Hollywood Boulevard

Hollywood Boulevard (1976)

The street where starlets are made!

A Midwestern ingenue arrives in Hollywood to try her luck as an actress. An incompetent agent hooks her up with a production company which specializes in low budget B-movie fare, which starts being plagued by strange, deadly accidents.

Date of release
1976-04-25
TMDB
5.6 / 10 (50)
Runtime
1h 23m
Genres
Comedy
Director
Joe Dante, Allan Arkush
Collection
Hollywood Boulevard Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

Hollywood Boulevard is a 1976 American satirical exploitation film directed by Allan Arkush and Joe Dante, and starring Candice Rialson, Paul Bartel, and Mary Woronov. It follows an aspiring actress who has just arrived in Los Angeles, only to be hired by a reckless B movie film studio where she bears witness to a series of gruesome and fatal on-set accidents. The film blends elements of the comedy, thriller, and slasher film genres.

Production

The film came out of a bet made between producer Jon Davison and Roger Corman that Davison could make a film cheaper than any other that had been made at New World Pictures. Corman granted him a budget of $60,000 and only allowed ten days of shooting instead of the usual 15. The filmmakers achieved this by coming up with a story about a B-movie studio which could incorporate footage from other movies that Corman owned.

According to the audio commentary on the film's DVD by Joe Dante, Jon Davison and Allan Arkush, Roger Corman originally wanted Roberta Collins to play the lead, but they fought for Candice Rialson. Diabolique magazine argued that "I'm a Collins fan, but it was the right decision because Rialson brings not just looks and comic timing, but also a plucky underdog persona that is immensely appealing."

Paul Bartel credits the film with launching his acting career. He later said they were worried the film would not be long enough so they improvised a series of "TV interviews" in which each of the major characters sketches in something of his background.

Mary Woronov was cast in the film based on her performance in Death Race 2000 (1975), another film produced by New World Pictures.

Dante, Davison and Arkush also state the part of producer PG was turned down by Barry Gordon and Dwayne Hickman, and that Rita George was dating Dean Martin during filming.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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