HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD, released today

Released on this day--20 Feb.--in 1976, HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD. The movie was the result of a wager; producer Jon Davison bet the always-tight-budgeted Roger Corman that he and the usual gang of nuts at Corman's New World Pictures could make a movie cheaper than anything the studio had yet done. Corman gave them a peanuts budget and schedule, said "hate at it." The result was an incredibly funny in-joke-filled movie directed by Joe Dante and Allan Arkush and starring basically whoever was around at the time, set at a cheapie studio spoofing New World and following an aspiring actress who goes to work there and ends up in the midst of a murder mystery, to boot. The gang threw in everything and the kitchen sink, having their actors interact with spectacular footage from perhaps a dozen NW pictures. At one point, Joe Dante randomly included a candy-colored chase-scene lifted from--and expressing his appreciation for--Mario Bava's BARON BLOOD. For the initiated, every moment is a delight; for everyone else, it's just a damn fun, funny movie.

"Welcome to Miracle Pictures, where they make a picture a week. And if it's a good picture, it's a MIRACLE!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9u1JvMtQhM