American Hot Wax (1978) - Widescreen, H264

AMERICAN HOT WAX (1978) - Widescreen

Floyd Mutrix’s super rare, and highly entertaining movie based (loosely) on the life of Alan Freed, the controversial Cleveland DJ who helped unleash the horrors of rock'n'roll (some claim he actually coined the term) on an unsuspecting teenage American youth in the 1950s.

Criticized by conservatives for playing the "devil's music", hated by racists for promoting African American vibes, scandalized in the press, and persecuted by the law, Freed’s story is certainly worth telling - maybe even singing about - but after the films original release, American Hot Wax quickly vanished into nowhere, and (as far as I'm aware) was never officially released on either VHS or DVD. The odd copy that did surface now and then was generally fuzzy, full screen and not much joy to watch, which I think is a damn shame.

I am, therefore, sincerely pleased to share a very nice, uncut, wide-screen, copy of this rare and colorful bit of fun pop culture, featuring a crystal clear soundtrack of wall to wall music, along with some great performances by Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Frankie Ford, Screamin' Jay Hawkins and the Brooklyn Dreams.

Included is a sample.

AMERICAN HOT WAX (1978)

Directed by Floyd Mutrix
Produced by Art Linson
Written by John Kaye
Story by John Kaye and Art Linson
Produced by Art Linson
Associate Producer by Fred T. Gallo
Music by  Kenny Vance
Cinematography by William A. Fraker
Editing by  Ronald J. Fagan and Melvin Shapiro

Country: USA
Language: English
Color
Mono
91 mins
Rated: ‘PG’ (USA), ‘A’ (UK)

CAST

Tim McIntire
Fran Drescher
Jay Leno
Laraine Newman
Moosie Drier
Jeff Altman
John Lehne
Richard Perry
Chuck Berry
Jerry Lee Lewis
Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Frankie Ford
Charles Greene
Cameron Crowe

VIDEO

CODEC: H264 - MPEG-4 AVC
DISPLAY RESOLUTION: 710 x 480
FRAME RATE: 24 fps
DECODED FORMAT: Planar 4:2:0 YUV
ASPECT RATIO: 1.85:1
RUN TIME: 91 mins 10 secs

AUDIO 1

CODEC: MPEG AAC
LANGUAGE: English
CHANNELS: Stereo (dual mono)
SAMPLE RATE: 48000 Hz
BITRATE: 256 kb/s

AUDIO 2

CODEC: AAC Audio
LANGUAGE: English
CHANNELS: Stereo (dual mono)
SAMPLE RATE: 48000 Hz
BITRATE: 1536 kb/s

Sorry, no subs.

If you enjoyed this movie, please consider supporting the artists by buying a copy from wherever the hell you can find one.