In this faithful remake of Ernst Lubitsch's 1942 classic, Mel Brooks and his wife Anne Bancroft play the Bronskis - successful stage stars in Poland on the cusp of WWII. They're about to be dealt a blow when Hitler's troops come marching into Warsaw and take over their home and theater. But these Bronskis and their troop of actors are a plucky bunch, and hatch a plan to rescue friends, foil a double agent and escape Poland with a cadre of frightened Jews. Will they make it out safely?
This is not one of Brooks' best known films, but it's got a lot of charm and does a nice job of adding socially relevant content of the 1980's to the storyline. Look for James Haake as Anna Bronski's dresser and a gay victim of Nazi oppression.
This film is remembered by a small group of fans, but is somewhat forgotten by the general public. It is available on DVD and can be found in full on YouTube, but is rarely screened on TV. The trailer is above, uploaded to YouTube by alifeatthemovies.
Obscurity factor: 2 (somewhat remembered, though not iconic, available on DVD & YouTube)
Before the Airplane franchise that revitalized Leslie Nielsen's career there was this 1976 disaster movie parody. The Big Bus had it all - action, suspense, danger... On the cutting edge of technology, the nuclear powered Cyclops is the first luxury bus. For its maiden run - a non stop trip from New York to Denver - after a bomb wipes out the driver and co-driver the team turns to Dan Torrence (Joseph Bologna), a promising bus driver with a dark incident in his past that kiboshed his brilliant career. The film follows the progress of the enormous Cyclops as it navigates the route to Denver and a minefield of attempts to sideline it by a group of oil sheiks and Iron Man, a diabolical villain in an iron lung. Also featured in the cast are a veritable who's who of 70's Hollywood actors - Ned Beatty, Lynn Redgrave, Sally Kellerman, Larry Hagman, Richard Mulligan Jose Ferrer and the irrepressible Ruth Gordon.
The centerpiece of the action is the bus itself - an articulated double decker affair with 32 wheels, wrap around windows and a graphic, orange and yellow paint scheme. It was fitted out with an amazing assortment of features, including automatic, enroute tire changer and flags of the world that sprang from the roof at the touch of a button. Inside were found a cocktail lounge, captains dining room, swimming pool and bowling alley. Here, in a clip uploaded to YouTube by clipfilmix we see the bus making its first appearance:
If you enjoy disaster movies, or parodies of them, then The Big Bus is a must see.
Obscurity factor: 4 (available on DVD, rarely shown on television, footage available on YouTube, recent enough to still be remembered by many)
