This afternoon, Carolyn and I went out to the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, a rather old but lovely place that specializes in revivals and rare films, often screened with their filmmakers in attendance. (For those of you familiar with the unsold Superboy TV pilot made in 1961: The movie theater you see in that pilot is the Aero…and it hasn't changed all that much to this day.) The event this afternoon was a salute to my occasional employers, Sid and Marty Krofft, complete with a screening of their 1970 feature, Pufnstuf. If you think that's a bizarre movie when you watch it on TV, you won't believe what it's like on a large screen.
Sid Krofft felt the need to apologize for the print that was screened, grainy and splice-filled as it was. It was, alas, the best one they could find. The other known prints were burned in the June, 2008 fire on the Universal lot and it was necessary to borrow this one from a private collector. The movie itself is in no way lost. In fact, you can order a copy here on DVD. It's just tough to get your mitts on a 35mm copy you could run in a non-video movie theater. Still, I enjoyed the energy and the sheer madness of it. For me, the only major disappointment — which I felt when I first saw it — is that H.R. Pufnstuf doesn't sound right. Lennie Weinrib, who did the voice on the TV series, had a financial dispute with the Krofft at the time and so the voice in the film was supplied by Allan Melvin. (The other voices are Walker Edmiston, Don Messick and Joanie Gerber. By the way, the Internet Movie Database says that Ms. Gerber did the voice of Freddie the Flute. I'm pretty sure it was Messick.)
Despite the bad print, a packed house enjoyed the hell out of the film and rose to its feet to thank Sid and Marty for all that memorable TV programming. Olivia Munn of The Daily Show interviewed them after the flick and Sid recounted some of his amazing career as a puppeteer before he brought his brother Marty into the business and The World of Sid and Marty Krofft blossomed. Another standing "o" went to the fabulous Billie Hayes, who stole the entire movie in the role of Witchiepoo and who was there for the screening. I worked with Billie on a number of Krofft shows and it was always amazing to see her erupt (I believe that is the right word for a force of nature) before the camera. Pufnstuf was also present…and why not? It was his movie.
The Kroffts have a number of new projects in the work including DVD releases and film remakes of most of their old shows. I always found them to be a great company to work for and with. I'm not sure everyone in the audience believed Marty when he explained in the interview how they never cared that much about money; how they'd go deep, deep into the hole if that's what it took to make a project come out right. But I was there. I saw them do that…and not once but many times. It sure made their shows memorable and it's nice to see it paying off now, thanks to all the fans they still have and the new ones they keep making.