Chong: So what's this movie about, man?
Cheech: Oh, it's about all kinds of things, man – it's like a bunch of crazy movies, man, they put together...
—Opening dialogue
It Came from Hollywood is a 1982 comedy film compiling clips from various B Movies. Made at a time years before the Internet and with home video still just taking off, this film was basically a funny Clip Show of old B movies that were still hard to find in its day and age.
Featuring comedians Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Cheech & Chong, and Gilda Radner in a number of framing segments, the film fondly remembers and pokes fun at the genre with sections like Giants and Little People, Monsters, Brains, etc. Some framing clips have a simple story, like a little girl (Radner) on her bed talking about scary movies, or Cheech and Chong going to the movies and talking about the films as if they are watching them. At one point Candy and Aykroyd host a short celebration of Ed Wood.
The movie is available to watch on YouTube here
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The following movies had clips shown in It Came from Hollywood:
The movies
- Sunny Side Up (1929)
- Maniac (1934)
- Wonder Bar (1934)
- The Lost City (1935)
- Reefer Madness (1936)
- Marihuana (1936)
- Perils of Nyoka (1942)
- Isle of Forgotten Sins (1943)
- Musical Movieland (1944)
- Mom and Dad (1945)note
- The Monster and the Ape (1945)
- The White Gorilla (1945)
- Blonde Savage (1947)
- Street Corner (1948)
- Daughter of the Jungle (1949)
- The Flying Saucer (1950)
- The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
- Zombies Of The Stratosphere (1952)
- Glen or Glenda (1953)
- Robot Monster (1953)
- The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)
- The War of the Worlds (1953)
- Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
- Bride of the Monster (1955)
- The Violent Years (1956)
- Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)
- Fire Maidens of Outer Space (1956)
- Runaway Daughters (1956)
- Shake, Rattle & Rock!! (1956)
- Don't Knock the Rock (1956)
- Rock Baby: Rock It (1957)
- The Brain from Planet Arous (1957)
- The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
- Dragstrip Girl (1957)
- The Deadly Mantis (1957) "It's The Attack of the 50-foot Chicken Wing!"
- The Giant Claw (1957)
- Beginning of the End (1957)
- The Cyclops (1957)
- From Hell It Came (1957)
- The Amazing Colossal Man (1957)
- I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957)
- Teenage Monster (1958)
- The Bride and the Beast (1958)
- The Cool and the Crazy (1958)
- Attack of the Puppet People (1958)
- Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958)
- High School Confidential! (1958)
- High School Hellcats (1958)
- The Space Children (1958)
- Fiend Without a Face (1958)
- The Fly (1958)
- Curse of the Faceless Man (1958)
- The Party Crashers (1958)
- The Blob (1958)
- I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958)
- Frankenstein's Daughter (1958)
- Monster from Green Hell (1958)
- The Trollenberg Terror (1958)
- Missile to the Moon (1958)
- The Hideous Sun Demon (1959)
- Battle in Outer Space (1959)
- House on Haunted Hill (1959)
- Prince of Space (1959)
- Teenagers from Outer Space (1959) "Most of the time you throw a dog a bone..."
- The Killer Shrews (1959)
- Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)
- The Tingler (1959)
- First Man Into Space (1959)
- The Loves of Hercules (1960)
- The Hypnotic Eye (1960)
- Invasion of the Neptune Men (1961)
- Reptilicus (1961)
- Rocket Attack U.S.A. (1961)
- Married Too Young (1962)
- The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962)
- Matango (1963)
- The Slime People (1963)
- Evil Brain from Outer Space (1964)
- The Creeping Terror (1964) "Oops, he's having a little trouble getting her tush in there."
- Atomic Rulers (1964)
- The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (1964)
- The Horror of Party Beach (1964) "He looks like he's got a bunch of hot dogs in his mouth!"
- Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster (1965)
- Bat Men of Africa (1966)
- Mars Needs Women (1967)
- The Weird World of LSD (1967)
- The X From Outer Space (1967)
- Yongary: Monster from the Deep (1967)
- Son of Godzilla (1967)
- Octaman (1971)
- The Thing with Two Heads (1972)
- Black Belt Jones (1974)
- Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974)
- A*P*E (1976)
- The Incredible Melting Man (1977)
- Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! (1978)
Tropes in this film:
- Actor Allusion: Gilda Radner does her "Judy Miller" little girl sketch character from Saturday Night Live.
- Affectionate Parody: In a way, the responses to the clips aren't hostile, just snarky, which makes the movie more of a tribute than a put-down. It's noticeable when the film-makers dedicate an entire section to Ed Wood and actually speak well of him as a Giftedly Bad director/writer.
- Answer Cut: An official asks if Glenn Manning has any relatives. Cut to the Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.
- Big Eater: Tommy Chong spends a lot of time ordering at the snack bar. 'Cause he's got the munchies, man.
- Blackface: The infamous "Goin’ to Heaven on a Mule" number from Wonder Bar has an embarrassing amount of it, with both adults and children in blackface.Gilda Radner: (disgusted) Can you believe it? And this, too, we owe to Hollywood.
- Blaxploitation: Black Belt Jones.
- Catfight: Dan Akyroyd loves it. "There's nothing like a good catfight" when two, er, "high school" girls roll around in the dirt and fight.
- Clip Show: This was 1982. VCRs were still new and expensive with a limited selection. If you wanted to see these movies you had to wait for them to come on TV. YouTube didn't exist. This movie gave a rehash of the films for fans - people who watched it enjoyed pointing out which ones they had seen or forgotten about.
- Dawson Casting: Invoked by Dan Aykroyd.Dan Aykroyd: Must be tough being a 35-year-old freshman!
- Deadpan Snarker: Of the comedians, John Candy is able to snark the driest.
- Double Entendre
- Cheech says The Incredible Shrinking Man is "The first time a man's been eaten by a pussy".
- Flipping the Bird: What the giant ape does from the 1976 King Kong Mockbuster A*P*E.
- Freud Was Right: The infamous "inflating bananas" scene from Musical Movieland.
- Hollywood Natives: Mocked by the crew.Gilda Radner: This dance is from Bury My Heart at Radio City Music Hall.
Gilda Radner: This is the National Geographic production of Madame Butterfly. - Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: What Cheech claims the movie is about in the opening (with The Incredible Shrinking Man and the Fifty Foot Woman meeting and trying to get it on.)Tommy: (to box office) I want my money back.
- Human Resources: The brain makes a great cocktail garnish!
- I'm a Humanitarian: The Mad Scientist thinks brains are delicious, straight out of the deli case.
- Killer Gorilla: The first segment is about gorillas in old '30s-'40s monster movies. The simian alien in Robot Monster is included as well.
- Marijuana Is LSD: With films like Reefer Madness of course. The fact that Cheech & Chong are there to make sarcastic commentary just makes it funnier.Tommy: Hey. Want some "Mary Jane"?
Cheech: Thanks, "hepcat".
Cheech: Hey, man, there's a lot of starving kids in Cambodia that want that roach! - MST: Sometimes the actors do a little riffing on the movie being shown. Dan Aykroyd engages in it most.Canned Orders over Loudspeaker: Everybody, listen carefully. The Martians are approaching the city. You must evacuate.
Dan Aykroyd: However, parochial schools will remain in session.
Dan Aykroyd: How about these aliens? Using mannequins as speed bumps!
Phyllis: Look at 'em jump, just like rabbits!
(BOOM!)
Dan Aykroyd: Yeah, look at 'em shoot, just like professional marksmen!
Dan Aykroyd: I'd like you to meet Mr. Spock's brother Shecky, and his wife Shelley. - 90% of Your Brain: The Mad Scientist says we only use 10%.
- "No Talking or Phones" Warning: The movie starts out with one, and there is also a segment from an old theater bit saying to go easy on unnecessary affection.
- Off-the-Shelf FX: Invoked with Bride of the Monster:John Candy: A man with a spaghetti strainer strapped to his head gets tortured by a photo enlarger on a microphone stand.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: John Candy on trying to pass off Tom Mason as Bela Lugosi.John Candy: Ed tried to pass off his wife's chiropractor as Bela Lugosi's double. Sure, he was a full head taller than Bela, but as long as he kept the cape in front of his face, Ed figured the audience would never know.
- Reckless Gun Usage: John Candy lampshades Duke Moore's infamous performance in Plan 9 from Outer Space.John Candy: Now here's an actor who really knows how to use a gun.
- Russian Reversal: As The Incredible Shrinking Man is stalked by a cat, Cheech says "This is the first time in history the man gets eaten by the pussy!"
- Saw "Star Wars" Twenty-Seven Times: Cheech only saw the movie 19 times and doesn't want to miss a moment of it.
- Special Effects Failure: Much of the comedy derives from this. John Candy: (on the saucers from Plan 9) Amazing. You can hardly see that string.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Aykroyd wears an angora sweater (with a bullet bra underneath) while Candy wears a skirt in honor of Ed Wood.
