the ones I recall the best (back from the motion picture machine operator days) was a double feature I was happy to show at the Spanish Drive In in Pueblo, Colorado. In the summer, these were Events. All the families would pile in the car because it was a buck a car. (The money was made at the concession stand, as it is today, by the way...I went to see As Good As It Gets last week, medium popcorn 3 bucks, medium Sprite 2 bucks. Nice markup; the most expensive ingredient in the popcorn is the box; it costs two cents)
I recall one particular time; a fine western starring Antonio Aguilar with his beautiful white horse and his guitar; I liked (and still do) the songs he sang but didn't (still don't) understand the words, and a very bizarre action/mystery film set in "modern day" Mexico with Vampires and Wrestlers. The Wrestlers were the good guys, the Main Wrestler drove an Austin Healey and he had a couple of midget wrestler helpers that could get into buildings easily. The vampires could hypnotize someone by looking at her from outside on the patio and then she got the blood sucked out of her and became a Mexican Vampire and fought the Wrestlers.
All the Spanish movies I showed had some things in common; death, (violent), more death (not violent) romance (usually a white top and nice chi chis with a black shirt and cowboy hat and guitar), horses (don't know why), old ladies yapping about something really important (no old men unless they were clowns) and a party. Always always a party. A Big Fiesta, with more singing and guitars and horses and drinking and lots of dancing and sometimes midget wrestlers. I even showed a Science Fiction movie once that had Midget Wrestlers From Another Planet. The weirdest one I ever saw was a religious film where the angels had real wings and gold dishes behind their heads. It seemed fine up the the point where Jesus started speaking Spanish. That's when I knew it was phony. |
