42nd Street Memories: The Rise and Fall of America's Most Notorious Street (2015) Reviews

• Going Down Memory Lane

  Michael_Elliott2016-02-12

  42nd Street Memories: The Rise and Fall of America's Most Notorious Street (2015) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Calum Waddell's excellent look back at the now infamous 42nd Street in NYC where countless film buffs were entertained by some of the wildest movies ever made while at the same time trying to avoid getting shot, stabbed or robbed. Bill Lustig, Joe Dante, Matt Cimber, Veronica Hart, Frank Henenlotter, Buddy Giovinazzo, Roy Frumkes, Tom Holland, Jeff Lieberman, Lloyd Kaufman, 42nd Street Pete and Debbie Rochon among the people interviewed and share stories about the notorious street that hosted mainstream movies but was best remembered for trash like BLOODSUCKING FREAKS, PIECES, the ISLA series and other exploitation titles. If you're a fan of these types of movies of if you're curious about the original 42nd Street then this is certainly a film that you're going to want to check out. Clocking in at 81 minutes there's really not too much film footage shown but that's okay because that leaves the majority of the running time to the people who were actually there. There are some terrific and varied stories told about the location with some saying they never faced any issues down there while others talk about the drugs, violence and prostitution. No matter what your opinion on these films are, this documentary really does give you a great idea of how fun the location would have been for film buffs of that era. There are a great number of stories told so if you're a fan then this is certainly a must see.