'Galah' Premiere at the Valhalla Cinema, Melbourne

The 'galah premiere' of Buckeye and Pinto (1979) and Terror Lostralis (1980) at the Valhalla Cinema, Melbourne. 

Footage of the ‘Galah’ Valhalla premiere was inserted into an original newsreel that screened before the films, hinting at their tongue-in-cheek tone.

Buckeye and Pinto and Terror Lostralis were themselves short film spoofs of – respectively – a western and a disaster film. They played a long season as a double bill at the Valhalla in Melbourne, as well as in Sydney and Adelaide. 

At the 1980 AFI (Australian Film Institute) Awards, Buckeye and Pinto and Terror Lostralis were both nominated for Best Short Fiction Film and Buckeye and Pinto received an additional nomination for a Kodak Cinematography Medallion for Gaetano Martinetti’s ‘Creative and innovative use of camera’. 

The Valhalla Cinema in Melbourne opened in 1976, on the site of the Crown Theatre (opened in 1913) and Victoria Theatre (renamed from the Crown in 1946).

The Valhalla attracted cult audiences to long-running seasons of audience participation films like The Blues Brothers (John Landis, USA, 1980) and The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, UK-USA, 1975). It also became known for it 24-hour movie marathons.

The Valhalla relocated from Richmond to Westgarth in 1987 after the original venue was sold and demolished. The Valhalla closed in 1996 but the Palace Westgarth cinema complex now stands on that site.

The Valhalla Social Cinema continued to screen cult films at various locations in Melbourne in the 2010s.

Learn more about the makers of these Authentic B-Grade short films, Buckeye and Pinto and Terror Lostralis.

Notes by Stephen Groenewegen