JOAN JETT & THE RUNAWAYS "What Can I Do for You" 1979
Five years before ‘duBEAT-e-o’, there was a movie in the works called ‘We’re All Crazy Now’ that was to have starred The Runaways.
Although the Runaways broke up in the spring of 1979, filming went ahead that summer with Joan Jett and three actresses playing the band.
On September 22,1979 BILLBOARD reported:
Set Runaways Film
LOS ANGELES—Production has started on the Feature Motion Picture “We’re All Crazy Now,” loosely based on the career of the all-girl rock act the Runaways. The Zane-Helpern independent production stars Arte Johnson, Runaways’ member Joan Jett and former Herman’s Hermits leader Peter Noone. Cheryl Smith, Karen and Kathy Fallentine round out the cast as the remainder of the original Runaways.
(Yes, that is Cheryl “Rainbeaux” Smith of ‘Caged Heat’ fame on Drums. And Twins Karen & Kathy Fallentine on Bass & Keyboards)
The production fell apart and the movie was abandoned. Somehow, by 1984, the footage wound up in the hands of producer Alan Sacks, the creative genius behind Welcome Back, Kotter, Chico and the Man. Sacks cast Ray Sharkey as an editor who—get this—is assigned to make a movie out of some old footage of Joan Jett! (I think this is what the credits are referring to when they say the movie is “Based on an idea by Alan Sacks.”
Back in Jan. 1979, Z Productions announced the start of the filming of ‘We're All Crazy Now’, to be Directed by James Roberson, who was better known in Exploitation circles as a Cinematographer for such films as The Great Lester Boggs, Mountain Family Robinson, Encounter With the Unknown, and (most importantly) a couple of films for Charles B. Pearce (’Winterhawk’ and ‘The Town that Dreaded Sundown’). With the aim to create a film for the then-disintegrating Runaways, with bassist Laurie McAllister already out of the picture (to form another all girl band 'THE ORCHIDS' with Runaways Manager & Producer Kim Fowley), it was reported that Sandy West (Drums) and Lita Ford (Guitar) decided to walk out of the project, possibly the final straw that led to the official breakup of the band in April. With Joan Jett still on, she was contracted to do the project, and decided to soldier on with a trio of acting Runaways, including Rainbeaux Smith on Drums.
Sadly, when filming started in the Summer of '79, now being Directed by Bernard Girard, who's last work was with the awful ‘Gone With the West’, Jett was with a virus after filming scenes in the desert, with one of the worst LA smogs only adding to the sadness, although one can also wonder if financial reasons, or lack of finances really, were the final bell that sounded the end of the original project. Judging from the footage that wound up in the finished film “duBEAT-e-o”, one can see that it was possibly all for the best with a very low budget style that had no feeling - what should have been something with a feel for Punk Rock was only trying to be sleazy in some points with poorly filmed concert scenes that only work when the close up is on Jett, the only musician in what was left of the "band" at the time.
JOAN JETT &THE RUNAWAYS "What Can I Do for You" 1979 *(Video Master)
VIDEO EDITING & AUDIO RESTORATION BY TUSCADERO
2015
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