Happy Birthday Candice Rialson !! (Hollywood Boulevard 1976)

"Shamelessly Loaded With Sex And Violence"

Filmed in Super Rama 1:85

   Today is Candice Rialson’s birthday everybody really need to remember this beautiful and talented actress who left us much too early. Born on this day in 1951 she retired from acting in 1979 to raise her family and sadly passed away in 2006 from complication related to illness. She is very missed…..

   Hopefully if you’re reading this blog you know who Candice Rialson is (If you don’t, we need to fix that ASAP). Run out (RUN –don’t walk) and find a copy of Hollywood Boulevard. Its streaming on Netflix & Amazon, plus you can find the New Concorde DVD for dirt cheap – so you really have no excuse (it being Candice's and plus its almost Christmas !). Starting out as a wager between Roger Corman and a bunch of his New World crew (including then trailer cutter & editor Joe Dante and producer Jon Davidson) that they could shoot a “mystery” movie in less than 10 days AND make it cheaper the any other New World picture – Corman promised $80,000, gave them $60,000 “to start off” with the entire thing coming in at around $54,000.

"The Street Where Starlets are Made !"

   A hilarious, delirious and mind boggling combination homage, mockumentry & satire on the world of exploitation/drive in movie making - this is a take-off on a film genre made by people who were actually working in that industry at the time (and obviously made with a ton of love for what they were doing). Following the (mis)adventures of hopeful young starlet Candy Wednesday (Rialson) as she arrives in Hollywood, hooks up with agent Walter Paisley (a scene stealing performance by Dick Miller – using his name from Bucket of Blood) and goes to work for Miracle Pictures (“If it’s good picture – it’s a Miracle!”) under the guidance of manic director Eric Von Leppe (Paul Bartell).

  Overflowing with in jokes on New World & Roger Corman, movie history (pay attention to EVERY characters name) and packed with cameos including Forrest Ackermann & Robbie the Robot among others (plus about every director or director to-be working at New World). Not to mention a whole bunch of footage from New World movies including Death Race 2000, Big Bad Mama, The Hot Box, Crazy Mama, Unholy Rollers, Night Call Nurses among others - all integrated into the plot as Miracle Pictures productions with the highlights being Candice doing David Carradine from Death Race 2000 and the hilarious send-up of Filipino action films The Machete Girls of Mora Tau.

   Complete with a wet t-shirt contest, a serial killer knocking off starlets, Dick Miller watching himself in The Terror at a drive-In, Jonathan Demme in a Godzilla costume (or “Godzina” – how the heck did THIS get by Toho!!) and a WTF did this come from performance by Commander Cody And His Lost Planet Airmen. 
  Candice is truly amazing in this film- a beguiling combination of wide eyed innocence, deft comedy timing and playful sexuality. She made an indelible impression in every role in her all too brief career including the somewhat demented Pets from 1974, Summer School Teachers (1974) & 1977’s Chatterbox (which concerns exactly what the title implies). She also has a great little role in The Eiger Sanction (1975) as a flirtatious student of Clint Eastwood.

"If It's a Good Picture - It's a Miracle !"