BLOODRAYNE - BOGOF!

Funny, but Clint Howard never gets roles like this in his brother Ron's films ...

One good way of keeping the cost of movie production down is to re-use the expensive bits - the props, the sets and, if possible, the actors.

Famously, back in 1931, two different versions of Dracula were shot on the same sets:  The legendary Bela Lugosi version and the rarely-seen but actually better Spanish version starring the (not terribly charismatic) Carlos Villarías and directed by George Melford, who shot his version at night, while Tod Browning et al worked during the day.

This was not unusual in the early days of sound.  Similarly, during the 'golden' age of The Studio System, the studios had a range of sets that were constantly dressed and re-dressed, decorated and re-decorated as needed or, as Christian Hayes points out in his blog The Classic Film Show, they sometimes didn't bother.

Two of the photos below are from the Humphrey Bogart film All Through The Night (1941), the other two photos are from a little thing called The Maltese Falcon (1941), also starring Humphrey Bogart and produced a few months later - before, it seems, the set dressers had chance to do much other than re-arrange the furniture. 

All Through The Night's elevator

... or is it The Maltese Falcon's elevator?

All Through The Night's corridor

... sorry, no, it's The Maltese Falcon's corridor!

Thing is, these sets were permenant fixtures on the studios' backlots, specifically designed to be used over and over again.

Now the studios no longer exist as production houses and sets are routinely ripped-down as soon as a film is finished, this doesn't seem to happen any more.

You'd think, especially in these straightened times, there would be a good case to make for this economy.  Two films for the price of one and a bit.  You buy one, you get one (almost) free.

This being so, imagine my delight when I discovered firstly this, the trailer for Uwe Boll's latest iteration of his videogame turned movie franchise: Bloodrayne - The Third Reich, featuring Clint Howard and Michael Paré:



Closely followed by the deliciously politically-incorrect comedy horror that actually looks much more interesting - Blubberella, also featuring Clint Howard and Michael Paré:



There you go, two schlock exploitation films for the price of one.  Great return on investment!  Now we just need to persuade James Cameron to film a smurf movie at the same time as Avatar 2.