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The Paul Lynde Halloween Special (1976)

The Paul Lynde
Halloween Special

Although The Paul Lynde Halloween Special doesn't fit into the typical no-budget film category of most Film Apocalypse films, I'm reviewing it here because it does fall into the 'cult classic' category.  Also, since it was only recently that I found out it had been released on DVD, I hope that I can let others know of its existence.  Brought to you by S'more Entertainment, The Paul Lynde Halloween Special is exactly the kind of campy, 70s variety show fun mixed with a Munsters-style horror comedy that I love.  It includes three lip-synced performances by the band KISS in what I believe was their first major television appearance, Margaret Hamilton reprising her roll as The Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz, Billie Hayes once again playing the part of Witchiepoo from Sid and Marty Kroft's H.R. Pufnstuf and Roz "Pinky Tuscadero" Kelly from Happy Days.  There are also appearances by Florence Henderson, Betty White, Tim Conway, Billy Barty and even a cameo from Donny and Marie Osmond!

Paul Lynde hosts this awesome 70s variety show and takes us through one of the strangest and loosest storylines imaginable.  His housekeeper (Margaret Hamilton) convinces him to accompany her to her sister's house to celebrate Halloween away from all of the kids that bother Lynde so much.  It turns out that Hamilton and her sister (Billie Hayes) are two witches who have tricked Lynde into coming out to their spooky old castle so that he, being a big TV star, can help them to change the negative stereotypes that people have about witches.  In return, Lynde is granted three wishes.  His first wish is that he's a rhinestone wearing trucker competing with Tim Conway for Roz Kelly's hand in marriage.  Then he wishes he was a sheik who's trying to woo Florence Henderson.  There's lots of wonderfully bad singing and dance numbers and, of course, the band KISS!

The cheese is so thick you can almost smell it, but oh, what a wonderful smell!  If you're a fan of campy humor, bad jokes, horror-comedy and KISS, you should definitely pick up this DVD!

I'm not sure if you can order this directly from S'more Entertainment, but if not, I've seen it available at Best Buy and Amazon.com.  Check out the S'more website for more info.:

www.smoreent.com

Gore-o-meter rating: 0 out of 5 (no gore, it was on network TV in the mid-70s)

Skin-o-meter: 0 out of 5 (no skin, it was intentionally family friendly)