70 Movies We Saw in the 70s: Ep 20 — “It’s Alive!” (1974)
There’s only one thing wrong with this episode of 70 Movies We Saw in the 70s… IT’S ALIVE!!! Hollywood sound wiz Jeff Kushner joins Mike and Ben to deliver a sprawling, mauling take on Larry Cohen’s killer baby classic, with diversions into ITs two sequels, IT LIVES AGAIN (1978) and IT’S ALIVE 3: ISLAND OF THE ALIVE (1987). Among the questions raised:
• What’s so funny about a mutant baby living in a sewer?
• Which vintage ’70s horror film TV ad caused more cardiac events among schoolchildren: SUSPIRIA; MAGIC; or DAWN OF THE DEAD?
• Larry Cohen, John P. Ryan, and Michael Moriarty: Jewish-Irish Love Connection?
• How did white go-go boots, psychedelic wallpaper, and dainty Florence Nightingale nurse hats play in punky-disco '77?
• Where were YOU the day the filming of Q stopped Manhattan’s morning rush with an unannounced, unlicensed helicopter-vs-machine-guns battle atop the Chrysler building?
• Circa-1984, what was Larry Cohen doing hanging out in NYC’s performance art scene with the casts of SMITHEREENS and LIQUID SKY?
• What is the connection between Robert Blake’s 1985 NBC series HELL TOWN (where he played a two-fisted priest) and Dee Snider’s STRANGELAND?
• Does anybody have any leftover “Super-Vision” 3D glasses from the ’80s?