Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 25, 1990 TAG: 9007240223
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT M. ANDREWS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA LENGTH: Medium
"Guaranteed Worst Movies in Town," reads a signboard on the tree-shaded sidewalk outside Jim McCabe's video store in this genteel suburb south of Washington, D.C.
McCabe isn't kidding.
Video Vault is B-movie heaven, an emporium of Tinseltown disasters, a supermarket of film schlock with such titles as "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians," "I Was a Zombie for the FBI" and "Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy."
Here are enshrined the long-forgotten relics of Republic, Monogram and other low-budget studios of the 1930s and 1940s, where there was no retake if an actor flubbed his lines or a boom mike suddenly swooped over a lovers' embrace.
McCabe's inventory of more than 18,000 videocassette tapes at two locations includes the usual array of new Hollywood releases, the bread and butter of the video rental business. But he attributes his financial success to Video Vault's stock of hard-to-find foreign art films, pre-1950s classics and cult movie atrocities.
He boasts several copies of "Detour," a 1945 film noir which McCabe says is "probably the most famous B movie ever made." Featuring a cast of three obscure actors, it was shot on a $21,000 budget in just six days on two sets - a hotel room and the inside of an automobile.
There are stomach-churning two-reelers by H.G. Lewis, "the godfather of gore," the cult classic "Reefer Madness," Russ Meyer's "Mondo Topless" and other bosomy epics, "Cannibal Holocaust," "Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks," and Ed D. Wood Jr.'s "Night of the Ghouls," hailed as "the ultimate in cheap, trashy horror films."
Wood, incidentally, is considered the worst director of all time and his "Plan 9 from Outer Space" is a blue-ribbon staple at festivals of the worst movies ever made, McCabe said.
"Wood was dead serious, but the guy was so inept that when people see his stuff they say `My God, I can't believe this.' They fall out of their seats and roll on the floor. His movies are so bad they're entertaining."
McCabe, 40, is a trained psychologist ho suffered burnout after seven years of working in the state mental hospital in his native Columbia, S.C. He moved to Washington in 1980 as a Reagan administration appointee in the Education Department. "It was zombieland," he said.
"I've always been a movie buff, so five years ago I said what the hell, let's roll the dice and see what happens," McCabe said. He rented the rear of a converted townhouse in historic Alexandria and put 500 movie tapes on the shelves.
McCabe spent long hours scouring the fine print of obscure distributors' and collectors' catalogs for "the good movies that you don't find anywhere else," and his business boomed. He opened a second outlet in Washington's fashionable Georgetown neighborhood last January, and offers mail-order rentals to subscribers in more than 40 states and British Columbia.
McCabe estimates he will gross more than $1 million this year, an unusual achievement in a highly competitive industry dominated by such giant chains as Blockbuster Entertainment Corp. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., West Coast Video Ltd. of Philadelphia and Erol's, a local firm.
"I warn the little guys out there that this a serious game, a tough business, and you've got to find your niche or you'll get swallowed up by the big guys," he said.
McCabe has found his niche. You can find it, too, on the racks labeled "Saturday Night Sleazies" and "Drive-In Madness." Look no further than "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla" or "Girl on a Chain Gang."
And don't miss "Guide to Safe Sex," a compilation of 1940s sex education films. The one with a couple of grinning bobby-soxers on the cover and this warning label: "Don't Touch That Zipper Until You See This Tape."
by CNB