New multiplex will replace four-screen Cinema 356

Swimming against the tide of recession that followed the megaplex building boom of the late 1990s, Joe Mulone is opening a new movie complex in Buffalo Township in Butler County on May 10.

His 10-screen South Pike Cinemas is adjacent to, and replaces, his old four-screen Cinema 356.

Mulone, son of the late local theater owners Joe and Molly Mulone, also owns the six-screen Cheswick — which grew over the years from one screen to two to four to six — and the six-screen Harmar, which is on the site of the former Harmar Drive-In and the 10-screen Waterworks.

SKIPPING AHEAD

DVD users complain, and fairly so, that after buying a disc or paying a rental fee, they must wade through the "do not duplicate" warning, and, on some companies' discs, trailers and even a commercial for the studio's inventory.

Supposedly, you can't skip ahead to the next chapter, nor fast-forward.

Take it from someone who often puts in a disc to check the running time (not always listed on the box), the identity of a minor player (many films get short shrift from the Internet Movie Database), an exact quote or something involving the plot: It can be maddening to spend two minutes just getting to the point where you can select from the menu.

But there's a way to circumvent the garbage:

The instant the disc revs up and begins the "warning," strike the STOP button. Then, manually select Track 1 and Chapter 1, the point at which most movies begin.

It works with most discs. Where it doesn't, press MENU, and proceed from there.

"E.T." BUMPS UPWARD

The re-release of "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" has passed the $434 million mark in North American grosses, which puts the movie at No. 3 on the all-time chart just ahead of "Star Wars — Episode One: The Phantom Menace," which stalled at $431 million.

"E.T." will never catch up to "Titanic" ($600.7 million) and is highly unlikely to match the $461 million returns for the original "Star Wars."

Internationally, "E.T." stands in ninth place, with $748.7 million.

GENERAL MANAGERS

Jason Hostovich is general manager of Destinta Chartiers. He succeeded Marc Danuanno, who was mentioned in the column April 28.

SMITH HEADING "UPTOWN"

You might remember a trio of comedies — "Uptown Saturday Night" (1974), "Let's Do It Again" (1975) and the slightly more serious "A Piece of the Action" (1977) — all directed by Sidney Poitier and co-starring Poitier and Bill Cosby, always playing different characters.

Each film was loaded with a different combination of black talent including Harry Belafonte, Calvin Lockhart, Paula Kelly, Roscoe Lee Browne and Rosalind Cash.

Warner Bros. has acquired the remake rights. Will Smith will co-produce and almost certainly star in "Uptown Saturday Night," and possibly the others as well.

BUT IS IT A FIRST•

Randy Sluganski of Mt. Washington notes that "Brian's Song" (1971), one of the most-watched made-for-TV movies, was remade for TV recently. He asks whether it's the first instance of a TV film being remade.

One might make a case for certain historical subjects being broached more than once in dramatic specials, TV movies and miniseries. But can anyone think of a precise precedent for "Brian's Song" going the TV route twice•

YES, THERE IS A "MOKEY"

Francis V. Bender of Irwin writes:

"In light of Robert Blake getting busted for the alleged murder of his wife, I began thinking of a movie he did when he was a kid in the 1940s.

"The movie was called "Mokey." Blake played a kid who runs away from home, gets in trouble and is busted by the cops. He gets put in a jail cell, he says some anguished prayer, breaks a glass, falls on the bunk and starts bawling his eyes out.

"He tearfully pleads with the judge not to send him to reform school. A young lady in the courtroom takes pity on the boy and asks the judge to let her adopt little Mokey.

"I've tried to find some information on the movie 'Mokey' but to no avail, even on the Internet. I'm beginning to have doubts this movie even existed."

Reply: "Mokey" was a low-budget 1942 MGM film in which Blake played Mokey Delano opposite Dan Dailey and Donna Reed. It is not available on video.

If it were to turn up anywhere, it would be on Turner Classic Movies, which has the rights to it and ran it in January. A Turner contact tells me "Mokey" is not scheduled to run between now and the end of July.