With the Holidays and their yearly double dose of feasting just around the corner, Oddball Films brings you Eat Your Heart Out, a night of vintage films about food, feasts and franchises for all tastes. Learn about basic nutrition with a gaggle of creepy singing children in the campy classroom primer The Eating, Feel Good Movie (1974). Take a funny and fascinating trip to Japan as Colonel Sanders takes his chicken franchise global with The Colonel Comes to Japan (1984). Woody Allen and Joanne Worley do their best to answer an age old question in a segment from their weekly Hot Dog program : How Do They Make Hot Dog Rolls? (1970). Get the first turkey perspective of your Thanksgiving feast in the bizarre and macabre animation I Was A Thanksgiving Turkey (1986). Find out the facts about the other white meat in the bacontastic Pork: The Meal with a Squeal (1963). Get a glimpse into the most entertaining lunch counter in America with Tom Palazzolo's hilarious portrait of Jerry's Deli (1976). With a pantry full of vintage food commercials and actually edible snacks, you can feast more than your eyes!
This Emmy-winning documentary was made 14 years after the opening of the first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise in Japan. Hosted by Eric Sevareid, it is often hilarious/ridiculous as Western fast food meets Eastern politeness and service seriousness. Many scenes invoke the farce of Itami’s Tampopo. Sensitively written, produced and directed by John Nathan (translator of Mishima and Oe and writer of many books on Japanese culture), with a nonetheless obvious eye for humor.
How Do They Make Hot Dog Rolls? (Color, 1970)
Join Woody Allen and Joanne Worley as they ask the big question and get an inside look at the process of making those tasty, ever so soft, wiener-warming buns. From flour sack to plastic bag, become entranced by the thousands of buns pouring out of huge machines at a mile a minute. From the Hot Dog Saturday Morning television series.
The Eating, Feel Good Movie (Color, 1974)
A musical laugh riot. Children dressed in their Sunday best have a sepia-toned tea party and begin to sing about the food groups over enticing shots of vintage food. One boy sings longily over a meaty montage "I'd like a roast or a chop or a steak or a stew so I'll have big strong muscles and I'll grow right too." A creepy campy masterpiece!
Pork: The Meal With the Squeal (Color, 1963)
Take a break from all the swine flu hubbub with this pig-focused film. Is pork really going to be what’s for dinner after your get the low down on the other white meat? You bet your buck it will, what with all the hams bobbling in brine, hot dog strands miles long, and juicy chops sizzling away! Don’t forget to bring your pigskin wallet, hog’s hair paint brush, and other pig-based by products to round out the experience.
The Munchers (Color, 1973)
Like the California Raisins of Oral Hygiene, The Munchers is a trippy, psychedelic rockucational film for all tastes. Dancing and singing on some kind of a mouthy bandstand, the Munchers fall victim to the Pusherman Jack Sweet, a masked demon that has an endless supply of delicious candy. Can the peg-legged, metal-skulled old toothman convince the young Munchers to stay clean and candy free? If not him, then maybe the conga-line of anthropomorphic healthy foods can do the trick.
Jerry’s Deli (Color, 1976)
Jerry Myers serves up a little bit of Rickles alongside the pickles in his Chicago deli. The sandwich with a side of browbeating is part of what keeps the lunch-hour crowd coming back for more. Myers’ brand of offbeat affection for his workers and customers is apparent to all, as is his love for his modest showcase.