Video Brings Cult Status To Otherwise Forgotten Films

Some movies never die, no matter how many stakes critics drive into their resilient little hearts.

Despite withering reviews and dismal box-office during its first year of release, ``The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' is more widely seen today than any other movie that came out in 1975. Such unlikely bedfellows as ``El Topo'' and ``Beyond the Valley of the Dolls'' have developed devoted cult followings.

Video has heightened the trend, bringing a new audience to the midnight movies of another era, and creating its own well-organized cults. Two cases in point: Stanley Kramer's 1963 slapstick epic, ``It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,'' and Jeannot Szwarc's romantic 1980 fantasy, ``Somewhere in Time.'' Don't be surprised if fans of these two films develop enough momentum to create something akin to a ``Star Trek'' convention.

Eric K. Federing's tireless, nine-year-old ``Mad World Campaign'' is an international association created to restore the movie to its original 210-minute length. The Cinerama comedy was cut to 154 minutes in February 1964. In 1989, Federing's ``Mad World Campaign'' located enough missing footage to assemble a 175-minute version that can be shown only privately. The version available on video is still 154 minutes.

Federing, who lives in Washington, D.C., and works as press secretary to Rep. Norman Mineta (D-Calif.), would prefer that ``Mad World'' be restored for theatrical showings: ``It demands an audience like no other film.'' But he notes that it's the fifth most-requested film on laserdisc and is hoping for a laser release before 1992.

For information about the campaign, write to Federing at The John Francis Plaza, 2630 Adams Mill Road N.W., Washington, D.C., 20009-2153. He accepts no donations for the cause.

A more recent phenomenon is The International Network of ``Somewhere in Time'' Enthusiasts (INSITE), P.O. Box 1556, Covina, CA 91722. Since the 103-minute film was never re-edited, the organization's founder, Bill Shepard, has different objectives.

He wants to ``bring its admirers together to honor the film and to positively influence its historical reputation.'' It's still dismissed by most critics, who complain about ``stilted dialogue and corny situations'' and note that Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour don't have the star power to bring it off. Yet a San Diego newspaper critic, Duncan Shepherd, recently named it as one of the 10 best movies of the 1980s, and the late film historian, Leslie Halliwell, thought it ``rather a charming variation on `Berkeley Square.' ''

INSITE distributes a quarterly newsletter for $6 a year. The most recent installment includes articles by director Szwarc and Richard Matheson, who wrote the screenplay (based on his novel, ``Bid Time Return'') and was delighted to discover ``that there'd been a receptive audience all the time.''

Shepard believes that ``Somewhere in Time'' was a failure at the box office because of bad timing: ``It's in the tradition of such 1940s romantic fantasies as `Portrait of Jennie' and `The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.' The success of recent movies like `Ghost' and `Field of Dreams' suggests that today's audiences are again responsive to this kind of gentle fantasy.''

The movie has been far more popular on cable and on video than it ever was in theaters (it's available from MCA Home Video for $20 on tape and $35 on disc). Shepard claims that 300 fans have joined INSITE since last April.

Speaking of restorations: Scarecrow Video has several rare ones in its laserdisc collection, available for rent.

The list includes the 219-minute Japanese disc of Bernardo Bertolucci's ``The Last Emperor'' (the Oscar-winning American version is 166 minutes); the 311-minute Swedish edition of Ingmar Bergman's ``Fanny and Alexander'' (the Oscar-winning American release is 197 minutes); the recent restoration of Steven Spielberg's ``Close Encounters of the Third Kind''; and letterboxed editions of ``Forbidden Planet,'' ``The Hunt For Red October,'' Jean-Luc Godard's ``Pierrot Le Fou,'' Fellini's ``Satyricon,'' Jim Henson and Frank Oz's ``The Dark Crystal,'' Roland Joffe's ``The Mission,'' John Carpenter's ``They Live'' and ``The Thing.''

The store also has a number of Japanese discs of movies that haven't been released on laser in the United States, including the Talking Heads' ``Stop Making Sense,'' Disney's ``Song of the South,'' and such Japanese animated features as ``Akira'' and ``Lensman.''

``It is our intent to have the most complete laserdisc collection available to rent in the Seattle area,'' says Scarecrow's John McCullough, who started renting discs in November. Rental fees are $3 a night, or $3 for two nights for older discs. The address is 6421 Latona N.E. For information, call 524-8554.

Video Watch by John Hartl appears Sundays in Arts & Entertainment. You can get more video information by calling the Seattle Times' 24-hour free service Infoline. Call 464-2000 from any touch-tone telephone and when instructed, enter the category number 0911 to reach the Video Hotline. You may replay all information by pressing ``R'' (7); back up to previous information by pressing ``B'' (2); and jump over over current information by pressing ``J'' (5).

New videos in stores this week

Tuesday - Laurence Olivier in ``War Requiem,'' ``Jan Peerce: If I Were a Rich Man,'' ``Natalie Sats: Peter and the Wolf.''

Wednesday - Ally Sheedy in ``The Lost Capone,'' Vanessa Redgrave in ``Orpheus Descending,'' Maureen O'Hara in ``At Swords Point,'' Irene Dunne in ``Bachelor Apartment,'' Lucille Ball in ``Beauty For the Asking,'' Joan Fontaine in ``Born to Be Bad,'' Bette Davis in ``Way Back Home,'' Constance Bennett in ``What Price Hollywood?,'' Maureen O'Hara in ``A Woman's Secret,'' Cicely Tyson in ``Heat Wave.''

Thursday - Emilio Estevez in ``Young Guns II,'' Spike Lee's ``Mo' Better Blues,'' ``The Turtles: Happy Together.''

New laserdiscs: ``Dr. Caligari,'' ``Memories of Hollywood,'' ``Def by Temptation,'' Rutger Hauer in ``The Blood of Heroes,'' Martin Landau in ``By Dawn's Early Light.''