DRIVE-IN DELIRIUM: ‘60S AND ‘70S SAVAGERY (2017) *** ½

Clocking in at a whopping six hours-plus, Drive-In Delirium:  ‘60s and ‘70s Savagery is a trailer compilation junkie’s wet dream.  It’s jam-packed with previews for all kinds of exploitation, horror, and drive-in fare.  The first part features nearly two hours of trailers from the ‘60s; mostly genre classics and/or little-seen gems.  Some of the trailers are British, and it’s interesting to see the films being sold in a more respectable manner than their American counterparts.  

Most times with these trailer compilations, I give a rundown of the featured trailers.  If I did that with this one, I’d be here all day.  Because of that, I’ll just limit myself to a small sampling of the delights you’ll see.  We have a nice mix of horror (House of Usher, The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, The Conqueror Worm), Hammer (Dracula-Prince of Darkness, The Plague of the Zombies, The Devil’s Bride), spy movies (The Quiller Memorandum, Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die, Deadlier Than the Male), and Sci-Fi (The First Men in the Moon, Robinson Crusoe on Mars, Fantastic Invasion of Planet Earth) that should please any fan of every genre.

The second, much longer section is devoted to the ‘70s and includes such genres as Blaxploitation (Trouble Man, Black Caesar, Slaughter), horror (Wicked Wicked, Seizure, Deranged, The Reincarnation of Peter Proud, Grizzly, Rabid), telekinetic hijinks (Carrie, The Fury, Patrick), vampires (Andy Warhol’s Dracula, Count Dracula’s Great Love, Vampyres), Hammer (Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb, Twins of Evil, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell), Vincent Price (Scream and Scream Again, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Dr. Phibes Rises Again), sexploitation (Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, The Lickerish Quartet, Salon Kitty), action (Assault on Precinct 13, Vanishing Point, The Mechanic), westerns (The Magnificent Seven Ride, Bite the Bullet, Keoma), and Sci-Fi (Capricorn One, Star Crash, and Star Trek:  The Motion Picture).  While many of the trailers are relatively tame compared to other compilations, there’s still a decent amount of sleaze here.  In fact, my favorite trailer of the bunch (for Amuck) PROMISES it has been cut, but pretty much shows you everything you’d want to see, and then some.  We also get some choice vintage intermission and pre-show ads.  (My favorite was the commercial for Camel cigarettes.)

What separates this collection from many other trailer comps out there is the quality of the trailers themselves.  I’m not talking about whether they’re any good or not.  I mean the picture quality is often stunning.  (Don’t worry, there are still a few prints that are scratchy as fuck, which is always endearing to me.)  They have been preserved for all times in high definition by the good folks at Umbrella, and for that, genre fans everywhere should be grateful.  

I will be the first to admit, the running time is a little unwieldy.  As much as I love movie trailers, this collection quickly became a tad numbing.  I had to break it up over several nights, and even then, I could only watch about forty-five minutes to an hour before my head started spinning.  That’s a good thing though as Drive-In Delirium:  ‘60s and ‘70s Savagery is proof that you can’t get too much of a good thing… if you just pace yourself.