Born in the '50s

Secret Cinema at the Hot-Rod Hoedown

by Shaun Brady

The drive-in is an increasingly endangered species. Stumbling upon an outdoor screen is akin to a rare bird sighting, and just as invigorating for those of us who grew up hearing blockbuster films through tinny speakers. Of course, their life expectancy drops as more and more generations are born to whom the entire concept is as alien as the vinyl LP (though these kids have obviously not thought through the opportunities for makeout sessions and sneaking booze in via Dad's car).

But all you really need to build an impromptu drive-in is an overgrown lot and a white sheet, as evidenced by Secret Cinema's appearance at the Hot-Rod Hoedown and Rock-N-Roll Rumble in Lower Bucks. The event is an annual gathering place for the sideburned, drag-racing set for whom "the '50s" — the cartoony, Big Daddy Roth, James Dean-movie one, not the real, segregated, Red Scare one — is still the archetype of choice.

For his second year projecting films at the Hoedown, Secret Cinema honcho Jay Schwartz is bringing along very appropriate films from his vast archive of cinematic obscurities: the 1961 Arch Hall Jr. vehicle The Choppers, and the 1956 rock 'n' roll showcase Don't Knock the Rock. They'll be shown in a secluded spot perfect for dragging up lawn chairs or spreading blankets or, of course, driving up and re-creating the environment in which these films were most often seen the first time around.

The Choppers was directed by Leigh Jason, who churned out a series of forgettable programmers in the '30s and '40s but spent the '50s working in television. It stars Arch Hall Jr., whose producer father struggled for years to turn his son into a teen idol despite the absence of any qualities that would lead someone who hadn't changed his diapers to believe in his potential. Here he plays a hot-rodder who falls in with a band of JD car thieves who have to suffer through two of his songs. Don't Knock the Rock was produced by quickie legend Sam Katzman, a sequel to Rock Around the Clock that uses the familiar Footloose plot to feature performances by Bill Haley and the Comets, Little Richard and Philly's own little-known Dave Appell and His Applejacks, house band at Cameo-Parkway Records.

(s_brady@citypaper.net)

Secret Cinema at the Hot-Rod Hoedown, Sat., Sept. 6, dusk, $15, United German Hungarian Club, 4666 Bristol Road, Oakford, thesecretcinema.com, hotrodhoedown.com.