The Phynx | |
---|---|
Directed by | Lee H. Katzin |
Written by | Bob Booker Stan Cornyn George Foster |
Produced by | Bob Booker George Foster |
Starring | Michael A. Miller Ray Chippeway Dennis Larden Lonny (Lonnie) Stevens |
Cinematography | Michel Hugo |
Edited by | Dann Cahn |
Music by | Mike Stoller |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
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Running time | 81 minutes |
Language | English |
The Phynx is a 1970 American comedy film directed by Lee H. Katzin [1] about a rock and roll band named The Phynx and their mission in foreign affairs. The group is sent to Albania to locate celebrity hostages taken prisoner by Communists. The last part of the film, supposedly set in Albania, was filmed in the Spanish city of Ávila, recognizable by its medieval walls.
This turned out to be the final film appearance for several of the veteran performers in the cast, including Leo Gorcey, George Tobias and Marilyn Maxwell.
Four young men, the members of the Phynx rock group, are assigned to recover a number of famous American citizens that have been lured to Albania and then trapped behind a tall wall, threatened by the country’s solitary tank, and cannot leave. The Phynx must find the secret map to infiltrate the castle. It is printed in parts on three different women’s stomachs in three different European countries. To discover the girls marked with the maps, the Phynx must have sex with hundreds of girls. Their labors are lessened when in Rome they are given X-ray glasses, which visually strip the girls down to their underwear. Finally, the four get into the castle and hatch a plot to hide the celebrities in wagons of radishes, topple the enclosing wall with hundreds of electric guitars, and escape.
The Phynx received an extremely limited release, and has since become an obscure, rarely seen cult film; bootleg copies for many years turned up on auction websites before Warner Archive officially released the film on DVD in October 2012. [2]
This was Gorcey and Hall's final time they appeared in a film together; the duo made dozens of films together as The Dead End Kids, East Side Kids, and The Bowery Boys from the 1930s to the 1950s. [3]
The Dead End Kids were a group of young actors from New York City who appeared in Sidney Kingsley's Broadway play Dead End in 1935. In 1937, producer Samuel Goldwyn brought all of them to Hollywood and turned the play into a film. They proved to be so popular that they continued to make movies under various monikers, including the Little Tough Guys, the East Side Kids, and the Bowery Boys, until 1958.
Henry Richard "Huntz" Hall was an American radio, stage, and movie performer who appeared in the popular "Dead End Kids" movies, including Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), and in the later "Bowery Boys" movies, during the late 1930s to the late 1950s.
Bowery Blitzkrieg is a 1941 film and the sixth installment of the East Side Kids series. The film "introduced" Huntz Hall in his first of the East Side Kids film series.
Stanley Clements was an American actor and comedian, best known for portraying "Stash" in the East Side Kids film series, and group leader Stanislaus "Duke" Coveleskie in The Bowery Boys film series.
Leo Bernard Gorcey was an American stage and film actor, famous for portraying the leader of a group of hooligans known variously as the Dead End Kids, the East Side Kids and, as adults, The Bowery Boys. Gorcey was famous for his use of malapropisms, such as "I depreciate it!" instead of "I appreciate it!"
The Little Tough Guys were a group of actors who made a series of films and serials released by Universal Studios from 1938 through 1943. Many of them were originally part of The Dead End Kids, and several of them later became members of The East Side Kids and The Bowery Boys.
Spooks Run Wild is a 1941 American horror comedy film and the seventh film in the East Side Kids series. It stars Bela Lugosi with Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan and Huntz Hall. It is directed by Phil Rosen, in his first and only outing in the series, and produced by Sam Katzman. The original script is by Carl Foreman and Charles R. Marion.
Clancy Street Boys is a 1943 comedy film directed by William Beaudine and starring the East Side Kids. It is Beaudine's first film with the team; he would direct several more in the series and many in the Bowery Boys canon. Leo Gorcey married the female lead Amelita Ward. There is no mention of "Clancy Street" in the film, but a rival gang at Cherry Street appears at the beginning and climax of the film.
The Bowery Boys are fictional New York City characters, portrayed by a company of New York actors, who were the subject of 48 feature films released by Monogram Pictures and its successor Allied Artists Pictures Corporation from 1946 through 1958.
Hot Shots is a 1956 American comedy film starring The Bowery Boys. The film was released on December 23, 1956 by Monogram Pictures and is the forty-third film in the series. It was directed by Jean Yarbrough and written by Jack Townley.
Smart Alecks is a 1942 American film directed by Wallace Fox and starring the East Side Kids.
News Hounds is a 1947 American comedy film directed by William Beaudine and starring the comedy team of The Bowery Boys. It is the seventh film in the series produced by Monogram Pictures.
Bowery Buckaroos is a 1947 American comedy film directed by William Beaudine and starring the comedy team of The Bowery Boys. It is the eighth film in the series and the last Bowery Boys film that Bobby Jordan appeared in.
Blues Busters is a 1950 American comedy film directed by William Beaudine and starring The Bowery Boys. The film was released on October 29, 1950 by Monogram Pictures and is the twentieth film in the series.
Bowery Battalion is a 1951 comedy film directed by William Beaudine and starring The Bowery Boys. The film was released on January 24, 1951, by Monogram Pictures and is the twenty-first film in the series.
Crazy Over Horses is a 1951 comedy film starring The Bowery Boys. The film was released on November 18, 1951 by Monogram Pictures and is the twenty-fourth film in the series.
Crashing Las Vegas is a 1956 American comedy film directed by Jean Yarbrough and starring the comedy team The Bowery Boys. The film was released on April 22, 1956 by Allied Artists and is the 41st film in the series. It was the last of the series to star Leo Gorcey.
Fighting Trouble is a 1956 American comedy film directed by George Blair and starring The Bowery Boys. It was released on September 16, 1956, by Allied Artists. The 42nd film in the Bowery Boys series, it was the first to feature Stanley Clements.
The East Side Kids were characters in a series of 22 films released by Monogram Pictures from 1940 through 1945. The series was a low-budget imitation of the Dead End Kids, a successful film franchise of the late 1930s.
Second Fiddle to a Steel Guitar is a 1965 American musical film directed by Victor Duncan, and is notable for the reunion of Bowery Boys Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall. The film was released on September 15, 1965, by the independent Marathon Pictures.
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