A Clock Work Blue

1972 American film
  • 1972 (1972)
Running time
86 minutes[1]CountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglish

A Clock Work Blue is a 1972 American sexploitation comedy film directed by Eric Jeffrey Haims. It stars Joe E. Tata as Homer, a clumsy researcher who acquires a watch that allows him to travel through time.

Cast

  • Joe E. Tata as Homer
  • Tracy Handfuss as Nancy
  • Marie Arnold as Betsy Ross
  • Susannah Fields as Marie Antoinette
  • Shella Bancroft as Madame DuBarry
  • Mady Maguire as Priscilla
  • Rene Bond as Anne Boleyn
  • Shannon West as Cleopatra
  • Jayne Allison as Helen of Troy
  • John Kirkland as Paul
  • Ed Kelly as Thomas Cromwell
  • Sebastian Brooke as Louis XVI
  • Ray Sebastian as Paris
  • Donn Greer as Julius Caesar
  • George Berkley as Professor
  • Bill Bagdad as Painter

A Clock Work Blue opened in 1972 at the Cinestage Theatre on Dearborn Street in Chicago, Illinois, six days after the film A Clockwork Orange had completed an 18-week run at the nearby Michael Todd Theatre.[2] This, combined with A Clock Work Blue's title and the fact that some of its advertising had made references to A Clockwork Orange (such as that the former film "makes Orange blush") resulted in legal action from Warner Bros., the distributor of A Clockwork Orange.[2] The case resulted in Warner Bros. winning a consent order which declared that A Clock Work Blue was not to be screened under that title in any other theater in Cook County, Illinois.[3]

Critical reception

Brian Orndorf of Blu-ray.com called the film "bizarre and relentless with its mediocrity", as well as "screamingly racist".[4]

Home media

In April 2014, A Clock Work Blue was restored in 4K and released on DVD and Blu-ray by Vinegar Syndrome as a double feature with the 1971 film The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio, also directed by Haims.[1][5]

References

  1. ^ a b "The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio / A Clockwork Blue (LTD) – Vinegar Syndrome". Vinegar Syndrome. Retrieved February 4, 2020.
  2. ^ a b Gertner 1972, p. 96.
  3. ^ Gertner 1972, p. 96: "In the consent order which Warners won, the defendants were directed to stop screening the film and not to show it under that title in any other theater in Cook County, and not to exhibit or distribute any other film using the title 'A Clockwork Blue.'"
  4. ^ Orndorf, Brian (May 10, 2014). "The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio / A Clockwork Blue Blu-ray Review". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved February 4, 2020.
  5. ^ "The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio / A Clockwork Blue – Vinegar Syndrome". Vinegar Syndrome. Retrieved February 4, 2020.

Bibliography

  • A Clock Work Blue at IMDb