Los Angeles, Calif. – Grindhouse Releasing and the American Cinematheque will present the late, great Duke Mitchell’s never-before-seen exploitation masterpiece Gone With The Pope on Friday, March 12 at 7:30 p.m. at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.
Duke Mitchell was an Italian Rudy Ray Moore, a popular nightclub performer and self-proclaimed “Mr. Palm Springs” whose long-running act with Sammy Petrillo was featured in Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla. The charismatic entertainer went on to use his talents and show business connections to produce two of the most entertaining films of the Seventies, which he wrote, directed, produced, scored and starred in.
Gone With The Pope casts Mitchell as Paul, a paroled gangster with an unholy scheme: to kidnap the Pope and charge “a dollar from every Catholic in the world” as the ransom. Shot in 1975 as Kiss The Ring, Gone With The Pope was unfinished at the time of Mitchell’s death in 1981.
Sage Stallone and Academy Award-winning film editor Bob Murawski (The Hurt Locker) of Grindhouse Releasing rediscovered Gone With The Pope in 1995 and vowed to save it from obscurity. Murawski (whose other projects as an editor have included Spider-Man 1,2 & 3) spent 15 years completing Gone With The Pope from the surviving film elements.
“Of all the films I have been involved with, the one that I am most proud of is Gone With The Pope,” Murawski reveals. “Duke Mitchell didn’t live to see this masterpiece finished. I am honored to be the person to finish it for him. Completing this movie was a 15-year labor of love. No expense or effort was spared in rescuing this classic from cinematic oblivion and finishing it with the utmost quality. Our beautiful new 35mm print stands as a testament to Duke’s unique and explosively entertaining vision.”
Mitchell’s violent 1974 crime saga Massacre Mafia Style will screen on the same program. Also known as Like Father, Like Son and The Executioner, Massacre Mafia Style is a homemade answer to The Godfather, promising “more action, more guts, more dynamite!” Starting with Duke and his sidekick annihilating an entire building full of enemies, the movie is nonstop, mind-blowing entertainment and has become a favorite among cult movie fans.
About Grindhouse Releasing:
Owned by Sage Stallone and Bob Murawski, Grindhouse Releasing is known for its lavish restorations and roadshow-style theatrical exhibition of such notorious exploitation-horror films as Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond and Cat In The Brain, Pieces, Cannibal Holocaust, Cannibal Ferox and I Drink Your Blood.
Grindhouse Releasing partnered with Quentin Tarantino’s Rolling Thunder to release The Beyond in theaters and in 2010 launched a nationwide re-release of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead.
The address of the Egyptian Theater is 6712 Hollywood Boulevard, between Las Palmas and McCadden, just east of Highland Avenue in Hollywood.
This exclusive screening will include an in-person Q& A with the cast and crew of Gone With The Pope.
For more information, visit www.grindhousereleasing.com and www.gonewiththepope.com. For stills and press, please e-mail David Szulkin at [email protected].