Malco Summer Drive-In – Page 2

Elisabeth Moss is brilliant in The Invisible Man.

After six weeks of closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Memphis-based Malco Theatres has announced that their Summer Drive-In theater will reopen on Friday, May 15th.

“Malco is very excited to open the drive-in and welcome our customers back”, said Malco President and COO David Tashie. ”We appreciate their patience and understanding during this unprecedented time. We would also like to thank the City of Memphis for allowing the drive-in to open, and while we will be implementing a program to provide driveinmovie.com

Malco’s Summer Four Drive-in

extra safety measures for our patrons and employees, we cannot wait for everyone to enjoy a night out watching movies on the big screen again.”

Drive-ins, of which there are less than 350 left in America, would seem to be the ideal venue for film during a pandemic, where social distancing is necessary to prevent mass death. Indeed, a drive-in in Florida has been the only theater showing first-run films in America since mid-March.

But the social distancing imposed by the automotive seating alone isn’t enough to prevent viral transmission, so Malco is implementing new pandemic measures to ensure patron safety. All employees will wear masks and gloves. Restrooms will be limited to a few people at a time, and will be cleaned on the half-hour. At the concession stand, the selections will be limited to prepackaged items, lines will be socially distanced, and other precautions will be taken.

The reopening-special admission price will be $20 per car-load, with all tickets on sale in advance via the Malco website. Admissions will be limited to 50% of capacity, so plan your visits accordingly.

There are no major studio releases currently scheduled to drop until at least the beginning of July, so the first weekend back will feature films already in the system before the coronavirus shutdown. The best film on the marquee is The Invisible Man, a thrilling reimagining of the classic Universal monster film by low-budget horror maestros Blumhouse, featuring a killer performance by Elizabeth Moss. (Read my review here.) The animated feature Trolls: World Tour, starring Memphian Justin Timberlake, will make its Bluff City big screen debut after pulling in a record $95 million in the video on demand market during the early days of the coronavirus quarantine. Robert Downy, Jr.’s Doolittle and the controversial, violent thriller The Hunt round out the other two screens in the four-screen facility. Tickets go on sale Thursday, May 14th.

Malco Summer Drive-In Reopens Friday, May 15 with The Invisible Man

The Summer Drive-In was built by Malco Theaters in 1950, on the cusp of the country’s big drive-in theater boom. At the height of their popularity, there were more than 4,000 drive-ins all over the country, comprising more than one quarter of all movies screens. Now, that figure is at 1.5 percent.

But the lost pleasures of the drive-in are not lost on Memphis filmmaker Mike McCarthy and Black Lodge Video proprietor Matt Martin, who, last year, started the monthly Time Warp Drive-In series, which brings classic films, both well-known and obscure, back to the biggest screens.

“We were accepted by a large part of the Memphis community,” says McCarthy. “[Malco Theatres Executive VP] Jimmy Tashie took a chance at, not only saving the drive-in, but plugging a program in that would use the drive-in for what its American function used to be.”

The eight-month series will once again run four-movie programs, once a month, each united by a theme, ranging from the deliciously schlocky to the seriously artsy. Last year’s most popular program was the Stanley Kubrick marathon, which ended as the sun came up. “Who says the drive-in is anti-intellectual?” McCarthy says.

The appeal of the drive-in is both backward- and forward-looking. The atmosphere at the Time Warp Drive-In events is relaxed and social. People are free to sit in their cars and watch the movie or roam around and say hi to their friends. It’s the classic film version of tailgating. “Matt from Black Lodge brought this up: It’s a kind of social experiment, like America is in general. It’s getting back to turntables and vinyl. Maybe it’s not celluloid, but it’s celluloid-like. You didn’t get to see that, because you weren’t born. But you can go back to that. It takes a handful of people who believe to make it happen. And that’s why Malco has been around for 100 years. They’ll take that chance.”

Malco’s Film VP Jeff Kaufman worked hard to find and book the sometimes-obscure films that Martin and McCarthy want to program. “I think we’ve got the material, and we’re trying to get things that people want to see, while kind of playing it a little dangerous around the edges,” McCarthy says. “This Saturday’s totally kid-friendly. We make a conscious attempt to show the kid-friendly stuff first, so people can come out with their kids.”

The series takes its name from the most famous song from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, so the opening program is, appropriately, movies that were mentioned in the show’s opening number, “Science Fiction Double Feature,” that also appeared on Memphis’ legendary horror host Sivad’s long-running Fantastic Features program. “We’re showing what many people believe to be the greatest film of all time, the 1933 version of King Kong,” McCarthy says. “It’s not the worst film of all time, which is the 1976 version of King Kong.

The granddaddy of the horror/sci-fi special effects spectacle films, King Kong has lost none of its power. It’s concise, imaginative, and best experienced with a crowd. The evening’s second film comes from 20 years later. It Came from Outer Space is based on a story by sci-fi legend Ray Bradbury and was prime drive-in fare. It features shape-shifting aliens years before Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 3D imagery from the original golden age of 3D, and a twisted take on the alien invasion formula.

It Came From Outer Space

The third film, When Worlds Collide, was made in 1951, but it doesn’t fit the mold of the sci-fi monster movie. Produced by George Pal, whose credits include the original film takes on War of the Worlds and The Time Machine, the film asks what would happen if scientists discover that Earth was doomed to destruction by a rogue planet, presaging Lars Von Trier’s 2011 Melancholia.

The evening closes with The Invisible Man, starring Claude Rains as the title scientist who throws off social constraints after rendering himself transparent. Directed by Frankenstein auteur James Whale, the film has been recognized as an all-time classic by the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry and will richly reward intrepid viewers who stay at the drive-in all night long.