Column Chronicles: Cheap film imitations pursued

Cheap film imitations pursued

Frank Cotolo
July 17, 2025

Whenever Hollywood produces a film extremely popular to the public and critics and its studio's pocketbook cheap imitations are produced to cash in on the themes. Here is a list of low budget imitations (LBI) through the decades that attempted to sensationalize on sterling successes.

Original: RAGING BULL
LBI - CHARGING STEER; When an abusive boxer becomes a world champion in the ring and runs out of competitors he becomes depressed and beats himself to a pulp.
LBI - ROARING ROOSTER; A prize fighter runs amok after being undefeated in eighty matches and climbs the Empire State Building looking for his wife to beat her up.

Original: JAWS
LBI - CHOPPERS; A mutant goldfish terrorizes a beach in Florida.

Original: CASABLANCA
LBI - CASABIANCA; Nazis open a nightclub in Morocco next to another nightclub in Morocco owned by a heavy smoking American with a broken heart.

Original: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
LBI - MARAUDERS OF THE THREE KINGS; Adventurer Ohio Smith versus Nazis trying to obtain the sandals worn by the Three Wise Men when they visited baby Jesus.
LBI - RAVAGERS OF THE BIG STAFF; Adventurer Alabama Tim needs to beat the Nazis who are searching for the staff Moses used to part The Red Sea.

Original: HIGH NOON
LBI - TEN TO TEN; A sheriff has to kill ten bad guys before 10 p.m. or become a Morman.
LBI - LOW MIDNIGHT; In an old Western town there is a U.S. Marshall who has to capture a gang of ornery galoots before the date changes at twelve a.m.

Original: OPPENHEIMER
LBI - WISENHEIMER; A college professor amazing at math thinks he can win World War 2 by splitting an atom using only a mile-long equation.
LBI - OPENHYMER; A brilliant scientists thinks he can slice an atom with a tiny razor and use its nucleus as a mighty bomb to drop on enemy lines and win World War 2.

Frank Cotolo can be found hosting the talk and interview programme Cotolo Chronicles. You can send him an e-mail at this address: frank@148.ca.