Arnold's Wrecking Co.

I Love This Comedy and own the Sound track on East Coast Records, and from time to time still give it a listen.

This Feature was Steve DeSuza First effort and designed for teens and the young at heart. I Found it much better than "Up in Smoke". ***** for this flick.

My 9th grade History teacher and 10th grade English teacher are actually in this movie as it was filmed in and around Levittown (they played a couple of photographers at the very end of the movie--apparently they had De Souza in class). Steve De Souza, who grew up 1 mile from my house, later went on to write many profitable movie screenplays, but come-on , in 1973 everyone wanted to imitate Cheech and Chong drugged out fantasies. No it is not REEFER MADNESS, but it is funny and definitely fits with THAT 70's SHOW in America. The movie had its OPENING NIGHT at the Towne Theater near the old Levittown Shopping Center (both the shopping center and the Towne Theater are no longer standing, but both were classic products of the 1950s pre-planned suburban mind of William J. Levitt--so I offer not excuses for a drug movie, but fun for the boring suburbanites who were growing up in the 1970s.

Arnold's Wrecking Co. is a very bad movie with bad acting and a bad plot that would never work. Arnold (played by Mike Renshaw) owns his own drug company that sponsors little league teams and appears at major hotel chains. It all starts out when Kenny (played by Steve De Souza) and his friend Rollo (played by Edie Henderson) try to turn Kenny's nerdy cousin into a drug addict. After resisting, Arnold gives in and enjoys the drug. After realizing how much his cousin paid for the drug, Arnold decides to eliminate the middle man in the drug business, and make his own company that sells drugs, that's right sells drugs. In a matter of a few hours, Arnold gets his own company (Arnold's Wrecking Company), office building, and a few dozen workers (mostly spouses of the stars of the film). After a few months, AWC becomes profitable. But now, a bad acting police man is investigating the drug chain. This film is filled with bad acting, especially Edie Henderson. The only thing decent about this movie is the movie within the move "The Story of Dope" and the somewhat decent soundtrack. Don't waste your time, skip this movie!

If you've been waiting years to see this long-lost film, your wait is over! You can now see it on ShoutFactoryTV! Enjoy!

Link:

http://www.shoutfactorytv.com/arnold-s-wrecking- company/57150dc9b0174e698700667a

I also had a few small parts in Arnold's Wrecking Company (if they survived editing) mostly as Steve De Souza's double.

Actually, I was a friend of Steve's younger brother Dan, and one day Steve called me at home and said "my brother tells me you have a motorcycle."

They offered to 'rent' my Honda 175cc street-scrambler for $50 a day, which seemed like a pretty good deal at the time. The script called for Steve to ride a motorcycle in a few scenes, and he was not very stable on a bike.

I jumped at the chance, and they eventually put me in a few bit parts (most of which I was nervous and terrible, I'm certain.) One scene I was an 'extra' in a touch football game in which the 'winning team" eventually took off with the football... which was filled with pot. That was part of the comedy gag, and it was how Arnold's company sold pot without getting caught by the cops.

Another scene, which was kinda funny, the director had us extra's playing basketball. We had long hair and were so stoned (in the movie, that is) we kept banging into each other. (I think this scene got cut)

In a few other scenes, I was De Souza's double. They had me put on De Souza's jacket, sunglasses, etc and was filmed riding the street in front of De Souza's house in Violetwood, in Levittown. At the last second, the director would call CUT... and I would get off the bike, and Steve would jump back on.

Another time, the camera crews rode in the back of a van and filmed me (as De Souza) riding along the Roosevelt Boulevard, and other Northeast Philly backers. One day I and some other extras dressed up in airport mechanic overalls. We held airport flashlights like we were directing planes on the runway, and did a few tryout scenes in Steve's backyard. The crew eventually went down the airport to film more scenes.

I have this vivid memory of this older guy (people claimed he was the Hollywood money man) who drove up each day in a dark colored Cadillac. He often brought us buckets of Gino's chicken for lunch. (remember Gino's on Rt. 13 near the Levittown Shopping Center)

The production crew eventually set up a sound studio in Penndel, at a small shopping center which I think was owned or rented out by Steve's dad, who owned De Souza Realty.

Anyway, I thought I was such cool beans cause I would skip high school and go hang around the sound studio. The sound tech lived in Snowball Gate, in Levittown, I think.

As I recall, the movie was originally called "Scoring"... with the 'S' in Scoring being a big dollar sign. Somewhere along the line they changed it to Arnold's wrecking company, and it won a prize in the Atlanta low budget film category, or something like that.

My name was initially listed as an 'extra' on the rolling credits at the end of the movie, but probably got cut out.

Renshaw eventually became editor of the Courier Times newspaper.