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Background

After the successful premiere of the Elvis film, Don’t Let a Good Thing Die, at the 2nd Annual Elvis Presley Birthday Party on January 8, 1984, Walt and I began to seriously discuss a new film project: a Clint Eastwood parody. The idea was to create a film that lampooned all of the Spaghetti Westerns, Dirty Harry detective stories, and other Eastwood films. Like the Elvis film, I envisioned a film that would do for Clint Eastwood what High Anxiety did for Alfred Hitchcock...a satirical overview of all his films tied together into a new action-packed story. Thus, the Magnum era was born.

The whole Eastwood idea really came from Matt Poppel and Jim Callan. Matt for years had recited the lines from The Good, the Bad, the Ugly (GBU) with Stan Hall and anyone else who would listen. With the new Dirty Harry movie, Sudden Impact, in all the DC theaters, he added Harry to his repertoire. Jim Callan was also a long-time Clint fan and began to lead the pack with his Clint impersonations. Walt and I would speak to these guys on the phone daily with Dirty Harry/Man-With-No-Name lines and accents mixed in. I can’t tell you how many times I said to Jim, "No one puts ketchup on a hotdog," and "Go ahead, make my day." Most of these lines would eventually work their way into the script. Jim Callan’s impersonation of Eastwood gave us the core of our film...the character "Dirty Jimmy."

My first task was to watch as many of the Eastwood films as I could rent from Erol’s Video or catch on TV. I took notes on various dialogue, scenes, and characters that would be ideal for the new story. Walt’s encyclopedic memory of Eastwood films and other action flicks also helped us develop a story line quickly. Unlike the Elvis film, this movie was partially scripted and was the first of our films to have post-synched dialogue. In a pattern that we used in later films, the script evolved during the production and sometimes while we were actually filming. My role in all of this was to keep it organized, translate Walt’s ideas to reality, and to provide ample Eastwood spoof material. Walt was more concerned with developing good action scenes, strange dialogue, and interesting camera angles.

As with the Elvis film, Walt had the starring role as the chief villain, Indio Von Steuben, an East German Terrorist. The name Indio was taken from the hashish smoking villain of the Eastwood spaghetti western, For a Few Dollars More. We used the last name, Von Steuben, to give him Teutonic heritage reminiscent of another Eastwood film, Where Eagles Dare.

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The following plot summary was included in the program for the premiere of Magnum Opus and sums up the plot quite well:

FIST FULL OF MAGNUM (1985) James Callan, Curt Canada, Walt O’Hara.

Brilliant Scientist leaves plans for Super Solar Chip to his six sons. Crazed German Terrorist I. Von Steuben (O’Hara) and homicidal gang murder sons to get plans. San Francisco PD Anti-Terrorism expert "Dirty Jimmy" Callanhan (Callan) is called in as consultant by Mayor (Canada). Bullets fly; mayhem ensues. Bit parts by Bob Sargent, Glynis Astier (nee Irwin), Mike Fekete.

I came up with the original title of this film: Fist Full of Clints. Since the movie was a spoof of Clint movies, I thought his name should be in the title. All early versions of the script have the old title (i.e., See Appendix A for a copy of the original script). Walt hated the title and thought it had sexual overtones (i.e., his one moment of cinematic puritanism). So we compromised on Fist Full of Magnums and the rest is history.

The original script was only an outline to guide us through this project. Being the packrat that I am, I saved a copy of the original script that reveals a very different story than the final film (see Appendix A). The original script was very complicated. Walt and I pared it down to something that was possible to produce on a modest budget with few actors. Some of the scenes we cut out of this script were used in Magnum Opus (i.e., the subway murder and tying the guy to the train tracks). Some of the characters we cut out of the script would have been interesting, however, their significance to the plot development was questionable (i.e., Mortimer, Sam Rojo). A significant change was to call the main character "Dirty Jimmy" rather than "Harry." Thus, "Dirty Jimmy" was born and the "Magnum franchise" established.

The overall theme of the project was always the same with the Baxter boys getting killed, Dirty Jimmy following the trail of the killers, and the hero defeating the bad guys in the Finale. In retrospect, Dr. Baxter's invention to stop the energy crisis that was the cause for all the killing seems a little out of step for the mid-80's (i.e., Walt and I grew up in the 70’s with gas lines and OPEC). The story does hold together well and has a lot more humor than the original script.

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The following table, FFM Eastwood References, provides a guide to the FFM plot Eastwood film rip-offs

Other stuff that I wanted to work into the plot but failed to include:

· A monkey to represent the Eastwood Any Which Way But Loose films.

· Poisoned mushrooms from The Beguiled.

· Dirty Jimmy singing like Clint in Paint Your Wagon.

· Dynamite scene from Two Mules for Sister Sara.

· "When the music stops, we begin" line before the shoot-out from For A Few Dollars More.

· Jimmy to be shot at and saved by plate in shirt like Clint in Fist Full of Dollars.

· A car chase like the one included in every "Dirty Harry" film.

· Blowing someone up with a bazooka like the end of The Enforcer.

• The line "a man’s got to know his limitations" from Magnum Force.

Here is sampling of some memorable lines from this film:

• 1. Dirty Jimmy to the audience in the opening scene:

"The following film contains scenes of graphic violence. If you wish to leave the theatre, you may do so now. Try it and I’ll blow your heads clean off."

2. Baxter boy to the lady assassin as they enter the cemetery in the Baxter killing at cemetery scene:

• "Kinky, how’d you know I’ve been dying to try this?"

3. Dirty Jimmy repeats this in several scenes:

4. Dirty Jimmy and Mayor Connors:

5. Indio to Sue Baxter after he drugs her:

 

Indio: "Sleep, my lovely."

6. Girl Assassin to Dirty Jimmy:

7. Indio to Dirty Jimmy:

8. Indio talking to his thugs in the Finale at the cemetery:

9. "Man with no name" talking to Indio and his thugs in the Finale at the cemetery:

10. Indio to Dirty Jimmy:

Walt and I paid homage to the Langley Punks (a local group of amateur filmakers, not unlike us, but a lot better at it with bigger budgets and better movies) in this film. We both loved their films (i.e., especially Hyattsville Holiday) and thought some of their ideas would fit in this film. The previous year, we made a short film called Huntington Holiday (i.e., not even close to the quality of Hyattsville Holiday). In tribute, we included a few Little Tavern scenes and we opened the film with the location of Dr. Baxter’s lab: "Somewhere in a basement in Hyattsville, Maryland."

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The casting of Fist Full of Magnum (FFM) fell into four major categories: lead characters, killers, victims and other supporting characters. The lead characters were the hero, Dirty Jimmy (Callan), and the chief villain, Indio (O'Hara). The successful portrayal of these characters was crucial to the success or failure of the story. Jim Callan had recently taken an acting course and was very knowledgeable about Clint Eastwood films and mannerisms. Walt on the other hand was the master of facial expressions and physical mannerisms. He really knew how to add depth to a story with his scenery chewing mannerisms, facial expressions, and body language. In both cases, the performances were terrific. In short, the talents of these two guys carried this picture.

The second category of killers was an interesting array of acting talents. To be designated a victim or killer for this film came down to one rule: killers could be men or women; victims could only be men. With a few exceptions (i.e., Glynis), Walt and I would decide who was what the day before the shoot. If we had a woman who wanted to be in the film (i.e., and they agreed to spend their Saturday or Sunday afternoon with a couple of hungover filmmakers), they would be cast as the killers (i.e., Sylvia Werner, Naomi Pfefferman). If it were guys, we usually picked the guy who looked and dressed more demented (i.e., Mike Stewart). The punks (i.e., Mike Maider and Bill Budai) who Dirty Jimmy fights with in two scenes in the film are a special class of killers.

The killer everyone remembers after viewing FFM was Glynis Irwin (later Astier)...the cold-hearted killer who survives her encounter with "Dirty Jimmy." She was the sexy villainous follower of Indio (later named Tura Satana in Bloody Magnum) who killed one of the Baxter boys and fought Dirty Jimmy in the conclusion (i.e., Dirty Jimmy won). Dressed in black, displaying her skill with a knife, she was a great film villainess.

The first time I met Glynis, Walt and I were at the old 9:30 club. As Walt and I walked out the hall at the end of a performance of the Fleshtones, Walt looked at a girl dressed in black standing against the wall and asked her how she was doing. Her response was to take out her knife and display her culinary skills (i.e., She didn’t cut with the knife…just a little flipping around of the knife). I felt like I was watching some biker film. The whole incident blew my mind until Walt told me he knew her.

FFM included the first of our Big Finales, where "Dirty Jimmy" defeats the main villain and a large number of thugs. The killers in the FFM Finale included Glynis; an earlier presented thug, Mike Stewart; and a group of gun-toting goons. This scene is well paced and provides some of the best examples of our spoofing of the Eastwood myth.

The third category of character in this film was the victim. As previously mentioned, the victim was usually someone who was male with only a few lines and mostly grunts. By far, the best victim in this film was Jonathan White, who provided a great performance as Glynis Irwin's prey in the cemetery killing scene. His look of fear was very convincing...maybe he was really nervous about Glynis carrying a knife! Bob Sargent performed a good death scene in the nun with a gun scene. George Marcou's Super-8 debut as the aged Dr. Baxter was quite good as well. He feigned a heart attack and was smothered very convincingly by Indio (disguised as a priest). Other victims included Rob Jenkins, Mike Fekete, and yes, me.

Although Sue Baxter (Julie Andre) doesn't die in the film she was the number one victim of the Indio's plot. After all, her husband and father-in-law are murdered along with all of her brother-in-laws. Then she is captured by Indio and forced to dig up a grave at gunpoint. If Indio had lived, Ms. Baxter would have contacted a lawyer and sued for damages. All kidding aside, Julie did an admirable job in the key "female victim" role in the film. In the Elvis film, she had made a big impression as "the girl who ran down the steps" of every major building in Washington, D.C. in the opening credits sequence. She was also a very attractive and photogenic person. Although we didn’t develop her character as much as we should have, she filled the shoes of the beautiful heroine and really did quite well in the Glen Echo and the Finale at the cemetery.

The rest of the cast fell in the categories of victim, city official, or murderer/thug. Lynn Sworski as the Chief of Police, Curt Canada as the Mayor, Jonathan White as victim 1, and George Marcou as Dr. Baxter provided standout performances.

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Cast Listing

By Order of Appearance

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Make-up and Props

Make-up and props were Walt’s department for this picture. Because he was involved in theatre productions and apprenticed with a professional make-up artist, he was able to come up with effective make-up that was only surpassed by the make-up/effects he came up with for Bloody Magnums. In the opening scene, he transformed the twenty-something George Marcou into a 60-year-old man by using both facial and hair aging make-up. Other memorable uses of make-up included the graying of Curt Canada's hair to make him look older to fit the role of the DC mayor. Walt also used his famous blood recipe for the first time in the finale for Glynis’ punched lip, Mike Fekete's bloody hand in his death scene, Bob Sargent's bloody shirt in the "nun with a gun scene," and the shooting death of the thugs in the Finale. Apparently, according to the credits for film, Glynis and Sylvia helped with the make-up in this production.

When it came to props for an action film, Larry Russell was the man. He supplied us with all the guns for the shootouts. He generously pulled the necessary items from his vast collection and made the scene a success. In addition, he supervised the use of the guns on the set. He was very safety conscious and we never experienced a mishap in any of our action movies.

We did have a couple lame props in this film. Walt made Dr. Baxter's invention out of an old 8-Track tape, black electrical tape, and some wires. Dirty Jimmy's line at the end of the film summed up the quality of this prop, "All this killing for this piece of junk." The same could be said for the toy gun prop we used in the killing of the Baxter boy at Meridian Hill Park.

FFM was shot with the two Kodak Super-8 cameras I used for the Elvis movie between March 1984 and March 1985. Walt also had a Canon Super-8 camera that he used during this production. The following is a scene-by-scene analysis of the camera work.

This Shooting Outline Table Presents a Shot-by-Shot Analysis of FFM

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1. Alexandria Cemetery Murder: The first scene we shot for FFM is still one of the best sequences in the film, the cemetery murder. A Baxter boy (Jonathan White) picks up a slim female hitchhiker dressed in black (Glynis Irwin), drives to a cemetery at her request for sex, and is stabbed to death. What made this scene work were the actors: Glynis Irwin, who captured the image of the heartless assassin (i.e., a female version of Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange punk) and Jonathan White, who captured the face of a man scared to death. When Glynis pounced on him to deliver the fatal blow, it was like a lioness attacking an elk. Her smug smoking of a cigar to close the scene added to her frightening portrayal. This murder scene is definitely one of my favorite scenes in the film. The scene really clicked when the Dirty Harry music, sound effects, and voices were added in post-production.

2. The Cemetery Finale: The finale began an Armstrong/O’Hara tradition of Walt directing a magnificent scene with typical odd O’Hara script revisions, camera angles, and action without me present. The final scene was supposed to bring as many of the Eastwood clichés together as possible and to tie up all the loose ends of the plot. Since we wrote the script as we filmed, the plot was a little muddled. This was the scene where Dirty Jimmy would be captured, saved by the "Man With No Name" after a Sergio Leone-style shoot-out, and kill Indio, delivering a series of classic Harry lines.

We wanted to film the finale in a cemetery like the GBU. Since the scene was much more complicated than the early cemetery scene, we decided to go the official route and get permission to film. Walt, a long-time Reston resident, called up Herndon Cemetery, the Herndon Government, and the Herndon Police to get the approval. After a series of bureaucratic hurdles and a last-minute near-cancellation by the police, he was able to get approval to film in the Herndon Cemetery. What surprises me to this day is that all the local powers gave permission for Walt and crew to shoot firearms in the cemetery as long as the police were present to check to see if the guns were loaded with blanks. They filled out no forms or paperwork and did not have any type of permit. Walt’s first use of the O’Hara Doctrine: Shoot first and ask forgiveness if they catch you.

After waiting a week to get the film back from Kodak processing, I was delighted to see how Walt had gotten all the scripted elements into his footage. In addition, he added some really strange and significant O'Hara script revisions including: the rip-off line from Blade Runner, when Dirty Jimmy is being prepared for hanging, "I wish I could let you live, Callanhan, but then again who does?;" and the trademark punching of the camera when Dirty Jimmy was being beat-up; and other vintage O'Hara camera work.

This scene also introduced a guy who had made a cameo in our Elvis movie, Don’t Let a Good Thing Die, as the murdered Angolan mercenary: Larry Russell. Larry was the man behind the weaponry used in the shoot-out. He would provide firepower for all the Magnum films as well as brilliant character acting. In this scene, he was one of the thugs killed by Jimmy along the way.

I think what really makes this scene work is the Bond-like characteristics Dirty Jimmy takes on as he jousts with the knife-wielding lady, a strangler, two gun-toting thugs, and Indio and his henchmen. By the end of the scene, the body count is high, with Dirty Jimmy, the survivor, licking his wounds.

The only problem with this scene occurred in post-production. Super 8 film could be displayed at either 18 or 24 frames per second. We discovered that by running the film at 24 frames, the action would be slightly accelerated and the film would appear faster paced and more exciting. Since the film should have been shown at 18 frames per second, the lips move at 18 frames per second. Usually this was not a problem, since most of the lines were short. But when we went to dub the final scene where Dirty Jimmy recites the "Ah ha I know what you are thinking did he fire two shot....; followed up by the "Go Ahead, Make by Day" we didn’t have enough lip movement to use these lines. The solution was to slow the speed of the film down during the showing. This worked while the film was shown by projector but would cause us later grief on the video transfer. Thus, all sound in the film was dubbed at 24 frames per second except these lines that were dubbed at 18 frames per second. On the video version, Jimmy sounds like Mickey Mouse delivering these lines.

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3. Dr. Baxter's Murder: The heart attack and later murder of Dr. Baxter as played by George Marcou donning some of Walt’s old man make-up and Indio (Walt) in disguise as a priest (i.e., Walt seems to like the image of religious figures as villains). Walt is great in this scene.

4. Little Tavern Murder: The killing of Mike Fekete near the Little Tavern in Arlington was turned into a disturbing scene with the help of the beating sound effects. Mike Steward puts in a good performance as the killer. This scene ended with a little interesting shot I experimented with where I shot about four shots of Walt looking through binoculars at the killing. These quick cuts really worked with the "Dirty Harry" music we used in the soundtrack.

5. Glen Echo Park: The amusement park scene has a strange feel to it. The image of Walt carrying the unconscious Julie Andre over his shoulder is memorable. Walt adding the last letter to reveal Cockrell as the "name on the grave" really worked with the finger snapping sound effect. The music was eerie mood music that really gets under your skin.

6. Dirty Jimmy fights the Punk: This scene really captures the "Dirty Harry" nature of Jim’s character. In the scene, he is eating a Little Tavern Burger ("deathball") and sees a woman being robbed by a punk. He quickly puts down his "deathball," stops the robbery, and returns the purse to the woman. Then the punk makes a big mistake by throwing a beer can at Jimmy. This act makes "Jimmy" really mad. His response is quick and to the point: he rubs the punk’s face in the dirt.

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7. Rooftop Fight: This scene developed in the drunken haze of the Irish Times. Jim Callan, Walt, Bob Sargent, Mike Maider, Bill Budai, and I met at the Irish Times. We were not sure where to shoot the loosely scripted fight scene when we arrived. After a few pitchers, realizing that the Redskins were playing Dallas and every cop in town would be glued to their TV, we decided to jump the fence of the construction site next store and film on the incomplete building’s roof. The rooftop fight between Jimmy and the two thugs went well, except Walt almost fell off the building while he was shooting the scene. Walt almost giving his life for FFM sure added some excitement to shooting that day.

1. Jogging Scene: The jogging scene is the classic turkey Walt and I remember in horror. I must take responsibility for this turkey. We had shot much of the story and needed to tie up some loose ends. Because we were not too sure of ourselves with dubbing a long series of dialogue, we went with my suggestion to shoot Julie from the back so that her lips would not show. The problem was that we hadn’t written the dialogue for the scene, so we told her and Jim to just ad-lib. The whole thing is so unnatural, and the dubbing made it worse. The real problem is that the scene is just a distraction and the information we wanted to impart to the audience is lost.

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2. My scenes sucked: The scenes that I acted in the film are very weak. Although my acting is part of the problem, the rest can fall on poor scripting and execution. Ann Stewart (Stewy) is perhaps one of the worst assassins we ever had. She basically looked like a Trinity girl impersonating an assassin when she chased me through an alley with a dopey grin. I save myself by pulling down a fire escape, and the assassin smiles....BAD. The only saving grace is that Walt does his neck-breaking routine using the pencil- breaking to simulate a bone cracking sound effect. Alas, Stewy was a better victim than killer. The Meridian Hill Park scene opening with Jim and me by the beautiful fountain is great. Where the scene bombs is when Indio shoots me with a gun that doesn’t fire, and I fall and die without any blood.

3. Jimmy and Tuco Fight: The attempt on Dirty Jimmy’s life by his female partner, Officer Tuco, did not come out the way I wanted it to. Again, I must take full responsibility for this bad scene, because Walt wasn’t there for this shoot. I think the main problem here was scripting. I provided no build-up for her sudden attack on Jimmy. When she tries to kill him, her murderous nature is unconvincing. Although the scene was a disappointment, the rip-off from the movie, From Here to Eternity, with Tuco surviving the fight, falling down fatally wounded, and then Jimmy emerging OK works, as does his line, "The Chief was right. You don’t have enough experience."

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The editing of FFM was rather easy since we used almost everything we shot and rarely had two takes for a scene. This is really remarkable when you look at the quality of the final production. In short, we composed most of the story on the fly. The final credits include the outtakes from the film. This process worked on this film and Bloody Magnums. However, Magnum Opus would suffer from this same loose style.

During the filming of FFM, I made a purchase that dramatically changed the nature of our films: a sound movie projector. In my previous films, dubbed sound came from a recorded cassette that would have to be synched to the film during a showing. This was not a big problem if the sound was only music, since a second or two off would not make much of a difference. However, an Eastwood film is all about the lines. Since we knew that the film would need to be edited, we decided to edit the film silent and then send it to Kodak for sound-stripping, due to the cost and complexity of dealing with sound Super-8 film. When it came back, we post-synchronized the sound the same way the Italian Spaghetti Western sound was recorded...lips not matching voices. This was perfect for this production because, it fit the genre we were spoofing.

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Music

The music for FFM was fantastic, since it all came from two very relevant sources: the album of the GBU recorded by Hugo Montenegro and a Clint Eastwood "Dirty Harry" Tape that Jim Callan provided. The unique sound of the Spaghetti Western tunes mixed with the jazzy sound of the Harry films really added excitement and mood to this film.

The quality of the sound in FFM is fair, because it was our first adventure into the world of synched sound, and we made a few mistakes. Several scenes include projector noise from recording the sound too close to the projector. With the music, it wasn’t a problem, because the first step of our process was to send the music audio track from the stereo straight to the projector. The dialogue was a different story. Because we recorded the sound in Walt’s basement and the room was small, the mike picked up the projector noise. In later films, we instructed our actors to stand at least ten feet away from the projector. Alas, FFM was our first experiment with sound, and the projector noise is a problem.

We created the credits for this film by putting white sticky letters on a blackboard. The following is a list of the credits how they appeared in the film:

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The poster looks like a Spaghetti Western film poster. Bob Sargent took a picture of Dirty Harry from Sudden Impact holding a 44 Magnum and pasted Jim Callan’s face on it. The background had a shot of Walt with a gun as Indio. He threw in some fake bullet holes in the titles to add to the Spaghetti Western theme. James Callan and Walter O’Hara had star billing. He also included that the film had ".44 Muzzle Velocity and Dopey Stereo." After a lead title announcing "SNEAK PREVIEW SATURDAY NIGHT ONLY," three critical quotes about the film are included on the poster:

"Made My Day." - Clint Eastwood

"Mine too." - Ronald Reagan

"Blew Me Away" - Lee Van Cleef

Other credits included on the poster included:

O’Hara/Armstrong Films Presents "Fist Full of Magnum"

Starring James Callan/Walter O’Hara/Julie Andre

Produced by O’Hara/Armstrong Films

Directed by Walt O’Hara

Edited by Brian Armstrong

One of the interesting things on the poster was the use of O’Hara/Armstrong Films rather than Totally Shameless Productions. Although we always associate this film with Totally Shameless Productions, the moniker had only recently been coined by Walt at the time and not quite fully established. Bloody Magnums in contrast was a Totally Shameless Production from the beginning.

The premiere took place on April 20, 1985 at the American Legion on Capitol Hill. Mike Maider, Bill Budai, and some of their friends from the Air Force stationed at Andrews Air Force Base had been planning a party to show their Blues Bubba act (i.e., a lip-synch version of the Blues brothers with Mike as Elmo and Bill as Jake). They wanted to throw their party at some hall in Anacostia. I told them that would be suicide for attendance. Instead, we joined forces and held the party as a joint Blues Bubba show and Fist Full of Magnums Premiere at the American Legion Hall, a venue I learned about in college when Scott Hildebrand threw a New Years in April Party there for the AEII Fraternity.

The decorating committee for this party did a great job. The group consisted of Jane Gwendolin, Nancy Eick, Nancy Campbell, and Debbie Peterson. They created some wall decorations that complemented the 20 FFM movie posters we had on the walls. The wall decorations consisted of slogans including: "Go Ahead, Make My Day," "Your Mouthwash Ain’t Making It," and "Captain: The Minority Community, has had it up to here with you. Callanhan: By Minority Community do you mean the thugs?" The wall decorations were a great addition to the premiere.

Mike and Bill provided the DJ to play when the band was not lip-synching their renditions of Sam and Dave tunes. We covered the cost of the beer by charging $5 at the door, and Jim Callan bought a case of champagne for the past film showing celebration. George Marcou had a red corvette convertible we used to transport the stars to the premiere. Jim Callan, Julie Andre, George Marcou, and Mary Kirwin rode in the car. We laid down a carpet remnant for the arrival of the stars just like a Hollywood Premiere.

Due to the large venue, we had to connect a cable to a speaker so the minions could hear the film. The hall also had several poles, which made it a little difficult for all to see. Mike Maider had borrowed a huge movie screen from Andrews Air Force Base that really gave the whole proceedings a sense of importance.

We had a dance contest where Jim Callan had a dance-off with a woman whose name I could never forget, Glassel Smally. With a name like that, we should have recruited her to star in one of our masterpieces. Jim was prepared with a wild dance to the song, "Jungle Love" by the Time. She did a lame dance to some blues song. The crowd liked her, and she won the contest. Needless to say, Jim was bummed. I wonder how "Dirty Jimmy" would have handled this situation.

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The Blues Bubbas received mixed reviews from the crowd who sopped up the kegs of beer like water in the Sahara Desert oasis. I thought the Blues Bubbas were fun. Just the physical resemblance of Mike Maider and Bill Budai to the real pair was such an incredible goof. Add a few body movements and it was a winner. Unfortunately, the guys weren’t really up to par with their physical show of flips and other acrobatics due to a fight the night before with some Marines on a Trinity College Booze Cruise. Some people in the crowd complained about lip-synching not being cool...they must have really bummed when they saw the outstanding post-synchronized lip-synching in the film.

By midnight, the crowd was bombed and ready to view FFM. Everyone loved seeing themselves, their friends, and total strangers on the screen doing the Eastwood spoof. At the conclusion, we opened Jim’s champagne and the intoxication continued. Mike Fekete concluded the evening with an after-hours party at his house that went to dawn (i.e. this was not hard since the Legion kicked us out at 3AM).

FFM was transferred to 3/4" video by Phase II Productions, Bethesda, MD on 08/15/85. A VHS and Beta dub was also made from this copy. Unfortunately, the two parts of the film that needed to be slowed down for Dirty Jimmy’s speech after capturing Indio and the jogging scene sound like Mickey Mouse doing Eastwood. Although this helium voice is funny, it takes away from the impact of the film. The transfer is a little jumpy at the edit points which takes away from the impact of the film.

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Wounded: 2

Killed: 11

Shooting Duration: 3/84 - 4/85

Raw Footage Reels of Film: 22 reels

Edited Length: 41:45

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Note: Each reel is equal to 50 feet.

1. Film purchase and developing

Silent (Color) (ELA 464 Kodak film)

22 reels @$11.25/ea + $6.89 for developing $399.08

Total Film purchase and developing $399.08

4. Editing Supplies

10 packages of Splicing Tape ($3.50/ea) $35

2 Film Reels (400 feet) ($9/ea) $18

Total Editing Supplies $43

5. Sound Stripping

1300 feet @.10/foot $130

Handling/Shipping $20

Total Sound Stripping $150

6. Props $100 (Blood, etc.)

7. Poster $75 (100 copies)

8. Video Transfer $80

9. Miscellaneous N/A

10. Premiere

Hall $300

DJ $200

Screen (70 x 70) Free

Beer N/C due to $5 cover

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