# Describe a movie you saw and liked as a kid but can't remember its title **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 4, 2014, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911 "2014-01-04T23:41:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/181 "2014-05-01T21:45:32Z")
> [@Craigm461](#): > > The movie may have been foreign had a pippy long stocking feel as I remember it. It was a kids movie but seemed very dark. I feel like I saw it on Cinemax as a kid in the mid eighties. The only thing I can remember is that it was about two kids a boy and a girl and the villian was a painter who would trap kids in his paintings. Any idea what this is? It has been bugging me for years. Maybe a slightly misremembered [The Peanut Butter Solution](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089789/)? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/182 "2014-05-01T21:49:29Z")
The Witches(1990) perhaps? It was the answer when someone else asked a similar question > **[Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos](https://www.yahoo.com/)** > > Latest news coverage, email, free stock quotes, live scores and video are just the beginning. Discover more every day at Yahoo! clip here [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/wd1fajtL1bU/hqdefault.jpg "The Witches: Erica in the painting") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd1fajtL1bU) ---
**Author:** ![Craigm461](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Craigm461](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Craigm461)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/183 "2014-05-01T23:02:45Z")
> [@OneCentStamp](#): > > Maybe a slightly misremembered [The Peanut Butter Solution](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089789/)? It was the peanut butter solution. That movie has haunted me for years, I was starting to think I had dreamed it, as no one knew what the hell I was talking about. Thank you =\> ---
**Author:** ![Danja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@Danja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danja)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/184 "2014-05-03T04:48:43Z")
Ah, I like this thread. Here’s one I’ve been wondering about for almost a decade: **When did it come out?** I think late 90s, around 98 or so. My ~8 year old self found it hilarious **Who was in it?** Whichever middle aged men appeared on the Disney channel at the time **What plot if any do you remember?** A group of astronauts went to Mars. One of them was incompetent. Hilarity ensued. **What was special to you about it?** I always remember the commercials for it, which always contained the tagline “Astronaut, or Astro-not?” I found this, as well as the movie, to be hilarious which indicates that perhaps the movie wasn’t actually that great. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/185 "2014-05-03T05:28:25Z")
Is there a thread like this for books? When I was in junior high school, I read a science fiction book checked out from the school library that I liked but can’t remember it’s title. There were revolutionary outcasts living either in caves or their own domes who were in conflict with a society living in a domed “city”, or maybe the whole country was domed. It definitely wasn’t Logan’s Run, and I think maybe some of the characters were aliens. It may have been written for a teenager/young adult audience. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/186 "2014-05-03T14:47:21Z")
> [@GreenElf](#): > > Is there a thread like this for books? . . . . Sorta. I’ve seen this site used previously when attempting to identify a sci-fi story or book: [The Internet Speculative Fiction Database](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/index.cgi) Haven’t used it personally, so I can’t vouch for it. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/187 "2014-05-03T15:06:34Z")
_When did it come out?_ WW II, I’m guessing _Who was in it?_ Don Knotts, and a funny supporting character in the Navy _What plot if any do you remember?_ He’s meek, (4F?) wishes he were a fish, falls in, becomes one, whose ferocious roars sink U-boats (?) and helps America _What was special to you about it?_ So, so happy, far more than laughing. \*Extra: \*Deep childhood wish fulfillment for all children? Was it a success? Wasn’t that Don Knott’s character-type in all his roles? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/188 "2014-05-03T15:25:38Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > _What plot if any do you remember?_ He’s meek, (4F?) wishes he were a fish, falls in, becomes one, whose ferocious roars sink U-boats (?) and helps America This is not a difficult one. [The Incredible Mr Limpet](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058230/combined). ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/189 "2014-05-03T15:31:55Z")
> [@Danja](#): > > **What plot if any do you remember?** A group of astronauts went to Mars. One of them was incompetent. Hilarity ensued. Probably [RocketMan](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120029/combined). ---
**Author:** ![jerez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c68b51/32.png) [@jerez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerez)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/190 "2014-05-03T21:33:30Z")
Saw a film maybe 30-35 years ago. It was probably made in the late 50s or early 60s, and I remember it featured a lot of musical acts, including Bill Haley & His Comets. In one scene, the upright bass player puts his instrument on its side on the floor and lies down on top of it, playing all the while. In another scene, there’s some kind of solo Spanish guitar (classical or flamenco). ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2014, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/191 "2014-05-04T00:06:48Z")
> [@jerez](#): > > Saw a film maybe 30-35 years ago. It was probably made in the late 50s or early 60s, and I remember it featured a lot of musical acts, including Bill Haley & His Comets. In one scene, the upright bass player puts his instrument on its side on the floor and lies down on top of it, playing all the while. In another scene, there’s some kind of solo Spanish guitar (classical or flamenco). Was it _Rock Around the Clock_? > **[Rock Around the Clock (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Around_the_Clock_(film))** > > Rock Around the Clock is a 1956 musical film featuring Bill Haley and His Comets along with Alan Freed, the Platters, Tony Martinez and His Band and Freddie Bell and His Bellboys. It was produced by B-movie king Sam Katzman (who would produce several Elvis Presley films in the 1960s) and directed by Fred F. Sears. > The film was shot over a short period of time in January 1956 and released in March 1956 to capitalize on Haley's success and the popularity of his multimillion-selling recording "Ro... ---
**Author:** ![Danja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@Danja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danja)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2014, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/192 "2014-05-04T00:51:21Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Probably [RocketMan](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120029/combined). That’s it! Thanks! Just out of curiosity, did you actually remember the movie or did you search it? I think I tried searching “Disney Mars” and various permutations thereof and somehow that movie never came up. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2014, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/193 "2014-05-04T02:04:25Z")
> [@Danja](#): > > That’s it! Thanks! Just out of curiosity, did you actually remember the movie or did you search it? I think I tried searching “Disney Mars” and various permutations thereof and somehow that movie never came up. I searched. I found a [text list of every single Disney movie ever](https://d23.com/walt-disney-archives/list-of-disney-films/), by year, and then checked IMDb against any name that seemed space-ish and was made in the late 90s. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2014, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/194 "2014-05-04T03:53:47Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > This is not a difficult one. [The Incredible Mr Limpet](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058230/combined). Thanks. Next time I’ll get a hard one. 🙂 Came out in 1964, before anti-military Hollywood. ---
**Author:** ![jerez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c68b51/32.png) [@jerez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerez)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2014, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/195 "2014-05-04T07:03:24Z")
> [@Accidental\_Martyr](#): > > Was it _Rock Around the Clock_? > [Rock Around the Clock (film) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Around_the_Clock_(film)) Thanks for the suggestion. That one and “Don’t Knock the Rock” are the obvious candidates, but I haven’t come across the scenes described in my post. The bass player dry humping his instrument probably shows up in RATC (similar pose seen in one of the RATC advertisements). The scene of the solo guitarist would clinch it, although I should add that I may be conflating two films. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2014, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/196 "2014-05-04T16:49:27Z")
Over the years, I have thought back to this movie many, many times and I would love to be able to watch it again. I remember that it was made around 1956. It was very close to that year. It might have been 1955 or 1954. But I would be about 90% certain that it would be 1956. This will be a very difficult puzzle because I don’t remember very much at all about this movie. It was black & white and it was a Type “B” movie. I remember a little about the plot. It was about aliens who come to Earth and I would guess it was about them wanting to take over the planet. The one thing I remember most vividly was that these looked very much like Earth people and were wearing a silvery type space suit and they each had a weapon that looked like a handgun but more like a child’s toy ray gun and they would aim it at a human and pull the trigger and it would make sound and the human would then turn into a skeleton. If I recall, these aliens were just actors (both male and female) who wore a silvery space suit with a round type of fishbowl helmet. I remember one spoken line in particular. They came to someone’s home and there were two or three humans in a swimming pool at the rear of a home. There may have been a line or two spoken back and forth by the humans and the aliens and then one of the humans said, “I’m going to call the police.” Then, one of the aliens said, “You will call no one.” and that alien pulled the triigger on his handgun weapon and that caused the human to turn into a skeleton. When the alien pulled the trigger, the gun made a high pitched sound and it think it also glowed or flashed a light. This movie may have played on the same bill as a well known stop-action animation movie by Ray Haryhausen that was about some giant squid that came to San Francisco (I think it was SF, anyway) and the movie featured much mayhem when the squid would let one of his (or her) giant tentacles unfold in the city and it would roll along streets and squash everything in its way. That included cars and people and buildings and all sorts of other things. This “squid” movie is actually quite well known. I’ve seen it a few times but cannot remember the title. What I do remember is that a group of us neighborhood kids would go to this movie theatre every Saturday and for ten cents we would see one or two raunchy Class B movies that were kind of like Horror movies but they featured these horrible deadly creatures (usually from outer space) and they scared the living daylights out of us. If our parents would have had any idea of how terried we were by these movies, they would never have let us go. The space aliens movies might have been shown on the same bill as the squid movie or it may have been shows the preceding or following week. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2014, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/197 "2014-05-04T16:55:03Z")
There was a movie theatre in our neighborhood where a bunch of heighborhood kids would all go to the movies every Saturday and we would pay about one dime to see some really “cheesie” movies. These were usually Type “B” films (so sorry I forget the correct name for them). I can only remember two or three of these films. But there was one serial that I remember callled “The Iron Claw”. This was one of those serials that had maybe ten parts to it and it was the kind of thing where it ended one week with a car going over a cliff and the audience would be certain the occupants of the car would all certainly have been killed. But then, the nexte week, they would show that lo and behold, they all lived somehow and the adverture would continue. Anyway, this one was called “The Iron Claw” because the villian had some kind of hook or claw that he would use to kill people. He was definitely a bad guy and every week he would kill someone new. Would anyone here be able to give me any hints on this? I remember the name of the serial. It was definitely “The Iron Claw”. Unfortunately, I cannot remember anything else about it. I was only in kindergarten at the time. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2014, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/198 "2014-05-04T16:56:02Z")
^ The squid (actually, an octopus) movie is “It Came from Beneath the Sea.” Can’t help you with the other one, yet. 😉 [The Iron Claw](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033761/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2014, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/199 "2014-05-04T16:58:01Z")
About the first movie that I posted above, I said it came out around 1956. That is when I first watched it. I assumed it was made around that time since I figured it was really so cheap that they would have showed a new one each week and it would have been made each week. But, I suppose it could have been made sometime before that. Maybe from 1945 to 1956? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2014, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/200 "2014-05-04T16:58:41Z")
> [@jerez](#): > > Thanks for the suggestion. That one and “Don’t Knock the Rock” are the obvious candidates, but I haven’t come across the scenes described in my post. The bass player dry humping his instrument probably shows up in RATC (similar pose seen in one of the RATC advertisements). The scene of the solo guitarist would clinch it, although I should add that I may be conflating two films. Did you catch the third movie at the bottom of the page, _ **Twist around the Clock** _? I was a virtually scene-by-scene remake of the first film. They showed them all back-to-back on TCM a while ago. If I had been drinking, I would have sworn I was seeing the same movie twice! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911.md?page=11)