The Projectionist
The Projectionist
| 05 June 1975 (USA)
The Projectionist Trailers

A projectionist bored with his everyday life begins fantasizing about his being one of the superheroes he sees in the movies he shows.

Reviews
Blucher One of the worst movies I've ever seen
Hulkeasexo it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.
ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.
Jemima It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
jfarms1956 The film, the Projectionist, is geared towards those who like weird, cult-type films. I watched this because I usually like to see Rodney Dangerfield. This is Rodney's film debut. This film only gives a glimpse of Rodney Dangerfield's acting/comedic ability. He is not starring as a typical Rodney Dangerfield character. This is a strange film and was difficult to follow. With the exception of seeing Rodney's first flick, watching this film was a total waste of time for me. However, others might like this type of flick to watch. This is not a prime time film. I could see a young college type crowd watching this movie while partying. Definitely, not my cup of tea.
Charles Herold (cherold) Odd little movie about a dumpy projectionist who wanders around not doing much but fantasizing about movies, imagining himself as a superhero and making up stories for friends about his love life. The film is predominately film clips strung together as rather uninteresting collages.I've seen this movie described as one you have to love if you're a film buff. Well, I'm a film buff, and I recognized tons of the clips, and I found the movie quite tedious. The film collages seemed pointless and rather pretentious (especially when you start getting a lot of Hitler footage). The superhero section aims to be a comedic silent take of old movie serials, but the physical humor invariably falls flat.I don't see this movie as something for film buffs. I see it as something for people who like somewhat arty films that reference movies, which is something else altogether.
tavm When I played this movie on VHS and the first thing that appeared was the cartoon Gerald McBoing Boing's Symphony (which I reviewed here last year), I actually thought this short was going to be played in full before the feature. Instead, it turns out the title character whose name is the same as the person playing him, Chuck McCann, is playing it at the New York theatre he works at and has to fix it when it tears on the projector it's on. And so begins this fascinating film as we follow Chuck as he talks to one of the ushers, Harry (writer/director Harry Hurwitz), who gets shooed away by manager Renaldi (Rodney Dangerfield in his film debut) who warns Chuck not to communicate with his other employees on company time of which another one of those Chuck's friendly with is the candy man played by Jara Kohout. During some downtime, Chuck imagines-in silent black and white-he's superhero Captain Flash who has to defeat Dangerfield's The Bat from Kohout's Scientist and his daughter who's played by 60's leading lady Ina Balin. These sequences are quite hilarious what with the sound effects and physical movements. Ms. Balin is also in another dream sequence-also in silent black and white-with Chuck whenever he tells Harry about his dates with her. Since we never see her in the real-life color sequences, we don't know if she really exists here. Oh, and the Captain Flash music sounds like stock melodies from the '30s-'40s serials while the ones with just Chuck and Ina have the more Easy Listening '60s vibe. There's also some creatively amusing mix of various newsreel/classic feature/new footage meant to convey just how immersed in movie lore Chuck really is that provide some bizarre juxtapositions like when JFK's "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" seems to come out of Adolf Hitler's mouth! There's also a touching moment between Kohout and McCann when the latter asks about the former's experience in silent movies in his home country of Czechoslovakia as well as his escape from the Communist country during the intermission of a theatrical revue he performed in. McCann himself has one good scene by himself when he impersonates some of the famous movie stars like his idols Laurel & Hardy not to mention Rodney himself on another occasion! Oh, and while Dangerfield provides some lines that could have been funny if he delivered them in his stand-up voice, here they're just said in a solemn tone that only brought a slight smile on my face. When he's in the bw footage, however, his bug eyes can still highly amuse. And one more thing: if you're familiar with movie names from a certain era, then you could tell what year this movie was filmed in when titles like Barbarella and Star! appear on marquees though one more that's displayed is the one you're reading about right now...
Zontar-2 When not goofing off, the titular yutz daydreams of being a silent film superhero. Parts of the score are cribbed from old serials, and scenes are lifted from features of the 20's thru 50's. One wonders how John Wayne and Humphrey Bogart would react to seeing their work intermingled with clips of war atrocities and grindhouse dancers. Chuck McCann's character is immensely likeable when he dwells in the present, but his superhero mugs like the class clown you always despised. Released on VHS in 1986 to capitalize on Rodney Dangerfield's (straight) supporting role.