The 1000th post of Films in films is dedicated to the beloved director John Landis and his trademark, a specific phrase that was featured in the most of his films, usually presented as a fictitious film of various genres. See You Next Wednesday was supposed to be Landis’ first script, an unfinished project that Landis decided to reference as a running gag for almost 20 years. The phrase itself is heard in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) at the end of a video message, the one that Dr. Frank Poole’s parents send to their son who’s in a space station.
We first encounter See You Next Wednesday in Landis’ debut film, the monster movie travesty Schlock (1973). In the beginning, SYNW is placed next to other legendary films of our time and also is being watched by the monster in a movie theatre – some scenes featured, including a battle between dinosaurs and other creatures of the prehistoric era.
In his next film, The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), Landis used See You Next Wednesday as the film that would presented in a technique called feel-around in which an employee of the movie theatre sits at the back of the viewer and helps him to “feel” what he’s watching on the screen. The film looks like a comedy and in its poster we see the name of Robert K. Weiss as the producer (who was the producer of Kentucky Fried Movie), John Landis as the director and David Jerome Abrams as the writer (Kentucky Fried Movie was written by ZAZ trio, David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker). Also, a poster of Schlock is shown – this is a paradise for a fan of self-references!
In The Blues Brothers (1980) a poster of See You Next Wednesday is shown. It’s presented as a disaster movie showing a King Kong alike monster, a space flying machine, a huge insect and a twister! Donald Sutherland is the star of the film, Blues Brothers’ production designer John Lloyd is the producer, Mark Levine is the writer (no link found) and Carl La Fong is the director ( a stunt who worked with Landis).
In An American Werewolf in London (1981), See You Next Wednesday is a porn film – a non-stop orgy is its tagline. We see an ad poster at the Tottenham Court Road tube station and we also see some parts of the film in the movie theatre where Jack warns David for the last time about the consequences of his actions.
In Trading Places (1983), See You Next Wednesday is presented as a classic film, directed by William Wyler and starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon. It’s influenced by their collaboration in Wuthering Heights (1939) which has a similar poster.
In Into the Night (1985), we can see a poster of See You Next Wednesday – unfortunately, no credit details are visible.
The same poster is briefly visible in the second film that Landis directed in 1985, the spy-comedy Spies Like Us. It’s in the snack bar of an old drive-in cinema, where the military has built secret headquarters.
In Coming to America (1988), there is a poster of See You Next Wednesday at a tube station. It is presented as a sci-fi epic starring Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis, Moe Howard (from the Three Stooges), James Brown and the model Kara Young (she made a guest appearance in the film).
In Innocent Blood (1992), See You Next Wednesday is shown on a theatre marquee, but no further details are shown.
The phrase was also found in Landis’ works as a non-cinematic reference. For example, it is used as the catchphrase in the army recruitment poster in Spies Like Us (1985).
As an added bonus, Guillemo del Toro paid tribute to Landis’ gag with a theatre marquee in Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008).
See You Next Wednesday Mr. Landis!
