FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28 /// MS .45 | 8:00 PM /// VICE SQUAD | 10:00 PM
Tickets for this event are only available as a double feature and cannot be purchased for the titles individually. There will be a 30 minute intermission between films.
Spend a night at the Drive-In at the Philadelphia Film Society on Friday, February 28th, when Pennsylvania’s world-famous Mahoning Drive-In Theater and PFS present the 2025 “Mahoning Road Show”! Replicating the experience of seeing a vintage 1980s 35mm double feature under the stars, minus the foggy windows and mosquitoes!
Mahoning operator and film programmer Virgil Cardamone and General Manager Mark Nelson will be on hand to introduce a pair of early 80s revenge movies, two bicoastal tales of crime-ridden streets not for the faint of heart, Abel Ferrara’s MS. 45 (1981), and Gary Sherman’s VICE SQUAD (1983), along with vintage 35mm trailers, snack bar ads, and a classic intermission reel between the films!
MS. 45 stars Zoe Lund as a woman brutalized in crime-ridden New York City, who decides to pick up the titular hand cannon and take the law into her own hands to clean up the streets. A gritty, grim slice of NYC urban horror, director Abel Ferrara (BAD LIEUTENANT) depicts Fear City in all its twinkling terror.
We then hop to the opposite coast for a dive into the neon slime of Los Angeles with VICE SQUAD (1983), with single mom streetwalker Season Hubley teaming up with hothead cop Gary Swanson to take down the sadistic pimp Ramrod (Wings Hauser), under the shimmering lights of Sunset Boulevard.
As with any night at the Drive-In, one ticket gets you TWO big features and a thousand thrills, just remember to replace the speaker on the pole before you leave and keep your headlights off the screen during the show!
(The Philadelphia Film Society and Mahoning Drive-In Theater wish to warn patrons of the frank and violent nature of this program, depicting assault and rigorous retribution. Neither organization condones vigilantism or naming your child “Ramrod”.)
MS .45
ABEL FERRARA | USA | 1981 | 80 MIN | R | ENGLISH | 35MM
Abel Ferrara’s infamous revenge flick oozes with style and grace as the magnificent Zoë Lund’s titular heroine garment worker takes to the grimy streets of ‘80s NYC, gun in hand, ready for anything that comes her way, including an all-timer Halloween dance party.
Cast: Zoë Lund
VICE SQUAD
GARY SHERMAN | USA | 1982 | 97 MIN | R | ENGLISH | 35MM
The streets of LA have never looked (and felt) filthier than in Gary Sherman’s ‘80s exploitation riot about a cop and sex worker teaming up to take down Wings Hauser’s shockingly deplorable murderous pimp that goes by the name Ramrod.
Cast: Gary Swanson, Season Hubley, Wings Hauser, Pepe Serna
Part of the Philadelphia Film Society's AFTER HOURS series.
Bringing together the odd, eerie, thrilling, and downright weird, this is the home of cult classics.