627 Clive James at the Movies

First  viewed : 29  August  1983

This  one-off  special,  in  which  Clive  James  trawled  through  the  worst  of  the  B-movies  of    yesteryear , was  actually  a  curtain-raiser  for  a  Worst  of  Hollywood  season  on  Channel  4  presented  by  Michael  Medved  ( later  to  be  reviled  as  an  arch-conservative  critic  in  the  U.S. )  . It  was  splendid  stuff, my  first  introduction  to  the  world  of  Ed  Wood  and  the  equally  jaw-dropping  Robot  Monster  ( a  man  in  a  gorilla  suit  wearing  a  diving  helmet ) , The  Wild  Women  of  Wongo  and  The  Creeping  Terror  where , clearly  slow-witted, teenagers  are  ambushed  by  a   ( just  about ) mobile  carpet.

I  really  enjoyed  it  and  was  disappointed  a  few  weeks  later  to  discover  that  my  new  house  mates  didn't  share  my  enthusiasm  for  the  celebration  of    trash  and  preferred  to  stick  with  an  old  Amicus   werewolf  film  over  the  screening  of   Plan  9  From  Outer  Space.