42nd Street Memories: The Rise and Fall of America's Most Notorious Street (2015) User Reviews

A glimpse of a special time

[CobraMist · 8/10 · 14 September 2020]

Through a series of interviews with grindhouse filmmakers, actors, fans, and historians the audience is presented a beautiful and disgusting tapestry of what 42nd street once was. The documentary examines the history of infamous NYC block; starting with the creation of the theater houses to the boom of the grindhouses and finally to the modern era of Disnificaiton. At each major 42nd street milestone, we are offered a thorough examination of the reasons behind the historical shift. To help set the feel, clips from movies set on 42nd street such as BASKET CASE, THE EXTERMINATOR, MASSAGE PARLOR MASSACRE, and NIGHTMARE are intertwined. Stories range from the hilarious to the terrifying as former attendees of 42nd street take us down the street that they loved so much. The saddest part is that its obvious that such a place will probably never exist in any of our lifetimes. The only solace is that modern grindhouse fans have access to far more movies then a theater attendee would have had back in the day.

If you a fan of grindhouse cinema I would highly recommend that you check this out.

Doesn't really make me want to go there

[jellopuke · 7/10 · 31 December 2021]

This would have tonnes of nostalgia for anyone who lived or visited 42nd street during the era or anyone that wished they could have BUT there are so many disgusting stories, violent stories, dangerous stories, etc that they're not exactly making me wish I could have been there... Sure it looked cool, but the reality sounded pretty icky... Lots of talking heads, standard documentary format, decent enough stuff, but yuck...

Going Down Memory Lane

[Michael_Elliott · 12 February 2016]

42nd Street Memories: The Rise and Fall of America's Most Notorious Street (2015)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Calum Waddell's excellent look back at the now infamous 42nd Street in NYC where countless film buffs were entertained by some of the wildest movies ever made while at the same time trying to avoid getting shot, stabbed or robbed.

Bill Lustig, Joe Dante, Matt Cimber, Veronica Hart, Frank Henenlotter, Buddy Giovinazzo, Roy Frumkes, Tom Holland, Jeff Lieberman, Lloyd Kaufman, 42nd Street Pete and Debbie Rochon among the people interviewed and share stories about the notorious street that hosted mainstream movies but was best remembered for trash like BLOODSUCKING FREAKS, PIECES, the ISLA series and other exploitation titles.

If you're a fan of these types of movies of if you're curious about the original 42nd Street then this is certainly a film that you're going to want to check out. Clocking in at 81 minutes there's really not too much film footage shown but that's okay because that leaves the majority of the running time to the people who were actually there.

There are some terrific and varied stories told about the location with some saying they never faced any issues down there while others talk about the drugs, violence and prostitution. No matter what your opinion on these films are, this documentary really does give you a great idea of how fun the location would have been for film buffs of that era. There are a great number of stories told so if you're a fan then this is certainly a must see.

I'm glad something got better

[mls4182 · 3/10 · 9 July 2022]

It sounded awful. I'm glad the blight is g9ne.

This was pretty gross and makes you glad you missed it.

The live porn actress recalling it as fond memories was pretty nauseating. I mean ewe.