger of Bruce Lee infused with the comedic timing and charm of Jackie Chan. In this film, he plays a poor traveller that has come into town seeking his brother, who works at the local textiles plant. He soon learns that the company his brother works for is at war with another rival textile factory who seeks to overtake the business and force a monopoly. The authorities are no help, and therefore it's up to the workers to fight back and stop this hostile take

1978's The Toolbox Murders  comes near the very end of the seventies grindhouse horror scene, arriving amidst the glut of ultra-low-budget shock-fests that followed 1974's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre , but still predating the slasher cycle that would dominate the 1980s. The title is deceptively simple, though accurate: a ski-masked killer stalks an apartment complex and kills women with implements from his box of tools, including a nail gun, a hammer, and a drill. Freud would have a field day with that symbolism, but is there more to this Video Nasty than meets the eye?  On the page, The Toolbox Murders  is not particularly remarkable. It was conceived--as all exploitation movies are--primarily as a way to make money. The producers had seen the wild success of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and wanted in on the box office action themselves, so they crafted a story that could be shot with a very small budget (reportedly somewhere between $165,000 and $200,000) and brought to life