Here’s the second installment in Something Weird’s collection of drive-in snipes, intermission ads, and concession stand commercials. I don’t think it’s as good as Vol. 1, but I am certainly glad it exists, if only as a time capsule and/or piece of film history.
The first hour or so mainly consists of holiday commercials and Season’s Greetings interstitials that would play in movie theaters in between the features. Most of these are from the ‘50s, but there are a couple that come from the ‘30s as well. The best ones are the Christmas Seals ads starring such celebrities as Rosemary Clooney and Virginia Mayo. Too bad the overabundance of holiday ads get tiresome after a while (especially the New Year’s ones). I guess it wouldn’t have been so bad if many of them didn’t reuse the same animation and footage from the previous year’s ads. I mean, you can only stomach so many “Auld Lang Syne” sing-a-longs in one sitting. Maybe if I had watched it in December and was looking to get myself into the holiday spirit, I would’ve felt differently. It just didn’t hit the same in February.
Fortunately, the last half-hour contains some terrific concession stand ads and vintage commercials. I especially liked the Vespa commercials and the Budweiser ad starring Ed McMahon. The “Show Starts in _____ Minutes” commercials were also a real treat. I think my favorite ad though was the trippy 2001-inspired Sprite commercial. Although there are a couple of print ads for films here and there, the only real coming attraction is fittingly enough for Drive-In, which ends the compilation on a high note.
I think this might’ve gotten a *** review had there not been so many damned holiday ads. Then again, this might just be the thing to put on in the background at your next New Year’s party. Either way, it’s a solid, if unspectacular addition to the Something Weird compilation library.
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