Commander USA's Groovie Movies

Commander USA's Groovie Movies
Commander USA
Format	Variety Comedy
Written by	Jim Hendricks
Starring	Jim Hendricks
Country of origin	United States
Broadcast
Original channel	USA Network
Original run	1985 – 1989

Commander USA's Groovie Movies is a hosted movie showcase that ran weekend afternoons on the USA Network. The show premiered January 5, 1985, and ran through 1989. It was hosted by Jim Hendricks as "Commander USA" (Soaring super hero! Legion of Decency - Retired), a wacky but slightly seedy blue-collar comic book superhero who occasionally displayed powers such as "microwave vision" (usually to prepare a mid-movie meal of fish or eggs).

The show originally ran double features of horror and science fiction movies on Saturday afternoons, then later a single feature on Sunday afternoons. Later movies on the show tended to be Mexican wrestling films or heavily edited violent films from Japan.

The Commander's show originated from a secret headquarters located under a New Jersey shopping mall. The Commander was almost always enthusiastic about the films he showed, whether is was a "gem" like Inframan, Blood Beast Horror, or any other number of Grade-Z celluloid oddities. The Commander was often joined on the program by either his agent (Barry Kluger) or "Lefty", a hand puppet created by drawing a face on his right hand with cigar ash. Over the course of a show, Lefty's face would inevitably get smeared or washed off, but the Commander would always redraw it with his unlit cigar.

In 1988, Eclectic Publishing published Commander USA's World of Horror, a 32-page magazine which was intended to be published bi-monthly, but only one issue was ever released.

Brief clips from the show are visible in the films The Color of Money and Scrooged.

In all, more than 200 episodes were produced but are unlikely to ever air again because of the complexities in securing rights for the films involved.

Movies shown

• The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas
• Alligator
• The Alligator People
• Alone in the Dark
• An American Werewolf in London
• Andy Warhol's Dracula aka Blood for Dracula
• Andy Warhol's Frankenstein
• The Aztec Mummy
• Bedlam
• Black Carrion
• The Black Cat
• Blood and Roses
• Bloodbath at the House of Death
• The Blood Beast Terror
• The Blood of Nostradamus
• Blood Song
• The Bloody Vampire
• The Boogeyman
• The Brainiac
• The Brute Man
• Bug
• Captain Kronos,Vampire Hunter
• Cat People
• Cave of the Living Dead
• The Children
• Child's Play
• C.H.U.D.
• The Clonus Horror
• The Contraption
• The Corvini Inheritance
• Countess Dracula
• The Crawling Eye aka The Trollenberg Terror
• The Creature Wasn't Nice aka Spaceship or Naked Space
• Cry Wolf
• The Curse of Frankenstein
• Curse of Nostradamas
• Curse of the Aztec Mummy
• The Curse of the Cat People
• The Curse of the Crying Woman
• Curse of the Doll People
• Curse of the Vampire
• Dance of the Dwarfs
• Dark Forces aka Harlequin
• The Day Mars Invaded Earth
• The Deadly Mantis
• The Death Kiss
• Death Valley
• Demonoid
• The Devil Bat
• The Devil Bat's Daughter
• The Devil's Gift
• The Devil's Nightmare
• Devil Times Five
• Doctor of Doom
• Dracula
• Dracula's Dog
• Exorcism at Midnight
• Fiend Without a Face
• The Fifth Floor
• The Flying Serpent
• Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell
• Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed
• Fräulein Doktor
• Friday the 13th
• Friday the 13th Part 2
• Friday the 13th Part III
• Funeral Home
• Genii of Darkness
• The Great Alligator
• God Told Me To
• Hands of the Ripper
• Hangar 18
• The Hearse
• Hercules in New York
• Horror of Dracula
• Horror of the Blood Monsters
• Horror of the Zombies
• Horror Planet aka Inseminoid
• House of Psychotic Women
• House of the Long Shadows
• House of 1,000 Dolls
• The House Where Evil Dwells
• I Married a Monster from Outer Space
• I Walked with a Zombie
• Inframan
• In Search of Dracula
• Invasion of the Vampires
• Island Claws
• Island Monster
• It's Alive
• J. D.'s Revenge
• Laserblast
• The Late Nancy Irving
• Let's Scare Jessica to Death
• The Little Shop of Horrors
• The Living Coffin
• The Living Head
• The Loch Ness Horror
• Mako, The Jaws of Death
• The Man and the Monster
• The Man and the Snake
• Mark of the Devil
• Mark of the Vampire
• Mausoleum
• The Monster Demolisher
• Monster in the Closet
• My Bloody Valentine
• The Pack
• Panic
• The Pied Piper
• A Polish Vampire in Burbank
• The Possession of Joel Delaney
• The Premonition
• Psychophobia
• The Psychotronic Man
• One Dark Night
• Q, the Winged Serpent
• Rabid
• The Return of the Vampire
• The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy
• Samson vs. the Vampire Woman
• Samson in the Wax Museum
• Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
• Satanik
• Scalpel
• Scared to Death
• Simon, King of the Witches
• Slugs
• The Space Children
• Stranglehold
• Student Bodies
• Swamp of the Lost Monster
• Tales That Witness Madness
• Taste the Blood of Dracula
• Tattoo
• The Terror
• They Still Call Me Bruce
• Three in the Attic
• Trick or Treats
• Toxic Zombies
• Undersea Kingdom
• The Unseen
• Up in the Cellar
• The Vampire
• The Vampire Bat
• Vampire Circus
• The Vampire's Coffin
• Venom
• War of the Colossal Beast
• What?
• What's Up, Tiger Lily?
• Witchfire
• The Witchmaker
• The Witch's Mirror
• The Woman Who Came Back
• World of the Vampires
• Zombies on Broadway
• Zorro's Black Whip

Quotes

• "Holy cats!"
• "Keep your nose in the wind... and your tail to yourself..."
• "Always a Brideshead, never revisited."
• "Suffering catfish!"
• "Sure!"

External links

• Commander USA's Groovie Movies at the Internet Movie Database
• Fan site
• Fan site with clips
• Fan site
• Commander USA introduces "A Polish Vampire in Burbank"