Jul 5, 2025

A Weird Night At The Drive-In



Show banner designed by Andrew Kern
Show poster designed by Sarah Derr

Something Weird Video is a Seattle-based film distributor responsible for preserving countless numbers of exploitation films that probably would have been lost without their efforts.


Colonel and Sanders were both on the lot in the hours before the gates opened.
 

They apparently like rice and corn.  Gene and I fed them, and they took it right out of our hand.


I was not the only person wearing a Crazy Eddie shirt in the front row.


My outfit did not match some other folks in the front row who came dressed as Big Shim from She Mob.


The last song before showtime was a tribute to the great Rebekah Del Rio who passed away twelve days ago at age 57.  She was a guest of the Mahoning at the first Wild World Of David Lynch weekend in 2021, and a friend of projectionists Rob and Krista.  Since it was the 4th of July, Krista gave us sparklers to light up during this final song which was a recording of Ms. Del Rio singing The Star Spangled Banner from her appearance in the 2006 film Southland Tales.


There were dozens of awesome trailers shown throughout the night.  I didn't record all of them on video, but I took photos of the title cards to remember what trailers were shown so that I could look up the movies later.  I didn't catch all of them, but the video above is a slideshow of most of the title cards from the trailers.


I did have to catch the second half of this trailer for the 1972 Orgy Of The Living Dead triple feature, which consisted of The Murder Clinic from 1966 (aka: Revenge Of The Living Dead), Kill Baby Kill from 1966 (aka: Curse Of The Living Dead), and Malenka The Vampire's Niece from 1969 (aka: Fangs Of The Living Dead).  The triple feature was promoted with a guarantee from the producers that they would pay for any psychiatric care, or internment in an asylum, if you go mad from watching these films.

There's also a trailer for The Corpse Grinders, which moviegoers had to sign a Certificate Of Assurance that they wouldn't sue the theater "in the event of a coronary, insanity, or death suffered during and/or following" the screening.  I saw this movie at Schlock-O-Rama VIII last year.  It's a pretty good 70's schlocky horror flick, and I think you're pretty safe from suffering any ill effects.


Both of the movies that we got to see on Friday night were projected from the only 35mm prints of these films that are known to exist in the world today.


The first movie of the night was the 1966 film Teenage Gang Debs, and it's a contender for the cheesiest movie that I've ever seen on the big screen at the Mahoning, and its tied with Teen Witch for having the cheesiest soundtrack with two absolute bangers: Black Belt and Don't Make Me Mad.  Even if you don't want to watch the whole movie, I implore you to watch the song and dance scenes.  The level of cringe is off the charts.

This is the story of a teenage girl named Terry who moves with her family from Manhattan to a neighborhood that is the turf of a street gang called The Rebels.  Terry weasels her way into the gang by hooking up with its leader (and getting his current "deb" kicked out of the gang), then orchestrating his murder by another gang member who she hooks up with who then assumes leadership of the gang.  Her manipulative behavior of The Rebels and of rival gangs lead to several acts of violence, which are frequently interrupted by bizarre song and dance numbers, until the rest of the debs in the gang finally grow tired of her crap and take action against her.

Teenage Gang Debs is a fun movie to watch, but it by no means a good movie.  It reminded me a bit of a lower budget and tamed down version of Switchblade Sisters.  If you're into weird movies like I am, this is a must-watch, but it's not the kind of thing that folks who stick to mainstream movies are going to enjoy.  It's available to stream on Tubi.
 

The second half of the Something Weird double feature was a cult classic from 1968 called She Mob.  This movie lived up to the pre-show hype and then some!  It starts off with the most ridiculous sex scene in the history of cinema between a gigolo named Tony and his wealthy patron Brenda.  Seriously... you have to see this.  Even if you have no intention of watching the rest of the movie, this scene is so absurd that no words could do it justice.  He's essentially humping her shins in a bathtub while she makes sounds like a jungle animal, and it is hysterically funny.

The next scene takes us to the hideout of a criminal mastermind named Big Shim and her gang.  Big Shim is instantly one of my favorite characters in movie history.  She's a tough bitch who wears a spike pointed bra and says "I'll show you that my tits are as hard as my heart" before pulling a man towards her to use the bra to stab him in the chest.  I mean... how the hell can you not want to see that!

Big Shim has three members in her gang:  Baby, Twig, and Sweetie.  Shim broke all three of them out of prison.  Baby has become her sex slave, but the other two have grumbled to their leader that they are starved for male attention.

Shim knows Tony and calls him to come over to provide his services, but Tony foolishly lets it slip that he is staying with a wealthy woman.  This gives Shim the idea to hold him hostage until Brenda pays a ransom of $100k.  Unfortunately for Shim, Brenda decides to hire "Sweety East, Girl Detective" to get her man back.

This is a 60's low budget masterpiece!  If you're into bizarre movies, I'd recommend that you put She Mob at the top of your list of must-see films.


And that's a wrap on what I hope will be the first annual Something Weird night at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater.  This night was right up there with Schlock-O-Rama IX as one of the most fun events of the season so far.  Lisa Petrucci was in attendance and she seemed to have a great time.  I hope she comes back next year and that this becomes a regular part of an AGFA weekend on the lot.