Publishers/Editors:

Guest Editor:
Guest Associate Editor:
Monoging Editor:
Production Supervisor:
Photographers:
Copy Editor:
Layout:

V. Vole and Andrea Juno

Jim Morton

of "Trasholo Nowslottor"

Boyd Rice
Francisco de Oliveira Mottos
Catherine Reuther
Bobby Adams, Ana Borrodo
Scott Sunwnerville
Gino Vanlue, Susan Stella, Lorry Fleming

Writers:

Colette Coleman, Margaret Crone, Prox Gore,

Richard Prelinger, Mark Spainhower, Mark Pauline

Contributors:

leslie Pollock, Aaron Noble, C. Morrinon, Hilary Cross

Book Design:

Andrea Juno

Special thanks to Michael Weldon and Eric Scheie.

ISBN No. 0-940642-09-3
All contents copyright '<'1986

by

Re/Search & respective contributors.

3rd printing, July 1987

BOOKSTORE DISTRIBUTION: Subco, PO Box 10233, Eugene OR 97440 (503) 343-6324.
RECORD STORE DISTRIBUTION: Rough Trade, 326 6th St, San Francisco CA 94103 (415) 621-4102.
U.K. DISTRIBUTION: Airlift, 14 Baltic St, London EC1 YOTB, U.K. (01) 251-8608
GERMANY DISTRIBUTION: 235, Spichernstr. 61, 5000 Koln 1, W. Germany
SUBSCRIPTIONS: $25 for 3 issues ($35 air overseas/$40 for Australia/ Asia).
Printed in Hong Kong
RE/SEARCH PUBUCATIONS, 20 Romolo #B, San Francisco, CA 94133 (415) 362-1465.
Front cover: The Mask.
Back cover: film unknown.
Photo on page 1 :

lncreciiWy Strange Creatures.

Photo on lost page: The Mask

Photo above: Guns Don't Argue

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

INTERVIEWS
FRANK HENENLOnER

8
18

llty AMroe Jlltfto en4 Merle Paulino; aoyd ateo

RAY DENNIS STECKLER & CAROLYN BRANDT

3b

TED V. MIKELS

58

RUSS MEYER
DICK BAKALYAN

172

YOUNG PLAYTHINGS

175

WIZARD OF GORE

..,,......

lty Andrea Juno

HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS

FILM ESSAYS

7b
88

.,, M..tt l.,.l.....wor

177
178

90

DAVID FRIEDMAN

102

DORIS WISHMAN

110

BlAST OF SILENCE
.., ...... -.

179

DAUGHTER OF HORROR
..,,..._

181

SPIDER BABY

182

GEORGE ROMERO

..
,,..._
llrM_..Ipel....wor

lty aoyd aice

JOE SARNO

GOD TOLD M TO
..,....._,,,_

DIRECTORY
186

A-Z OF FILM PERSONALITIES

..,,..........

lty Andrea Juno

LARRY COHEN

114

MISCELLANEOUS

lil;y Andrea Juno and Vale

206

QUOTATIONS FROM MOVIES

212

FAVORITE FILMS UST

140

214

RE/SEARCH CATALOG PAGES

143

217

BIBLIOGRAPHY & SOURCES

14b

218

INDEX

GENRE ARTICLES
BIKER FILMS
lty Jim Morton

J.D. FILMS
lty Jim Morton

BEACH PARTY FILMS

lty Jim Morton

LSD FILMS

148

It, JiM Motto"

WOMEN IN PRISON FILMS

151

by Jim M.non

MONDO FILMS

153

.,, ..r4ako

SANTO

157

by Jim Morton

ED WOOD, JR.

158

lty JiM Morten

SEXPLOITATION FILMS

lbO

lty Jim Mortoft

EDUCATIONAL FILMS

lbb

lty Jim Morton

INDUSTRIAL JEOPARDY FILMS

lty lchr.t ProUnpr

169

est

his is a functional guide to territory largely neglected by the film-criticism

tshment-encompassing tens of thousands of films. Most of the films discussed

test the limits of contemporary (middle-class) cultural acceptability, mainly because

in varying ways they don't meet certain "standards" utilized in evaluating direction,
acting, dialogue, sets, continuity, technical cinematography, etc. Many of the films are
overtly "lower-class" or "low-brow" in content and art direction. However, a high
percentage of these works disdained by the would-be dictators of public opinion are
sources of pure enjoyment and deligbt, despite improbable plots, "bad'' acting, or
ragged film technique. At issue is the notion of "good taste," which functions as a filter
to block out entire areas of experience judged-and damned-as unworthy of
investigation.
The concepts of "good taste" are intricately woven into society's control process
and class structure. Aesthetics are not an objective body of laws suspended above us
like Plato's supreme "Ideas"; they are rooted in the fundamental mechanics of how to
control the population and maintain the status quo.
Our sophisticated, "democratic" Western civilization regulates the population's
access to information, as well as its innem1ost attitudes, through media-particularly
film and video." The power to literally create desire, fashion, consumer trends, opin
ions, aspirations and even one's very identity is expressed through film and \ideo. This
force-power through persuasion-reaches deep into the hackbrain, rendering more
brutal, physical control tactics obsolete.
Since the sixties, film has ceased being a popular creative medium. TI1e whole
sixties' avantgarde filmmaking, from Brakhage to Conner, was based on the cheap
availability of l6mm t1lm, cameras, etc; many of the films in this hook were originally
shot in 16mm. After this became too expensive, Super-8 became the medium of
choice. Several years ago, the major manufacturers began de-emphasizing professional
quality Super-8 cameras, film stocks, etc, saying, "People don't really want it. Editing is
too hard for most people, and everyone's switching to video, anyway." TI1e result: the
number of low-budget films being produced has dropped drastically.

1l1e value of low-budget films is: they can be transcendent expressions of a single
person's individual vision and quirky originality. When a corporation decides to invest
S20 million in a film, a chain of command regulates each step, and no one person is
allowed free rein. Meetings with lawyers, accountants, and corporate boards are what
films in Hollywood are all about.
So what makes films like Herschell Gordon Lewis's The Vizard of Gore or Ray
Dennis Steckler's The Incredibly Strange Creatures \.Vho Stopped Lil,ing and Became
Mixed-Up Zombies worthwhile? First of all: unfettered creativity. Often the films are
eccentric-even extreme-presentations by individuals freely expressing theh imagi
nations. who throughout the filmmaking process improvise creative solutions to
problems posed either by circumstance or budget-mostly the latter. Secondly, they
often present unpopular-even radical-views addressing social, political, racial or
sexual inequities, hypocrisy in religion or government; or, in other ways they assault
taboos related to the presentation of sexuality, violence, and other mores. ( Cf. George
Romero's Dead trilogy which features intelligent, problem-solving black heroes, or
Russ Meyer's Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill! which showcases tough girls outwitting-and

even physically outdoing-sexist men.) 'l11irdly. ocotsionally films are made of such
unique stature ( Cf. Daughter ql Honor) as to stand \'irtually outside any genre or
classification, thus extending the boundaries of \vhat has been done in the medium, as
well as proYiding-at best-inexplicably marvelous experiences.
It is all too common-indeed, a cliche-for otherwise \veil-read. thoughtful people
to deplore "violence'' depicted in movies such as the ones discussed here. Yet there is
no direct eYidence that the mere viewing of a film causes crime; in fact. a film may well
act as a ''safety valve" pretJenting its occurrence. In any case, viokncc cannot he
eliminated through repression of its reprcscntation; in fact. there is e\idence we han a
primal need to express ourselves violently, just as we do so-involuntarily-in our
dreams. \Vhen there's an accident on the highway, our immediate. uncensored instinct
is to stop and stare. But ... thert.' is a crucial difference hernten the artistic representa

tion of violence ancl its \Villful commission against another person in actual life:.
Balinese have for ccnturies enacted. e.Ytreme}' vioit'nt dramas touching on primal
social issues. yet historically they are among the most peaceft.il peopk on earth.
Obviously these dnunas have served a cathartic as well a."' poetic function. In \X1estl'rn
civilization, the history of painting (from early medi<.:,al depictions of martyrs and the
allegorical landscapes of HierOI1)1Tius Bosch up to Goya and Francis Bacon) is replete
with torturl's and hloody dismemberments. TI1e Bible itself depicts almost e\cry kind
of atrocity and sex crime-yet dol'S one go out and rape and kill after reading the Bible?
In our society. the conditions that create rapists and murderers do not stem from the
creative interplay of our fantasies-tor well-balanced people there is an enormous
difference between a.fantas,y and reatizv. Murderous inclinations already in an indhid
ual are not triggered by viewing one film-that is far too easy an explanation. Film
censorship is a simplistic, backwards approach to profound problems in our society; it
is much easier to bandage the symptom than to cure the deep-rooted disease. 'fhe
sickness of the rapist-murderer may stt:m from a number of causes-economic repres
sion (ghettos), violence in tht: family. t:ven biochemical imbalance. But whatenr the
causes, film censorship is not the cure.
This volume focuses on ulihailed tllmmakers whose work dates primarily from the
sixties and seventies. Most of the films mentioned are classifiable into

f'\:\'0

genres: gore

(violence) and sexploitation, although the best transcend such facile labeling. Certain
sexploitation or gore filmmakers (such as David Cronenberg. who already has had rwo
books written about him) arc absent because of previous publicity or inaccessibility.
Many wonderful, more mainstream t1lmmakers, such as Bunuel. Polanski. Keaton, Fritz
Lang and Val Lewton-and even entire gt:nrcs such as Surrealist/Dada films andfi/m
nniJ-are not detailed for similar reasons. This is not a completist's volume-many
other American movies. plus a \vhole other \vorld of films from Hong Kong, thc
Philippines, Mexico, Spain, etc. remain to he explored and experienced. Harher. it is a
presentation of the continuing creatile dilemma, with specitk emphasis on the
problems of artists counter to the status quo. Ht:rc the filmmakers themsdvcs articu
late their philosophies and histories while offering views and insights applicable to any
creative medium. rn the world of lmv-buclget filmmaking, it is still possible for the
imagination to reign supreme.
-V. Vale and Andrea Juno, San Francisco, 198')

Spielberg's latest. Double features are a thing of the past: it

elate New York filmmaker Frank Henenlotter has made

one excellent horror feature, Basket Case. Undoubtedly he

deserves funding to make many more, but at present he
works

as

a graphic designer at an ad agency.He is included

here not for the magnitude of his creative output, but for
his thought. Henenlotter's views on the entire process of
independent filmmaking include careful consideration of the
moral aspects of presenting violence, gore, and sexual devi
ancy; his analysis of this prickly area of aesthetic ethics
forms an important core of the following interview.
Additionally, Frank Henenlotter is a broadly knowledge
able film historian whose perspective on obscure movies

costs too much money to ship two films. And that used to be
the joy of the '60s-when I was going to the movies you

aluays saw tu'O pictures. Even 42nd Street now i sho\\-ing

too much mainstream. The only excitement I get lately is
from what's being released on \ideotape. O f course I'd much
rather see something in a theater, but-now I'm buying
videocassettes like crazy. Yesterday I bought 01RJ' of the
Dead and She Freak. The week before I picked up Ted V.
Mikels' Corpse Grinders.
But it's not like I can just go to a theater and sec Corpse

Grinders. I'd much rather

see

films in a movie theater with a

group of people, especially in the IOnd of run-down flcabags

that played them-somehow the more peeling paint, the

provides some surprising correlations.He's also a film memo

rabilia collector, trivia expert and the possessor of an
extremely quick, enthusiastic wit behind his low-key, unas
suming facade. Besides other unusual interests, he collects
antique surgical tools-even possessing an authentic violet
ray machine, complete with scarce accessories ...
Andrea Juno interviewed Frank Henenlotter in his East
Village apartment, which was neatly decorated with movie

H's a stra1.. concept: .. these obscure films

that I would have risked iftiury cnl death to
see (literaly, in 101M of those theaters) an
now availallle at your local clean video
stonl

posters, an impressive collection of books and videotapes,

and the original aasket Case dummy sitting alone in a
corner ...

more smell of urine, the more exciting it seemed to be! But

I'll take it where I can get it. I'm certainly not going to bypass

Corpse G17nders simply because it's on videotape!

I didn't want anything to do \\-ith videotape when it first

came out; the only films available were Sound ofMusic and

Hello Do/r-give me a break! But once you saw Blood Feast

A}: U"1Je11 U'ere you last in San Francisco?

being sold, that"!> when you knew: ub-ob. bere it comes.

FH: About ten years ago-it's probably a totally different

That's when everybody I knew had to rush out and buy a

city-totally different planet now. I got off at the Greyhound

VCR. We never anticipated the amount of the stuff that was

bus terminal and the first thing 1 did was go to Market Street

going to come out. For awhile I was getting a lot of bootleg

and-! can almost smell sleazo movie theaters-see Battle

Beneath the Earth. Cannibal Girls, and Rau Meat: It was

tapes from people. but you don't need to anymore because

perfect-l'd nC\er been in the city before.

it's all going to be released!

It's a strange concept: all these obscure films that I would

'"I 2nd Street (or what 42nd

have risked injury and death to see (literally. in some of those

Street used to be-no t.t they're getting rid of it). That's

theaters) are now available at your local clean video store!

It reminded me

so

much of

where I have my fondest memories of seeing oddball films at

It's a little unnerving. I'm wholeheartedly in support of this,

oddball hours. like, I saw Blackenstein at 12:30 Saturday

but I'm still not used to the fact that these films that I spent

night during the height of a snowstorm. There were only a

my whole life trying to see are now consumer items.

few other people in the theater and they went nuts seei ng

A:
} People uho used to search for rare occult books get a
similar sense of dismay when tbey become atailable in
cheap paperoack editions-

the film-the star had a square afro. Every time the monster
appt:arc:d I thought Lhc: bakony was going to come down
people were just screaming!

FH: Sure. Now I can watch spider Baby anytime I want.

A}: Do you see a lot of fli ms?

On the positive side, I love to show these films to people. I

FH: I used to. I'm less of a junkie now, only because of the

used to have a hard time dragging people to those theaters.

unavailability of so many of them. When I \vas growing up on

Now, fme-1 can sit here and run a tape for them. It's a lot

Long Island there were drit>e-ins. still. And there used to be

easier!

lots of sleaze theaters that played horror films. One of my

A:
} Although . . I first sau Dat"io Argento "s Suspiria on
uideotape-turice. But uhen /finally sau it in a theater. it
was like seeing a complete)' different fli m FH: -and hearing a different film-the soundtrack is

favorite ones is now just hardcore porn. There were three in

one town; now there's none in that town. I hate going back
to Long Island because evel)thing I used to love is dead.
The few drive-ins left in this country are playing Steven

outrageous.

W:

 A:
} But there ll'e also aspects releant to the plot that
u'f!re blocked out in the tideo-like a unman in the back
ground of one scene uhom I had net1er noticed before. Also.
the color changes assume much greater significance on a
large screen.
FH: The video you saw may have been a bootleg, although
that doesn't mean it'll be better when they officially release
it. Deep Red (also an Argento film) is out, and the cropping of
that film is quite poor. blowing a key scene at the beginning. I
really dislike that

sort

of thing. especially with a director like

Argento who makes full use of the screen.

I have Herschell Gordon Lewis's Something Weird which
is in wide screen, and they letterboxed it-kept it wide
screen, which is great. They also left in all the scratches and
breaks and the dirt! lf it's a wide screen let me see the whole
picture-I can live with the top and bottom framed. And in
the print I have they even discolored the top and bottom for
the LSD scene!
A:
} Can /look at your film collection?
FH: Sure. Here's some of my collection; a lost genre-sex
hygiene films. One called

Tomonvu's Children (from

19 :H) is for sterilization.l11e highlight of the film is where a

guy's getting a vasectomy-he's a real lowlife, sneering and

insulting the doctors as they're doing it. But that's the only
w.ty to have one!
A}: l lme dril'(!t'S' edfilms like Safetybcl t for Susie: and Red
Asphalt, and other Jpes like St!{ety in the Shop. Some of
them are so gmy.
FH: Anything that's dogmatic like that-l love watching.
That's why those sex-hygiene films are so marvelous. Back
then, the only way you could see a taboo subject-a naked
woman's breast or legs, or see a film where a couple actually
goes to bed together of{screen-\VJ.S to suffer through aU this
morality and educational footage, and a doctor standing
there with a pointer saying, "This will happen to you if ... '"
The only way you could see a woman's private parts was to
see a baby in blood burst forth. What a nice twisted world it
was!
A:
} Guilt ll'ith titillation

Belial (from

FH: Exactly.One that's now available in videotape is They

Basket Case)

in Henenlotter's New York apartment.

Must Be Told, which is marvelous. A girl sleeps with some

one and then gives V.D. to her husband. who goes blind.And,
the baby's probably going to be horn dead.What a significant
guilt trip for the audience. who sit there knowing that if they
...they're going to go home with V.D. I imagine a lot of those

people imagining what they might see! And the promoters

films are lost now, but hopefully they're going to be found

would clean up. Of course, you could onJy have two shows,

and put out on tape. Everybody's seen Reefer Madness, but

because once word of mouth got out about what a dog the

there's plenty more like that out there. maybe not as funny or

film

as wack)'. but if they're morbid and depressing that's fine

with me!
I can't imagine what it

was,

you'd be long gone to the next town.

Allegedly, the promoters would have a reel of nudity they

would show if they could get away with it; if they realized

was

like in the '30s and '40s when

..,...., that's d..ltlc

..
, ..... that's why thele

I loH

...,.
.
fh
... --..... ... ..... .. ..., ..,
yeu ..W ... a talleoltlllld--a ....
...... nast .. ...., ... .. . ... .....
. ..... actualy .. to .... ,...... off
....- to .,. ...... this
rt _.. ......._. footlle

there were no authorities in the place. But the birth-of-the

baby footage was the nice big shocker. And many of these
films had a short running time because they had a person in
attendance (like, a woman dressed as a nurse) selling books
like 7be Facts of Life or a little illustrated V.D. pamphlet
which you would take home and then go, "Wow!" All that's
lost today. But the films aren't lost, I hope.
A]: You know a lot about obscure films and directors FH: just as a hobby. Usually they all live up to their
reputations. Seeing Orgy of the Dead
hearing about it for

so

was

a delight after

many years, owning the pressbook,

and finally, not being disappointed when I saw it. It

was

written by Edward D. Wood, Jr. [t's just a terrible nudie film

with a bunch of girls dancing (supposedly "interpretative"
dancing, but it's really awful, which onJy adds to it). Poor

they would segregate the audience. I've got this great press

Criswell plays Bela Lugosi who was !ong dead by then, but

book for something called Sins of the Father. Like many

other fiJms (e.g.. Mom a n d Dad) they would segregatt: tht:

it's all wonderful ... There's terrible dancing which finally

stops for great Ed Wood dialogue which goes on and on and

go into these small towns, and if the town didn't have a

know it's going to continue like this until they run out of film,

theater they'd set up a tent. Think of the anticipation of

and then it'IJ have a fast finish.

audience: women only at 7:30. men only at 9:00. They would

on, without any plot or beginning or middle or end. You

 A}: Did you

et1er

meet Ed Wood?

FH: I met Herschel! Gordon lewis-he once sat where

you are and sang the theme song to Tu'o 7housand Maniacs
one: night. I had Edward D. Wood. Jr.'s phone number and
address. A friend went to see him and said, "There's a guy in
.
New York who really wants to meet you. . Ed by then was
quite an alcoholic but dying for any attention. and he said.
"Really? He knows my films?" But by the time my friend
returned and I had made the call. he was already dead. I
missed the man 'live' by a couple of weeks.
A}: Sometimes these directors don't
that on a tme let/ ue could like and

real)' mulerstand
actual)' lotoe their

films.
FH: Sometimes they think the films aren't very good and
wonder if you're the one that's bent-I mean. does it count if
your IQ is zero and you like their film!'!
Hopefully.

with the way videotape is making money,

maybe 'f!t)1thing will come to the surface. They're actually

running out of "product," so they're going to have to dig
deeper anu deeper. and maybe the exploitation films will be
re-released. For me, there's only a few horror films left that I
haven't seen, but there's absolutely no source where I can get
sexploitation films from the '50s and '60s. and I love them.
Unfortunatdy. with porn the big seller. why would a com
pany release some cute little thing that shows you nothing,
especially in black-and-white.

etc? But hopefully they'll

market them for film buffs, rather than as sex films. Then we
can all sit around and wallow in that filth and to me they're a
lot dirtier than any porno is today. because they had such
unhealthy overtones, plus usually very ugly !XOple. too. I
have one trailer with a bc:autiful girl next to a hideous fat man
with hair all over his shoulders and back (he's also probably
one of the backers of the film).
I'd love to see more nudist camp films, too-another dead

art. In the one I saw, all the strategic areas were coverc:d by
convenient bushes. It had a very artificial look as everybody
was very obviously posed.
walked 2 or

The Tingler.

When they walked they onJy

3 feet, because that's where the bushes stopped.

lots of tush. but even when somebody bent down they had to
bend down

te1y carefully.

And again, there were some aston

\iewing in hiology classes-just put a little educational foot

ishjngly ugly people (mayhe those were the only people who

age in front. And both of those films I saw when I was about 9

would take off their clothes in those days). But that's part of

(usually your favorite tllms arc ones you saw as a child) and

the delight-you're seeing naked people you would net

I'm sure both of them severely traumatized me.

want to see with their clothes off if you saw them in the

When I saw 7be Tin[<ler I went to a showing where th<:y

street. It's like Catholic guilt-if you're going to see these

had the buzzers under the seat. My eat did not \ibrate.

people naked, then you're going to be instmttJ' punished!

Did you see Mesa of Lost Women? It's one of those films

thankfully. or

I would he dead now.

I was petrified: I

accepted every moment of that film; from the heginning until

during which you're constantly cominced you're halJucinat

the end I never laughed. I figured what Vincent Price wa:.

ing, or. you must have fallen asleep for a long stretch and

telling us was the truth. no doubt about it. At that time my

missed some important plot devices. because it's a different

parents were telling me they didn't want me seeing this kind

film from 10 mjnutes ago. It's very confusing and great.

of "crap." so seeing one-actually going into a tht:ater

really meant a lot. Seeing adults actually leaping up from their
scats whc:n the vibration was triggered and laughing while I

,.. ...., ................... in

WaiIY .._ 1-t put a little -.cational

footage

In "-'

was convinced my life was going to be taken any second-I

came out of there a drajned rune-year-old child who couldn't
wait to see more .. . and shortly thereafter saw Circus of

HonYJrs. too. But. those are famrites of mine that I just

wallow in; I can't defend them.
You might say the films I'm attracted ro most are ones I
haven't seen yet! Like. I have a pile of lobby cards from

A}:

Who are your famrite directors?

FH: I don't have favorite djrectors. I just have favorite

films,

and I don't have one favorite. I like 1be Tingler and

women's prison pictures. oddball items (all from the ''iOs).

I'll never be satisfied until I see every sleazy film ever
made-as long as it's different, as long as it's breaking a taboo

Circus of Ho nvrs-god knows why. I don't know how to

(whether deliberately or by misdirection). There's a thou

defend either one of them. They're just so loony; such untypi

sand reasons to like these films. A film can be exciting

cal horror films. They're slick-they're not the kind of films

because it deals with an impolite subject. whether it's a

we've. been talking about-not obscure. But some of the

wackjest plotting-a mad plastic surgeon's hjding from

SC\'Cre taboo or a mild one. ln most horror films-just killing

authority. so how does he hide? By running a circus. What!?!

bad direction. misdirection. inept direction. a film starts

someone is an impolite enough thjng to do. Often, through

"Wow, what a great cover! Nobody'll ever suspect'" And 7be

assuming surrealistic overtones. taking a dreadfully cliched

Tingler's the first LSD mO\ic. The Tingler should be required

story into new frontiers -you're sitting there shaking your

10

head, totally excited, totally unable to guess where this is

what's happened is: England and Germany (Germany-the

going to head next, or what the next loony line out of

most barbaric country on earth) are now saying horror films

somebody's mouth is going to be. Just as long as it isn't the

are bad! Obviously, World War II started because someone

stuff you regularly see ...

must have seen 7be Wolfman and said, "I just saw a horror

I won't see any film that's a major release anymore. I won't

film; let's go persecute Jews now." So in Germany now

see any film that Stephen King's name is attached to. I don't

there's an index; films are put on a list, and if a store wants to

want to see Firestarter. I don't want to see Gremlins. I just

sell porno or horror films. no one under 17's allowed into the

don't care about them. I'm sure I'm not missing anything

store! It's not a question of renting it or buying it-they're

I've seen too many. I don't want to go back. But promise me

not allowed into the store. This is creating a whole red-light

some obcure nudist film from the '50s and I'll go way out of

district in the industry. And in England there were police

my way to catch it.

A}: Rece11t films fil.
.. Tem1s of Endearment and Back to

officers literally confiscating copies of E11il Dead.

A}: But that's such a sil/)t.film.'
FH: Yes, the police were protecting young people and old

the Futurt> are saturated ll'ilb plxmy t>erisimilitude. ll'ilb

"ordinmy" people: "real" litoes e.,pressing neu deptbs of

people from seeing such an offensive, morals-destroying film.

\f1)((f<'t''1' indil>iduality or creati1>ify tbe

That's not an issue yet in this country, but I'm sure it will be!

director or //'lifer presumahl' once had can effortless)' be

lne distributor of my film Basket Case gives out free surgical

Jake emotion.

obsc/1/Y!d in tbese megahuck cmporate productions-

masks. It's on the radio spots: "Free surgical masks-to keep

Fll: Of courst:' 'T11at's why your video store's selling She

\f1Jeels.' With the first frame of that film you knew

the blood off your face!" And there are stations that won't
play it! I mean, come on, folks-who are they protecting?

Herschdl wa behind the camera.You knew that girl would

This is what kids love! The only ones to be offended are the

leave the house. get into that car, dose the car door. start the

people who won't go see this film anyway.

<:ar and the car would drive around the hlock, all in ont> long

A:
} And thyre not bannin[!. Miami Vi<:e or Dynasty-

continuou hot -you knew that. And \\11erc <:1st: could you

FH: Is there anything more corrupting than those!?!

get such

A}: Or tbe Friday the 13th series.

Vet >its

1m

theme ong? I sit thcrt' with a hig grin enjo}ing

every mom<:nt of that. I certainly woukl not he ha,ing a good

HI: It's an easy solution: why are we having socio

time scTing Cat: /;)c-it was horing just watching the /miter

economic problems? Obviously it's because of what's on TV

for that.

or what's in the movies. or it's the books people read or the

musk they listen to! I'm not surprised Germany's having this

,., lie satisfied until I SH every slecny

, made as long as it's difftrent, as
long as it's breaking a taboo (whether
..ibtrately or by misdirection). There's a
thousand reasons to like these films. A film
can lie exdting blcaust it deals with
impolite sullied. In most horror flms-lust
killing someone is impolite enough thing
to do.

1'1

...

flm

, .,

problem. given their past. If in the past they blamed every

thing on the Jews, why not now on horror films? I guess
horror films made by Jews would really be a problem, folks!
When Palace Video bought Basket Case they wanted a
gorier version, with even more blood than we had. They
asked if we had outtakes of blood and gore they could put in
the film! Six months later, they said, "Guys, we're in a lot of
trouble. We're going to have to send the film to a censor, and
we're going to have to release it cut." So. I don't know what
version's playing in England-which bothers me because it
was a hest-seller and I don't know what's missing. I don't
want to watch it to find out.
A}: \flbat about the tlf!rSion ami/able in the USA?
FH: It's all been restOred.It's all there in the videotape and

A}: \Vbat do you tbink about Larry Cohen?

the ones playing the theaters. I mean, there are prints missing

FH: He' an indepcndt'nt director but at least his films

have been releed by mainstream companies.His originality

scenes because collectors take them, but ...We had a print

and hb own ,;sion does shine through. I lol'e his stuff.

he had taken one or two frames-it couldn't have been much

A}: GO<.I Told Me To knocked us out.

more-out of all the nude stuff at the end. Every time there

Fl-1: Absolutely.In one shot Andy Kaufman plays a cop. And

was a naked breast, there were two frames missing. It

where elSt' would you find Sandy Dennis (whom I love) in a

very nicely spliced-of course it made mincemeat out of the

which clearly revealed a projectionist with a fetish, because

was

horror film? 111c economics of the industry are such that they

soundtrack, but-1 wonder what he did with these frames?

can't take chances; that's why Spielberg is a god. Herschell

Did he sit there at night with a little flashlight holding them

Gordon

up to his eye. going ...I don't know, but I don't really want to

Lewis couldn't make films today, because he

couldn't afford to. Film costs (lab costs, film stock) have

Sf!llf!re)',

find out, either!

and he couldn't get the distribution.The

Hopefully (I don't know the economics of it), but what

same avenues aren't open for him; the traditional way he

may happen is: a lot of the low-budget and gore films may

escalated

would distribute the film-those theaters are gone now or

start to be made directly for videotape. I don't know if that's

they've changed to a whole different market. So it's not the

feasible now. I do know that the quality of videotape is really

same anymore. Nowadays you have newspapers that will not

piss-poor compared to film, but ...IfI were to make strictly a

run an ad for your film if it doesn't have a rating on it.

Herschell Lewis type of gore film now-call it Gore Film and

A}: fib)' 1101?

just pull arms and legs off ladies- I would shoot just for

FH: I think they're afraid of offending people's sensibili

videotape. because there would be no theatrical market. But,

ties. Now they equate "X" with sex. When the rating code
first came out, X meant an adult film (but not exclusively a

I don't like working in videotape-yet. I'm sure it will

change!

se:nmlly e::-.plicit film). If was X, Medium Cool was X, Mid

AJ: What's your film background?

night Couoboy was X, and these were mainstream films that

FH: I started doing 8mm films with magnetic soundtracks.

weren't junk. They've all been re-rated "R" now. I don't know

You dub everything in later on, which you also have to mix at

why horror films fall into that category; it's quite obvious

the same time. If you were doing music you'd have one hand

you're showing blood and gore, not sex. I don't understand

on the record needle ready to spin and have everybody

what they're pretl!?nting.

hovering around this chintzy little microphone. My films

The pendulum's swinging the other way now to where sex

were all at least an hour long and all very heavily plotted.To

is good but blood and gore is unhealthy. Internationally,

me they were "movie" movies-sick mixtures of comedy and

11

horror; you were never quite sure what.I'd sit and write what
I thought was really funny comedy. but everybody would
think it

was

just really morbid ...

they look like as long as we're having a good time pla}ing

\Vith them!
A]: Are you u'Orking on a film nou?

I like a gag next to a bloodshed-it keeps everybody

FH: The monsters are being made now. A guy upstate

unnerved; you get the sense that the film is desperately out of

named Dave Kindling, who started as a make-up artist but got

control.And-if you miscalculate, so ulx1t? I mean. half the

detoured, makes fabulous mechanical parts; he's making

time I didn't know how an audience would react ...but who

these radio-controlled eels. The stuff he can create is scary as

cares? You still get a reaction. You're doing a film low-budget

hell. He's asking me. "Do you want the eyes to do this, and the

enough so you've made your market anyway; the weight of

mouth to do that?" and I'm sa}ing. "Yeah. sure. great!"

the film doesn't rest on whether this gag gets a laugh or a

Strange vocation.

scream. So what the hell?

A]: So you'1e got the script and the fundinM?

I've got films dating from 1964. There's a lot of folks in

FH: The whole thing. of course. is getting the money.

them who are now dead. which is pretry creepy. I've put

That's all that maners anymore: uhere do you get the

them all on videotape-it's such a drag setting up the projec

money? It used to be different when there were ta..x shelters

tor and screen and all that.I don't show them, but I also don't

and you could ask your local dentist for money. I have no

want to part with them.

stomach for sitting down with people who have access to

rich folks, so ...Luckily. the distributor of Basket Case. Roger
Grod, sent the script to some video companies who are
offering ridiculous sums of money-good ridiculous sums.

Oft-, through ..... tlnctiori, lllillion,

lled
Inept ......., a ,.. st.ts aaut
_...o
..tk w....._, tc*lng a........,
clkhid story Into new frOIItlen-you're

littina .............. ,.. ...... totaly

dhd, ...., ...... .. .... .... ...
... ....... JIUt.

It's still mind-boggling to me that people can raise S800.000

and make a monster mo'ic out of it. But, of course this is the
real world where they make them forSI2 million, so what am
I talking about!?!
I don't want to do another Basket Case. meaning. I don't
want to do another film that technically crude.There were

just too many compromises. I'm not anxious to crank out

films.I have no interest in just directing; I'd rather direct my
Oll'n bad scripts than somebody else's. People occasionally
call me up on the phone with this "real exciting" slasher plot.
and I think, "Get out of here." I have nothing against slasher

A]: Hou did you get the money to shootyourearlyfilms?

films-certainly nothing against killing teenagers, or gratui

FH: When 1 was shooting Bmm it didn't maner. 16mm \vas

tous \'iolence-cenainly nothing whatsoever against blood

another problem-you had to be very cautious.With Basket

and gore. But. I certainly don't want to do another formula

Case it was insane-! didn't have the footage to worry about

work: "Ten years ago. these babysitters were ..." and tht:n

the acting being more believable or more sincere. We'd

flash to a summer camp. You sit there bored to death for 89 of

begin a day and it was never a question of "What scenes do

its 90 minutes just to sec a total combination of maybe one

shoot today?", it was: "How much film do we have for

minute of R-rated gore-effects that have been severely cut. I

we

what we hcue to shoot?" We had to do a lot of fast rewriting;

scurrying around and cramming things in: "One take-right,

mean. what kind of a mo\ie is that?

One producer brought me a very boring script \\11ich she
wanted me

folks?"
The costs started doubling while we were making the film.
We shot it in 16mm and blew it up to 3Smm. I was real

to

rewrite. She admitted it was too much of a

formula plot. but she liked the characters. Instead of

rev.Titing the script-! wasn't going to waste timc-1 started

dissatisfied with the blow-up-it carne out very dark. On the

other hand, when I

was

resplicing all the gore back into the

film (after that sleaze outfit that first had it went under). all
the gore footage had been printed in England and it was
beautiful; all the light and colorwas back and it wasn't dark at
all. But, I would not do that again.
The cost of the blow-up is comparable to shooting it all in
3Smm. Except, you ha,e to rent the 3Smm equipment which
is really expensive, and you have to deal with ugly things like
unions and teamsters.Younger people I know who are start
ing in film always say, "Do it in 16mm, because you always
know someone who owns the equipment!" It's still cheap to
edit in J6mm; you can edit in your bedroom, and everybody
knows someone with a 16mm camera. 3Smm is a whole
different problem, but that's the only way /would go next: I
just want a better image-same rotten stories, but a better
technical gloss' I would like to be able to move the camera
around, too. We had to create pace in the editing-an old
Russ Meyer trick, but I would have liked to have moved the
camera just a little bit, folks ...
A]: Basket Case did okay?
FH: It made more money than it had any right to make!
While it's not exactly a household word, it's gonen more
comment than I would ever have expected.
I ve no sense or concept of money. but you have to have
common sense. If I only have this much film and I have all
these people here. I don't want to look like a damn fool and
not get around to their scenes. Now, it's a pleasure to be able
to pay to have decent monsters made. I don't even care what

Henenlotter's collection of early Super-8 movies transferred to video.

He also designed the covers.

writing treatments of it-you know, a thousand different

"fun"-terrible, "terrible"-terrible.It'spain to actually be asso

ways to go with the story. Every one was getting rejected.

ciated with films like that.

Why? Because I was changing too much from the formula.

What it came down to was-what she really wanted was

Unfortunately, the majority of people would still rather see

funny dialogue-giving the characters funny names and

Christine or any new Stephen King film than The Corpse

Grinders. But I think there's enough people bored with

having them say witty things. But how many times can you

mainstream so that when something comes out that's a little

have a teenager wittily say, "Let's get laid! (and fast, because

offbeat, they'll stroll to see it. But the economics of how

we're gonna get killed)!" So, I have no desire to make a film

Corpse Grinders could play all those drive-ins just doesn't

just for the sake of making a film.

exist today.
A]: That's the sad thing-it's almost as if this were a lost

art FH: It won't be lost as long as people talk about it, write
about it, and as long as it's on a videotape.
A]: But bow can this be replenished?
FH: Anybody who comes in here, if I end up getting
friendly with them, and sit them in front of a TV set and put

Corpse Grinders or lisa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks or

Wanda the Wicked Warden or half a dozen of these others in
front of them, is going to end up getting turned on and then
tum somebody else on to them.

most outrageous one I've written. When I was writing it, at

A]: Yes. But sadly, bow many of these offbeat films will
come out in 1985 or 1986? That's why it's !leY)' encouraging
to bear your story1-bow you just went out and got a
camera and did it.
FH: It's also encouraging that we have two major video

that point I didn't see any hope of making another film, so I

companies who want to put up the money for this next one.

The irony is: the script we are going to do is certainly the

didn't care what I was writing and it really flowed and it was

It's mind-boggling because: the script reads as an X; in both

funny-I was sitting there typing and cackling. But it looks

cases I have to be held to an R rating. But what's interesting

like we have funding now.

is, both video companies said, "Still, go ahead and make an

A]: How much did Basket Case cost?

un-rated X," because they may want to release both versions

FH: The total must have come to SI60,000. But the film

on tape. They want theatrical R so it will make enough money

had to be shot for less than SSO,OOO. We didn't have any

at the box office to make their investment worthwhile on

money when we were shooting it. All the money came in

videotape.

later in post-production, so I was able to edit the film with

One problem is: how do you give out sleazy, shlocky

decent equipment and put decent sound into it. Shooting it

gimmicks on videotape? I wish I could cram a surgical mask

was: no money available for anything! I would have loved to

into every box of Basket Case. I wrote a great 3-0 film I

walk into it with S 160,000, instead of walking into it with

wanted to do, but again, the economics of doing a 3-0 film

S7,000 and saying, "Well, I hope we get another <.ouple of

proved unworkable-there's no ancillary rights, no one will

hundred next week!"

A]: Was this your first film?

put up the money to do one, etc.

I wanted to do a film that was partial 3-0 and partial flat, so

FH: My first commercial one. But I had done lots of things

whenever we switched to 3-0 I wanted everybody in the film

before in 16mm. All I'd intended to do was another film in

to put on 3-0 glasses. Because I have a hard time with 3-0

16mm, but it just got larger and larger. I never thought it

anyway-it's hard on the eyes, so give me half and half. That

would have any significant commercial release; videotape

reminds me-l have Paradisio on tape! It's an early nudie

had never occurred to me as a market. I just figured that if we

3-0 movie; when the guy puts his glasses on it switches to

bad-bad 3-0 and nude girls. And the big gag in the film was:
when he gets drunk, a girl sits down, and she has 3 breasts ...

could get it playing on 4 2nd Street someday, that would be a

kick. And it still hasn't played there. I laughs I Probably by the
time it'll be ready to open there they'll be tearing the last

A]: 1/ozJ(! gimmicks like that ... How will you handle the

theater down .

X/R rating problem on your next film?

A]: Do you do commercial film jobs like script rewriting

or editing?

FH: I'll send the goriest version I have to the MPAA any
way, because they're totally against any independent, totally

FH: No. But it's such a small community in New York that

against any horror film.They saw Basket Case, they gave me

you get to know people, and people ask you for favors, and

an X.

you end up working on a film or helping out, etc.

I don't want to make a movie to pay the rent.! don't mind if
it does later on, but I don't want to say, "Jesus, I've gotta go
out and make a movie today because I need some money."
Because then, what do you have? I do not want to make a
career out of directing or making films, unless they're my

own films.

(As dubious a

career as that might be, that's fine

.... .. ,......
.. ....

........

...... .. ..... .., ..

.... .. ..... .. .... ..

with me!)
A]: Hou do you support yourself?

AJ: Wby?

FH: Unfortunately, in advertising. To talk about it any

FH: That never should have been an X-they were pissed

further would just bore us both to tears! The only thing to

off that it had been playing midnight movies and they hadn't

come out of it was that I was able to slap a poster together

been consulted; that we'd already had a theatrical release. So,

very fast! And I did all the newspaper ads overnight.

But, once I look at film as a 9-S job, the magic is over

them a 4-hour version with nothing but blood and gore;

forget it, I'll do something else. That's why when I'm asked to

throw in autopsy footage, slaughterhouse footage, and keep

the best thing to do is to give them hours of footage; give

cut a trailer for somebody, usually the answer is no. But also,

cutting until you get your R.And they cba18e you J1 000 or so

nobody's ever come to me with a good film and said, "Hey,

to do this each time. You have to pay them for the honor of

you want to help out?" It's always been just terrible, and not

hearing them say, ''We hated your film, by the way. We just

13

Scene from hsket Case.

want to let you know that even though it got an R, we really

moments. When it flows it's like stream-of-consciousness

thought it was terrible." But you need that little R. The

just spewing out, and you have no control over when that's

newspapers will say to you, "We're not allowed to advertise

going to happen! Afterwards I spend the nexl couple of

any un-rated films.Do you mind if we put an Ron it?" You say,

weeks trying to put what I just crihhlt'd out into the Engli!>h

"No, we don't mind, as long as we don't know about it." lt's a11

language, grammatically correct. \X1len I sit d0\\11 at the

bullshit, it's all nonsense. Theatrical distribution is still a

typewriter I'm usually in re-writing.

carnival sideshow, with aJI the cheap petty criminals and

thieves tearing at your pockets.

A]: Do you eoer write fiction or nonfiction?

FH: I just sit and write scripts. I'm really into that now to
the point that when I start writing, I really enjoy it; I look
forward to it. I can't write 95 because I'm working, but I
make sure I sit at the typewriter at least an hour every night. I
actually look forward to weekends, not for going out or
seeing friends, but to sit at the typewriter.

AJ: How do you write?

FH: It's like solving a jigsaw puzzle where you're putting
all the pieces in and you're making it all work. I love figuring

Anything that mak you think can't be bacl

If you watCh a cat being mutilated cmd read
to It, you're going to think about why you
... reacting to lt. No - going to sit
there cmd lust get off on It (if you are,
you're such a lick tuck that It doesn't
......, whether they put it on tape or not
yeu're a lerlc cmyway).

out ways to get out of plot problems and figuring out how to
get out of this and that. I aJways carry paper and pencil with
the solution hits, and if you're not ready for it -well, you have

A]: Hou long does it take to do a soipt?

FH: It takes me about a year to tum a vision of a demented

to be ready real fast to write it down! Or, I'll be watching

horror film into a script that an ordinary person could sit

me because I'll be sitting on the subway and all of a sudden

another film which has nothing to do with it whatsoever,

down and cackle over. But, I still don't understand how

and-1 don't know what triggers it, but all of a sudden I'll

scripts ever came about, because boll' can you unte a script

have to write it down, write all the notes and that stuff.

first? It's like going to a painter and saying. "We won't buy

A]: Do your dreams ever provide solutions?

FH: No. I constantly dream but I've never been able to

you the canvas or the paints until you first tell us what your

tum a dream into a visual. But, solutions come at unexpected

the painting should be that, and then ... "

painting will be, in a 75-page essay.We'll read it first and sec if

In other words, you have to go through the process of

for weeks after! Nevertheless, horror films should be at that

telling your story in two totally different, separate mediums.

frontier.

On white paper it has to average about a minute a page;

there's a certain format it's got to be in, etc. The trick it's

There should be films that combine hardcore porn with

the most repulsive images of death, using music, plot, every

taken me awhile to learn is how to write a script that reads

thing. That's what I would like to see, although that may not

like a script without me being around. So that somebody who

be what I'd like to do. I was hoping Galg

i ula would be a hit,

doesn't e'-en know me can chuckle and say, "Hey, this is

because I liked the idea of a legit film with porno throwa

funny. This is gory."

In a way you're lying to them, because you're convincing

ways, mixed with blood and violence. What I'm talking about

them they're being let in on this great little story, even

going to happen-why kid myself? But that's what I would

here is defeating all the formulas and traditions, which is not

though-how can you describe blood and gore on paper? I

like to see. Maybe a film that totally defied every taboo could

don't know. You allude to it, but you can't disgust them with

be made for video so you wouldn't have the usual commer

it. You don't use words like "entrails" or "bloody stump," you

cial hassles.

try to write so that anybody could pick it up and read it and

A]: Still, there's that problem of distribution.

think it's great. I'm not crying, because if anybody gives you

FH: Yes, I had to send away to Kansas for that SPK tape.

5800,000 to make a horror film, that's totally ludicrous to

[address: Fresh Sounds, PO Box 36, Lawrence, KS 66044]

begin with. So, I'm sitting there cackling as I'm typing: "If I get

What I liked about the SPK tape was: there was no heavy

money out of this one, U'Ou.'"

pompous narration like in Faces of Death. They didn't offer

any good, bad or whatever, just "here's a visual of this. If you
can't take it, leave the room or speed it up." They didn't say

But

as a

t.n-year-old kid I

.,.._. t.tw...

whether they embraced it, or were commenting against it;

the

real.- ...

111Gb-

believe IU'L C....._ especia1y _.. tt. first

OMS to k.w the tlffennce. So, I ....t

know who people_.. prot wt.l they

censor films. They'n not protecting the
chilchn; I thWc they'n protecting their own
...,.ow INI*ing, now.

they weren't saying, "Oh, look at these horrible things in the

world," or "look at these great things in the world." That was
the brilliance of the video, and that's where horror films
should be. Films should be able to push our responses to
violence, our responses to death.
Why are we fascinated by death, blood and gore? Do we
like only fake blood and gore (like me)? Or can we deal with
real blood and gore? Is knowing it's fake the difference? Why
was

I repulsed by those severed heads? They looked fake, but

I knew they were real. But how did I know they were
real-they didn't tell me they were real. Why is autopsy

When you finish the film and send it to the company they
say, "Godalmighty, look what we have to put out on video

footage so repulsive to me; why is it repulsive to anybody?

AI \flould J'OU eti(!Y use real footage in )'OUr own films

just to push your oun boundaries?

tape; this is just hideous. But it'll probably sell at least 25.000

FH: I don't see how I could, commercially. I wouldn't do a

units right otT the bat." So, it's all a con job, right? Just to get

film that called for a prolonged autopsy; I wouldn't want to

everybody interested. they put bloody advertising on horror

kill somebody and then start pulling things out.But, I'm more

films that have no blood in them. But that's the appeal of like.

interested in having a good time. I'm not saying I wouldn't do

Dr. Butcher-a totally pointless film that offers you nothing

it, but at this point I have far too many problems I can't cope

but loads and loads of lovely. gratuitous violence. Not very

with to burden myself with more. Because I have to lick those

convincing, but who cares-it's great.

A totally different approach was on this videotape, Despair,
done by a British music group, SPK.

problems first: deciding what bothers me, what repulses me,

and why. Despair is not a tape I casually watch; I certainly
have never sat through all of the cat mutilation [even though

A]: Yes. that shous footage of an actual autopsy set to

music.
FH: When I saw the video I thought, "What a fabulous
thing; what a strange way of using music. Who would make a

music tlideo to such horror-with actual severed heads ...

A]: Did seeing that autopsy footage repulse you?

Henenlotter's apartment.

FH: TI1at autopsy absolutely repulsed me. If you were

stoned, that video could do damage to you! But, whether I
like it or not is beside the point-I was exdted by it.
I like being in touch with things that repulse me. That's
why I used lO search for snuff films, too. When Roberta
Findlay's Snuff appeared in the late '70s, 42nd Street then
burst forth with a lot of"authentic" snuff films in peep shows.
None of them were real, but if there were a real one I'm sure
it would be out there selling like hotcakes.
Faces of Death is now a big seller; basically it's a snuff
documentary about how we deal with death. Almost all the
scenes are obviously faked, but that doesn't negate the sick
beauty of a film that is a fake snuff documentary! There is
some real video footage of a woman commiting suicide at a
distance, of a plane crash with pieces of bodies lying all over
the street. There is some obviously faked (though enjoyably
sick) footage of somebody getting the electric chair, eyeballs
bleeding and bubbling out .. .
I have no trouble watching the execution of human beings.
But I really can't watch the killing of animals-some poor
little guinea pig or cat or baby seal,forget it. I'll be depressed

the cat

already dead ] . and I probably never will!

Anyway, if they are selling hardcore pornography to house

film. especially since I wasn't sure how I would deal with a

real snuff film. I figured I'd deal with that when I actually saw

wives in this country; if the average family is taking hardcore

one, but how do you real)' deal with it?You're just looking at

porno into their homes; if it's now socially acceptable:: for a

shadows of light, but can that make you an accomplice to

murder?
Real life horror, like taking a child and murdering it while

was

I have

trouWe watchilg the execution of

......._ ...... But I really cant watch the
lcllng of anlmals-Mme poor little .,nee
pig or cat or ..., seal, forget it. I'H be
....s., ed for weeks after!
no

filming it, is not a horror that any of us want to deal with. I

certainly wouldn't buy that on videotape . So there are boun
daries. I will not watch concentration camp footage- I can't
cope with that and I never will. So right away there's a
problem: push it, but don't push it too Eu- fm not the one to
solve these questions .
A]: From earliest times our creatit!f! imaginations hat!f!

unleashed rau, /fiolent imagery, just as our dreams do.

&1/inese. uho are a tJf!l)'peacefulpeople, lxu 'l!for centuries
woman to walk into a video store and say, 'Td like to rent

Talk Dirty to Me,

traditional)'

enacted

dances and trance 1itua/s that are

i

Part Two, then maybe we can push the

lJf!r)' t iolent. Ear) ' recorded l 'sual art like tbe Lascauxcat!f!S

boundaries of horror like that - take all that horrifying stuff

or Pompeii murals document rtlll'. /liolent (and sometimes

blatantry sexual) imageJy. So theres a uhole let'l!l ofartistic
e
xp
r
e
s
sion and drama that bas functioned in society as
catharsis. A n_yu ay, society cannot police the imagination;
imagine censoring Bosch or Goya or Frands Bacon.
i
&tscally, no one has been able toprol!f! a causa l connection
between artistic expression and "actual " uiolence.

and expand upon it.

A]: Wbat do

you think abou t

the ef
fects of hoiTOr?

FH: Anything that makes you think can't be bad! lf you

watch a cat being mutilated and react to it, you're going to
think about why you are reacting to it. No one's going to sit
there and just get off on it (if you are, you're such a sick fuck
that it doesn't matter whether they put it on tape or not,
you're a jerk anyway). lf it's upsetting you, you're gonna
wonder why you're getting upset.
I get upset, especially at real life violence-who could
possibly cope with real life violence? I once had a gun put to
my head. I n the aftermath it was exhilarating, because I
thought in terms I'd never thought before! But as a ten-year
old kid I knew the difference between

real gun and a

make-believe gun; I knew that the girl in Orcus of Hotrors

autopsy absolutely repuhed ..... If you

stoMcl, that video could clo ...... to
youl But, ......_ I Ike it or not is beside
the ..._. was excited by lt. I Ike being In
teuch with fhinus that repulse .....
1hat

...

who got stabbed in the throat didn't really die. Children

especially are the first ones to know the dillerence. That's

FH: As long as we know it's in control, or it's imaginary, it's

why you loved the Three Stooge s-you knew damn well they

okay. The real stuff I'm always attracted to, but I don't want it

weren't getting hit on the head with a hammer. So. I don't

dropped in my lap! I really wouldn't know what to do with a

know who people are protecting when they censor films.

videotape of a real murder . . . but I bet I'd watch it . . .

They're not protecting the children; I think they're protect

ing their own narrow thinking, now.

What we're really talking about is: being responsible for

your imagery'. I'd rather be irrespon sible abour it. I'd rather

So, I like things that upset my thinking. I like things that

just have blood and gore and have a good time. That may be

really screw me up, that I can't come to terms with. It's not a

corrupt and wrong. but I don't care. Having the police confis

comfortable feeling, but-boy, it shakes you up and it's very

cate copies of Ertil Dead was a wonderful tribute to Sam

exciting.

Raimi; he should be proud of that, even though he probably

When I saw those snuff films in the peep shows, they

weren't real but it didn't matter. There was something
unclean about me making this obsessive search to see a snuff

lost a lot of money . . .

Today, with the cheapness ofvideotape. it would be nice to
see what we liked in fi lms pushed to boundaries thar would

Henenlotter's apartment.

16

Henenlotter's refrigerator.

bother us. Not that it has to be real, but push it to the

he would display such intelligence and affluence. All the

boundaries. Whether it's a rock band or a bunch of artists or

fraud charges that were attributed to him he claims are

some weird Ed Gein character, somebody should do it. The

untrue, yet I secretly hope they were true! I hope someday

irony is that half the films we talk about already disturb the

he'll come out and say, "Hey, folks, I really did do all that."

normal person . . .

I asked Herschel! where he

A]: But it s an odd process. in that what was 'X" 10 years

ago is nou "R" today . . .

was

going to take horror,

because the market was catching up to him.

Gore Gore Girls

was such an astonishing film because he had never combined

nudity with horror before, let alone with that level of pro

I hne ...... againSt .......

...., ...... against ,....,.,
. .-..... ...... ....... .......
....... ..lost Wood ...t ...... W, I
- tloll't -- to .. ...... ,......
werta ''Yen ,... ... these ......
.,. .,.
_.. . . ."

longed on-camera viciousness, although what he did

was no

worse tha-n cutting off somebody's leg or tongue .

AJ: What did be say?
FH: Well, he didn't have an answer . . .
A]: Your film Basket Case is a minor classic.

You're

filmmaker who on one le11el, achietl(!d FH: Stress what a small, insignificant level it is, because
I'm really embarrassed by the amount of hype Basket Case
has gotten. It's not an important film A]: But it's representatitl(! that a film can be made now
u#h a kind of genuineness.

was four years ago-it was made i n '81

FH: Have you seen Herschell Gordon Lewis's The Gore

Gore Girls? It's a good example of something that's blatantly

released in '82. You should interview Sam Raimi, because he

phony, yet very effective. Didn't that go a lot further than you

made Evil Dead which was an important, independent gore

FH: But that

and

expected it to? Sticking a fork in an empty eye socket-you

film as well as a monster hit. Even magazines like Film

know what I mean? Cutting off nipples . . . the fact that it was

Comment said nice things about Evil Dead. ( I 'm sure that

was done in '72, but

depressed him, but . . . ) He got the money to immediately

today no one comes close to that amount of viciousness . . .

make a second film, Crime Wave, which hasn't been released

blatantly phony helped you enjoy it. That

Herschell's a delight. Before I had met him, I figured (just

on the basis of

films)

the poor guy's probably a poverty

struck old man living above a deli somewhere. I didn't think

yet. They're hyping Evil Dead ll

. . . He's the one who's made

an important, independent gore film. 1 should be a footnote

with an asterisk!

17

W:

was reading Robert Browning and leading what I thought

Se

lf-desc:ribed as "the guru o f gore-the first diredor to

show people dying with their eyes open," Herschel! Gordon

1963
Blood Feast. It featured a Playboy brunette whose

Lewis invented the genre of Intensive gore films in

with

brains were scooped from her skull, a blonde whose tongue

was pulled out while still olive, and other memorable dis
memberments filmed in "Blood

Color." The film was

instantly successful-causing a traffic jam-and Lewis went

on to make other gore classics including 2000 Maniacs, the

Color Me Blood Red, The Gruesome Twosome,

She-Devlh on Wheels, the philosophical Wizard of Gore
and lastly, in 1972, The Gore Gore Girls-a satire on the
genre. (Interspersed throughout the making of the gore
films were other nudies including Linda and Abilene, a
nudie western filmed in 1969 at the Spahn Ranch just a few
months before it became famous for hosting the Monson
family.) Then, disgusted by the financial chicaneries inherent
in the film business, he become a successful dired-moil
artistic

marketing consultant-which he remains to this day.

Born June 1 5 ,

1926, Lewis was an English professor with a

Ph.D before being lured to filmmaking. In the late '50s he

teamed up with Chicago producer David Friedman and made
The Prime Time, a nudie-cutie featuring teenage girls in
bikinis, juvenile delinquents and a beatnik artist. He mode
several more nudies before stumbling upon the gore for
mula. As he put it, " Blood Feast is on occident of history. We
didn't deliberately set out to establish a new genre of
motion pidures; rather, we were escaping from an old one."
These days Herschel! Gordon Lewis lives near Fort Lauder
dale, Florida in a modern stucco house on the edge of a lake.
He owns four cars including a Deloreon and a white, right
hand drive Rolls Royce. There are rumors that he might
return to film with projeds such as Blood Feast II or
Galaxy Glrh, but for now he seems more than content to
enjoy his leisurely life.
In the following interviews, initially Boyd Rice talked with
.flerschell Gorclon Lewis on the telephone. Subsequently
Andrea Juno and Mark Pauline visited the Godfather of Gore
himself in his lush Florida paradise, just before his afternoon
tennis game . . .

was the good life. One day somebody offered me a job in

advertising. As you may know. most academicians have a
profound contempt for anybody who works for a living-/
did! I felt the peculiar sense of dedi<.:ation you have when you
have les
s responsibilities than you'll ever again have in your
life. because the one marvelous thing ahout teaching school
is that you teach school. and the nex'l year you come back
and look at your lecture notes and teach it again. Whereas in
the world of commerce you live on your wits1
I got into radio and then television in the early days ofTV. I
became a producer at WKYY at Oklahoma City. pushing
buttons and playing God-you push a button and screens
change in tens of thousands of homes, and you feel you have a
sense of cosmic destiny! From there I went hack to Chicago
as the television director of an advertising agency. When I
had been at Oklahoma City we'd produced some 1V shows
which I had thought were worthy of syndication called the
"Chuck Wagon Boys." They simply sang and played guitars
and string bass. When I got back to Chicago I got the notion
of using those same fellows. We made a hunch of television
shorts together. In the course of production I became
friendly with the fellow who owned the film studio. His
partner had left for greener fields. so he '\vas casting about for
another partner.
A}: Was this Da1e Friedman ?
HGL: No. this was a guy named Marty Schmidhoftr. We
formed a company called ''Lewis & Martin Films"; "Lewis &
Schmidhofer" would not have fit on the building l11is was
long hefore Dave Friedman. So. I got into the commercial
end of the film business. I was shooting television commer
cials. business films, government films- the usual flotsam
and jetsam that the typical commercial studio makes.
MARK PAULINE: W1Jat year

II VIS

that?

19S2 or 19S3. One day ( I 'd

hcen doing this for 6 or 7 years. occause in 19S9 we made 7be
Plime Time) somebody asked me. "How do you make any
HGL: Oh. we started that in

money in your business?" ( I had been complaining [as I

usually did I about the company overhead. the cost of equip

ment, the failure to make payroll. or whatever happens to
people in that business.) I said, "l11e only way to make
money in the film business is to shoot features." He said .
"Why don't you shoot a feature?"
I really had no answer for him. That it didn't make sense to
shoot features didn't occur to me; that I had no background
in distribution didn't occur to me, because again. in the
happy ignorance that you have not knowing what's going on
in the world, you have what is called the Horatio Alger
syndrome: ''I'll do something brilliant and everyone will

ANDREA JUNO: How did you stm1 filmmaking ? I read

notice it1 Some multimillionaire will stop me on the street

and say, 'You're a bright young man and I must have you!

tbat you bad an academic background-

Whatever you want, it's yours!' " Unfortunately, life doesn't

HERSCH ELL GORDON LEWIS: -Which, as you probably

know, is of no value in trying to earn a living! Years ago, going
back to the year

1831

[laughs). I was a teacher. I taught

run along such straight lines. But fortunately, sometimes one

can emerge from this cauldron with scar tissue, but without
being killed It's really a crap game; sometimesyou get killed.

English and the humanities at Mississippi State which is not

sometimes you just get wounded. As you may know. where

one of our major centers of culture. But, it was stimulating; I

you have scars the skin is stronger than where you just have

18

Scum of the Earth.

ordinary skin. ( I'm getting deep into allegory!)

Anyway, I started to make features, and I shot two of them.

7be Prime Time: the second was called

the case of 7be Prime Time I made the

The first was called

Litling Venus.

In

director's chair yelling, "Roll it!" and "Cut!" -that's a lot of

malarkey! It's a positive way to waste money, and many
people do it: waste money. And half of the time their films
don't even get finished.

typical, classic mistake that everyone makes when he is more

On the first film I made I was the producer, not the

concerned with his image than with making money. This,

director. I went to a studio in Chicago named Fred Niles [sic]

again, is where scar tissue becomes helpful, because later on

and they really took me for a ride! I was unioned to death. I

you don't feel you're losing face by helping the crew sweep

hired a guy named Gordon Weisenborn to direct; he got his

up at the end of a shoot . This business of sitting in the

jollies directing this film. And we produced a film in glorious

19

rnJI[9J ME BU?Oll rnJIDJ

Drenched in CRIMSON COLOR

largely unplayable. But one thing I

found that being producer on the independent production

learned from that experience was that a powerful campaign

level is a meaningless piece of title-passing. I laugh some

black and white that

was

can make up for an imperfect picture.

times looking at film credits and seeing something like "Unit

A]: What kind ofpicture was it?

Manager"-what in the heck is a Unit Manager?! And after a

HGL: I can best describe it as a nothing picture! Fred

Niles had a friend who claimed to be a screenwriter named

credit, we'd call him a "Unit Manager"-he wouldn't be

while, just to give somebody who worked on the crew a

Robert Abel. ( Later, it turned out that Robert Abel had no

screen credits, but Fred Niles believed he was a screen

quite sure what he had done! Or. "Production Designed

writer. ) He wrote this screenplayabout a young girl who is wild,

duction designed by"?!

by"-that always appeals to me! What does that mean: "Pro

looking for thrills and kicks. In today's marketplace the

A]: Did you u,.;te your ou>n films, too ?

picture doesn't have anything in it that would even cause it

HGL: Many o( them, yes. With Lilling Venus, I bought a

to rate a PG, except that somebody gets shot. It's closer to a

half-finished screenplay from a guy named jim McGuinn, and

G. But project yourself back in time 25 years. There was

nothing about it that had any box-office appeal. One of the
things you learn when you cease being an "auteur" and
become a commercial filmmaker, is that you care less for
impressing your cronies in the screening room than for
impressing the yahoos out there in the theater!
A}: So that s more U'batyou bad in mind U'ben you U'(!T'f!

I ._,, ..._. _. ... suffenll tn. lack of

....... It .. tl 1st the crude pow of a
..., 11r 111.,._ as ..,.... to a p1lllll

..., 11r S1ph1dls.

making thesefilms: bow to make tbe maximum amount of

money ?
HGL: Well, whathappensisan evolutionaryprocess. With

then finished it. I wrote many-! wrote 2000 Maniacs, I

the first film, I had no idea what I

wrote Color Me Blood Red. I'm making it sound more

that I

was

doing. Il's easy to say

at the mercy of forces larger than myself- I had a

impromptu than it really was. With Blood Feast, for example,

film distributor, I had a film studio, I had people pushing and

shoving, each of whom had a vested interest which was

which was our biggest winner of all, we gave somebody on

peripheral to the commercial success of the picture. I

looked good to usurp all the credits-that makes it look like

learned that only after I made the second picture, Lil'ing

a home-movie!

was

the crew credit for writing that film because I didn't feel it

Venus. a much more hard-boiled picture which I directed

I still object to that when I see other people doing it:

myself From that point forward. I directed all the films. I

"Produced by joe Glutz! Directed byjoe Glutz1 Music byJoe

20

Glutz! Director of Cinematography: joe Glutz! Starring Joe

Glutz!" Well, if the film is su<:cessful. it's a miracle because

weren't (on paper) in terrible shape. In reality, the company

then folded and I was left to my own devices, realizing, like

Joe Glutz, like Woody Allen, often loses his viewpoinl altoge

the Ancient Mariner, "a sadder and a wiser man he rose the

ther and begins to appeal to a coterie. Woody Allen got away

following morning." Sadder and wiser, I went back Into the

with i1 because he has a larp.e coterie, but he has made some

rotten films that are beyond human understanding. And that

arena, like the fellow who wrestles alligators and has just lost

wouldn't have happened if he'd had someone there with a

next day-it's only a flesh wound.

his left arm but still has his right arm, so back he goes the

set of brains saying, "Hold it! The people in the audience will

Gradually I learned that there are trigger mechanisms that

not understand this dark symbolism you are suddenly inject-

work on a motion picture audience. You can literally force

I ._,_.

that tllen an .,._..

_..._. that orlc .. a motion picture
...tlence. You am ..._., force the rats
through the ....

the rats through the maze. What are the limitations? Number
one, I had no budget. Not ever did I have a budget. Once I
was through with those first two pictures I never shot
another film with a union crew, which is one reason we were
able to compress so much inlo a film without spending a lot
of money. I remember screening Moonshine Mountain for
AVCO Embassy, and the fellow said to me, "What do you have
in this film?" I said, "Under 5400,000" and he said, "Oh yes,
uh huh." They don't know! I didn't have I/IOth of S400,000

ing into what is supposed

to

be a comedy!"

In my case. what happened was: the distributor of those

in that picture, but even at S400,000 it's still embarrassingly

cheap for AVCO Embassy!
Blood Feast?

first two films went bust. Oddly. those films would not have

A]: Hou much

been a commercial disaster if he hadn't gone bust. But

HGL: What did it cost to make? You're immortalizing

because he owed the production about S 100,000 at the time

these things, aren't you'

A]: Actually. there's an inverse pride in bow much these

he went under. and that was about what we had in them, we

Tht sacrifice of lshtar in

alood Feast.

Ul(lS

pictures cost!

--i ng
BETTY CONNELL

NANCY LEE NOBLE

HGL: Don't gauge anything by Blood Feast. It cost $24 ,000

to make and it was shot in 35mm color. And that's not much
money considering we shot in 35mm color. The reason we
were able to do it is: neither then, nor ever. did we shoot a
rehearsal. I see people in the industry today talking about
take 24. What is the logic behind bating take 24 other than
salving somebody's ego? Why rmuld you need 24 takes? It
means that for the first 23 takes the actors weren't well
rehearsed.
Actors are very shrewd. If they don't like a take they'll start
to swear and then you must yell, "Cut!" Sometimes they do it
quite deliberately to force you to yeii "Cut!" so you won't use
a take they don't like. but not on my pictures they didn't!
That's because we work as a team, and we would end the take
where we had to and pick it up with a close-up on somebody
else if we were that deep into it. But in a typical picture, if you
have a take of 4 5 seconds and 40 seconds in they blow the
take, they'll start again from ground zero. We never did that.
but that's a technical refinement.
The point is, that for a film that ran between 7-8,000 feet at
90 feet-per-minute (so a 90-minute picture is 8, 100 feet ). we
would only buy 1 5 - I 7,000 feet of film. Seldom was it over a
2:1 ratio. And we'd use part of that for trailers; sometimes we
outblocked ourselves. Lucky Pierre, which was our first hit.
ran exactly 70 minutes, because in those days. if you were
under 70 minutes you had trouble getting a theater to book
you as a top feature -it would be regarded asafeaturette. So
it had to run 70 minutes, which is 6,300 feet. We only bought
8,000 feet of film. We cut the slates off and there wasn't
enough to fill a little 400-ft can! In fact, we had to go out and
duplicate footage to make a trailer.
I don't want to Otl(?rstate the commercial aspects of film
making, nor am I trying to justify making films for almost no
money. l read your William Burroughs Re/Search and it
seemed to be a thoughtful and literate piece of journalism
which one doesn't often find, so l suspect that some of the
finer philosophical points will not be lost on you. as they
would be on a more crass-mass level. There arc a couple of
problems that pertain to independent film production. and
unless you face and dispose of those problems,sinequa non,
there is nothing else. One is, I was self-fi nanced. I didn't have
some main office I could call to say, "Well, I need another
$ 1 .000.000 to finish the picture!" I didn't have any angel; I
didn't have any sugar-daddy. I had hard-boiled partners in
some cases; I had no partners in others. In every case. the
success of the film was directly related to my ongoing life
style. or lack thereof. That's an overriding factor.
There's a big difference between a couple of hoodlums
who hold up a gas station because it gives them a thrill, and a
fellow whose baby is starving and he has to have a loaf of
bread and fle takes it all to the grocery store. In making
independent films, I was not about to ignore the lessons I had

learned so hard, so bitterly, and so expensively. Those lessons

being: I ) there is a way to get people in the theater; 2 ) there
is a way of shortening the odds; 3 ) the ability to cram
production value into a low-budget picture is a peculiar
talent I happen to have, and I might as well exploit it!
let us suppose that in the middle of all this, somebody
from one of the Hollywood major companies had noticed
what was going on, because our films U'f!re making money.
( Invariably they were making money, invariably they were
commanding playing-time. ) They were never in trouble
because the investment in them was so low. I think that the
most I ever spent on a film was between S60,000-S70,000.
Suppose someone had said, "Hey fella. you seem like a bright
young man. Here's S 1,000,000. By our standards, that's nick
els and dimes; by your standards it's a Croesus'fortune. Spend
this money wisely, my son. Go forth into the world and make
a picture with good production values." Now what would I
have done? What I would have done is: I )pethaps. hired less

22

inept actors.
A}: Weren 't most of them your friends ?

Number two. I was not on the West Coast.

A}: You made your films here in Rorida.

HGL: Oh. no. On occasion someone would say. "Why

HGL: I made 70'X. of them here in Florida. I made some in

don't you put me in one of your pictures." and I'd say. "All

Chicago and 4 or 5 i n California. But most of them were made

right." but I wouldn't give them a lead. This myth -that our

here in Florida, yes.

films were badly acted -in my opinion is just that: a myth.

Because I have seen the Halloll'eens and the Pride) the 13ths

A}: Do you hat!(! any other fat'Orite filmmakers or any

filmic fo undation for your U'Ork ?

of this world, and their acting isn't any good either. What they

HGL: No. I'm not a student of film. The guy to talk to about

have is polish.

all that is out in California. Alex Ameripoor. who cut a

I don't think our films suffered from lack of polish. It was

almost the crude power of a play by Aeschylus as opposed to
a polished play by Sophocles. The audience knett' that what

number of films, and he

was

Assistant Cameraman on a

number of films. He lives in Tarzana. Alex

was

a perpetual

ever happened was going to be brutaL because that's the

way these films were shot. But the acting le,els generally
were reasonably adequate. The reason they sometimes had
the look of half-baked was because we would settle knou
ing)' for imperfect takes. Somebody quoted me in print once
as saying. "Nobody ever walked out of the theater because of

..... .. ..,, .... It .. ......, ..

.... .. .....d tllat could lll .......
........, - ..... ......,
..
.

a ragged pan," and that quotation was accurate; I firmly

believe it.

student of film. He could tell you every cut in every john

What happens is. you're panning the camera. and-yeah.

Huston film ever made! I took a more calloused.

casual

view

we shot in 3Smm; I had a Mitchell NC with a blimp that

of the medium. So the answer t o your question is: I don't have

weighed roughly 2,000,000 pounds. Alex Ameripoor, my

any favorites of that type.

assistant cameraman. and I were the only two people who

I startled someone by saying that I thought that War

could lift that camera on any crew we ever had. And in the

Games was a weU-made film. He said, "WHAT! The pot

blimp it took the two of us together. grunting and heaving,

boiler!" I don't understand that reaction. Is it necessary, in

and if we tried to put it on a wooden tripod it would crack the

order for a film t o be considered first-rate. that it be a ) not

tripod legs regularly. Even in our times the technology had

entertaining. and b ) obscure? This cult, that seems to be

gone beyond it, but that uras the equipment ure had. If our

growing in the land like the creeping blight. says that a film

sound recorder developed a hum we'd wrap it in Reynolds

that is easily understood can't be any good. What happens in

Wrap. which would tend to insulate against line-bleed, but it

film, as in fine art, is that these people spawn others who have

rea lly wasn't sohing a problem; it was putting a bandaid over

the same arrogant condescension toward the rest of us that

it. Professional filmmakers laugh at this procedure.

they

A}: What uYmldyou hat'(? done ifyou had been git!(!n an

hand-held and shot with existing light. they're 2/3 of the way

have. So they wiU give awards to films that if they're

unlimited amount of money ?

there to winning an award! You see, my films fell in the in

HGL: Well. i f I had had more money. I would have made

betueen. We used lights. and they weren't hand-held. So they

the same kind of picture. but perhaps on a more extensit '(?

didn't qualiJJ'.

basis rather than on an intensite basis. And the difference

And, we used actors, we didn't use friends, so we didn't

would not have justified the additional expense; rather, I

qualify there. And we shot them in 35mm, not I6mm,

would have preferred to take that money and form a perman

didn't qualify there. So instead of being the extension of

were

so

we

ent production company which would have put a floor under

somebody's personal ego, they

what we did and enable us to own equipment of a better

commercial film world, and that may be another reason why

the bottom end of the

technical level-to have had film editors, for example, fuU

nobody grabbed me off the street. But another problem

time. instead of saying, "Who's available to cut this picture?"

that I really was not looking to be grabbed. I wasn't haunting

( forcing us to begin our own educational process time after

people's offices saying, "Please hire me, " which is what you

time). I would have used the money simply to stabilize the

do if that is your goal. You see, I always had a great good time

was

operation. Because spending 20 times as much on a film does

making these films. and I never felt that this was. as appar

not mean you're going to get 20 times as much money in; nor

ently will happen. what they would put on my epitaph. so the

does it mean you're going to have 20 times the impact on the

joke is ultimately on me!

A}: Hou did )'OU get into the ttiolence ? You did Blood

people out there.

Feast in 1963 HGL: Dave Friedman had worked for the film distributor,
Irwin joseph ( Modern Film Distributors), who went bust.
His background was that he had been a publicist, l think with
Paramount. He and I became quite friendly. I fe lt that Dave
was a master of campaigns. Dave and I literally taught each
other the business, because I had

no fear of

aspect of filmmaking. Nothing puzzled

me;

the technical

if a camera quit

running, I'd take it apart and make it run. If we needed a wipe

and didn't want to pay a laboratory SSOO to do a wipe, we'd
do it with a shirtboard. The dissolve mechanism on the back
MP: In ttiew of the fact that your films clearly were

of the Mitchell camera was 30 years out of date, but I used it

successful in tenns of making money, and ooer a long

in every film 20 times over, usually with good luck. If a Ught

UICIS out there and the public

usually be within a half a stop. Nothing bothered me in the

period of time, too (iturasn 't like an "underground" thing, it

1110...

seeing it), why didn 't a

major company come and offeryou a deal? It seems rmus

ua/ that it didn 't happen

meter didn't work,

we'd

guess at the exposure

and it'd

shooting of films.
In the campaigning of films, although my background had

HGL: As far as they were concerned, I uras an under

been in advertising, it hadn't been in that kind ofhard-boiled

ground filmmaker-/ assume. I don't know the answer to

rock-em sock-em slam-bang advertising, as Dave's had. So

that question. I have never discussed it with anyone: "Why

Dave taught me campaigning, I taught h i m how to technically

didn't you call me'" Number one, ! wasn't knocking on doors.

make a film, and the marriage worked out very well.

 A]: Wbat doyou mean by campaigning: the distribution ?

HGL: No, the I mean the one-sheets and the posters, and

Gore was easy, because it was obviously the kind of subject

that could be handled intensively rather than extenSively. If

the advertising impedimenta that goes with a film, and later

I'm going to shoot 1be Life of Marco Polo (god help me), I

on I did it aU myself because Dave moved out to California.

need costumes, I need Venice in the 14th Century, I need

He and I made a couple of films almost on contract. Lucky

props I could never possibly get. ( But I don 't need scholar

one. People came to us because we were able to

ship; that's a mistake a lot ofpeople make when dealing with

makefilms cheap. So if somebody wanted to make a film, and

historical subjects! They say, "I am dealing with an historical

didn't know how or what, but he knew that Lewis and

subject, ergo, I am a scholar." Bull! Let them have their little

Friedman could make film at a fraction of the cost of anybody

fantasies. ) But withgore, you need one person, and you get in

else, including himself . . . .

dose on that person, so you don't need a whole battery of

Pierre

was

So we made a bunch of harmless, we used to call them

lights. For the independent filmmaker, scrambling for his life

nudies, but again , in today's marketplace they weren't nudies

like a bunch of women mud-wrestling (the last one left is the

at all because nothing was bared below the top half, and they

winner), or a demolition derby may be a better way of

were completely innocuous, although in context there was a

describing it; for us, it

Lucky Pierre

35mm.

was

quite a logical conclusion.

Right at that time, a fellow named Leroy Griffith who

certain amount of daring to them.

the first one of these things shot in

owned a theater here in Miami, and another man named Eli

There had been two or three before, but they were

jackson who lived in Cincinnati, decided to make a film. They

was

shot in 16mm. Gradually we became aware (the market told

were going to make a nudie starring Eli Jackson's wife-a

if nothing else), that one of two things was going to

woman who had, so help me (or so advertised), a 48-inch

us,

happen: we eithe r were going to have to strengthen the kinds

bosom. And that's all she had. I felt that Virginia Bell was a

of films we were making, making them less and less "socially

freak, but freaks also are a reason for making films. She was
some kind of a burlesque star, but again, that's an area that I

acceptable," or do something else.

was

don't pry into or care about. If Eli jackson felt that her name

getting cold in Olicago (which meant it was time to shoot a

on the marquee would sell some tickets, god bless Eli jack

film ). That was part of our motivation. I don't have that down

son. I'm the hired Hessian; I come in and kill and then go on

here any more, but in Chicago in January or February, you can

to the next war, assuming I'm still alive myself!

And we sat down one Saturday afternoon, because it

think of a thousand reasons to come to Florida and shoot a

So, we came down to Miami to shoot this film for Eli

film! We sat down and made up a list of the kinds offilms the

jackson and Leroy Griffith ( Leroy lived in Miami), and we

major companies either could not make, or would not make.

decided to shoot Blood Feast while we were here. ( I say

And on the list, staring us in the teeth, was gore.

"here" as though Miami and Ft. Lauderdale were one com-

Two

Thousand Maniacs.

24

munity, which obviously they aren't, but they're both here in

is a pyramid and a sphinx! Which is why they call it the "Suez

South Florida. ) We had no time to cast the picture, so half the

Motel." If it were called the "Gotham," they'd probably have a

cast of Blood Feast were the same people who were in the

fake Empire State Building. If it were called the "LA. Special,"

cast of Leroy Griffith's picture ( I don't remember the name

they'd probably have hop-heads sitting on the curb-I don't

oh yes I do! ) Bell, Bare and Beautifui-"Bell" for Virgi nia

know! Or if it were the "Olicago" they'd have a replica of AI

Bell! It turned out, by the way, that we had to shoot the

Capone smoking a cigar!

picture in a hurry, because Virginia Bell was pregnant. I said,

A): just by being inspired by the decor, you made up the

"My gosh, a woman with that pectoral achievement being

story?

pregnant! It's like shooting a game of bumper pool!" So we

HGL: Yes; driving into the motel, trying to think of what

had to shoot it in a hurry before she showed too much. A

would seize an audience as being weird. In fact, the title I

lunatic notion! Again, that's why I say much of what we did

gave

was done with high good humor.

thing Weird and later on ( I guess it

that film

was

Something Weird; I loved the title Some

was

five years later), I

used that title on another picture; we called a picture Some

But because Blood Feast

thing Weird.

'lhll cult

..,.

.... . ... .... .. _,

derstooct .-t .. _, ...... .... .......
In ...., as In fine .-t, il tllat .._. people

spawn others who llawe the ,... OfPII

......._ towed the Nit of us that
tWy haY..

was

so obviously

superior a title to Something Weird, we used that.

The film opens with a shot of that fake sphinx outside the
Suez Motel. And then we start pouring blood all over the
place. There again I proposed to do that with an optical
effect, and every optical house in the business said, "You can't
do that. If you're going to have an optical in color, you have to
shoot it against a blue background." I said, "Not true.' If you
make a mask, the mask will be black; therefore I'U give you
the mask for it." And we did it, and it

Those people ( e e cummings, the poet, had a marvelous

word, those people) don't understand how you can have a
good time and stiiJ make a film, because they regard film as

was

perfect

accidentally, perhaps, but it turned out that way.

MP: To create a broader base ofappeal to your audience,
did you think it was necessary to temper the hardness

pure violence with

some kind

of humor?

of

something that should be treated with reverence, deadly

HGL: Most astute question! Actually, as you know, we

serious. Unfortunately, I don't march to that tune-never did,

began to parody ourselves in the later films. 7be Gore Gore

and now that I

am

in my dotage ( ! ) probably never will.

A]: Rght
i
now the French are taking an academic interest

Girls is ajoke, although it's full of violence. I think part of it

was

because I refuse to take the whole genre seriously. In

Feast,

which

our first, there is no humor-well,

in your films, writing long, semiological, serious exegeses.

Blood

Wbat do you think of this new interest?

there is, really, because we treated it with broad strokes.

was

HGL: Well, I'm delighted to gradually find out what I

Fuad Ramses drags one leg. It's really funny, because there's a

really meant to do. It's odd when the analysts start to take

chase scene at the end. These police are chasing him, and

over. T.S. Elliot once made the remark, when someone

was

he's dragging one leg, and they're never the right distance.

analyzing one of his poems, "I'm very interested to find out

They passed him once because they didn't get the instruc

what I really meant by that!" To be worthy of further study,

tions straight!

like some loathsome disease, is, I guess, an honor. But very

A]: So it's inadvertently funny, in retrospect ?

few of these people bother to ask me. as you are doing. They

HGL: l don't share that view. The reason I don't is this: I'm

just draw a conclusion. Why do they draw the conclusion?

not a film historian. I'm the kind ofjerk who sits in the theater

Well, they draw the conclusion because this happened, it was

watching the audience, and if they react, that's aU I care

the first time it happened, therefore it is a matter of great

about. I don't care about someone who is writing l'histoire

historic moment. They don't want something to get past

du dnema, attributing motivations that aren't there.

them. Whoever invented the wheel is lost in history. I'm not.

MP: Do n 't you think that when people saw Blood Feast,

They don't want this to happen again' And just in case this is a

they thought it was a funny film ?

wheel, they want to make certain it's thoroughly docu

HGL: The hell they-well they certainly did not. I quote

mented. Dan Krogh wrote a book, 7be Amazing Herschel/

you Charlie Cooper from the Englewood Theater in Chicago,

Gordon Lewis-

which was in the middle of a black section,

A]: Wbat did you think of that book ?

He played Blood Feast and he said, "The picture opens up,

63rd

& Halsted.

HGL: Ha ha! An interesting work offiction ( I shouldn't say

that)! Dan means well, and John McCarty, his co-author, is
well-versed in film. I'll tell you my opinion which may not
please you; I think it was too reveren t a piece of work. That is,
/ like it, because it puts me on a pedestal. But for someone
who's truly interested in what went on, it lacks that slight
cold-blooded reportorial approach that might have made that
difference. I may be stating this poorly because I do like it. I
was

pleasantly surprised by everything except the cover; the

We had to shoot thlt

picture

In a

hurry,

...__ Virginia W was ......... I 18111,

"lly ... . - .... ..... .....

...... ...... ... ........ w

shootiag a - of lru11tplt pool"

cover was designed to sell a few books, so I can't disclaim the

thing. And I admire what he's done. Dan remembered things
I'd long since forgotten, so I must hand it to him there.
Anyway, going back to Blood Feast, we used half the cast,

and these guys are hootin' and hoUerin' and slashing the
seats, firing bullet holes at the screen, then on comes that

the same crew, and I think we started shooting it within three

"tongue" scene, and all you can see in that theater is a bunch

days after we had finished shooting the other picture. In fact,

because ofthem, we shot Blood Feast. We were staying at the

of white eyeballs!"

Suez Motel at 182nd St. & Collins Avenue in North Miami

they've got it, they don't have it. That's the thing about a gore

Beach. The Suez Motel was typical ofa whole string of motels

film. I have seen enough of my own gore films, sitting nondes

We pull them up short. because just when they think

that tine that north beach. It's a so-so kind of place: not

cript in an audience, to know that, yes, there are those who

particularly fashionable, but it's not a fleabag. But, outside

feel that they must take a condescending point of view.

the Suez Motel, in all its glory, standing about 5 or 6 feet high,

Because there's never a question of this being an expensive

25

film. I think Return of thejedi is an inferior film. It's a poor

get that overtime!" That makes a difference. I grant you. I'm

Walt Disney film. But, they spent a lot of money . . . therefore,

talking about the fiduciary aspects of filmmaking. hut that

enters into it. Because nobody's ego is on the line. That's why.

reverence. So you see, people tend to admire the wrong

thing, or what I regard as the wrong thing.

in our productions, it vvas important that at the end of the day

In 2000 Maniacs, you're never quite sure until that first

thumb comes off, and from that moment, we'vegot em! That

we'd all go down

tO

the film lab and look at the rushes from

the previous day. It made it afamily affair. The other point of

audience doesn't know what to do! We have them! How

having no one's ego on the line ( people feeling secure

many films are there where the production keeps the

enough so they don't try to insulate themselves from the

audience in such an unsettled state that the audience Jjterally

public, which is a terrible mistake in any theater) is that

suggest ions tend to come in, and you can pay attention to

doesn't know what to do. They're afraid to leave their seats

because that's a sign of cowardice. They're afraid to watch

them. Many of the good things in our films. the good things

because they're afraid of what they'll see. But the one thing

being those which titillated the audiences. came from some

that does happen is they leave the theater not feeling

body on the crew or in the cast who said, "Why don't we . . ."

cheated!
MP: v don 't people make films that

reatzv

work,

instead of spending money on something that looks like a

film but doesn 't really work like a film should work ?
HGL: Beats me! I read in this morning's paper about
Sylvester Stallone, going to make First Blood II. That's the
ultimate joke -First Blood II. It's like saying old New Mexico!
It just doesn't work together. This will come right after
Rocky 34!

WhM we Dplnld .... ..... we had vomit

llags, anc1 tllat .. printed on thMn was
"Y 111aJ .... tWs wliln you .. llood
Feast!" And ....... ...W - lust to get

the llagll

MP: do audiences etl(!n accept this now?

HGL: Wait a minute- there's only one way to keep score
made Heatl(!n 's Gate. Now, his name escapes me at the

In a classic circumstance, that person is afraid to even make

that suggestion. Or if he does. he'll make it to the TI1ird Assist

moment. but he spent

ant Director. who will make it to the Second Assistant Direc

in the film husiness: it made money, it lost money. Somebody

S30-S40,000,000 for an unplayable

picture. Did he do it alone? I don't think so-that's too much

tor, who will squelch it before it gets to the First Assi stant

money for one person to control alone. Somebody saw some

Director. But we operated on the hasis ofdemocracy. It was a

dailies. Somebody saw a screenplay. Someone went to a

necessary technique because that way. everyhody would

preview, and of course, the preview is what killed the pic

grab a handful of cables when we were through shooting.

ture. Someone, somewhere. in a system of checks and balan

ces, should have said, "This will not work for those people. I

which you don't have when you ha\'e a hierarchy: !deep

tried vainly, on three occasions, to watch Reds. I once made it

35 minutes into the film, and I fel t heroic, and then I said to

A}: Were you a hJPnotist also .?

myself, "What kind of test of will-power is this? Why are you

Expe(,imental Hypnosis, but I haven't been a member for

doing this to yourself? TI1e purpose of paying Home Box

years. I don't know where you heard that little tidbit; it has

Office to deliver this picture to your home is so you'll be

nothing to do with filmmaking!

A]: Well, what I was relating it to was tbe whole notion of

entertained. "

voice ! "That's his job"!

HCL: I was a member of the Society for Clinical and

leading the audience; in a sense. the wholeforce-psychology

Since I couldn't have u:plotlng clothing and

couldn't cleave somebody in half with a
what I did
Japanese scnurai sword
illsfead WGI to llg info IOIIII.Ddy cnl
actualy pul the stuff ClpiWf ancl ...... it
ancl let the v-.a .....

that you

UI(!YI?

talking about. I'd like to knou ifyou 'tl(! er'(>r

cmavzed the processes in your films-hou you push the

buttonsfor reaction, and hou you do go about ' 'leading the

audience. " manipulating the audience to stay tcmtalized. I
thought that

maybe ifyou

were a hJfmotist. !bat it ll'<mld

help!
HGL: It's the St oengali syndrome. but t he audience refuses
to play Trilby to your Svengali. It's really a tug-of-war. a hattie
of wits, and nobody is very well-armed in a battle of wits' I
think that it is much more basic than most people accept as

If I want to test myself, I'll go jogging or bicycling or go to

some health studio and see how many push-ups I can do. I
won't see how long I can sit into a film before I become so
restless that I say. "Oh, please! " In our films, that problem

being basic.
What I always tried to do was to say to that faceless
creature looking at the screen, "You're going to walk out of
.
this theater talking to yourself . That was the key. I maintain

doesn't exist, but that isn't necessarilygeneric in that kind of

that any filmmaker who keeps that in mind won't wind up

film, either. Maybe it's a sixth sense that we developed after a

making a Heatl(!n s Gate. What happens is. in order to be a

while, because I've seen other films of that type where I the

seat-of-the-pants psychologist, you can't assume the road is

filmmakers I just thought. "Okay. we'll cut up a few people,"

paved with gold. It is not: whatet'er I nwke, tbe y '/1 accept.

and it didn't work. You've got to lead the audience-it's like

You have to project yourself into the position of the person

the stations of the cross. Unless you're here. you can't go

watching. You can't say. "Public be damned!" If you're going

to say "Public be damned !", be a poet! Starve in a garret

there.
MP: It seems like the kind of success your films batJI? is
usually associated with a strong independent company
ubere someone s
i definitely leading . . . where you don't

somewhere in Greenwich Village! Be at the window with a

sponge, in impotent outrage at an unhappy world!
A]: You were talking about campaign schemes ll'ith Dati(!

bar!(! a lot offaceless decision-makers.

Friedman; did you etoer bear of Ray Dem1is Steckler and

HGL: I'll tell you what else we don't have-we don't have

some of his campaign schemes? Like uhen he shoued

somebody who says, "I won't be in this picture unless my

Incredibly Strange Creatures, he had monsters come out

hairdresser comes with me!" We don't have someone who

into theaudience uhi/e the mouie

says. "Only shoot me from the left side: We don't have

like in the mmlie and-

someone who says. "It's

HGL: When was this?

5:00, therefore

if I'm going to load

that magazine, I'm going to do it very slowly so I'll be sure to

A}:: Amund '66-

ll'(lS being

shoun. dressed

A TOWN of MADMEN .. CRnZED for CARNAGE!

BRUTAL . . EVIL . . GHASTLY BEYOND BELIEF!

_, ..

Starring
CONNIE MASON
P/oyboys foorit Playm<Jie
, THOMAS WOOD
JEFFREY ALLEN

MP -in the Los Angeles area.

we going to shoot today, fellas?" But it never did quite the

A}: He wo uld do things on the level ofthe Tingler morlie

business Blood Feast did, and one reason

which had "tinglers " under certain theater seats.

boards were waiting for us. With Blood Feast we caught

was

the censor

HGL: That was William Castle, wasn't it?

them unawares; there

A}: Willam
i
Castle did that; Ray Dennis Steckler did low

for sex; they weren't geared for blood. By the time we came

was

no sex in it. Tiley were all geared

budget gore m01lies, too. I was wondering ifyou had any

around the second time, they had amended their statutes and

marketing schemes like that?

HGL: We often did. The idea of live monsters we had early

their attitudes. But of all the films I've made, I think the best
was a picture called A Taste ofBlood, a Dracula film. It seems

on. We often had a casket, not in the lobby, but outside the

to have vanished foreve r! Losing a film is like your children

theater. When we opened Blood Feast we had vomit bags,

leaving home, and then you read in the paper that one of

and all that was primed on them was "You may need this

them was elected President of Andorra, but you never hear

when you see Blood Feast!" And people would come just to

from them. That's the way I feel about Taste of Blood.

get the bags! It's astounding what motivates people. So, yes, I

Af: Wbat kindofmovie wouldyou make today. consider

regard all of that as showmanship, and I'm very much in favor

ing that there is a huge leap in the level of violence that

of it, because it preconditions someone to accept what

people can accept right now, as opposed to what they could

you're going to show him before he sees a foot of film.

accept in 1963 ?

MP: Haw people ewr done live protests against your

HGL: I would probably get into some of these prosthetic

devices that have become so popular; not because I'm an

films?
HGL: Somebody in San Diego once organized something.

admirer of that particular technology, but because I revere

We got a flood of mail, and we knew it was organized

verisimilitude, the appearance of truth. And it's certainly

because they all referred to us as "you wreckless men"' It

better than breaking off a mannequin's arm, which is

reminded me of Woodrow Wilson; once he was approached

obviously a stiff and unyielding piece of plaster. It would be

by some labor leader who said, "Sir, I would never vote for

better to have the fingers fluttering a little! Or when we take

you." Wilson said, "Sir, I would be highly outraged if you did!"

an eyeball out, it would be kinda nice to have some reactions

The same thing is true-I don't want to be admired by

in the tissue around it! So probably what I would do, is to use

someone who spells wreckless with a w!

some of this technology.

But generally we didn't generate that white-hot kind of

The second thing I would do. would be to give myself the

reaction. We did catch the world unawares. I saw that as the

pure luxury of somebody bleeding on the carpet, instead of

difference between Blood Feast and 2000 Maniacs. 2000

having a piece of plastic under them. We always shot on

Maniacs, in my opinion, is twice as good a film from every

location, so protection of the location became paramount,

viewpoint- technical,

sometimes to the detriment of the effect. / wouldjust let 'em

acting,

plotline

(it

was

heavily

scripted ), where Blood Feast was more like. "Well, what are

bleed!

 BOYD: Wben we star1ed unrk on this book bare)'

BOYD: Educational films?

anyone was aul(lre ofyour films; nou you seem to be the

HGL: On occasion, but educational film companies are

most intenlieu'f!d litling director HGL: Yeah, I'm a cult figure, if posthumously- ! say that as
a joke. Some people think I died years ago.
BOYD: I'm glad you didn 't.
HGL: [laughs] Maybe at the box office, but not in person.
BOYD: I first sau Gruesome Twosome abo ut ten years
ago and thought it u>cts one of the best mouies I'd erer seen.
HGL: Good, good! Wish I could see Gruesome 7il'(Jsome
again-that one I can't seem to find. It apparently has van
ished into the night, but I'm sure these films will all start
surfacing again. About two months ago somebody sent me a
videotape ofjustfor the Hell ofIt, which I thought had been
lost forever. so it shows just how cloudy the crystal ball can
be.
BOYD: Wbat happens to f
ilms?
HGL: Negatives tend to vanish and then suddenly reap
pear. I have a film called Moonshine Mountain ( not really a
gore film, it's more country music; there are one or two gore
effects. but not many because basically it's a family film ). and
the negative of that simply disappeared. It was not in the
laboratory where it was supposed to be. About two or three
months ago. a man in California named Jimmy Maslin was
buying the rights to some of the old films ( he now owns
Blood Feast and 2.000 Maniacs ). He was going through
somebody's vault in Chicago and came across the negative of
Moonshine Mountain. The owner of the vault had never had
any relationship to that picture. made no explanation as to
how he got it. expressed some surprise that it w;t sitting
there ( though it was clearly labeled ). Meanwhile I had been
raising hell all over the country tl")ing to find thb negative.
So, it merely proves that the film business is an odd business
indeed.

pretty specialized and are usually self-producers, like Ency

ciopaedia Brittanica Films or Coronet. The films I made
would on occasion have some dramatic content. but they
were basically films paid for by someone else. "Sponsored
films." you might call them.
BOYD: Did any of the e.l.fJioitatiOII pioneers hat'<' m1
impact on you? Did they influence your attitude tou ard
filmmaking or inspire you?
HGL: Not that I can recall. I'm not that easily inspired by
other people's work. I'm a better critic, I think. than I am a
[stops to rephrase his statement J . . . What I do best i!> critic
ize other people's creati\e work. This inspiration comes on a
negative rather than a positive level. You see what somebody
else did wrong and you say, "Hey, what if this wen: done
nght ?" When I shot Blood Feast and we started making
money with it, I said. "Wow! Look how rotten this picture is.
What if we made a good oner So we shot 2.000 Maniacs.

which from a production point of\iew is far superior ( both

technically and theatrically) and it never made the money
Blood Feast did. This is all part of your professional
education.
BOYD: You did somethi11g nobor)' else had done. l)id
that just "happen ""?
HGL: 1l1at certainly was not accidental. 1l1at wa:-. an abso
Iutely <:old-blooded decision. We went through a whoh: list
of possible topics and procedures that the major companies
would not ( or could not) mak<.. and that"s how we settkd on
gore.

BO>V: Some of your aciJiel' ements seem as yet rmsw

passed. eren though producers today budget mi/limts for
special effects. W"by?
HGL: Because they don't linger as I did. I went for inten
sitY! gore rather than extensit egore and the rationale behind
that is quite simple: I didn't have any budget. Since I couldn't
have exploding clothing and couldn't cleave somebody in
,

We had effects in tt.e that I ...,..., was

.._., aftaicl of: when we fnnch.frled
.
that
girl's face
when we cut off the girl's
nlppl11 hnl out of .. a.e .... ...t out
of the other chocolate .... ,. I hit that
was the ultilnate in lllack humor, but there
..... thole in the ...... who
.

cldn't ...... . .

BOYD: Ho u many of those films

ar-e

gone foret>er?

HGL: You want an opinion? They are all still someubere.

but I lost touch "\'\ith them when I moved out of Chicago. I

have no idea where they are. My proprietary interest in those
films has long since ended, so I don't really care that much. It
pleases me that Blood Feast has gone into re-release and that
these films are coming out on videocassette. But it pleases
me emotionally rather than financially. because there's
nothing in it for me.
BOYD: That 's too bad.
HGL: Oh well, these films owe me nothing!
BOYD: Ho u did you get interested in filmmaking ?
HGL: My initial interest in films was purely mercenal")'. I

had a commercial film studio in Chicago doing tele\ision

commercials, business films. films for the government . . .

halfwith a japanese samurai !)WOrd, and since I couldn't show

an alien creature leaping out of somebody's chest ca,ity ( any
one of those effects would have cost more than my v.t101<:
film cost ), what I did instead was to dig into somebody and
actually pull the stuff apart and fondle it and let the ,;scera
drip. And that is where the impact came. hen today. no film
producer I know of has the courage ( "courage" is perhaps
the wrong word; maybe "Jack of taste?" ) to linger on the
shots the way we did.
Recently Jimmy Maslin vel") graciously sent me a ,;deotapc
of Blood Feast which I hadn't seen for a long. long time . ( I
had seen <'I bootleg \ideo of it which was almost without
color; it looked like it had been soaked in beer; half the:
effects had been chopped to pieces. and there was a heavy
scratch through i t . ) So. to see this tape in pristine condition
was like having my child reborn. We had just screened some
body else's film-Halloueet1 or P17day the Thirteenth Part
37. or something like that-and the people in the room said.
"God, their film is nothing compared to this!" So- proud
parent. you know'
ROYn: JJn you think you 'rejust more sincere than they.
more cler>er. or both?
HGL: No. Sincerity doesn't enter into it. It's more a matter
of showmanship than sincerity. Do you think there's any
sincerity at all in exploitation film production? I don't.
BOYD: Well. some.films seem mme personal than others.

28

Blood Feast.

It seems like a great deal of crea tit 1ty U'f!11t into yourfilms.

that these are robots. automatons at the typewriter. The

HGL: That's because they were more auteur-<>riented.

same is true of the scripts and the direction ofthese films; the

But. when someone decides to be a one-man gang ( produce,

directors are often more concerned with the camera shot

direct. perhaps write the film. and be on camera; even write

than with the ef

fect on the screen.

part of the music-and I've done all of these ), the problem

BOYD: Movies seem more and more like formulas-

often is: that individual begins to lose viewpoint and begins

HGL: Well, they're coming out of U.C.LA. film school and

to make a personal statemf!11 t. And that statement may well

lord knows what they teach them there. I'm certain I'm not

be. "Public be damned. If you want to appreciate me, come

lionized in those quarters and that bothers me not at all,

up to my level. I am telling you my position." Instead of

because I believe positively, absolutely, that a motion picture

saying, "Hey, I'm going to entertain you, or frighten you, or

should appeal to the people in the theatre and not necessarily

charm

to the person who made it. People are making films for

you";

instead

of thinking in terms of audience

reaction.
That's what's missing today: no one thinks in tenns of

themselves rather than the people in the audience. But there

are bodies out there!

audience reaction They make films like Heat'f!n 's Gate. They

You walk into a videotape store and there's shelf after shelf

choose impossible, stupid titles; the titles alone would keep

of titles. Some you won't even look at because the title

people out of the theaters. They'll say, "Oh well, if it bombs at

sounds so dull. Some you'll watch for a few minutes and just

the box office, we'll still have videotape and cable and foreign

can't bear-too slow-moving. And some films grab you and

saJes." They don't think in terms of showmanship. Some of

hold you. The ones that grab you and hold you are the ones

the campaigns I see look like they were written by half-wit

that the producer, the director and the writer have thought

oysters.

about in terms of who's sitting there looking at it. Not who

On Fridays, when films are advertised, you see a bunch of

ads in any paper. Some of the ads attract you, some of the ads

was

in the screerung room at Paramou nt, saying what a bright

fellow you are . . .

repel you. But some of the ads leave you saying, "Ehhh . . . " I

BOYD: Blood has pla)'f!d a l.lf!1J' important role in your

have no quarrel with those that attract or repel you, but those

success as a film maker. 1broughout history. blood's role in

that elicit "Ehhh" are often written by teams ofpeople, each

many of rrutn s rituals

of whom makes $200,000 a year. This shows me (once again )

Rome. bloodletting was almost a national pastime, and

was

of key importance. In andent

29

Leftovers from Fuad lamses' feast

even

(aloetl Feast).

today the most violent episodes in history exert the

BOYD: No.

most profound fasdnation on people. What's the connec

HGL: Okay, good. I would ner>er say that.

tion betu?en your films and the bloodletting rituals of

BOYD: But there is c1 strong connection betueen the tu'(J.

bygone days?
HGL: Well, as a matter of fact Blood Feast was a recapitula

peanut butter. but I don't know what! Other than they are

tion of a bloodletting ritual of bygone days. Yes, blood is the

both items. Horror and humor are allied in that one can

HGL: There's a strong connection between shoelaces and

ultimate symbol. It's the one symbol everyone understands.

spring from the other. 7bat, I started to do. We were creating

You squash a bug-if it happens to be a mosquito that has

caricatures and parodies of our own films. In a picture such

recently gorged itself, instead of being just a yellow mess

as 7be Gore-Gore Girls. horror and humor were intermixed,

there will be some blood in there and you'll recoil. There is

and that was done not only to confound the audience. but

power to blood. It has emotional impact unlike any other

also to have them say, "Oh, this isn't real."

y?

substance on earth.

BO>V:

BOYD:

HGL: Because we had effects in there that I myself was

Do you

think the public is bloodthirsty?

literally afraid of: when we french-fried that girl's face ...

when we cut off the girl's nipples (and out of one came milk

..... . ..... .... .... ...........

........., w1th it, l.llll lkt .,.... Look
... ,..... ... ...... .., ,...,. ., .. ....
. .... ...,.,

HGL: More and more, yes. We are devolving ... I think

society is slowly going back to the jungle. Everybody has a
gun.

It's

macho

to

wound

somebody

and

to

carve

and out of the other chocolate milk). I felt that was the
ultimate in black humor, but there were those in the
audience who didn't understand, and didn't see-well, they

saw what I intended, but they thought it was a desecration to

have chocolate milk come out of a ... [laughter 1.
BOYD: Your films

seem

to have a great deal of black

humor.
HGL: Oh, sure!
BOYD: You called Gruesome Twosome the most bar
baric humor since the guillotine went out of style.

somebody-the term, in fact, is waste somebody. We have no

HGL: Yes, that's in the campaign.

regard at all for our fellow man; we are statistics. So if

BOYD: Do you think your humor is at odds uith the

someone happens to squash a statistic, so what?

general public 's?

to destatistidze the

HGL: If, by "general public" you mean Jerry Falwell or the

circumstance. We didn't wipe out a row of people. One by

people who live in Sedalia, Missouri. the answer is ''Yes!" If,

In these ftlms, what I do (or did)

was

one. se/ectirJely, blood spurted. That has much more impact

by "general public" you mean people who are moderately

than killing off a whole battalion of soldiers.

literate and who have been exposed to many facets of our

BOYD: It's been said that horror and humor are the same

civilization, the answer is no. The other day I read a little

thing.

Do you agree?

HGL: Who said that-am I quoted as saying that?

booklet that

someone

quickly published following the

screening of that 1V movie, 7be Day After. Based on how to

30

phies and ideas. For example, you're familiar with the

live in a post-nuclear society, it's black humor from front to

back. There will be those who are amused by it, and those

dynamics of hypnotism-

who are disgusted. There's a paperback called /0/ Uses fora

HGL: Yes, I

Dead Cat [laughs]; some people think that's funny,cat lovers

BOYD: I u'Os u'Ondering hou that shaped your films,

won't. That's part of being in the marketplace-you position

where thi ngs are not what

yourself. You cannot appeal to all the people all the time.

HGL: That's especially true in a film such as 1be Wizard

BOYD: I loued Gruesome Twosome. allhough the rest of

the people in the theatre didn't seem tofind it tJf?l)amusing

Gore. If so, it's subliminal, but you can raise an interesting

HGL: Well. they came in'

what I call force communication ... which is causing the rats

am.

they appear

to be-

of

point. I was, and am, and probably always will be interested in

BO>V: I real)' like all the sound/racks you'toe done. Did

to go through the maze the way you want them to. And that

you hat'<' any musical /mining?

understanding undoubtedly has to seep through (by osmo

HGL: Some. I played the violin when I was a child, like

sis. if nothing else) into the creative product.

everyont else did. I still play the piano. I would not call myself

BOYD: Rats, eh?

HGL: Of course, I don't mean rats as rats; I mean rats as

a professional musician.
BOYD: W'hen you

U'(>re

people. [laughter]

younger. uoere you a joker?

liGL: No. no. I was a serious student.

BOYD: W'hy did you choose to go into mail order market

B0>7J: Many of your films deal ll'ilh unusual philoso-

ing rather than

A woman admires the wares at a wig shop in

TIM

OruMome

TwOHIIM,

100% HUMAN HAIR

forSA--.

continu e as

a film maker? Weren't )'OU

unaware she is about to join the display.

riding high financially with The Gore-Gore Girls?

HGL: Not necessarily. There are several conclusions

looking out over the water behind my house, and there's

birds out there, and I'm going to play tennis this afternoon,

reached: one, there are more scoundrels per square inch in

and life is good.

the film business ... people who swipe negatives, people

BOYD: Great ... some people imagine that your films

uere the product of a person much closer to his subject
matter than. say, an Alfred Hitchcock mouie-

who cheat you on box office receipts, people who cheat you
on distribution receipts . . . I grew weary of the game. For
example, there was a time when I enjoyed arguing with car

dealers over the price of a car. I don't enjoy that anymore; I'm

nique of making the films with a smaller crew.

tired of that kind of negotiation. Furthermore, in the mail

BOYD: In yourfilms. you alloupeople to enjoy expenen

ces normally deemed "honible." And that s taboo in our
culture: to be able to enjoy something that's horrible.

order business ( actuaUy, I'm a consultant and writer rather

than really being in the mail order business), I am making a

HGL: It's closer-if only because of the physical tech

tremendous amount of money and working less than I ever

have before. I would be foolish to discard that in favor of a

making films, hut not anymore-today it's an accepted tech

murderers' row of circumstance, in which I'm dealing with

nique of filmmaking.

people who have the morality of a bunch of siding salesmen

BOYD: Yes, but its altogether different u>ith you. I see

you as more of an alchemist. You take these different
emotions-base emotions-and blend them togetht?l to
create something else.

So that really was the reason.I can still make a film; I'm talking
to some people now ... not aggressively, but rather passively.
When they'n: ready, I'm ready.

BOYD: So you might make a film again?

HGL: Yep. I could-like Dracula-rise from the grave!

BOYD: A lot ofpeople still belietethe uorstrnmorsabout
you-

HGL: I myself have heard a few: that I was rotting away o n

a Georgia chain gang, that I had died and hadn't necessarily

HGL: That may have been true when we first started

HGL: I turn gold into lead!

BOYD: I really do think you create a different quality of
e:xperience, uhere you take d[(erent emotions and blt:nd
them into one another. You get grotesqueness i11tegrated
with humor, and repulsion and elljoyrnentbotbat the same
time.
HGL: Good theory. I think you ' ve hit it exactly dead

gone to heaven. Stories just appear. as though someone is

looking for a controversial ploy, just as D. W. Griffith was

center ...

accused of being a racist. But I'm alive and well, and I'm

Climactic scene from The Gruesome Twosome.

32

FILM

PRESSBOOK

SYNOPSIS

SHE DEVILS ON WHEELS

Karen, a quiet and reserved girl during the week,

on

weekends is a

member of The Man-Eaters, a wild gang of female matorcyde riders

headed by the beautiful and vicious Queen.
Each week The Man-Eaters stage a cycle race down the length of an
abandoned airport runway.

Queen, Karen, and the huge, tough Wlitey

are usually the top contenders. Wimer of the race gets first pick of the
"stud line"-a strange bunch of

men

who are The Man-Eaters'

playthings for the weekend.

Karen wins the race. As Top Mama. she gets first pick, and as usual,
picks BiU, a good -looking stud who is unusually clean-cut for his type.
Next day, Queen calls a meeting of The Man-Eaters, excluding Karen.
At the meeting. all voice their resentment: Karen picks Bill week after
week, in violation of The Man-Eaters' code. Haney-Pat, young mascot of
the group, is dispatched to instruct Karen to be at the airstrip that
night. Karen arrives to find the others waiting. They have brought Bill,
tied and beaten, and Karen has a choKe: she either drags lim around the
cement runway behind her cycle or will be forced out of the group. In
tears, Karen nonetheless agrees; Bill, tied to a rope behind Karen's cyde,
is dragged around the strip until he is literally in shreds.
A few nights later, Honey-Pot, the only one of the group regarded
with affection by all, undergoes her initiation: all the "studs" are
invited to participate, to Honey-Pot's delight. To celebrate, the gang
rides through the town, spreading terror and destruction; but, because
no

one

will testify, the police can only tlweaten.

Arriving at the strip the following weekend. the girls are outraged to
find a bunch of hot-rodders using the runway for auto drag-races. A
bloody fight ensues, with The Man-Eaters victorious; the bays' gang.
headed by the mean and cakulating Joe-Boy, is left gasping and
bleedi ng on the ground.
Karen is called by Ted. the decent bay-friend whom she abandoned
when she joined The Man-Eaters. Ted has heard about the fight. He also
has had word that Joe-Boy's gong has sworn vengeance, and he warns
Karen to leave the group before there is violence that will leave her
permanently marked. She thanks him for his interest, but says that she
is in too far and cannot leave The Man-Eaters.
When the girls return from the next race, Karen is horrified to see Ted
in the stud-line. She chooses Ted. and he forces her to leave the building.
which, he has learned, Joe-Boy's gang will attack that night.
However, Joe-Boy has another idea: he will destroy The Man-Eaters
one

by one, starting with Honey-Pot. His gang sneaks up on The

Man-Eaters' house late at night and manages to kidnap Honey-Pot.lt is

done with stealth. and the others are unaware; Karen, returning late
with Ted. sees nothing awry.
In the morning. Joe-Boy's gang returns Honey-Pot. She has been
attacked and beaten, and a ring. jammed through her nose, holds a note
carrying the threat of future similar acts against all The Man-Eaters.
Queen' s rage leads to instant vengeance. She leads the gang to the
bar at which Joe-Boy's gong usually hangs out; and only after she has
beaten up the bartender with her belt-a motorcycle chain-does she
agree that Joe-Boy is nat hiding there. Ultimately the girls track dawn

She DeYHs On Wheels.

Joe-Boy's gang. In brood daylight, the fearless Whitey, along with

another Man-Eater, approaches and slashes the tires of Joe-Boy's prized
hot-rod. Spraying Joe-Boy's face with insecticide, the girls leop on

him tenderly, then was aver to the gang. One by one, they lock eyes

Wlitey's big motorcycle and ride off at top speed. Deliberately, they

with her. She walks to her cycle, a.nd as she sits on it she realizes that

have left the other cyde. Joe-Boy jumps on it and follows them.

she can't go back. The girls ride off, and

But the girls have strung a wire across the rood, neck high. From just
beyond it, they taunt Joe-Bay as he approaches. Too late, he

sees

the

wire. It slashes through his neck, decapitating him. A.s the girls duster
around Joe-Bay's body, Queen inadvertently drops her chain-belt.

Ted, alone in

the field whkh

surrounds their house, listens to the diminishing roar of the motorcycle.

The police have found Queen's belt, and as the girls return to the
scene of Joe-Boy's death. they are arrested.
The end? Not for The Man-Eaters.. The picture encls with the gang,

Bock at their lair, the girls are about to ride off when Ted drives up.

free once again for lock of concrete evidence, tearing down the

Ignoring Whitey's taunts and Queen's threats, he calls to Karen. She

highway, cut-out mufflers belching an ear-splitting roar. Queen and

dismounts, and when she was over to him, he pleads with her to quit

Wlitey tell the camera of their future plans and ride off into the

the gang-to walk aver and tell the others she is tlwaugh. She kisses

clistonce.

33

enchell Gordon lewis made films like no one else

filled with grisly violence and black humor, morally
indefensible-which is probably why they are so good.
Lewis' back.ound sheds liHie light on his originality as a
filmmaker. He aHended a midwestn university wh.-e he
obtained a Ph.D, taught English at Mississippi State Univer
sity, then switched to adv.-tising and mcrketing. During the
'50s, he made industrial films in Chicago.
With Chicago produc David Friedman, Lewis stcrted
Mid-Continent Films. Soon they released Tile Pr11M TIMe
(which Lewis produced and Friedman publicized), the story
of rebellious youths and a mad beatnik crtist. Only moder
ately successful, the film is best remembend for featuring
the first sa"" appearance by actress Karen Black.
Lewis and Friedman's next film, Living YIIIUI, depicted
the rise and fall of a girlie rnagcnine. Though risque, the film
was devoid of frontal nudity. Court rulings on a nudist film
called ._.... of lden mode nudity less risky, so they next
made The Adv...._.. of Lucky Pierre, shortly after Russ
Meyer released his box-office smash The 1m....,.. Mr. Teas.
Despite the fact it was little more than a s.-ies of vigneHes
featuring Chicago comedian BiUy Falbo, Lucky Pierre made
a 1111 profit.
Next Friedman and Lewis improved upon the nudie genre
by selecting allractfyo people to play the sun wonhippers.
Daughter of the Sun starred the delectable Rusty Allen as a
woman who is summoned to defend h.- nudist practices. The
film used the unusual device of showing the scenes outside
the camp in block-and-white (the mundone world), while al
the scenes insicle the camp were in color. The film did well, so
they followed up with Nature's ....,.,...._ Goltllodu
and the Three .... and W. .... anda..tlfuL
Two standouts dirted by Lewis during his "nudie"
period wereiiOIII-II-GI and Scum of the l..eh.IIOIIWI-01
chronicled the exploits of would-be filmmakers trying to
shoo t a sex film, with their final product being just what
their distributor want..l-an atrocity. Scum of thelarth,
a mean little tale about women forced to pose for a porno
aph, was one of the earliest examples of the
"roughies"-films released during the '60s that mixed sex
with violence.
When the demand for nudie films diminished, Lewis and
Friedman sat down and made up a list of possible topia that
would selL They narrowed the list down to one: gon. Not
your ordinary bloodletting, but lluckots of blood, spilling
from the mouth, running from the nose; exposed raw meat,
bone and .-istle
oyes gouged from the sockets, limbs
hacked oH, faces pouncled to mush.
The duo started their sanguinary experiment with llootl
FMII, the story of an Egyptian named Fuad lamses who
runs a catering operation in Florida. When a woman asks for
"something special" for h.- daughter's birthday, Ramses
suggests an authentic replication of the "Feast of lshtar" (a
pcrticularly bloodthirsty godcless of oncient Egypt). Unbe

knownst to her, Ramses plans to use the feast as on invoca

tion rite to bring the goddess lshtor bade to life. In the bade
room of his delicatessen stands a statue of lshtar, which
resembles a thrift store ma..., in painted gold.
To invoke lshtar, Ramses goes around town collecting
bocly parts from various living women. One woman has htr
legs cut off, onother loses her brains, and in one of the most
memorable scenes Ramses lweaks into the apartment of a
woman and rips her tongue out with his bare hands.
...... FOIIII was a hit. People queued up and all ov the
country th.-e were seas of white eyebalh and open mouths.
People stared, aghast at the onscrMI'I carnage. Some
fainted; some threw up. Somt wondered why it was okay to
portray extreme violence but not sex.
lealhing they were onto something, Lewis and Friedman
quickly mode 2000 Maniacs, which, despite the fact that it
didn't match the success of llootl FMII, remains Lewis'
favorite film. A group of Northern tourists encounter a
small Southern town ctlobrating the centenntal of the Civil
War. Eventually the tourists learn their role Is to "help" the
townspeople even the score with the "Yankees." One
woman has a boulder opped on her; another man is *awn
and quarted and his remains barbequtd that night.
Another man is put in a barrel lined with nails ond rolled
down a hill. BetwMI'I bloodlettings a bluegrass group, The
Pleasant Valley Boys, sings rural folk songs.
Next Lewis ond Friedman mode Color Mo llootllled.
about an egocentric artist striving to find the perfect shade
of red for his paintings. During the filming the two parted
ways, and Friedman ended up finishing the film and then
returning to sexploitation. Lewis split the rest of his car..
betwMI'I gore and sex.
Like other exploitation pioneers, Lewis buit up his com
pany by buying completed and uncompleted films and releas
ing them under new titles. He bought an incomplete Tenor
at Halftlay, shot a few connecting scenes, add ed narration,
and released it as MOMtw A Go-Gel Besides featuring an

Hend'ltll Gordon Lewis ot home

holding

up the

sound

track of lloecl Feast.

outstanding theme song, the film stcrred Henry Hite ("the

tallest man in the world") as an astronaut who returns to
Ecrth a giant.lewis also bought a British roadshow feature,
added "birth of a baby" footage and released it as Sin,
Suffer, anti Repent,
In 1966, Lewis made a low budget rip-off of I, A W0111an
entitled Alley T,....... It was produced by Thomas Dowd,
owner of the Capri Theater in Chicago and sponsor of many
of lewis and Friedman's ecrly ventures. During this same
period lewis released two of his most atypical films: Jimmy,
the Boy Wonder and (Santa VIsits) The Magk Land of
Mother Goose.
1967 was a banner yecr for Henchell Gordon Lewis. He
released three sexploitation films (Sulllu riNan Roulette; The
Girt, The Body, and The Pill; and lllasf.GH Girls), and
three gore films (Something Weird, A Tillie of Blood and
The Gruesome Twosome). For its intense gore and goofy
humor, The Gruesome Twosome is outstanding, chroni
cling the attempts of a demented old woman and her
retarded son to keep their wig shop supplied with fresh
scalps. At er he finished editing it, Lewis found the movie too
short, so he quickly shot a prologue featuring two styro
foam mannequim with faces painted ccrtoon-style. This
addition was one of the most memorable scenes in the film.
A favorite genre of H. G. lewis was the "Hillbilly Movie,"
which provided for him (and many other exploitation direc
tors) an ideal context for vcried sex and violenc.-usually
more violence than sex. Besides, he liked the music. In Moon
shine Mountain the hillbillies battle revenuers, dumping
the bodies of dead federal agents into their still. In This
StuH'II KW Ya', two college girls are aucified and another
woman is stoned to death.
When Biker Movies became fashionable, lewis released
She Devils on Wheels, about an all-female motorcycle
gang called "The Maneaters." Only Blood Feast macle more
money than this one. In one scene, a man is dragged on the
ground behind a speeding motorcycle driven by his
frien In another scene a young woman is beaten to a
bloody pulp and a ring put through her nose. Unlike most of
his films, "goodness" did not win out in the end-the female
bikers, arrested for cutting a man's head off, ere set free for
lack of evidence.
In 1969 lewis opened a movie theater in Old Town,
Chicago, called "The Blood Shed," which featured many of
his gorier films and similcr films macle by others. The theater
also staged live shows filled with gory moments a Ia le
Theatre du Grand Guignol. Sadly, The Blood Shed wasn't
economically feasible, and closed within a few months. How
ever, the little stage shows lewis produced there provided
the impiration for his next gore film, The Wlz.d of Gon
Of all his films, The Wizard of Gon may be-if not his
best-the most purely H. G. Lewis of all his films. It tells the
story of Montag, a magician who invites women from the
audience to participate in his ad. One is sowed in half,
another has a spike pounded through her head from ecr to
ecr, two more get swords rammed down their throats. Aftw
the ads are over, the womtn appear to be good as new
for about half an hour-whereupon they sucldenly revert to
the gory mess they were onstage.
Throughout the film Montag tosses off wonderful
speeches concerning topics such as mankind's lust for vio
lence and the question of illusion vs. reality. Much of the
power of this film derives from scriptwriter Alison louise
Downe, Lewis' long-time cohort and author of many of his
best films including Blood Feast, The Grvesome Twosome,
.

Dev on Wheel s and Jlfd for tile Hel of ft.

H. G. lewis ended his filmmaking career with his goriest
film ever: The Gore Gore Girts, about the murder of
strippers who work for a nightdub owner (played by Henny
Youngman). In one scene a woman's nipples are cut off; one
breast squirts white mi while the othw yields chocolate
milk. In another, a woman is stabbed while blowing bubble
gum; the bubble fills up with blood. Besides more violence
the film featured more naked flesh, thanks to the strip joint
locale of much of the movie.
At this point, Lewis suffered a series of business setbacks
that forced him to close up shop in Chicago. Amidst vcrious
rumors he disoppeared completely for awhile. Some said he
left the country; others thought he was in jail.
In 1977 H. G. lewis surfaced as the foundw of Communi
Comp, a direct-mail marketing agency , and now he is consi
dwed one of the foremost authorities in this field-a long
way from Blood Feast. Being happy , successful and prosper
ous, he has little desire to return to the uncertain financial
realities of filmmaking. No matter; his position in the world
of unique/ extreme cinema is assured.

PARTIAL FILMOGRAPHY
as Dllllnoa:
One Shocking Moment, 1965
1M Prime Time, 1960
Uving Venus, 1960
1M Adventures of Lucky Pierre, 1961
Daughter of the Sun, 1962
Nature's Playmates, 1962
BOIN-NG, 1963
B Feast, 1963
Goldilocks

and the Three Bares,

1963

Bell, Bare and Beautiful, 1963

Scum of the Earth, 1963
2000 Maniacs, 1964
Moonshine Mountain, 1964
Color Me B led, 1965
Monster A Go-Go, 1965

Sin, Suffer, and lepent, 1965

Jimmy, the Bay Wonder, 1966
Alley Tramp, 1966
An Eye for an Eye, 1966
(Santa Visits) The Magic: land of Mother Goose, 1967

Suburban Roulette, 1967

Something Weird, 1967
A Toste of Blood, 1967
1M Gr uesome Twosome, 1967
1M Girl, the Body, and the Pil, 1967
BlostOff Girls, 1967
She-Devils on Wheels , 1968
Just for the tiel of it, 1968
How to Make a Doll, 1968
1M Psychic:, 1968
1M Eatasies of Women, 1969
Undo and Abilene, 1969

Miss Nymphet's lop-In, 1970

1M Wi:lord of Gore, 1970
This Stvff'l Kil Yal, 1971

Year of the Yahoo! , 1972

Blade Love, 1972
1M Gore-Gore Girh, 1972
Note: An Homage to Herschel Gordon Lewis (Smm film) is available
from Daniel Krogh, 4-F Films, 520 North Lincoln Ave, Box 444, Chicago, ll
60614. (312) 929-4194.

W:

So to me, I just don't get along with the people in this town.

ay Dennis Steckler is a fast thinker and fast talker; he

makes films quickly

and efficiently-but with sardonic wit

and inimitable style. Before the age of

24 he had produced,

directed and starred in The lncndJWy Stra.... Creatures

Wllo Stoppecl Living aMI a.c.... Mixed-Up Z0111W...
The fint monster musical ever, I01111Wes was shot in only 11
days on a budget o f $15,000 for lob costs, $6,000 for
editing, $5,000 for cast, $5,000 for crew, $1,000 for score,
and $6,000 for rentals. Ray often accompanied the film's
premiere in different cities, playing one of the monsters that
come out and attack the audience at a critical point in the
film. Since then, he directed the psychopathdassic The
Thrill KDien, the Batman-and-Robin-ish ... Hlnk a Boo
.... the Bowery Boys-like Lemon Grove Kleis Meet the
Monsters. and diverse others-no two films alike.
Steckler once remarked, "When someone asks, 'How do
you make movies, Ray?'-well, I just talk to the cast." Of all
the directors in this book, Steckler may be the most extem
poraneous. Musical director Andre Brummer, who has

been

I'm not a coke freak, so already I'm t:liminated from 95% of all
the social parties here. And at the same time. if I come up
with an idea of something I want to do, they think I'm nuts. So
I'd rather just be on my own.

I've been in Vegas for 10 years. The funny part is-I'm

well-known, but I'm unknown. I have everything anybody
could ever want in Vegas: I've got 10 movieolas,

15 cameras,

everything. And in Hollywood it's S5 a square inch just for

space, with no parking! Hollywood is a situation where it
really is all money-

BOYD:

And no content. It seems like the ubole set-up in

the movie industry is geared toward inhibiting creafil'ity

STECKLER:

You're trapped! In Hollywood you spend all

your time trying to survive: lOO'X,. You have to do all kinds of

things you'd probably never even think of doing. In las Vegas.
at least, if I walk out my back door I've got nothing but desert.
It's a good feeling to just get on a motorcycle and go! In
Hollywood, you get on a motorcycle and you get smashed at
Hollywood and Western!
I like the feeling of independence. Stanley Kubrick could
never work in Hollywood; he had to get away. I don't feel

with Ray from the beginning, once remarked, "[From the

first film

on]

I began to admire Ray because he could take

any situation and make it work. Ray is marvelous-he

thinks very quickly and doesn't let anything become a prob

lem. Once I was shooting with him

a beach scene and a

on

do, Ray?' He said,

So we changed the story to match

heavy fog came in. I said, 'What will we

'We'll change the story.'

the fog-Ray can do that very well.''

Boyd Rice first interviewed Ray Dennis Steckler in

Las

raw only nll1llous ...... latlhit. I -. I

ccm conform to ..., tiNatioft, IIUf whln It
gets to bulshit, I ccm't .._.. It, ...t tt..e's
too much of it In llelpood. llollody w.m
to

lust sit dnm ...t say, "lien's

t.ve to

what

do ..a let's do it."

Vegas; lofer a second interview took place with Ray and

actress Carolyn Brandt. Steckler's mast recent work-in-pro
gress is The Hollywood

Strangler Goes to Las Vegas.

comfortable around so-called Hollywood people; never did

and never will. It's always a big show, it's "Look at my new
Mercedes!"
After I moved to Vegas I bought a brand new pickup truck.
A producer I know said, "For the same money you could have

bought a Cadillac to impress people." I said, "Yeah, but I can

BOYD RICE: Are you an outsider in Holfyu(X>d?

STECKLER:

put my camera in the back of the pick-up and shoot, and do all

I don't think I'm alloued in Hollywood-!

kinds of other things. I'm not in the Cadillac business, I'm in

have to sneak in and out! I had a lot of opportunities, but I just

the movie business." End of short story.Tells the whole thing.

did not fit here; I don't know why. It's the people in
general-! don't get along with them. It's their attitudes ...

do. I buy cameras and all kinds of equipment. Those are

I'm

not saying

I'm

a great

filmmaker

or anythin g; I try to

just be different, not to be like everybody else. That's all it is.

It's so ea!>)' to copy someone else, and I just don't do that.
As I get older maybe I'll get more money to make bener

You should buy tools for your trade-for what you want to

important to me-not a new

suit. (I've got

they're not important.) It's important

refrigerator (I always have

to

new

suits, but

have film in the

20 or 30,000 feet) and to be ready

to go when I get an idea. So I don't change my mind, see?

films; then I can do what I really want to do.In the meantime I

Too many great filmmakers have gotten great ideas, started

believe: get an idea, go make it. just do it. It's not easy to
make any film. Even if you have 20 million dollars, you've

on them, then never got them together and never made

them. They gave up because they didn't have all the elements

got the same problems as some kid with SIO,OOO. There's

to make a film. Obviously, they need great talent, but there'sa

never enough money; you never get what you want. And the

lot of great talent that's never been exposed and never will. A

more money you have the more pressure you have. At least

lot of kids don't get breaks. (But look at some that do

that kind of pressure I don't have!

they're on television every night! How did they ever get

36

rhe

INCREDIB
ORGAN-STECKLER

WHO STOPPED I.!VING

ND BECAME
MIXEDup

Producllon

,
ZOMBIES'' 'I
SlARRll'<v

CASH FLAGG
IN TRO DlJC I NG

CAROLYN BRANDT
"RDDliC1 4NO DIRECT [I) f.IY

RAY DENNIS STECKLER

in-how'd

they

even

BO>'D: Huu- did you

get

on

the

N L SHOCK

A FAIRWAY I NTERNATIO A

Filmed in 1ERADRANIA and EASTMAN

Hollrwood!)

GEORGE J. MORGAN

location?/ That's

get ini'Oit!d in .filmmaking?

I:DLDR

7bf! Crealltm

RELEASF

has now been re-released, and a couple

other ones are 1>'taning to pop up, like Blood Shack, a little

14

film about an old house out in Death Valley that was haunted

or 15 year old back in Reading. Pennsylvania. In fdct I till

about three days. The Hol)'U'Ood Strangler Meets the Skid

Ro11 laslx>r and Ret!nge of tbe Ripper wiU be out as well.

STECKLER: I staned making Rmm movies when I was

have them and thqere pretryav.ful. Kid:. in the ne ighborhood

by a mysterious killer (Ron Haydock). That one we made in

were my mo'ie stars; we'd just make things up. We did a little

These are all films made years ago; all of a sudden everyone

pirate film; a little Western at a place called Daniel Boone's

want!> tO sec them.

They were just fun things. Today. kid1o r .. or 15 are out with

Homestead

\ideo cameras making epics. but in those days an Smm

camera w very expensive-just to shoot film was expen

BO>'D. \fm you

in any of ti.Jese?

STECKLER: I was in Ret!1tge of the Ripper. It was the last

BO>'D: Were you the Ripper?

thing I did.

STECKLER: You'll have to see that to find out! Oh, Body

si,e. At that timt:, it 'llS all fun and games for me.

Fet>er is

went to Korea and worked as a cameraman, then came back

all coming around; I can't explain it. They're not really great

Then I went into the army where I studied photogr<phr. I

another one that's coming out on \ideotape. They're

S38,000.

to New York Ciry where I studied photaphy for a year.

films, but I never had any real money to make them with. The

Then I got a call from an army friend who needed a camera

biggest budget was on The Creatures:

man for Fnmzy. starring Tunothy Carey. I shot for him, and

BOW: 811t you hacl great actors ut/th interesting .faces.

that was mr first move into the mo"ie business out in Califor

STECKLER: You see that in everything

nia. I worked on many miscdlaneous mo,ics. I shot a mmie

etc. I should ha,e been making mo\ies in Europe: I think

do: I go for faces,

called .'W!cn!t File: Hol)'lt'OOd. but couldn't get screen credit

that's where I missed it. But now. all of a sudden my films a re

on it hec.:au!>C I \\'llSn't in the union at the time. Then I

director of photography inDrit'(!T'S in Hell; I also wrote part of

starting ro show in Europe.

the

STECKLER- Over in Europe. when they see a movie like

gan and we put together The lmn.>dib)' Stmnge Creat11res.

that's really interesting. that's different." because their atti

\\"aS

screenplay and had one of the lead roles. From that I

directed \f'ild G11itm. and that's when I met George). Mor

BOYD:

\f'JJ?

The Creatures or even 1be Len1011 Gror! Kids they say. "Hey,

37

tudes arc ditfercm. The Lemon Grore Kids was actually made
for kids, but ewer there it has a "British" humor with the same
kind of crazy stuff they do in En gla nd only spicier.
There's a crazy short I did that people are dying to get
,

god, I must have had a hundred phone calls for it. It was the
first thing I ever did in Hollywood, called Goof on the Loose.

After 20 years l still think it's great. We did the whole thing a t
Echo P-.trk i n Hollywood; it's a little Buster KeatOn/Charlie
Chaplin-rypc short that nms about 8 minutes . It would have
run 10 minutes, but we got chad out of the park!
BOYD: Do you control all the videocassette releases?
STECKLER: The only one I don't have control of yer is
Creatures: George has to make the decision as to where he
wants that to go. The rest I have control o n. We're trying to

get into the midnight movie circuit in LA. now.

moft!J

I
;
$
to
As I lit ohW mayflll11 8lf mort
make better flmsl then I c. do what I
really wt t6 do In flit ri.lantim. I Wfive:
... W.., 11 IINIIke lt. Just do it.
.

Rat Pftllk i s one picture that should play thai circuit, c auSt
'

everything) in amber, and it really holds up-l'm amazed! . . .

Where d.id y ou see Creatures?

BOYD: At a tbeat(?l' in Scm [)lego called the Califorrlia.
where tht')' had tbe people in masks ami STECKLER: The whole gimmick?
BOYD: Yeab. And llt't>nt back to tbe Calrfornia to seeThe

Maniacs arc Loose, but I went to u nwtinee and tbey only

i
had lllllll tcs in tbe audience for tbe midnight slmu. Ulll
eten tbat was grem. IJecau.e people uere looking.for numi
acs

an d there werc>n't

fill)'.

they're always picking up otlbc:u films. I think we can do it; I

just made a brand new 3Smm print and did a lot of tinting
which I think really enhances it a 101 (it was origina lly shot in

There:: was a point when I would jump out of the screen with
a f.tirl just likt in the movie, and we used to just/7111 'nn nut of

black-and-wh.ite ). We did all the night scenes in blue, and the

the t:hcaters. But one time near Sacramento someone shot

Rat l>tink scenes (when he shows up in his cosn1me and

me with a pcllc:t gun -I th ink that's wht:n I retired.

Stec:k..r doing his Hunh Hall imitation in Lemon Grove

STECKlEH: I lr.tn:lc:d with it for a couple: of months.

Kids Meet the Monsten.

38

In Glendale we had a packed house. And "i rears ago on

Hollywood Boult:Vard ncar Wilcox some big movie was play

STECKLER: Boyd, go see the Brazilian movies! I've seen

Bye, Bye Brazil 20 times. And go see Sonia Braga fyou want

ing and doing av.ful husine. \X'e put nJe Creatures on at

to see something special-whew! lllere's one Brazilian film

midniWlt and had to run 2 hows: they were !>L:tnding i n line

e2lled Xica: catch iL It

to M:e it. And applause!

Strange Creatures

God. thtr applauded for

1 S min utes

has the flavor of 7be Incredibly

Wbo Stopped Ur!{ng and Became Mixed-

afler the mmic. What I thought was great was: almo

st all the
people in the
. ,eS, etc.
actrC!>.

audience were in the industry: acto.

All my t-ameramen han gont on to the bi ggt st mmies in

the huinc. The>re all great guy. all of them. It's amazing
how many people you work with go on to higger and bttter
thing. But all these guys had great talent when they were
working ,,;th me.

F I L M

P R E S S B O O K

S Y N O P S I S

THE THRILL KILLERS

The whole key was: when I wa making those films. we

wanted to do it. we liked doing it. wc wercn't in it for the
money. it wasfun. You wanted to let everyone ha\'c a chance

to conw up with something. You'd tell the gur who \\as

businHs transaction when rs over his cor

radio that thrre homicidal monio<s han escaped from a nearby insane

\\'3..' Susan Hayward

hitchhiker, who turns out to be the notorious Mort "Mod Dog" (lick

and then t ome out. Let's sec what )Oil cando... You'd tell the

(she

dose a

your O\\n wardrobe

pla}ing the hunchback. "Go make up

girl who was plaing the g))'

Dfnnis KMdokion (ATlAS KINGI, a traveling solHmon. is enroute to

Los Angtles lo

Mand-in for rca but never got a mo,it- mle during I S years

cnylum. He pays t broodcost lillie attention as he stops to pick up a

(CASH FLAGG), brother of Herbie, one of thr asylum escapees. Mod Dog

in Hollywood umil I let her par

l the: b'YPY woman ). "Just do
..
what you can do: come up with omcthi ng. She came: out

brutally slays Dennis, steals t soiHmon's cor and drivH into Los

there and made herself look uird.

Saxon (BRICK BARDO) and his wife Liz IUZ RENAY), a wild and riotous

\\ith a wart on htr cheek ( and 1 hisgirl wa a l(lx ): she \\Till in

loday- just ask

Barhara

Eden 10 put a wart on her check' Rut it was fun: really it was a
lot of 1\111.

lf.J'(III can't Jxue rmyfun don't make a mrwie. It s h:trd

'

work and if you don't like doing it. then

. Mmics today-if

they didn't haw special effects they'd dk I'\'C nner had one
special effect in anv film I\c t:\cr done One reason wlw

nJrlll Killers did ,-e well dmm South \\'3.'> hc:causc

som

critic id. "1y god!" -he'd nc\'er S<.en uch horrif}ing and

!>Carr !>nne!>. yet practically CYt:f}1hing \\as shot in the day

timc.

Every horror mmie rou :.<:e-it' always

in the

nightimc .
I'll tell rou what happened to one of those actors. Herhie

Robins.

who

w
as

the k-ader of the ang. He worked day and

niAht with a group of

stri ctly

imprmitional a ctors in

impro'itional M:enes. Ten yt-as

r in Hollwood and he: had
ne,er done a mmic. Two day heforc lhe mo\ie \\"JS sup-

Angeles.
That night, at the Brentwood home of would-be movie star Joe
orgy is in full swing. J has thrown t girls-galore party to influenc:r
film produ<er George J. Morgan IHIMSHFl into giving him thr lead role
in Morgan's next picture.
Meanwhile, Mod Dog stalks the late night streets of downtown Los
Angeles and meets a shapely young brunelle named Erina (ERINA
ENYO). They go up to her apartment. After making love to r. Mod Dog
s berserk, IXcusing Erino of being o sholl'ltiHs tromp. In his roge he
uizH a pair of scissors and fiendishly murders her. He flees the bloody
scene

as

neighbors react to Erina's screams

and

phone t police.

J and Liz SoJton have on argument the next day over ali t money
spent on the party-money ty cannot afford-and Liz f'\lns off to

SH her cousin Lindo (LAURA BENEDICT), who operates a roadside cafe in

TOpanga Canyon. At the cafe ore Ron and Carol IRON BURR

at on old house in the area which they orr considering buying ond fixing
up.
At I house, while searching for the owner, ty mret up with the
three H<oped maniocs. Herbie, Ktith and Gory (HERB ROBINS,

It's _. _, te .... _, ..._ I... If ,..

.. ,..,.. - ..
.... $20 =
- ... .... $10,000.
,
...
- ..
.
.
.
, ,.. ... ...
.... . ..... ..... .
., ,..
.
.... ,.. --' ... ... _.. .
.... ... -. .. ,_ line. At llall
... .... .. .....
.. . ..., .....

and

CA.ROLYN BRANDT), who plan to marry the next week. They go to look

K1TH

O'BRIEN and GAilY KENT). The mod men maliciously ossoult Ron and
Coral. finally lopping Ron's head off with

on

axe ond

dealing Carol a

similar fate.
Joe Saxon and producer Morgan show up ot the roadside cafe.
Morgan tells Liz he's going to use Joe in his nut production. The thrre
moniou burst into the cafe, assault Liz and Lindo and terrorize Joe and
Morgan. A frre-swinging. axe-hurtling fight breaks out. Joe and Mor
gan subdue Keith os Lindo poisons Herbie's coffee. Gory chosH Liz up
into the mountains, with J in pursuit.
Gory ollocks liz atop a mountain peak as Joe orrivH on the scene.
Joe and Gory engage in a hand-to-knife combat while Liz escapes, only

posed to sun, Herbie was beaten upverybadlyand put in the

hospital. His ey-e was all puffyand closed. and he was CT)ing
not because he was beat up, but because he felt he couldn't
do the mo,ie
said, ''Why

(we were going to start the

neX1 morning). I

are you crying? What are you worried about?" He

said, "I know I'm out ofthe film." I said, "You're not out ofit.
Use your eye the way it is." So the next time you watch that
movie, watch his face. You can sec the way his eye was, but it

looks like a nervous d1sordcr. I think he still has it to this day.

Recently he played a small part in Tobt: Hooper's Funbouse.

a BOYD: I dldn 't see that. I don't see many newftlms; they

usually don't seem to have anything for me.

a STECKLER: I watch all the old films and I watch
European films. 1\<-e

8 BOYD: No, but-

rescue liz from Mod Dog.

The police orrin to aid Joe. Liz breaks owoy from

Mod Dog by a

dever ruse and the police dose in. Mod Dog enc:ounters Officer Tra<y
(LONNIE LORDI and after using him as o hostage, puts a bullet in the
valiant officer's brain.
Mod Dog kills on iiHlO(ent ronc:her ond steals his horse. The police cut
off

Mod

Dog's OVMUf

of

tS(Cipf hut the kill-crcny Iunati< chorgH

through the blockade. Motorcycle policft!IOn Fronk WHt !TITUS MOEDE)

is ordered to pursue the deranged Mod Dog. After a perilous, breathless

chose

between motorcycle and horse through trecxhtrous Topo:ngo

all the

mountain trails, Officer WHt copturH Mod Dog. In a titanic kill-or-be

seen aU the Brazilian movies-that's my

ever see

killing him and thereby bringing to a shod!-dlorgtd tnding the reign of

ldck now. That's where I'm at, completely. You

Brazilian movies?

to fall into the evil hond1 of Mod Dog Click, searching the oreo for his
brother. Gory plunges a thousand fret to his death and Joe rO<H off to

kled gun bottle, Officer Wtst is forced to shoot Mod Dog in the head,
terror in<ittd by THE THRill iCILURS and ltoving producer Morgan frre to

cuff Jot,

Liz

and Lindo

in his

new

movie.

39

up Z
ombies, the kind of thing I go for. Remember Black
Orpheus? I

looked at that film ahom a hundred times

last month. Basically. Black Orpheus had a lot 10 do with

Creatures-! probably wouldn't have admitted that in

'63.

I'm a fanatic about carnivals.

BOYD: Me too!

STECKLER: Whenever there's ll carnival. I'm

there. When

ever there's gwsies, I'm there. When I was a linle kid I was
always around them. Ferris v.11eels, anything like that-that's
for me. So when I made The Creatures I had all those ele
ments in it. I think I had a little bit of Black Orpheus in me.
and I think I stiU do. We're all involved. at times, with some
film in our mind. Ewn the guy who made Orpheus (Marcel

Camus) had seen films where he scm something

I'd always wanted to do a

film

with Sunset Carson, the

cowboy star, and i t just never happened. Ulst week I looked at

five of his movies, and I was thinking about him. YeSterday I
was at U.S.C. and neryone was talking ahout him: then I came
back lO my motel and he called me: "Hi, Ray. this is Sunset!" It
was a great feeling!
We all have our idol!., because we're in rune with some

thing they did; they ga,e us an

impression that inspires us to

do other thins somewhere dov.n the line. Suuset Carson

was

6'4":

he was young, clean-cut. manly; had everything

going for him. Then in the '40s there were no more West

30

erns. The guy didn't make a mmie for

Esmerelda and her hypna-whHI in

The lncretiWy Strange

Creatures.

years, but that

doesn't mean he's washed up. I think he's in his prime now;
he kept himself in shape and look!. great -60 years old. Most
guys at

60

are out to here

I traces an imaginary pot

belly]:

done for. I think he alv.:ays knew he'd get another turna

round. You've got to have that feeling: if I didn't feel that
some day I could make the mmies l li'llllt to make. I probably
would have given up a long time ago. But the one thing you
musn't lose is the em:rgy. You lose l11e energy. you're done
for.
BOYD: \flbat

fantasy?

tl'as it you

TICKLER: \X'eU. '1\c'hen I

aluays uunted to do ' \Vhat

\vas

a kid I was affected in1mt:nse-

other: \\ithout words-just what you see.

BO>'O I liked the ronumlic plot of Wild Guitar: I espe

cially likl?d !'>ancy Czar-

STECKLER: You know the stOry about her, don't you?

80}7): What stOIJ'?
STECKLER: Do you remember when ali thOSt' kids on the

Olympic ice skating team

were

killed

when

they

went 10

Europe and the plane went down? She was the g.irl \Vho
missed the plane.
BOYD: Wou! Hnll' did you bappeu to find her?

I iusf don't get along with the people in

[Holywood]. I'm not a coke freak, so
already I'm elrninated from .s% of all the
ies ......
. And at the ..... time, if
social peat
I come up with ... idea of ..,..... I wt
to do, they tWI* I'm nuts.

STECKLER: I had wanted to find a little extra "kicker"

because I felt that Arch Haii,Jr. wasn't strong enough 10 <:arry
the mo,ie. I said, "It would be nice ifwe had a girl v.-11ohad a
talent we could use in the movie-somell1ing entertaining." I
remembered that she had come in for an kc skating inter
'iew, so I said. "Let's use her."
When we were shooting Wild Guitar. there was a scene
\\'here 2 people were ice skating (with no one else in the
skating rink) and I said, "Let's usc the spotlight." The camera

man, Vilmos Szigmond, said, ''You can't use the spotlight

ty hy Bogart's

tlms.
f

.. I said. "listen, we're:going

because there's no source for it.

Salxtra was one of my favorites-that

desen. Now I'm a desen rat-1 lon: the desert. I didn't live

to use the spotlight, and someday you're probably going to

v.in an Academy Award for your lighting." Well, I had to fight

Reading.

to do it then. but now v.nen you see the lighting in Gose

Pennsylvania-there's no desen back there! But more than

Encounters (when those spaceships come in), remember

there

when

first

saw Sabam.

lived

in

that, there was something about the situations and charac

that Wild Guitat' was the beginning of his use of spotlights

ters that Bogan always played In almost every movie he's a

and backlighting and everything. And sure as hell he won an

rebel, a nonconformist. I \V3S like that as a kid, so I identified

Academy Award. But he

with him. That went into my personality and my making of

was bon1 to be a cameraman . . .

movies. lf l could have made a movie with Bog;m, that would

wa.<>

already a great cameraman: he

BOYD: Otle of my fat>arite actors in the world is Atlas

have been great! But it's never going to happen unless I make

King-be had such an unusual accent. lflbatet!(>r happened

one up there . .

to him?

. I points toward heaven )

1 like the 10\'e triangle in Casablanca. I still think it's the

STECKLER: I just . . . don't know. I don't know if he etY!r

greatest-a real. honest, love triangle. Today it's all bullshit;

mastered the American language or not.

they can't have a love triangle without the girl sining on a

BOYD: He uru so sincere.

STECKLER: He was okay. He was

super.

A very unusual

. toilet seat v.'hile the guy Sa)'S, "Keep the door open while I
watch."

person. One thing about Atlas I'll never forget: right in the

You
The secret to a lot of movies is called.film chemstry.
i

middle of shooting The Incredibly Strange Creatures I wa..;;

est film about chemistry that was ever done. I mean the

around and Atlas put S300 in my hand. I looked ( I don't know

ktou ifa film has chemistry-and Casablanca was the great

rapport between people, cuning back and forth to each

running short of money (every day, probably!) and I turned

where he got the

$300: he probahly sent tO Greece for it) and

40

he said, ''TI1at's for you. You don't owe me nothing, just keep
going." And he walked away. That's never happened tO
again. Never.
On the last day of shooting on the beach,

me

can you think of anything you want ro do at this point?" And

run through the water!"You know

that scene at the end where he

that's it. He did it, and it

runs

is

said to him,

"Atlas. the movie's almost over. I can always add something;

he said, "One time, let me

ATLAS KING

through the water

was great, really super.

ROYD: \f'by was Atlas KinR killed o

f
f so early in Thrill

Killers?

told 'the girl who playillt tNt lftllt

"Just whc,tt you am do; '-- .. witll
........
..
._.. She 08f _.atla a wart
._ cflek (and this .,. -. a fox); -. willt
I

.. .... .. ...... ....... ._. .....

Today-lust Cllk ._INaa Edii.a to p,ut

art
.

. ... .
STICKLER: Let me think-why did I do that? I guess

was
was probably the only part I

s mebody had to be killed i n the beginning, and King

just the person I picked! That
could slip

him in. People didn't understand that he couldn't

speak very good English; we had to teach his lines to him,

then he would do 'em by ear. Just as, if you were in Japan
acting in a movie and couldn't speakJapanese, you'd have to
say the words from memory. You could never learn the
language quickly enough.
BOYD: n"bat

was

bis rea/ name?

STICKLER: Something like "Dennis Eusteckean"; a long

Greek name.
BOYD: Atlas King is such a great !U'me. Always won-

Atlas

and

Cash

in

The lncr..Wy

Strange

PROTECTIVE to
CAROLYN BRANDT
Creatures.

SENSITIVE

BRILLIANT

UNUSUAL

Arch Han Jr.

sings his hit

detY!d about him

sang. "Vickie," in

WJW hit. The dancer is Sttdcler's farmer wife, Carolyn Brandt.

Did you bare any probletns with the

Those boots I w wearing-my boOt-wtre put on the

dummy \X'e set it all up. had the dummy fall off the rocks, and

unions?
TICKLER: There wa<., one union guy who chased me

it completely went to pieces and noated out tn sea So when

around for years; ru nncr forget him. When we were shoot

" e were setting up the next scene I a..'ked. "'here's my

were We were several floors up in this old temple. The place

h<>ot:.;" and they said, "Oh, right. your boots. Well . . they're
.
Mill l'>n the dummy. . I said. "Where's the dummy?" and they

wa:. loaded \\ith people. cxtras. lights and 1,-we had ro

told me it was somewhere out in the ocean: it had never

ing CrwJ/tltY!S in Glendale he somehow found out where we

hobt the sets up from the Mreet and put them together in rhe

returned. \X'e couldn't use the scene at all, and I had lost my

temple ( because that whole midway scene was just a set. you

boot besides!

know ) All these people dmin by had been cing these sets
goin up into the air So. '\"I.Tiile we \\ere filming

we

put

So then we had to find another pair of boots like tho

before we could do another scene. We :.earched high and

lov. . all over, until finally we managed to find an almost

identical pair-in Oxnard.

They didn't fit-you'll notice I looked a linle pigeon-wed

... ... . .. .. CIIIIIe out. n. ...

.. [........,) a6d ... Mlllk .... ...
..., but the guy who did tile titlel .._
1p1l1d ft cnl l couldn't afford to llawe

in that scene on the rocks. They were a ize and-a-half too

small. The thing I remember ro this \'Cry day is how cold that
water was-it

\\'liS

like icc. The cameraman. OldJoe Michelli

( how the hell could he hear "Cur!" above the ocean?) just
kept it running. and-

N111ne, 10 I left ft.

BOl'D: You stayed '" the uoater so lorg I wondered

STECKLER: If I had died, that would have given us an ex'tnl

warn
ing

signs on the el<.vators. like. "Danger." "Out

Order." The union people showed up looking

for

of

us and

couldn't find us. They didn't think anyone could go up in the

40 seconds

in the movie!

BOYD: Do you hat'f! any more stories nbouttbe making

of Incredibly Strange Creatures?

STECKLER Originally I had picked a girl named Bonita

had a Spanish-Italian look to her.

ele\'ators. so they left

BOYD: 1bose boots you wore in t}xll mot'ie uere so

Jade to play the lead. She

dlslinctitlf!IOOking

straight or an}1.hing. But I liked her face and saw some

STECKLER: ln that la.<.,t scene in CreatwY!s. on the rocks

potential there.although I've nen:r seen her ince. ( Actually.

She was only 17 yean. old at the time; he couldn't even walk

where I faU off into the ocean. we had a dummy dressed like

I saw her two yean. after the mo,ie: she walked up and

so we'd be able to 1>how the actual fall into the \\'liter.

handed me a book on Antonioni, said, "Read it!'' and walked

me

42

Deep Tbrf><tt of horror mO\ies! So Tim got the money to

away- l've never seen her since )

Now
know

. . we had just shot all the dance numbers. and rou

that

-.cene where the girl come our one by one

through all those: d<)()rs; I had -.hot that and wasgetting ready

malce his one and only mO\ic:-never could put another one
together after that.
Ttm and

I got along real we:II because I was a

rehel and he

to :-.hoot the first scene "'ith Bonita I Vralked over to her and
'iaid. ''Oh boy, you're on: And !'>he said. 'Thh. could we do

liked that. He and James Dean used to pal around a lot. too.
He said James Dean wasn't from this planet anyway and just

my '><.'t:nc.: tomorrow?"

got called back early!

( Thi!. W:t!> the carnival sc:t. mth aU the

I said.
the: n:uas are h<:rc.:. E, ef)1xxly's ready tO go."

pt:oplc.: on the midway-extra.' and eYef)thing.)

"Wc.:ll. no. all

BOl'D: l't'm still didn't say boU')'Otl met Carol)"' Brandt:

U'OS it througb Timotby Can:>?

She !'>aid. "But my boyfriend wants me to be with him tonight;

STECKLER: Oh, is that how we got here? No. There was a

he's got

1V pilot. starring Tommy Rettig caJied The Magic ofSinbad.

Marring in a mottie.
to .

a drummer." I said, What?! You're

Bonita, you've been waiting for S weeks

gig. he's

." She whined. "J knnu. hut come on. Ray. he'll he

She was on the flying carpet with Tommy Rettig and I was on
the set. and I met her. (She was actually one of the genii's

tmfull' upset. " I said. "You mean he can't drum \\ithout

maid' or something, ) Then I got her a pan as a dancing girl in

you>" . he -.aid. "Well . . . he likes m<: there." l said. "But you're

Marring in a mmie. .. ( Evef)-body's standing there looking at

Secret File: Hollyuvxxl. a film I photographed. Then she W35

in Wild Guitar, on the dance ramp.

Carolyn and I got jobs a!. ushers at the: lvar theater I talked

the people there into letting me use the set. 'cause

1he

I W35

directing \f'i/d Guitar and ushering at the same time. It was

by was: .._ I ._ Mllkillg

those ...., we w_... to clo It, we ....
doilll It, we ..,..., In It for the .,_..,, It
was fun.
whole

crazy. And while we were there the union came in: I'll never
forget that. One guy took a roll of film right out ofthe can and
threw i t down the street- we lost a reel of film! We went
after them but then dropped the case. i t 'VI'3Sn't really worth
it: they suspended the guy from work rather than have us sue.
(You don't really want to malce enemies. ) The budget on

Wild Guitar v.-as something like S 12,000. On Rat Pfink I

us ) Just at that moment another actress. Sharon. walked by

in her striped cosrume. And l w<:nt like this [reaches behind
him without looking[. grabbed her

hy the \'.'liSt and

.

thtnk you\ e got the: pan. Sharon " She said

betfl'een the first part ubere the stars are such ''beat,"

\.f'hat pan? I just

cbnrncters. atuJ the second JXtrf tl'bere all these "goofy"

SC'1/eS happen.

numlxr1" I said, "Oh yes you can! Come on." We changed

her hair and I .;aid. "This i!> it." And Bonita stood there. I said.
"(,o to your drummer." She !><t
- id. "\X'ell. I can do it tomor

" I

said. "GO TO YOL"R DRllMMF.R." To this day she

h:L..,n't done a

m0\ic1 And that's

how Sharon got the pan.

/JOlD: When did you f

irst meet Cnro)'n Brandt?
STECKUR: You know. we'\'e been married

go uayhack .

IJOYD: Rat Plink is an odd motJfe; there's such a contrast

"I

said.

did the number." I said. "No. you're: now going to play the
.
pan of the star. . She said. "But I can't do that: I just did the

rm.,

think we put in maybe S8.000 on the whole mo\ie.

STECKLER: I know; I don't know f

i I did the right thing
there or not.

I just got halfv.'3}' through the movie

laugh[ and . .

lstans to

Ron was sitting in the chair with his guitar

singing this song. and it was so bad; Titus was playing with

the ice cubes. and I said !more laughter ] . "If you went in that

closer and came out as Batman and Rohin, l wonderwhat thr

audience would say."

16 years-we

. I had just finished photographing a mo,ie for

Timoth) \.arey l.'lllled Frenzy. which was later released a.o;

The \'f"orld's Greatest Sinner. Timothy Carey v.<IS in Stanley
Kubrick' 7lx Killing. he's the guy who shoots the horse at

the: r.tl.'e track. And in Paths ofG/or

yhe was one ofthe 3guys

thq executed: he played the big guy who smashed cock

roal.he!>

on a table or something-great scene. Anyway. he

met me: in New York. then gaw me a call and asked if I'd like
to shoot a film for him. ! laughed

( because I had just seen his

movie ) and said, "WeU, you're too big for me to talk back to."

I mean. he wa.o, a monster. I said. "What ifyou don't like what

I 'ay-you'll crw;h me like that cockroach." He said. ''You're

right!"
So I went to Long Ik."ach to shoot this mo,ie Vith 200
ext ra' smashing up the Coliseum: it was wild. and we did
M>me crazy things.
'>(:<.:

( If you

C\'c.:r get to see the mO\ie. you'U

But it was not a great mo,ie by any means. Timothy

Carey had some great ideas but he lacked technique; he

didn't know how to put them rogether. But it was good
experience. because I met other people and worked in the
business from that point on.

He got the money from Mike Ripps. who had made Poor
Wblte 7rash. Very successful film! Mike took a mmie that
nobody wanted. added

3 minutes of a girl running through a

swamp seminude. and called it Poor \.f'IYite Trash. Three

week.' later he released it and the theaters were packed! lt
just goes to show that if you have an Idea, you can stiU puU it
off
BOlD: \f1XJt um the mode originally en/led?
STECKLER: 7be &lyou. The leading actor was Peter
Gr.tves from Mission Impossible: Carey

wa.
'

in it, too. After

Ripps renamed it Poor WbUe Trash. for years it was like the

AT LASr A NEW

KIND OF

H()lUt.OR MCNIEi

MOH COME RAlf ClAIt gmEN!

IVAbE AUDIENCE- A])UCf <illl.9 F

30

l'hcrc:fore, Batman and Robin (or Rat Pfink and Boo Boo )
came out. The film was ca1Jed Rat Pfi'lk and Boo Boo. but
the guy who did the titles misspeUed it and I couldn't afford
to have them redone. so I left it.
BOYD: Tbats great! Such a perfect title: Rat Pfink a Boo

teacher, Ray!" Then she said, "WeU, I have to tell you some
thi ng. All my life I dreamed of being a mo\ie star, but I never
had the guts to go out and do it." I signed her on the spot. It

Boo.
STECKLER: He wanted another S'>O to change it. so I said.
"Never mind!" Two things I liked about Rat P
fink and Wild
Guitar are those 2 numbers on thc beach at the end. And wc
did 'em in like 2 hours each-both of them. We just went to
the beach with no plans. no props. no money fo r anythi ng,
had a good time for 2 hours and left_ And those 2 numbers. I
think. am hold their O\\n anrwherc1 Major studios make aU
kin of preparations to go out and do beach party scenes.

BOYD: \VIxlt us the plot?

STECKLER: Basically your "girl who was in love with her

and they don't come up with anything better Come to think

of it. I ended 7be Creatures on the beach; and even nmu
Kiflers bask<llly ended on the water. when I rolled dov.n the
hiJI and fell into the water.
R BOYD: Tlxlts right!

STECKLER: The first time I rolled down the hiiJ I said.

... ... ... ...... .. ...,

...... . 17
., .. . ....,. ..... ... . ,.... ......
.... .....
. .... .... .. ... .. ...... ..
d .... "' ... ..._.. .. ... ...,

- ... .... .. ...,..... ,.. __., ....

.. - . ... ....... "' ... . .... ..
.... ....,,. wet, ..,..,.

"Let's do this again, I want to fall into the water." And they
said, "Thcre's no water here!" I said. "Well. we're going tO
make it .. We went to a nearby Bor Scout camp and got
buckcts and huckets of water and Don Russell ( he was the
hunchhack in Creatures) dug the ditch And ( 1'11 never
forget) ht: said. 'TU get a hump for sure doing aU thi'i
digging!" That's how we did it.
R BOYD: . . At the beginning of set!('T(I/ diffenmt f
lms,
i
you siJOu Hol)'ll'OOd. the stars on the sideu'Q/k. and the
Capitol Records building STECKLER: Yeah. I did that in Wild Guitar. Rat Pfink and
7brlll Killers. Oh weU . .
I made a ffiO\ie for some people in Texas that I cant get a
_

print of anywhere. lt
rl>ally

was

was

caUed Sinthia 7be /Jettit s Doll. It

was the only movie she ever did, but she \\-'35 great. The movie
was produced by a 65-year-old woman, Dorothy Sunny.

Cather" story, but weird and complex, because I had a couple

of very fine writers. One, Mon Fine ( he wrote 7be Pau.,,.
broker) came over tO see it, and after he saw the film he
grabbed me around the neck and said. "Nobody in America
could make a film like that but you." He was overwhelml"d.
The film kept going into flash-forwards where she would get
older. and go into the ne>."t stage. and the next stage. You'd
ha,e thought it was a low-budget Bergman film' It \\'3Shorri
. inating at the same
tying, extremely horrif)ing. and yet fa<;e
time. That was the word Mon used. fasdnating. You
couldn't take your eyes off the image. And the musical score

was great. The same guy does all

my music: Henry Price.

lne only problem was: I had no control over the film

because I didn't produce it; a sorry lesson I learned. I made a
film I really cared about, yet they took it away from me and
changed it. I swore I'd ne\'er do that again.
R BOYD: An> you u'Orlling o" any scripts nnu?
STECKLER: I'm working on a script in\'ohing g)psies and
a movie star who runs away from HOII}wood (she C2ll't
handle it) up to lone Pine. California. She rents a bungalow
and he's tbrough v.ith Hollywood. you know. But this pro
ducer cons her into coming back to makejust onemorefl
i m.
His \\ife doesn't want her coming back because she wants the
part. The actress meets these g)psies who warn her what not
tO do. and you have these mind trips. She goes back. the
producer has her stay in this house, hut something's \'\TOng
because years ago something happl>tzed here. And she keeps
gettin :&II these Oa!'h-forward_.,, seein tierself in visions
where she doesn't know what's what In the meantime she's
been taking a lot of 'ludes and shes not !lure if she really is
seeing what she sees. or if what's happening s
i happening. A
supposed killer comes back to the house and so forth. but
what people don't know is: there's another killer coming to
the hotL. to kill her besides the suppo!\ed killer: the wife.
who's going to kill for the pan. no matter what. That's my
little tribute to Hollywood!
That's probably going to be my next film. The costumes for
the g)psics are being madc right now. I'm going to shoot in
Death Vallt-y; I'm going to Zabriskic Point for one shot. My
tribute to Antonioni!

BO>V: Were JY>II shooting foowge of Ho/Juood &Jule

t'(1rr/ for this film ?

scene I didn't

STECKLER: For abom 3 years I've been compiling footage

for a little film called Holru-eird. putting different scenes

explain my movie! I got reaUy pissed off. took m)' name off

aside. I want to dedicate it 10 HoUywood and \\iSh 'em luck

Good title. huh' I see it eve11 week in the .\'ntional EnquitW

an intriguing mmic: then they made me add 3

want to add. They were afraid it was too
"European" for audiences, so they put in a psychiatrist to
and put a phony name on it.

That film contained the best photography I everdid. It did

pretty well for them. I understand. A girl who had lots of

potential played the lead. Here was a l)pical Hollywood
story; l'\'C got to tell you this.
Her name was Bonnie Allison. A stage director named Ted
Roter was to play the girl's father; he's Hungarian and "'-as
perfect for the pan, even though he wasn't an actor. I asked
him to come to my office. At this point T'd intel'\iewed 200
girls for the lead and couldn't find one, I wanted a girl that
had a little bit of innocence. because she's supposed to be a
12-)-ear-old girl who grows up. ( It's \'Cry hard to be 21 years

old and play a 12-year-old. unless you do a "surrealistic"

scene. )An)way. he caUed me up and said his car broke do\\TI,
but somebody's gi.\ing him a lift. finally he walks in with
Bonnie. a school teacher. As soon as I saw her I said, "Come
in; I want to talk to you. You're just what I want. exactly.
You'd be perfect for this movie."Tedsaid, "But shesaschool

You \\ill really like Carolyn Brandt in 77Je HoiiJ'll'OOd

Strangler. She doesn't sayone word; in fact there'sonlyabout
S Lines of dialogue in the whole fslm. E\'Cl]bo<:l)s screaming
at me for not putting in any dialogue. but it just doesn't need

it. I want tO see if I can make a 72-minutc. silent horror

mo,ie!
R BOYD: Do J'Oll aluys script uut your mol'i?
STECKLER: You ha\'t: to, although I didn't write Wild
Guitar: that was Arch HaU's script. I went preny much with
what he had. but I added the kidnappers and stuff like that for

fun because I thought the script \\'35 kind ofhokey. But I liked
it; I liked Junior-he was a nice kid. He wasn't a great actor

but he had a clean. wholesome personality. And we had

nothing. no money. to make the mo,ie If we had pizza it was
like going to hea\en'
BOYD: You u'f!re great as a ''beat')"bztbat: didyouenj()'
playing that type of character?
STECKLER: Wel l. this is a long story. I went to l..os Angeles

44

City College and studied acting with a gigantic, fantastic,

to play the character with a lot more class, but I made the

black actor. I don't know whatever happened to him, but his

character a little sneaky, deliberately . . . a little money

name is Eddie Rowey and I always wanted to work with him

making guy protecting his boss's money. And that's when the

in a movie. I took Eddie to Arch Hall and said, "Arch, Eddie

name "Cash Ragg" carne out.

would be great to play the heavy, 'Stake.'" And he said, ".All

I didn't make up the name "Cash Flagg," because at the

right." But at the last minute he chickened out because Eddie

time, in Hollywood, I had a little reputation that I wouldn't

take checks from anybody. I would say, "Pay me in cash or

,_ ....... ..., ..... ,., ,... tradl ,.,

what y wMI to do. I lluy ._.. _. .
kinds of ....... those .. lsa.ort.lt to
--- -- suit.
.

don't pay me at all." So the nic.knarne "Cash" started to come

around, little by little. I would say, "Arch, if you don't have any
money don't give

me a bad check, just pay me cash." So the

next thing was "Cash Flagg" (I'm not sure where the "Flagg"
came from). When I made The Creatures I used that

name

Arch and I were always kidding about this; until the day he
died he was fascinated by the

name "Cash Flagg."

Anyway, I used "Cash Flagg" in Wild Guitar, Incredibly

was black, and he was afraid he would lose all his bookings
down South. (This

was

1962; remember I got flak down

Strange Creatures, and 1brill Killers. And I used it once more

in Revenge of the Ripper, which will be coming out in

south with Rat Pfink just for having the black guy get in the

another 6 to 8 months- maybe. I shot Revenge in '72, and I

back of the truck.) So anyway, I said, "What are we going to

said I wasn't going to edit it for tO years. Well, I just edited the

do? We're shooting in the morning." He said, "Well,you play

first 2 reels last month. Not many people can do that: make a

it." I didn't want to direct my first movie and act in it, so I

movie, put it on the shelf for 10 years, and not even edit it! I

said, "How

shot it at a festival in Santa Fe, New Mexico and I'm going to

can

I play the part?" (Arch Hall outweighs me by

40 lbs, he's taller than me, and I've got a fight scene with him

start out the movie saying, "The year was 1974 . . . " and

at the end; for Christ's sake, you don't want the hero beating

people are going to say, "Wow! he sure did a lot of good

up a little squirrel! ) So I had to play him slimy so that no one,

research! "

in my mind, would be offended at the leading man beating up

The star of Revenge of the Ripper is great; he's something

a little guy at the end. Originally, Eddie Rowey was supposed

else, that guy. He's a little upset that I waited 10 years, though.

Cash Flagg (lay Dennis Steckler) does the biclcling of Esmerelda in this

scene

from Tlle l....lllly ........ Crl.._

Carolyn Brandt relaxing in a scene from The lncr...IWy ltran.. c....tures.

DrlL!f!rS

Hell, re-released as Wild Ones on Wheels. In Wild

I said to him , "I told you ahead of time that it was going to be
10 years until this picture gets out." I knew it right then and

Guitar you can see the poster for it right on a table; the movie

there, and I probably will do that in the future with some

was made right before Wild Guitar. I loved making it; nice

films.

little film.

I'm in another movie that I can't get a print of called

In

BOYD: Is that about a gang that terrorizes a family

46

drltilll( througb the desert ?

you know what I mean? I had all these kids coming In, and this

STECKLE R: Yes, they're in sports cars and they kidnap a

one guy had been bugging me for about a year ( I won't

guy and hi wife: in a jeep. For Dn'wrs In Hell I was head

mention his name ) who said he really wanted to work for me.

cameraman; then they decided they wanted me to play a part

Finally I said, "I'm gonna take a chance and give you a role and

in it as well. It's easy enough to act in a film when you're the

do it." Third day into shooting, he started to tell everyone

director, but when you're supposed tofilm a movie as well as

what to do. (The guy had never made a movie; I had sent him

be in front of the camera playing a role about SQ'X, of the time,

to Max Factor, got him a hairpiece, I got him everything.)

that's some trick!

Anyway, he said, "You've got to do it my way, j>ecause you've

already shot for

Originally I had picked a girl ......., Bonita

Jade to play the lead. I saw her two ,....
after the movie; .._ walctd up and .._...
AfttenlonL said, ''ltad Itt"
.... ...... awar-l'v ntv ... ..... linea.

a book

on

3 days"

( and we had spent a lot of money ). I

said, "What do you mean I have to do it your way?" He says,

"You can't go back and re-shoot all those scenes." l said, "Oh
yes, I can!" and grabbed the hairpiece off his head and put in
on myhead. I told the makeup woman. "We can make it fit,"
and said to him, "You're fired! Out!" To this day he hasn't
done a film. And I made the movie. I may have made a mistake
because I don't think I was right for the script, but t don't like
anybody putting pressure on me! I hate that.

So now I'm playing the detective and all of a sudden I'm

BOYD: W
hat about some of these other films. Uke "the

looking at the footage and saying, "Ub ob. " And I thought,

last miginal 8 mottfe"?

"Either start over with a new actor or just do it and get it over

STECKLER: Oh, Body Fetler. That never saw the light of

with." I checked the money I had and said, "Let's go with

day anywhc:re. but I just sold it to England and they loved it.

what we have; see what comes out of it, and do the best we

3
3 scenes that are probahlyas good as

The guy called me and said it's being dubbed into Spa nish;

can." In a way, I'm glad I did, because I look at it every 2 or

and he's got a deal for Ireland and all the Scandinavian

years and there are 2 or

countries. lne reason being: The Creatures had been sold to

anything ever done in the movie industry.

England 7 or R months earlier, and all of a sudden everybody

There's one scene in particular that was not in the script.

wanted to StT movies I had made. So England took Body

We had finished the last day of shooting and Ron I laydock

Fet 'er, 7be Lemon Gt'Ote Kids, Blood Shack and Hoi)'U 'OOd

and I had gone to the Hollywood Ranch Market to get some

Strangler.

thing to eat. When we came out we saw this guy lying in the
gutter. I said, "That looks like Coleman Francis."

BO>rD: Wlxll 's Body Fever about?

STECKLER: I had my office at 9100 Sunset and I wanted to

Now I don't know ifyou know Coleman Francis or not, but

make a little detective movie but I didn't really want to make

he was an old-time actor who did a lot ofwork. Coleman was

a detective movie but I did want to make a detective movie-

Carolyn Brandt with killers in

The Thrill KAlen.

in my Lemon Grove Kids; he played Mr. Miller, the old man

Colyn Brandt with

lon

Haydock

i.n aleM

IMck.

who carne out. chased the kids, and got hypnotized. I said,

morning, there will be enough light coming in . . ." H e said,

"What are you doing, Coleman?" (it was Saturday night, by the

"All right." And I told Coleman ( I had seen him and he's a

way, and I

was so

glad the movie

was

over). He said that he

hadn't worked, and had no place to go. I offered him

S20 and

derelict, right?), "Now this is just an advance," and I put S20

in his pocket. He said, "Thank you, Ray, that'sdif
ferent. I'll be

"9:30."
8:30 and set every

he said, "I don't want the money. I'm an actor; I want a job."

there. What time do you want me?" I said,

And I'll tell you, my stomach and my heart . . . he was sitting

The next morning we got there about

there and it was cold, man. I said, "Well, how would you like

thing up.

to work tomorrow? We've got one more day left on this

said, "Well . . ." I had envisioned this scene about a derelict

movie," and Ron looked at me (we had just been celebrating

working in a laundromat, making it up as I was waiting. All of

the end of the movie, and I knew I had made a dud to start

a sudden I see this guy coming across Sunset Boulevard

9:00

carne; nothing.

9:15

carne; nothing. And Ron

with; no one was going to accept this picture ). So I said,

"Tbat's him!" He

"Meet me, uh . . ." and I had to think fast because I didn't have

clean; clean clothes, dean-shaven, his hair shaped up and

any money to shoot. I remembered once shooting near this

laundromat right around the comer at Sunset near the free
way, and I said, "Meet

us at this laundromat."
looking at me, but-one thing I liked about him
was, he never asked me questions in front of people; he'd
wait until afterward. Then Ron said, "What are we going to
do?" I said, "Let's shoot a scene down there because it's
deserted; it won't cost us any money. If we shoot in the

Ron

was

was dressed in a sport coat, not new but

everything. He'd used the

S20

to go to a used clothing store

or some place where they sell sport coats for 6 bucks . . . He

said, "I wanted to be presentable." I hadn't told him what to

wear; it was really my fault, but I'd assumed that because I had
seen him in such terrible shape the night before, the next
morning he would look the same. But I will never assume
anything about an actor again. He came in ready to go to

work, looking the best that he could look for S20. ( He didn't

48

Tht: difference is. he's so much into himself; he's complete()'

FI L M

P R E S S B O O K

S Y N O P S I S

THE LEMON GROVE KIDS

into himdf in all his films. Woody bases evel)1hing on some

personal, exaggerated experiences, whereas I make up
experiences and use them.

BO>D: \f'ere you actunl(l' in Eegah!?

STECKLER: Yes. I was the cameraman and

To settle their differences, SLUG, GOPHER and THE-lEMON GROVE KIDS
agree to participate in a cross-country race with their neighborhood
rivals, KILLER KRUMP and THE EAST LEMON GROVE KIDS. But DUKE
MAZARATII, formerly a member of Slug's gong and now working for
BIG ED NARZAK, local book1e, has plans to make a lot of money on the
race. He tokes bets on Slug's gang to win the race while secretly placing
his own money on Killer Krump's group, even though it is Slug's boys
who ore the better athletes of the two teams. Duke is confident of
making a pile of money on the race because he has hired THE SABOTEUR,
who can fix anything. to fix the race against Slug and The lemon Grove
Kids. It's a riotous race through city, beach and desert as the lemon
Gravers heroically overcome the many plots hatched against them by
t\,e notorious Saboteur and race to the finish line, neck in nedc with

I mad<: my

acting dt:hut. We were at this count f)' club where they had
this grc.:at IX>OI and someone said. "Somebody should throw
someone in the pool.'' I voluntc.:c.:rcd, so Richard Kiel threw
us in. Richard Kiel. who p l ays "Jaws" in James Bond movies,
played Eegah. At the time he was another starving actor and
Arch actually wrote the screenplay for him because he used
to rent a room from Arch and I guess he got behind in the
rent. caus<: Arch said, "I'w got to make this up somehou"
so he made the movie Eegah! That was a fun movie ro make.
l'\'<: got to tdl you this stOI)' . . .
Wt: were making Eegab! in the hot summer, I 20 degrees
i n thc.: P'J im Desert. At that tim<: Wilos Gapaniks, who's done a
lot of hig movies recently, was tht director of photography.
Arch Hall asked me if I wanted to assist him a nel l said, "Sure!"
( I had just finished lf'orld 's Greatest Sinner: I had met Wilos,

Killer Krump's Kids.

and really liked him. ) So. we went out ther<:. In daytime you
load film in a hlack changing bag; it was so hot that my hands
takt: the.: S20 and buy himt'lf a boule; he rook it and made
himself look good. )

were melting in the hag. In the heat the film got toerysoft, and
I sw<:atecl a lot, so it wasn't easy to load in the magazine. And

We.: impro,bnl thb <.:c.:n<: in the.: laundromat. and Herb

we had no air-conditioned vehicles or anything.

Robin ( who wa in 17.11ill 1\i//et: ) came down to do the

Arch had told us earlier that we were on private property,

too. I haw to tell you: that ene is so good and he is so

and if anyhody came up to be careful about -wnat we said,

:.:c.:m:,

greu in that part that. tht fc.:w time wc.:'\'e screened the

hecaus<: he didn't want to spend any money to rent grounds

picture.:. it blows c.:wrybody' mind. It's \'c.:ry impk and yet

or an}1hing out thc.:rc.: in the: dntTt. While.: I was changing the

tdb the wholc.: story about what we \Yere tf)ing t o do in the

tilm all of a sucldc.:n !>Omeont can1c.: up and said. "What are you

mmic.:.

doing I turned around and saw this guy with curly hair,

You know, omc.:rimc.: you don't do what you sc.:t out to do.

about ""'0 yc.:ar old. And I said, "Oh, we're just making a little

Had I shot that xne flrt before I made the mo\it. it would

educational film down thc.:re." He looked down there and

have.: been a compktdy ditkrtnt 1110\'ie. But that w;ts the last

asked. "\X1lat's that guy doing \\ith the clubr I said some

:.<.Tnt. In a way. it's almost out of context in the pkturt and

thing like.:. "Oh it's just a . . . " ( I was reaching for words. ) And

yet in another way I'm not sure.:. lne only people who can

he's smiling at me. (At this point I was a little naive ahout how

judgc.: it art peopk who look at it.

you ha\"t: to hustle to steal etet)'lbhtf.: in the mmie business.)

Cokman Franci

wa .not.

lie pas<:d away not too long

after that. I just saw him in a mmie opposite Rock Hudson.

Tuil(bt for Ibe G
ods.
It' amazing what Hollywood can do to omc.:one. Coleman
wa a profc.:ssional. Hc.: may have bc.:cn drunk on his own time.
but h: wan't dnmk on my c.:t -know what I'm trying to say?
I f<'und out latc.:r that a lot of people wouldn't touch him
bc.:c.:ausc.: he was drinking a lot. I said. "Yes. but does he drink
\\1lik hc.:'s working'" ll1at's thc.: whole key: does he cbink

I did a lot of tinting which I think really

hances it a lot (it was originally shot in
black-and-white). We aid aU the night scenes
in blue, and the . Rat Pfink scenes in ....,._
ancl it really hOlds up-l'm amazed!

wbile be:5 u m1dnM ? ll1ere are great stars that drink too
much and there are great star who're on too much elope. But

And he said. "You're making a horror movie or something,

somc.:how they manage not to screw around when they're

aren't you?" I said, "Well . . . yeah, son of." He said, kind of

working; they stay away from it, or else they wouldn't work.

politely. "That's my land, you know that?" I said, "Oh really?"

Anyway, ht was a fine actor; I'm glad he worked for me on 2

He said. " I used to make a few mmies myself once in a while. I

or 3 mo\'ie. In Lemon (,'rnte Kids he was th<: ht:acl gangster.

know what you guys are doing. Ilut it's okay; be my guest!

Big Ed Narzak . .

Hav<: fun. kid. Good luck in your carec.:r." and he got in his car

BOYD: \f'ho else ll'as in Body Fever?

and drO\'C.: away. Arch came clown because he saw him talking

LER: I had th<: creator of Hogan s Heroes. Bernie

STECK

to me and <L<;ked. "What did he say'" and I said. "It's okay.

Fine, who \>:as the big guy in the Sgt. Bilko shows. He asked

Arch. e\'ef)th ing's under control. He said it's okay; we can

me:. "What name do I ha\'t: in the film?" and I said, "Big Mac"

shoot here." Arch said. ''Vou know who that was. don't you'"

( hecause at that point in this countf)' the "Big Mac" had

I said, "Well, he kind of looked familiar: he said he was in

come: out ). He said, "Steckler, you're crazy!" I said, "You

mo,ic.:. hut I couldn't place him. I didn't recognize the

were great in .\"MI. Bilko. so gi\'t: me a break." Then I got the

voice." He said. "Of course not-that was Harpo Marx1" It

guy who strangled Steve McQueen in Lol'e uith a

uas- 1'11 he a son of a gun. I mean. my heart went . . .

Proper

Strcmger ( or one of tho!>e movies); he was the heavy. So I had

thesc.: 2 gigantic guys- I mc:an really big -and I had some

I tell you. of all the guys that I as a kid loved- I couldn't

believe I'd met Harpo Marx. He was putting me on all the

other weird fac<:s I found around town. After I fired the actor

way, hc.: had me going and Iowd evef)' second of it. 'Cause

playing the detective

he'd have: been the first on the hill making the movie if it had

( \"\110

had looked good against these

people ). all of a sudden I 'm playing the role, and it's Like half a

been thc.: reverse situation. know what I mean? Those were

step above: Woody Allen!

the guy that had the energy! They l011ed their work. That day

But the last thing I want is to he compared to Woody Allen.

Yet people sometimes do- because of looks and evef)'thi ng.
And my attitude is son of crazy like his, I guess, or \ice versa.

was

really exciting. Anyway,

that

was

my really great

moment. And I think I've mc.:t ev<:ryhody from Troy Donahue

to Gardner MacKay.

49

 BOYD: I recently met Gardner MacKay.

STECKLER: I met Gardner 20 years ago. I liked him, liked

I went there once and I don't know if I want to go a second

his personality. He's very nice to be with. I met him at a party

and into it. Once there you look around and he's got every

and we had a great talk one night, after his series was finished.

thing; it's another world. The world of T.V. Mikels.

What's he doing now?

BOYD: 1bat 's amazing.

STECKLER: The legend.
BOYD: f't'e beard so ma ny u>eird things about him.

BOYD: He 's a playwright. Hejust went to the East Coast

where a couple of bis plays are being done on Broadway.

After that be 's going to Europe to get awayfrom everything,
and get some uriting done.

time. You've got to go through the dogs and up the mountain

STECKLER: He's got about 8 wives, I know that.

BOYD: At the same time ?

STECKLER: How's he look?

BOYD: Great; be still bas the same sort of boyish good

STECKLER: At the same time, living with him there.

BOYD: . . . Weren 't soundtrack records from Creatures

looks.

and Rat Pii nk released? On what label?

STECKLER: That's fantastic. He never did any more films

STECKLER: I can't rememher-1 think it was REL

Records. I can't tell you where they are roday; I have no idea

after that series, did he?

BOYD: He made a film called I Sailed to Tahiti With An

whatsoever. One of them was out of Chicago, hecause Ron

All-Girl Crew.

had a record out of one of the songs he sang in Rat P

ftnk.

STECKLER: Right! That should be a classic little cult film

BOYD: Did be record under the name of Ron Haydock ?

somewhere. It's a man's dream to go across the ocean with a

STECKLER: He picked the name "Yin Saxon"; I don't know

boatful qf girls.

why. He made one record.

l llllll a iMYie tor .... ...... ... ...

cc6d ......
.
Tile .....
. .. It naly
... . ....... .... ...... they ... ....
..W 3 _ 1 ....'t w..t to add. 'lhey
._.. altaid it was too n1....,...
.. for
......._, so they put In a psychlaltlit to
aplain illY movW I ' naly pissed oH,
took illY - off .... put a ....., -

BOYD: "Vin txon " and "Lonnie Lord" STECKLER: Yeah, those were his names; he made them
up. He was a writer, too; he wrote the original screenplay for

1be Deprat1f!d.

It takes you right up to the point when we

decided to go zonkers and had Rat Pfink come out of the

closet.

BOYD: So that U'as the original title of Rat Pfink?

STECKLER: 1be Deprat'ed [ laughs]. To this day I don't
know why I did it, and I don't really care! You just get an
impulse: "If you came out of that closet as Batman and Robin
. . . " So we got an "R" and some long underwear; Titus had
Halloween costume with some lights that lit up . . . only

u e

it.

could ever d o it!

Back in the late '60s I tried to put a couple of films together

Pji11k, and then in Blood Sback. He has a small scene in

BOYD: What films UIQS Ron Haydock in?

STECKLER: He played one of the cops that got killed in
1brill Killers, that was his debut. Then I starred him in Rat

with Troy Donahue but I couldn't. I aJways thought Troy had

Lemon Gr()lJe.

thought he could have gone farther, but he was in that

BOYD: WbatetJf!Y happened to him?

STECKLER: He was ki lled in an automobile accident

system. But without that system he wouldn't have been Troy

about 5 years ago.

Donahue, either, and he would never have gotten the break.

BOYD: . . . Wbat was Face of Evil?

STECKLE R: Face ofEvi/ was the original title, concept and

a lot more talent than was expected of him in Hollywood. I

Another actor I like (believe it or not, he's so stereotyped

The Creatures.

now) is Dennis Cole. He's trapped by his good look

s and

screenplay for

everything, but I think he's got a lot more going for him than

bad title, though .

I didn't like it, but it wasn't a

he's getting. At some point I hope he gets a break. Stuart

Whitman's another actor; those are some of the guys I like. Of
course I met them so I got to know them a little bit person
ally, just enough to feel that I'd like to work with them. I don't
know how anybody can make a movie -be stuck with some
one for 3 or

weeks-and not feel some sort of rapport. I

mean it's hard to live with a person for one day. So anyway, I

hope all 3 of them eventually grab something, somewhere.

RON

BOYD: I wanted to askyou: u!Qsn 't lz

i Renayf
r
esh out of
jail when you cast her in Thrill Killers?
STECKLER: Yes, I think she was in Chino. Joe Bardo, who

played in 1brill Killers, had told me that she'd be getting out

of jail soon and had to find some work immediately. I said,
"HeU, let's shoot a movie with her. I'll put you both in it, let's
do it." So she came over, I met her for the first time, and we
started shooting the next morning (she had just gotten out of
jail the day before. ) And we made this movie. I told you the
Herb Robins story, didn't I?

BOYD: He was the guy who got beat up afew daysbefore

you started filming.
STECKLER: Yeah. You'd find him a very fascinating guy.
He directed and starred in a movie called

The Worm Eaters.

BOYD: Did be? I thought Ted V. Mikels did that.

STECKLER: Ted produced it.
BOYD: Do you know Mikels?
STECKLER: I know him very well. Ted lives in a real castle
here. And I tell you, it is spooky to go into that castle at night.

50

' Columbia sueyou uben you szt titcbed the

BOYD: Didn t
title to Incredibly Strange Creatures?
STECKLER: [disgustedly] Oh, that was so crazy. Kubrick
Wonyin.R and Leamed to LOrJe the Bomb, and I had adver

have wanted to do was steal something from Kubrick, who I

had met a few times; we had gotten along real well.
As I recall, he was still shooting Dr Strangelove after I had
alrearv shot my movie. I called Columbia and said, "What's
the big problem? Can you get Kubrick on the other line so we
can work this out?" And they got Kubrick on the other line,
but not where I could talk to him-it was relayed. (Now
remember, this litigation had been going on for months. But
if all of a sudden you get everybody together, you can resolve
something so quickly. And this is a town where they never get
together.) I said, ''Vou ask Mr Kubrick if I change my title

doted
April 2,

'Mixed Up' Title

tised my picture as The Incredibly Stran.Re Creatures Or W1.ry

I Stopped Lir fing and &came a Mxed
i
Up Zombie. But i t had

article

Stick; l n d i e Drops

was making a movie called Dr Strange/oue Or Why I Stopped

nothing to do with his picture. In fact the last thing I would

Variety

Col Waves Legal

1963.

A ftcr t h reatcn i n g If' ga l art ion,

Columbia has rccchecl assurance
from Morgan-StccklC'r P r d s . lhat
title
of
la tter' prnpn;;ed
i n d ie,
"The I ncredihlv
i Strang' Crf'alure:
Or W h y I Stor pecl Living And BC'
came A M i x ed - U p Zombie'," would
be changed, accord ing to Co l at
torney Sey m o u r !'. Steinberg.

Studio contended "Creat un'' tag

infri ng-C'cl
on
S ta ni C' y
I( u h r i ck"s
"Or. SrangC'IovC' : Or ! l ow I i.!'anHci
To Stop Worrying A nd Lme TIH
Bomb," now lensing in London for
Col release.

II

from The Incredibly Strange Creatures etc. to The Incredibly

St1wige Creatures Who Stopped Lilling and Became Mixed
Up Zombies, would that be alright?" (Just remember: 5

It's probably better that I didn't use that title in the long

minutes earlier they were going to sue me for S5 million. You

run, 'cause ( like I say) I wouldn't want anybody to think I

can imagine how much the attorneys got paid on this;

stole that crazy title from him. What's crazy about having a

imagine how much money was being spent to prevent me

long title? People thought I was nuts when I came up with it.

from using that title: on a picture that cost

They'll think I'm nuts someday when I make Creatures Part

538,000.)

And

Kubrick says, "fine; that's good. Okay. Wrap it up. Back to

II.

work." End of story. In other words, once we made contact it

BOYD: You think you will?

was over in a flash.

STECKLER: Yeah; just for fun I'll make it. I'll use the gypsy

But, I could have made S movies on what they probably

wardrobe that's left over from my next movie and start again.

spent trying to figure out how to stop me. I would have

Just last week I found a girl who looks almost exactly like the

changed the title if they had just asked me politely. But it was

original girl who played the gypsy, Bette O'Hara. She could be

the way they went about it: letters and subpoenas and all that

her daughter! I'm already looking for faces who resemble

crap-crazy. So there you are-big deal.

people.
BOYD: Recently, at the plasma center in San Francisco, I
saw a young Cash Ragg lookalike.

Scene

from Blood

Shack.

STECKLER: Walking around? Did you know they sold

Cash Flagg masks for years?
BOYD: Ohmigod!
STECKLER: Yeah, I had one, but recently I pulled it out of
the box and the rubber had just deteriorated after all these
years. See, we used them in the drive-ins. They would have
guys running around looking like me. I got them from the
same guy who did Bela Lugosi and all of them-Don Post.
He's probably still got the mold. Do you think you were at the
theater when I was there?

for -.twen

Ill

lltl I was head

then they cllddecl they wanted

to play a part. It's easy enough to ad in
a ,.. when youre the clrector, but when
you're suppottd to flm a movie as well as
._ in front of the cCIIMra play'"a a role
,
about 500Jo of the time, that's .- trkkl
cannan;

BOYD: I wish.
STECKLER: Because I went with a lot of 'em. It was great.
One time a woman collapsed and they had to take her to the
hospital; it'd scared the shit out of her. At another theater
they'd planned an afternoon showing and I asked, "We're
going to do this at a matinee ?" Well, a lot of little kids
showed up; I jumped out, and

20 or 30 ran straight out to the

street! Jesus! I didn't realize the effect it had in those days.

BOYD: If you do Creatures 11, where will you find an
amusement park? Santa Cruz?
STECKLER: I've already compiled a lot of great footage of

51

the ferris wheel. etc. I've been putting things aside. They have
carnivals in Vegas once or twice a year; if I shoot at night it
will look great. I've already got the gypsy motor home. I'm
slowly putting it together; I haven't figured out bow I'm
going to do it or just what, yet. I <..<m' t find many members of
the originaJ cast; I don't even know where they are anymore,
or where to begin to look. I tried but they're aU gone; they
disappeared. I have no idea where Atlas King went; I never
saw him again after The Thrill Killers.

( Oh,

I did bump into

him a year or two later, but I don't know what happened to

him.) The hunchback? No idea. I know the kid who played
Madison Clarke is a lighting technician who works here
somewhere. I don't know where anybody is, to tell you the
truth; after 20 years people go. But it would be interesting to
get a few back. I figure that with a little publicity a few will
call I've already had about

10 calls, because they're running

clips from it in It Came From Holywood.

To thk day I ...., know why I clcl Ito You

1-f get ....,.... "If you _. out of
that cloMt as lahtMM cnl IoWa
" So we
' .. ''I" ..... ...... ..... ......
...
;. Titus
111111 a Wow... costume with 10111e lghts
that It .. 0 0 only we could .... do itt
o

BOYD: What's that mortie like?

STECKLER: It's alright . I enjoyed it because I look at old
movies and clips aU the time, an}way. There were a couple of

"Zombies" on the loose in The hte....lllly Strange C....tures.

scenes I'd never seen before from Edward D. Wood, who was
supposedly the "worst" filmmaker of all time. But maybe they
should re-evaluate his work a little more, because I don't
think they see all the underlying currents there.

BOYD: Exact>' By letting superfidal 'Judgments " and

"standards " keep them (and their reade-s) mmyfrom cer

tain films. most "film critics " bm't! cheated tbemseltJes and

fa<Kinated. I said to him, "Why did you write about Rat P

.fink

if you'd never seen it?" He said, "Well, it was mainly the title."

others out ofamazing e.'\periences. They neoer rectify see the

In his book he called it "the worst title ofall time." But when

substance of rl'lxtf's really going on in a lot offilms, espe

cially lower budget films.

seen this movie before I had written this book, the things I

STECKLER: Harry Medved, author of The Golden Turkey

would have said in there would have been . . . " He really Liked

Awards, saw alJ my movies except for Rat Pfink and he was

the picture, really got carried away with it.

he actually saw the film, his words to me were, "Ray, if I had

But even so, how can you write about something you've
never seen? It's not fair. Even if you write something good
about a film you've never seen, you're still misleading the
people you're writing for.

BOYD:

Rat Pfink a Boo Boo is a great title; it could mean

anything. And it does com.>ry a certain feeling. l\'l'ben people

F I L M

P R E S S B O O K

S Y N O P S I S

RAT PFINK & BOO BOO

When CEEBEE BEAUMONT, girlfriend o f singing idol LONNIE LORD, is

kidnapped by THE CHAIN GANG, Lonnie and his friend TITUS TWIMBLY
swing into action. They become the mighty costumed superheroes RAT
PFINK and BOO BOO. Champions of Women and Children Everywhere.
Between rock & roll songs at wild watusi go-go parties, Rat Pfink and

Boa Boa search for Ceebee in their Ratcycle. After many harrowing
escapes they finally rescue Ceebee and end The Chain Gong's reign of
terror-only to face the fanged fury of KOGAR THE APE, escaped from
a jungle compound. But Rat Pfink saves the day as well as Ceebee from
the escaped ape and all zing over Ia the city-wide parade held in their
honor, as once again Rat Pfink and Boa Boo prove that Crime Does Not
Pay!

use tenns like ''bad" or "worst "-tber criteria are always

suspect.

STECKLER: What do you think of Roger Corman's films?

BOYD: I like Bucket of Blood and a feu otbf!I"S, but I'm

not crazy about him. I think be manages to acbiet'e some

tbi,zg interesting because be's afast.!Juck artist doing things
as fast as possible, and also because be doesn 't think too
much about some aspects of what's be's doing.

STECKLER:

He's a super-intelligent guy and I think he

knows just what to do in order to get the job done. He did

nice work in those Edgar Allan Poe films- 7be Masque of the

was super. Finally, he tried to make a movie he felt

was important: horror movie with William Shatner about a
bigot down South-the best thing Shatner ever did. It was
originally called 7be Intruder. He got slammed down badly.
Red Death

After that he never tried to make another film. He didn't even

try to release it; he gave it to someone else to release. You'd
think American International Pictures would have jumped in
and tried to help him out; I don't know what went wrong. But

52

the movie was great. They put some really terrible title on it.
Talk about low-budget movies where somebody tried to do
something really unusual - he did it. And got slammed down!

whole thing: "My, name, is, Harry. " What do you do, Harry? "1,
murdered, fifty, women, last, year; they, did, not, like, my,
looks." Oh, okay, Harry. Now if you did a silent movie and
Harry's fact; came on with a subtitle that said, "Harry mur
dered 50 women last year," whoaaa is what you'd think.
Because you'd never know that when he opens his mouth
he's a turkey.

BOYD: Harl{! JX>U seen the Mondo Cane films?

STECKLER: I only saw the very first one, but I read an
article about the filmmaker which said the reason he made it
was because he and his girlfriend were in an automobile
accident, and she was killed. He was so bitter at the world
that he went out and made Mondo Cane! When he killed all
the cows and showed that other {shocking) footage, he was
taking it out on the attitude of the world. I think it was a
drunk driver who hit him-you know, something that never
should have happened. So he made that film.
Last night I went to Zuky's out in Santa Monica. It used to
be the place where aU the kids from the Santa Monica
Theater hung out. It was late ( close to midnight), and I
wanted to get something to eat. And, I wanted to see how the
place had changed since I'd been there 10 or 20 years ago.
Guess who I opened the door for? Linda Blair. I said, "Aren't
you that girl in those horror movies?" and she looked at me
and just smiled and started to walk away. I said, "I hate people
who make horror movies." She did a triple take with her
girlfriend, like What s u'ith thisguy ?The waitress said, "That
was Linda Blair," and I said, "I know, I know. I was just putting
her on . . . "
Once I worked at Universal as a grip on the Alfred Hitch
cock Presents show. You know what A-frames are? They are
big heavy A-frames that you clamp on flats that are I 2 ' long,
with wheels on both sides, and you wheel them around.
Anyway, I got this flat and they told me, "Get it out of here and
take it over to the other set." And when you're working as a
grip you move very fast. ( I did; I don't know what they do
today. ) So I got this thing and started wheeling it I makes race
car-like noises) n?n?n. Just as I got to a corner I missed
Hitchcock by that much! And he was like this (Ray jumps to
his feet and stands in profile assuming the classic Hitchcock
pose, perfectly mimicking his posture and facial expression] .
If I'd hit him I'd have knocked his head offi And he went over
to this guy and whispered in his ear and he looked at me and
the guy looked at me . . . I said, "Don't say it; I'Ll go get my
card, / knou. " And I walked over and punched out and went
home. I knew I was going to get fired ( and I was right )
because I'd been going too fast. I thought, "What if I had
kiLled Alfred Hitchcock?!" Of all people, you know? Ah, it wa
great!

BOYD: I wanted to

ask JX>U if JX>U

hat.!{! always been

rebellious.

STECKLER: I'm only rebellious around bullshit. I mean, I

can conform to any situation, but when it gets to bullshit, I
can't handle it, and there's too much of it in Hollywood.
Nobody wants to just sit down and say, "Here's what we have
to do and let's do it." They don't know those words. It's like,
"Okay, let's figure out how we're going to do this, and how
much money we can take and put in our pockets."
They hire production managers who are supposed to save
money for the company, but all they do is get kickbacks
everywhere they go. ( Not etleiJ! one of them-but too many
of them.) In other words, everybody's out for their own
benefit; nobody gives a shit about making a really good
movie. European filmmakers get out there; if they say to an
actor. "Stand here, it's raining, and don't move until we get
the shot," he stands there in the freezing rain until they get
the shot. In Hollywood, you aren't going to see a star standing
in the rain-none of them. They're all wet, anyway!

I 111111 a c..ll .... ... IIUf ,....., I .......

It - ef .... ... ..... .... ....... had lust
........ ..... . ..... ,..... . ..
.... ..._ Ill the *iHns. 'IIIey would haY
.,. ...... ....... ....... .. ...
BOYD: When you make films do JX>U improvise much?
STECKLER: AJI the time, because when you work with
amateurs you reaLly have to be ready to get the best out of
what you can get. Those kids weren't trained actors at all. I
don't know how good that is: to get actors who have no
ability. A lot of kids who study acting aren't worth shit, and
are never gonna be worth anything! And just because you
study doesn't make you good, either.
You might find a guy walking down the street who could
have more impact than a professional actor-if he's used
correctly. In Europe in the '20s ( silent movies) they found all
their actors in the streets. Nobody had to take acting lessons
back then; that's why there were so many great faces.
Because even if a guy couldn't act, they could make use ofhis
face.
Today an actor has to talk, and if he talks he can blow the

CALIFORNIA

THEATRE 4TH AND C

- - - -

234 82S9

DOORS OPEN
1 1 :30 PM TONIGHT & SATURDAY
9:30 A.M. SAT. MORNING

BOYD RICE: You've been in nearly all of Ray's films,

from Wild Guitar up to the latest CAROLYN BRANDT: When we started out in films there
was a joke among our friends that I was always either stabbed,
abducted by an ape, or had my head cut off . . . Friends used to
say, "Carol, Ray's trying to tell you something. Beware! Are
you sure he really likes you?" But eventually (in films) I took
the other side and turned bad-/ started doing people in. It's
fun! I figured I'd taken enough abuse and punishment- I'd
give a little bit back.
.
BOYD: In somefilms you seemed to get killed offearly
RAY: I had to have somebody around to do the makeup;
the sooner she was killed off the sooner she could . . .
CAROLYN: There was a scene in Body
where I'm
sitting behind a desk. In between takes I was also keeping
script; it was there in the drawer. In front of the camera it's
not as easy to do that as on the sidelines. That was one of the
most mini-crew films we worked on.
There were times when there'd be u
j st the two of us
y
ja
c
k
working crew. When we were in Santa Fe doing Blood
there was one time when Ray would set up the scene and tell
me to push the button on the camera when he walked by.
Now that's mini-crew!
BOYD: Bloody jack?
CAROLYN: Ray, are you finishing that one up, dear?
RAY: That's the one where at the end they put me in jail.
I've been waiting 12 or 14 years to shoot the additional
scenes; in another year I'll shoot them, put it all together, and
when I flashback they'Ll say, "What a makeup job! What a set!
That really looks like 1972!" Nobody's ever done anything
like that before . . .

PePer

...

....... ... ... .... ......

.. .

ire _. tn. that I .. always

..... ...... ....... .., - ..., .. ...
., .... .. off . . . ....... ... .. .,,
-c..l, ..,. ..,.. .. .. ,.. ...,......

.....

BOYD: How'd you two meet?

CAROLYN: I was a harem girl in a thing called The Magic
of Sinbad. Ray came in with a friend of his, probably to do
some of the filming. He walked in, saw me, and chased me for
3 months. I finally agreed to go out with him. I don't know
why I didn't before-1 think I was being very "career
oriented." Finally I gave in and went out with him and was
stuck from then on. A friend of mine who was an astrologer
said, "There's a definite link between the two of you." And
we've never been able to get rid of it, no matter what we try
and do! [laughter]
BOYD: Didn 't Ray live in a car in his early days in

Hollywood?

CAROLYN: Yes. His buddy that he bunked with got a

girlfriend, and Ray wound up living in a parking lot right
around the corner from the studio where we'd first met, on

Santa Monica Boulevard. A friend let him take showers at his

apartment. My family didn't know about it, but every morning

I would get up early and make him an egg, onion and mayon
naise sandwich on French bread and deliver him breakfast
before I went to dance class.
Even in the last couple years there've been times when
things were really tight: when he'd be down in Hollywood
going to the lab and would sleep in the van because cash was
short. A night's stay in a motel could mean the difference
between an extra roll or two of film. So he'd sleep in the van,
even though I'm sure it's not all that comfortable. But at least
there's more space than in the first car he slept in, which was
a little Nash Rambler!
BOYD: Oh, I'd always imagined he slept in thai station
wagon he drove in Incredibly Strange Creatures.
CAROLYN: No. As a matter of fact, when you look at
Creatures it's the old yellow Rambler that's in the back when
he first walks out of his apartment. It's the one Atlas King was
working on when he says, "I can't get this pile of junk to
work."
RAY: That was a true scene. When we left that place we
left the car there.
CAROLYN: We couldn't afford to have it towed. lf you
follow our films you get to know the scenery. ( The only other
person I've seen do that is Claude Lelouch, who directed A
Man andA Woman; I've seen him use the same apartment in
a couple different films.) Anyway. that flying saucer we used
in Lemon Grove Kids-we had to get rid of it before we
moved. We called this junk dealer and he came and saw the
saucer and then saw all these bent-up 35mm film cans we
were a.lso getting rid of. He asked if we were in the movie
business. It turned out that this junkman just happened to be
the first black movie producer; in Hollywood, everyone's in
the industry! He had gone back into his first business, the
junk business.
It was even funnier when we first moved to Lemon Grove
Avenue-nice, lovely middle-class couples, and in come the
bohemians! The first thing we do is put our flying saucer in
the front yard. The next thing we do is start filming. Into this
very nice middle-class neighborhood in the mid-sixties we
brought a mummy running around, a gorilla running around,
the Lemon Grove kids running all around the area, and the
first blacks they'd probably ever seen above Franklin Street at
that particular time. It was another year before they'd let our
kids play with their kids.
BOYD: Were those your kids running around Atlas
King's yard in Thrill Killers?
CAROLYN: Our kids and our crew's kids. We couldn't
always get babysitters so we just stuck the kids in the film.
Incidentally, the cameraman for the Lemon Grot!(! Kids
filmed the jonestown massacre.
RAY: It's hard to make a movie, Boyd It's so hard. There are
always some people who get a lot of money to make a movie
and that's great-but there are a lot of young people out
there making a movie on nickels and dimes, and it may be the
only movie they ever make. There are a lot of people who put
up their homes and things and bingo -that's it. You've got to
really want to do it.
CAROLYN: I guess that's one way you might explain some
of Ray's films. They really are organic. Because what the

54

The dream sequence

from The ln...Wy
......... en.t.,
...

original script i. is very rarely anything close to the final

product. That' hccause he's always gone with the flow.
Things happen-you adjust.
BO>rD: I ca n 't imagine too many other directors in the
earv sixties hming an attitude that uould a/lou them to
improt rise and make radical detriationsfrom the script, just
following their instincts.

the mmie only ran for something like 63 minutes.

I tried to give all the touches I could to the kid. Arch Jr is a
nice kid, and he was a good singer, but he didn't seem to have
his heart in it; never seemed to really care. It was all just
handed to him on a silver platter. And I always felt, to be
honest, that Arch was just attempting to re-live his youth
through his son. It was a big disappointment that his son

RAY: Well. I don't know any other ftlmmakers in Holly

didn't want to continue in the business. The minute his son

wood who have enough guts to go out and make a feature

stopped making movies, Arch stopped making movies. He

movie without a script, and pull it off and get it out, doing

didn't have the desire to go out and tackle the industry

everything from Mart to end. You have to have a love of what

without his kid in the picture. But I can understand that. You

you're doing to make these kind of movies, because you'll

have to have a lot>e to make these kind of movies.

never get rich. Even when you make a movie that makes a lot

BOYD: Wasn 'I A rch Hall a test pilot?

of money, everybody else gets the money! I'm a perfect

RAY: Yes, and they made a movie about him: The Last Time

example I laughs!; all the money I've made in the business is

I Sau' Archie. Robert Mitchum played Arch Hall, and it was

through pure persistence and hounding people, just hound

written by Arch's roommate in the army, Bill Bowers. Bill

ing them. TI1e nicer you are. the more they'll cat you alive!

wrote it, it was a hit novel; the only problem was that he had

It seems like the movie industry likes to destroy bridges

to have permission to use Arch's name. He told him that he'd

rather than build them, until eventually there's nothing left.

BOYD: / noticed something odd in Thrill Killers: there's a

take care of him, and Arch signed a paper. Of course, Arch

party scene uhere George]. Morgan appears as George].

Morgan. and Arch Hall appears as Arch Hall, but the credits
only list George]. Morgan. / thought maybe it uas because
Arch U'tlS such tm obnoxious dnmk in that scene that be
didn 't Ul( l11f to be credited.
RAY: He was playing himself! I always do these little
things. Ofcourse George had a larger role n
i
that, throughout
the picture.
BOYD: I thought that maybe after Arch sau it, be said,
"Hey, I don 't uYmt to be credited asplaJring myself, because I
look like a dnmkard. "
RAY: No, not really. In fact he had a great time that night.
Arch Hall was a strange guy. I met him right after I did Drivers
in Hell. Actually, he had a bit part in Secret File: Holly wood,

never got a thing for it; the studio never gave him anything.
Mitchum played Arch Hall to a "T". They got together for
dinner a few times and Mitchum watched how Arch acted.
Arch had that lazy walk, lazy attitude, very lazy. Like he had to
make a real dedsion to get up and get a glass ofwater-reaUy!
If you ever see Eegah!, watch him running across the desert
in his shorts. He used to make sure the lens would only cover
a small area so h e wouldn't have far to walk. Then he'd sit
down.
BOYD: don 't any Arch Hall movies ever show up?

What happened to all of them ?

RAY: I don't believe I've seen a group of Arch's films show

up on 1V since 1964 or '65. His wife sold the rights to all of

his films to some guy in New York.
BOYD: So they'll all be re-released?

which is where I first met him. Then he asked me to do the

RAY: I don't know. I don't even know who got them. Did

second unit photography for Eegah!, and that's how I came to

you ever see The Choppers? That was his first movie. Then

work for him. After that he asked me to direct a film for him

came Wild Guitar, then The Sadist which was later re-named

with his son, Wild Guitar. And he said, "Now, you mustn't do

7be Profile of Terror. Then he did Eegah!

anything to distract from the script. You must do exactly

CAROLYN: I think that was about the time junior wanted

what the script says." But since I'd never directed a movie, I

to get his wings and fly.

figured I'd better do the best I could. When I added in the

RAY: junior got married. Married a nice Vietnamese girl.

early Lemon Grove kids to the movie, Arch didn't like them at

He's out there somewhere, probably still playing his guitar,

all; he thought they detracted from the story. So he cut out all

sitting on

the scenes with them: the kidnapping, everything, and then

probably an old man by now . . .

hill in Boulder City overlooking the Dam. He's

knife. Later the escapees terrorize (and eventually kill) a

woman while a narrator recites on the radio a grotesque
parody of Little Red Riding Hood!
Of all Steckler's movies, none is better cast than T11e
Thrill Killers. A lead role featured Liz Renay, a Hollywood
glamour girl who gained notoriety for going to prison
rather than testifying agaimt her gangster boyfriend.
Other outstanding performances were by Herb Robins, Gary
Kent and Keith O'Brien, who play the three escaped lunatics.

he films of Ray Dennis Steckler are weird, individualistic,

Steckler's films are schizophrenic. The Incredibly

Strange Creatures suspends its tension for occasional song
and-dance numbers; The T11rill Killers starts with the story

and radical. Sometimes they seem out of control, largely due

of a Hollywood hanger-on and ends with a shoot-out and a

to his penchant for working without a completed saipt. The

chase on

fad that he stars in many of his films (under the pseudonym

schizophrenic than the unbelievable

"Cash Flagg") makes them that much better.

Steckler got his start as a director thanks to Arch Hall, Sr.,

horseback! But of all his films, none is more

Rat Plink a Boo Boo.

At times this film seems to be writing itself-the plot

changes suddenly, continuity is non-existent. It's hard to

who was making

Wild Guitar, the story of a young man

Bud Eagle who comes to Hollywood in search of

imagine what audiences thought upon viewing this film for

named

the first time back in

fame and fortune. On his first night in Tinseltown Bud

It begins as a straightforward thriller. Three hoods, after

1966.

gets-through an incredible set of coincidences-the oppor

attacking a woman in an alley, decide to get their kicks by

tunity to perform. The boy is quickly mapped up by a shifty

terrorizing the girlfriend of rock star Lonnie Lord. After a

recording agent (played with frightening conviction by Arch

Hall, Sr.), and eventually learns that fame and fortune are
not as important
While

as

the girl he loves.

Wild Guitar may not win any awards for plot

originality, it does give Steckler a chance to display his

curious talents. The film also marks the first appearance of
Steckler's alter ego, Cash Flagg, who plays "Steak," a slea1y
strong-arm man who works for the recording agent. He
gives the part a schi1oid dimension-shifting in an instant
from boredom to maniacal intensity.
Steckler's next effort remains his best known:

The
Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Uvlng and
Became Mlxeci-Up Zombies. It's the story of Esmerelda, a
sideshow gypsy fortune-teller who likes pouring acid on
men's faces and locking them up in her secret cages. With
help from her sister Carmelita and companion Ortega, she
hypnotius a young freeloader named Jerry (Cash Flagg)
and forces him to commit murders. When he no longer
proves useful to her, he too is given the acid treatment. No
explanation is ever offered as to

why the fortune-teller

keeps acid-scarred men caged in her tent, but none is

needed-from the moment the film begins it's obvious
we're no longer in this universe. The world of The lncredi
Wy

Strange Creatures exists outside the bounds of logic

and reality.
Originolly

Creatures was released in "Hallucinogenic Hyp

novision." Before the film starts, "The Ama1ing Armand"

warns the audience they will see "actual flesh-and-blood"
1ombies. This gimmick was achieved by ushers wearing
"Cash Flagg" masks who waved rubber daggers at members
of the audience. In urban theaters this novelty proved more
frightening for the ushers than the audience-several
received black eyes and sore jaws while attempting to
frighten the wrong people.
Ray Dennis Steckler's next film,
known as

The Maniacs

are

The T11rlll KUiers (also

Loose!) is his mast technically

proficient. Steckler (under the name Cash Flagg) plays Mort

"Mad Dog" Click, homicidal maniac. Three escapees from an
insane asylum (one of whom is Click's brother) terrorize
people at a roadside diner and elsewhere. In one particularly
effective scene Click stabs a prostitute to death in her
darkened hotel room, while outside the window a neon light
flashes on and off in perfect counterpoint to the plunging

Carolyn Brandt today. Photo: Boyd Rice

few anonymous phone calls, they kidnap the girl. Up to this

moments, but poles beside his earlier efforts . . .

Rat Pflnk a Boo Boo is fairly aeepy-the hoodlums

ore genuinely frightening and the situation tense. Suddenly,
as if by whim, lonnie lord and sidekick Titus Twimbly decide

movie stilh) for Timothy Carty on

point,

Steckler began his film career as o photographer (taking

a pair of low-budget superheroes. From this paint on

World's Greatest
Sinner; other assignments included being camwoman on
Saeam of the autterfly, 1't.. Velvet Trap and The lrotk
Atlventures of Plnocchlo. He also worked on music videos

that ends with an interminable chase.

video of the llau singing "Open My Eyes."

to save the girlfriend by fuming into Rat Pfink and Boo Boo,

Rat
Plink drops the melodrama, turning into a slapstick comedy
Whatever its faults,

Rat Pflnk a Boo Boo represents

filmmaking at its freest. It's hard to imagine what Steckler

had in mind when he made this movie; often absurd, occa
sionally tedious, it is never predictable!

for various singers and rock groups, including a rarely seen

Currently living in Las Vegas, lay Dennis Steckler con
tinues to work; he recently began shooting The

Survival
Ists (tentative title; after o conflict with producers the film
was completed by Ted V. Mikels), and

During this period Steckler also made his "lemon Grove

Kids" films: low budget take-offs on the Bowery Boys, short

one

of his future

Tt.. lna'ecltWy s,..... Creatures.

We hope he never stops making movies his way

projects is o sequel to

and silly stories about the misadventures of o gong of

misfits. later he compiled them into one incoherent, over
long movie:

The Lemon Grove Kids Meet the Monsters,

featuring the same out-of-control wockiness that chorac

terites

Rat Pflnk a Boo Boo. Cosh Flagg appears again, this

time as

perfect imitation of Hunfl Hall. In one scene the

FILMOGRAPHY

films actually overlap, with Rat Pfink and BooBoo making

on appearance in o retake of o scene in

their film!

Although his output slowed, Steckler continued making

Supel'
Cool, o hard-boiled detective story starring (who else?)
Cosh Flagg. Unlike most of Steckler's films, Supel' Cool (also
known as Body Fever) seems to hove o carefully structured
films during the '70s. He started off the decode with

plot.
Steckler's other films during the '70s ore less inspired.

Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher is on

amazing title, but the film-essentially o silent movie with

Blood
Shack (also known as The Chooper) hos o few Stecklerion

narration-is little more than o curiosity piece.

Drivers In Hell aka Wild Ones on Wheels, 1961

Wild Guitar, 1 962
The lnuedibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped living
and le<ame Mixed-Up Zombies, 1963
Sinthia: The Devil's Doll, 1968
lot Pfink a Boo Boo, 1965
The lemon Grove Kids Meet The Momters, 1 966
Sinthia, The Devil's Doll, 1968
Bloody Jack tfle Iipper, 1972 (unreleased)
Super Cool (aka Body Fever aka The last Original
B-Movie), 1969
The Chooper (aka Blood Shack), 1971
The Holywood Strangler Meets the Skidrow Slasher, 1979

lay Dennis
Steckler today.
Photo:
Boyd lice

57

W:

toward her. Of course that affected her whole life, in her

ed V. Mikels has

to be remembered

one
as

relationships with men, husbands, and so on. Anyway. that

obsession: making mavies. He'd like

movie was made as the result of the way we choose to live,

"a hell of a filmmaker who did 28

which is very moral and very decent. It may not be easy for

hours a day, 10 days a week towards the making of films . . .

always conceiving, concocting new ideas for stories." And as
he put it, "Anywhere somebody will fund my mavies, I'll

everyone to comprehend, but we don't go around trying to

make people understand every single thought, concept and

belief we have.

go."

BR: So many people hat one idea they beliet!f? in. one
thing that s theirfatiOrite. and so on earned to et 'l!'J' fet,el of

teered to be Director of Photography to help out his old

their

During a recent film shoat near Death Valley (he volun

buddy lay Dennis Steckler), the barrel-chested Mikels

worked under a blcning 105 sun from 6 AM straight

life . . .

TVM: I constantly have this conversation with ladies; they

ask, "Why not a one-to-one relationship? How can you have
setl(!n women sharing your life?" I say, "The purpose in life

through to 7 PM without stopping, rarely even pausing for

usually is to fulfill ourselves and achiet!f? our goals. If ladies

sunstroke). Ted's supportive presence and constant humor

develop an ability in a certain area; where they can achieve

oft in different accents-smoothed out a lot of interrup

their goals in life through this commingling of personalities,

water. And it was hot (a st'"'t motorcyclist fainted from

talents and abilities; then it's an advantage to them." There

tions inevitable during any film shoat.

Born Theodore Vincent Mikacevich to Croatian emigrant
parents, in early childhood Mikels began mastering magic

and psychology. Originally involved in theater, he's been a

movie scriptwriter, cameraman, director and producer for
the past three decades, creating classics such as The Astro
z...
w.s,

The Corpse Grtntlers, and The Dol

Squad

on

budgets below belief. His fihns explore unconventional terri

tory, from brain transplants to witchcraft to polygamy to a
women's hit squad . . .

are no demands on them; psychologically they're totally free.

There are no recriminations.
We do have an agreement, and the agreement is that the
ladies who live and share their lives with me do not sleep
around. They are not obligated to sleep with me, but they are
obligated to accept this agreement. If they want to be with
someone else, then let them be with someone else; let
somebody else take care of them if they want. It's a matter of

choice.

If they no longer want t o be here (or if I don't want them

Although recently relocated to Las Vegas, Ted V. Mikels

lived for the past twenty years in a genuine castle just

outside Hoftywood. Possessed of seemingly endless reserves

of energy and enthusiasm, he demonstrates a constantly
philosophizing outlook immersed in saturnine humor. Boyd
lice interviewed him in a castle roam filled with dueling
swords, masks and other colorful

together can have a place to stay where they can learn and

memorabilia

...

here), I don't say, "Leave." But I'll say, "Well, if it's not
working, then don't prolong it." What uorks uorks; uhat
doesn 't u10rk doesn 't work. If they're here and they're happy,
moving toward the direction of fulfi llment at a stronger or
faster pace than they would elsewhere, then obviously it's to
their benefit to be here. And if I can help them learn some
thing, they in tum can help me: answer phones. xerox
scripts, work in the editing room with sound effects, etc. I
can teach them many things; I probably have started 400-600
people in film, just in various categories. It may be something
simple, like showing them how to make apple boxes for the
grip department. And then they get enthused, and first thing

BOYD RICE: Ray Dennis Stecklersaidyou have 8 wives-

you know they're learning how to handle lights. I've had

TED V. MIKELS: "Wife" is a restrictive term; we say "Cas

tle Lady." And the magic number is seven; I told Ray that

people start as grips and end up being First Cameraman . . .

seven was the precise number; otherwise we'd have to find

realm of the audio-visual entertainment field: from music to

another castle and start seven more there.

BR: W1.ry seven ?
TVM: It's very simple: seven is my magic number. When I

We have enough activity to keep anyone busy, in every

motion picture feature films, which is essentially what I do. I
write, direct, produce, edit, promote, and distribute (on an
international level ) feature films. ( Then I try to find a way to

was in high school I was told that there are seven females on

get the money back.) And my preference in films is for

earth for every male, and I want my seven! So, I'm willing to

action-drama, adventure-action drama. I've made a number

take care of them, and teach them what I know best , which is
filmmaking: any area from scriptwriting to still photography.

of horror films, and I do that when I have some coiled-up

rolls of leftover film and a dozen people who say, "Hey, let's

One of my ladies went on to do her own picture: as writer,

make a movie." Even though there's no movie to make, we

producer, director, star and editor! I started her out as an

assistant script girl. And she made a woman's picture::, cover
ing in retrospect a woman's lifet ime after having a nervous

create one to do.

Over a period uf 30 years doing films, many times I've had a
whole house full of people, living with me just to suroive.

breakdown at an airport. It reflects on her childhood, living

with her futher, and how her futher made sexual advances

And I've found that

men,

once they live with you, don't get

out and do what they need to do. Whereas uomen can put all

58

starring

SEAN KENNEY MONIKA KELLY SANFORD MITCHELL

J. BYRON FOSTER Produced and Directed by TED V. MIKELS

A T.V. MIKELS FILM PRODUCTION

RELEASED BY GENENI FILM DISTRIBUTING CO .. INC.

doesn't work when it's communal and there are men and

which was an enormous pleasure to me. I've never lost that

same feeling: making a film is the greatest pleasure. People

women- I don't need that! I have to be somehow or other in

ask me why I don't ever take a day off. Well, my greatest day

total leadership of whoever's with me. I don't expect other

off. so to speak, is making a

men who are working toward their own family success to

anticipating a vacation in Tahiti, although I want to do that,

work under my wing. But females, on the other hand,

too!

their intensity into a family-type relationship. In my book it

can

move fo rward in their lives, achieving what they want to

film.

It's a greater pleasure than

BR: I've always felt that Astra Zombies or Corpse Grind

achieve, because polygamy has always worked since the

ers were different because thepeople involved really wanted

beginning of time.

to do them. Most films-it 's like a factory put them out.

When somebody genuinely wants to do something, theyput
more of themse/zl(!S into it, and it shows.
lVM: The camaraderie and the fun we had doing Corpse
Gn'nders, for example, was phenomenal. I don't think there
were more than one or two people who'd ever been around a
film production before. The script girl had never seen a script
in her life, and so on.
I was at a studio where a lot of people were coming in from
other states trying to get signed up. Now if I were doing a

Every animal you see, no matter what it is, is polygamous.

Only the human animal has this concept of monogamy, but
then, as often as possible, they break it! A lot of my friends
have monogamous relationships, but tomorrow they'll have
another monogamous relationship with another lady, and so
on, and the female will do the same thing. So they're living a
lie! I don't accept that; I don't like it.

W. llult a corpseinding machine for

IIIIII
IJ I $3lo If a ltullo WWI building
...... that, $31 wouldn't ev lluy

picture where people were getting paid, I would be very

selective, in order to get talented, experienced people. But if
I was doing a picture with relatively zero dollars, then I
would pick people who had a willingness, who had some

the coffll they'd ... ..... ...... the

..-.... (which would ........, cost

form of transportation, who had their own place to stay, and

who could go a month or two without compensation. And

$1 31,000)o

the compensation, when and if it came from the theaters,

would come later.
That's how Corpse Grinders was made. Almost everyone in

If I have a lady with me, we have a basic understanding: be

a responsible person, keep agreements, and don't sleep

the whole production had never been around a picture

before. The cameraman had done some 16mm. but on the

around. Do what you wish, go anywhere, do anything, but

first day of shooting (over at Cecil B. DeMille's residence on

just be responsible. If you say you're going to be back at 10

DeMille Drive ) he yelled out, "Hey, Ted, teach me how to

pm, if you're not here we expect a call. and so on. It's just

load this camera !" This is opening morning; there's forty

being responsible. Then they can choose the path of life they

people milling around! Everybody was learning their job: the

want to move forward to. accomplishing things in life ( espe

sound man had never run a sound recorder. some people

cially with some guidance or teaching). When the dollars are

were putting on make-up for the first time, and so on. And it

ample, we have a little extra fun-maybe take a little boat

was fun.

trip to Catalina. And when the dollars are tight (which they
most often are), it's a real belt squeezer.

it's a little classic in its own right. It happened to be finan

BR: What got you interested in film ?

five

cially successful as well, doing box office 1 1 of the top 50

doing magic for neighbors-string-and-bean

grossing pictures that particular week. And it was made with

lVM: I grew up an entertainer. From the time I

years old I

was

was

tricks; by the time I was seven I had a 20-minute show, and by

the time

was

I was twelve

fifteen I

We ended up making the biggest grossing picture I ever

made [laughs!. And it's still going strong; some people claim

I had a 45-minute show." By the time I

was selling a

21h-hour show to all the school

systems. I did ventriloquism, accordion solos, and I'd always

no money; baloney sandwiches with no cheese, a little bit of

mustard and a lot of heart and soul.
BR: In your life, it seemsyou 'l'e managed to do exactyas
you please-

have some pretty girl as a specialty dancer ( maybe a tap

dance routine or Arabic dance ) during an intermission to
give me a break. I did everything from escaping straitjackets
to you-name-it -even fire-eating . . .
At the age of seventeen I started touring the country with
the very well-known and famous Mandrake the Magician.

I did '*ldquisnl, auonlion solos

I did
eryt from ...-.. straitiackets to
y....--e
...;t v fin eating.
o

When I returned to college after a summer tour with him, my

show became larger and more involved, with perfectly coor
dinated music, etc. But it always seemed pathetic that when

lVM: My idea of success, I haven't achieved yet. A lot of

the show

people ( even fifteen years ago ) have said to me, "If in my

was over,

after you'd worked so hard, there

was

nothing left but a memory . . .

whole lifetime I make as many movies as you've already made,

So I started filming, and discovered that with the camera

I'll feel I've really accomplished something." But I don't look

you could stop motion, snap your fingers and make things

at it that way. I've got over 100 picture credits, of which more

disappear like that! I had lots of fun! I always wanted to do a

than 30 are features, but I don't really feel I've begun.

feature film called just plain MAGIC

Number one: I've never looked for, nor found, financing. I

BR:

just do my pictures any which way I can. ( However, I have

When did you first shoot film?

was ten or twelve I developed film in the

lVM: When I

friends who've been looking for financing 20 years and have

bathtub-did all the still stuff. But movies started when I was

never made their first picture ! ) So, it's just as tough to find

a late teenager. I started filming shows . . .

financing now as it ever

was

Doesn't matter how many

I made educational films, sales films, training films, fun

pictures you've done, you have to have the right combination

films, half-hour melodramas, any which way I could. I bought

of being at the right time and place with the right financial

short ends of outdated film and did anything and everything

seed to get it going. And there's no easy v.ray-at least f'tte

to be able to put a film together. And I enlisted the help of a

never found one.

lot of people.
I learned that to many people, making a film is exciting! I'd

trying to put bits and pieces together (a tittle loan here, a

have as many as fifty people in a weekend working on a film,

little loan there, a few dollars from a bank, laboratory credit,

By the same token, if I dido't have to spend 90% ofmy time

60

F I L M

P R E S S B O O K

S Y N O P S I S

THE CORPSE GRINDERS

BR: / like tbe idea ofpeople knowlng they can actually go

out and do something like that, without a million dollars.
1VM: Anyone can!
BR: People have this mystical reverence for films. Most
people's attitude is, "Ob, I could never do something like
that."

Sudden, inexplicable attacks by cots on their human owners resulting

in death and mutilation. surge through a metropolis. A young hospital
intern, Dr. Howard Gloss (Sean Kenney) and his nurse assistant Angie
Robinson (Monika Kelly) seek the answer when her own pel feline
assaults Glass without provocation. They theorize that on exotic
conned col food could be the cause after learning a fatally bitten
woman's pet and Angie's ate the same brand. The food hos turned
partaking cats into man-eaters!
Sleuthing eventually tokes Gloss and Angie to a dingy factory where
the cot food is manufactured by two diabolical partners, Landau
(Sanford Mitchell) and his greecly aicle Maltby (J. Byron Foster). The
basic ingredient consists of cadavers supplied by on a<Commadating but
disreputable cemetery caretaker Caleb (Warren Boll) and his wife Cleo
(Ann Noble). It is in the factory that shirring power saws, red stained
chopping blocks, ominous cauldrons and a vociferous grinder transpose
human flesh and bone into pussycat puree.
Desperate for fresh supplies of human flesh, Landou and Maltby ply
skidrow alleyways to fill the demand. For good measure they include
the caretaker when Caleb insists on payment for his raw stock.
Gloss and Angie arrive at the factory on a ruse to get food samples
for laboratory analysis, but are outsmarted by a suspicious Landau. A
cletermined Angie nevertheless on her own returns late at night, sneaks
in, but is trapped by Maltby, who, in the absence of Landou, is about to
abscond with his withheld shore of profits.
Angie is stropped on the conveyor leading into the grinder. Maltby's
lecherous advances halt when Londou .unexpectedly oppeors. A startled
Maltby acciclentolly hits the controls, is dragged onto the running
conveyor ahead of helpless Angie toward the flashing tips of the
grinder knives. Meanwhile, Gloss has alerted authorities. While he and
the police, sirens screaming. converge on the factory, a maddened,
fiendish landau proceeds to aid his partner's demise. A freed Angie
attempts to evade Landau's clutches as he himself is ironically cough!
and heocled for the grincler, only to be clevoured by a bond of ravenous
cots. Gloss releases Angie.

1VM:

But there is a method and procedure. That Castle

lady I mentioned could not have made her own picture until
she was here and saw what it was all about. After we shot the
footage, in the editing room she could see, "Oh, that's how
this comes together. Now I know why you did that with the
camera." Somehow they've got to have the opportunity to
team. And very few of these opportunities are available in the
colleges.
When people come from a college to work on a picture, it
seems they have only a theoretical concept ofwhat it's like to
really make a film. Practical, day-to-day filmmaking without
total financing is so different, that they're usually at a loss.
Therefore, they have to become production assistants, where
they're picking up permits, racing around delivering checks,
buying MarksA-Lot pens-that sort of thing. Because even
though they might have five years at an accredited motion
picture college, they still don't have anypractical knowledge.
Places like A.F.I. [American Film Institute I offer a bit of an
opportunity to jump in, but usually in a situation where
there's 500 or 1 ,000 people who want to get involved, and
room for only 5 or 6. Maybe only 5 or 6 people are required
most of these are 16mm or Super-8mm projects. Also, the
logistics of their situation ( time, locations of their homes and
so forth) won't allow it.
All the more this points up how, in a period 25 years ago, I
had my housefilled with sleeping bags and people who were
eager and anxious to make a film. I had to take care

of them:

feed them, fix their flat tires, get them new spark plugs when
they needed tune-ups, and so on. I found that by keeping all
these people close we could hang together with our energy
and our intensities to create a picture. But when they all
scatter and go to their own homes, you've got to get on the
phone, and if everybody's calling everyone else 20 times a day
saying where to meet and how to get there (with people
saying, "Gee, I haven't got any gas," etc)-that's how the
concept of the Castle ladies originated. 1bey

can

adapt

themselves, whereas a man wants to lead his own situation or

people who are willing to work in exchange for being taught,

command his own clan, whether it be his wife or whatever.

and so on ), I'd be more productive. It's a tough way to go and

Actually, I don't believe in running anybody, but I also don't

still compete on the world market with pictures that some

believe in letting anyone run me. Running, manipulation,

one has spent a million or S 10 million ( let alone S30 million)

on, yet we do one with four nickels that's got to compete.
And when you get a review in the paper, they don't care
whether you've spent 2 nickels on it or S2 million. They rate
it and compare it the same as any other picture made at any

Scene from
...... OrtiY ef
.... ......
.. ...

other price. They say the ingenuity and creativity of the film is
what they compare, yet when the creator of one film is
working with S20 or $30 million, the comparison is really
unfair.
We built a corpse-grinding machine for maybe S38. If a
studio were building something like that for a psychological
terror picture or whatever, S38 wouldn't even buy the coffee
they'd drink while making the machine (which would proba
bly cost S 138,000 ). Our corpse-grinding machine consisted
of lawn mower blades which had been scrapped, plus odds
and ends-some red lightbulbs that were 39c, a piece of
discarded plywood, things like that. [laughs]
However, the total concept of entertainment is ( li.ke in
magic): If you can make someone believe something, and
make them enjoy it, they really don't care whether you've
spent S38 or S 138,000 on a corpse-grinding machine. When
they see this siJiy contraption-a tube, and a body with
clothes on (presumably a cadaver) sliding in one end and
coming out the other end as hamburger, they laugh, and
that's what the whole thing's about.

61

domination, as well as jealousy, possessiveness-all that

even the ones I made without money. But you can't get your

doesn't work. And when you're making a film you face all the

hands on that money.

psychological shortcomings and aberrations of every person

and personality in the company. But in college "psych" was

I'm not a joiner, I don't join anything. ( I am a member of

the Motion Picture Pioneers of America, but that's an honor

my major before I left to make my living in the entertainment

ary organization you're asked to join if you've served the

world. And I feel I have a great deal of practical knowledge

motion picture industry 25 years or more . ) I'm not in the

from having a large family. You know,

Directors' Guild, not in any guild. I just don't want anyone

14

grandchildren, six

kids . . . [laughs)
BR: You have 14 grandchildren ?
1VM: Yes. I don't let them call me "grandpa" until they
come over and exercise with me. Because I exercise very

hard-as hard as I did when I was 18 years old, or harder. I

don't feel any older than when I was about 20. I think there's

telling me what to do, or what I cannot do.

But, I know that hundreds of thousands of dollars out there
change hands, without any returns to us so we may continue
to make films. The biggest rip-off is videoc assettes around the
world, whether by projections, or stolen tapes that go into a
country and are duplicated by the tens of thousands and sold

something about doing what you love to do that keeps you

without any copyright participation. I'm a firm believer in

out of this tunnel that leads toward old age. Everyday I think:

free enterprise, but a videotape recorder that allows anyone

the drudgery of doing something you don't want to do is

to copy any picture with the push of a couple buttons, giving

destructive.

them an income .

BR: Doing only what you want to do keeps you from

BR: Andyou don 't har1e a squad oflawyers to track these

falling into someone else's context where you just 1VM: Drift away! The only detriment or shortcoming I
can see is: when you're not financed, it's tough. And getting
money back from a film after it's made is just as tough as
getting the money to make it with. Tough! You get ripped off
all over; there's piracy everywhere in the world. Just from
knowing what I do about gros ses and theaters and box offices
and television and videocassettes and so on worldwide, I'Ll
tell you that the handful of pictures that I still own and
control have literally grossed tar in excess ofstOO,OOO,OOO-

The Doll

Squad.

down . . .

'lhere1s sompthing Gbouf. doing what you lovt

to do that ._.. y o..t .of thiS t.....a that
leach towcnl old age. Every day, I thWc ihe

........, of doin,g ,...ing

..th
to do is' ..

you

don't want

Diego, at the Balboa Theater. Was that actually the world

premiere ?
TVM: It maybe was San Diego is a good test city. Did they
.

print the title?

BR: They did.
TVM: We found newspapers everywhere refused to print
the title. Silly little title; a little witchcraft picture that's really

very innocent. They might have called it BloodDevils or 0'8)1

of the Devils, but to my knowledge no place, at the time of
the release, would print the full title, Blood 0'8)1 of the She

Devils.
A little horror picture is lots of fun to make; you work hard
making it. On the other hand, pictures I enjoy the most are

like Doll Squad, the forerunner of ( and made 4 years before)

Charlie 's Angels. When they made Charlie's Angels they used
some of the names (like "Sabrina") out ofDoll Squad. Here
we have eight girls who work for the C.I.A., and they're like
James Bonds, all working under the guidance of Francine
York, who's the top one. Early in the movie a couple get killed
(puts the rest on their toes), then they wipe out Michael

Ansara's garrison on an island. All of his 300 troops-sixgirls

wipe 'em out! (laughs) It's a fantasy, it's escapist.
In

1972, when we first finished it all the networks wouldn't

touch it because they said it was too violent. Yet it

was

tongue-in-cheek violence. The girls give somebody a drink,

he stands up and explodes-completely disintegrates! To me
that's a joke, that's not violence. It's too preposterous, too
incredibly unbelievable.
BR: On 1V there areprograms that use the sameformula

Lil Iaborin plays Mara, evil incarnate, who challenges

Lucifer, the devil himself in

Blood

0111Y of

every week, and it's: one week beautiful showgirlsare being

murdered, next week models are getting murdered, the next

the She DevRs.

week beauty contest entrants-it's always beautiful girls

being murdered.
TVM : Like they say, there's only

basic story lines, and

those 7 mixed and intertwined create

49,

49

and those

intermixed make that many more, and so on. But basically my

feeling about dramatic action is that there's more op
portunity there for sheer artistry.
BR_: What

was your first picture?

TVM: My first picture was Strike Me Deadly. Unfortu

TVM : That's right. But I'm not too great a supporter of

nately I did it in black-and-white-it nevergot offthe ground.

attorneys- they cause more downfallen projects than they

At that point I had no idea of the "Hollywood" point of view

as to what should be made and what shouldn't; or what

assist. And they take so long to do things; I cannot move in

that slow of a time frame. They'll take four-day weekends off

1 1:00,

3:30

would sell. That film expressed purely the part ofme that

was

if

directing plays and making short films, putting my feelings

somebody wants to have an early dinner or late lunch then

and interests into a story. It's a very simple story of a young

nothing urgent, so . . .

man and his wife who are college teachers spending the

to go play, and come back Monday at

and at

I'm sure there are some very hard-working attorneys, but I

call them the "Monday, Wednesday, Friday, nextweekboys."
It's always "can't get to it 'til Friday''; Friday, it's "sorry,
Monday' '; Monday, "Wednesday''; Wednesday it's "check me
at the end of the week"; and at the end of the week they're
gone! And that goes on month after month.
BR: A lot of businesses operate that way TVM: Like with a laboratory-you may have to wait

3th

weeks to get your sound transferred. So what do you do for

those

31h weeks? You

... ...., ., .. ... .... .. a

witchaaft story. And ...., .... .. ......
....... ....... .. ...... ......., .
...... .. cakhing .. ... It .. aaost
If .._. ... wltdlcraft prasant.

wait. While your interest goes on and

you owe thousands of dollars more on the money you bor

rowed, but, you know, that's the problem the creator faces.

summer working for the U.S. Forestry Service in a lookout

Almost nobody who finances pictures wants to go into a

tower. On his first day the guy witnesses a murder, and the

risk venture. There are people who do, but theywant double,

murderer chases him through the forest, starting a forest fire

triple, quadruple collateral back-ups, interest and payable

to destroy the evidence, and so on. There's action: planes

monthly. These people have no concept of what the crea

tive person goes through in trying to generate money on that

guy's trying to find his wife and she's out feeding squirrels

dropping borade on the forest fire, flames everywhere; the

money. All they know is that they want it collateralized and

instead of staying back at the tower. There's a chase through

covered so there is no risk to lose apenny. While the creative

the rocks and the lava beds and the waterfalls . . .

person puts his neck on the chopping block every time.

I had thought of redoing it, but now they can change

That's why I've sometimes made pictures likeAstro Zombies

black-and-white (on magnetic tape ) to color! So I hope to

and Corpse Grinders with no money.

BR: I meant to ask you-/ went to what

was advertised

as the worldpremiere of Blood Orgy ofthe She Devils in San

transfer that film and release it to aU the magnetic markets of

the world. After we find

S9S,OOO

to change that black-and

white negative to a color magnetic master so we

can make
63

copies in every format, somebody else can get their hands on

it and make copies for free!
We've got a number of other action things like Operation
Overkill and I Crossed the Color Line, the original title of
which

was

1be Black Klansman. Although the film's promo

ters advertised it

was

made in complete secrecy in the deep

South and so on, it's still very gutwrenching -quite an in

depth story. !At this point a Castle Lady walks past noisily,
bringing the conversation to a halt. When Ted informs her
she's interrupting an interview, she assumes the stance of an
animal, emitting hisses and growls. Ted smiles, saying,
"Thanks a lot, honey," and the interview continues.)
In Girl in Gold Boots we tried to do a picture that

was

non-violent and clean-no nudity, no anything that would

keep it from afternoon matinees or daytime television. And it
was

so tame [laughs] that audiences wouldn't support it,

even though it had beautiful

dancing girls.

It

was

a typical

story of a young girl from the Midwest coming to Hollywood,

meeting good elements, some bad elements, and being
exposed to a choice. After seeing a lot of the undesirable
aspects of the "great life" in Hollywood, she chooses to lead
the clean, simple life and leaves the area. So it had a moral;

a man who actually lives in the Utah desert with 14 wives, and

something to offer there.

what they do with their life. It's a nicely done, very warm

Then I did a story called Alex and His Wil--es. It's a profile of

story of a family-a big family. For some reason, the people

who created the concept for the picture disappeared from
the face of the earth.

PRESSBOOK TIC KET -SELLING

PROMOTI ON S U G G E STIONS

After that came a couple of martial arts films, the most

recent being Operation OrJerkill.
I'm putting my "Doll Squad" into outer space in a picture
called Space Angels. One of my friends is a good animator,
Robert Maine, and we've done preliminaries-created space

FOR TH EATERS

ships, videotape of our own ships in flight, and so on. The

work looks rich and elegant, and it's all done- rear screen,

1 . AMBULANCE i n front of theatre with sign "For those who can't toke
the horror and shock of 'The Corpse Grinders'."

2. NURSE in lobby of theatre with cot with sign "Our nurse is available
for our patrons who ton' t toke the shock and terror of 'The Corpse
Grinders'."

3. MAN walking on street with head covered by long overcoat giving

impression of being headless with sign "I lost my head to 'The Corpse
Grinders'."

4. MAN pulling donkey with sign on each side of donkey reading "I'm
going to miss 'The Corpse Grinders' at the

___

Theatre . . . and you

know what I om!"

5. Run ads

in

the

tlossified

columns.

Here

is

suggested

copy:

WANTED! Shock-proof people to see "The Corpse Grinders" at the

___

Theatre.

WANTED! People with guts who dare see human bodies ground
before your very eyes by "The Corpse Grinders" machine!
WANTED! People who dare sit thru the bloodiest-weirdest film ever
mode, "The Corpse Grinders" now at

---

Theatre.

WANTED! Nerveless humans to view the sha<ker of the century, "The

Corpse Grinders," now at the

___

Theatre.

b. HAVE AN AD INVITING first 10 people who dare sit thru midnite

screening of "The Corpse Grinders" in pitch block theatre as guests of
the man who grinds human bodies to shreds before your very eyes in
"The Corpse Grinders."

7. NO PATRONS dare be seated during the film until after the first
human body is ground by the corpse grinding machine.

8. Hove man in Santo Claus costume walk in street with sign reading "I
just hod to come bock to see the sha<ker of the century 'The Corpse
Grinders' OR "I just couldn't wait till next Xmas to see it!"

9. WHERE FILM ploys in hot weather hove man in raccoon coot and ear
muffs on street with sign "The Corpse Grinders left me freezing with
fright. Chilled me to the bone."

1 0. Hove sound truck hove record of grinding noise played thru

speakers with announcement "YOU ore hearing the shocking sounds of
human bodies being ground to shreds in the blood-curdling ghostly
machine in 'The Corpse Grinders' now at

__

theatre. Do you hove the

courage to see this gory sight? On the screen before your very eyes!"

front screen projection, everything-in our own facilities.

space Angels involves a planet of beautiful females that's
invaded by a bad guy. All the females on his planet are sterile,
so he sends his bad queen to kidnap the good queen and take
over her planet. Of course, the fe male planet is non-violent
they can't fight back in the same manner as the more violent
planet that sent its warriors and soldiers to take over.

obviously there's got to be some sort of hero, and the hero s

been marooned on another planet after a big war with the
bad guy. The girls in search of their kidnapped queen happen
to run into him on an island v..nere people get eaten by
spiders as big as a house. He gets them out of there, they get
their queen back, and there's a happy ending and so on . . .
I've got a big project that's been my pride and joy for about
27 years: Beouulf We've shown the script to major studios
and they say, "It's going to cost S60 million dollars." Well, it
would cost them S60 million, but I could do it for SS million,
and it would be an epic that would bring in money for 40
years. ( But where do you go to get SS million?) It's in the
realm of Conan, but Scandinavian in origin, and part fact, part
fiction-meaning there's some basis to believe that the hero
actually existed, around

600

A.D. It's based on that great

piece of English literature, the Beowulf poem, about the

tremendous strength and capabilities of a super-human war
rior with the strength of 30 men in one

arm ,

who

was

champion of the people, a folklore hero.

BR: Do you usually batJe ser,eral projects going at once?
lVM: You have to! We have a project going on in almost
every type of film. I've written one to be done here in the
castle, but they don't allow you to film in your own home
the number of ways a creative person can be stifled is stagger
ing! You have to go down, file a permit, pay them $200 a day,
but we might be starting the whole motion picture with only
5200-that's to buy a few roUs of short ends of film, and a few
baloney sandwiches. On top of that, we're supposed to hire
policemen, firemen, etc. So it's prohibitive.
You have to get away from here to areas where people are
still fascinated with the creativity involved in making films,

64

and aren't out to take you . . . where people might offer you

in the broth . . So I sold out to him. I'd known him for a long

their homes and vehicles and ranches and so on. Then you

time before he came to

get support.

direct and so on, and I wished him well. But that was only

When a dedicated filmmaker finds a way to make a film, he

me

with the concept; he wanted to

one

picture filmed here. Next week we have a company bringing

needs all the support he can get (it might take 20years to pay

in a Bengal tiger and everything else! That is, if their plans

for a camera). Imagine you were an artist with your easel set

don't change. As you know, plans for picture production

up to paint a picture somewhere, and somebody comes along

often change.

and says, "What's that thing made out of? Sticks? You can't

BR: I meant to ask you about 'JUra Satana-howdidyou

have that on this beach." Then someone else comes along

meet her?

and says, "That paper you're painting on is flammable; we

TVM: I was flying with some friends from central Oregon

don't want any fires here," and takes that away. Then some

down to Mazatlan for about the last vacation I ever took

one else comes along and says, "What are you doing on this

that

beach; don't you know it's private property?" (laughs] Any

When I first saw her she

way. the restrictions are tremendous.

gorgeous. lovely lady! I didn't meet her until seven years later.

Once we were shooting a picture with people who theo

was

was

I959 [laughs]. On the way we stopped in Vegas.

about to do Astro

an exotic dancer; what a

was

Zombies,

and an agent mentioned

retically had survived a nuclear holocaust-mutants. Well,

Tura Satana. I said, "Wow! I remember her from Vegas." So

the actors in make-up and beards looked so bad that neigh

she came in for a reading, and I revamped the part especially

bors called the police. Now, police keeping an eye out for

for her, to make her a "Dragon Lady," and promptly feU in

shady characters is one thing, but when they come and shut

love with her ( and aU that).

you down, that's another.

She was also in my Doll Squad picture. She is a very good

lady, and I still consider her a very close friend. And the same

1he ..twortrs wouldn't tOuch it becaure fhiW

said It .. too violent. Y-et It was .......
chHic Yiollnce. 1he girls fiv sqnlliloclr a
drink, he stc.lds up and explodes con....,ay
clsintatesl To me thafs a IOJce, that's nOt
.......

with the rest of her family: her daughter Kilani, her daugh
ter's husband and their kids. You become very close when
you make films- I don't believe I've ever done a picture
where the people involved aren't to this day good friends.
She just moved back to Hollywood after living out in the
Valley for years. I don't think she wants to stay out of the
public eye; if I had the right picture for her we'd be back in
production together again. I

was

smitten with her the first

time I met her, and I've loved her ever since.

BR: Tura Satana should be a household name!
TVM : Yeah! There are those of us who love the characters

I've always said that making a film is the easy part. From

she's very capable of creating. And she's still very beautiful.

writing producing, directing lighti ng, cinematography, edit

She did have an accident that caused a lot of grief-she was

ing and so on, making a movie should be simple! The hardest

hit full on in the side of her vehicle, and for the past two years

part is: ( 1 ) getting the money to make it; ( 2 ) getting the

has been out of commission with those injuries. But I under

money back after it's been made. Last is: making the film.

stand she's better. Anyway, she's good, and I enjoy making

That's the way I look at it.

that type of film.

BR: 1bat film uith the mutants; was that Aftermath?

TVM: Yes; we did it here on the castle grounds.

Astro Zombies was made with practically no money. When

you realize we had people like Wendell Corey and john

BR: And it was done by Steve Barkett?

Carradine in the studio, I'm almost aghast when I think what

TVM: Yes.

tiny, tiny pennies we made that picture for. Everything was a

BR: Somebody said that he wrote, directed andstan-ed in

creation from nothing. One prop

it, and that it took him fiue years to finish.

thing with little lights flashing underneath . . .

TVM: Yeah, it can take a long time. We started the project

as a joint venture, but sometimes having two or three cooks

was

just a painted plastic

Astro Zombies: I had some

One story about the making of

lots I was buying on Mount Washington {later I had to

Tura Satana relaxes

'

'

and thinks up new

evil deeds in

Tlte AJtn.I....W.S.

F I L M

P R E S S B O O K

S Y N O P S I S

O B A DIAH
The story you are about to

see

18

is true. The names have nat been

changed to profert the innO<ent. The film is based upon O<tual incidents
and played by the people they happened to-Alex Joseph and his wives.
All 105 minutes of (Oior adion were shot entirely on IO<ation in
southern Utah-where it really happened. Never before has o drama
with these ingredients been brought to the sueen.
All this was Q((omplished without the (ooperation of any federal
bureau. The story was netessorily filmed under armed guard ond (Orried
forth despite the attempts of the U.S. Pork Servite to deny the right of
Q((ess to publi( lands during filming.
In all respeds "OBADIAH 18" is o unique testimony to Ameri(on
ingenuity.
"The

man

who has raised the notion's eyebrows with his flaunting

of the establishment, the man who doims 10 women-young, ottro(

tive, intelligent women-as his wives, the man who dares to do bottle
with the government . . . "
Now (Omes the true story of Alex Joseph, the one-man revolution
whose devil-be-damned (OUrage has arrested the attention of domesti(
and international press. Set to the long-striding po(e of o man who
walks through the world as though he owned it, the movie is filled with
Joseph's romontes and dlollenges, his friends and enemies. This man

lives more in o week than most people do n

i o lifetime! The movie is
lo(ed with the adventures and es(opodes of the people who look for
Joseph. Some of them ore (Omi(ol, some are deadly serious-but they
all find out that whoever thinks he has on eye on Alex Joseph should
look over his awn shoulder to see who's really doing the looking . . .
An amazing portrait of on outrageous and beautiful family . . . This
true story is more inuedible than any fidion. In outrage or admiration
of this revolutionary polygamist lifestyle, you will be left wondering
what will they do next?

Y llan to ..

..
.. a

aMi ca a ....us
.

....... , w. the - with ...,...

,_ ,.., ...t to ...__. in.

surrender them because I used them as collateral on a pic

ture). I was filming up there on my own property, and out of
nowhere came the fire department and the police
department-they just converged on me. I had about twelve
people there. What was funny was: we just ntrned the came
ras on them and used the footage in the film! We edited it in
and it looks like part of the movie-it's great! For a long time
that was our private joke.
BR: Wasn't something burning ?
TVM: Well, we had a little bit of a smokepot. I appreciate
the fact that someone was concerned enough to immediately
come out, but it was just a tiny smokepot. There was an old
wreck on the property that we'd turned into a car that had
just crashed over an embankment, containing a body that was
theoretically just kiUed-the astro zombie- and the
demented doctor who was collecting body parts had to get
to that body quick so he could take parts out of it. So, it was
kind of delightful to see aU those police cars pouring out of
nowhere onto the property. It made our scene!
BR: Any other fire stories ?
TVM: Blood 0rRy of the Sbe Devils was a witchcraft story.
And every time we turned around someone was getting
burned, or something was catching on fire. It was almost as if
there were witchcraft present, in fact . . .

There were no reasons for fires that started by themselves

out of nowhere. like, somebody in the prop department
would get burned, and . . . It got to be something that the cast
and crew would wonder about: "What is this?" [laughs] In
the past I'd spent about 2 years researching parapsychology,
attending seances, etc, yet I could find no reason for the
things that took place.
For example, we burned a witch at the stake, and it hap
pened to be a lady very close to me. We had her on top of a
wood pile chained to a huge post, and I had instructed the
effects people to build the fire on a paUet which could be
pulled away with ropes in the event ofa problem. (You get
the fire started, then pull the paUet away and cut to a close
up, with flames from a different source ). WeU, aU of a sudden
the wind changed and we almost really burned her at the
stake! [laughs] That was hairy!
In almost every picture, things like that have happened. In
Operation Overkill we had explosions that wouldn't
explode, because the weather in Reno was too cold. The
basic explosion would go off but everything else would just
fall down in white flakes. ( laughs]
I was a stunt man in a picture:: caUcd Indian Fighter, with
Kirk Douglas and Alan Hale. I played a barebacked Indian
shooting flaming arrows. Years before, in central Oregon, I
had shot flaming arrows just for the heck of it. I got on the
good side of the effects people because I had developed
flaming arrows that would stay lit in flight. (Whereas the
props department just had arrows with a big, dumb-looking
glob of orange phosphorus on the end that didn't even look
like fire. ) I shot 'em into flagpoles; set wagons on fire; and had
. a lot of fun.
BR: How did you make flaming anuws?
TVM: I used pitch! They don't think about pitch in Hotly
wood, but in central Oregon it's everywhere; you gather it in
little cans from trees where it oozes out. That's what you start
your fire with at night. With pitch plus turpentine, I was able
to create a mixture that would stay lit. However, you have to
remember that the modern hunting bow shoots so fast that it
would put out any fire. So you have to use a true Indian long
bow that just lobs the arrow so it stays lit. They're accurate;
you just have to use a different elevation.
Years before, I had won some archery contests. I used to
shoot bow and arrow every day; I used to hunt with bow and
arrow. I stiU have all my hunting gear.
BR: By the way, do you happen to know Cresse and
Prost?
TVM: I knew Bob Cresse reasonably well twenty years
ago; I don't know what he's doing now.
BR: I heard he was shot in thestomach and had to leave
the country.
TVM: I heard that, too. He was involved in a different type
of film than I was! Lee Frost -he's stiU around; in the past year
I've run across his credits in a film somewhere. I'm sure you
can find him; check the laboratories.
BR: What do you look for in a film ?
TVM: I look for the creativity of the maker. Then, how
much I am taken with the story: am I entertained, or am I
turned off? I'm often asked in interviews if I have somebody I
try to emulate or imitate. And I say, "God, no!" I don't pay any
attention to what anybody else does; I do what I feel. If
someone else wants to copy me, fine, but I do not copy. I've
never copied.
But I am guilty, a little bit, of using stereotypes. For exam
ple, ifyou need a "doctor" inabitpartwho has t o rush on,do
something and then leave, you're almost obligated to use a
stereotype so that people wiU instantly accept the person as a
doctor. But even that stereotype changes from time period to
time period. Now, a 28-year-old bearded man wearing faded
denims maybe a doctor. You'd accept that today, but 15 years
ago you had to have a man in a 3-piece suit, graying hair and
bifocals with a little satchel. So, if I've got to "seU" a part

66

A TERRIFYING,
SCREAMING
PLUNGE TO THE
DEPTHS OF HELL!

MARA

QUEEN OF THE
BUCK WITCHES,
AND HER WOLf-PACK
OF VOLUPTUOUS
VIRGINS
INVADE SATAN'S
TORTURD REAL"'
OF THE
UNKNOWN'
,,
\" _..J

li!j ZabOtln . Tom Pat ll':S;Iif .:Rat: . v CIO! Ira'I . 't\!lild"''' Ri!r-1Ar.J

' .......
.
,...
ltc1 v f.:!:I"; A.-Ttl't Sa na\

. &

,,,..,

... larr. NDPr

...,

efficiently and quickly, I use a stereotype. But other than that,

I do not copy.

..
.

CJf z,nrtr

COLOR

f'j v ,, f' F, 1'1 F'roductlon . Relf'ase: Hy GenerH filf"' Otillbu1ni lo Inc

It would be nice to be able to just hire someone and have

all

these bits and pieces done. In a way it's an advantage to do

If you want to be a filmmaker, it's like: if you want an

it yourself, but it's also a disadvantage because it takes so

pieces; if you don't have anyotherwayto get it, you build it. If

answer print, and it's a year out of your life. How many

automobile and all you've got is a junkyard full of parts and

much time. You start with writing, end up with your first

that means you have to learn how to paint the car when it's

pictures can you make?

don't like having to write, produce, direct, raise the money,

love to start one every 90 days. To do that you'd have to hire

the drama teacher, do the make-up and special effects, do all

pany, have someone writing so that while you 're working on

through, you do that, too. It's the same with making a film: I
shoot, be director of photography, cameraman, work with

the editing, put on every sound effect, do all the music,

handle it through the answer print, then start out with the

film under your arm, selling it . . . I don't do that because I

want to; I do it because sometimes there's no other way. / do

whatever it takes.
BR: You do the music, too?

1VM: I taught music when I was younger. But I do not do

the scoring. I may take a Library and do the scoring; however,

I have a composer friend who's absolutely fantastic and

well-talented, Nicholas Ga.rras. He's done most of the music

in my films for about 28 years. He composes; then we rent the

studio and go in with anywhere from

18 to 30

musicians and

record. Later, when he's already scored it, he sits at the

movieola and times it along with a click track. If there's
something happening that calls for a sting at, say,

14.3

seconds, he knows exactly when that sting should hit. Garras

is brilliant that way, and that's how pictures are scored.

I've seldom ever started two films in a year. I'd love to; I'd

post-production, hire an editor, hire a sound effects com

one film another one's being written. Actually, I've probably

.... is ....... the ... .....

..... is ...... ....,..., the
second ...,.._ is ...... It .....

the .......

got 6 projects in various stages of preparation at this moment,

besides scripts being drafted and so on.

BR: WhatS your taxidermist script about?

1VM: Taxidermist is unusual, to say the least. I can't really

give away the plot because I don't own the story; it

was

created by a relative and close writer/friend of Francine

York. It has to do with family wealth in the deep South, the

rivalry that takes place, and revenge. Without giving away the

plot, I'd say some very startling things take place, because

67

taxidermy's not limited to animals! [laughter) But that's just

F I L M P R E S S B O O K SYNOPSIS

BLOOD ORGY OF
THE SHE-DEVILS

one; I've got a lot more stories I want to do.

Finding the wrap-up dollars for a picture is sometimes

more difficult than fmding the initial dollars. All your costs
escalate as you go along. You start out making a picture for

28c, and if your project looks like it's headed for a successful

conclusion, you keep requiring more and more money to

dress it. Like, it's one cost to use canned music tracks out of a

library, and another to have a talented man like Nick Garras

write it and score it. It's one thing to do a sound mix at a tiny

Mora (Lila Zoborin) a "block" witd1, proditioner of the occult, block

magic, and evil imamate, is the leader of a coven of voluptuous,
S<ontily dod beautiful young women who vent their sadistic love and
passion for pain on helpless vidims as they perform the bloody ritual of o
hideously macabre dome of death, carrying aloft flaming toHhes and
plunging spears into their human mole sacrifices in a gory ceremony to
titillate their pulsating pleasures and sondify the evil desires of this
queen of the Witches.
Mora is opproa<hed by Rodonnus (Ray Myles) enemy agent of a
foreign power, accompanied by his hemhmon, Borth (Paul Wilmoth)
with the request that on Ambo.ssodor representative to the United
Notions from another country be eliminated by means of her magic
powers. During this meeting. Rodannus demands proof of her mystical
power and she causes a wine glass to shatter in his hands. When the
enemy agent leaves, Mora keeps the bloodied handkerchief he hod used
on

his cut hand.

Lorraine (leslie Md!oe) a newcomer to Mora's coven, persuades her

boyfriend. Mark (Tom Pace) on unbeliever, to attend a seance.

Astounded by the results, during which Mora has conjured up two spirit
guides and a ghost and worried about Lorraine's involvement, Mark
ides to consult Dr. Helsford (Vidor lzoy) a "white" witch

or

wariO(k, and on expert on psychic phenomena.

After Mora has caused the Ambassador's death at a party, Rodannus
fears thot she may turn her powers against him, and he sends Barth to
kill both Mora and her high priest, Toruke (William Bagdad). Borth also
kills a young girl Roberto (Linn Henson), but she manages to snatch his
face before she dies.
Meanwhile, Dr. Helsford agrees to help Mark. By means of witch
(fOft, Mora has caused Borth to kill a rot instead. She now restores
Toruke to life and using Rodonnus' bloodied hondkeHhief and Barth's
suotched skin from the fingernail porings of the dead girl, Mora
eliminates both Barth and Rodannus in a macabre and bloody manner.
Mark and Lorraine are to attend another seance at Mora's residence

stage on some back street in Hollywood, as opposed to one of

the houses where they've got

$20

million invested in Sound

transfer equipment. So you keep upgrading as you go; as your

enthusiasm develops, so does your budget.

Very seldom do pictures bring back the money unless

there is the control that only the major studios can exert.

1bey can collect the money. An independent like myself

cannot enforce collections anywhere. You've got to have

legal departments and offices in many cities; you've got to do

things in order to collect money. Just because your picture

grosses a lot at the box office doesn't mean you get any. There
are too many places where your money's taken: for promo

tion, for print costs, for every reason under the sun including

a bad date that's rained out that you've got to pay for, adver
tising, etc.

You may get money due you from one theater, whereas a

theater in an adjoining town had a storm and all the money

for advertising was lost, so the money made from one town

pays for the losses in the other. I've had reports from
instead of getting

S500

in film rental for each theater, I get a

bill for SSOO. Doesn't always happen, but it happens often.

BR: 7bat 's nuts!
lVM: It is nuts!
BR: It's hard to imagine that sort of thing happening
lVM: Remember when I said the easiest thing is making
the film? The toughest thing is getting the money, the second
toughest is getting it back. Of those

3 things, making the film

is the easiest, as well as the only thing which goes forward on

schedule, providing you've got a dollar allocated for doing a

certain job.

BR: Everyone's heard about people who have a 7bp 10

music hit, yet netJeT' see any moneyfrom it.

and they discuss with Dr. Helsford the possibilities of age regression
under hypnosis which Mark is to undergo. The tor warns them of the
dangers of dabbling in the block arts. He psychometrizes an amulet
Lorraine is wearing which Mora hod given her as protedion ogoinst
unfriendly demons.
After the poir leave for the meeting. the disturbed Dr. Helsford,
sensing an evil aftermath, enlists the aid of three other scientists
interested in psychic phenomena and they decide to visit Mara's home
where the meeting is to be held. During regression, Mark is shown to
hove been killed by Indians in a previous life as a frontiersman and now,
drugged by Mora, he is to be offered up as a human souifice in an effort
to conjure up Lucifer, the Devil himself.
Mora and her coven of witches are soon terrrified as an unseen
presence tokes over. The building rumbles and trembles as utter chaos
reigns. The unseen terror possesses the bodies of the young witches who
turn against Toruke and kill him, and they then turn against each other.
Outside, Dr. Helsford fights the evil within by means of exorcism and
manages to restore order and sanity, driving the evil unseen presence
away. When the quartet of scientists enter the building. all is death and
destrudion. Mark, Lorraine and all the others ore dead. Only a bot dings
to the ceiling and dislodging it, Dr. Helsford, knowing its true identity,
kills it and throws it

on

some burning cools. At last, Mora poys for the

consequences of evil, as her translucent, vaporous form floats upwards

in a raging. screaming death.

30

theaters, many of whom did excellent business, where

Dancing beauties in Girl In GoW ......

trunk of a lot of big pictures that have grossed

1VM: A creative person can hold up many ends of busi

millions, with the producer never having seen a penny. No

ness, but they can't hold up every end. Anyway, most film

one I've known has ever found a way to successfully monitor

makers don't deal with aU that -collecting money and so on.

lVM:

can

theater receivables. Maybe the big chains can, because they

I'm a firm believer in "all things come to he who waits." One

deal with mass volumes and gross revenues. But if you have a

of the outstanding things about our business is that the

play date somewhere in the Midwest, if your picture did

amount of money you spend making a film has no relation to

$3,200 for one week, theoretically 25% is supposed to come

what you can expect to make in return. On the other hand,

back to the distributor. Of that S800,S200 is kept bythe local

the more money you spend telling the world it's a great

distributor. Then your S600 gets hit with a lot of charges, and

picture, the better chance you have ofgetting a bigger return.

you might get your share anywhere from 3 months to 2 years

A film may only cost S 1 million to make, but it may cost 5

later. And, there is no commitment on anybody's part that

times that much to tell the world it's a marvelous film, so

they're really going to pay you, except that they're in busi

they'll go see it. And that's not uncommon: to spend far more

ness, and you assume that sooner or later they have to pay to

promoting the film than the film actually cost.

BR: Your films should have a bead start. because the
titles are so good.

stay in business, otherwise no one's going to give them any

films.

1VM: I've been told I have a unique ability there; that's

part of being a showman. You do your best magic trick, you
don't use your crummiest one. You use the ones that have the
greatest flash, the greatest audience-pleasing ability. You
choose music that is most moving, and so on. It's just part and
parcel of the game.
You

choose

titles

like

Operation

Overkill-action

oriented, ClA, martial arts. 7be Doll Squad dolls are pretty
girls; mix that with James Bondish-type artwork and you have
an all-female James Bond film. Blood Orgy ofthe SheDevils is
almost like it sounds. And Corpse Grinders -the corpse
grinders are hoodlums who grind corpses into cat food for
"Cats Who like People." It has to be very simple; how are you
If we knew a picture played a chain of 100 theaters, for

going. to reach an audience if you can't say what it is in a few

example, and these theaters gave us the box office gross

words-you can't give them a dissertation! If you said, "A

receipts, we could figure out a net film rental. But that chain

Story About a Man Who Chased Bears," you've said it all. /

might have 4 theaters in another state which spend more

Crossed the Color Line is a story about a man who passed for

money on advertising than they should, so the money you

white, and of course hls blood was not. He went on to take

might be getting from the first state will be taken to cover

vengeance on the Klan for killing his little 3-year-old daugh

those theaters in the other state. It's funny the way it works;

ter in a church bombing. In 7be Astro Zombies, "astro" is

difficult. And if the theater or circuit doesn't do it to you the

futuristic, like astral space, and zombies are dead people that

distributor will, or the sub-distributor, or master distributor.

We formed our own distribution company, but you still can't

really can't die again, right? So I concocted the title Astro

Zo mbies 20 or 2 5 years ago, long before there was ever any

keep track. It's almost come to the point where you have to

such thing as heart transplants . . .

deal directly with the theater on a theater-to-theater basis. If

As with Astro Zombies, I'm usually accused of being a few

you can't, you really don't have any protection against what

years ahead of whatever's going on. I'm always three or four

will happen, from the time people pay their money to get in

years ahead, but many times I don't find the money until it's

the theater, to the time you receive it (or don't receive it). I

too late. The concepts are there, but concepts get ripped off.

didn't have gray hair when I started; I didn't have any gray

Just by presenting screenplays to anyone, they get ripped off.

hair.

A lot of people are not creative thinkers, they're copiers. And

BR: You really have to want to makefilms, given all the

so I'm blessed with being able to re-create-if somebody

obstacles-

copies something, I can in 2 seconds [snaps his fingers] come

You have to be as obsessed as a religious fanatic!

up with a different idea. I get calls constantly from people,

Actually, it's the same with anything you really want to

saying, "I've got a hell of an idea for a movie," and I stop them

lVM:

succeed in. MaJting films is magic; there's something very

right there. They say, "Don't you even want to hear it?" I say,

fulfilling about it. It's also something that's very easy to

"Yes, in a way I would, but tell me-most importantly, have

become obsessed over. That's why when people ask me why

you got the money to start it?"

I don't take vacations, I say, ''Vacation from what?" MaJting a

film is my recreation, profession, vacation, vocation, every
thing! It's fun! The only time it gets tough is when money is
too scarce, and then many times survival is at stake. In fact,
very often. And that's when it's not so much fun. [laughs] You
may have pictures all over the world that are feeding thou
sands of people; you may have 10 different films playing at the
same time, yet go a year without seeing a dime. That's the

BR: Again, that's nuts.

lVM: It is nuts. And I

It doesn't matter what the ideas are, I get an idea a minute.

In five minutes I could write more titles for viable film

nature of the business.

stories-very realistic film productions-than I could make

don't know of anyone who can

in the rest of my life. So I don't want to hear that there aren't

change it. I tried very diligently, but I wasn't able to. Maybe

that many really new ideas. Anyway, I've got all the ideas I

on this newest picture, Operation Overkill, I'll let someone

need, plus I have an enormous investment in screenplays that

else handle all the legal manuevering, merchandising, pro

are the result of previous ideas. They're ready to go. Why

motion, collecting the money and so on-people whose

come up with more stories and screenplays when you've got

business is just doing that with finished pictures. I'll see if

to make films out of the ones you've already created?

they have better luck than I did.

BR: It's

bard to be a creative person anri hold up the

business end.

BR: Corpse Grinders expressed the idea of cats eating

human flesh and then attacking people-/ haven 't seen that
particular theme used too often.

69

F I L M

P R E S S B O O K

S Y N O P S I S

ASTRO ZOMBIES
Multilotion murders occur with increasing savagery i n a city. The
nature of these murders-vital organs ripped from the victims'
bodies-leads the C.I.A., headed by Holman (Wendell Corey) to the
conclusion that the former chief of the Astro Space laboratory, Dr.
DeMarco (John Corrodine) has succeeded in creating on Astro-Mon, a
zombie with a defective brain!
DeMarco, missing since his dismissal from the Space Center, has
secreted himself in on old mansion on the outskirts of the city; there he
continues experiments on human bodies with the aid of a deformed
assistant. Foreign agents from hostile governments ore also trying to
locate DeMarco to force him to put his knowledge in their hands. The
exotic and voluptuous Solano, working with two vicious killers,
reduces the competition by torture and threat, brutally massacring
some of Holman's men.
The subsequent multilotion of a beautiful technician at the Space lob

An Astro-Iombie attacks!

(The Astro-lomWes)

leads Holman to set a trap for the zombie, by planting another girl as
boil. The suspense tightens when the zombie attacks the girl after
Holman's men ore gone. After a desperate fight the zombie is tracked
down, bock to DeMarco's mansion.
Meanwhile the spies ore embroiled in ever-deepening intrigue, but
manage to find DeMarco's lob with a frequency rectifier. An explosive
finale is inevitable. Holman's men surround the mansion, trapping
Solano inside with DeMarco and the zombies. A bloody gun bottle
follows, with the zombies butchering indiscriminately. DeMarco is shot
down by Sotono, but not before he throws the master switch that
deactivates the zombies forever, burying his secret under a moss of
electronic rubble.

who's 18 or 19. It turns out she's the daughter of one of his

college buddies who gets incensed that the man has a fascina
tion for his daughter. He doesn't realize the little daughter
has a fascination for the man. Maybe they both work
together- maybe they both do helicopter rescue missions,
and one guy has a choice of letting the other fall off a cliff
during a rescue operation. I can dream up these things
forever, you know . . .
I dreamed up a story based on this old, beat-up castle I live
in, called Castle Rcy. There's a guy living here a bit akin

to

myself- he's got a beard and moustache; and there's a l i ttl e

mystique about the building-there's lots of secret pas

I sold .ytWng to buy the tint to make the

film to ...... with. I sold my boule, ,_.,
......., ICIXophone, the lots I had, everything.

sages . . .
BR: Are there?
lVM: There are some places between the wall here, and
so on. And the castle is on two acresoftreesso it's hidden. I'd
put it into a period piece, somewhere around 1890.

BR: How can you do that?

lVM: I Jove special effects l ighting; I claim a great capacity

lVM: When I say there aren't that many original ideas,

there. I don't know many directors who are really capable of

what I mean is, every time someone calls on the phone

lighting. I can do things in this place to make it look scary in

ways beyond. Meaning: taking lights out, putting up gas

saying, "I've got an idea for you," I say, "But I don't need any
more; I've already got so many ideas." But actually, that

lamps, using mattes on the windows in order to project an

depends on the mood I'm in. If I'm just finishing a picture and

ocean and cliffs out there, instead of trees . . .

haven't got the pressure of something waiting, then I don't

I'm going to take advantage of all I've learned in 30 years of

mind listening. But whenever someone calls up with an idea,

filmmaking right here. I've got a screenplay on castle Ray,

most of the time all you can tell them is to do a synopsis. Got
an idea ? Do a story treatment. Then let's find out how viable

and I've got screenplays on a number of other things. Strike

Me Deadly I sat down and wrote in about 3 weeks on a little

the story treatment is toward making a film out of it.

patio like this, then started filming days later.

BR: How can you

detennine viability of a story

treatment?

BR: Don't you think people could appredate Strike Me

Deadly in black-and-white ?

guys who grind

lVM: Let me tell you what I face. When someone puts the

human bodies into cat food-that's viable! The Girl in Gold

videocassette in and watches it, they love it and nobody

lVM : Well, to me that story about

Boots, about a girl who comes to Hollywood and is faced

wants to tum it off. But when we're talking about buyers from

with making a choice, to me that's viable. A man with 14

the Middle East, buyers from the United Kingdom, buyers

wives and how he makes his life work-to me that's viable.

from Scandinavia, buyers for theaters, buyers for cassettes in

Operation Overkill, the CIA using martial artists to over

this country or it doesn't matter where, the minute you say

power terrorists and suppress illegal shipments of weapons,

that's viable.

"black-and-wh ite" you're shut off. Not interested. Nobody

from any country wants to buy a black-and-white film from

I could sit here and dream up a hundred ideas in five

America; no TV stations, nobody. Pay cable? "Black-and

minutes. The mind is a marvelous computer; all you've got to

white-forget it, we're not interested." They don't even want

do is tune in and say, "Hey, I want to make a new movie. What

to know what it's about . . . or whether it's a good film or a

do I make it about?" Every few seconds [snaps fingers in

bad film . . . and they don't want to look to find out, either.

quick succession ] you'll come up with a thought!

That's why I'm going to change it to color. We've got bears,

Since I've had very young girls in my life, I can think of a

birds, geese, ducks, waterfalls, airplanes dropping borade on

story about that: gray-haired dude, 50 years old, meets a girl

billowing red flames-all that's spectacular to look at. Redo-

70

ing all that in color should bring a whole new world of

F I L M

P R E S S B O O K

S Y N O P S I S

THE WORM EATERS

receptivity to that film, because it's very enjoyable, full of

outdoor excitement and action. There's no swearing, no
nudity; it's just a good all-American film . . .
At Goldwyn Studios - I had an office there until about
'75 - Gol dwyn was looking to play host to about 1,700 Boy
Scouts and Eagle Scouts. And from all the films they had to

In the town of Melnick, California on old clubfoot hermit lives near a

semi-dried up lake and forest. His nome is Hermann Umgor. The corrupt
city courKil leoder, Mayor Sunny Melnick, has decided to condemn the
old

lake and forest where Umgar lives and re-zone to build

condominiums.
Inside Umgor's SO-foot-toll wooden water tower ore rooms filled
with tanks of worms. Umgor talks to them, sleeps with them and grows
them bigger and fatter

so

that they will on command eat all the crops

of Melnick and bankrupt the town so he con save the beauty of the
trees, lake and forest from the greedy Mayor.
In various scenes Umgor kisses, feeds and sings to his Tenyo worms
while the secret M Society attempts to burn, hong. and blow him up.
A complication arrives at the lake in a silly rich family and two
beautiful teen-age girls who decide to stay at the lake for a vocation.
The pretty young daughter, Penelope, who is always sunning herself in
a bathing suit, is horrified by Umgar's clubfoot and grotesque looks.
The two teen-age girls complain, "The old creep don't even hove any
hot dogs around here. It's un-Americon!" The mother Mildred screams
at Umgor, "I wont eggs with no goo in them and my cream-filled
fudgies, you idiot!"
Suddenly one night Umgor is surrounded by the horrifying sight of
three worm-like men standing over his bed. They ore the Champion Boss
Fishing Club men that disappeared in Lake Melnick many months before
and were assumed to be dead. The leader Bucky says, "We ore not dead.
We ate some of your worms that were in the fish we caught and we
were transformed into

new glorious breed of holf-mon and half

worm. We live under the Red Tide in the lake and no longer wont to be
like the greedy men we were. But you must bring us worm women to
mote with so our civilization under the Red Tide will grow." Umgor
agrees to feed his worms to women to give to them and they will help
him eat the crops.
A dumb waitress named Heidi eats some of the worms in spaghetti at
Umgor's tower and becomes the first worm woman. Umgor builds

choose from, they chose Strike Me Deadly to entertain them

on a Saturday night ( theoretically, one of the high spots of the
convention ). Why, I don't know. Maybe because it's out
doors, action, clean, warm, touching, gripping, and there's
enough excitement and enough things happening. So, the
film will open a new market -but not as black-and-white.
The only reason I made it in black-and-white was because I
sold everything to buy the film to make the film to begin with.
I sold my house, car, drums, saxophone, the lots I had,
everything. But I couldn't put together enough nickels to buy
color film; I could only buy black-and-white, which was 2'h
times cheaper than color, 2 'h times cheaper to process, and
21/2 times cheaper to print. The difference in the price would

have kept me from shooting. Had I to do it over, of course I

would have shot color. As that was my first film, what did I
know?
BR: By having theframe of reference they've been given
tojudgefilms by, mostpeoplefocus theirattention in such a
way as to miss much of what's going on right in front of
them. 1be films I like have a lot of extra things going on
which people miss, because they aretj't viewing thefilms on
the films' own terms, ifyou foaow me.
TVM: I've always related making films to magic. Making a

film is creating illusion, and magic is the same thing: causing

someone to believe they see something they're not really

seeing. Somebody might be in a little pool by this patio, but if
the camera only shows water and a little raft, and you tell the
audience they're in the middle of the ocean, then that's
where they are. We're doing the same thing: we're doing
magic . . . camera magic.
BR: You mentioned 7, your magic number. Do you have
any actual interest in the occult ?

cage and makes three more worm women with worms in fudgies and
hot dogs for the rich mother and teen-age girls.
Bock in Melnick the city council votes to re-zone the lake. The young
rebel Phil presents a note to the concil from Umgor that the old hermit
does hove a deed to the lake. A fight breaks out and Phil escapes.
Bock at Umgor's tower he hears a radio news announcement that
the city courKil is going to build condominiums and he screams, "I will
kill them with the deadly Ana worms! They will not destroy my
beautiful trees and mountains." He goes to town and puts the deadly
Ano worms in the following foods: triple deck hamburgers, fried
chicken. chocolate molts, ice cream. chewing tobacco and Tequila. The
city council dies one by one.
Umgor arrives bock at his tower to find the Mayor waiting for him
with a gun. A fight breaks out and the Mayor gets sucked into the cage
filled with worm women and is eaten to death.
The next morning Umgor's neck is pierced by a fishing hook and he is
pulled down to the lake by a fishing line held by the leader of the worm
men. They feed Umgar his own worms and then go to town to capture
tree women in beds, kitchens and showers. In thrilling scenes that
follow we

see

Hermann Umgor the worm man crawl over forests and

dried river beds toward the crops to eat all of them by himself. He dies
horribly

by being splat across a diesel truck windshield in one of the

most horrifying messes ever seen on film.

Believe us. folks, a hell of a lot of worms and food ore hysterically
eaten in the above-mentioned silly, laugh-a-minute motion picture.

Mara the witch shows a member of her coven what the future halds
deathl In

BlocHI Orgy of the She Devils.

 TVM: I did lots of research into the occult; in fact we

caHed the production company for the witchcraft picture

Occult Productions, Inc. The occult is interesting, but every

thing has to have its proper place and perspective. I'm inter

TVM : Used footage ?

BR: Didn't you say that on the phone?

TVM: Oh, no' I said I was going to use usedfilm. By saying

"used film" I really should have told you I was going to use

ested in everything there is to be interested in, and that

film that's already been put into the camera. But, the unused

direction; I believe action-adventure is the top pursuit for me

going to use that again. But it's not been previously exposed.

in reaching the greatest market, theoretically you have your

TVM: I said it as a joke.

BR: I thought you u>ere going to get your bands on a lot

means a11 things! I like to think I don't go overboard in any

as a filmmaker, because that reaches the greatest market. And

greatest return.

BR: Back to the number 7-

portion of it is re-canned and stuck in a dark bag, and I'm

BR: Oh! 1l1at's uhat you meant.

of footage,

and splice it together,

composing a story

TVM: It's always sort of been my magic number. I have a

somebou.

cises, which I do every day of my life, everything's got to

else's work. I do what I feel is expressing my own creativity; I

thing about numbers: l 's, 3's, 5's, 7's. When I do my exer

TVM: Oh, no; I wouldn't do that. I don't redo anyone

come out to Ts-1 can't tell you why. If I do fencing lunges,

wouldn't for a minute consider using someone else's. Like, I

added together is 12, and 1 and 2 added together is 3. and so

forest fires, I go shoot it myself.

I'U do 25, 50, 75; after I do 75 I'll do more, because 7 and 5

I'U do 4 more to make another set of 7. It's kind of a "thing"

for me: everything is 7 or 3. like, with a spoon that's been in
soup, I would never tap it just once, I'd tap it 3 times. [laughs

little idiosyncrasies, you know!

BR:

For some reason. everywhere I go.

'3,.keepspopping

up in some important context. It's always been a l>et)'

important numberfor me; I have no

idea why, or how this

started.

1VM: Well, "7" is a very magic number for me. I didn't

even shoot my own stock footage. If I need Las Vegas, if I need

If you want to be a ,.
,.,....., it's like: if
you want an automollle and you've got is
a iu'*Yard ful of ,..ts and pieces; if you
don't have any other way to get it, you
build it.

even think about it, but aU ofa sudden I realized that for years
I had 7 big cables. I could think of7 in a lot of other ways, like

the idea of having 7 Castle Ladies, and so on. I don't know

why 7 seems to hold such a magic for me, but everything I do

( not everything, but a lot) is related to 7's. And particularly

in exercise, where I do 7 sets of dumbbell curls everyday.

I've got other ones starting. too; I've got Silent Rage, Sud

den Death that I'm doing. I'm a fine cameraman, too. You

know, I'm bragging a little bit, but I've spent my life making
films- I've taught a lot ofpeople how to be cameramen. A lot

Don't ask me why, but I have to do 7. It kind of drives me.

of work out there, I've shot; on a lot of pictures playing

the wrap-up money to finish project OtJerki/1

direct. produce and edit and so on. Part and parcel ofbeing a

There's no real reason for it at all. [Talk turns to Ted finding

I.

BR: Didn 't you tell meyou uere making this mol'ie out of

used footage?

around the world, I've shot the camera. I don'tjust write,

creator is having the total concept or the creativity, meaning:

if you're going to expose film, you'd better be able to tight it.

You'd better be able to put an actor in front of the camera

who's going to be able to perform; if he can't, you'd better

T.V. Mikels on

location.

Photo:

Yale

help him. If he doesn't look right, you'd better be able to do

the make-up. If you need a gunshot to go off near his head and
make a chip in the wall. you'd better be able to know how to

do it, or do without it. That's my whole belief: you learn to do

uhaterJer it takes, to do u hat you want to do. You want to

climb a mountain?-you put one foot in front of the other

and start climbing. Whatever that means.
BR: It means a lot.

TVM: It means to me that I make films.

In Independence CA, Vale conducted a short interview with

T.V. Mikels during a break in the shooting of the movie The

Survivalists that he was directing.

V
ALE: You recently left your castle?

TED V. MIKELS: We left the castle after living there 15

years; I bought a house in Vegas with a pool and extra houses

on about 1 '.4 acres. It took 14 trips over the mountains to

move everything, but now it's all set up, with cutting rooms,

etc. The reason I moved was: my money people said they'd

finance my films and build studios for me if I'd move to

Vegas. So I moved!

V: What do you wear around your neck ?

TVM : A boar's tusk. When I direct a picture I've always got

my director's finder, a contrast glass, light meter, etc. around

my neck, plus the tools on my belt. So when I'm not directing

72

a picture I feel naked- I think that's where this [boar's tusk]

created the circumstances for it to function. But if there is

came in.

any sort of a deficiency in the cycles of the power, or any sort

of problem in the soup, or any sort of problem on a meter .

V: Could you update us on your last two mo11ies ?

nrM: Ten Violent Women -a fun film-is sold in almost

every country in the world; it's on video now from World

although. if you've put a few million feet of film through a

Video. Fortunately I selected a company that builds beautiful

I'm doing, but something can always go wrong.

full color jackets, not black-and-white with a little splash on

v.- Would you ez1er produce someone else's film again ?

ir. So you can get Corpse Grinders, Doll Squad, Ten Violent
Women, Blood 01-gy of the She-Deuils, Girl in Gold Boots.

TVM: After my experience with AJtemuth, I decided that

never again in my lifetime would I allow anybody else to

Astro Zombies and I don't know what other pictures I've

direct a film where my money is involved. It was the end of

done, on \ideo.

my producing-only, and the solidification of my intent to

Operation Overkill is in a stalemate. About eighty percent

camera you have confidence. So I have confidence in what

always direct-and-produce.

of the filming was finished in Reno. The plot is: disreputable

Now theoretically, if I'm paid Sl O,OOO a week as a Director,

weapons manufacturers are supplying guns to terrorists for

or S7SOO a week as a Director of Photography, and I'm going

use around the world, and the CIA (because they can't use

to go ten weeks on a picture, it seems reasonable that the

federal government troops ) brings in martial artists to try to

compensat ion would be ample. But it seems like every time

fe rret out the terrorists and blow up their training com

you get involved in a thing it's a freebie or a near-freebie, and

pounds, etc. There aren't any women in it, it's nothing like

those are the ones that kill you. They destroy your art history,
they destroy your soul, because you fight to stay alive while
you're trying to be creative.

takes your guts and your trals cnl

your fOUl to make a flrn. It takes everytNng
you poaea within youl
It

There are circumstances where I would produce for

somebody; right now I'm doing this with Ray out of warm th
and friendship, but normally you can't-you can't afford to!
And Ray will tell you the same thing- I'm sure Ray would
never produce a picture for anybody unless they compen
sated him properly. Because it takes your guts and your

Doll Squad: all my pictures are different. It's what you'd call a

entrails and your soul to make a film. It takes everything you

pure action picture, like Force of One where Tiger Yang

possess within you!

decimates

20 guys at

once. But not chop-saki; when he hits

you. you go do wn He's two-times world champion; he's got

a hall on the back of his hand about as big as this glass.
Earlier we went to do a picture in South Dakota with
Tiger. He picked up a big river rock in a creek, and I saw him
chanting, sitting crossed on his haunches. I thought, "He's

Photo: Vale

T.V. Mikels.

not going to hit his hand on that rock, is he?" So I walked over
and asked, "Tiger, what are you doing?" He replied. " J break.
I break." I said, "Tiger, we've got a picture to do-if you hit
your hand on that rock you'll smash your hand and we'll
never make a movie." And he said, "No, I break, I break. " He
sat there for awhile and finally I said, "Tiger, you're going to
smash your hand-DON'T DO IT!" He ignored me, hit it
once

real

hard

and

nothing

happened.

thought,

"Ohntigod." But he did it again and he cracked that rock in

three pieces -a big river rock. I put the pieces in the trunk of
my car and took them home. It had to be something here
( points to forehead ), not the force with which he hit that
rock. Incredible.
v.- You told Boyd that you helped one of your Castle
Ladies completely make a film lVM: That picture was entitled Knee Dancing. A lovely
woman who has four sons who are out of school now and on
their own is the writer-producer-director-editor and star.

It's a good story about a woman having a nervous breakdown

'' \.-
to:; ,

at an airport. Her whole life flashes before her . . . as a child

molested by her father, the effect on her relationships with

men for her entire life, etc. I did the photography for her.
She's gotten several awards-in fact they flew her to Paris
not long ago to accept an award for it. Her name is Doreen
Ross.
I've spent a great portion of my life making films like
that-that I don't consider my pictures. I did the photo
graphy and worked like a son of a gun on 1be Hostage which
was

one of the only picn1res where I got to shoot and play

with light; that picture got critical acclaim for the lighting.
Of course my gaffers jumped in and took the credit in the
magazine interviews, god bless 'em!
V: Any problems on this curren t film shoot ?
lVMS: I worry. I worry that my meter might get kicked,
because I'm working down at light levels that are unheard
of- at very few foot -candles . . . I don't worry providing that
all of the mechanical equipment is functioning as I have

73

'

cameraman on feature films, he's made dozens of educa

tional and documentary short films, trailers, television spots
and commercials including music-rock videos in the late
sixties.
As a feature film director-producer, Mikels got his start in
1960 when he sold everything he owned to finance Strike

Me Deadly. Although no box-office smash, it sparked his

career. He worked as cinematographer on The Hostage and

eel V. Mikels has been a motion picture writer, director,

that same year directed The Black KlaMman.

The Black Klansman did well at the box office. Released

in 1965-a time when public interest in civil rights was at its

and producer for over 30 years. Until recently he lived in

peak-the film is about a black man who infiltrates the Ku

Sparr Castle (boasting a dungeon, secret passageways and

Klux Klan trying to learn who killed his daughter. In true

23 rooms) in the Verdugo Mountains near Glendale, Ca. with

exploitation fashion, the film features plenty of interracial

seven women. With his goatee and Dali-esque moustache, he

bed-hopping, and was successful enough for Mikels to start

resembles a sideshow magician-which he once was.

his own distribution company: Geneni Film Distributing.

Since childhood Mikels traveled extensively, performing in

In 1968 he directed and released Girl in Gold Boots, about

hundreds of shows as a magician, ventriloquist, solo accor

a young couple who, trying to escape the draft, gets caught

dionist and acrobat. At the age of 19 he was presenting a

up in the world of crime. That same year also saw the release

2'12-hour magical extravaganza called "Open Sesame." An

expert fen<er, weight-lifter, archer and horseman, from

of the classic Astro Zombies.

1950-1958 he appeared in numerous films as a stunt man

assure Mikels a niche in film history. Dealing with cryogenics

and bit player. In 1952-55 Mikels covered Oregon as a

and transplanting frozen human parts, the science fiction

newsreel TV cameraman, and from 1953-1963 he either

directed and/ or was lead performer in numerous stage plays

horror plot features a mad scientist and his even madder

assistant who create half-human, half-robot creatures out

such as The Diary of Anne Frank. Besides working as

of dead bodies. When one of the Astro Zombies loses its

If he never made another film, Astro Zombies would

Doll Squad.

74

solar-power pack at night, it makes its way home by press

Women, an action-psychodrama about women taking

ing a flashlight to the solar cell on its forehead! Thrown into

women's lib to a aiminal degree and ending up in jail;

this stew is a subplot of enemy agents trying to steal the

Devll's Gambit, a martial arts undercover drama involving

led by dark

two large oil and energy conglomerates and featuring Tiger

haired, fiery-eyed beauty lura Salona, whose presence con

Yang; Kill The Dragon. a martial arts adventure partially

secrets of the Astro Zombies. The agents are

tributes immeasurably to the film's appeal.
In

1972-a

banner

year

shot in Spain; Space Angels. a galactic space fantasy of

for bizarre films-Mikels

futuristic intrigue; and Opention Overkill. again featur

released his magnum opus The Corpse Grinders which hit

ing Tiger Yang in a CIA campaign agaimt terrorists. He

#1 1 on the weekly Top Fifty box office list. It's the story of a

recently finished directing a film which Ray Dennis Steckler

cat food company that uses human corpses in their product.

started, The Survivalists (tentative title) and is planning

Unfortunately, this secret ingredient causes cats all over

many more movies

town to attack their owners. The premise is weird enough,

but the cast is even stranger-what an assortment of
misfits!
Wanting to release The Corpse Grinders on a double bill,
Mikels chose a film he had picked up the rights to called The

Undertaker and His Pals (1966}. 1t stars a mortician who,

enlisting the aid of two brothers-one of whom wants to be
a surgeon-drums up business by creating customers. The
brothers, when they're not helping the undertaker, run a
restaurant. The three have a very equitable arrangement:
after dispatching the victims, the would-be surgeon is

PARTIAL FILMOGRAPHY
AS DIRECTOR-PRODUCER:
Strike Me Deadly, 1963
The Doctors, 1 963
One Shocking Moment (aka Suburban Affair}, 1964
The Black Klansman, (aka I Crossed tfle Color Line), 1965

allowed to practice on the cadaver by removing certain

The Astro Zombies, 1967

parts. Those parts wind up on the restaurant menu the next

The Girl in Gold Boots, 1968

day; the rest goes to the undertaker. Not without a sense of

The Corpse Grinders, 1972

humor, the murderers choose their victims carefully. A

Blood Orgy of the She Devils, 1973

woman named Ms. Lamb has her legs removed-you can

guess the next day's luncheon special

Originally The Undertaker and His Pals featured exten

sive gore, borrowed (as a cost-cutting measure} from old
surgery films. Mikels found this solution to be a bit strong, so
he removed most of the surgery footage. His final cut of the
film runs barely sixty minutes.

The Corpse Grinders/The Undertaker and His Pals

The Doll Squad (aka Seduce and Destroy), 1974

Alex Joseph & His Wives (aka The Rebel Breed), 1978
Ten Violent Women, 1982
Devil's Gambit, 1982
Space Angels, 1985
Operation Overkill, 1985

AS PRODUCER:
The Undertaker & Hi> Pals, 1965

double bill proved to be Mikels' most popular release of all.

The Worm Eaters, 1965

He followed it with Blood Orgy of the She Devils, about

Cruise Missile, 1980

witchcraft, exorcism and reincarnation among a group of

Kill the Dragon, 1983

witches in California. Many newspapers refused to advertise

the film's full title . . .
1974 sow the release of The Doll Squad (aka Seduce

and Destroy} about an elite group of female CIA undercover

agents. Mikels is convinced his film was the source for the
popular TV show, Charlie's Angels. Partly for her exotic

Note: Mikels served as cameroman

Besides writing and directing, Mikels has produced almost

all his own films and a few by others. His most notorious
production is The Worm Eaters, about an old eccentric who
turns people into monsters by feeding them worms. They're
supposed to be giant worm-creatures, but they look more
like people stuck in their sleeping bags. The film stars and
was directed by Herb Robins, a talented actor familiar to
any fan of Ray Dennis Steckler's films. It's a comedy, but
Robins' sense of humor is so askew that the film resembles a
horror movie for three-year-olds.
Another film Mikels produced is The Aftermath, a low
budget feature shot around Los Angeles. After a disastrous
premiere, Steve Barkett, its director/star refused to release
it. Briefly, the film is about an astronaut who returns to
Earth and finds civilization shot to hell. He adopts a boy and
teaches him to be muy macho, and the boy repays the favor
by helping the man blow away villains and bad guys.
Other films T.V. Mikels has produced or directed (or both}
include Cruise Missile, an action-adventure spy thriller shot
at German, Italian, Spanish and U.S. locations; Ten Violent

Jungle Hell (1956), Day

the Black Death (1965), The Hostage (1966), Agent For

H.A.R.M. (1966). Catalina Caper (1967), Snow Monsten (n.d.),
Ghouls and Dolls (n.d.), Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things
(1972!, and other film1.

looks and partly for her knowledge of karate, Mikels again

cast lura Salona in a leod role.

on

of the Nightmare (1965), Night of the Beast aka House of

The Astro-lombles

W:

scene color corrections. It will show at festivals like the

robably the best-known filmmaker in this boo k i s Russ

Meyer-the Washington Post called him "pradically an

American institution." Classic films he's made include Mu4-

MMJ, Lorna, ..yond the Valley of the Dolls and Faster

hssycatl K K His 1959 movie The Immoral Mr. Teas
singlehandedly paved the way for the entire nudie-cutie
genre

and the later hcrdcore films that continue to this day.

Cint:mathequc Francais or the National Film Theatre in Lon

don; already I've been invited to a number of them. So it will
be my song. I think the unique thing about the film is that to
my knowledge no filmmaker has ever made a film of himself.
JM: Probab)' not intentionally, anyu'(ly.
RM: No, not even intentionally or unintentionally. It will
have a ring of truth about it and, I think, also interest and
entertainment value. Usua.lly films about a director follow a

As a force for advancing sexual freedom of expression, Russ

format; it's generally: get six or seven of)ohn Huston's asso

has ...ned his fame.

Some of the lcrgest-breasted women to walk the earth

vignettes from his life, and then show the beauty of john

Meyer

appear in Meyer's movies, distracting viewers from the fad

that his films often present serious socio-aitical content and

complex moral cilemmos. Chcraderized by extreme behav
ior approaching mythic proportions, his films consistently

ciates together and we'll shoot 'em and they'Ll tell little
Huston's story-some great film clips. The beauty of George
Stevens is not his military footage or his friends, it's the great
film clips. I have great film clips (which aren't clips, they're
condensations of all my films) but I have more-my own
particular brand of humor . . . World War II footage . . . foot

reveal a sense of humor sometimes crass but usually

age of me revisiting the places, photographing friends that

insightful.

I've known through the years. Instead of having them stare at

Russ Meyer was born March

California. When he was

14

21, 1922

in San Leandro,

his mother bought him a movie

and that immediately launched an obsession that

stretched into a life's career. ln World War II he worked as a
photographer and cameraman, and after the army photo
graphed Hollywood films (e.g., Giant, Guys and Dolh) until
camera

1959 when he direded The Immoral Mr.

Teas, immediately reaping a fortune. To date Meyer has
made more than twenty features. Recently he remarked, "I
have to pay homage to the women in my films and the
success they've given me."
luss Meyer was interviewed at his Hollywood home which
was filled with shrines to friends living and dead, and his
own movie posters in languages from Tagalog to Danish. Jim
Morton asked the questions.

his "break" in

the camera-if the guy's a farmer or if he's a painter or if he

selb hamburgers, I photograph him doing that while he's
reflecting and talking in voice-over. It's an amazing picture;
it's mindboggling to think of the number of scenes I've shot,
in addition to compressing

23

films down to

each.

1 0- 1 5 minutes

I refuse to stop fishing cmd ........ cmd

having epkurean meals and ...._.., having
a good time, so it11 be ready ..._ It's

ready

JM: So the film will be almost like a book ?

lt\1: Exactly. I'm writing my song. Curiously, a German
chap-l'vc known him for a long time-had obtained an
assignment to do a book on me and came over and spent a
long time here. I've got ninety volumes of clippings (which
we built this cabinet for). But I'm afraid he didn't do a very
good job- I'm rewriting it. He was incorrect in the synopses

JIM MORTON: I'Lie heard a lot about The Breast of Russ

and like most Germans he has no sense ofhumor. He also did

Meyer. trbat's that?

a little bit of the "Philadelphia Enquirer" ( which

RUSS MEYEK: Twelve hours of unfettered beauty, great

underManding wouldn't be done) in that he assassinated a

history and humor! I've been working on it for five years, I've

number of characters in the film-friends of mine-for the

got a million and a half dollars of my own money in it, and it's

sake of trying to get into the Teutonic mind something that's

we

had an

going to be a sensational film. But I refuse to stop fishing and

sensational. I think it's really bad, so we have levied upon

womanizing and having epicurean meals and generally hav

them: publish it and be forewarned! [laughs knowingly]

ing a good time, so it'U be ready when it's ready. I estimate in

Anyway, that's the end of the story.

about two to three years-there's a big job ahead of me yet .

}M: Is it going to be released as a mouie or a uideo ?

However, the point I'm making is: it's going to be a good

book. I have three publishers who want it: one in France, one

RM: It's too long-it's 1 2 hours. Sec- I'm making a film

in England, and one here in the 'States. rm doing all the

for myself. It's an enjoyable position for a filmmaker to be in;

synopses and I'm writing them in a very florid style that I

to make a film just for himself. What I mean by that is: I don't

didn't think I could pull off- the writing is like the films, with

have to make any money; it's not necessary. It will make a lot

adjective upon adverb, unending punctuation, dots, dashes,

of money in video, but that is so far off, just with what it takes

etc. What I've been doing is in a sense writing the narration

to make a video master the way I go through it, with scene-by-

for my big film. So it has value . . .

lura Satana in action in

Fader

Pussycat,

Kill KHII

JM: Yourfilms usually hm>e fairly heavy narration.

RM: That's because I have a very strong background in

JM: Educational and industrial films can be quite

wonderful-

documentary films. After the war, I worked for four years

RM: They don't seem to make them like they used to.

doing-we can call them documentary. but they were more

They're too loose now; I think television has had a lot of

employer-relations films for oil companies, paper mills, rail

influence. The older ones were really marvelous; well struc

roads. things of that nature. I worked for a producer in San

tured, maybe hambone by today's standards. A lot of my stuff

seems almost unintentionally funny now.

Francisco, and it was a great training ground for me. I've

always loved the documentary format with the serious, inton

JM: john Ford directed an old "training "film called Sex

ing narrator. And generally at the end there'll be a scene

ual Hygiene.

where we try to straighten everything out by reviewing the

RM: I'm familiar with it -remember the guy with the soft

film and pointing out where a character went wrong, or

chancre in his throat! It was always dreadful to look at. In the

point out the characters' shortcomings and frailties-things

army they would terrorize us with that- remember the short

of that nature. It adds to the whole tongue in-cheek aspect of

am1 and the chancres and the guy in the crib: "Honest, doc, I

the movies.

won't do it again!" I often thought it would make an interest-

77

Haji in action in

MotOI' Psycho.

ing film: to take that and intercut it with my IOnd of drama,

others that someone will recommend to me. They're not easy

then cut to these [venereal sores]. I'm afraid, though, the

to find; in fact, I'm arduously searchjng for two more. I've got

military wouldn't release it to me for that purpose.

five superwomen in the new film intercut throughout the

JM: You could show lots of terrible slides interspliced

with Playboy bunny pictures. Incidentally, where do you
find your women? I walk down streets all the time and
never see anybody quite like RM: There's only a very few, and I've been fortunate to
fmd a few of them. Those that I find and can't use, it's either
because of a difficult bo)friend or a husband who doesn't

operung which is seventy-eighty minutes long. and I need to

fmd two or three more. Hard to find. very difficult.

JM: 7bey also have a certain larger-than-l(fe quali(y to

thern. I remernher watching Faster Pussycat and you had
Susan Ben1ard. the Playmate, in it and she looked like a tiny
dinky thing compared to Haji and TUra.
RM: She was a little squirt, very defirutely. In Playboy,
when you get that fo ldout, it's pretty hard to tell how tall

rwe loecl tfle ary 'ormat .

with the ..-ious, lilt

narritor: At. the

we ttY to

-::....

...t thtn'l .. :a _...

straightM anrythiiag out 'r reviewing the

flm and ..,.... o.t a dat.cter
went ......., or Out the chalad.Fs'
w
and &aitties.

"
'

.;f

anybody is unless you look at the spec's. By and large women

are not that tall, you know. If you get a woman that's five foot
seven, that's pretty tall for a lady. In the instance ofThra, she
was wearing boots and she was so voluptuous-big hat, big
pair of hips, big boobs -a great juno-esque looiOng lady

...
JM: She takes on a kind of mythical quality in thatfilm.
RM: A lot of people draw all sorts of conclusions about it

. . . "Gotterdammerung" . . . "Right of the Valkyries." She's

part Cherokee and part japanese; her father was a well
known chef in a restaurant in Chicago. That was one of the
few times I've really lucked out in casting a role-1 couldn't
have found another girl that had the configuration, and really

want the bird to flee the nest, as it were. That's the most

knew judo and karate and was as strong as a fuchlng ox. and

asked question in interviews. That, or, "Does your mother

had never acted before. She'd been a stripper. Another time

have big breasts?" They IOnd of go even-Steven.

was when we found Z-man who played SuperWoman in

By and large the girls are from the show business world
premiere strippers that make four or five thousand a week, or

Beyond the

Valley

of the Dolls.

We could never have found

another man who would have done that whole Shakespea-

78

rean shit and the whole works. He still to this day believes

Trouble is, with girls-generally I use them once and not

that I ruined his career-he didn't have much of a career to

again. It's almost like having a wondrous affair, even though I

might not have one- I have an affair with the camera with

begin with, but-he's another one. I don't mean him any

disrespect, 'cause he made that part.

them. I think I've extracted all the vital juices that are availa

And again with Charles Napier, the guy with all the teeth

ble for a given film, and I think there's a great shot in the ass if

who was in Supervixens-without him, the film wouldn't

you have someone new to work with for the next picture. But

have had anywhere near the kind of success it had-I'm

in a supporting role it isn't quite the same thing. I've only

certain-in spite of the big boobs and seven girls. Napier, I

used Haji as the main lady in one film-Motor Psycho. The

think, has a qualiry that few actors possess: Wallace Beery,

others she was always in a secondary position.

Borgnine, Alan Hale. There can be just a thin edge separating

The girls often don't have the same kind of freshness and

evil and humor, and they can work both sides of that line.

newness; often they don't have the same kind of dedication.

Napier's got that qualiry: smiling on one side of the mouth

There's a tendency to not take it as seriously the second time.

and sneering on the other. He's had his good shot now with a

Maybe they're thinking a little too much; maybe they're

picture called Rambo, and I think he maybe offand running.

listening to too much pillow talk- I don't know what it is.

He wants very much to be Clint Eastwood but I think he's just

That's a tough one for a director that's dealing with matters

a great character-rype. Who knows? Who would have known

sexual-to fight off that pillow talk when they go home at

that Bronson would have such great success?

night. The "ace" I call it-the husband or boyfriend who is

terribly insecure himself and has got to give them a lot of

played SuperWOft!\* in y- llle

YllleJ ef 1M Doll. Wt'couki MYw hove
found ....._ ..... who would have ._
that whole ..... shit _, the
whole worb.- Jii stll te this daY W.v
that I ruined his a..-.
z......

advice. ln the morning when you start up again you can sense
that someone's been feeding that chick's computer, and
you've got to try and work around it -listen and discard
things.
Anyway, to put it very simply: it's a miracle that these films
are ever completed. just a miracle. I mean the emotional
problems, the insecurity, the loss of interest after three or
four days, and all the cajoling and bullshitting and ass-kissing
and ass-licking-it's a miracle

the films are finished

certainly mine.

JM: It was a rather long time before be rrude it, too.

People always talk about your women, but I notice that
certain rru/e characters shou up in your films, like Napier
and RM: Stuart Lancaster. I have a band of players. Ul.ncaster
was in Mudhoney: Uncle Luke with the bad heart, kindly and

JM: Is that yourfirst camera there?

RM: No; I have a couple of shrines in this house. This
house was bought to film Beneath the Valley of the
lRtra l!ixens- you can see some scars on the ceiling. I bought
it because of this room-we built all the sets in this room. It
did not have that big bookcase, it was just a completely big
room and then I converted it into an office and a work area

totally good. always rising to the defense of his niece. He

and now it's my second home. I stay here occasionally and

played the narrator on lRtrat>ixens which was a take-off on

edit films.

Our Town -remember the man who would sit at the corner

That shrine there is for a Chinese chap (an American); he

1 4 or 1 5 years of age;

of the stage and say, "Well, I don't know what's going to

and I shot movies together when I was

happen. We'll see what's going to happen tomorrow when

he recently passed away. He was instrumental in my getting

the sun comes up." I didn't use him exactly that way, but that

my first job before World War II. His wife gave me this

was what it was patterned after. Super guy, but never having

camera and that's my little shrine for Henry . . .

done anything, largely because he inherited a fortune from his

mother. But she was wise enough to set it up in a trust so he

gets. I think,

S8,000 a month.

Over there I have another camera that belonged to an old

He spends it every month. If he

had gotten all the money, he would have made/produced

200 bad plays-he's really into

theater. Dave Friedman said

that the first sum of money he got was

S400,000,

and it all

went in like two months, producing plays.

JM: Another male character that comes to mind is Hal

Hopper-what a sleazy guy!
RM: Poor Hal, he's passed on. Hal wrote an all-time great
song, "There is No You. " He was one of the Modernaires. It's
hard to imagine him sitting there by the microphone singing
. . . He was brought to my attention by an actor named james
Griffin. Hal made a great nasry son-of-a-bitch . . . but he was
also the guardian of little jay North of Dennis the Menace. So
here's this whole other side of him. He's gone now, regretta
bly. In Mudhoney he had no redeeming qualities; at least in

Lorna he did an about-face-he realized that he had met

more than his match. I wanted to use him again in Beyond the
Valley ofthe Dolls but he was very ill. I've always felt comfor

table using certain people, like Haji-she'sbeen i n a lot ofmy

films; she's just a great standard-bearer. Even today she really
looks great.

JM: She's one of the feu women characters that crop up

again and again in your films.
RM : She's been in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls; Motor
Psycho!; Faster Pussycat. Kill! Kif/.1; Good Morning and
Goodbye-very substantial part in that. She was in Supervix
ens and Up/ With some of these people I feel comfortable.

yond the Valley of the Dolt.

anny buddy who just passed away, who was more brother

RM: Edy Williams plays Edy Williams better than anybody

like than just about anybody I've every known. The one lower
with an exposure meter in it is for the camerman who was in

else in the world! She did a pretty good job with Seven

Minutes. The film wasn't so successful because I was told I

the service with me, who shot a lot of series like 'Twilight

had to have an R rating (and when 1 say X, I mean an MPAA X:

Zone" and "Hatari," and he also shot my Seven Minutes. He

not hardcore but softcore ). It just doesn't have the content,

and people do react to it in a poor way, but Edy did a pretty

was a combat cameraman in the Spanish Civil War.

They're my little shrines-at their husbands' behest their

good job on that.

wives have given me these things because we were so terribly

We were married for four years or so. I think the best thing

close. It's nice to walk by them and stop for a moment and

she ever did (and not just because I was involved) was

reflect on the individual. Displayed is the one object-or

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. She gets a great reaction in

objects-that really represents the basis of our friendshi p

the theater every time it's shown. She's been in a lot ofother,

the one indentifying thing that can bring it to a point imme

much lesser films, but I have to admire her-she's in there

diately. I think of Henry- I think about that camera.

trying all the time and does her publicity and-here's a

recent picture-she still manages to look very good. But I

of Tura, .._ was ......

lloots ... ... was so voluptuous-big hat,
Wg pair of lllps, Wg boobs a peat Juno

.. the inl
t...

..... ..... ...,.

JM: U:'ben did you get your first camera ?
RM: I think I was 14. My mother got me a Univex-it's the
camera that probably did more for home movies than any

thing Eastman Kodak ever came up with. It sold for S9.95 and

the film was 6 a roll- orthochromatic Single-S ( meaning

sprocket holes down one side). The projector was S 14.95. By

couldn't have used her as leading lady because you've got to

have a little more control over a person than your wife.
'There's a tendency for things to not go as smoothly as when
you're working with a stranger.
I have to take one exception: that's my wife Eve

wonderful lady whom I lived with for 1 2 years. She was killed

in Tenerife in a terrible airplane crash. We did ErJe and 1be

Handyman together. There were just four of us: the guywho
played the handyman, my assistant, and Eve, and she cooked
for us and we really had a tight thing. She said "Okay, half of
this is my money, I Like the idea ofdoing it, and let's do it," and
she broke her ass-there was never any static from her. She
just said, "Look, whatever you want t o do, let's do it, okay? I'm
here, I'll get up early in the morning and I'll look right" and so

today's standards that might be fifty dollars, but it was the

on. She was special in that area and in many other areas as

thing that got me by the short hairs. I tell you, when I got that

well, but with her I could do it, you know.

camera, from then on every nickel I could get my hands on

But I would never have given Edy a shot at being a lead

went to upgrading and so on. It got me into the services as a

there would have been head problems, definitely. There's a

G.l cameraman, simply because of my very strong amateur

tendency to have a wife take advantage of her position, and

background.

I'm not just talking about her, but I'm sure any filmmaker

JM: Getting back to the leading ladies, Edy Williams-

there have been occasions where they've used their wives

lura Sa1ana again.

Scene from c........

Law CaWn.

and it's not been a good idea. I guess that's one of the reasons

she liked it, she liked that whole thing of turning on people; it

why I've tried to be at arm's length with the leading lady and
not have any hanky-panky; a couple of times I did-three

was a big game and it was fun, you know. She neverhad any

times, four times-and it really wasn't best for the picture.

real big aspirations of becoming some kind of "actress" or

anything like that, but she did fine, she did very well. She
came equipped with what I need for a leading lady more than
anything else. She had a great body and she had done a lot of

.. ..... .......G ..

.. .... ........ .... ....

,..
... - .. fine, .._,., .... .. a

- - -
.. ...
. .
..ldal .. ....

..... .. .....

fucking in her time, so she knew all the positions and every
thing in the way of turning on a guy-two necessary prereq
uisites for the success of any leading lady's performance in
one of my films. But, when you get that passionate intimacy,
there's a tendency

(I

think) that either person will take

advantage of the other. Best to be at arm's length, I've found.

A great lady I really cared for-we'd been together quite a

while-played the deaf-mute in Mudhoney. Very pretty lady.

We had become intimate years before when I was in Ger

many shooting Fanny Hill- that's where I met her, and then I

The last lady was Kitten Natividad-we were very close,

brought her over. One night she decided she didn't want to

we lived together for four years and she was fine, because she

appear naked in front ofthe whole crew, and no matter what

was a total sex object and a sex machine and she knew that

I said, like: 'You did it in Berlin and there were fifty Germans

what we were doing was going to be beneficial to her, and it's

hanging around," she would reply, "Well, it's different now."

proven to be because she was able to get more money. But

I ended up very angry. There's an example of being placed

81

Publidty shot from

Flnden Keepen, Loven

Weepers.

in a position where you're gt:tting your nuts wTUng out. Sure.

One; as Time said. "it opened up the floodgates of permissive

you could do several things-you could punch her out and

ness as we know it in these United States." Teas simplywasan

then you fuck up your picture. and I ' m not prone to punching

idea which I scripted out in a document and we shot it in four

women out anyway. Or. you can have a giant fight, somehow

days. I knew exactly how it was going to begin, I knew how it

managing to force her to do what you wanted and not getting

would be in the middle, and I knew how it would be in the

the results-the only best way then is to break your ass and

end. It was based on my experiences doing stills for Playboy.

do the hest you can . . . Anpvay. it worked out. but it affected

There's a lot of stuff on the girl-next-door, the common man,

my feelings toward the lady for as long as we were together

the voyeur-little nude photo essays. So Teas was a film that

from there on out, because it represented a down deep solid

was imitated by so many people-/ imitated it, in a sense. I

lack of tmst . . .

did Et ,eand tbe Handyman and I made other nudie films, but

Teas was a huge. huge success and it's still a collector's piece.
Teas came out in 'S9 and it's still kicking.
[ pointing to photo of man] He's up in Frisco. I've done
some filming with him; we were a tight group. He was in the
army with me; he was an army photographer, so we see each

JM: \\"hen you u'Ork tl 'itb a person all day long. and !ben
come bome
sometimes-

at nigbt and see lbf?ln

tbere as

ll 'ell.

other as often as we can-a friendship extending past

40

years. In fact next week I go to Philadelphia, and we'll have a

reunion in Bloomington. Delaware, then have one down
south. I'm kind ofa ringleader-historian. All those guys played

RM: No, no, the women I've known have been wm-ons.
I'm lusting all day for them. Even if I'm not having them I'm
lusting for them-it's very healthy to feel that lust. TI1ey're

a pretty heavy role in my life and in my films, too.

JM: 7here's
bumor-

a certain almost

"G./. "

quolity to your

great enough-we can bear witness that it's difficult to tire

RM: Best time of my life, I'll tell you that. Never had a

them early in the game. Unless you're a fuckin' wooden

better time- I was sorry to see the war end. People say,

Indian . . .

JM:

W'hen you started making films

did you come up

witb a stor
y and say, "Hey. this u'Ould make a great se.,ploi
tation mouie ?"
RM: I didn't know what sexploitation UI(IS. 7be Immoral
Mr. Teas was the first breakthrough film in the sense that it
popularized and established the "nudie." It was Number

"What" but I

was

sorry to see it end; I was ready to go to

Japan. the whole shot. you know-the damn bomb interfered

with all that. 'Cause I had a feeling like, "Son-of-a-bitch, I'm
having such a good time, I'm doing just what I want to do, it's
exciting; what kind of a job can I get when I get out? How can
I get some kind of a job?" And it worried me: "God, what if I
have to go back to that same job I had before?" I liked very

82

was about two or three years too late with its slavery

much that whole living by your wits, with each day being a

but it

new piece of excitemenr. I had mixed emotions about com

aspect. It played mainstream houses.

ing home; I probably was the only one in my group who felt

Hardcore has always been at some shadowy little place

that way. Everyone else wanted to go back to Alabama and

where you skulked in and out, with the exception of Deep

start a family and all that. Not me. I just: "Gung ho. let's do it

7broat-womcn went to that because it became so popular

again!" Just like I feel about my art now: I'd like to start it all

ized. The others were all guys in raincoats. That's one good

over.

thing about hardcore now-people can take it home. You

JM: \flben you got out of the anny you uent to

don't have to parade into a theater.

Hol) 'll'OOd?

JM: 1 '1! been to a feu adult theaters; they 're kind of

RM: I just got off the train here. With the other guy that

depressing

was with me-just fishing-we went over to the studios. We

RM: Now they're realJy falling by the wayside-folding

went to the union to see about getting a job and they said,
"Forget it, we got guys that are gonna get their jobs back." So I

very fast. Video, of course, is killing them off. People can rent

went home to

San Francisco/ Oakland - 1 even went back to

looking at something-! don't care what it is-on a big

my old job for about a month. Then I managed to find this

screen in a dark auditorium-it's great! And until they get

it rather than go to the theater. But still there's nothing like

industrial job which was great for me. However, I have the

video in some size you're going to always have that compari

feeling that I would not have given i n - that I certainly would

son. People like to sit at home and be lazy and look at video,

han: been persistent.

but it doesn't have the q

uality.

My stuff I dub from the

negative, with scene-by-scene color corrections, but even so

there's nothing to replace something being projected on the

would MYW have giYen Ecly a shot at

being a lead there would have been head
problems, .Winitely. There's a tendency to
hawe a wife take adwtage of her position.
I

screen. TI1is Breast wi ll be a monster, just considering the

scenes there are in it.

JM: Are you going to hat!f! somebody else playing

yourself?

R.M: Oh no. it's me. Throughout I introduce the films in a

kind of P.T. Barnum way, and it's not bad. If it's me and I'm
doing it, it works, you know- I'm a type, I'm a character, I'm
not acting-l'm just introducing. In the beginning I'm driving

JM: Well, your memorabilia here is a testa ment to that.

RM: You haven't even seen the other room yet, with props

a car and I go to Europe and retrace my steps from Ireland to

from each picture. As fast as I find something that I want w

put on a plaque, I will. I'm starting to put them on the ceiling

Mercedes, then I cut to my black-and-white GI footage. And

now-great ceiling for that purpose, slanted like thar. My

herself naked, but I'm not aware of it. And I have a narration

films are having a great rebirth in Germany, France and

(which I haven't written yet ) which has got to be unpreten

England to Normandy, Omaha Beach and so on. I'm driving a

there's always a girl like Kitten in the back seat playing with

England now.

tious,

JM:

Tbere's a French book on yourfilms.

RM: It's a book by my distributors; Jean-Piern: Jackson

anything-just reflections. I've got some pretty good photo

graphy of me driving the car, stopping and looking, and then I

wrote it. TI1e captions are all wrong, but otherwise it's great!

move down to the city . . . go down the road and there's

There was one photo of that great big black woman. June

Tammie Roshea- now there's some cups! Great lady-she's

lack, titled "Erica Gavin."

just

matter-of-fact-not

trying

to

be

funny

or

intrigued watching the Mercedes go by. She represents the

That why I'm so concerned about this mO\ic I 77:Je Breast

guardian angel. Then you cut to a room/window and there's

of Russ M'er]; it's damn well going to be right. I like the

Candy Samples doing something to herself. It's for the

'ideo aspect of it, too- projectionists can no longer cut

audience to realize that they are in the right theater. There's

scenes out of it. Projectionists are great slide collectors

this referral, this new stu all the time.

they cut out two or three frames and then crudely splice it so
the action goes WHAAAP! and the soundtrack ends up harsh.
But in video you can't do that. You buy it. and you can go over
the juicy roles over and over again.

JM: V ideo seems to be opening up a uho/e neu market

for sexploitation films from the '60s.

'llle ral Mr. T- the first

lwec*through ,.. In the - that it
popularized and ....... the "...... .

Ri\1: For me there aren't many that hang i n there. Fortu

natc:ly I have a big. strong folloving and it grows. Not many
softcore -not many hardcore films. for that matter, have

Tammie Roshea-did you use

her in any films?

become real classics. You can count six or seven hardcore

JM:
RM:

films that are steady sellers- Radley Metzger's stuff (he goes

She's got a great body; she'll be awesome in the picture.

under the name of Henry Paris or something like that ), and

FIf: /just got a magazinefrom France called Nostalgia. It

seems like the French picked up on what you
doing

Deep Tbroat, of course. which is like Mr. Teas: it started the

"'hole shooting match.

7be

Ff:
hardcore pretty much drot! out the softcore.
RM: I ne,er suffered, but of course there wasn't really

No. She's a great stripper; I met her through Kitten.

were

quicker than the Americans.

R.M: Yeah, but they had a lot of time to get ready. If it
wasn't for my distributor- a real film buff-1 don't think

much good softcore except mine. There were some things

we'd be playing as well as we play. He was a schoolteacher; he

like jonathan Demme's Caged Heat and so on -films that

got out of schoolteaching and decided he wanted to distrib

prefer not to be called soft core, but there's nudity, a plot and

ute these films because he believed in them so strongly. Now

whatever.

we get calls from people wondering if there's any others

When hardcore came in I was over at Fox making

S I 50,000 for five months' work and doing a couple of films.

where the rights have not been given to Mr. Jackson . . . so I

All those other guys were jumping in there making these

owe him a great deal.

JM: . . 7ttra Satana is a woman that et!rybody likes

hardcore mO\ies and I was making a film that was so-called

RM: She appeals to gays, lesbians, the whole bag, every

big time, you know. When hardcore

at its strongest I
made a picture called Blacksnake! which was the only

body. She has a very strong folJowing now with young people.

unsuccessful film I ever made. I thought it

Bros wanted to use an excerpt for some new female group on

was

was a great idea,

Musicians look upon Pussycat as a remarkable film; Warner

83

MlV but I turned it down, period. It's gratifying to have

probably punch me out.) She did something where she's

young people today see and hear it-1 get phone calls,

sitting up on this peak, nude, and her father shouted, "

"Where

GOD, SHARI!" -you could hear it all over the auditorium.

She retorted, "I told you you weren't supposed to come see

can

I get the soundtrack?" or "I heard there were

T-shins," and so on. Tura's developed into a real heroine, or

MAH

anti-heroine; whatever.

the film!" She could handle it, you know. I never met the

JM: A group called The Cramps does a cover version of

family. but
something.

Faster Pussycat. . . . There s

' something abou t Shari Eubanks

they

probably would have stoned

me or

Shari was gung-ho; there was never an ounce of trouble

that really appeals to me.

with her-she just loved doing what she was doing. We

., .., w11at rn achln..

.... ... .. ... ...... ...., ..........
__ ..
.
. ..... .. .., . .. .. ....__.
...... iOisa
U
.. 1hat'1 tile -., I ..
lt--l .. . .... .., ..., - . ....
.... .. ...,...... .... 1 1-t ....
.

.. .- .. ... .. ..... ..., ..

always had a lot of privation, difficult conditions-no show

ers, sometimes-and she was there-she carried water, car
ried the battery up the road. I'll take my hat off to her.
Ushi Digart's another great trouper. She was in a number of
films-very special lady. I've really been privileged to know
some great people.
Most filmmakers are generally not one-to-one on a project;
they have a lot of people who are sharing responsibilities.
Whereas I've always done a kind of one-man band, where
there's something like an umbilical cord tying

me

to one or

two of the people, where you have that tight feeling and that

RM: She wasn't so outrageous in her body (although she

dependency on one another to make the whole damn thing

had a great body and a real presence), but . . . She got in with

work-and I think how fortunate I've been to have had

some guy that kind ofscrewed her around, but she did end up

people like Shari Eubanks or Ushi Dlgart or Kitten Natividad.

pretty well-she inherited an awful lot of money from her

All these ladies and I had a communion, a marvelous com

family. I admired her; I Liked her very much. She had balls, she
had real guts.

munion, and a meeting of the minds. It went beyond just

being an actress in some kind of little television show,

We were traveling, promoting the film in the Midwest

because we were doing so many Little things together. It was

her home was Farmer City, 01. I had to go to Milwaukee and I

remarked, ''well, they got an opening in Cllampaign" and

and the high hurdles and everything all rolled into one. And

like qualifying for the Olympics every day-it was the 440

she said, ''I'U go." I said, "That's awfuUy near to your home,

they performed, they did it with a minimum of complaints,

isn't it?" She replied, "I might as well" and went down there

and rebounded at night when we had dinner and enjoyed the

and it turned out a huge share of the audience knew her.

evening, then got a good night's sleep and got out of bed at

She sat next to her father (who is an ex-G.I.) and I said,

"

God , you got guts."

lrother

oncl sister
(

(I didn't want to sit next to him, he'd

conserve

water

five o'clock in the morning and they're putting on body

makeup, you know . . .

and have fun doi,. it in YlxH.

--

84

Once we were up in this cabin where I had shot Wxen; we

went back to do Up! Makeup always has kind ofa heady odor,

buffalo-wonderful. wonderful stuff.

and I walked in and both Ushi and Kitten were naked

JM: ! think "erotic " means it giz>es you a hard-on.

RM: Exactly. The Germans and the French -it's not

(Ushi just sleeps in the

same feeling.

raw;

she had a great body), and I

the

i get tired of them when they talk about, "Well

said, "God, it smeiJs like breasts in here!" It broke them up;

this isn't really erotic.'" Ma)'be "erotic" is sick or something!

they nr forgot that line. There

this

Give me the good ol' American way. with lots of grunts and

musk odor that was permeating the entire room, and here

cum in cunts-you know, get in there and whale away at it.

was something about

were these two women with giant tits making them up and so

I have a girlfriend now that's that way-no foreplay.

on and I was smeUing breasts-sounds like a W.C. Fields line.

nothing. just climb on and do it. That's wonderful. You feel

great about it . . . I say you need a girl who just yells.
I told this one lady. "I read where women need something
like four minutes to get ready for sex," and she says, "Well.
I'm more like 22." And even now she'll do it; she'll call, "22!
16! 1 2!" You're walking upstairs with a hard-on. and she's like
"

a ,;scous sponge. She's so in tune with her whole mind

remarkable lady to get laid. And that's transferred to me as a
person. So I'm living a film fantasy right then and there. It's
marvelous to have that kind of union with somebody, where
you just I:Jate each other and then you ( e xhales deeply) say,
"Okay.

This umbilical cord thing- I don't know if I explained it

quite the way I feel it. I've always been my own man, but
when I worked at Fox I was dealing with an a-wful lot of
people, trying to outwit an avvfuJ lot of boyfriends and out
side influences, and

I was

let"s

't:vhatever . . . .

do

something

else

here.

take

swim.

JM: Were any of the uomen in these films difficult to

make motifes with?
RM: Every one of them had a moment of some difficulty.

in town -which made it very

just a.-; I'm sure I carne offas being one son-of-abitch at times.

difficult to isolate these people from bad influences, because

When I said earlier that it's been a miracle that every one of

they go home at night. You can't sequester them there on the

these films was finished. well, every damn film I ever made

lot. When I'm in Miranda, Ca, we have an arrangement : no

had monstrous problems. there's no question about it. For

boyfriends come up, no husbands come up. We're up here,

example. after three days of filming I

we're going to do it in three weeks; hang in there until we get

through the reflex and she stuck her tongue out at me-not

the film done, okay? And that's what

in a jokey "'-ay. but reaJiy pissed off. And I remembered what

meant by becoming

was looking at one girl

close (and I don't mean it in a purely physical sense ): work

Preminger told me one time: 'You treat these actors like

ing together, arguing, fighting, cooking, eating good food,

cattle-don't treat them like human beings." And from then

having a drink, swearing, whatever -"God, my feet hurt," and

on I was really a very difficult guy: never said anything

all that . . . nobody to really cater to them and kiss their ass as

rewarding about the performance, never complimented her.

they do in these major productions. It brought out the best

I bart"ly spoke to her. I would use my assistant to say. "'111is is

and the worst in all of us.

what we're going to do." And that girl did such a better job:

JM: Sounds like good times.

RM: You just felt it down there in your own scrotum when
you're shooting a scene. I know when I was shooting W
xen.

she was pleasing me from the standpoint of doing a good job

the scene with Erica Gavin and her brother was the best of

bad to do something: I knew I

them all. She reaJiy displayed an animal quality that I've never

she bccamt" so apprehensive about me. and whetht"r or not

on the film. See-it worked. It 't\'"3Sn't a master stroke hut I
w-as

losing grip there.

Sometimes people get a little too merry or too funny.

been able to achieve ever before -the way she grunted and

laughing it up. so I'll have to say. "C'mon, we've got to be

hung in there and did her lines. It was a reaUy remarkable job;

serious about it. I want you to break your ass; now stop

I have to point to her always. I've done a lot of jokey screwing,

it -enough of this lunch break!" So each woman presents a

but there's something about Erica and her brother there that

problem -no question about it. and they wouldn't be special

was just

remarkable. Nothing made the adrenalin flow like

was a great experience.

JM: 7bat whole morlie seemed more intentionally erotic;
your other films are more like ribald humor.
RM: I wonder about the word "erotic"; a German I know
that-that

uses the word all the time. I said, "Do you mean filming
through a bunch of dirty wine bottles . . . people caressing

ladies if they didn't ha,e some sort of problem to present. Lf

they ..vere some kind of mush-bag that you could . . .
One time I had a girl quit in the middle of a film. She quit
because she couldn't handle the privations-she was used to
Miami Beach.
Ushi Digart -we threw her into Cheny. Han yandRaquel.
and we used her as a wraith-like character who ran through

each other?" Europeans have a kind of feeling for this kind of

the scenes and did strange things. A guy named Cohen, who is a

eroticism; it's totally unlike what I feel, I know.

critic for

When I was rewriting the synopsis on Wxen I'd just fin

Women s Wear Daiv. wrote. " I can't explain the

presence of Ushi Digart cast in the role of 'Soul' . . . but thank

was exactly right.

ished that particular part about her brother and I said, "Stran

God she's there!" [laughs) That

gely enough, what I've achieved on film with her and her

said what I felt so much better than I could have ever said it.

I mean. he

brother really represents the kind of way I like to screw- 1

So they all present a little bit of a problem. there's no

mean like a football scrimmage. That's the way I like i t - 1

question about it. Actually. Shari Eubanks is one person that

don't want any funny stuff o r aJI this cocksucking and every

never presented a problem-1 ha,e to say that in her behalf.

thing else- I just want to get in there and whale away at it."

rather than to say. "Well. such-and-such was a real bitch at

And this is what her brother was doing. If you're going to

times." In the final analysis we were always able to look at it

thrust at the woman [knocks rapidly on the table), I want her

square in the face and kind of joke about it and laugh and say.

to meet me halfway! You know-just strong physical fucking.

"Well. wt" did it. it's okay, everybody's friends." But Shari

And here it is, and that's the thing that I like-it's part of me.

never let me down. she was a super lady. and Ushi was the

When you see her in that scene when she's hanging onto

same . . . l'shi never presented a problem. she would extend

the iron bedstead ( I love the iron bedstead because that

herself beyond the limit. So I have to say those two ladies are

really represents the basic workbench in Life, with the rungs

abmt" and beyond any woman I've ever worked with who are

you can hang onto ), and she was just grunting almost animal

100 percent.

istic, like the mating of the wildebeest and the water

Anyway. I haYe to go.

ore enough. The wife needs more but cannot tell her husband. One
day, after hubby has gone to work, Lorna encounters an escaped
convict in the woods. The man rapes her, but Lorna doesn't mind
at least it takes him more than two minutes to come. The fugitive
returns with Lorna to her house and they engage in more sex play.
When the husband comes home the battle is joined, and in the
confusion Lorna is killed. Throughout the film a preacher paps up,
spouting the Gospel and warning people of their impending doom.

Lorna was a hit and, like The Immoral Mr. Teas, opened the
floodgates for o host of imitators. It marked the beginning of

sexploitation's noir period, with the "goshl'm-being-naughty"

ambience of the nudie-cuties replaced by a meaner, more sadistic
uss Meyer is probably the only sexploitation director to garner

attitude. Although Meyer's primary reason for shooting in black

ocdaim from mainstream critics without abandoning the fans or

and-white

the field of sex films. His movies return us to the days when men

perfectly-had Lorna been shot in color, its impact might well

were men and women were wet dreams. Meyer likes to describe the

have been diminished.

was

monetary,

it

matched

the

subject matter

women in his films as "pneumatic." An odd word to use for human

Meyer's next film was Fanny Hill, o color 1 8th-century period

flesh, perhaps, but Meyer doesn't deal in flesh-he deals in fanta

piece shot in Berlin ond starring Miriam Hopkins. The elegant

sies. The narrator in Mondo Topless says it best: "Until now you've

costumes and sets seemed out of place in a Meyer film-in fad, two

only dreamed there were women like these. But they're real!

days before the end the producer, Albert Zugsmith, took over the

Unbelievably real!"

film and did the final edit. Meyer doesn't coMider this movie his

Meyer got his first camera at the age of fourteen and promptly

own.

began filming everything. At the outbreak of World War Two he

Bock in America, Meyer next filmed Mudhoney (1965), another

used the military to pursue his love of film. Assigned to the 166th

block-and-white profile of rural low-life: Missouri in the '30s. This

Signal Photographic Corps, he ended up in Europe filming General

time the sexual interloper is not an escaped convid, but one who

Patton's advance toward Germany. Thirty years later, footage by

has served his time and seeks to rebuild his life. The husband is not a

Meyer ended up in the film PaHon.

well-meaning dolt but o vicious miscreant-outstandingly por

After the war Meyer tried getting a job in Hollywood but,

frayed by Hal Hooper. The wife

is

(as usual) a gorgeous blonde with

finding the way barred by tight union control, he moved to Son

excess cleavage. Mudhoney is even bleaker than Lorna. Resem

Francisco and worked as an industrial filmmaker. At the suggestion

bling a cross between Tobacco Road and The Ox-Bow Incident, it

of army buddy Don Ornitz, Meyer began shooting photos for

rails against American morality and religious hypocrisy.

pin-ups and girlie calendars, and his early work remains some of the

Meyer next explored the genre of the motorcycle film with

best in the field. Several of his photos appeared in early issues of

Motorpsycho (1965), about three "bikers" (riding on mopeds!)

Playboy and graced the walls of gas stations and garages all over

who go around raping and murdering in a small town in the

America.

California desert. After they kill one man's wife, the husband

While working as o photographer Meyer met Pete DeCenzie, an

seeks-and gets-revenge. Especially notable for the time is the

Oakland burlesque owner who convinced him to return to filmmak

characterization of the lead heavy as o psychotic Vietnam vet who,

ing. Meyer started by shooting a burlesque film starring stripper

in the final conflict, suffers flashbacks that he's killing Vietcong.

extraordinaire,

however, the

The most talked about-and best-movie from Meyer's sex and

burlesque films of the early fifties were already giving way to

Tempest

Storm. By

this

time,

violence period is easily Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill! (1966) The film

nudist movies. DeCenzie wanted Meyer to shoot a nudie, but Meyer

stars lura Satono, a woman whose extreme sexuality and menoc

was reluctant, for nudies lacked two elements important to him:

ing screen presence are unrivaled. The story concerns three go-go

outstanding bodies, and eroticism.

dancers who release their tensions after work by driving fast

In 1959 Meyer began filming The Immoral Mr. Teas, casting as

sportscars out to the desert and laughing a lot. A squeaky dean

lead an army pal, Bill Teas. Meyer introduced the perfectionist

square challenges Varia (lura Satano), the leader of the pack, to a

trademarks his training had engendered: razor-sharp cinemato

race. After beating him, she-much to the horror of his young

graphy, parallel montage, excellent sound, and percussive editing.

girlfriend-ends up killing him by breaking his back. The trio then

The Immoral Mr. Teas broke box office records everywhere;

abducts the girl and retreats to a secluded ranch owned by a

the Wall Street Journal estimated it hod inspired 1 5 0 imitations

crippled old lecher with two sons:

within o year. For most people this was the first time they hod seen

body of a Hercules, the other a scholarly milquetoost. With the

o naked womon on the screen. The plot concerns itself with the

arrival of the women the fireworks begin.

one

a mental midget with the

misadventures of a dirty old man whose peculiar biological gift is

Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill! has a rhythm and feel to it that

the ability to see every woman in the world naked, whether she is

defies description. The dialogue rings in the ear like beat poetry,

or not. The women in it ore gorgeous; the narration bawdy yet

and some scenes, such as the shoving match between Varia's

straightforward . . . and the "nudie-cuties" were born.

Porsche and the brawny simpleton, are unforgettable.

Meyer continued in the some vein with light-hearted, innocuous

At first Varia appears to be nothing more than a sadistic bitch,

films like Eve and the Handyman (starring his then-wife, who

but by the end of the film she seems almost supernatural. The plot

became his associate producer), The Immoral West aka Wild Gals

mechanics of the film are similar to those of a monster movie, with

of the Naked West, Erotica, Europe in the Raw and Heavenly

Bodies. All were characterized by another Meyer trademark: the
deep-voiced, authoritative (and ironic) narration. Immoral West

Varia the monster. We know she is evil and will die, but we can't
help rooting for her; next to her, the "heroes" are a washed-out
and bloodless lot.

was an oddly stork abstraction-almost like o Beckett play-of

After Faster Pussycat, Meyer shifted back to color with a

the cliched elements associated with the "Wild West"-the quick

documentary on large-breasted women entitled Mondo Topless,

draw gunfight, fist fight, etc, all tied together by a liquor-drinking

his only non-fiction film. In it, his camera takes a look at the

narrator. When the box office for nudie-cutie films began to wane,

"topless" craze that was sweeping the notion in the mid-sixties,

Meyer took a big step: if sex alone wouldn't sell a film, how about a

while a narrator offers hilarious insights into what this "new

dash of violence to spice things up?

movement" is all about.

Lorna (1964) was the first in a series of outstanding films in

By now Meyer had established a standard for quick-witted,

which the bright colors and ultra-pink flesh of earlier efforts is

sardonic screenplays. Good Morning .

replaced by the starkness of black-and-white. Likewise, the story

Meyer's study of impotence in marriage-is outstanding for Alaina

and Goodbye (1967)

abandons the earlier happy-go-lucky optimism in favor of a more

Capri's merciless upbraiding of her husband, and Hoji's role as a

realistic and downbeat mood.

Lorna is an Erskine Caldwell-like story of a rural couple. The

femme fantastique existing in the sex-fevered imagination of the

husband. Common Law Cabin (1967), set at a rundown, isolated

husband, handsome but dumb, loves his wife but doesn't appre

tourist resort, also starred Alaina Capri as a voracious sex huntress

ciate her need for sex; for him, their monthly two-minute tumbles

with deadly wit, but Babette Bardot ((f. her primitive fire-dance

86

and dive from a spectacular rodd is equally memorable. Finders

murder), incidentally falling prey to several super-females along

Keepers. Loven Weepers (1968), inspired by Don Siegel gangster

the way. Scenes such as the placing of a stick of dynamite between

movies, is about a robbery attempt in a go-go dondng bor that

a bound Supervixen's spread legs marked Meyer's return to his

gets out of hand. Memorable parallel montage sequences include a

tried and true mixture of

couple making love underwater (in the bor's pool) cut with a

Up! (1977) was a direct descendant of another Meyer film,

Cherry, Harry and Raquel (1969), Meyer's lost film before ven
turing onto the Fox lots. Set in a dusty Arizona border town, CH&R

demolition derby, and other erotic scenes cut with footage of a

little girl and boy in 1 8th century costume playing and the colored

sex

and violence.

fountains of Century City! In this story, the eruption of violence is

depicts double-crossing drug smugglers involved in power strug

the logical result of promiscuity in an insular group.

gles, interspersed with various sexual encounters both hetero- and

Vixen ( 1 968), Meyer's next film, was a straightforward narra

lesbian. The film is wildly edited-in one instance switching from a

tive of a bush pilot and his oversexed wife who live in the Canadian

lovemaking scene in the desert to a hospital gynecological exam.

wilderness. Into their lives are thrust several people, including a

Up! tries for the same accumulation of delirious scenes. At the

block conscientious objector, a militant Irishman and a Royal Cana

beginning, Adolph Schwartz, a homosex uol Ncni, pays a young man

dian Mountie. By the end of the film, Vixen (played spectacularly

to sodomize him aided by three large-breasted women. After

by Erica Gavin) has mode love to almost everyone, induding a man

wards, he tokes a both . . . and a gloved hand releases a carnivorous

and his wife, the Mountie, and even her own brother.

fish into the both which attacks his vital organ and then eats him.

In many ways Vixen is the progenitor of modern porn. The

storyline-something about

racism and

Vixen's sociopolitical

awareness-exists to give the film the "socially redeeming" value

Abruptly the next scene depicts a young woman running down the
street who is picked up and roped by a man who drags her into a
river . . . etc.

necessary (at that time) to stove off prosecution on pornographic

In 1 9 7 2 , Deep Throat hod initiated the collapse of film censor

grounds. But Meyer, saving the political chatter for the end, first

ship, yet Meyer steadfastly (to this day) refused to depict hordcore

lets the raincoat crowd see what it come for.

sex, arguing that it negated sustained interest in the plot and

Vixen was a hit, shifting the focus away from '60s violence

mise-en-scene while deactivating the imaginations of viewers. Mey

bock to more straightforward sex. It cost $76, 000 and returned

er's healthy cult following kept him afloat during the seventies,

more than $7.5 million at the box office. Upon noticing these

but his movies of this decode ore problematic: the elements are all

figures, a major studio, Twentieth-Century Fox, hired him to do a

there-outrageous bodies, bizarre dialogue and extreme plots,

sequel to Valley of the Dolls, a moderately successful film based on

spectacular comerowork, perfect editing-but the films seem more

Jacqueline Susann's roman a clef about the Hollywood underbelly.

like parodies of earlier works.

Roger Ebert, a young film critic, was hired to write the screenplay,
called Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Ebert showed a strong

Meyer's last theatrical release, Beneath the Valley of the

Uhravixens ( 1 979), starred Kitten Natividad, his most overdeve

affinity for Meyer's rampaging sexual excesses, and together they

loped discovery of all. The story chronicles the problems of a man

come up with the most "Meyeresque" film ever mode. When Susonn

who, much to his wife's horror and disgust, finds sexual satisfac

threatened a lawsuit the characters and action were changed, but

tion only in anal intercourse. His "sickness" is eventually "healed"

the nome remained the some; a disclaimer denied any similarity to

by a local radio evangelist whose bustline is hardly less impressive

the previous movie.

If there is such a thing as a perfect motion picture, Beyond the

plots, BVU represents the extreme limit of Russ Meyer's sexual

Valley of the Dolls is it. In a world of Hollywood glitz it combines

parody.

than Kitten's. Although occasionally too reminiscent of previous

elements of sexploitotion with experimental comerawork; and

Currently 1 3 of Meyer's films are available on videotape (write

narration worthy of the best educational film with the bouncy

PO Box 3748, Hollywood, CA 90028). For Winter '86 Meyer is

good nature of a Beach Party movie. It has sex and violence, rock

preparing the video release of

'n' roll, drugs, Nazis, hermaphrodites, lesbians, cripples, blacks,

autobiography, The Breast of Russ Meyer, as well as Mondo

pathos, bathos, and a woman giving head to a .4S automatic . . .

Topless 2. In retrospect, Meyer's 23 films to dote stand as a

Meyer's next two features were in striking contrast to his

11

"Grand Luxe Preview" of his

formidable achievement of true originality.

previous work. The first was The Seven Minutes ( 1 9 7 1 ), based on

Irving Wallace's indictment of the censorship process. The title
referred to the overage amount of time it takes a woman to
achieve orgasm. The film implied that all the people in favor of
censorship ore old, ugly and corrupt, while the people against
censorship ore young, beautiful and relaxed. While centered on the
trial of a man incited to commit rope after reading a "pornogra
phic" novel, most of the movie concerns the search for the author
(who of course hod written the book under a pseudonym). Locking
Meyer's exuberant sense of humor, the film's commercial failure
coincided with the end of his relationship with Fox.
Marking a return to independent productions, Blacksnake!
(1972, aka Sweet Suzy), tried to mix two genres: sexploitotion
and blaxploitation. Set on on imaginary 1 9th century Caribbean
island and featuring a white lady plantation owner who rules by
sex and by the whip, the film begins with the arrival of a British
agent who hos been sent to find the lady's husband who myste

FILMOGRAPHY

riously disappeared. After numerous episodes of torture and whip

ping of slaves interspersed with interracial affairs, he discovers the
husband was turned into a zombie. Finally, the slaves revolt and
burn down the plantation, killing the tyrannical slaveowners.
Despite beautiful color cinematography and some memorable
scenes (including a snake in a bathtub, and the white villainess's
comeuppance at the end), the film didn't please blocks because of
its

sexploitation,

and

didn't

please

whites

because

of

its

blaxploitation.
After two years of false starts in other new directions, Meyer
decided to return to his familiar-and successful-comic-strip ele
ments: the isolated community, top-heavy women, promiscuity,

Foster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!, 1966

Mondo Topless, 1 966
Good Morning and Goodbye, 1967

The French Peep Show, 19.50

Common-Law-Cabin, 1967

The Immoral Mr. Teas, 1959

Finders Keepers, Lovers Weepers, 1968

This is My Body, 1959

Vixen, 1968

Eve and the Handyman, 1960

Cherry, Harry and Roquel, 1969

Naked Camero, 19tiJ

Beyond the Volley of the Dolls, 1970

Erotica, 1 961

Seven Minutes, 1971

The Immoral West, 1962

Blacksnake, 1972

Europe in the Raw, 1963

Supervixens, 1975

Heavenly Bodies, 1963

Up!, 1976

Lorna, 1964

Beneath the Volley of the Ultrovixens, 1979

etc. Supervixens (1974) detailed the picaresque adventures of a

Fanny Hill, 1964

The Breast of Russ Meyer, Foil 1986

young man who, wrongfully accused of having killed a woman, is

Mudhoney, 1965

Mondo Topless 2, Fall 1986

running from the crooked policeman (who actually commited the

Motorpsycho, 1 965

Blitzen, Vixen and Harry (forthcomin g)

clique, the guys you hung out with, was called a "gang." You

uring the late fifties, dozens of films concerning the

perils of juvenile delinquency were released. Anyone who has
..... some of these has almost certainly seen Dick Bakalyan.

had to have an identification with a group, otherwise you

were all alone. Unfortunately the media glamorized the gangs
in such a way as to imply you had to be a reaJ bad dude to be
in one. And that's why you've got so much trouble on the

Almost forgotten today, Bakalyan holds the record for punk

streets today: most of these kids are just trying to emulate

portrayals in J.D. films.

what they've seen in films!

lakalyan gat his stc.-t in 1957 with The Delinquents, a

good, low-budget film made in Kansas City by aspiring
filmmaker

Robert Altman. Bakalyan's portrayal of a

hoodlum in this film set the tone and style for most of his
later efforts. That same year he again played the heavy in
Jerry lewis' fint solo film, The Delicate Delnquent, and in
the Sal Mineo film, Dlno.
lakalyan's beady eyes and smart-ass smirk helped make
him the quintessential delinquent. In 1958 he hit his J.D.

I'm trying to remember how many of those

we

did . . .

juvenilejungle, Hot Car Girl . . . I remember shooting those

films in 10 or 1 2 days; The Delinquents took maybe 5 weeks.
In those days the word got a lot of press: "delinquency." In
the beginning my mom would always say, "Why can't you
play nice guys?" especially after she saw Delicate Delinquent.
I said, "Ma, there's no money in it. It'scrime;crlmepays. "She
said, "What will the neighbors say?" "Hey, rna, what do I
care?"
BOYD: Hou'd you dedde to go into acting ?

peak with Juvenile Jungle, Hot C. Girt and the anti

BAKALYAN: I'd been a boxer; was in the service, got out.

marijuana classic, The Cool and the Cruy. In the latter

Me and my wife came to California. I got a o

j b parking cars in

film, lakalyan is teamed up with the only penon rivaling his

record for hooclum performances, Scott Marlowe.

there wherever I could. I couldn't figure out what I was

The sixties saw the end of the J.D. films along with the
birth

of

the

appearances

Beach Party movies. lakalyan's saeen

were considerably

diminished. During this

period mast of his work was in television, where he often

Beverly Hills, went to U.S.C., just grabbing a o

j b here and
going to do-l didn't know how to do anything except box,
but I couldn't do that anymore.
Laura Brooks, an acting coach, asked me to study with her.
For about 3 months I became involved in her workshop.
There was this linle theater-in-the-round called Players Rink

reprised the thug roles he had previously created. He did get

and if you did anything in that theater, every>One sawyou -aJI

one mare chance to play a teenage heavy on the silver saeen

the people from Central Casting, producers. I was lucky

in Pank In the Yr Zero, an "after the bomb" film

enough to catch a part

stc.-ring Ray Milland as a man determined to save his family,

thing caJied "Mrs. Goodwin's Boys," and from that time on

no matter what the cost.

In Los Angeles, Dick Bakalyan was interviewed by Boyd

lice.

as

a J.D. (juvenile delinquent) in a

work came.
BOYD: Does your acting careeraffect howpeople react to
you?
BAKA.LYAN: People think I am who I play. Sometimes it
works to an advantage; sometimes it's a disadvantage. The
disadvantage is when they underestimate you; they think
you're what I call a "dis-dat-dem-and-dos-er." But those guys

BOYD RICE: Tell us about the early days of }llt 1enile

arefun to play! Most of the leading men I know-most of my

Delinquency films.

friends-would love to play gangsters and/or the bad guy,

DICK BA KA.LYAN: The Delinquents was my first expe

'cause that's the meat.

rience in films. Two weeks after that I was signed to do 7be

In the service I was involved in psychological warfare; it

Delicate Delinquent with Jerry Lewis-the first film he made

without Dean Martin. Then I believe I did Dino. Sal Mineo

taught me how to get the message across in more subtle

ways. and that has helped me as an actor. The great thing

was good in that; I could relate to a lot of the people in that

about being an actor is that things

film.

and there's a constant flow. I mean, in this business I have

are

constantly changing

ThoSe kind of pictures were a lot of fu n! The writers

friends that range in age from 18 to 70. So my life is a lot of

thought they were making some kind ofstatement, but they

different things. Most people my age ( 5 1 ) are stuck some

really weren't-they were just doing them hoping the kids

where, in with their own little clique and that's their world,

would run to the drive-in's to see them! Although, a picture

you know! My world is still out there; every day I'm waiting

like Dino SAID something, you know. It was about a troubled

for the next chance to do what I do. It's aJways, "Quick!

kid and his problems; I played a gang leader but I wasn't a bad

What's next? Let's go! Action!"

gang leader. This was not a gang that went out and raped

BOYD: What would you like to do next ?

women or killed or stole; in those days there were gangs

BAKALYAN: I'd like to do things for kids that deal with

because it was part of "the thing." When I was a kid etJery

integrity and self-respect. We don't have that in our country

body was a member of a gang.

today. Kids try to be like television heroes, but that's not what

BOYD: You

were

in a gang ?

BAKA.LYAN: We all were -you did it to survive. Your

it's about. There was a time when if you gave someone your
word and didn't keep it, you were a villain, no matter what

88

Bakal yan in The Cool and the Crcn:y

side of right or wrong you were on. Today. that means

nothing to people. I talk to a lot ofyoung people and they just
don't care.
When I did Delica te Delinquent, nobody was wearing long
hair. But I let my hair grow long (by today's standards it
wasn't long, but by 19S6 standards it was long). The attitude
was, "Hey, what the hell do I want to get a haircut for? I'm
gonna be drafted. I'm gonna be killed in some war. So let 'em
cut it when I go in the service." And that was the attitude of
this character-that was the key to this character. It's not in
the script, but it's what you bring to the character. Now the
audience doesn't grasp all of that. but they notice a round
ness or fullness in the character.
You can neverdivorce "you" from you. You've got to bring
you to the role. Alul(lys. First, there's physical presence:
you're going to be cast according to how you look. Then it's
what you do to try and make it for real.
BOYD: Did you actual)' get arrested on location for The
Cool & The Crazy because of your wild haircu t ?
BAKALYAN: It was 7he Delinquents. Peter Miller said to
me one day, "Come on, we're gonna go get a lemon ice cream
soda." I'd never heard of a lemon ice cream soda. I thought
"All right," and we went into this soda fountain in the base
ment of his apanment building in Kansas City. I wasn't there a

said, "Huh? Te ll him I'm an actor; we're here making a

movi e." The cop said, "Nobody makes movies in Kansas
City!" We laughed about that, later.
I've been stopped lots of times in different cities. You see,
cops look at pictures of "wanted" people before they go on
duty. They see a face that's recognizable- Boom ! They make
a move on you.
It's been fun being a character actor. People will recognize
your face and stop you and say hello. It's nice because (at this
exact moment a man passing by recognizes Dick and greets
him excitedly as though seeing a long-lost friend ). See! Peo
ple you've never seen will stop you just to say, "Hi." It makes it
nice. Some people think I work with them: "Don't I know you
from work?"
BOYD: What kind of neighborhood did you grow up in?
BAKALYAN: A tough neighborhood in Boston. I was little;

that's why l became a fighter. I never really liked to fight but I

was good at it-you had to be if you were small. That's the
only way the big guys would leave you alone: if you could
scuffle, they respected you. I never went out lookin

for

beefs. Today, if someone did the wrong thing, I'd go over the
table after them. My brother's always sayin', "Dick, you're
going to get sued." It's just my nature (thank god for it), that

minute when this cop came in and spun me around and

attack thing. I'm not afraid to do anything, I'll do whatever. If

it's absurd, we'll talk about it first. Then, if it's justified, we'll

threw me up against the counter. I thought, "What is this

do it. Some guys get cute and I have to set 'em straight.

shit?" and started to laugh 'cause I thought Peter had put him

BOYD: Well, you have to deal with nutsany timeyou step

out the door! But all in all, it sounds likeyou 've had a good
27 years in the business.
BAKALYAN: I feel really lucky to have been in this busi

up to it - 1 thought it was ajoke. But the cop went bananas

hecause he thought I

was

laughing at him.

People were staring. Evidently some guy had escaped from

somewhere and was wearing the same color shin or was

ness. I feel like a youngster, always looking forward to what's

about the same size. and the cop thought it was me. When I

happening next. It's exciting. Of course there are slow times,

found out it wasn't a joke I got nervous and said, "Pete, tell

when you wait to be called and you go bananas because there

him who I am." And Pete said, "l don't know this guy; he

iust isn't anything to do. But what else could I do? Be a

followed me in here. I've never seen him before in my life!" I

crook?

that time; I couldn't have dropped that bomb.

uring the past three decades Joe Sarno has made

approximately 200 feature films-so many that he's lost

count. Although generally classified as "sexploitation,"
these films often reveal archetypal and moral dimemiom
not usually found in the genre. A former psychology major
at New York University, Sarno has never ceased exploring

I never

dropped one bomb on civilians; the war I fought was against

guys with guns who wanted to kill me.
VALE: Self-defense!
SARNO: In a left-handed way. And when I went to war 1
knew nothing about who the Japanese were. We were the
last "innocent Americans." I went into the war a teenager
and became an old man overnight!

the behavioral conflicts engendered by individual desire vs.

social reality.
Additionally, during hiJ long career Joe Sarno has made
educational and industrial short subiects, documentaries,
commercials, music videos, children's films, news programs
(from a helicopter he filmed the aftermath of Mt. St. Hel

em), etc. He currently works as a "film doctor," revising and

repairing other people's imperfectly realized projects.
Dividing his time between Sweden and Manhattan, Joe
lives with his wife Peggy (actress and multi-talented assist
ant on many of his films) and son Matthew in a comfortable,
book-lined apartment near the Museum of Modern Art. The
following conversation took place over a gourmet pasta
dinner which Joe himself prepared. Vale and photographer
Ano Barrado askeCt the questions . . .

The last person I voted for was Lyndon Johnson because

he promised he wasn' t going to get involved in Vietnam

and he got involved. When Nixon came in, I lived for 2 1/l
years in Sweden! Now. any country that can elect somebody
like Reagan-! listen to some of his statements, and I'm

floored I look at some of his old movies and think, "This guy
can not he President- God! He had both legs cut off in

King 's Rou!"

VALE: Reagan's a blinding example of media control SARNO: But it can work the other way, too. By his death

one guy was responsible for Nicaragua going to the Sanda

nistas. An American journalist went up to show his press
V
ALE: How wouldyou describeyourselfas afilmmaker?

papers and some government guardsmen blew his brains

JOE SARNO: Categories are set up by' people who are

out-but that was all on camera.

basically part of the "in crowd: with all the attendant think

people saw it on TV. Somozawas out-he had to get out. The

Practically as soon as

ing and definitions, so it is difficult for me to answer that

U.S. had to get rid of him. Now, I'm not a big leftie, but I think

question outright. I was born a rebel. In film, I got outside of

that just like we did in Vietnam, we've backed the wrong

the acceptable framework as often as possible. I think that is

people in Latin and Central America.

what a filmmaker's goal should be- to get outside of what, at

VALE: .

the time, is the established framework. I think the estab

SARNO: Since the '40s.

lished ( the word " establishment" is overworked.) thinking is

always to be gone beyond. I went beyond the framework; I
said things that were not always acceptable, and that's one of

. Hou long have you been making films?

VALE: Do you oun copies of et'elJ'lhing you ,,e done?

SARNO: No, I \.\.ish I did. Once I stop a film, I start
another- ! never have time to tarry, I'm so overloaded with

the reasons I did feature films: I wanted to say things that

work. And to begin wi th, I've done so many films-

were not. at the time. acceptable.

VALE: 200 or more. right?

I have a great affection for the Navy in which I served, but I

SARNO: Yes.

almost became an expatriate because of the war in Vietnam.

VALE: Hou did you get started? You jletl ' uith the Nauy

That war was wrong from the outset. My Navy and the

during World War II: did you see combat ?

Marine Corps, the US Anny -all the might of America-was

SARNO: Oh yes. In the Pacific, the MarshaUs, the Gilberts,

thrown into crushing a people who had struggled for free

the Marianas, the Solomon Islands. That was a thousand years

dom for over 200 years against the Chinese. Japanese, and

ago.

French. I thought Korea was wrong, but not like I knew

VALE: I 'm glad you suntived to makefilms.

Vietnam was wrong.

In Sweden, people inteniewed me and asked me about

knew very little about it but I was brought

being in World War II and I said I fought against fascism. But

training film based on a low altitude bomb sight invented by

SARNO: I survived, that's all. Back to film: in the Navy I

m

to assist in a

young people sometimes don't understand; some of the

Warrant Oftker Johnson and used by me in combat. I fell in

people in Sweden said, ''Vou're against this war now, but you

love with the realm of film forever.

weren't against Hiroshima." But I was long out of the war by

V
ALE: So that's hou you broke into film?

W:

the
sensation
clubs !

partners
1n
pleasure !

/"

wild
bottle
parties !

the whole scandalous story . . .

shock by shock !

Star<Jn&

ALICE LINVILLE W B. PARKER

AUDREY CAMPBELL

LAHNA MONROE

PodJCed by Bur1on BRADLEY Wrtten and Drrected by J SARNO

A Jovrn Folms Relme

91

Britt

in

photo from Young Playthings.

SARNO: Yes, quite by accident.

VALE: Do you

hat1e

a filmography

called Sin in the Suburbs. An extraordinary film. Again, it was

or

biography

based on fact. It was very carefully researched, and had great

available ?
SARNO: No. I've never done a biography on myself even

people in it. There were a couple of quick flashes-scenes in

looking for work, because I've been a freelance film director

beautiful model at the time-in her forties, but beautiful.

all these years and I've never been out of work. But I went

She was a nude model, had acted a little and she wanted tO be

which you saw Audrey Campbell's body. She was a very

from one area of film to another, sometimes burning the

in a film. Woody Parker, a very good actor, was also in it,

ships behind me. For instance, I went from commercials,

training films and industrial films that got me a reputation

along with Alice Linville.

early on to those features with sexual themes. And I always

and said, "Listen, if you can get me a copy of Sin in the

Flash forward: several years ago, a secretary called me up

succeeded in burning my ships behind me.

Suburbs I'd be eternally grateful." I said, "Well, I'm not sure; r

SARNO: In 1959, I had just come back from Europe. A

don't know where any copies are." She said, "Please

friend of mine asked, "Look, you want to make an exploita

because my boss was in the picture and we want to surprise

tion film?" I said, "What's an exploitation film?" He said,

him!" It turned out her boss was Neil Bogart who lived in San

"Well, it's got sex in it." I said, "Will I get arrested?"

even know what it

was,

( I didn't

then. ) He said, " I want you to do

try,

Francisco and started Casablanca Records. Neil was in the

picture and he was a good young actor in those days; he also

something based on a magazine article you did."

had a music group and he was the vocalist. Anyway, Andrew

V
ALE: You were writing as well ?

Sarris loved the picture. It was counter-establishment and all

SARNO: I had begun writing when I went to college - I

the other critics hated it, but Sarris saw what was good in it.

started college before the

V
ALE: Which friend suggested you make it?

war,

then came back after the war

a little worse for wear, got my degree and began writing

SARNO: George Carmen, a film editor who was much

mostly on psychological and historical subjects. along with

older than 1-he died a few years ago. I already had a back

some short stories. In those days there were a lot of

ground of documentaries and commercials, so . . . H e read

magazines-if you were different you could sell your stuff.

the story in the old Coronet magazine ( a small format maga

Today it's not so easy.

Anyway, this man brought me to someone, and I did a film

zine in '46 or '47) and I wrote the script. I've got a copy
somewhere-actually, I'm not sure I do.

92

Over the years you lose everyth ing; I don't keep very good

events as long as I preserved the anonymity. And it worked

files. just now Steve Bono was on the phone; he wants me to

do a script for a feature called 7be Witch of Hominy Hill, a

marvelously as a film-it was black-and-white but very cine

country-and-western film. He and I were going to do this

VALE: So you filmed the actual people ?

SARNO: No! I filmed actors. I had robes tailored for them

several years ago-he's a union production supervisor on big

matic because it

was

all a matter of shadows . . .

films. Well, I bad a script but l can 'Ifind it, so I'm rewriting

and we went through the entire thing. It was a big tum-on for

it-which is sort of difficult because I've really forgotten it.

the actors, too, because of the kind of contact itself. Even

I made little money out of Sin in the Suburbs for a very

curious reason. George Carmen's friend who produced the

though the cameras were moving-we did a lot of free,

hand-held shooting -it turned out to be a very good film.

film was a vice-president of the 9th Federal Savings & Loan, a

The whole thing had been the idea of the ringmaster and

big bank here in NYC. I did a second film for him, a comedy

his wife. They were "swingers" and they got others involved.

called Pandora's Box which was not very good. I was cutting

The ringmaster's wife was the one who started the idea -she
was

the one with the imagination. By putting her husband in

a position of power it gave her power over these people. At

lly .... of
tro. tile

.. ..

._.,

...... Of

.... always

point of view; the fairy

from
..... of view. I stress the

talel tllat ., a..

..

based

on are

the '
efficacy of - for thentselves. In
...... . .... . the .... ....... .
...... . . .. . . . ....... hav. much MOn
......_....._ .._ _. l think sex is
....... to .. . lot of fun.

the beginning she went around to the women, mainly, and

got them to participate. I must say there were homosexual
contacts also, especially among the women.

VALE: 7be thrill of making sexual contact without the

disaduantage of identity-

SARNO: Exactly. They wore masks and all kinds of weird

things. There was no problem of dialogue- everybody

was

groping around. And the crux of the story ( and it was actually
true) was that one woman discovered that her 17-year-old
teenage daughter had been in the thing from the very
beginning- unbeknownst

to

her.

That

was

really the

denouement of the story as it was told to me. When the film

came out it was a sensation-catholic bishops denounced it
from the pulpit.
The main problem the film dealt with (just like in Moon

the second film at 1600 Broadway when all of a sudden two

tall guys come in with Texas accents, wearing the hats and

lghting
i
Wives)

the whole thing. ''You joe Sarno?" 'Yeah ." It was the FBI!

into this life?

was:

bow did she get these women to come

"Where's Earl Bradley?" "Jeez, I don't know." ( I didn't know,

Moonlghting
i
Wives elucidates and explains how Of\e

but he was in Tangier.) They said, "Do you realize that Earl

woman persuaded these other women. Actually it was very

has been peculating" ( I had to look the word up, because I

simple. To begin with, she found that a lot of the women

thought it was a dirty word ) "money from the 9th Federal

were gambling ( playing the horses ), so she went to these

Savings & Loan?" I was stunned - ! didn't know anything

women gamblers first. She thought, "These people really

about this.
It ended up that any money that I might have been entitled

have a drive; I'm going to explore it." Money only means one

to was eaten up by the government, the insurance company

who were gamblers were her first and most willing recruits.

and

After she had her business going, she had bankers who were

so forth, because he had been peculating almost

thing to a gambler: they can gamble it. So the young women

S400,000 plus interest over a matter of five years. And that's

coming in and using her girls, so she'd find out who in the

why he went into the film business, because he figured it

area was behind on

would bail him out- and it almost did. The film was very

trouble.

their mortgage-who

was

having

successful. If he had been able to curb his appetite for young

women long enough he would have had enough money, but
he met a Miss Denmark in New York, ran off with her, and
wasn't covering himself at the bank. That's why he was
caught. Consequently, I didn't do well on that film.
VALE: So Sin in the Suburbs was based on an article you

in mowies the ._.v. m. the

Yictoricm or the '301 Is: if you enloY so
you get Idled, ....-.., if you're a .......
Often

urote ?

SARNO: My article was on drinking among women in the

suburbs; in those days "alcoholism" wasn't ever brought up.

The curious thing was: for most of the women it became

One of the young women whom I was interviewing said,

not the money but the adventure of the whole thing. Even

"usten, you think that's a story- I've got a story. "As a side

after it was clear that their debts were settled, they were not

light I wrote this little bit (which was part of a series) about

dropping out, because it

how people get involved in fantasies . . . how they a/lou

guys; they'd meet other women; they had lesbian situations

themselt>es to become involved in fantasies.

and everything else that they could never have thought of in

The story happened in upstate New York- I'm not going

was

exdting. They'd meet other

their housewife lives. And they didn't have to commit their

to give you the name of the town. These men and women

identities to it. It was

all comparatively wealthy people-wore black hoods and

back to their kids and husband . . . The film had a lot to say; I

cloaks (but were naked underneath ) and would have group

feel the same way about Young Playthings.

sex without knowing who their partners were. For light all

living fantasy, after which they went

Moonlighting Wives made a lot of money. ! didn't, because

they had were these huge candles-very occult! Curious

I didn't have a percentage of it, but I got

thing: there

bonuses.

was

a guy like a ringmaster-he had on a ring

good fee plus

there was no full-fledged flagellation-at least none that I

VALE: How did you come to do Moonlighting Wives?

JOE SARNO: That was based on an actual incident. A man

know of).

who had been a vice-president of United Artists came to me

master's suit with top hat, whip, the whole thing ( although

These people were all married couples; it was a throwing

the key into the ring type of thing. Nearby was a motel that

and said, "joe, listen-would you do a script for us?"

I did the research and groundwork and came up with a

got big business because some people ( who nobody knew)

story based on a young woman living in the suburbs who with

were from out of town. I was allowed to witness one of these

her girlfriend were freelance stenographers -they went out

93

and did typing and so forth. The girlfriend was very sexual,

Sweden is the way it is . . .

and it seemed like every time they went out they had sex' Not

VALE: So you fashioned the concept and the script?

for money either, just for . . . ! So the first woman said. "Wait a

SARNO: The concept I did, but I had a lot of help. Many

gilling it away. But we could probably rum

people from different parts of Sweden told me their version

this into something." So she went out and recruited a

oft he story as they knew it: "Oh no. that's not how it goes-it

number of housewives-attractive young women. ( Not all of

them were attractive, so she sent them to Slenderella so

really goes this way . . . " I tried to make a version in betueen.

and naturally I updated it -it supposedly happened in 1848, a

they'd be more attractive and appealing. ) In the afternoons

time of unrest in all of Europe.

while their husbands were away, they went out 'on call" as

VALE: Again. you did a lot of intenliews before uriting

the scnpt?
SARNO: I always do! Whenever I do a film. I always find a
basis-a psychological basis or a basis in an old story. And my

minute-we're

stenographers.
Finally a policeman got really bugged that all this "filth"

point of \iew is more or less always from the woman's point

Sweden is more or less the mother of

women's independence d,aey're few ahead of

woman's point of view. I stress the efficacy of women for

themselves. In general, I focus on the female orgasm as much

us

as I can . . . women have much more imagination than men! I

psychologicaly. The Vlcing philosophy was

matriarchal to a peat degree, and perhap$
that's partly why Sweden is the way it is.

ofview; the fairy tales that my films are based on are from the

think sex is supposed to be a lot of fun, and-

ANA: Well. uomen like it too SARNO: Exactly-that's he point. And hat's what my
fi lms usually are about. The toymaker is a woman and at the
same time she also appeals to the women in the relaionship.

could go on under his nose. He was an Irish Cathulic -really

against all this kind of activity. and he busted the young
woman. But the interesting part was: she had in her posses
sion a little black book. This book had names and phone
numbers of politicians, prominent attorneys, local puhlic
relations people and executives from the defense industry
based nearby.
Finally this young woman got off without any fines or
anything; she got off completely. She had been sending the
girls out

as

stenographers, and had paid withholding taxes

and social security on them. so when the income tax people

came in

they couldn't get anything on her. But this didn't

appear in the picture- the producers thought otherwise. In

the movie she loses everything, but that's not the way the
real. true story ended.

VALE: How did the policeman find out?

SARNO: He was a vice cop. The way it was really broken
was: a young woman got involved with a guy who beat her;
the neighbors called the police. and that's how they tracked
things down and discovered she

was

working for this

woman. etc.

dig

VALE: So you intenlieu,ed the actual people inmlt'ed?

SARNO: Yes, I interviewed many people including the
judge who finally sentenced her- I didn't include that mate

that

body
chemisty!

rial in the film. Then I wrote the script based on all that.

VALE: It's too bad you couldn 't ha11e gotten auay zl'ith
the real ending for Moonlighting Wives.
SARNO: I couldn't have at the time. The people who

financed the film knew where they wanted to play it-it was a
very big fiJm at the drive-ins which were a large market at that
time. The young British actress who played the lead really
was a dancer-she was working as a dancer in Las Vegas then.

Moonlighting Wil'es was produced and financed right here

i n New York.
Then there was

Young Playthings which was based on a

Swed ish story. sort of a fairy tale; it wa..o;; in the puhlic domain. I
listened to people talk about it -everybody told the story
differently. It was about a young woman toymaker who could
entrance people. The Swedish woman who played the
toymaker-a

maroe/ous, intelligent young woman- never

did a film after that. She became a missionary; she went with a
Swedish mercy mission to Biafra and worked there ( actually,
I don't think she truiy became a missionary'). The other

... or how to
alter your ego!

long-legged young woman, Christina Lindberg, is now a jour

nalist working for major magazines; some of what she writes
is sexually-related. As you probably know. Sweden is more or
less the

mother of women's independence -they're far

ahead of us

psychologically. The Viking philosophy was

matriarchal to a great degree. and perhaps that's partly why

,
,

...VERONICA PARRISH SONNY LANDHAM

"..
..,...
,. , .. Joe Sarno

o
.

Enc Edwards

Cris Jordan

Sidney Ginsberg

Peter Kares

, ,. Joe Sarno

Scene from The Lowe Merchant.

knowing that the men are more difficult to deal with. to bring

arrested in Russia!

them into her fantasy. That'!> what the whole film's about: the

l't<l.LE: Hou?

toymaker brings them into ber world.

SARNO: We flew directly from Sweden to meet Peggy's

PEGGY:

parents in the Soviet Union. Peggy took along these little

joe

said: "Thjs is their fantasy. trus is what they

want to he." We discussed the make-up. You don't think

photos of the make-up she'd done, to show her mother (but

about it, but most people don't realize how much eyebrows

the girls had their breasts showing). The state police grabbed

make the person. When you put whiteface on someone and

Peggy and said, "This is pornography!" They were so upset

take away their eyebrows. they have nothing-they're just

you wouldn't believe it. She demanded, "Give me back my

eyes staring at you-notbing ( We never trunk about it

things!" but they \"\'anted to keep them. I thought for sure we

because we bal' e eyebrows and they are automatically used

were headed for Siberia.

as expressions of whatever we feel.) But you can make the

PEGGY: That film realJy

actors angry. happy. risible-an}thing you v.'ant-with eye

were inspired by the concept of this toymaker getting people

\"\'aS

a group effort. The people

brows. From studying Italian Renaissance paintings I had

into make-up and workjng out different things, so they were

already decided what I wanted. so then it was e\'en harder-

quite excited about their costumes and make-up and they

VALE: Because ofpreconceit ed notions.'

PEGGY: Because when I wanted a certain expression or

really enjoyed it. And you could really feel it-when that

feeling to go with a costume, I had to drau it on the face. It

was a small crew, so the same people turned into many
different costumes/characters. And '"'hen the people turned

happens on a film and you film it, it's there forever. Because
the people really liked each other and they wanted to work
for the film.

When I was putting on make-up I

was

so tired, because I'd

into those characters that were painted-there were many

stayed up all night. But everyone put up with me with great

different layers . . .

senses of humor-like every time I put the wrong eyebrow

I remember doing the make-up in the day and making the

on someone . . . But it was a group effort. We had no pressure

cost umes all night. I never slept -it was the long Swedish

from a producer-we had a marvelous producer from the

night which never got dark; at

o'clock it would get a little

West Coast. Seymour Borde, who would just send joe money.

dark but by I o'clock it was bright again. I was so far behind

People would say to him, "You're crazy, just sending him

12

because I'd set myself such big task

s. I was script and make

money. You don't know what he's going to do with it."

up as well. so I \"\'aS really exhausted.

Because most people would take the money. eat out, take

SARNO: She

did

everyt hing-she

desig ned

the

girlfriends around the world, and with the rest of it make the

production.

film. But joe isn't that way-never was that \"\'a}'. and Seymour

PEGGY: We went to Leningrad right after that and I think I

felt this, somehow.

slept through every play we went to.

SARNO: That's right-Young Playthings almost got Peggy

VALE: So the films

are

done with

small, almost tele

pathic staff?

95

... .... ..... .. ......

PEGGY: Very small. We made Young Playthings in early

who's going to take advantage of them. So they have long

june, '72, in ten days or less. Sven Grankvist was the on-set

discussions about the character before, and they see that

producer, Gunnar Westfelt was the cameraman, his son Lasse

Joe's really a legitimate person who's interested in filmmak

Westfelt was the assistant director, and the man he lived

ing, and that's why he's gotten such good performances out

with, Jimmy McGann, helped me with make-up and cos

of young amateurs.

tumes. There was also a sound man, Rolf Kings; an editor,

lf you could see this movie Jnga, Maria Liljedahl was

Lasse Grankvist; and that was the crew. All the people really

extraordinary-she's since given it up. She was an extraordi

wanted it to go, and worked very hard-and it wasn't easy for

nary find- a young ballet dancer; I think she was fifteen when

them in English.

we used her first. Such a sexual person you have never seen!

Lasse Westfelt's father had a summer house on an island

outside of Stockholm, and we went there to film. Since Joe's

But also potentially a very good actress, and the combination

was unbelievable.

the editor and the director and the writer, he knows just

An}'Way, I'm glad that for a long time we worked in Europe

what he's going to do, what he's going to shoot and who he

rather than here, because by the time we came back, here it

needs. And if he has a good producer who gives him free rein

was pornography in a really different way. In those early days

(so that he doesn't have to hire the producer's girlfriend, or

it wasn't pornography-all the people who worked really

whatever), he can hire a person whom he feels something

wanted to make their character so real, and the sex was part

with.
lf it's a young girl, usually she trusts him, and that's very

porno people it's different - they're very involved with their

important: they don't feel they're working with someone

bodies, and it's not the same.

of it and came out of it. But once you start working with

96

We did so many European films between 1%7 and 1971-

we did one called Daddy, Darling made in Denmark-again

a very psychological story. The Swedish actress in that had a

great tragedy-her husband had died earlier ofa heart attack,

and her two children later burned up in a fire.

Those days, when we made Young Playthings -those days

are gone.

The man who was the assistant cameraman is now a

postman. We still give him great hugs when he delivers the

mail . . .

Freudian symbols in both films.

was.

There are a lot of

o SARNO: Another film made in Sweden was called Laura's

Toys. I think Playboy bought it for cable television. It deals

with an American archaeologist looking for runes, runic

stones. He's got his wife with him and an assistant (a young

Swedish woman who

was

a music conductor. This

was

the

first film she'd ever done, and she was fantastic). The story is
about this triangle. The wife is jealous of the young woman

because she demands so much of his time-they have no

1he cwious thHtg was: fOI':.-st of the;

..... if not the money llut the
......
. . of the whole thing. 1My'd fnHt
other ...,., they'd meet other w,....-; they
.... ....... lituationi ancl erythillg ..
that they ceuld nevw haY fhoulht of in
thllr

heart quite by accident. This film more or less is about

persuasion. just like Young Playthings

affair, but the wife's jealousy pushes them into one . . . as well

as pushing her into an affair with the young woman, to the

point where she actually falls in love with the young woman

houwlfe hell And they

to COSLBIIIt

....,, have
... ldlntifies fo If. If was a

lvilll ..,, 4ft. .....

they --

bade

.. ... ... ... ......

because-you know, if you say to a kid, "Don't touch that!"

the kid rouches it' Same thing. The exteriors filmed in the

Swedish islands were so lovely, adding to the eroticism; the

acting was superb. The jealous wife has this background:

when she was at Swiss boarding school, she was sort of

controlled by this other woman who now appears on the
scene-the fourth person, Karen.

0 VALE: What were Laura 's toys?

o SARNO: The people. The two young women who were at

the Swiss Boarding School were the only two kids who wer
left alone. The other kids' parents would take them away on

vacation, but they were left there because their mothers had
0 VALE: Do )IOU do any improt lising during the making of
the films?

too many things going for themselves to care about the kids.

So the kids grow up and get to be so close that one couldn't

o PEGGY: The films are totally scripted. But when things go

go to the toilet without the other going, too.

B SARNO: lf I see that the chemistry's good, I'll say, "Oh

closeness permeates all the relationships that Laura enjoys. It

well and get carried away, joe will write more scenes.

The story follows in a line from these two women; this

jesus, let's add something here," knowing that you have

starts with her reciting all the sexual things they used to do

people who don't go along with the flow, then . . . They must

forward the story, because things happen parallel with that.

somebody good who will produce for you. lf you've got

go with the flow, or it's no dice.

0 VALE: Which films did you improtlise on "

0 SARNO: Not Young Playthings.

The people were so

involved in it that you didn't need any improvisation, because

when they were young. This recitation, periodically, pushes

In the end Laura breaks the relationship with Karen com

pletely. even though I<Aren seerned to be the one who had the
upper hand.

Power is a theme in many of my films: people have power

they became the characters rather than themse/ues. You see,

over others just by force of will and their overwhelming

too much. What people should be is the character, but

believe in "the force." Combat pilots try to develop this force.

improvisation sometimes permits people to be themselves

filtered through their own personality.

B VALE:

Who

casts the people?

B SARNO: I do. I find out where they live, as it were, and

determine how to put them with other people.

B PEGGY: Wherever he was, even when people couldn't

speak English,Joe always found good people. Nadja in Veil of

personalities. I'm a great believer in the force of will. And I

You know: "flying by the seat of your pants" -when the pilot

must react so quickly that the reaction in a split second

means the difference between life and death . . . when a

microcosm of seconds, an almost infinite time that's nothing,

means survival. When I saw Star Wa13 my hair stood on end

because Lucas defined what I recognized as the force that

Blood-she s marvelous. One German actress had a fire in

vibrates within all of us to be developed or repressed by each

to work despite that, and finished the film.

tremendous power and who use it to dominate others, who

'

her home-her father was burned and died-but she came

Veil of Blood was a Dracula kind of film shot in an old

castle; one of three "flesh" films which we did in Germany

outside of Munich; the others were Wall of Resh ( not a bad
film) and one called Butterflies ( not sure what the English

title is) with Harry Reems who was the doctor in probably
the most infamous of all hardcore
administered the "deep"!

fil ms

Veil of Blood was retitled in Germany

of us. In my films I often tell about people who have this

use their personal magnetism and drive to achieve whatever

good or evil they will.

0 V
ALE: Also, yourfilms often portray people dscovering
i

their own true unconsdous desirf!s.

0 SARNO: Yes, this is the big thing in living-most people

Deep 7broat. He

don 't recognize their own truest feelings. That's why when

7be Re,enge of the

even though they would like to do that: But they do get

they see them on film they don't say, "jeez, I'd like to do that,"

Black Sisters. It was about four people who become stranded

caught up and empathize with the people on the screen.

believes she is waiting for the return of a young woman who

o VALE: 7bere's a realm offreedom these people discover

when they surrender their identities and willfor awhile to

during a storm-naturally-at a castle. The housekeeper

is a vampire that has died (but being undead they don't really

die).

One of the young women who comes in becomes involved

psychologically in being this vampire-almost through self

hypnosis she believes she is this vampire, and everyone else

believes it . . . So she goes through the entire "thing" and

fmally in the end she has to be killed because now she is the

vampire. In the denouement when she's about to inflict

herself on the other young woman who is her friend and

partner, she is killed by a wooden stake that goes through her

somebody else.

0 SARNO: Absolutely true. I found that in Sin in the Suh

urlJs. I used to sit in the theater and then listen to people after
the film; I was curious as to what people thought. And I
would talk to them-! wouldn't let them know it was my film.

And women especially would identify with the people, and

some would say, "This is the kind of thing that if I had the
guts, I would do it."

B VALE: All guts is, is will.

B SARNO: Most people don't permit themselves to exercise

97

their fantasies . . . or even their imagination. Consequently

they wiU identify with a picture like Sin in the Suburbs but

SARNO: Their morality became the morality of the young

they'll say, "Oh, but nobody ever does that."

face of the establishment the law that was for the "haves" not

In movies often the hangover from the Victorian age or the

'30s is:

ifyou enjoy sex you get killed,

especially if you're a

woman. That was such a hare-brained concep t to begin with.

In Spain there's a famous true story about a Swedish doctor

and his wife who were i n an automobile accident and were

thrown from the car. The wife was lying in the street bleed
ing and the doctor ran over to her and said, "My god, I hope

toymaker, which was not to be violent, but to flaunt in the

the "hannots.'' They would use any means to get money.
short of robbery with a weapon.

VALE: After your Sll'edisb period uhat films did you

make in New York ?
SARNO: I made a black-and-white film on Fire Island
called 7be Beach House, about people using sexuality to hide
their own fear of sexuality . . . One called Abagail Leslie Is

she isn't dead!" And one of the bystanders said. "Don't worry.

Rack in 7oun was based on something that had actually

senor, at least her dress didn't go over her head!"

The world has such a distorted view of sex-and a dis

happened . A

torted priority regarding sex-and political awareness is

woman's husband. She tries very hard to show the people

often correlated to people's ideas about sex. My films present

young WOffii\0 rt\lrn tQ hH hom\' town ilfiH

hang left in disgrace because she had an affair with another

that they're no better than she is, and she succeeds to some
degree . . .
I'd love to get a copy of 7be Suritch. which was a comedy

..... . .. .. ....L.. a.M out it w a

_...._

CuiLolc "*ps ......._. it from

All the Sins of

.. ........
sex without violent endings, and I think that's one reason my

films have had a market-they're satisfying, without murder

endings. I never go for violence i n my films; the most 'olent

film I've ever thought up has been a script for urban

guerrillas -it ends in a shoot-out.
I've written a script about urban guerrillas-terrorists
that is based on the Weathermen who in the '60s used to
make bombs and plant them in places. Finally they killed
themselves in an explosion right down on lOth Street. The
Weathermen were largely led by women- Kathy Boudin,
Kathy Wilkerson and

8 or 9 other young women who had all

gone to upper middle class schools and who finally were on

the wanted lists. The FBI thought they were just nuts.
What happened was: there were 16 bank robberies netting
about 8 or 9 million dollars, and the FBI had no idea who
had pulled them off. ( They said tht>y did. but they had no
idea. ) The robbers had done things that the mob would
never have thought of. Now, over the years the [ '60s ] "revolu
tion" had gone away, disappeared. And these girls were

so

upset that the revolution had just frittered away that they
decided the thing that would help the Black uberation Army
or the Sandanistas most was money. So they robbed these
banks.
Now whenever there's a robbery. why are the people
always caught? Because they spend the money. But not Kathy
Boudin, Kathy Wilkerson and those people-they shipped
the money away. 7bey lived like cockroaches, believe me!
They slept on pallets in lofts, they took jobs as dishwashers.
and nobody could ever point to them. They had a way of
getting the money away- 1 won't go into exactly how, it's too
long-winded -but there was a Swedish national doctor, a
young woman, who helped them get the money away to the
third party, Cubans or whoever handled it.
To make a long story short, the young woman who led this
became so frustrated that there was no focus on the revolu
tion, that she decided there had to be some blood. And there
was. They killed 3 cops and now they're all under arrest.
That's the story, but nobody will do it because they feel it's
too close to the real story; the people are on trial, and the
trial's gonna last a hundred years.
VALE: You did lnten!l'ews for that project, too ?

SARNO: Yes. I think they held a view of an Amazon

society. Interesting story; I've got the script and am hoping

somebody would like to do it . . .

VALE: In Young Playthingsyou badpeople who bad relirt

quisbed their former "respectable" occupations ll'hO were

now pickpocketing and srt!aling for a titling-but not
violently.

Sodom

with very good people in it like Ray Serra and Kathy Chris
topher. It's a very funny film about a spinsterish chemistry
professor who makes a potion that she believes is going to
change her, like Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. She takes it and she
does change, but she changes sexually-when she's under
the influence of the potion she goes after sex, and she really
goes after it! Ray Serra who always plays Italian gangsters VALE: He
great in The Honeymoon Killers SARNO: In

was
Tbe

Switch he plays the part of a stevedore

whose wife is al ways hounding him for sex, but he's too busy
watching "Duke" Wayne films. He talks with such a heavy
Brooklyn

accent

that

you can

hardly understand him.

VALE: You don't have a complete listing of these

New

York films?
PEGGY: I started compiling a filmography, but I never
finished it. He did so many films a year, low budget black
and-whites as well as color. I don't Like the comedies Like 1be
Switch as much as I like the "exploitation" films, because the
latter were like "Eugene O'Neill exploitation"-there were
all these psychological "things" that made the characters act
the way they did. In films Like Young Playthings you also had
the right chemistry, like between the toymaker Margareta
and Christina Lindberg-and that's luck. Because if there's
one person very uptight about sex, then . . .
AU those years, Joe wanted the real feeling and spirit. And
some of these sex people were used to just faking it-and
they overdo the faking. They would just give the "uh, uh"
sounds and think that

was it. And he would say, "You call it in

on the telephone to me, because I'm not interested."

SARNO: Another good film was called What They Say
About Young Stuff That's not my title, but it's a good film
with some very good acting in it. A film I did for Les Baker.
PEGGY: We used to do a film in a week, two weeks.
VALE: Can you always get funding ?
SARNO: I can get funding ordinarily if I want to make a
film in this milieu: a little

on

s e -not heat')' on the

the sex id

sex side, but a little. But I haven't done anything in years

because I've been so busy on documentaries and so forth- I
make a great deal of money being a "film doctor." Right now
I'm working on something for cable television. There was a
hardcore film made a couple of years ago called Inside Seka
and now we've made a soft version. I'm cutting it a little more
to make it even more palatable for cable.
Several rears ago I did a film called Confessions ofa Young
American Housewife which included somebody who-in

VALE: Great

her 40s- Iater became a hardcore porno superstar: Jennifer

sixties ?

Welles. ( I knew her when she was a chorus dancer on

title- was

that during

the psychedelic

SARNO: Early sixties. A young woman who

was married

to Richard Burton had one of the first discotheques in New

.. ..,

date .... ...... ,.., .....

...... ,,.. .. ...........,. .. n..y .. 10

...- y wouldn't llllleYe lt. She .......,

"Gift - ..... ., ...... .. but ...., .......
to ... -. . ........ .... .... .. ...
....... .... .......

York, it was an "in" place. The film featured The Four Kings,
Ronnie Dante who now produces for MlV; it was a fun thing.
We ust
j
did a documentary on the Nolan Sisters-they're
Irish, had number one hits in England and Japan but they're
unknown here. I do work for Video Shack- they're one ofthe
biggest video retail outfits in the world-and they had this
in-store promotion by Duran Duran for their new videocas
sette. That was a mistake! They figured they'd have a few
hundred kids, but 4000 kids showed up trying to get into the
store all at once-it was a riot! They had the riot police out; it

was on

television.

Broadway. I also knew Georgina Spelvin who went by the

VALE: What happened to Step Out ofYour Mind?

name of Chelly Graham when she was also a chorus dancer

SARNO: I don't even know.

she became a superstar for being in Tbe Det!/1 in Missjones.)

VALE: Whats another film you did in New York?

These films were aU written from the woman's point of view.

sidejennifer Welles

I did another "inside" picture called /n

SARNO: In

1963

I did a black-and-white film called Resh

and Lace which was also interesting, with a young woman

which we just cut for cable. I've gone from commerdals to

who'd worked in Hollywood and came to New York and

big documentaries which I still do, to architectural films, to

children's films. I used to work with Chuck McCann who's

wanted to do a film with me. But I wouldn't know where you

could get a copy of it. It
about a toy store, but the toy

now an actor in Hollywood-he used to have a children's

store owner

show and that

was great fun.

But basically I haven't really

was
was really a collector for the mob. He used i t as
a front for gambling and so forth; he was the "banker." This

focused on any one spot in this business. I've done rock 'n'

strange young woman wanders in who's homeless; she has no

roll films-I did a thing called Step Out Of Yo ur Mind.

place to go. So she stays in the store and she becomes

99

involved with the toys, because she's simple ( not simple

minded but simple) and this is her refuge-she almost

know how many films. When someone hired Joe they knew
that he had the freedom to choose his crew, write his story,

doesn't want to go out again because she's afraid, so many

and choose his actors. So he had great freedom at that time.

things have happened to her. Another guy who befriends her

It was that same kind of o

j int effort that people talk about

uses her-he finds out that this is \vhere the money goes. and

in the young days of film: when money didn't matter. when

he uses her to rob the store in the middle of the night. And

you worked because you really believed in it-you believed

he's killed by the rather good guy-the guy who's a collector

in the stOr)', you believed in the film, and it wasn't just a job or
just the money. That camaraderie and that feeling really does

for the mob is rather a good guy! (With my partial Italian

background, I believe that not all the mob guys are bad guys. )

Pow

of my filnls:
p11pla haft pow ower others Just by force
of w _. their ovwhelmil penonalities.
r. a ..... .....,. in the force of wiL

is

tt.. in -.y

V
ALE: 7bese

were

show up on a screen. Whether it's a multi-million-dollar film

or a S2SO.OOO film-the money doesn't matter.
By 1967 I had moved in with Joe. 1l1en this producer said,
"We'll go to Sweden." I wasn't working as an actress on the
film and they didn't want me coming. So I worked unpaid
because I was his girlfriend, making sets and costumes. The
second film I got paid for, and then I worked with him
never

as

an actress again. On small films you have to do

et1etything I had to be yelling at the people-Joe's too

films that you had artistic control

over?

soft-hearted-and I'm like a German general, I am.

SARNO: Peggy's been in a number of films. She was a star
in Adolph Mckas's Hallelujah the Hills.

SARNO: Oh yes; I don't want someone sitting over me.

What happened with Pandora s Box was- the same guy who

VALE: So its not just luck that your filmmaking team

functioned so ef
fident/y-

went to jail said, "Now you'Ll make /hs

i film for me. "He wrote

SARNO: No! It's not an accident. You choose it. I think by

the script and everything- terrible! Good people in it -but a

force of \\ill ( back to the "force" ) you avoid things and

terrible film.

people that don't fit in.

I did a fun film called Wann Nights andHot Pleasures. but

For example, there are many people who shouldn't be

it wasn't that unusual. It was the story of three girls who

doing pornographic films, or who are doing them for the

come to New York on different careers- they had gone to

wrong reasons. The right reason is one that is not commer

college together and the whole thing-and it ends up that

cial: because they like to perform in front of people ( in a

they are really in competition; the intensity of their competi

sexual way or otherwise); because they're turned on by

tion almost destroys them. I knew three people who went

doing it. Otherwise they shouldn't be doing it. I tell people

into a commune in the '60s; they wasted a great part of their

they shouldn"t be doing it, or that they should be. For exam

young lives trying to live an inadequate ideal

ple, Annie Spri nkle should be doing it, because she loves to

VALE: Have producers el'er changed your films?

and is so involved in this whole feeling of sex. She is so crazy

JOE: I made one film, Etlf!r)' Afternoon, with a British

actress, Diana Dors. It had good people in it, but the producer

and sweet and nice it kills you . . .

1l1c big thing with films-a film s
i the result of u bumun

screwed it up. I didn't have the editing rights on it and he

relationsbip, and when you write it to begin with, it's got to

actually added in scenes and wrote new material for it. The

be about a real human relationship. Each actor or actress

basic story was about two people meeting in the park-a

must filtn the character through their own personality. And

young guy and a young woman-back to fantasies! The young

that's the whole secret of the thing. Without that, you have

woman is in a ballet outfit-practice clothes-and the guy is

nothing

wearing "pilot's wings," and he tells her he's

pilot. Well.

neither one of them is-he works at an airline loading cargo

and she is a prostitute who reads a lot, etc. Each day they
meet and they have this tremendous fantasy.
Finally he finds out who she is. He's given a birthday party
and a girl is brought there, and she's the girl. Then they avoid
each other for a long time, but finally they meet again in the
park and they carry on the conversation. She now knows that
all he is is a freight handler, but they talk as if he's still an
airlines pilot and she's a ballet dancer. It\ one of those: weird
little stories that could have been beautiful, but the producer
totally wrecked it. It should have been a small film but he
tried to make it a big one. The little sensitive story was lost . . .
Producers are always a problem-usually I don 't have
problems with producers, but on this one I did.
VALE: Peggy, when did you meet joe?
PEGGY: There was a Joe Sarno repertory company in

I'm glad that for a ... tM we worbd ill

Europe rather tlal -., ...._ br tile
we came back, ._. it w pornographr
in a really different war. In those ..e, days
it WCIIII'f pomographr-al the pllpla who
worked r.., w..ted to IIICIIb tllllr
character so real, _. the wca peri of it
and came out of it. But once y stc.t
working with porno people Ws .........
time

ew

VALE: What most interested you when you studied

psycbolo!{y?

York, and I joined around '65. I worked with him first as an

SARNO:

actress in

wrote a lot on beha,ior patterns.

or 4 films. "Repertor)'' means that the same

General motivations and behavioral patterns. I

group of people would play different roles in different films.

lf he knew that you were going to be in his film, he would

VALE: I'm afuoays anutZed at the process of belief-how

people ui/1 select (or not select) what they befietJe in, and

write a part for you and change the script according to what

hou people uill lit ! out their lives based on beliefin some

your potential was, what your limitations were. These were

not pornography; we did e:xploitation-as much a!> I saw

tbing totafZ>' unsubstanti

ated or arbitrary.

Elizabeth Taylor do in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

for them 10 believe in. The Catholics say, "Give me a child

From '65 to '67 we worked with the same people-not

SARNO:

They select to believe in what's safest or easiest

until he is six and I'll give you a Catholic on his deathbed."

only the same actors, but the same crew. Bruce Parks always
shot the films, Bobby Balin was always the assistant camera

1l1at's probably true of any religious belief, pretty much.

man, Jimmy Lynch was always the sound man, Kemper Pea

society function to the benefit of the few who uoant it to

cock was the editor, and we all worked together for I don't

function that way!

Each society encourages the beliefs that will make the

1 00

Joe Sarno today. Photo: Ana larrado

Joe Sarno on the set.

PARTIAL FILMOGRAPHY

Wall of Flesh
Passion in Hot Hollows
The Beach House

1962 Nude in Charcoal

Lash of Lust

lnga

Sin in the Suburbs

My Body Hungers

1963 Sin You Sinners

1968

Karla

1964 Warm Nights and Hot Pleasures

The Naked Fog

Desire Under the Palms

Marcey

Moonlighting Wives
The Lace Rope

1969

1965 Flesh and Lace

1966 The Love Merchant

Indelicate Balance
Daddy Darling
lnga

Step Out of Jour Mind

The Swap and How They Make it

The Odd Triangle

The Layout

Pandora's Box

II

1970 The Young Erotic Fanny Hill

1971

Any Afternoon

The Love Rebellion

1972 Young Playthings

The Bed and How They Made it

1973 Deep Throat II

The Sex Cyde

Confessions of a

Anything for Money

Young American Housewife

Veil of Blood; Bibi

Deep Inside
Red Roses of Pauion

1974 The Switch

Bed of Violence

Butterflies
Abagail Leslie is Back in Town

Skin Deep in Love

Come Ride the Wild Pink Horse

1975 Misty

Laura's Toys

Scarf of Mist Thigh of Satin

The Mogic Touch
1967 Vibrations

All the Sins of Sodom

1977

Karleks On

1978

Fabod Janteix

1983 Wolf Cubs

on them-they were art theaters. They became sex houses

avid Friedman is a sexploitation movie pioneer and the

producer of Herschel! Gordon Lewis's first three gore films.
Here he chronicles, among other topics, the development of
sexually liberated cinema in this country. In Hollywood, Jim
Morton asked the questions . . .

because the art films later moved more and more into the
mainstream. Now you've got pictures like n1e Gods Must Be
Crazy that play for years in one theater. Today, if you've got a
picture like Das Boot, a company like Columbia picks it up
and the minute they put their label on a film, it suddenly
attains a new respectabiliry it doesn't have if an independent
handles it.
I became partners with a really fascinating fellow, Kroger
Babb, who had been involved with everything from the fam
ous "birth of a baby'' films to a spook show. Dr. 0Jasm 's

C
hasm of Spasms. Kroger just passed a\'.>ay a few years ago.

JIM MORTON How did you get started in se.\ploitation

He was one of the great geniuses in motion picture exploita

tion; one day I'm going to do a book about him-in fact 1'\e
got the title: Country Boy with a Shoeshine. He \'.'aS from an

films?
DAVID FRlEDMAN: I was too young to work and too

era of Americana that should be chronicled: a combination

nervous to steal! This was the ohly other thing I could do . . .

flim-flam man, P.T. Barnum, and W.C. Fields . . .

I've been i n the motion picture business all my life. God

Babb was a big imposing guy who used to drink like a fish

knows X-rated or adult/exploitation films have been around

(he could drink a bottle of whisky at one sitting); came from

as long as there have been movies. After getting out of the

a miserable liltle town in the middle of Ohio: Wilmington.

army I

was with Paramount, then I decided I'd better get into

His real name was Howard W. Babb. Back east there was a

something for myself So I went into independent film distri

chain of grocery stores called Kroger stores; he worked in

bution which soon came to mean skin dependent film distri

one so all the other kids called him "Kroger" Babb. He k.inda

bution, because the only pictures which were available to

liked the name and kept it.

independents were foreign films and cheap little pictures

that flashed a tit-something you couldn't even do in those
days.
A lot of the theaters that became nudie or pomo theaters
originaiJy were art theaters. We used to call them "coffee"
houses because all the intellectuals and pseudo-intellectuals
would go in to see foreign films with subtitles and would sip
coffee and talk about how Bunuel is doing this and that, and
now he's in Cahiers du Cinema -aU of that bullshit. Around

Nobody was buyillg 1....-

......

for ..

creativity or because .. a .,.at

director; they .... buyi11g it ..__ ..
showed

some ass

cmd

--

tits!

1955 And God Created Woman came along, starring Brigitte

Bardot. Suddenly these nice little coffeehouses that showed
these pictures with the subtitles had lines around the comer.
The theater manager said, "My god, what happened? Where

His story started when he was managing the Checkers

did all these people come from?" Well, they'd all come in to

circuit of theaters in Ohio. He was traveling through a little

town and saw two carny types, Cox and Underwood, \vith a

see Miss Bardot's bare ass!

Then there was another French film called The LOt 1ers. And

show called "Dust to Dust." "Dust to Dust" was a copy of

a few distributors found out that the French weren't the only

Br]nie Foys' old picture Hgh

i
Schc-al Girl with a "birth" reel

ones; the Swedes were making films with a little

kin. too.

and a ''clap" reel added. He went in and watched this produc

That's where One Summer of Happiness and Naked Night

tion and ( they've got 'em lined up all around the block) he

came in. Nobody was buying lngmar Bergman for his creativ

iry or because he was a great film director; they were buying

it because he showed some ass and some tits!

said, 'You guys got something great here. All you need i:. one
thing." They asked. "What's that?" He said, "Me. " They asked.
"Why do we need you?" He said, "Because I'll show you how

JM: So theseforeign films influenced Americanjilmmak

ers tOu'Cird showing more skin?
DF: I've always said that Russ Meyer's Immoral Mr. Teas
was nothing more than a cheap American ,ersion of Mr.
Hulot's Holiday. He said that well. it influenced him a lillie.

to town ( down south) showing the birth reel. the venereal

but . . .

from a book sale. Of course this was

to sell it."
So the three of them started a partnership going from tO\Vll
disease reel and selling the books- Babb always figured one
thing: no matter what the subject was, have money coming in
a

book on

sex.

JM: Back then an e;).p/oitation film would play an "m1"

theaterone week, the next week it wouldplay agn'nd house.

the first show and came back and the theater manager was

1 remen1ber going to see Ulysses and seeing a trailerfor Love

about to have a duck: "Ohmigod, Mr. Babb, Marilyn Hom \vas

Camp Seven playing next week

DF: That's why so many adult theaters have the word "art"
-

They got into Indianapolis. Kroger went out to lunch after

just here and she was just infuriated. She thinks it's the worst
thing she's ever seen and she's going to have us closed

1 02

You Don't Have to

Assault a Groupie...
You Just Have to
Ask !
. .

A DAVID F. FRIEDMAN
WILLIAM ALLEN
CASTLEMAN
PRODUCTION

A FAR OUT TRIP THRU A HARD ROCK TUNNEL

in COLOR from EVI
IRL !.:!. -.-1
.... ..

Starring

KIPP W H I TMAN

DENNIS BURKLEY

CAROL SPEED DIANE LEE HART

CON N I E STRICKLAN D

DAVID AN KRUM

Produced by David F Friedman & William Allen Castleman

DAVID BUCHANAN

Directed by William Allen Castleman

Distributed

by Entertainment Ventures, Inc.

down. " And Kroger said, "Who the heU is Marilyn Horn?"
"Oh, Mr. Babb, for god's sake she's the reviewer for the
Indianapolis newspaper. You don't understand, Mr. Babb.
her uncle is the Catholic bishop of Indianapolis; her father is
the Chief of Police; her brother is the captain of the Vice
Squad; and her aunt is the Mother Superior of the nunnery

Babb, America's fearless young showman, announces that his

next film will be Father Bingo, an expose of gambling in the
parishes!" I learned a lot from Kroger-he had a superb
command of the language and could write an ad that you
couldn't believe. He would plant these little stories in the
paper, claiming that he had played a town a few weeks before

here. She's a very devout Catholic girl; she's the reviewer for

and the mayor had written him:

the Indianapolis News which is the biggest afternoon paper

"Dear Mr. Babb,

in town, and she is mad!" To make a long story short. at the

end of the week when Babb

was leaving town, Marilyn left

"Before your show came into town I opposed it, and I did not want
to give you a license to play the picture. But the common council
outvoted me. But, I

was deliglued to see that the film was everything

you said it was: a fine. educational attraction. As a matter of fact, it

[How lid I tt.-t in exploitation finis?] I

young to worlc ....t too MI"YOUS to ,_.
1hk WCB the Ollly otW tNng I aMIIId do.

too

probably saved the life of one ofour fine young high school students,
a young girl who found she was in trouble.
"She did not know where to tum; she could not tell her tt'llchers
and she didn't dare teU her parents. Her friends suggested she go sec
your movie, which she did. From that came the courage to tell her
parents. The parenrs understood. The girl had the baby which has
been placed for adoption, and I want to thank you . . .
"P.S. l11e girl was my daughter."

town with him! And sht: lived with him for 30 years until he

That's the kind of thing

finally did marry her. And she's now his widow. Talk about a

JM: What did he do after Mom and Dad?

OF: He tried everything. After Mom and Dad came Prince

salesman! This guy could charm the birds out of the trees.
They aJI got to Oeveland about the beginning of the War.

of Peace, with which he

that Babb could do!

was selling a beautiful, four-color

And Babb came up with an idea: he is going to make one great

litho of "jesus Christ Our Savior" and a miniature Bible.

"birth of a baby" picrure and he's got the title: Mom and Dad.

There was a Passion Play down in Lawton, Oklahoma, and he

And Marilyn has written it; she's even named the lecturer:

went and filmed it. He had discovered a little girl in Atlanta

"Eliot Forbes, America's foremost hygiene commentator."

named Virginia Prince and he

Cox and Underwood wanted to take their money and they

another Shirley Temple. WeU, that never came about.

did; Underwood went back to Kentuck-y, became a big horse

I ran into Kroger one night at a variety club in Atlanta

of Peace and the audience had
simply walked out. I asked him, "What the hell happened,
Krog?" He said, "I don't know. Will you go out and take a look
at it?" I said, "Yeah, I will."
Well, the Passion Play normally is done in pantomime; you
don'L nt:nl tht: words tx::caust: we all know them from the
Four Gospels. But these guys were mouthing the words. So
when it came to the scene ofthe Last Supper,jesus said in his
Oklahoma voice, "Wei-ll, one o' y'all's gonna betray me to
naight," and Judas lscariot yelled when the Romans came in,

breeder and never surfaced until years later with a pirated

copy of Uncle Tom 's Cabin which he made a fortune with.

Uncle Tom 's Cabin

was made by Universal just before sound,

with Raymond Massey playing Lincoln. Underwood put a

soundtrack on it and traveled through the South, making a lot
of money.
Kroger came out here, madeMom andDad, and from then
on school was out! The film got a lot ofheat from the Catholic
church; it was on the condemned list. Kroger was the only
m:n to fight back: he'd run ads in the trade papers: "Kroger

Friedman satirizes the

Hollywood image in the
softcore film, St..tet.
Friedman makes an
appearance in this movie,
playing himself.

\\there he'd opened Prince

was going to make her into

"D-at's him! Dat's him ovah 'deh1" I said. "You better redo the
soundtrack." So we dubbnl English into English; I got some
radio voices from Atlanta and we laid down a track where the
people at least were speaking \Vithout any trace of an Okic
accent. Babb stayed up about 5 nights drinking martinis and
came up with this beautiful campaign of Christ on the:- Cross:
"Kroger Babh pre:-se:-nts TI1e Pri nce of Peace: and school was
out on that one!
1l1en he had one on alcoholism. One ff)() Afany. starring
Ruth Warrick. One HJO Many is a lost picture. It v.as about
the

e\ils of alcohol

and women getting drunk-a

real

preache:-r movie -it wasn't that great and the book didn't sell
well. In the middle of that Bahb got involvt>d with a picture
called The Secrets '{ Beau)'. where for S 1 0 he was selling
women a make-up kit and a hook on how to he heautih1l.

Secrets

rif Beauty

also didn't work because in those days

nobody had S I 0 to spend; most of the girls who saw the

movie went to Woolworths for their cosmetics. ll1at was
before Revlon and all the fancy cosmetics lines.

She Shou/da Said No ( about marijuana) was originally

Weed. Kroger made this picture right after

called 1he Deuil's

Lila Leeds was arrested in a bust with Robert Mitchum

they were both smoking some joints. He did about six
months at the county fa rm; the judge let her go because she
was a good-lookin' blonde. We had Lila out on the road
telling about the evils of dope. hut unfortunately she was
hlowi ng the operators and hlowi ng the stagehands and mess
ing around with the ushers. and we were getting closed up

Ecstasy on Lover's lslantl;

and son.

one of the

many films released by Louis Sonney

on morals cha rgts because of her . . .

Kroger never stopped. He was something unique; a combi
nation medicine show man. carny. tlim-tlam man. what have
you. 1\e always said there are four generations of exploita
tion films. and I am a senior citizen of the third generation.
Babh would have been in the second generation: Bahh was

over where all you had to do was play two or three and you

20 years older than me. Dan Sonney's father. Louis Sonney.

made enough money to last you for a year.

would have been in the first generat ion- they're all forgot

The only thing Babb did after that- after Babb had shot his

ten; those are the guys who came right after Edison. The

wad with

se:-cond generation

lngmar Bergman fi l m starring Harriet Anderson. We played

V.'aS

with the Forty Thieves, the Sonneys.

Karimoja,

he and I brought to the U.S.

an

early

around and came up with a campaign: "Monica: The Story of a

Bad Girl." Babb got his share of the profits for years and years;

Normaly the less talented you are, the

biggw ego proiMm you have!

finally, that too came to an end. But I'd see Babb quite a bit;
we remained very good friends until he passed away

..

kids today who are grinding out porno- that's the fourth and

JM: Tell us about your involvement with Herschel/ Gor

don Letl1is.
DF: Herschell and I made Blood Feast, 2000 Maniacs, and
Color Me Blood Red. Then he and I split up and he went on.
But before that, we had made Daughter of the Sun, Lucky
Pierre. BOIN-N-G!, Scum of the Earth, and about 6 or 7

last generation. In my generation I would have to put Roger

nudist colony films filmed in Miami.

Corman, Sean Cunningham. a guy in England named Peter

Walker- I don't know if you've ever seen any of his stuff. I had

JM:
DF:

the rights to one film called Resh and Blood Shou.

pla)ing a lot of junk on the weekend. One day I said, "Christ, !

JM: Did you Ll'Ork for Babb ?

DF: Babb and I were parmers in a Chicago company caJled

can make a better picture than that!"

Modem Film Distributors with a fellow named lrving)oseph.

One was called The Prime Time and the other was called

How this came about was: there were four "birth of a baby"

Living Venus.

pictures. lrv wrote one called Because

in Toledo, Ohio and Rosa Rose, a famous old stripper who

named Floyd lewis owned one called

had a burlesque house, said to me, "I could sure use some

Pappy Golden, Dwain Esper, StC\e Foys, Kroger. Russ Meyer,

Herschell lewis and I arc in the 5rd generation. And all these

of E1te. A fellow
Street Corner. A char

What inspiredyou to make yourfirstfilms together?

I owned a drive-in theatre in Joliet, Illinois that was

So. Herschell and I made a couple of pictures in Chicago.

Neither was too successful. I was on a road trip

acter named TaJley down in Texas owned one called Bob and

shorts with some pretty girls showing their tits!" So I went

Sally that was made by Universal; that was really the best.

back to Herschcll and said, "Let's you and

Then, of course, there was Mom and Dad.

for the burlesque houses." We kicked it around and ended up

These guys used to fight each other tooth and naiL One day
I was sitting playing cards with joseph and

said, 'You guys

I make some shorts

writing 4 or 5 little sequences. I said, "Why don't we just put

'em all together?" and that became Lucky Pierre, which was

are crazy. The four of you should get together." SoJoseph and

released in 1959, the same year that Russ ( Meyer) made The

I brought the other three into Chicago and it was agreed that

Immoral Mr.

we would operate out of Chicago, it being more centraJly

That's how I got lucky and drifted in, like everybody else.

located. And where a guy played

next year he would play Because

and Sally,

Mom and Dcul

of Ev e. the next

Teas.

The whole nudie-cutie craze was then on.

this year,

At the time we made Lucky Pierre, New York State had a

year Bob

censor board. And a man had come up there with a picture

the next year Street Corner. We kept the West

he'd made down in Tampa, Florida called Garden

of Eden.

Coast kind of an open city, because you didn't have to play

New York State's Supreme Court told the censor board that

that many dates out here; there were beautiful dri\e-ins all

nudity was an accepted form of life and was not obscene, and

1 05

\.AtF YOUR WAY TO THE BANK

WITH THESE SMASH HIT SPECTACULARS
FILMED IN

UNCONCEA LED COL OR

BOX OFFICE

HIT NO. 1

2 V I B R A N T LY V I S U A L
VERSIONS
ONE FOR SPECIALTY HOUSES
ONE FOR GENERAL RELEASE

*
A Positive Plethora of Pulchritude!

Prized

and Prime Princesses Pleasingly, Provoca

tively

and

Prismatically

Presented

For

Pleasure and Profit!

*
IF YOU CAN STAND TO HEAR. THE CANNON GO
OFF, SMELL THE SMOKE AND SEE THE FLAMES,
THEN THIS IS THE SHOW FOR. YOUII/

BOX OFFICE SPECTACULARS INC.

Produced by
DAVIS Fltii:II:MAN

Dlreeted by LII:WIS H. GORDON

IT BECAN WITH BARNUM!

they had to okay the picture. So everybody ran into New York
Ciry with a nudist colony picture. Dan Sonney had a couple of
old ones; he had one made in

1933

called

El)'sio that was

bright idea to shoot Blood Feast. We made it in 4 days; it cost

S26,000.

l11at was the first of the blood-and-guts films; the

forerunner

of

Friday the 13th, The Texas OJainsau

Little Foys."

Massacre-all the slice 'em and dice 'em, smash 'em and

So Herschell and I immediately went down to Florida and

mash 'em films that ever came down the pike. Herschell and I

started grinding out nudist colony films. The first one we

wasDaughteroftheStm. That girl was so

followed that with 2000 Maniacs. During the last one we did,
Color Me Blood Red, Herschell and I got into an argument

gorgeous it wasn't even funny. Then Tom Dowd, who was an

and I finished it. Then he went his own way and I went mine.

exhibitor in Chicago, wanted to make some. So we made

Goldilocks and the T1Jree Bares, Nature's Playmates - we

In the last year we ldnda got back together and we might

make Blood Feast TU'o together.

made by Bryan Foy who was one of the "Seve

made for ourselves

ground those things out like sausages! Then we made one for

got the ........ .... to shoot ......

..... .. ..... it in 4 days; it cost
$26,000. 1hat was the first of the lllood....-...m ....., the ... .... and ... 'em,
__.. .... and mash ... ... that ....
-- down the pike.

A lot ofpeople lxwe this concept of the director as

"auteur"-that the director does etl(!t)lthing and the jJro
ducer is just the shmuck that hands out the money. But
uhenever Herschel/ Gordon Lewis talks about the mot lies
you did U7.th him, he alU' ays uses "we. "
JM:

DF: Herschell and I have had many ups and downs. Her
schell is probably the single smartest individual I ever knew
in my life . First of all, he has a Ph.D in English Literature ; he
was a professor of English. He could write faster, quicker and
better than anyone I've ever known. If he sees somebody
doing something, \'\1lether it's maldng an automobile or per
forming brain surgery, he can do it; he's unbelievable. On

Lucky Pien-e he was doing the camera and I was doing sound;
Leroy Griffith called Bell, Bare and Beautiful starring Virgi
nia Bell. Virginia was married tO Eli jackson who was a

there was just one kid to help us pick up. That was the whole
crew; we did everything together. We did the campaigns

was

partner of Griffiths, an old friend of mine- they were

together; we distributed together; it

burlesque and carnival people.

since Barnum & Bailey. I learned an awful lot abtmt produc

While we were down there shooting that, we got the

the greatest team

tion from Herschell . . . I already knew something about

1 06

sound, and I knew how to handle a movie camera- l've had

Herschell and I did everything together; we could antici
pate each other. Lucky Pierre, Daughter of the Sun, Nature 's
Playmates -we would write 'em together. I would dictate
and he would type for a couple of pages; then he would
dictate and I would type, etc. We knew who all the characters
were and everything else. That's how we wrote the scripts:

JM: You knew Bob Cresse and Lee Frost. uho made many
sexploitation films together OF: Well, Cresse was a weird, weird kid. I first met him
when his father was on a carnival with me in Allentown,
Pennsylvania one week, and his father brought the little
monster out to visit the show . . .
JM: I no ticed that Frost filmed Love Camp Seven.
OF: Frost was the director; Cresse was the producer.
Cresse was very domineering. That whole thing was Cresse's
idea; Cresse really wants to be a Nazi more than anything else
in the world, that's his whole thing. He really believed he was

...

....

....

......, . ... out

... _. st.tecl ...... crotch-.

...... I
,...... apldt - azst to the end; I
...., t ... .... tllat watll ' 73 or '74. I had a
lot of ,_ .... ... 10ft ....., .......,
....... ......
a Nazi. But Cresse handled Frost like a fine violinist would
handle a Stradivarius. Cresse would say to the industry as a
whole, "Lee Frost is the best; there is no one who can
approach him. He is the finest." And that's all Frost wanted.
Cresse didn't need topay Frost; he just told him howgood he
was . . . That's sad but true!

JM: I remember seeing Love Camp Seven and thinking.

"Gosh, there 's wall-to-wall flesh, yet no pubic hair!"
OF: I know the scene you're talking about . Remember the
scene when they put the girls on that bloody sawhorse? That
was Cresse's bright idea!
Cresse and I would always talk: "What are you gonna do,
Cresse?" "I'm gonna do a warpicture!" "Well, then I'm gonna
do a sea picture." "Well, I'm gonna do . . . " So, at the same
time we both get the idea we're going to do a western. His
was called Hot Spur. mine was called Brand of Shame. We
don't say anything, and then we both announce it at the same
time. We both said to Vince Randolph ( who owned the
Pussycat Theaters-he just passed away), "I want to be first."
Randolph, being smart, said, "Look. You two guys are my
most important suppliers ofpictures. Without you two guys I
couldn't run this chain. I'm not going to get in a fight with
either one of you, because you 're both insane. You both work
it out and you both come to me together and tell me who's
going to play first. Otherwise, I'm not going to play either one
of them! Here's the two dates: I got a date in july and a date in
August. You either both come to see me together, or send me
a letter that both of you sign."
So, Cresse and I went at it: "I was first!" "Bullshit, I was ten
minutes ahead of you!" ''you stole my idea!" "I didn't even
know you were making it -how could I steal your idea?"
"Well, my picture's better than yours!" "Who says?" I said, " I
got beautiful blonde girls i n mine; you don't . . . " So i t went.
Lee Frost was one who believes that auteur theory.
Although Lee and I worked very well together on Defilers, I
still felt he considered the director superior. But I'll tell you
who I consider the superior person in all filmmaking: the
writer. That's where it starts from! Although . . . the writer
Byron Mabe

cameraman in the world, Ferd Sebastian-he's the easiest

man in the world to work with. And there's the cameraman

cameras all my life.

was impossible to work with . . . but maybe Byron

Mabe isn't that talented. Normally the less talented you are,
the bip,ger ego problem you have! Take the most talented

who started with me, Laszlo Kovacs, who

was the cameraman

for Daughter of Fanny Hill and Smell of Honey.

JM: I heard that Cresse got shot in the stomach OF: Yeah, he got shot. I was in Australia at the time. Cresse
always liked to carry a gun. One night he was in a bookstore at
Hollywood and Western. He looks up and there's 3 guys
beating the hell out of this broad. They got her down on the
ground and they're kicking her. Cresse runs over and goes to
his car and takes his gun out and holds the gun up, saying,
"Stop! I'm calling the police! Stop or I'll shoot !" And this guy
whirls on him and says, "We are the police, motherfucker!"
and shot him twice right in the stomach. And then the guy
shot his dog He almost died . . . and he never really recovered
from that, mentally. IAPD-they're "Dirty Harry's" down
here!
After working with Herschell, I came out here and started
grinding crotch-hoppers. I resisted explicit sex almost to the
end; I didn't get into that until '73 or '74. I had a lot of fun with
the soft things: Trader Hornee, Zonv . . .
JM: I' d really love to see The Defilers, but there's no
theater u1here you can see films like that.
OF; They have no value today; the video people don't even
want them. 1be Defilers was not a bad little picture; I made
that in '64 with Lee Frost, who had been working with Bob
Cresse most ofthe time. One I made after that, that I like even
better, was called A Smell of Honey, A Swallow ofBrine! I
wrote the story for Stacey Walker, whom I met when we
were shooting Fanny Hill. I t was a pretty fair little film. Those
pictures were kinda like the Roger Connan films oftheir day.
JM: Maybe the Playboy channel will show them.
OF: What Playboy's doing is almost unbelievable; they're
buying X-rated films and then cutting all the sex out of them
and just playing the story part, which in a lot of these pictures
you can get rid of in I S minutes! [ laughs]

JM: 11 seems like a bad idea. I wrote them begging them

not to do tlutt and tojust shou the old sexploitation films
instead.
OF: They would be better. But, at least they've been show
ing 7be Erotic Adventures ofZorro. There is a very good cool
version of both OJorus Call and Seven into Snowie, and they
were showing both of those. But most of the stuff that
Playboy has programmed themselves has been pretty sorry.
JM: Do you know anything about a film entitled How to
Undress in Front of Your Husband?
OF: Chris Warfield made that. Did you see that compila
tion film I did with Arthur Knight on the Playboy channel - i t
had footage from HO U' to Undress in Front of Your Husband
in it-no. I used Virgin Bride. It also had a lot ofold footage in
i t like 1be Girls from Lorna Lorna. The compilation film
we're doing now, Sex and Comedy, is even better.
JM: How did you get involved In the project for cable ?
OF: lhe project that Arthur Knight and I have been work
ing on was originally to have been a feature documentary film
called 7bat's Sexploitation! We've been working on this at
least 7 ars. We accumulated films for years doing this, but
we never could get a major company to listen to us; we never
could get Playboy to listen to us. And Arthur even writes that
continuing series in Playboy.
JM: /'tlf! got Playboy magazines from the '60s with his
film articles in them.
OF: Do you remember Connie Mason? She was playmate
of the year in june of 1962. Then she made Blood Feast and
2000 Maniacs, the Alpha and Omega of her screen career.
Herschell and I used to argue over her; she couldn't act at all.
I said, "Herschell, she looks great, and she's got a bit of a
following; a bit of a name." She was a great-lookin' gal.
JM: WhatetJer happened to her?
OF: I saw her about 1 S ars ago at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
She was lying around the pool. She still looked gread

1 07

show, he brought with him a collection of wax figures of

desperados from the Old West, including the outlaw Elmer
McCurdy. After dismantling the Crime show, he sold McCurdy
to a wax museum at The Pike, an amusement park in Long
Beach. When the wax museum folded, the figure ended up at
the Laughter in the Dark Funhouse in LA. There it mouldered
until one day, during the filming of an episode of The Six

Million Dollar Man, a technician found that the body was

real. It was discovered that years ago Sonney had bought

Fe

the body from a traveling carnival show and coated it with a

layer of wax. Eventually it was shipped to Guthrie, Okla
w men have done more for sexual freedom in this

homa (McCurdy's home state) for a proper burial.

country than David Friedman. From the earliest days of

The late sixties were "Golden Years" for sexploitation.

nudist films he has been an integral part of the adult film

Sex films symbolized the new sexual freedom sweeping the

industry, not only as one of the better producers, but also as

country. As the Supreme Court swept away more and more

a collector and historian of early exploitation films.

restrictions, the industry flourished. During this time, Fried

Friedman's history is a colorful, hyperactive one. As a

man worked with many top talents such as director Lee

young man he worked at various jobs in carnivals and even

Frost. They made The Defilers, a dark and moody B&W film

owned one. He graduated from Cornell with a degree in

loosely based on John Fowles' novel The Collector. It fea

electrical engineering, wrote speeches for a former governor

tured a man so obsessed with a woman that he kidnaps her.

of Alabama and worked as a craps dealer in Phenix City-a

A somewhat more humorous Friedman movie was Stlet,

town so sleazy they made a movie (The Phenix City Story)

the story of an actress's climb to the top. The film trashes

about it. After World War II, he worked as a press agent for

every Hollywood myth, from All About Eve to Valley of

Paramount Pictures before striking out on his own in the

the Dolls. The studio portrayed in the movie, Entertainment

world of independent film distribution.

Ventures, is the real name of Friedman's company, and

He worked with Kroger Babb-one of the most outrage

ous and ingenious men in the history of exploitation films
traveling around the country with "birth-of-a-baby" films
like Mom and Dad; pretending to be "Eliot Forbes, famous
hygiene commentator"; and selling pamphlets like "Secrets
of Sensible Sex."
In the late fifties, Friedman teamed up with Herschel!
Gordon Lewis to make nudist films, including Daughter of
the Sun, about a school teacher forced to defend her nudist
practices against bluenoses; and Bell, Bare and Beautiful,
a vehicle for former strip-tease queen Virginia Bell. The

Adventures of Lucky Pierre was one of the first "nudie

cutie" films to appear after Russ Meyer's The Immoral Mr.
Teas. Other early Friedman-lewis efforts include

BOINN-G!,

Scum of the Earth and Goldilocks and the Three Bares.

Ciesse always raked fo carry a gun. One

night he was in a bookstore at Holywoocl
and Western. He looks up and there's l guys
beating the hell out of this lwoeid. Crepe
runs over and goes to his car and takes his
p out and hOlds f1:ie gun up; SCiying, "Stop!
I'm callitlg the police! Stop' or I'U shoot!" And
this guy. whirls on him and says, "We are
the police, motherfudcer!" and sllot him
twiCe right in the st LAPD-they're
"Dirty Harry's'' clown here,!

But the films Lewis and Friedman are best remembered for
are the world's first gore films: Blood Feast, Two Thou
sand Maniacs! and Color Me

Blood Red.

While filming the latter, Friedman and Lewis had a falling

Friedman appeared in it playing himself!

Most of Friedman's movies feature screenplays either
written or co-written by him, which may explain why most

out. (Whatever the reasons, they have since buried the

of his films "are as rigid as a medieval morality play: a

hatchet.) Lewis continued to explore the world of gore,

heterosexual scene,

while Friedman went back to sex, distributing titles like

something for everyone." Well, not really everyone

Trader Homee: A Smell of Honey, A Swallow of Brine!

and Thar She Blows!

carny in me plays on that most basic emotion that conmen

About this time Friedman teamed up with the sons of one

an

S-M scene and a lesbian scene . . .

mostly lonely men. Friedman continues, "I must admit the

use-loneliness."

of the earliest exploitation pioneers, Louis Sonney. An Ital

Besides producing and screenwriting, Friedman occasion

1919 for capturing a

ally acts. Easily his most outrageous appearance is that of

ian immigrant, he gained fame in

notorious railroad bandit, Roy Gardner. Sonney took the

the Nazi commandant in Love Camp Seven. The irony of

reward money and started Sonney Amusement Enterprises,

such a portrayal is not lost on him, but Friedman is a man

1921 releasing the film The Smiling Mail Bandit based

who realizes a little outrageousness is good for the soul.

on the story of-Roy Gardner. Sonney went on the road,

Interestingly, the film was made by Olympic International, a

in

appearing in person to talk about his capture of the bandit,

rival company to Friedman's Entertainment Ventures. (How

and warning against a life of crime. When "The Dangers of

ever, the rivalry was always friendly.)

Crime" theme began to wear thin, Sonney switched to "The

The advent of hardcore sex fihns in the seventies killed the

Dangers of Sex." Altogether he produced nearly 400

market for softcore. At first Friedman rejected the anatomi

movies-all dealing with the dangers of various exploitable

cal explicitness of this new breed of film, as he preferred the

evils.

plot-oriented sexuality of sixties sexploitation movies. But

Friedman is full of stories about Louis Sonney. When Son

the "raincoat crowd" was taking its business to the porno

ney was touring the country with his "Dangers of Crime"

theater across the street. Reluctantly Friedman followed the

1 08

A scene from Love Camp Seven.

PARTIAL FILMOGRAPHY

Love Camp 7, 1968

The Pick-up, 1968

AS PltODUCEit:

House of a Thousand Dreams, 1969

The Adventures of Lucky Pierre, 1961

Starlet, 1969

Nature's Playmate, 1962

MatinH Idol, 1984

Daughters of the Sun, 1962

BOINNG!, 1962
Bell, Bare and Beautiful, 1963
Blood Feast, 1963
Goldilocks and the ThrH Bares, 1963

Scum of the Earth!, 1963

Two Thousand Maniacs!, 1964
Color Me Blood Red, 1965

The Defilers, 1965

The Notorious Daughter of Fanny Hill, 1966

market and began producing hardcore films, among them:

Chorus Call (an erotic rip-off of Chorus Une), Seven Into

Snowle (an erotic rip-off of Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs) and most recently, Matinee Idol.
Friedman has no illusions that his films are great art, but
he does think they're entertaining. "Most people are making

A Smell of Honey, a Swallow of Brine!, 1966

pretentious garbage," he says. "I make funny garbage."

She Freak, 1967

Indeed, Friedman's films are notable for their hokey,

Brand of Shame, 1968

poking humor. In Trader Hornee he parodies virtually every

The lustful Turk, 1968

jungle movie cliche-the lost treasure, the white woman

Starlet, 1969
Thor She Blows, 1969
Trader HornH, 1970

The Erotic Adventures of Zorro, 1971

Seven into Snowie, 19n
Chorus Call, 1978
MatinH Idol, 1984

raised in the jungle, the girlnapping gorilla. In

rib

The Entlc

Adventures of Zorro the hero is a flaming gay by day and a

womanizer by night-a concept George Hamilton borrowed
for his film Zorro,

The Gay BlaM.

With the rise of the videocassette market stimulating

demand for almost anything obscure, perhaps films like The

Defilers, The Aclcl Eaten and Daughtw of the Sun will be

AS anoR:

re-released. And, whatever comes from Entertainment Ven

Bell, Bare and Beautiful, 1963

tures in the future will surely be worth watching.

1 09

W:

you finish the film. Then ofcourse you have the edge because

or the past thirty yecws Doris Wishman has kept a low

profile, making hw nudist and exploitation low-budget films
with almost no aitical attention, much less acclaim. Yet her
films-difficult to obtain and view-are indicative of a
spontaneous playfulness and Wlinhibited imagination all too
rare. When Andrea
Juno interviewed her she seemed
genuinely surprised. ev skeptical, that anyoM could find
h work worthy of study, probably because at f'wst glance
hw films often reveal such trademark low-budget production
values as doclgy lighting and interion resembling rundown
motel rooms. Yet behind hw economically deprived visuals lie
a wealth of the imagination: wilcly improbable plots, bizarre
"method'' acting and saipts yielding freely to fantasy.
Even though she says she's no feminist, Doris Wishman is
definitely a positive woman's role model, penisting as she has
in a field saturated with men. Somehow she simultaneously
uses the exploitation gerwe and transcends it, as wh she
came up with the bizarre idea of implanting a spy camera in
Chesty Morgan's 73" manICII"ies in the film Doullle a.-.
73.
Despite v having gotten rich, Doris Wishman continues
to work in her field of choice: independent filmmaking. The
following interview took place in her film editing studio in
New York City's warehouse district.

you know where to go.

A]: Did you have film crews ?

DW: Yes, but I did pretty much everything myself. Except
for camerawork and editing, because I'm very clumsy with
my hands . . . !

AJ How didyou know the nudists? Didyou search them

out? Were you a nudist back then ?
DW:

No, I wasn't. In fact I was rather astonished when I

first went to the nudist camp, although the people were

wonderful. The woman who

ran

the camp said that every

body in the crew had to be nude, and I said under no

drcumstances! So we weren't nude. But of course the

nudists were. It was an interesting experience; everybody
was very nice and very cooperative.

A]: How didpeople think about you, a woman, working

in a veryr male domain ?
DW:

At first everybody was rather surprised, and it was a

novelty. Of course, now women are in it as much as the men.

I found it very exciting, very challenging. And I am a frus
trated actress, so that helps. But really, there's nothing more
to say except that I've been working very hard. I don't
consider myself successful because I haven't made very

DW: As I said, my life really isn't that interesting A]: 1be fact thatyou 've been making these films is inter
esting enough. When did you start?
DW: About 20 years ago. My first films were nudist camp

much money, and that's how I judge success at tlls point.

pictures. Then I went on to do other things like dramas and

AI Bad Girls Go to Hell when was that done?

DW: It's an oldie . . . about 7 years ago.
AJ: Do you know where a lot ofyour films are?
DW: No, I really don't because I've sold most of them, and

comedies. Now I'm making my first horror film. I can't say I

once I do that I have no more interest in them.

was very successful with comedy-on the contrary I wasn't,

Af: How did you get into nudist films?

DW: Well, I was in distribution. Then, when my husband

AI Who do you usually sell them to ?

DW: Distributors
AI You haven't made much money on these films?
DW: I did until I made a comedy; then that was the kiss of

died, I decided I wanted to do something that would be so

death! I won't make any more comedies, that's for sure!

so of course I won't attempt that again!

different that it would keep

me

occupied every second. I

didn't know.what I was doing when I started production. Of

course when I was finished with the first film, then I knew
where to go, but making it was very difficult. I really didn't

AJ: What's most profitable for you ?

DW: Exploitation films.
A]: Do you invent the scripts yourself?
DW: Yes, I write them myself. Then I direct them, choose

know what I was doing!

the casting, crew, location -almost everything, although I

A]:

don't edit. I know what I want. And I can't use a camera; I

That's the opposite of a lot of filmmakers-they

know bow to make a film but they don't know bow to

distribute it.

wish I could.

DW:

ful about the concept!

The thing is, I felt that since I knew distribution,

AI

Double Agent 73 . .
.

there was something so wonder

production should be simple, but it doesn't work that way.

DW:

They're completely different; there's no connection until

made a lot of money because ofthis picture-she appears in

Chesty Morgan was very difficult to work with. She's

1 10

nightclubs and earns a great deal of money.

AJ: Hou did that film help ber? just hy gitting her
exposure?
DW: Sure! That film made money. And actually. if not for
the comedy, I'd be all right now.

AJ: What year was Ibis comedy?

DW: About five years ago. We thought it was funny but
nobody else did. The people working on it-we all thought it
was hilarious, but obviously we were wrong! That's part of
the game. I wish I could tell you something more interesting.

A}: Beliet!f! it or not, ths

i is interesting: thefact thatyou 're
doing these films, you'l'e clone them by yourself and hm 'e
tbe motitation and drite to do them . . . . Hou many films
did you nutke u>ith Chesty Morgan?
DW: Two; one called Dead)' Weapons. That wasn't as
good as Double Agent.
A}: What uas the plot?
DW: Chesty Morgan's lmer is killed by some gangsters,
and she seeks them out and kills them by smothering them
with her breasts. It's a gimmick. Because there's no sex in
either picture, you have to have something.

A]: Yes . . . so she can constantly shou her breasts. Nou

you 're doing A Night to Dismember?
DW: Yes, I'm just finishing it, but I'm changing the title.
How did you hear about it? I'm not through with the film;
I've changed it about 4 different times.

A}: \tl'ben did you starl it?

DW: About two years ago. But I'm surprised that you

..d

Girts Go To Hell

knew the title!

A]: By the uay. did you et1er use any pseudonyms? Did
you urrite screenplays under the name Dau 'll Whitman?
DW: What picture was that7 I can't remember.
A}: The Amazing Transplant. Did you urite that
screenplay?
OW: Yes, that was mine.

A}: That was great! Did you direct it as uoe/1?

feel that women are as capable as men.

DW: Yes, I do the same with each film: I write. direct, and

A}: \tl'bich areas?

DW: It depends. I don't think I should speak this way,

so

on. But I used another name because it looks bad; it's not

wise.

because I'll have the women down on me! I think men are

AJ: That 's uhat Herschel/ Gordon Leu>is does.

DW: Sure, everybody does that. What other films do you

more enterprising; I think women are much more cautious,

have written down?

Women's Ub, I really don't.

A:.f: Another Day, Another Man did you do that?

DW: That's not on video. Where did you get that?
A}: Michael Weldon, U1ho s
i uriting a hugefilmography
-

because they have to be, I suppose. I don't believe in

A}: \tl'bat does Women's Lib mean to you?

DW: Women are coming into theirown-iftheycandoa
man's job, I feel they should be paid for what they cando. But
I don't always think they can do a man's job. But then, by the
same roken, a man can't always do a women's job, so it sort of

'lhen's a lot of blood in this, IIUt that's

what the pullllc ...., .... if ,..... in the
business y have to .;we tMm what they
...., if ,_ haft the courage.

equalizes.

A}: Then hou do you feel about uhat you're doing ?

Because traditionally, a lot of men U'Ould say that u'Omen
should not direct se:xploitalion films.
DW: You say "sexploitation," but that's not quite true
because these days those films are not considered sexploita
tion. Double Agent and Deadly Weapons haven't any sex.
7be Amazing Transplant has very little sex. So they're not
sexploitation. Anyway, as far as sex is concerned, men and

for Ballantine Books, catalogued this. You knoll'. certain

obsessitJe people go around and do research.
DW: But I can't imagine where he got that, because I

women are on the same level ,

didn't sell it to video, and it's an oldie.

don't feel that women can do everything that men can do in

AJ: I don't know. But The Amazing Transplant DW: That was sold to video. Do you have any other films

But anyhow, I have other problems; I'm not interested in

listed there?

women's lib. I'm really not.

A}: No. Your film company is J.E.R.?

A]: Are you married?

DW: Not right now.
A}: You 're pretty much on your own?
DW: Oh yes, very much so. I like it.
A]: \WJat uere your budgets like? \tl'ben )'OU did The
Amazing Transplant how much did that cost?
DW: That was only about $250,000, I think. Which is

DW: J.E.R. is a distribution company that isn't mine. My

company is J.U.R.I. Productions.

AJ: But jerry Balsam distribtlles some of your films ?

DW: Most o f the time.
A]: What do think of the role of women in films these
days?
DW: Of course it's very exciting, but in many areas I don't

so

that has no bearing! What

I'm doing and what other women are doing-anybody can

do if they have that talent, it has nothing to do with sex. But I
the business world. Especially where pro wess is concerned.

considered very low. but that's because I do everything

111

myself, and I don't take an actual salary, I just take what I

need.
A]: How about A Night to Dismember?
OW: That will be more costly; at this point I'm not sure,
because I'm not finished.
A]: Do you have spedal effects in it?
DW: Oh yes; these days you have to, unless you're making
a terror film. There's a difference. There's a lot of blood in
this, but that's what the pubHc wants, and if you're in the
business you have to give them what they want, if you have
the courage.
A]: You think of the plots yourself?
OW: Oh yes, you know-it's just imagination. And then
you develop it. Sometimes you just get a title, then you work

I .. ,..._ -......... whM I fiist

went to

. ...... .... . ...... who .... tht

..., said tfaat

,...,

ill

&nW

had

to

.. ..., ... . .... .... - drcu.-t--a

5o

we ...'t .... .. of

CC1U1W fht

...... ....

around the title, which I've done many times. It's ridiculous,
of course, but that's how I work.
A]: Can you name a title?
OW: A Night to Dismember: I got the title first. TbeAmaz
ing Transplant . . . well, most of my films.
A]: Do you think people could tell ifa woman had done
your films?
DW: Oh no. They know whether they like it or don't, or
whether they think it's good or bad, but how can they tell?
A]: How is softcore sexploitation currently marketable,
now that there's a whole market for hardcore?
OW: I don't think there is any market for softcore, frankly,
and I don't know what I'll make after this. I haven't the
vaguest idea. I'm not thinking about the future; I just want to
get finished with this film. But I really don't think there's a
market for this sort of film anymore.
A]: Would you do bardcore ?
OW: No. Not that I disapprove, but I don't think I'd be
capable. Well, I could. At first I thought it was horrible, but
it's not. Ifyou don't want to go see the movie, don't -they're
not twisting your arm. Ifyou want to see a hardcore film, fine.
But I couldn't make those films.
A]: So if this is successful, you'// stick uritb horror?
DW: I don't know. I haven't the vaguest idea at tllis point.
Normally I'd be thinking of about ten other films, but this is
one time where I'm not going to until I'm finished and know
which way to go. Because the market changes constantly, and
truly I don't know what's going to happen. Speaking ofhorror
films, there are millions of them out, and I don't know how
long they'll last.
A]: Do you still take a hand in the distribution?
OW: Not ifl can help it. I do because I have to sometimes,
but I don't Hke to. I don't like distribution.
AI That's where you started, though.
DW: And that's where the money is, too. The distributors
generally don't invest anything, so they have nothing to lose.
Let's assume your picture cost S500,000. By the time you've
gotten your money back, ifyou've gotten it, they might have
made 11 50,000. Whereas you might not have gotten your
money back. So actually, the money is in distribution. But I
don't Like it. This is more of a challenge, more exciting.
A]: Do you have any interests besides films?
OW: Well, I'm writing a novel, and right now that's my
hobby. Every time I have a spare minute, I write. It's a

wonderful story, I think, called In a Dark Comer.

A}: Is it romance-gotf?ic, or horror?
DW: It's not horror. It touches the Hves ofmany people, has
a most unusual ending-a fantastic ending, very different,
and it's just-1 can't really describe it, it's not horror. You cry
a little bit, and yet it's not drama. There's some love story,
naturally, some sex (which I find very difficult to write, I
don't know why), and it's just good, I think- naturally, or I
wouldn't write it.
A}: How long haue you been working on it?
OW: Oh god, a long time. About two years. But I don't
work on it all the time. And sometimes when I do have the
time I just can't think, so whenever I get in the mood. I don't
know if it'll ever get published, but I'm going to try an)1ow. It
would make a great film, but it would have to have a very
costly budget, a very high budget. And I find it difficult to find
investors; I don't like to ask for money even though it's an
investment.
Aj: How do you get money?
OW: I've used my family's money, my friends', and some of
my own. And then I get a lot of credit because I have a good
reputation, thank goodness. And that's about it . . . you're
waiting for me to talk but I really have nothing to say!
A]: You 'tJe said quite a bit. Do you have any other
bobbip ?
OW: Right now, I'm just working, thinking. And I've writ
ten some scripts.
A}: Do you e/!er send them out?
OW: No, I'm keeping the scripts, because when I finish
this I want to work on the others- I have two other scripts
that are great. I'm really busy writing when I have any free
time.
A}: Do you ever watch any films?
OW: Strangely enough, no. I don't go to movies if I can
help it, and I should.
A}: Why not?

l'na doing ancl wiMd other ...... ..

cloiftt-aaYbocly -. do If they have that
What

tahint; it has nothing to do with su. But

don't fMI that -- at do .,_,,...
that men can do ill tht ....._. world.

OW: Because I become too critical. And if I'm with

anyone I think I become annoying, because I see things that
they don't see, and it bothers me. For example, in the Lind
bergh kidnapping case which they had on last week, it was a
three-hour 1V movie . . . [disruption]
AJ: How did you know Herschel/ Gordon Lewis?
OW: He's in the industry; I met him someplace, I can't
remember where. Do you know Dave Friedman? I think I met
him through Dave Friedman.
A]: Do you know how to get in contact with Dave
Friedman ?
OW: No, it's been years since I saw him. He's in Los
Angeles as far as I know.
A]: Haveyou euer seen theHersche/l Gordon Lewisfilms?
DW: No, have you?
A}: Yes, they're great and quite witty.
DW: Which?
A]: The Wizard of Gore, Blood Feast . . .
DW: What is Blood Feast about?
A]: It's about an Egyptian man who worships thegoddess
lshtar (a dummy they dressed up and painted gold). In
order to worship her be bas to provide a feast ofbodyparts.
So basically there's a series ofkillings in preparationfor this
"Egyptian feast, " and-it's great.

112

 DW: I never saw it; I should see those films.

A]: There's probably a market in cablefor yourfilms DW: I don't think in cable; maybe in video. I don't think so;
I may be wrong.

A]: 1bere's a lot of film festil'als nou det'Dted to more

obscure films.
DW: I haven't heard of any. You mean devoted to horror
films?

A]: 7be older exploitation and horror films . . . By the

uv:ty, are there any other pseudonyms you 't>e used, other
tban Daun Whitman?
DW: Maybe, but I don't remember- I didn't even
remember Dawn Whitman until you mentioned it. I doubt it.
hut I don't remember.

AJ: Hou do you feel about your uork?

DW: Well, I think I'm good'

A}: And do )'DU like your films?

DW: Yes, otherwise I don't make them. I have to think
they're marvelous, great, and wonderful. otherwise 1 don't
get involved. Of course they may not always tum out that
way, but I have to feel that. It's a challenge, it's excit ing, and I
enjoy what I'm doing, and that's \'Cry imponant.

A}: Your films are good. and tastes are cbcmging DW: [softly] Well, I don't know how good they arc. but A]: Tbey are, because they reflect a creatit'i)' that 's spon.
taneous and nait>e and uniquely affecting-qualities you
usually can't find in the midst of a 520 million budget. I
think people are really cradng that nou.
DW: You really think so?
A]: There's a small but growing community of people
around the world U'ho realize that almost all big budget
films like Star Wars are sterile. It's obt4ous that a corpora
lion made this film, and DW: Doesn't have that personal touch.
A}: You 're also inte1Y?Sting in anotberdimension-it took
a lot of courage to do this on your oun.
DW: It's not easy, but I guess most things that are wonh
while aren't that easy

uring the early '60s hundreds of entrepreneurs and

filmndlen jumped on the sexploitation bandwagon and
began to crank out nudist films. Some, like Russ Meyer and
Herschel! Gordon Lewis, became famous. Others were regu
larly ignored, one of whom is Doris Wishman.
When nudist films first surfaced, Ms. Wishrnan was there
with Nature Camp Confidential and Blue St.-r Goes
Nudist. And under the pseudonym "Doris Wisher" she
appeared in a Herschel! Gordon Lewis film. Later, when the
thrill of watching naked people play volleyball wore off,
Wishman added the novelty of plotlines. She continued mak
ing nudist films until the mid-'60s when, like virtually every
other sexploitation director, she switched to themes of
violence, vice and death. It was during this period that Ms.
Wishman directed the superbly titled lacl Girts Go To Hel.
Whether the film is as good as its name is difficult to
say-like many sexploitation films, prints of it are difficult
to find.
In the early '70s Wishman teamed up with sex star Chesty
Morgan and directed two films that assure her a place in the
history of strange films: Deadly Weapons and Double

A..,.t 73. Chesty Morgan is best known for her upper torso
appointments: a ful 73 inches of mammary excess. In
DetNiy Weapons (a title whose meaning the attentiwe
reader may well discern), Chesty turns in an exquisitely bad
performance-so crippled that in her next film, Deville
Agent 73, her voice is dubbed.
Supremely tacky, Doullle A..... 73 makes Pink ,......
goes look almost genteel. And the film does not merely
strain credulity-it tears it asunder. Chesty plays an agent
assigned to ferret out and eradicate members of a elope
smuggling ring. To learn the identities of her victims aftw
dispatching them-no need, apparently, to know ...,_.
hand whom she's kiHing-Chesty snaps their photos. The
camera is implanted-really quite routine, medically-in
her left breast. Naturally, every time she wants a photo she
must first remove her clothes. Moreover, agent Chesty is
working under a lethal deadline-she must complete her
assignment by a certain time or the camera will exploclel
Ms. Wishman, n
i addition to directing films, also wrote
several movies under the pseudonym "Dawn Whitman." Hw
best effort is The Amazing Transplant, the story of a
sexually frustrated young man named Arthur who wishes he
could be more like his satyric friend. Felix. When felix dies,
Arthur-hoping for a virility boost-forces a doctor to
transplant his friend's penis onto him. The operation is a
"success." Arthur turns into a sex fiend, traveling around
the city raping women. When his girlfriend Mary calls him
"sick," Arthur strangles her and goes on the lam; finally he's
tracked down by his uncle, a New York police detective who
assures him that his problems are psychasomatic. Arthur
reluctantly agrees to turn himself over to the authorities,
and the movie ends in Lady Or The Tiger fashion-the
outcome is left to the vieww.
Doris Wishman's style is all her own. Only Jean-l.uc Godard
can match her indifference to composition and framing; if
two people are talking and one is partially obscured by a
post, so be it-the camera will nat change its angle. Some
times we are treated to static shots of feet-or torsos, or
hands-while voices talk off-screen. At other times Ms.
Wishman will trade off shots in such a way that we never see
the person who's talking-instead we watch the listenw, his
head nodding thoughtfully to words from a speaker we
can't see. Often her camera imitates a human eye roving
restlessly around the room, occasionally allowing insignifi
cant obiecfs to hold its attention. for example, the camwa
might follow a persan to a dresser, then stop to dwell on the
various items (obiecfs completely irrelevant to the plot) it
finds there.
Unlike the performances in the films of Henchell Gordon
Lewis and Russ Meyer, the acting in Doris Wishman's films is
usually underplayed; half-balled, even. This, coupled with
hw singular camwa technique, gives Wishman's worll an
unmistakable look and feel Some filmmakers work on the
periphery of accepted styles, but Wishman is w beyand the
fringe. No hints here of Hawks, Welles, or Eisensteln-in
fact, no hints of an seen before; and because of this,
critics and viewers hove hastily-and unfortunately
shunted aside the work of this uniquely inspired filmrnakw.
The sexual freedom of the '70s-unkind to many other
sexploitation directors as wei-hurt Ms. Wishrnan's car...;
as hordcore films took over the market for softcore dried
up. In 1983 she began work on a slashw film entitled A
Night To Dlsmem... While nat reiecfing the possibility of
making more movies, Wishrnan is pessimistic about her filmic
future. We wish her luck.

.. of the most politically aware, sardonic, and resource

ful directon in this publication is former New Yorker larry
Cohen, whose films ovw the past 15 years all bear anti
authoritarian, anti-religious or other socio-critical themes.
His films God Told Me To, Q and It's Allvel question com
monly held assumptions about God, aliens, religion and
family ties, while other efforts such as his saHI'Iplay for I.
The .lvry (which linlo the CJ.A.to sex-aimeassassinationsof
political radicals), and The Stuff (aitiquing the f.D.A.and
corporate/governmental collusion) round out a career
devoted to destabilb:ing the status quo ...
On a wcwm fall afternoon Andrea Juno and Vale inter
viewed Larry Cohen at his old Spanish ranch-style mansion off
Coldwater Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills, once the home of his
friend, director Samuel fuller. Posters in many diffwent
languages from his movies, flyers for his theatrical produc
tions, photos of friends and his five children, as well as a
Y.a.ty sheet listing It'sAhel as top-grossing movie of the
week, lined the walls of his office. At the end he brought out
wonderful memorabilia, including props such as the It's
Alvei babies and bird models from Q.
Soft-spoken, hospitable, and very fumy, Cohen freely
offered his philosophy, political and religious views, ccweer
history, industry overview, and many anecdotes in a four
hour conversation over a kitchen table, interrupted only by
apple pancakes suppli ed by his daughter Melissa.

W:

stances, or maybe they're just able to concentrate better in

their homes.
It's like having your books in the public library; people'll
read the book, but you're not going to make any money. But
you can't worry about it, you just go on and make your next
picture.Revival houses are the same thing; the pictures play,
but they change the picture every day, so ... You get your
chance to make money when the picture comes out theatri
cally

thefirst time,

and after that it's artfor art's

sake.

I like

the fact that my films keep surfacing. They're like people;

they have a life of their own. They go out into the world and
make friends on their own.

A]: Have you experienced any resurge11ce of critical

acclaim?
LC: As time goes on, more and more people-whether in
France or England or wherever-discover the whole succes
sion of pictures. I

knew

that if I made enough films that

would happen; sooner or later somebody's going to see

them, someday.
Although ... my fLlms were all made in the commercial
marketplace of Hollywood. They were financed by commer
cial companies that expected to make money on the pic
tures, and in most cases they did. The only one that didn't was

The Private Files of]. Edgar Hoover, and you never

that, someday.

can

tell-something might happen with

The reason I got to make so many pictures, one after

another, was because they made money for people. They
were low-budget and able to make back their investment
with substantial profits for everybody, even though they
weren't what you'd call blockbuster hits. (Except for It's
Alive! and Black Caesar, which were top of the list for
awhile.)

A]: Was Hoover a personal indulgence?

LC: It was not in my usual cycle of horror

or sci-fl. I just

wanted to do it because Hoover was a flamboyant and unus

ANDREAjUNO: Why do you preferfilming in New York?

lARRY COHEN: I like filming there-I like the streets,

the activity, the texture of the city.There's always something

happening-there's always life going on. Here in Los Angeles
the streets are devoid of people-there are cars going back

ual character, and because no one else would make it and

thus risk incurring the wrath of the FBI and causing a lot of
trouble for themselves.

AJ: Did you get in any trouble?

LC: No! They knew I was oblivious to any pressures they

could apply. Being an outsider, I wasn't subject to the same

and forth, but you don't see people. And you don't see the

pressures or fears that somebody else in "the system" might

contrast in architecture that New York has, where there's

have been afraid of. And the picture didn't tum out to be

brick, glass, an old building next to a brand new one ... Here

derogatory to him, anyway. It was a picture where everybody

it's like looking at a blank, clean sidewalk, as opposed to one

was bad, everybody was a little bit crooked. He was just one

that has aJI kinds of cracks in it and levels of steps, where

more phenomenon of the system which encourages a lot of

hypocrisy. RooSt:Vel t didn't come off we11, and neither did the

everything looks like some kind of multi-layered piece of art.

It's more fun to shoot

that.
VALE: Your films are multi-layered, yet accessible-the
audience can get simple messages right away, but other,
more complex implications are there.
AJ: Do people get mad at you becallSe they can't put a
simple label on your films?
LC: They don't get mad at you, they just ignore you-if
they can't get a "fix" on you they ignore you. But cable video

and the videocassette stores are a wonderful thing, because

people see your pictures years later under different circum-

Kennedys

or johnson; everybody came

off as kind

too

of

unscrupulous.
Hoover didn't come off any worse then anybody else in the
picture, which was the truth of the matter. Those who liked
Hoover were fairly satisfied with the film. I had more trouble
with people like Arthur Schlesinger who felt that we slan
dered Franklin D. Roosevelt. He wrote in the

Saturday

Review some nice things about the picture, but withheld his
approval because of the shabby way we treated President

Roosevelt.

We took a big chance on that; people felt there was no

market for a picture like that, and when they think this they
can make it come true. If the distribution department of a
movie decides beforehand that a picture is not going to be
successful, they will put it in the wrong theatres, give it bad
play dates, won't spend any money for advertising or 1V
advertising, so inevitably the picture will fail. Then their
pre-judgment is verified and they go on thjnk.ing, "See, we
really knouif a picture's going to make it or not'" On]. Edgar
Hoot'er they didn't think it would have any market, and they
made sure it didn't. But it still has slipped onto 1V and into
repertory theaters, and I get inquiries about it all the time.
You never know where these films can turn up.

A}:

Your mouies don't seem to have pat, dogmatic polit

ics. They haue complexity. they can't be pinned doum to

simplistic "Left" or "Right" messages. And yet they all hm1e
under(ying anti-authoritarian themes.

V Yes. they seem to be anti- "Control Process" ...

LC: That's true. 7be Stuff is an indictment of the

food

industry, mass market advertising and the cynical way it's all
handled by the U.S.Government Food and Drug Administra
tion. In the end of the picture, they uncover that "the stuff'' is
a poisonous food that takes over people's minds and kills
them, so they finally get it off the market, destroy the factory
and blow up the franchises. But then the people who are
merchandising it just re-emerge under another name. They
dilute it, saying their new product contains only 121h% of the
stuff-the rest is "natural dairy products" -and put it out
under a new name with a new advertising campaign.
That's what they always do, right? like with saccharin
now it's Nutrasweet. lf you examine the label you'll probably
find the product has just as much saccharin as before, but
they just put in a little drop ofNutrasweet so they can feature
that on the label. giving the impression there's no more
saccharin in it. But all they did was add the Nutrasweet
without taking out the saccharin.Now you really don't know
what you're getting!
They'll sell you anything. Ford Motor Company'll sell you a
car that goes out of control and runs you over. They know
about the defect, but it's easier for them not to do anything
about it and pay off the lawsuits than to recall all the cars.
Even though a few people get killed-so what? When they
find it's a defective part that makes the cars go out of control
and kill a few old ladies, they say, "Oh ue/1. if you bring the car

larry Cohen with his two monster babies from 11"1 AHve Part I & II and
newly hatched killer Mayan bird-god from

Q.

back we'll fix it for you."

with into the city water system, a violation of the law. But it
was cheaper for them to do it and pay the fine than to dispose
of it properly.

A J:

That's just one or two executive salaries a year for

them. A drop in the bucket, so to speak.

LC: See, they don't put anybody in jajl. lf they started

putting people in jail there would be a change! But they don't

want to put a few "nice persons" in jail when all they did was
poison a few hundred thousand people ...
There was a recent story about someone putting pluto
nium in the New York City water supply. But after a couple of
days you didn't hear about it; imagine the panic if they went
What should happen is-they should be forced to refund

on the air and told

8 million people they're going to die! They

the entire original purchase price of the car. I don't care if

just dropped it: "Keep on drinkin' it, folks!" So, my movies are

20,000 miles-if it was defective to start

definitely an understatement. They're not exaggerations;

I've driven my

car

with, they should give me back the wholeS 10,000 I originally

they're conserva tive/ They don't go as far as they should. And

paid. Then they wouldn't put defective cars on the market!

probably no one would believe it if you told the real truth.

But try and get that passed. It would be "bad" for American
industry; we'd have to start loaning money to Chrysler to
keep them from going out of business ... (laughs] There is

v- Why uas the title of God Told Me To changed to

Demon?

LC: Well, nobody could remember the title; they kept

nothing as bizarre in my movies as what happens in real life. I

saying, "God Made Me Do It" or "God Told Me To Do It."

think all my pictures are understatements.

Finally Roger Corman said, "We'd better change the title to

The whole system is amazing. Recently Sparkletts Water

something people can remember." 7be Omen had been out,

Co. here, who put out "natural, pure, clean bottled water,"

and I thought that Omen spelled sideways is Demon, so ... !

A}: Did it work?

were given the biggest fine in history, SSOO,OOO, because they

were caught pouring the paints they use to paint their tanks

LC: Oh, I don't know. It didn't tum it into a blockbuster.

115

larry Cohen with Broclerkk cr-ford

on

the set of Tile Prfy... .... f J ......,

HMYer.

but the picture played and was distributed by Roger Corman.

enough, and you've had enough tragedy in your Life, for some

A]: Did it make money?

people the only alternative to giving up completely is finding

LC: Yeah, it made money-for us, anyway, who made the

something to put their faith in.

picture. Money still comes in on a regular basis from foreign

But it would be better to put your faith in nature, and go

sales and things like that. All these pictures bring in money

out and pray to a big tree, or the clouds which are beautiful,

every quarter or every year, just like a songwriter getting

or go out into the woods somewhere where God really had

royalties on some hit song he wrote twenty years ago.

something to do with it. Forget about all those stained-glass

A]: God Told Me To

such a bleak statement about

religion. What do you feel about religion, God, etc?

windows which are pretty, but ...

LC: I don't relate to anyone who is a professional religion

National Gallery in London. I was walking through it, looking

was

I guess I got the idea for God 1bld Me 7b from going to the

ist ... who has the ego to tell us that they know God's will,

around and thinking, "Jesus, they talk about movies being

and can tell us what God thinks and what God likes and what

violent-look at aU these paintings. This saint has 77 arrows

God is, and how God feels about integration, South Africa,

in his back, this guy's got his head over here and his hand

and AIDS. Everybody's got a different idea what God thinks;

there, and here are all these women being raped and ravaged.

the crazy guy on the street corner knows about as much as

Look at this scene and think what it would cost to reproduce

the guy in St. Patrick's Cathedral-none of them know

it: a big canvas with bodies strewn from one end to the other;

anything.
People say, "Reverend Moon-what a crook!" and I say,

here are babies with spears through them. And it's a religious
painting."

"But what about the Pope?" It's all the same; anybody who

Jesus, there's nothing as violent as the Bible. God kills

starts telling you what God thinks should be locked up

everybody-drowns the entire .world, destroys the cities of

immediately! Get them off the streets because they'll cause a

Sodom and Gomorrah, burning people to a crisp. "This is a

lot of trouble for everybody. I don't want anybody telling me

tough guy," I said. "Boy, if he ever came back, look out! Talk
about GodziJia-what if God ever walked in here and took a
look around? He's one tough cookie. This man is strict."

that so-and-so's going to heaven but not this guy. I'd hate to
get there and find a line of people with reservations; they give
you a number Like in a bakery and you're standing there, then

So that gave me the basic idea for this movie: what if a

they call your number and some guy comes over and says,

messiah came back, bringing with him the kind of ethic that

"But you're not wearing a necktie!"

really is the basis of our relig.ion, which is: kill and destroy

I think heaven, the way it's depicted, would be too hor

anybody who doesn't do EX4 CTIY what you tell him to do.

rendous to imagine, with everybody up there telling you

Why should the Angel of Death fly over and strike down every

who's good enough to get in and who's not good enough to

firstborn male child of the Egyptians who didn't do anything

get in, like some kind of a club. I think it's really sad when I

except be born; why should those little babies have to die?

see all these guys on television "healing" people and asking

This is an unreasonable, mean person. Right? This is not a

people to send their money in. I find it hard to accept that

nice guy.

anybody falls for this. But then, I guess if you're desperate

Back in the '20s when Cecil B. DeMille was making sexy

116

comedjes and sexy movies about philandering wives with big

orgy scenes. the Motion Picture Board ofRC\iewcame down
and said. ''You cannot make these kind ofpictures anymore."
So DeMille decided he would make Biblical movies, because

in that context he could have orgies. he could have aU these

women taking baths, he could have all this infidelity; every
tbfng he was no longeraiJowcd to do he could get a'llywith.
because he was invoking the name of the Lord. Ifyou h;ne the
Bible you can get ay with anything. The Bible is a book
that's full of sound and fur,y sex and 'olencc. and the best
seUing book of all time, you know.

However. tbe author net'<-.,. got any royalties.

were to actually paint in a naked woman performing ase:x

act on a religious figure in a painting-that might be consi
dercd "obscene"; we wouldn't necessarily have any right to
deface a painting or change it in anyway. But just to .show the
painting seems to me like showing Mt. Rushmore. I didn't
have the time or legal fees to get into it.
Anyway, I thought all those violent religious paintings
would tie the whole thing together and solve the problem of:
how <.-an I bring "aliens" into the plot? Aliens are like an
alternative reljgion-the belief that aliens arc going to show
up. There's probably a better chance that aliens will show up

LC: That's what you tltink; we don't know who wrote it!

than jesus will appear! "Make your bets now on who's com
ing first-ET or jesus!"

Betieve me, religion is a big business-bigger than the movie

business. that's for sure. Before movies came along, people

V: Tbe National Enquirer periodically runs stories about

tiny mc.:>t1ln crashed space capsules being found. Maybe Ibis

had to go somewhere on the weekend so they went to the

church. And if they had a good minister who ranted and raved
and created a lot of exdtment-

actual)' lxtppened

V.

V. And pt1inted illusions LC: -With heU and damnation, where you could see aU

those people consumed by fire-boy. that was bot stuff!

.., ...... ..,,Dr -..

... .. ...,..., ...
. .. .
...
..... ....... .. ... .. .... . ..
I Slllllllt .......

V:

1bey prey on all those

fear emotions.

LC: Sure. Now you'\e got different people doing it, like
that guy in Oregon-Rajneesh. On a recent news program
you could sec these people going crazy when he arrived,
chanting. screaming. hollering. having virtual orgasms of
delight. Now, because of AIDS. when theyhavesex theyhave
to wear plastic gloves. and they?rc not allo-ed to kiss. and
they have to w<.-ar prophy1actics during intercourse. He's got

them cominccd ( tike ochers have done before) that C\"Cry

body's goi to rue in a nudcar holocaust if they don't go to
some out-ofthe-r place. Also, he's got his sect beliC\iOg
they will be the only survivors when the plague of AIDS
sweeps America and the world. and everybody else dies but
them. You can get people ro believe anything!
V: A doOnlS1ay scenario bas been tm essential part ofso

many of these religious moveme11ts through the ages.

LC: Well, everybody's expecting the "last judgment"-the
whole church is based on the belief that some day Jesus will
return and the "last judgment" II come. If you look at the
painting "The lal.'t Judgment" by Michelangelo-talk about
horror mo,ies. there's a guy holding somebodys skin in his

hands! I got a print of that when I was at the Vatican. Michel

angelo painted himselfactuaUyas the skin; thisman'sholding
his outer skin all hanging don. but it's Michelangelo's face.

For all-time gruesomeness you don't need Rick Baker or "The

Thing" -just go look at some reljgious paintings! OriginaUy I
wanted all the main tjtJes of God 7bld Me 7b to be religious
paintings of exquisite violence.
V: \y didn't you do that?

LC: Probably just as many people say the Virgin Mary

appears and tcUs them to go do something. All these Cant<

sics! There are so many interlocking things people believe

in-stories in the Bible. ancient drawings and carvings sup
posedly depicting "spacemen" with antennae coming out of
the helmet-you've seen OJariot of the Gods.
There's some of that in God 1bld Me 7b-the idea that
ancient aliens may have founded our religion. In the movie
trus guys an alien and he's here on earth. lf Superman were
real-if there really were a Clark Kent, and Mr & Mrs Kent
found the baby in the space ca'"psuJe and brought him up ,
when h e reaches the or six }'ears old h e doesn't know who he
is. right?
He starts to go to church. they tell him about jesus Quist
and he thinks, "I can sec through walls and I can fly; I have
superior powers. I look like a man, but I'm not one of
thc:m-l'm sure of that. I must be jesus Christ."
He's not going to think he's Superman; he's going to think
he's Jesus because we have a religious belief that says God
comes down to Earth looking like a man but with superior
powers. So he doesn't go to Metropolis and become a repor
ter; he starts a religion. The alien in this movie could easilybe
deluded into thinking he's God, just by the fact he's oot a
human being. lf you're not a human being. who are you?
My mmies aren't so different from what was done all
through ancient societies. So many of the ancient books and
play-s are based on gods appearing in human form; the Mino
taur is halfhuman. half-beast . God's always coming down and
having sex with a woman, and she gives birth to a child who's
half-human and half-monster. That s the principal CJass A
entertainment in those days; today that's an exploitation film!
Some people ask. "How can you make a picture where
people give birth to a monster baby?" I as in Its Alit-e!] Well,
it's not the first time this story's been told. Mythology has
loads of monster babies; I mean, in those ancient days it was
unusual if your kid was born without a tail. Often you see the
combination of oun-beast people-the head of a man with
the body of a beast and vice-versa.
For example, in Egypt there's Anubis with the head of a dog
and the body of a man. These kind of monsters are not new,
but they alys have some religious connection to them. And
in andent times people thought that malformed children had
some kind of religious sjgnificance. In some societies they

LC: WeiJ, I'd gotten all these slides from differ ent muse
urns, but wt: didn't ha"e the rights to reproduce these paint
t
ings, and I was afraid, afer
we shot it, that we'd be involved
with all kinds of litigation with museums across the country.

worshipped them. and in others they sacrificed them. But

they aiV. 'll}''S thought they were in some y God-like or a
manifestation of God.

V. Those paitllngsfrom the 16th or 17th cmturies aren't

Its AliL'l?! was aU that

different from a picture that came out years later called The
Elephant Man It wasn't the same story progression, but I was
trying to create the same feeling of a compassion for some

public domain?
LC: I don't know. I think you could argue you have the
right tO usc a painting like the Mona Lisa that's been around

so long it's just become part of our society, there's no owner

ship to it. Just like the Sphinx and the Pyramids have become
part of our culture.
Merely showing the actual painting should be okay. But if

A}: Were you tblnking about tbfs whenyou did It's Alive!?
LC: To some degree. I didn't think

one who is different.

It's funny. because today Tbe Elephant Man is sold just like
the Elephant Man was sold when he really existed. You show
him in the: ad th a caf tan on so rou can't see his face, and

117

to

kid who's a werewolf. (Ever read lntenJiew with the Vam

get in-to see what be looks like when they take it off, right?

pire? In it there's a little girl who's a vampire-she never gets

Just as in an old-time freak show.And It's Alive! is the same

thing. The audience almost gets a look-we hardly show it,

any older. Werewolves and van1pires never age; they stay the
same age forever.) The kid's a teenager in high school who
becomes a werewolf; then he goes away-he doesn't want to
bite anyone in his hometown. Twenty years later he comes

you tell everybody to go to the movie and pay five dollars

but they get a little glimpse.But on the same token, both It's
Alive! and 1be Elephant Man are trying to tell a compassion

ate story about feelings.

back and of course aU the kids he went to high school with

If's A/ilJC! tries to tell about parents' feelings for a child

that's different. In today's world it could be anythb1g wrong
with the kid-psychologically or physiologically-and yet
parents bave to come to terms with their feelings for t11e

are

child. At the time J made the picture. people were afraid of

their children because their kids were wearing their hair

always say wereuull'es change-the full moon comes out and

they change into a wolf-but he's changed less than anyone.
In the past rwenry years all these nice. idealistic sweet kids
have become these hideous people; he's less of a monster

long, smoking grass, and fucKing. All of a sudden they were

taking acid, fathers were shooting their teenage sons in the
house because they couldn't control them anymore, and
there was a general fear of the younger generation by the
older generation-they were suddenlyafraid. This was a big,
prevalent feeling at the time, and I felt that the story fitted in.
This was a picture of that time: the early seventies.

middle-aged. but he's :.<ill seventeen.

So he goes back tO the high school posing as his own son.
His ex-girlfriend is now a forty-year-old woman, his best
friend is now the forty-year-old Chief of Police ... They

than they arc.

So it reaJJy was a picture that was about something: also.
kind of a fun picture.Again, this is what I was talking about:
how people change so much. In a ten or twenty year period
they change totaJJy into different people. That's why people
get divorced, I guess; t11ey marry one person and find out ten
years later they're living with somebody else. But the pic
tures, like my were"volf, stay the same!
A}: How about you What were you like ten years ago?
LC: The same. I never got into anything, so I never

It's funny how things even out as time goes by. Tilese
movies become a part of the culture or the subculture and
they're there. but everything else changes. The hairstyles
change, the compulsions change, the political things change.
The people stop marching in the streets, and they get jobs,
and get on the pension plan, and they get conservative ...
people go through the big drug thing ... then they get off the
drug thing, and then join the gym and the healthclub and they
jog and eat wheat germ and take colonic enemas-these are
the same people that were wasting their bodies years before.
The world changes but the movie srays the same: it's just
there. It's made in one culture and emerges ten years later in
another. And sometimes it's understood better by people
who are no longer in the culture mat the picture was about.
Ten years later they've changed into different people; they
sec the picture on cable and say, "Hey, this is very good! Why
didn't we like this when we first saw it?"
You can see how the world is changing constantly. I know
all these people who once were wild, crazy kids, and you
meet them now and tht'}re older than I am. What happened
to them? [laughs] How'd theygetso old? And now, you've got
kids running around with the spiked hair-orange, pink, and
blue. It's great, but wait and see these same people ten years
from now-you won't recognize them. They',e got to get i t
all out o f their system now.
All that rebellion they'll get out of their system by dying
their hair green or red or purple, without ever dealing with
anything mentally. So that when mey're all through with it,
the)' can become the same boring people that their parents
are.Meanwhile we go on making the movies. It's like painting
on the walls of the cave-years later another sodety discov
ers those paintings and says, "That's what things were like in
those days." Those movies really have something to do with
the time in which mey're made.
Full Moon High (points to poster I was made about seven
or eight years ago. Two weeks ago a picture came out called
Teetl Wolf which is basically the same film but not nearly as
funny.Full Moon High was really about something-about a

changed. I never got into any of the fads in terms of clothing,

drugs, or anything. I just did my work. lived my life and kept
out of all those mings.I believed in certain things politically
but I wasn't out on the street throwing bags of shit at the
police. I didn't beliC\e in that.
V: Too ineffectual for you?
LC: Yeah.When I lived in New York we went for training
in Civil Disobedience to close down nuclear power plants.
etc. We went to a course in that, but I didn't like being
manipulated; I felt that the ones running the \vhole tlling
were manipulating and brainwashing people just like these
religious people do: giving them dogma. You weren't
allowed ro think for yourself; you had to do it the way they
wanted you to. there were no questions asked. You were
supposed w lie on the street and let yourself be dragged
down the block.
I didn't want to become a drone, no matter what the cause
was. I've never been able to get into any of those things. You
do what you can, but without becoming part of a mob or
group or movement.
Strangely enough. if you stand back it aU kind of goes away.
The people aJJ change; usually they become tOtally hypocriti
cal, like all those guys who were the "great leaders" in the
anti-war movement-Jerry Rubin ... Woodward and Bern
stein. who were such great media heroes-such "wonderful
guys" turned out w be a couple of assholes!
You've just got to stand back, look at it all and say: Ibis too
will JX.ISS away. Because that's tl1e truest statement r,e ever
heard. truer than any Biblical statemcnr. I don't know if it's
from the Bible, hut itsounds like it is: This too willpass away.
Whether it's success or failure, or misery or whatever. if you
Stand back it will pass away, it will change. If you're a big
success-don't worry, you won't be for long! If you're
Number One-don't worry, somebody else will take it away
from you. If you're madly in love-don't worry. i t will pass
away. If you can't stand someone-that's all right. it will go
away too-hate also goes away. Everything will eventualJy
pass. Your great success or great depression will go away,
eventually. That's what 1 think when I see all these people
coming up who k11ow all the answers and V. Have all the 'bip attitudes, like hate Reagan A]: Or love him.
LC: Yeah, they know it all. Reagan's a phenomenon like
everything else. 1 think that at the end of his speeches they
ought to come on and say, ''The part of the President was
pl.ayed by Ronald Reagan." I mean. he's good casting for this

118

It's Alive!
ahle to function

well because e\cry day at

part. All the President:- han bc<:n terrible: disappointments

Churchill

... including Kennedy.

.:00 he took a nap. and Kennedy did the same. And it wasn't

LC: \X'dl. IK fooled them because he \ va s attracti\'e and

just lying down on the couch, he put his pajamas on and got
into bed for onc:: hour.\X'hat he didn 't tell everybody was: the

had thc: media on his side-they'd finally found the first real

rea.. n WinstOn Churchill went to sleep at 3:00

Tdc:\'ision President. Eisenhower h<:fore him \vas an old man.

he

V: He fooled a lo t

off.X'O{Jie.

was

was dnmk-e\'t'IJ'

so

"WaS

because

afternoon he got drunk on brandy and

He: was a World War If hero. hut in tc:rm:-; of spc:c:-ches h e

passed out. and they had to put him to hed. And the reason

made for

the n tube. He lookc:d so ex'temporaneous and so rc:laxed

Kennedy went to hed was bc:cause there was aiWJ)'S a broad

heing brought in at .3:00PM. Th<.se are the tme facts' You get

and so casual, and could answer any question, and charm and

the famous statemt'nt. then twe nty years later you get th<.

wL,n't \c:ry good on tel evision . But Kennedy

wa..'i

make jokes. and act sexy to the women. He: loved his kids. and

true facts. You can imagine what absurdities

arc:-

going on

today-w;'ll only know in about twenty years. So what's

next'

.. ..... wriththt"'
No, you'vegotki*nn
AI that r.ta.lli6n'they'(18f out
spiked hair
of their system by dying their hair ...., or
red or purple,..JWithottt _.., ..... With.
c.ything menially. So 1hat when fheVre
through with it, they can become the same
boring people that their pts .....

Af: God Told Me To uas 11(>1)' ftlmfc, with your use of

camera rmgles and particularly your use of sound.
V: Yes: u hy did you dedicate the film to flemard
Herrma1111?
LC: He

"'"as

supposed to do the music for thc:: film . but he

died before he could. He wa..'i a good friend of mine. Actually.

we had been together the night before he passed away; we
had run th<. film for him O\'er at Golden Studios. Then he and
his "iJe and my "-ife and I went out to dinner. The nc:xt
morning

we

got a call from his hotel sa)-ing he had died in his

sleep. \X'e had been "ith him till about 12 midnjght. and then
lovc:d to walk on the bc:ach; always had a kid or a little boy

he died a few hours later. So of course:: he couldn't do the

undtr his desk (making all the decisions: people didn't rc::al

music. Frank Corddl. a good British composer who had

ize that ). lie: was a wonderful guy-beautiful ""ife and every

thing. They didn't mc:ntion that nery day at

was

:00

PM there

hooker <:oming into the \X-'h ite House:: ...

If you read the speeches Kennedy made:: they're: really

amazing in the context of what rt'ally was going on. He ::;aid
that he: and Winston Churchill had somc:thing in common:

knO\\TI Herrmann. wrote the music.

V The sound

kyers of smmd.

editing

U'tlS incredible. ll'ifh layers upon

A}: Thefilm has almost a timeless quality. like a morality

play or an opera tbat makes it mucb more thanjust a strny
set in Nell' York.

 LC: There were a lot of things going on at once in the

story. with the religious choir and the parade music and the
score.

A]: A lot oftimes at the end ofcertain scenesyou bad the

music swell, and somehow that lent the quality of a Nob
play or something very styli
zed.
LC: We mixed it at Golden Studios wruch is the best
mixing place in Hollywood We had a guy who worked for

Roben Altman who often is complimented for good sound

and good sound mixing. The mixer was Dick Portman, "no
has won an Academy Award for some of the work he's done.

V: But didn 't you tell him what you wanted?

LC: You always tell them what effects you want, for sure,
and for the most pan you get t you ask for. Sometimes
you don't: then you have to stop in the mix (wtuch is very
expensive) and find an effect that the studio has available on
cassettes. Sometimes you have to create them right there at
the soundstage.
God Told Me T
o WdS a New York picture and it bad a lot of
real street sounds and street noise, recorded live. Some of it
you can't keep out of a picture because it's on the dialogue
tracks. If they don't want that extraneous noise in, some

Parade scene in Gocl Told Me To.

-rudios will then "loop" the scene. But NewYork street noise
is like the New York "look

"-

i t has a texture to it. I usually

feel that reality is the best thing you can give people i n a

Irish-American groups there. I told them we were going to

movie.

re-stage the St. Patrick's Day Parade downtown. We got a

AJ: A lot of times a director worts on an intuitive let Jel

that s
i not logicalZv thought out at the time . . . Howdidyou

They came in costumes and marching clothes. and that's

do that parade scene?

permit, and all these groups came and brought their bands.
where we shot all the stuff v.ith the guns real)' going offand
the blood squibs. We matched that footage into the footage
shot in New York so it looked like it was aU-in-one. But we

netJercould have had all that carnage and chaos in the middle
of the real St. Patrick's Day parade in New York City!

V: I u'Ondered: I thought the parade scene alone must

have cost a million.
LC: It would have because you would have bad to have
,

thousands of extras. and you really would have had to shut

down the entire Fifth Avenue, and they never would have
gone along ""ith that. As it wdS, I'm sure to this day they're
trying to figure out how we managed to do that in the middle
of their parade and get away with it! Anyway, we got the

LC: Well. we actually shot part ofit at the real St. Patrick's
Day Parade in New York.

V: You had your actors tbere in the parade?

sequence . But if it hadn't worked out. I just would have done

something else. that's all.
Now I have to figure out how to get the Masons' parade

LC: Yeah; that scene was one of the first things we shot. I

into a pkture. I'd love to see a gun fight in their parade.

Wouldn t it be great ifwe could have ashootout in

because if a few bullets go into some of those balioons and

the middle ofthe St. Patrick's Dayparade"11ich is next week?

they start popping or dragging aU the people up on those

thought,

"

'

But it's not in the script, so I don t bat->e to deliver the scene. If

strings, then . . . ! Parades are fun

it doesn't work out, I -won't be penalized by people saying,

extras, and it looks very rich and opulent because you have all

'Hey, you didn't get that big parade, so we don't want to give

these people marching along. They're all there, anyway!

you the money for the picture because you didn't give us the
picture you promised."' I thought. "But if I can bring this 6ff.

A]: W11at tl'as your budget?

LC: Oh God. 1 don't even remember. They're all low

it will add a big, spectacular scene to the move.

budget films-a million this or a million that. In those days a

'

"

Whatcould be more ftm than to have the police looking for

you get a million free

million dollarswas more than it is today. You'll notice prices

one particular cop in the middle of a big parade where

never go doU'TI.'

there's SOOO policemen? So we went d0\'\'11 there wearing

AJ: Remember the silt'er scandal?

LC: That's right. The price ofsilver went up so they raised

badges like we were covering the parade for a newsreel

company. We had three cameras and three crews. and v.-eput

the price of film. Then the silver market collapsed, but they

Andy Kaufman in the parade (who played the guy with the

didn't lower the price of filin; they kept it high and that was

gun). It was the first thing he ever did in a film. by the way.

that.

We told him, "Get in there with the police officers!" So he got

Everything costs more money; wages are more and benef

into the formation and the cops who were there played

itS are more. So even if your budgetS go up, a good ponionof

along with it. They probably thought we were allowed to do

that raise is eaten up by inflationary costs. and you still don't

it, anyway.

have any more real money to make your picture with than

A]: Were you?

LC: No. We had no permits w shoot an actual mO\ie, we

before. You're still working on basically a limited budget. no

matter what.

only had permits to shoot a nonnal newsreel of a parade.

But sometimes, imagination i s required to come up with

They didn't know we were going to have people falling

something ..,.,-hen you can't squander money aimlessly. You

do"'l1, running around, pulling guns and stuff like that! But

may end up doing something cleverer than you would if you

we didn't actually fire off any guns there.

had all the money in the world. If we had staged the St.

Later. we came back to Los Angeles and contacted all the

Patrck s Day Parade like a normal movie studio, it might not

i

'

120

have been as good, because it never could have been the real

All these guys were up there pumping machine gun blanks.

parade. But we had the real parade -nothing could be better

We had mostly off-duty policemen; we had a police sergeant

and we had all the permits, but when the Daily News decided

than that.
If you set out to do something like that, you have to enter

to lead this crusade, then Mayor Koch called up the lady

into it with a great deal of trepid ation: "Am I really going to

who's in charge of the Motion Picture Division and bawled

be able to bring this off? Is something going to go wrong?"

her out. Then she called me in and said, "You're not going to

Because remember, they only hold the parade once. They

be allowed to shoot any more scenes on the streets. You can

4 2nd

Street up to 86th Street, and

finish your picture here but you can't shoot any more chase

when they get there that's the end ofthe parade. Ifyou don't

scenes or scenes that will disrupt the streets. And no guns are

start off walking from

to be fired in any scenes, period. No gunfire." But, at least we

get the scene by the time it's finished, then . . .

We were running our asses off! We had to keep getting
ahead of the march each time. We'd shoot them going by and

got the key scene with the people in baskets hanging from
the Chrysler Building.

then we'd have to run our asses off and get up ahead of them
in enough time to set up the shots, set up the camera, get the
readings and focus and be ready when they came by again.
And you'd be carrying aU that equipment -batteries, extra
loads of film, running Like crazy. It was like covering a real
news event.

AJ: But it had that "spedal feeling ": a kind of gritty

feeling of reality.
Y. In both Q and God Told Me To you have similar
scenes showing death coming from above. Did you use
some of the identical footage in both movies (ofpeople
falling down after they'd been killed) ?

LC:

Yes. I didn't have much footage ofpeople falling-you

know, the shots from overhead. We didn't have many shots of

a massive number of people running around and falling
down. I got thrown out of New York and I couldn't get any
more footage. That was after we fired the machine guns from
the top of the Chrysler Building'

A]:

How did you get the Chrysler Building

as

a location

up in their own

uniform, whereas if you hire an actor you have to pay them

for Q?

LC:

A]: How can you hire cops as actors?

LC: We hired off-duty cops. They show

We were able to rent it from the management because

for the day, and send them to Western Costuming ( and that's

S7S

for the costume), and you have to rent them a

they didn't know what we were going to do. They didn't

another

know we would bring actors, cameras and crew aU the way

gun and a badge, so by the time you're through you've spent

up those ladders into that skinny Little needle at the top of the

over SIOO just on wardrobe. But ifyou hire a regular cop, they

building, and that we'd have helicopters flying around, and

come in their costume. Everybody does it!

Every time you see a movie made in New York the cops are

guys firing machine-gun blanks off the building.

When we got up there they were doing repairs, so there
were these little metal baskets hanging off the building that

the same cops who are members of the Screen Actors Guild.
They work in movies on their days off-they make a lot of

steeplejacks work in. We got the idea of putting the police

money that way! Plus, they know the procedures ofhandcuf

with machine guns in those baskets. We hired the steeple

fmg or searching somebody, so they do that in a realistic

jacks, dressed them up in police uniforms and taught them

marmer.

how to f1re the guns, because no normal people wiU go into

those baskets and hang off the side of the Chrysler Building.

headquarters.

Even stunt people don't want to do that-it's really scary.

V: In

Q it looked like you used a genuine police

LC: We rented a police station. You can rent police sta

tions in New York just Like you can out here;

if you go to any

city they cooperate with you because it's good for the econ
omy of the city. UsuaUy they'U give you police cars and
policemen for very little dough.
When we made the second

It's Alive!

picture in Thcson,

they gave us the whole police department. Actually, there I

overdid it-1 used too many policemen. When the protago
nists came out of the back of the hospital the entire Thcson
police department was waiting for them-it was immense!
They give you everything in these cities; everybody wants to
They fired the machine guns, and of course the shots
carried- unfortunately-down into the streets. The Daily
News Building is down the block, so the Daily News sent over

get in the movie.

A]: What's your situation now with New York ? Can you
go back there and shoot?

a camera crew and photographers and put a big headline in

LC:

their paper that said, "HoUywood movie crew terrorizes New

changed. The lady who was there is not there anymore. I told

Oh yes, I've been back since. The business has

York!" Then they wrote an editorial saying, "It's time we stop

you everything changes, everything passes away. She's now a

allowing movie companies to come in from Hollywood and

frighten our citizens" -they said people were running for

production manager herself and she came to me for a job!

The guy who used to be chief of the Police Liaison Squad left

cover and that old ladies were terrified. Of course it was a

the police department and became an Assistant Director!

total Lie. I had a camera crew down on the street to try and

The guys who once gave you a hard time being hard-nosed

get footage of people's reactions in case there really was a

cops- a year or two later they've retired from the force and

panic, but no one ran away! That's why I had to use footage

they're working for you as production guys. As I say, you

from God Told Me To: I couldn't get footage of anybody

shouldn't reallyworryabout things for too long, because it all

running because they all just stood there and looked, that's

changes. And you meet the same people over and over again

all Nobody thought there was anything dangerous about it.

in different contexts.

 A]: How did you get the idea for Q?

LC: I don't know . . . I got the idea from looking at the
Ouysler building with all those bird motifs on it, thinking it
would make a great nest for a giant bird to go up into. I always
took at that building-it's gorgeous, particularly when the
sun hits it in a certain way-it's the most beautiful building in
New York. I thought, "jeez, the Empire State Building gets all
the attention, what with King Kong and all. But this is a much
better-looking building." Then I had to figure out some way
to get a story out of this-a story with a character. Then I got
the idea about this little punk who learns the secret of the
bird's hideout; for ten rrunutes he becomes somebody impor
tant. Then he's gone again. But for ten minutes he has his
glory.
A]: Butyou ended the film with a title card: that be sued
and won the million dollars-taxfree-he'd beenpromised
for revealing the giant bird's location.
LC: That enrung title wao;n't on the original prints, but
after the picture opened in New York and I went to the
theater, I thought, "You know, the auruence would like it
better if he got that money at the end."
AJ: Yes, it makes everybody feel triumphant!
LC: He's such a punk, but so likable that you feel it would
be great if he got the money at the end. So I said, "Let's make
up a title card and stick it on, and we 'II cut my credit down by
a few frames." But that was all an afterthought.
V: What research did you do to write the screenplay,
Quetzalcoati LC: I got a couple books on Aztec history, etc, but there
was a lot we rudn't put in. uke, when the Sparush came to the
Aztec temple in Mexico, they found about 18,000 skulls
there- 18,000 human beings had been executed and their
hearts cut out in that temple ofQuetzalcoat/. Think about all
the people who were victims of that human sacrifice! But I
didn't want to get too gruesome and inaccessible; a little
suggestion of it was enough.
Plotwise, there had to be some reason why that bird
showed up there; there had tO be something that brought it

.._.

the tepiIDdcs. tt..

.... ...... ... ...... t'- how to fln
... ...... ...... ... ....... ...... .. .
..... ..... ...... .... ..... oH the ... .. the
Cllryll1r luln1, IYM sNit ...... don't
...t to do that It's ..., ...,.

there. I had to find a way to tie all the pieces together-the

human sacrifices, the bird, the Moriarty character-and
bring everything together at the conclusion. The last scene,
when the "priest" tries to get Moriarty to say the prayer
before sacrificing him, brought the whole thing back full
circle.
V. 7bat was brilliant when Moriarty refuses to pray!
LC: Near the end of the picture I made up that scene and
we more or less improvised on it-it wasn't in the script. I
said, "Tell him to say a prayer" and he said, "Fuck you! I ain't
sayin' any of your fuckin' prayers!" Michael Moriany's good
about those things -if you give him an idea on the spur of the
moment and he's in character, he'll put the idea right into the
character.
V. 1bat 's one ofthe closest marriages I've seen between a
written character and an acted character.
LC: And he's not that way at all , in reality or in person. ln
his other movies, like Pale Rider, Bang the Drum Slowly,
Holocaust, 1be Glass Menagerie with Katherine Hepburn
he's nothing like that. It was a total acting job.

V: But he's got it in him, because when he scat-sang with

the piano-

LC: Well, he wrote that song. That's another thing; we

were on the set and in between takes he was sitting around
listening to a Walkman. I said, "What are you listening to?"
and he replied, "I'm listening to these songs I wrote." I said,
"Let me hear them." I put it on and I said, "That's good, and I
like the one about an 'Evil Dream.' I'll tell you what we should
do: this guy shouldn't just be a little street punk, he wants to
be better than that. He wants to be a singer, he writes songs,
and he wants to get a job playing the piano in a club. We'll
make up a scene where he goes to a club and tries to get a job,
and they reject him. 1ben he'll go along with the robbery."
So we can see that if only they had given him the job, he
would not have gone on the robbery! He would not have
been up in the Chrysler Building, he would not have found
the nest -none of this would have happened if they'd just
given him that job! But they don't. And he gets rejected in a
very insulting way when the guy turns the jukebox on.
So we went down, rented a club in the East Village and did
that scene. All that wasn't in the script, but that's how things
happen in the making of a picture. You ruscover something
about the actor or the character that leads you off in a
direction different from what you'd originally anticipated. I
thought the nightclub audition gave him a lot more character
and made him a lot more interesting person than if we had
just had him be a little crook. And he loved the fact that he got
to sing one of his own songs!
A]: Q again had the same kind of theme as Demon and
It's Alive! u>ith the gods coming back LC: That's true, rough cookies . . . picking people up off
rooftops for no reason! Like I say, God just knocks people in
airplanes right out of the sky for no reason! They're just flying
along, all these men, women and children, on their way to
Kansas City or somewhere, and he knocks that plane into a
mountain. And you say, "Why does he do such things? Does
he have a reason for this?" But he's just like that bird -he's
flying around and notices you down there: ''Oh! There's Larry
Cohen!"
v.- Splatt.
LC: Don't be up on the roof when Quetzalcoatl's flying
by!-that's the whole thing. People go to church and the}re
making a mistake. They say, "Hey God! Look at me! Hey, it's
me here, Sam. I'm praying!" And God says, "Oh . . . Sam, I'd
forgotten about him . . . no plague on him lately? Well, let's do
something about it! Give me a report on him. Children: how
many? Too many children! Burn his house down!"
Don't call attention to yourself. It's like being in the army:
you never look at anybody, you never look the sergeant in the
eye, you just never make eye contact with anybody. Pretty
girls who walk down the street and don't want to be talked to
don't make eye contact. Look away/ Wear sunglasses, wear a
Sony Walkman, don't look at anybody! Don't call attention to
yourself when you're dealing with God, just keep a low
profile and maybe he'll go away. I just think: It's not so much
"God help me," but "God leave me alone!" Q was just like all
the other gods-indiscriminate and brutal!
A}: 1bat was Dauid Can-adine in it?
LC: Of Kung Fu. It was nice of him to do that part for me.
He was in Cannes with a picture he had directed himself. I
got him on the phone and said, "Listen, I'm going to start
making this picture in a couple of days, and I've got Michael
Moriarty and Candy Clark, and I've got a part for you ." He
says, "What do I play in it?" I said, "Do me a favor, just come
on back here and do the part. I promise I'll write you some
good stuff; I'll write you some funny scenes. just come back
and do it."
So he arrived the same day we're shooting the scene with
Michael Moriarty playing the piano in that bar. He called up
from the hotel and I said, "Put a suit on and come down
here." When he got there we were already shooting; I said to

1 22

The

him, "Here's what you do: you come in and sit at the bar.
guy's going to say to you, 'What's new? Did you find that guy's

AJ: Is that why most actors seem so sterile?

LC: Well, actors are like everybody else-they go to work

head yet?' And you say, 'Oh, it'll turn up!'" So he

says, "What's

every day! Except you get up earlier, because you've got to be

this about? What does this mean?" I said, "Well, it's too long a

there at 8:00

story to explain, but you're looking for a guy's head that was

around 5:30, and the actresses get up even earlier because

chopped off or something." So he does the line.

they've got to do their hair and make-up. They get there and

Later on (after the picture was finished ), he told me, "I had
never worked in a situation where I didn't know what I was

AM

in make-up and costume, so you get up

work aU day, 10 or 12 hours, and then go home and learn the

lines for the next day. It's a ob
j
- a hard job.

doing beforehand. I didn't know what my character was or

Most of the time they had a good career on Broadway and

what I was supposed to be doing i n the picture, l didn't know

then came out to Hollywood and got into 1V or movies and

what the story was, I had never read the script, I had just

made good money, bought a house, and now they can't afford

gotten off an airplane from Europe, I had no idea what was

to go back to Broadway anymore because they have a "life

happening. I go down there and you tell me to say these lines.

style." So they have to take almost every job they're offered

As soon as I did the scene I was so upset I went out into the

because, in order to live i n the style they've become accus

street and threw up!" I said, "Well, you never would have

tomed to, they have to work.

known it -you did fine." He said, "Well, I liked Moriarty

So every day just becomes the routine, going-to-work situa

playing the piano-that relaxed me. But I still didn't know

tion. Once in a while they get a part that has some life to it, or

what was going on." It was wonderful that he was a good

they meet somebody who tries to make the filmmaking

7ben they're able to do something

enough friend to come all the way over and do that for me on

experience fun for them.

faith. Of course, that night he got to read the script and it was

other than give you the routine performance they can give
you in their sleep.
Most actors can give you their routine performance in

_., ... ....... .. ,...... .... ,.....

..... I wltii God, ... ..... . ... ..... ...
I ,.. .... . ..., . ... IM:& Wa ... .
.

... .... ..... ..,, .. ,.. .._. _

......r . .. .... . . ... ..... ...
...... 1..... ... ......

their sleep, because it's the same performance they give in

every picture. The director will say, "Okay, we need a

guy to

play a general. Let's get so-and-so -he always plays a gen

eral." So you see the same guy come in and play a general
Another guy always plays a District Attorney, another

guy

always plays the Chief of Police . . . So if you don't want a guy

to play the part the same way, you've got to make up some
thing so that he'll play it differen tly.

A}: There 's complidty all around in a system that keeps

perpetuating the stereotyping LC: Well, it's simpler to hire somebody you've seen play

all right after that.

ing that part n a previous episode of a 1V show, than to hire

A}: He bad one of the best roles.

LC: He got a chance to be funny. Usually he's so stoic,

someone new. Movies are usually better than 1V, if only

because you find new faces and people you haven't seen

having played "Grasshopper" for so long, where everything

before. Like in

has to be cloaked with an inner meaning and a higher

interesting new faces -all these Oriental gangsters.

7be Year ofthe Dragon, you get to see a lot of

implication -you know what I mean, too serious. That pic

But when you get someone like David Carradine who is an

ture was unpretentious and he was unpretentious in it. He

established actor, who is known for a certain kind of perfor

ended up having a great time.

mance, you try to give him something different he can have

When you work with somebody like Moriarty who gives so

much, who takes chances and is willing to really mug and do

some fun with. You try and loosen him up and let him do
things that are a bit more fresh.

stuff, and who acts with his whole body, then you see that and

The main thing is-you always hire competent actors who

think, "Gee, I can do that, too. I can use my whole body, I can

could give a performance even if you weren't there. And for

use my head, I don't have to look so good, I don't have to play

some things a director isn't necessary. Everybody knows that

the handsome leading man." Carradine said that he learned

you're going to shoot a close-up of this guy, and then a

something from doing the picture, because it loosened him

close-up of the other guy, then an over-the-shoulder-shot,

up

as an actor.

A}: Hou do you elidt more from your actors?

LC: I give them things to do all the time; I give them new
lines, new pieces of business. So when they come to the set

then an over-the-shoulder shot of the other person, then an

entrance to the room, exit from the room - 1 mean, a compu
ter could direct the picture! There's no need to have a human
being there to do this. And you're hiring actors who have all

they already know from previous days that they're not going

played the same parts before, so they don't need to be told

to do just the things they studied last night. They're not going

what's required of them.

to just go through the motions like they do on a television

type of show. where they have a script, they go to the set, they

Most directors are just traffic cops: "You stand here . you
stand there . . . on to the next scene!" The difference is: ifyou

know the lines, they stand here, then they go there, and . . .

can give people something different, and caJI on different

Whereas I'll come in and say, "Wait a minute, I got another

muscles to be used so they can't do their same old act, then

. .

idea. Let's make up a thing: you're talking to him, and then

they can't revert to giving you the same old performance.

just as the waitress comes over you'll say something vulgar

Actors can't help it; they'll give you the easiest performance

like 'Fuck!' and she'll look at you and you'll be embarrassed."

they can give you. You want to make things more difficult so

We'll make up something like that right in the middle of a

they'll have to call on something spedal. And in doing so it

scene, and that breaks it up with the actors because some

will kind of wake them up and make them interested in the

thing new is going on.

picture.

V: In tbatone scenetheu aitress wasgreat, because when

the character swore she kind of smiled tolerantly, but as
soon as she left her expression changed to disgust.
LC: You see, you make up things that make the day an
enjoyable experience for the actor. because something's
happening. Rather than just coming to work and going
through the ritual of it.

When we're making pictures, often the other actors want

to watch what's going on. Whereas on most sets the actors
are all in the comer, reading the sports page. They're there
for the job, but often they don't read any scenes they're not in.
When they get the script they look for their part, circle their
lines, and never read the rest of the script -it's just ajob. But I
like to turn it into something that they're involved in-with

123

an element of the unexpected. Also, it makes it more pleasu

In the meantime I got a call from American International

rable for me, otherwise -if it were just a matter ofdoing it by

who said they wanted me to do a black project. Thanks to

rote, it would be better to let someone else direct the

Sammy Davis, Jr., I happened to have the outline! So I gave it

picture, and l'U stay home!

to them, we made the deal right away and I went off and made

V: Do you use friends as actors in minor roles?

LC: Some people have been inso manyofmypicturesthat
they've become friends. But they're aU actors.
V: How about the guy with the heavy Italian accent
working in the produce market in God Told Me To?
LC: Yeah, he was working as stage doorman of the Golden

the picture. It was easy as pie-we just happened to have the

Theater in Manhattan when I went to meet my friend Ben

right thing at the right time.

But it wasn't a typical black exploitation picture. Usually
the black guy beats up all the white people, gets the white
girl, becomes successful, and it's kind of a victory of the black
over the white society. But Black Caesar is a picture about a
guy who tries to live this dream but is destroyed by it. He

win ,

Gazarra. He said, "You're making a picture? I'm an actor

doesn't

how about giving me something to do?" He wasn't just your

black girl, things don't work out with the beautiful white

he loses-he loses his own girlfriend who's a

usual person, he was a type, so I thought, "Let's give him a

woman, and he tries to buy the white people's apartment and

line."

live like they do-in short, he tries to be a white man and fails.

I pick up actors, but usually they're professional actors.

He tries to take his mother who's a maid and turn her into a

Like Andy Kaufman-l'd seen him at the Improvisation Club.

I asked him if he'd ever done a movie and he said, "No," so I

lady, but just makes her very unhappy. He fails in trying to

resolve his relationship with his father; he fails on every

said, "I think you're going to be a star. I tell you what: I'll give

count.

you a part just so I

can say I gave you your first part in movies."

And it was true! But usually it doesn't work out to use people
who are friends or just off the street. I prefer actors who have

can rely on, so that if I

can say, "I need some help; can you try
where we can shoot in the lobby this

been in picture after picture, whom I

get into a problem I
and get us a hotel
afternoon?"

If you work with people over the years, they become kind
of like Assistant Producers. Again, it's because they want to
hang around even when they're not working. As long as
they're there, you may as well give them something to do that
makes them part of the production. So I ask them to help me
out with this, that, and the other thing.
Usually I send the actors off to buy their own wardrobe:

"You know what this character would wear; go out and buy a
suit he would wear, and here's some money." They go out,
and now they're not just acting, they're involved. Instead of
handing them something, saying, "Here-wear this!" and

.... ...... ... .... fftc ... ,. ......

. ..
.....
.
. ,

r. "...

r/lft ,,..
. .,..
... ..
....
......
.. .. . .......
,.
-... .. ... .... _
. ..,...,. .. ....
... _
.
..._.
..
..
......
......
....
,
_
.
..
...,
The film's
more
....
.. like Public Enemy or Little Caesar, where
..,the guy rise and fall. The flaw in his dream is that
you
... see
.

...

when he reaches a certain point there's no place to go but

down, because he has never resolved his personal problems.

they say, "Gee, the character wouldn't wear that; he wouldn't

He has never resolved himself. he's just killed a lot of people

feel comfortable wearing that." If it's something they pick out

and gotten into a position of power, and now everything's

themselves, it helps them to get into character while they're

going to be taken away from him.

doing it. You use any device you can to bring people into the

At the end of the picture he ends up betrayed by his

production as participants, rather than making them feel like

girlfriend -double-crossed, shot by a policeman and stagger

they're outsiders.

ing through the slums in Harlem to the building where he

V: I was impressed by theperformances of the blacks in

grew up, now a big empty wreck with broken windows. He

God Told

Me To -

comes back to where he began, as james Brown sings, "Down

LC: We shot those scenes in a real pool hall up in Harlem.

and Out in New York City."

Those were aU actors. You tell 'em you want black actors,

It's a good picture, but it's not a black exploitation picture.

they send you black actors. Believe me, the door opens and

The title Black Caesar was almost enough to make the

they parade in-there's a lot of 'em out there. The guy who

picture a big hit. At the beginning he starts off as a shoeshine

was the ringleader was a model, but he looked right for the

boy and works his way up to the top, and in the end the

part so we used him. I don't think he wanted to be an actor

crooked police captain finally gets the gun on him, saying,

and I don't think he's ever done anything since, which is

"Before you die I want you to do one last thing for me. I want

amazing.

you to shine my shoes." And he makes him get down on his

AJ: How did you happen to do the two blaxploitation

.films?
LC: The first picture I did, Bone, had Yaphet Kotto, a very

knees and do it. But then Black Caesar getsthe gun away from
him and, taking the black shoe polish, tells him, "Before I ldll
you I'm gonna make you a nigger first." Then he blackens him

fine actor. I showed that picture around and then American

up and ldlls him. This is a really good scene -operatic. It all

International called me up and said, "Listen, we want to make

happens under an American flag; I really made the whole

some pictures with black casts, and you know how to direct

picture just to do that one scene.

those black actors." ( One black actor in the whole film and
"you know how to direct those black actors" ! )

I wish I could remember the name of the guy who played

the villain. He was a great big powerful guy who used to be a

Davis, Jr.'s manager, who

singer back in the forties -he was a band singer who had a

said they would payS 10,000 if I wrote up a movie treatment. I

had suggested making an old-fashioned gangster picture like

couple of hit records and everything. In the film we had him

sing " Mammy," and the totally black audience went wild! It

Warner Bros used to make with James Cagney and Edward G.

was a total catharsis; black people were getting aU that anger

I'd been approached by Sammy

Robinson, but do i t with a black cast, because the black

out of their system while enjoying the film at the same time. I

underworld was pretty active in New York. The idea was the

went to the theater in New York where it was playing-

rise and fall of a black gangster called Black Caesar ( instead

V: 42nd Street?
LC: No, no, it played the Cinerama on Broadway. The film

of Little Caesar.) He said, "That's a great idea." I wrote the

outline and gave it to the

guy, but no $10,000. I kept chasing

him for the money but couldn't collect.

started at 9:00 in the morning and ran all night long-it was a
big hit. People would say to me, "How can you go in there;

124

Black Caesar.

you're the only white people in the whole theater!" I'd say, "It

made the film, but that's what happens when greed gets in

doesn't matter; the audience has such a good time that when

the way!

they leave they're the most peaceful, friendly people-if

V: Your greed ?
LC: Yes, mine. If I didn't want to do it, I didn't have to. But

anybody bumps into you, they say, 'Excuse me.'"

I went there almost every day for awhile and never saw any

greed sometimes takes control, and . . .

hostility whatsoever. But that's exactly what people have

V. Tell us a little more about the good scenes-

always done with movies: get out all their suppressed anger,

suppressed sexuality, and live out fantasies up on the movie

water sequence with frogmen; a chase through Times Square

LC: Anything we could think of, we did. We had an under

screen-so you don't have to do it in real life, you know. That

and up through the theater district where the guy strangles

picture more or less gave everybody what they needed

the girl in the alley behind the stage door of the Majestic

1be bad

nobody left wanting to kill or hurt people, and still at the end

Theater. We had a long chase that was a good idea.

it wasn't a copout. It didn't have one of those fake happy

black guy is trying to get away, and the hero, Black Caesar,

endings where he ends up with everything-he ended up

chases him to the airport but arrives too late-his prey is

losing everything. The moral of the picture was: he tried to

already on a plane to Los Angeles. So he runs across the

play the white man's game, and he lost. He should have been

airport to TWA and gets the next plane to LA. The bad guy's

true to himself

on American Airlines, and in the middle they both sit there

But then we made a mistake: we made a second Black

for five hours, drinking, smoking and watching the movie.

Caesar picture. The first was such a hit that the producers

When the planes land, the chase starts all over again in the

called me up: ''We have to have another picture right away;

LA Airport. The bad guy gets off his plane and is waiting for

we have to have a sequel!" I said, "Well, the actor's going off

his luggage while Black Caesar runs across the airport and

for a year to make another picture; we can only get him ifwe

catches him in the luggage area-he's chased him 3000

shoot right away. I could start shooting next week, but we

miles! I thought this was unusual, and

don't have a script, so we'll just have to make the whole

AJ: ! wanted to touch on tbe wbole subjectofviolence

fun.

picture up as we go along. " 'Which is what we did-and it

looked it.

here there's no such censorship; you see terribly violent,

The picture was a conglomeration of scenes that you

LC: Well, in England they give X-ratings for violence. But

gruesome things in movies here.

probably would like individually, including some of the best

A]:

action scenes I've ever done. There are good chase scenes,

rating it 's dif

ficult to distribute your movie.

There 's no overt censorship, but ifyou don'tget an R

good action scenes, but it's a mishmash of exposition-like

LC: But look what you can do with an R-rating-look at

an hour-and-a-half montage. Instead ofhaving a gradual de

those Friday the Tbirteentb pictures. They stick knives in

velopment of character, things kind of just jump from one

people's eyes. They invent newprosthetic devices to do Grand

action scene to the next; there weren't the necessary scenes

Guignol gruesome tricks-right on camera they can cut

in between which develop a picture. We shouldn't have

somebody's nose off. The more they're capable of, the more

125

they do; then you get really unpleasant horror where people

A]- I read that you and the main actor in I , The Jury
complained to Warner Bros LC: We complained to Twentieth Century-Fox ( who dis

A]: You 'r ea genre directorandperhaps that'spartofwhy

you haven 't gotten more widespread recognition. But in the
sixties it seemed there were more "mainstream " directors
who were genre directors, like Howard Hawks and Sam
Fuller LC: Sam used to live here-this used to be his house. He'sa

tributed the picture domestically) about the scene where the

good friend of mine; a few months ago in Paris we saw each

twins were stabbed to death- it seemed very unpleasant and

other almost every night. He and his wife live in Paris.

unnecessary. I felt it ruined the picture-took all the fun out

got a few licks in, too. Nobody minds when Indiana jones

A]- Really ?Because itwastheFrenchwhoftrstpointedout

that what Howard Hawks and Sam Fuller were doing was
"art. " Onlyafterwards did Manny FarberandAndrew Sarris
echo that in the U.S.
LC: Nobody paid any attention to Sam Fuller for years. It's

are totally dismembering other people-chopping them up. I

don't like that kind ofstuff myselfl

and made it too gruesome. And that scene where the guy gets
fried on a hibachi grill- it's no good if you just throw a guy
down and bum hi m, unless there's been a big fight first and he's
shoots down the guy with the sword- it's fun because there's

stiU tough; he's stiU trying to find people to let him make

been some build-up to it. But if it's done abruptly, it becomes

movies. It hasn't changed; every picture's a struggle. This was

just an act of violence that is unredeeming-also it takes the

his house in the late fifties, but he'd sold it long before I moved

fun out of it. So ifyou can't do the whole scene, doing only the

in here. But that's how I met him.

end of it becomes just mere brutality.

I found some empty cases in the basement that said "Samuel

A]: In yourfilms violence is usuaUy implied rather than

Fuller" on them. Then John Ireland, the actor, was here one

u
das charactersticks
overt. Like in God Told Me To when thej
his head in an elevator shaft LC: We didn't show his head coming off. Some people

day and he said, "l was here before; this used to be Sam Fuller's

would do that-if they could afford to build a false body and

in on Coldwater Canyon Drive." Then he got to be friendly; he

crush it, they wiU.

and his wife came up a couple times and spent the evening.

A]- Ifyou could afford to, wouldyou ?

LC: I'd probably do it the same way I did. But after The

up and they were delighted to see me. So I spent almost every

house." Then I met Sam Fuller at a party at the Beverly Hills

Hotel and said to him, "I think I own the house you used to live

Recently I was in Paris and found out where he was, called him

Omen, which was the first time somebody got decapitated

night with them. He's a wonderful guy-a great man to talk to;

( the scene where the sheet of glass cut off the guy's head),

he's got so many good stories and great anecdotes to tell.

then everybody wanted to do a scene like that. So in horror

But, you know, the genre I'm working in is the most popular

pictures there was a whole syndrome of heads flying off,

genre of this time: science-fiction and fantasy. All the big

because they had found ways to make these prosthetic heads

success pictures now are science-fiction/fantasy, and usuaUy

they're big budget, S25 million dollar films. My pictures play,

more realistic.
We had a little gore in Q when the guy cut the other guy's
chest open, but I didn't have him stick his hand in and pull the

and all I

can do is hope people will go to see 'em and like 'em.

And if they don't see 'em in the theater, then they see 'em on

heart out so you can see it pulsating-which other people

cable where they watch films they ordinarily wouldn't. And

have been doing lately. I don't do that-it's too unpleasant for

hopefully they'll say, "Hey! This is good; I like thisbetterthana

me. The picture should be fun.

lot ofbig budget pictures." So, then your picture's being seen,

V. But in Qyou also had a flayed human body lying in a

and that's all you can ask . . .

LC: It was gruesome, but it wasn't that awful.

V: Andyou did show a guy's skin beingpeeled off-

vide ocassette-people can go to a store and choose whatever

bed-

Cable

is

"The

Great

Equalizer,"

and

so

is

the

movie they want to see tonight. They don't have to worry

about whether or not it's playing . . . So it's becoming a
democratic process, and that's why pictures like mine will get
a chance to be better seen.
Cable's different-you already paid for it, and ifyou don't
want to look at it that's your hard luck, so finally you end up
even looking at pictures you didn't expect to, 'cause the damn
picture's on so many times. And if it turns out to be good,
you're surprised. Then word gets around, and people want to
rent it on cassette because they missed it on cable, and you've
created a life for the film other than the theatrical life.
lf I were a writer I wouldn't care whether people read my
book in hardcover or in paperback, just as long as they read it.

LC: [ laughs] You've seenpeopleon1Vorin movies like 7be

List ofAdrian MessengerpuU latex masks offtheir face - that's

To me, cable and cassettes are like paperback, and theatrical

nothing. But in context the audience thinks, "Oh, he's skin

what?!

ning him alive. That's really horrible." But it really wasn't

anything! It wasn't like bringing out a gory heart with veins
hanging out and having it pulsate in somebody's hand.
I like to show 'em very little, but make 'em think they're
seeing a lot. That's more fun. But of course, with the prepon

derance ofhuge budgets as in john Carpenter's version of The

release is like the hardcover. So if I'm a paperback novelist -so

A]: Wbat kind offilms influence you ?

LC: Oh, I see almost everything.
V. You 've et.>en seen Dynasty LC: Once or twice. lfyou go over to somebody's house, it's
inevi table-like my mother has to watch it . . . But I can't sit
through it or any other episodic series week after week. I do

1bing, people want to show every possible piece ofgore . . .

like to watch old Warner Bros or Fox movies with the big

which isn't nearly as satisfying as the original version, which

bombastic musical scores.

shows you nothing.

J'lf: The same with Invasion ofThe Body Snatchers LC: The first one was so good. The second one wasn't bad,

A]: Were any filmmakers a big influence on you? Or

genres, like film noir?
LC: Black Caesarwas film noir. I used to like crime movies,

but for that story the smaU town atmosphere seems to be

police movies, but I never was abig readerofsciencefiction

better. It's easier to believe these aliens could take over a smaU
Northern California town
Francisco!

than the whole city of San

I don't like to read books that are 800 or 900 pages long and
where the characters have long names. And I don't like to read
books that have a chronology of characters with arrows

1 26

showing whose son is who . . . where I have to go through six

dismally dull. And Frederic Forrest, who's a very good actor,

generations to find out what happened to someone.

had no charisma at all in that part, the lethargic way he was

A5 far as movies go, I like them aU. When I grew up, the big

directed . I've heard of "sleepers," but this isoneyou can really

event was going to the movies twice a week-everyweek the

sleep through! But if I go to the movies and don't like the

Loews and the R.KO theaters would have new double-features.

picture, I fall asleep immediately!

AJ: Wbere was tbis?

LC: New York. Usually the second feature was bad, but

V. 7be sleep curefor boredom.

LC: Usually I say to the girl I'm with, "Listen, I can dream a

sometimes it would be a little gem. In my neighborhood we

better picture than this one, so I'll go to sleep." I can let myself

onJy had one theater that would run fo reign movies, and they

go to sleep almost instantly- I'm gone, and that's it until it's

ran

the original French Diabolique and Wages ofFear-great

over and I can leave.

stuff-and Rififi. a robbery picture which was one of the first

The same thing with stage plays: if the play is no good, I faJJ

foreign movies to make any impact here, before A Man And A

Woman or the Truffaut pictures came along in the sixties. I

asleep. But then I'Ll feel guilty because it cost so much money
to get in- thirty or forty dollars a ticket! Sometimes I prefer to

like to go to the movies, but I don't want to make homages to

buy standing room, because then ifI fall asleep, I'm standing in

people or remake their pictures . . .

the back of the theater and I full down and it wakes me

up-"Wha? Huh? Oh yeah, here I am-oh shit!"
I go to everything . . . I go to most movies. ActuaJly, no, I'm

...... sqy, "ln.- MoOn wliat a

.... . ..,, "BUt What _..... the ,.,.,, '

lying- ! stopped going to most movies. I used to go to

everything, but now I don't go to movies about teenagers!
There are too many of them, and they all seem the same.
They're always telling you about how somebody finally gets
laid. And now they got 'em about kids making inventions.

AJ: How about books ?

LC: I always read four or five books at the same time- I've
got them all over the house, a different book for each room!

A]: Has any book changedyour life?

LC: No one book has changed my life. Take a best-seller like
1he French Lieutenant's Woman-I didn't think it worked as
a movie, but Fowles wrote it in such a way that you can see the
writer at work while you're reading-for that reason it's an
interesting book.
At one point he thinks he should give these cha.racters a
break-give them a chance to have a happier life, so he
changes the story right before your eyes. You're put into the

These are all Spielberg-clone movies- they take a form ula that
works for him and they try to do it. That doesn't interest me.

V: You don 't have anyformukls, do you?

LC: Me? I just have to be outlandish enough so that people
will know it's my picture.
V. Yourfilms always critidze some aspect ofthe "status
quo. "
LC: Well, that's true.
A]: 7be art of screenwriting a really good story, with
subplots, subtexts and characters that are complex and
aliv e-that seems to be a lost art these days.
LC: Well, when you try and put a scene in that doesn't have

author's mind. I can identify with that because it happens to

anything to do with the central story, you have a hard time

me when I'm writing a script. I'm thinking, "Maybe we should

keeping people from cutting it out. Particularly ifthe releasing

give this a happy ending. I like this character; maybe he

company has any power over re-cutting the picture. Ifthey see

shouldn't die."

something that isn't integral, they think it should be cut.

Uke with Q, in the original script the Moriarty character

gets killed by that zealot at the end. But that would have been a

V. But that 's neverhappened to you, bas it?

LC: On 7be Stuff they cut out ten minutes-a couple of

disaster, particularly as he turned out to be so lovable. So I had

funny scenes that were not essential to the plotline of the

to improvise that scene with the prayer in it. But when I first

picture. But they were funny, though -/ enjoyed them.

wrote the story, I had no idea this guy would turn out to be

V. Was that thefirst timeyour creative independence was

impinged upon ?
LC: Yeah. I wouldn't say they damaged the picture,

such a lovable character.

A film can come to life when an actor like Michael Moriarty
appears; when he does it, you realize how funny some of the

because they made a few cuts I thought were improvements.

material is. I knew we'd get laughs, but I didn't know Moriarty

So you have to take the good with the bad. But they left a few

would end up being as innocent as he did. He came out as kind

sloppy holes in the picture that would have been worth the

ofa soiled innocent- he had a childish sort ofblissabout him,

extra ten minutes. In the long run it would have been a better

so we couldn't kill him.

film if they had just left it alone.

After I read books, it takes time to decide which one was

good, in retrospect. If you ask me next year what my favorite

A]: Is tha t the first time that happened to you?

LC: Yeah. I've had people before who wanted to cut

book was this year, then I'll be able to tell you. When I'm

scenes out and I could taJk them out of it. Or, I've had

finished with some books I can't remember anything, I know I

suggestions and agreed with them: "It's a good idea to make

went through 400 pages, but . . . like john Le Carre -when

that cut; I think you're right ." Or, "That scene would work

Smiley's People was over, I didn't have any idea what the plot

better if it were placed later in the picture . . . or, "this scene

was, or what happened to anybody, or why. And

would work better earlier in the picture."

I can't read any

of Robert Ludlum's books.

Sometimes they're right, but in this particular case they

A]: Ever read Timothy Harris? He's like a modern-day

Raymond Chandler; be wrote a good book called Goodnight
and Goodbye that was somewhat similar to your I, The jury
script. A couple years ago we discovered the mystery writer
jim Thompson-be's incredible.
LC: I used to read the LewArcherbooks by Ross McDonald.

wanted to take out a few "romantic" or "relationship" scenes

Recently I picked up an old Dashiell Hammett, but I don't like

writing scripts with names of obscure characters from old

can preview horror pictures, but you shouldn't give out

response cards. Because if a picture's outlandish like It's
Alive!, no matter how much they like the picture they're

Dashiell Hammett books, or you put in hot little homages or

going to write wise-guy remarks on the card, like "This

somehow connect yourself to some person you idol.ize.

picture needs diapers!"

to get too involved with things like that- suddenlyyou end up

that "slowed the picture down," because "the kids" would

rather get on with the action.

v.- Did previews prompt these cuts ?

LC: You preview a picture, and if you don't get a good
reaction, the producers

faJI

apart. Generally I feel that you

I would like to have made the movie Hammett because I

Years ago when we previewed It's Alive!, the audience

could have made a much better movie-that picture was

seemed to really enjoy the picture and screamed or laughed

127

in aU the right places. But when it came time to write the

having to have a whole bunch of employees working for me.

cards they wrote these terrible responses. And the Warner

Because that's a lot of hassle-just dealing with all those

Bros people were so disheartened they almost killed the

people, and everybody has to be paid. and you gotta send in

picture. Fortunately they released it and it turned out to be a

tax forms, and send in this and that. and then people file for

big hit, but if they had just followed the cards they would

unemployment insurance. and you have to send in forms for

have given up and thro\VTI it into a hole somewhere.

them, and your whole life is-

People who want to be clo\VT!s or comedians are going to

write something funny on the cards, or something wise
guyish. Basically the same thing happened with 7be Stuff

A}: Do you haue to do all that?

LC: Well, after you finish up a picture and let everyhody
go, all sorts of paperwork starts popping up that you hadn't

The audience laughed and seemed to enjoy the picture, but

anticipated. If you don't have anyhody

wrote negative things making fun of the picture because it's

have to do it yourself.

about a food product that kills people; they wrote wise-guy

cards. I say we should never have given them out in the first

forgotten . . . then you get some more bills. The whole pic

place.

to

do it for you. you

A.tter everyhody goes away, you get hills that people han:
ture's closed do\VTI, but then the letters for workman's com
pensation arrive. Finally that goes away. Then finally no more
bills, no more employees, no more hassle, no more mail and
it's so peaceful right now-nobody to be responsible for but

H I w... a writer I wouldn't _.. ....._.

yourself.
As soon as you start another picture, you've got to do the

....... ...... ., ..... .. ....... .. ..

....... .... . .... . ..., ,..... it. Yo ..,
... ... cauett .. .. ....... ...
thlaltiwl ,..... .. .. the .......,... So if
I' a ....... nowelst-so whclltl

v.11ole rigamarolc again-ha\ing to deal v.ith all these peo

pie, and schedules. and people not delivering things on time .
and not doing things on time; having to be the boss and the
disciplinarian and the sergeant and the captain and the gen
eral. By comparison, writing the script is so peaceful -you go
into a room and do it all by yourself, and you don't have to
have anybody else around you.
A}: You once said you fimll)' helietl(! that people dream
dnematically.

V: What did the producers cut out?

LC: With producers, it's very hard to get good, rational
judgment when there'sfear involved. So, the scenes they cut

LC: I think that people do dream like a movie; they see

shots and angles - 1 dream like that. I'm not sure if I dream in

out are not even really noticeable, but there was one very

color or black-and-white, though. But

funny scene where the character

better movies than some of the pictures I see. I mean I close

Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan

was reciting part of "The

Poe. Maybe I could persuade

as

I say, I can dream

my eyes and go off, and I don't always remember what I

them to let me restore it for the video.

Sometimes the scenes that really make a movie work are
the little scenes that have nothing to do with advancing the

dream but I know it was more satisfying than the picture that
was playing there.

action, but just add a little something. The scene where

there's no mmie playing; everybody goes into the theater, sits

Michael Moriarty auditions for a job as a singer has nothing to

there and goes to sleep, and evef)body dreams their ov-.11

Actually, there should be a theater v.11ere you go and

do with the monster on top of the Chrysler Building. but . . .

mmie. Then nerybody gets up and goes home and tells each

That's exactly what they did with

other what they saw: "Oh, I saw a great movie!"

7be Stuff-they cut

out

scenes that would have enriched the endeavor.

A}: Do you have more control

Ol!(!t'

your pictures than

most directors ?

Or maybe they could just play the mmie music on the:

screen while you sit there in the dark and dream your o\VTI
movie. Then you come out and go to coffee and discuss the

LC: Sure. They leave me alone when I'm making the pic

movie: "I dreamed a great comedy'' or "I dreamed this West

ture, and they leave me alone when I'm cutting it. On low

ern." "Hey, nobody's dreamed a Western in years!" "You

budget pictures they don't bother people too much because

know what I dreamed? I hate to tell you-1 dreamed a

they're usually too busy with problems and responsi bilities

low-budget picture!" "No! You could've dreamed anything

relating to their high-budget pictures, which take up most of

you could've dreamed a

their time. They figure, "Oh well, we're going to make our

picture. What did you dream?'' "I dreamed this low budget

money back anyway just from certain ancillary sales."

At the same time they don't consider the pictures impor

S30

million picture. a

S40

million

picture where these people were trapped in a dark house.

What did you dream?" "I dreamed this great big galactic

tant enough to spend advertising on them. And again, if you

fantasy with spaceships coming down from an enormous

don't get the advertising, you don't get the box office. So it

space station; explosions were going off-it

has its pluses: freedom of direction, but it has minuses in that

And you dreamed a low budget picture?" "I don't know

they don't want to allocate any time or personnel to work on

what's the matter with me!"

was wonderful.

your picture. So in terms of getting any attention, you get a

V. Actually. bou do you u 'Tite? You don 'tjustget an idea

t>ery short shrift.

out of thin air. do you?

A}: But don 't you prefer low budgets ? In one article you

LC: Yeah! Sometimes I just wtite and don't know what I'm

said you probably wouldn 't spend that much anyway.

writing, then it starts to come to me . . . I just jump in and start

LC: Believe me, if you had the money you could spend it!

writing a scene. and as you're writing the characters start to

I'd like to have had more special effects in Q-to have had

talk, start to take over, start to play their part. Sometimes you

more sequences with the bird. The effects we had were

want it to go this way but the characters want to go another

good, but they could have been better. I had many more

way, so you let them go, let them keep talking and see where

inventive ideas but we just didn't have the money to do them.

But the things we did do looked good, so . . .

they're taking you.

Writing is a process of discovery; it comes to life. Once it

A}: What are you doing next ?

starts coming to life. it becomes t 'ery interesling like I said. if

LC: I'm writing some scripts. In about two or three weeks

you read that book by Fowles, you'll get that feeling he

when the scripts go in, they'll decide which one we're going

captured -that feeling of the characters starting tO take life

to make. I always make something every year, anyhow!

I'm reaJiy enjoying this particular time now-just being
home, working for a few hours every day writing, and not

into their ou'Tl hands. The characters start to take over and
speak in their O\VTI sryle and rhythms; each character starts to
have his O\VTI w-.1y of talking.

Uke with painting, there an:: two ways ofworking: you can

The Immaculate Conception, which is entirely different,

make a pencil or charcoal outline that you can see, then fill i t

rests on the premise that since the Garden ofEden, everyone

i n with paint. Or, you can go in with paint and a blank canvas

on earth is born with Original Sin. Only one person was ever

and start making this shadow and that shading, and rubbing

born u>itbout Original Sin, and that was Mary who

this and that. And you think. ''This looks like a terrible mess."

absol\'ed in advance so she could be born pure and be the

1l1en all of a sudden it starts to come together; you step back

mother

and see something you didn't see before: people and back

Conception.

ground and trees and- where's it all coming from? It's com
ing out of that brush.

of jesus.

So

Mary s birth

is

the

was

Immaculate

Nobody knows this, including all these people who think

they know about religion. They always talk about it. but they

And then other people buy a kit that says "green there, red
here. blue over there" and it looks like a horse when you get

don't know anything. We all talk about evel)thing that we

have no information about!

finished ! And you go. "Shit. that does look like a horse,

A}: Were you raised in a religion ?

doesn't it?"

LC: Part of my family's jewish and part of my family's lrish

v.- 7be last li'CI)' is lxm most

HoiJ'll'OOd mou ies are

Catholic, but nobody practiced anything. It was kind of

made-

Mexican standoff-nobody did anything, then nobody's feel

LC: No!-the way a Hollywood movie is made is this \.vay:

ings got hurt. So basically I became afilm maker asa religion!

you paint a picture that's supposed to be a pasture. Now

How about "filmmaking as a Religion" as a lead for your

there's one guy who paints good horses, so he's brought in to

paint the horse. Another guy does grass; another guy does

story'
You ha,e to have your own faith, your own belief. just

good trees; and then you bring in Sam who does beautiful

because you don't go to a recognized church doesn't mean

clouds. Now. because this guy's the best painter of horses,

you don't have any faith in God, or a belief in some higher

this guy does the best clouds, and this guy does the best trees,

power, or something that you just worship in your own way

you should have the best picture, right? Certainly better than

or that you just let be.

the slob who's running around slopping paint on the canvas!

I think it would be very selfish of me. in my state of

Well, I must admit my pictures can be a little sloppy at times,

affluence, good health and good fort une, to be trying to

but I think there's something on the canvas at the end

attract God's attention when there are so many people who

that's-

are in need of a good meal, or crutches, or anything else.

V: -unique . . . One ofyour best scenes is the deteclit oe s

What right do I have to pray to God that when my movie

inten>ieu Ll'ith the father uho hasjustkilled his children in

God Told Me To. 7bat summed upperfectly what s repulsiL
about religious fanatidsm.

people out there, you know!

LC: Robert Drivas played that. Again, I thought it

was

opens next Friday, it's going to be a hit? I mean. there are

How about when people win the Academy Award and they
say, "I want to thank God for my winning this award." l guess

much better to do it this way than to show the overt violence.

the other 400 people who were up for it just weren't good

Tobe Hooper

enough- God smiled on her and those other people are shit!

( Texas OJctillstiU' Massacre )

would have

shown the husband shooting the kid in the back, killing the

Ever think about that? "God said Sally Field should win!" "Oh,

wife. and then getting the little kid to open the bathroom

thank you. Lord." 'Yeah, she did the Flying Nun years ago

door so he can blow the kid's head off. complete with head

let's give ber the award." Two Academy Awards-God must

and si..'UII fragments flying! I chose to do i t by the less cine

really be crazy about this girl; everybody else is a piece of shit.

matic method of having the husband recount the story,

Paul Newman never won-even after all his nominations.

because people killing their children

God just must not like Paul Newman! The nonsense of an

was just

too horrible to

show on the screen.

actor getting up and thanking God . . .

A}: But that scene is so chilling; it's beller-

He s so psychotic-the ll 'll) ' he smiles; his e.>.pressions-

V: I still can 't believe that prayer precedes the Presidents

speeches-

A}: - 7bat peaceful bliss. like religious people telling

about their faith and COI/Ioersion.

say a prayer (or not say one ) - ifthousandsofpeople want to

LC: Well, it's in the Bible! I got the idea from Abraham and

drop down to the sidewalk and pray, let them do it! What

v.-

LC: I think that if people want to, they should be able to

Isaac when God said, "Go out and sacrifice your son!" Then

kind of a thing is this: if they catch you praying, you get

He said. "All right, you don't btu to do it! I just wanted to see

expelled? like. "I got caught praying in school today."

If these parents want their kids to pray, they should tell

if you'd do it or not!" ''God, you mean you just teased me?!"

them to go to school and 'Just go in there and pray, and pray

loud. Let 'em try and stop you!" They break into the

'llle IIIOI'CII of .... C was: ._ trW to

play the white .-s ...-, _. ._ lost. He
should haft .... trw to ........

bathroom and find all these kids praying: "All right you kids,
OUT! I GOTCHA!" If you want to pray, you pray. The way you
get thi ngs done in this country is: do 'em, that's all. That's
how you effect change; all the talk in the world means
nothing.
They talked about Ovil Rights for years, but until they
started boycotting the buses and sitting-in in restaurants,

V. You know the Bible pretty well.

they got nowhere. When they did something about it, change

LC: I always have to explain religion to people who have

occurred. So if you want prayer in school. evel)i>ody should

had a religious upbringing but don't know anything. Some

body was describing to me the film Agnes of God: "There's

send their kids in and tell 'em to pray their fuckin' heads off!

this nun who has a baby, and they think it's an Immaculate

V. 7bere w as a line in Q that the creature was prayed

back into eustence.

Conception," etc. So I said, "No, you're talking about a Virgin

Birth. Immaculate Conception and the Virgin Birth are two

you the truth-/ don't know how that bird got there, unless

different things." They said, "No, no, what are you talking

maybe it flew all the way in from Mexico.

LC: Well, I guess that high priest thought he did it. I'll tell

about?" I said. "jesus being born is not an Immaculate Con

Originally, we were going to have a whole scene about

cept ion. it's a Virgin Birth. Don't you know the difference?"

bringing an egg up in a truck from Mexico and putting it up

Nobody knows the difference!

there, but I dropped it. I said, "listen, if anybody wants to

The difference is that the birth ofjesus without his mother

know how this fuckin' egg got in the top of the Chrysler

ever having had intercourse with anybody is the Virgin Birth.

Building, they can figure it out for themselves, 'cause I don't

129

know the answers to these things. I don't know why the It s

Alir>e! baby was born; I don't know all the answers to every

very well may have gone to places it shouldn't have; 1 don't

one of these questions."

know. But it seemed to me that the thing wasbeing operated in

better than any of my movies! I think some ofthat S I I million

People are always saying to me, "How come there are so

a very strange way, and 1 was better off not being involved.

many holes in your stories?" Well. I don't think it's necessary

V: You real}' changed theplot from the original not el.

to know all the reasons behind a legend

fantasy; how can

LC: Nothing was the same except the opening scene with

we know everything about it, anyway? The mystery is what

the shootingofthe guy"'rith the missing arm, and the last scene

makes it interesting.

with the woman psychiat rist.

or

Again, religion is full of mystery. Priests or ministers say.

''Well, if all the facts were there for you, you \vouldn't hm.oe to

V: Did you film any scenes ?

LC: Not a one.

believe, would you? The Lord doesn't tell us everything

V: You ueren 'tfired tu'O u.oeeks after shooting began ?

because He wants to leave that room for doubt so that you

LC: No, I was only there six days. I shot in wide screen

can have a belief." That's what they always tell you, right?

Panavision and the picture was reshot in 185, so theydidn't use

Well, that's what I say to the audience: "Don't ask me ques

any of my footage.

tions, just beliet.oe. If you can believe what they're telling you

V: I was shocked when it turned out to be a real guy

without em am1!

in church, you can believe my movies."

V: I like the idea of ''sleepers " in your script of I, The
Jury-people who hat.oe been in mental hospitals where they
u>ere programmed to-

LC: Well, 1 cast the guy. I cast all the actors with the
exception of Alan King and the actress who played his friend's
widow-1 don't know where they got her! An awful, terrible

LC: -commit political crimes and stuff like that-

actress-she was so homely. too. I had shot that scene with

V. -disguised as outrageous sex crimes.

somebody else who

LC: WeiJ, people always think that all these ass

assins came

shoot that scene again they used this person.

about that way. It's a good idea, isn't it?

was

very good, and when they went to

Anyway, I cast all the pans including the guy without the

A): How comeyou didn 't direct it?

arm, and I picked most of the locations and stuff. But I just

LC: I couldn't get along with the company that was making

didn't think the picture ended up very good.

the picture. They bought the script and then it waschaos; they

V: But theplot was good.

were going bankrupt, which they did after the picture was

LC: Well. the idea of the government using psychopaths to

finished ( Fox bought the picture in a bankruptcy sale). The

commit murders, and using a sex clinic to find the psycho

picture ended up costing S l l million and it didn't look any

paths so they could program them-that was all good.

David Carradine with adversary in

Q.

130

 V: I thought that was very stro ng stuff!

LC: And having Mike Hammer being manipulated also

outgrossed their picture; their picture cost S 1 1 million and

he's kind of a psychopath himself, a little crazy . . . a nut!

run.

They're sending him around killing people also. so he's just

one of the psychopaths, though he never realizes it.

AJ: /nyourmot,iestheheroesarealso anti-heroes-they're

net'eT'quite real heroes.
LC: This was a subt,ersion of the Mike Hammer character.
like when Barbara Carrera gives him a psychiatric report. he
reads it, but in the movie they don't specify what was in it. But

ours cost about

$2 million. So it all worked out okay in the long

But I don't like to ever have problems or conflicts like

that -it's unpleasant. It's a uteird experience to be captain ofa
ship one day and not have anything to do the next . . . and to see
everybody going to work on what had been your film. Also, I

had a girlfriend who was in the picture and naturallyshe had to

gotoworkeveryday andbe in it, and I had rohearabout it every
night!

the report was supposed to state clearly that this guy had a

I'd see the blue pages and the pink pages coming in on her

hang-up on him. So then you've got a verygood dramatic scene

script, and I'd think, "Oh God! Now they're changing the

where Hammer fi nds out that his best friend all his life has had

whole script! Don't show it to me-l don't want to read it or

some kind of sexual ideas about him, and what a repugnant

know what's going on, because it'll just depress me." And

thing that is for someone like Mike Hammer who is Mister

Macho, fucking all these women and everything! It was great
stuff. but they destroyed it.

they'd say to her, "Don't let Larry Cohen see anyofthese new
pages. In fact, we'd appreciate it ifyou wouldn't evenseelarry
Cohen while you're working on thispictu re!" - thus terrifying
the poor girl who just wanted to act . . .

... - tllat ,.., -*e a ...

the little - that have nothing to
. witll ....... tlle llut add a
little
11111
11 1

._..

..

A}: Which role did sheplay?

LC: She played the secretary, Velda.
V: What inspired your t'ersion of l, The jury?
LC: I read the book and then I had totigure outhowtokeep
certain elements, which were the beginning, the ending, and
the sex clinic which I felt was an important element (in the
novel she was a woman psychiatrist ); I changed it tO a sex
clinic.

V: What else did they change ?

LC: I n their version of the ending Hammer brings his
friend's prosthetic arm to the girl in a bouquet oftlowers - 1

A}: Actually, Velda was a great character-she was gutsy.

She was the one with theguns, whoshapedhimandtook care
ofhim. Also. she was very strong
LC: Yes, it was a very nice part. But for me it was a weird

didn't write that. In our version h e takes i t with him to the

experience to have gone through. But it all worked out for the

climax with the leading bad guyand beats him to death with it!

best; Q might not have been made otherwise, and cenainlynot

That was like my shoeshine scene in the other picture-a very

with Michael Moriarty at that particular time. So it all happens

bizarre touch where a dead man's arm is used to kill his killer.
Anyway, once I was offthe picture the new people came in
and just mangled it up; they did what they wanted with it. What
could I do? I went offand made Q. so I think I ended up better
off.

V: So l, The Jury gatte you the money to make Q?

LC: No, I got the money from backers. I had been very

depressed when /,

7bejwy fe! ' :ooart, and I felt, "Oh my God!

Now I'm off this picture and eve:, ybody's going to think I got

fired !" The only way to keep going is to make another picture
right away. otherwise you're going to be sitting around for six
or eight months with everybody saying, "Oh, that Larl'}Cohen
got tired and now he can't get a job!"

I was still in the same hotel in New York where eve rybody

from /,

7be}UTJ' was still

the way it happens . . .

V. Where did that CIA plot detl(!lopment come from ? Do

you hatoe cmyparticularpoint of viett' on CIA operations?
LC: Well, I think they're into a lot of things, for sure. We
know the FBI in the past has operated brothels and things like
that to get information on people. The Russians do it in
Russia -they have houses of prostitution to get information. I

would imagine that psychiatrists could be used to get

information.

Psychotics are often used, like the guy who shot the Pope
( the so-called Bulgarian Connection ) where the guy talks like

a complete looney-so he probably is a psychotic. The ques

ticn is. were the Russians and the Bulgarians involved in

getting him to shoot the Pope? If so, they probably did exactly

living, making the movie. And every

what we talked about in the movie: they had a secret intelli

morning they'd all get up and go off to work while I'd be in my

gence agency making use of mentally ill people to carry out

room looking out the window, thinking, "Gee, this is weird!"

Because last week I was directing this picture, and this week
all the actors I hired are all working, but I'm sitting here doing

nothing.

Then, as fate would have it, I ran into Michael Moriarty in a

restaurant on the corner. We chatted and then I said, 'You
know, I've got something you might Like to do." I showed him
the script for Q and he said, "I like this part!" Then I said, "Wait

a minute! Maybe I can make this picture!" I called up David

Carradine (who I told you was in Cannes ) and said, "Listen, if

you'd come back and be in this picture. and Candy Clark will
do it, maybe I can get money put up and I can make it right

killings they're inclined to do anyway.

Take somebody who has an inclination to kill an authority
figure -that's their psychological make-up. Then you pro
gram them to kill the particular person you want them to kill,
and in /, 7bejury it's supposed to look like hideous sex crimes.
I think that most of the elements of that picture were
overlooked. I don't think people could focus in on the plot,
because most of the time they were just trying to understand
what the leading actor was saying-hisdiction was so unintel
ligible. But in the original script, what was going on was very
clear.
The people who took over the film were more interested in
action scenes: blowing up limousines, staging an elaborate

away." Carradine said, "Sure! I'll come back and help you out."
I went out and got the money, which took about two weeks.
So about three weeks after I was off/, 7bejury I was shooting Q.

chase sequence with shooting and fighting in trucks-stuff

Then /, 7bejury ran into all their problems; I caught up with

have an unusual angle about everything and an unusual look

them and passed them and we ended up finishing the picture

almost the same day.
Then, as fate would have it, six or eight months later both
pictures opened in New York on the same day on opposite
sides of the street! Fortunately for me, Q did three times as
much business as /,

7be}UTJI, so

I was vindicated. My picture

like that. That to me is not important. The important thing is to

at the psychosis of the detective.
A picture like

7be Maltese Falcon, which people can see

over and over again, doesn't have a single car chase or gun
fight; there are no chases over rooftops, no fist fights.

Bogart

gets knocked out one time. I t all happens in a couple ofrooms;

there's a lot of talk, interesting characters, but no so-called

131

production values in the picture.

Nelson Rockefeller who loaned us his limousine for a scene in

Now if somebody were to remake 7be

Maltese Falcon

the picture. So we got Rockefeller's limousine, and we got

today, they'd say, "Okay, we've got to have Sam Spade in a car

permission to shoot here, and there, and wegot in everyplace.

chase-it's San

Frandsco; how can you not have a car chase?

Sydney Greenstreet'll be driving one car, and- !" That's what

they'd do. Again, /, 7bejwywould have been a better picture if
there had been less money spent on it and it had been left
alone.

v.-

Do you think thefilm's an indictment of Hoover?

LC: It's not; the film shows good parts ofhim and bad parts

of him-it's a fun picture. I tried to make it look like an old

Warner Bros picrure from the '30s and '40s, with Miklos

Rozsa's music and the color and everything. It looked like a

pulp movie. Whereas 7be Stuf
f-the reviewers call it "junk
food." One Playboy guy said, "It's as enjoyable and nutty as a

... ....... II a y.-y private thing, _. it

- ._.._ ef privacy to ._ to haft a
... ......., - .... apleit tllat for
..... . ... ,.. ...., ... ,...... .... "
_,...._ ....... to y-. lt's ,... .....

Snickers." How about that -other people are making movies;

I'm making candy bars.
V: Wasn 't the ad campagn
i c/xmgedfor It's Alive!? Didn't
the second campaign feature a little claw coming out of a
baby carriage?
LC: The first campaign ads featured the dead body of a

woman on the:: ground with blood all around it. saying, "What

ever it is-it's alive!" I said. "This is a terrible campaign.

because it doesn't teU you what the picture's about. Where

A]: Do you bar'(! afavorite movie ofyours?

LC: I guess I like 7be Private Files of]. Edgar Hoover-not

does it say it's about a monster baby?" Theysaid, "Our research

necessarily the picture, but the experience ofhaving done it.

That was fun because we went to Washington, D.C. and shot it

baby. It turns the women off."

at the F.B.I. headquarters, and the F.B.I. training school at

monster babyand that'swhat it's about. lfyou don't advertise it

shows that women wiU not go to a movie about a monster

I said, "I'm sorry, but you people bought a picture about a

Quantico, and we had all these old actors like Broderick

for what it is. we're not going to sell anytickets." So they went

Crawford-

out with their campaign and didn't do anybuinc::s. TI1c::n they

V:

Hou didyou

get him?

tried my campaign, and they did a lot ofbusiness. It turned out

LC: Broderick Crawford wasn't hard to get, because after

that most of the audience were women; the picture did very

all, he's an older actor and they don't get many offers for

well with the female audience. So what can I tell you? They

leading parts - today there are very few parts written for older

were wrong.

actors, especially good parts. So he was very happy to do

v.-

&1ck to hOU'J'OU uritea script-

LC: Sometimes I'll get an idea and just jump in and start

it -there was no problem there.

We also had Dan Dailey in the film. Most of the people who
were cast were happy to be in the picture, because it

writing a scene that happens in the middle. Then I'll go back

an

and write something toward the beginning. I don't write in

important subject and there were good acting roles for them.

chronological order because it's too orderly-there's not

But the main problem

was

was

ifwe could get permission to shoot

or not.

enough surprises. you know. If I get bored with the direction

of the script, or get a block and can't figure out where it's going

At first I thought it would be best to keep everything real

quiet so we wouldn't create too much attention. But sure

next, then I'll jump off into a scene some\vhere else in the
story.

enough, the first day we shot in the restaurant in the May

Sometimes I'll make up a scene that isn't even going to be in

flower Hotel, the hotel called their publicist and their publi

the script, just to keep going. Because in the course ofworking

cist caUed the newspapers and the newspapers came down

on something I'll think ofwhat I need; I'll discoverwhat I need

and took all kinds of pictures, so it was spread all over town
that we were making the film. The cat was out of the bag.
Then we got lucky. Ford was President at the:: time:: and his

to get out of the corner I've painted myself into. Then, if the

script runs 130 or 140 pages. I'll cut it down to the 103 or
page:: it mt be. But the best thing is to just keep going.

104

wife Betty Ford was a former chorus girl. And she loved Dan

Occasionally I'll write two or three scripts at the same time.

Dai ley, who used to be a tap dancer anda hoofer in movies wi th

so that if I get tired of writing on one -after a couple ofhours I

Betty Grable, etc. So we got a call at the hotel that President

get tiredofthat - I'll just jumpoffinto the other one and it gives

and Mrs. Ford would like to invite Dan Dailey and Broderick

me kind of a renewed energy.

Crawford to lunch at the White House the dayaftenomorrow.

A]:

Do )'Oll force yourselfto u't'ite ei'eTJ' single day?

I thought. "Oh my goodness, I've got to close down a whole

LC : I try to write every day because I feel better if I do

day? The crew and everybody's onper diem and salaries, and
there's nothing to shoot ifthey're not around. But if I don 't let

something every day. But today is the interview -when you

them go to the White House, I'll have two actors who are so

straight work-enough for one day!

pissed off I'll never be able to live with them. So I've got to let

A]: I read that at age II or 12 you

them go."

people get through with me I'm not writing anything! This is

UJ(!re ll'riting scripts-

LC: I just saw movies and then I wanted to put on shows. but

Then I got an idea: "Wait a minute; this is a good time to call

I dido 't have any cameras or anything. Somebody had bought

up and try and get locations." So I called up the F.B.I. and said,

me an overhead projector; you put on a comic book and it

"I'd like to shoot at your offices, but I can't tomorrow, because

projects a huge picture of Aash Gordon or Batman; the whole

the stars are going to be having lunch with President Ford. But

wall will be Batman. I would find a postcard or picture and

I'd like to shoot the dayafter tomorrow." I got. "Please hold the

project it on the wall, put on a costume, stand in front of it like

line" . . . then they carne back on and it's, "What time would

it was a set. and act out a scene. To get kids in school to be in it

you like to be here?"

with you, you'd have to bribe other kids to come see it

So that was it. I called up all the locations and always

( because:: they didn't want to). You'd do something like

managed to mention that the actors were going to be at the

announce that everybody who comes gets a free comic book,

White House, and they'd always check to see if I were telling

just to get 'em in there, to have an audience. I'd make up my

the truth. and then come back and give:: permission. So that

stories and give the kids their lines and put on these little

ended up being the best thing that happened to me!

productions.

Again, it was one of those things that

looked like a detri

When I was old enough to get my father to loan me his Smm

ment, but ended up making things much better for us in the

movie camera, I started running around the park (or wher

long run. That opened up all the doors; in fact Crawford met

ever ) shooting movies. I had to bribe kids to be in them.

1 32

Generally you had to cut these movies in the camera; there was

LC:

no facility for cutting. So you'd do a close-up of this one, then

try to get in a block of time, and if I don't do it during the day

around and do a close-up of that one, return to where you

then I'll have to do it at rught.Just like at school when a kid says,

nm

o. no. it depends on what my day's going to be like. I

were, then do an over-the-shoulder shot -everything had to

"I've gotta do my homework, but I'm going to go play ball, and

be planned that way. As soon as it came back from the lab it was

then I've got a date and a movie, but I've gotta do my home

all finished and ready to show-all made inside the camera.

work even if I have to stay up all night, because it has to be

A}: Didn 't Hitchcock do that?

LC: Oh, they all say that, but it's not true. He said that so

done." So I know that if I don't do it now, I'Ll have to stay up all

many times in interviews that he came to believe it himself. But

tape recorder.

he covered everything just the way everyone else does. If you

interview any of the actors who were in his pictures, I'll bet

A}: Do you use a u'Ordprocessor?

LC: No, no. 7bat I would never do. I think that writing is a

the)'d say that he covered all the angles and everything. He did

wonderful art form and all it requires is a pencil and a piece of

a take of Ingrid Bergman, then he djd a take ofGregory Peck,

paper.

then he'd do the dolly shot in-the elaborate shot and maybe
that would be the one he'd end up using. But I'm sure he did
the other coverage, too.
It's just too dangerous not to do the coverage on the people,

night and do it -/'uegot toget it done. I use a t}pewri ter, I use a

Now they're trying to change it into a system where you

have to have a S2500 piece of equipment in order to write. All

these young people are going to grow up thinking, "J can't

write -I'm helpless-unless I have my S2500 word proces

particularly with good actors like Gregory Peck and Ingrid

sor." I wouldn't want to be dependent on that. I think it's

Bergman who give it so much. I would assume he shot like

wonderful that you can write on on the backofanenvelopeor

everybody else when he shot

Rebecca and aU those pictures.

a yellow pad or anything

it's wonderful freedom ! You can

There may have been certain key sequences that he had all

take that with you wherever you go.

worked out a certain way. But the dramatic scenes and the

Y. But you do dictate u'Ords into a tape recorder.

LC: Sure; then I have a typist rype it up. Iftheycome upwith

romantic scenes he probably shot just like everybody else. He

used to tell stories so many times he'd get to believe them

a word proces
sor you can talk into and it types out the script,

himself. TI1at's what happens if you get interviewed too

then I miglH get one. 7bat might be ruce to have; I'm sure that'll

much-ifyou get interviewed to death!

happen -that's another step forward. But I still Like to know

that I can go out and do it the old way.
People say, ''Veah, but if you had the word processor you

I lust write c.ud don't ._. what

'
rm wrilil:g
c.ud as you re wella. the
ch.aden st.t to tt6, start to take ower,
start to plaY their pcwt.
SaMtlkus

could take that paragraph at the bon om and move it right up to

the top if you wanted to." I go,

"Well /ook-1 can take

this

arrow and go like that (mo\'es paragraph up ). And if I want to

get rid of the words on this line I go like

that ( crosses

them

out).
You sec these manuscripts ofgreat books and plays that have
been preserved in museums, and you see the way people
write-it's in the margins, up on the corners of the page with

A}:

You do get heaui)' inl'olted in your editing ?

arrows going down here, and the whole page is crossed

LC: Oh yes. I'm to blame for that. I usually stand over the

off-it's delightfully sloppy. Just like if you go into a painter's

poor editor and newr give him a moment's peace. They always

studio, it's a mess-there's paint all over the place. The same

tell me. "The scene won't cut. There's no way we can make it

with a sculptor's studio. Art is mess /You want to get in there

work." and I have to figure out some way to make it work. It's

and get it all over you. I don't like the idea of sitting in front of

like a puzzle; there's always one uay that it'll work. Then I say,

one of those sterile things pushing those buuons and watch

"I tell you what : suppose we take the Line at the end and put it at

ing the words come out on television. I don't think that's

the beginning.

7hen

it'll work." He'll say, "Yeah, but then

you're rewriting the scene!" I say. "Well, what's the difference

as

long as we make it work7" He says. "Well, I can't do

that -you have to do it. J'm onJythe editor, I'm not the writer."

great-maybe I'm in the wrong century!

V: When you uere making God Told Me To uere the,eany

majorproblems to so/t oe on-set?
LC: The big problemwas that Tony lo Bianco. the star. was

Basically you have to stay there and do it, because nobody

in a play and had to be off at 6 o'clock every night. Also. he

else is going to do it but you. Sometimesyou have to reorganize

couldn't work on Saturday- there was a matinee-and he

the scene to make the cutting all work, if for one reason or

couldn't work on Wednesday which was a matinee. We only

another it doesn't work the way you planned. If you want to

had the guy three or fou r days a week. So he's not in halfof the

take out the whole middle of a scene hecausc it goes on too

scenes: it's a double. But you'd never know it -and to this day

long, you might find the people are in the wrong place. Then

he'll swear h e was there, in scenes that he wasn't in! He's seen

you've got to figure out somt' way to get them back in the right
place. Sometimes you can do it by running the scene

the picture a few times so now he's sure he was there, but h e
wasn't there. Sometimes even I , when I look a t it, have trouble

had:wards-playing the first part of the scene baci..wards so

that the people say the things out of order and then the)re

rememht' ring that wasn't him, that was the double. There
were certain locations he was never even at. So, that was the

hack in the right posi tions by the time the second half of the

major problem in that picture.

scene has to come on. Or sometimes the second half of the

scme plays first and the first half of the scene plays second.
Editing is fun, because it's like writing, in a way. But instead

But I enjoyed it - I enjoyed the pouer, that I was taking the

leading actor and putting him into scenes he v.'l!Sn't even in!
Talk about

man ipulation

the plasticity of film is such that

of moving words around you're moving images around. At

you can make a picture with an actor who isn't even there ! And

least you're not surrounded by

have

30 or 40

technicians and all

him convinced that he was really in the movie.

that time that is so expensive -camera equipment, lights,

A}: Wbat a special effect. Actual}'. can you tell us about

lo<:ation rentals. e,eryt.hing. At least editing is done in a little

like writing in your room. It's not as pressurized a situation as

yourmot'ie ofthat title?

LC: Speda/ Effects is an old script I wrote a long time ago. It
was the first thing I wanted to do, before Bone. even. It was one

the actual shooting of a picture which is expensive -you have

of the only scripts sitting in the closet that I hadn't sold to

room somewhere. quietly, at leisure. You take your time-it's

to keep something going because the clock is ticking.

anybody over the years. about a movie director who has a

V: \f1hen you're uritinga script. do you start U'Orking at a

crack-up and accidentally kills somebody and then decides to

regular time etefJ' day.?

make a movie about the murder, and have the real people play

1 33

The reincarnation of a Mayan bird-god takes on the Chrysler building in Q.

themselves in the picture.

waiting to be let out.

I got the idea from a movie called In Cold Bloodwhere the

Then this company asked me, "We have some money to

production company went and rented the actual house where

make a picture; have you got anything?" So we made it. But I

the family

updated it a bit; I made the director like a Michael Cimino or

was

murdered, and shot the scenes in the actual

rooms where the murders took place. I thought, "That is really

somebody who's just made a S25 million picture that's a total

gruesome!" -to have those people killed all over again in the

disaster; he can't get a job in the industryanymore because he's

rooms where they were actually murdered.

made these high-budget pictures that have been flops. He's

V. W1.ry is that gruesome?

trying desperately to find some subject he can make a movie

LC: It's just something weird. Being murdered is a very

about . . .

private thing, and it seems an invasion ofprivacy to me to have a

His whole bedroom has been rigged up with cameras, and

movie company come in and exploit that for profit. I mean

one ofthem happens to have been rolling when a murder takes

you died, and you're dead. If anything belongs to you, it's your

place. He decides to make a picture about this and involve

death. They're taking something from you.

some of the real people. He'll have somebody play the part of

Just like sex is a very private thing-ifyou were having sex,

you wouldn't want somebody to run in and take pictures of

the girl victim, but when the time comes he'll actually mix in
real footage of the murder with the fictitious footage.

you and then project them on a screen, claiming they have the

Bit by bit he creates such a reality that the people involved

right to do it. Well, dying is also very private. I just think it's a

start to believe what's happening themselves; they start to

tremendous invasion of decency and privacy for the purpose

change and get into his mind and act out his fantasy. Then the

of making a profit-making venture.

footage gets destroyed, and he has to recreate the murder

Anyway, I wrote this script and nothing happened. After the

Polanski murders occurred people said, "Oh, you based your

again.
V. Interesting idea involving illusion vs. reality-

script on that!" I said, "No, no," but people didn't believe it. So

LC: Right. The main character keeps running these shots of

the script sat in the closet for years . . . fidgeting around,

Oswald killing Ruby back and forth . . . run it one way, you kill

134

him: run it the other way and you bring him back to life.
The picture's got a lot of interesting ideas about current

cekbrini10od in America. where you go out and make a S I 0 or

Liberty. and they'd say. "Oh. this must have been the god that
they prayed to." Just like some statue discovered in ancient
Greece: "That must be their god, Aphrodite."

1 2 million dollar mmic about Dorothy Stratton. who newr

V You also takeadt't'mtaeoftransient et>ents toprorlide

did anything The only thing she ever did was to get herself

in terestin locations, likeparades orfairs-

murdered. That makes her an instant celebrity?

LC: In God Told Me To we went down to shoot at the St.

On the other hand. youn got jessica Lange as Frances

Genaro's Fair where they ha,c processions. floats with reli

Fanner who was not an actress of any real note or repute;

gious figures and crosses on them, etc. It was a street fair so

hardly anyone knows

\\110 she was. Her onJr claim to fame is:

they had ferris wheels. rides and merry-go-rounds. It provided

she went insane and was put in a mental institution. So that's

an interesting free location and it all fit together. The film also

what stardom is today: insanity. suiddeand murder! That's the

contained the St. Patrick's Day Parade which is at a totally

essen<.:e of stardom- it's bizarre. but that's why these people

different time of the year, but who's going to know?

A}: Films c!Y!ate their ouon sense of time and space,

are "interesting."
Nobody's interested in somebody unless they get decapi
tated in some horrible accident or took poison or committed

suicide like Maril)l Monroe. Ifyou li1>e. you just get forgotten
complct<:ly. Your movies get forgotten, and nobody knows

anytl'll)'.
V: Can you tell usabit moreabouthou.voucametomake
films?
LC: Nowadays everybody takes film classes in school; then

who the hdl you arc! You have to really die in a bizarre fashion

they do MTV. documentaries, commercials. news and special

or go mad or something to maintain your celebrityhood

events-there are all kinds of jobs for people in the visual

forever. 17xn you're really a star! So . . . that'swhat this picture

media other than just making entertainment movies. Probably

says.

the majority ofpeople \\ilo go to fi 1m S<:hools end up worki ng

A}: I tY!ad you

U 'C're

uatchin Vietnam atrociJ'footage.

flippinR back and forth to The Big Valley Ll'ben you uere

in the business in one way or another.

V l>idyouo tbefilm scbool mute?

maJtin SJXcial Efkcts.

LC: I went to New York City College: there

LC: l11ere was something about that in the picture-about

school there. \X'hile there I began writing scripts and submit

make-believe violence and real \iolence. 11en you're watch

ting them to television shows in New York. I started selling

ing the 6:00 PM news on TV and there's bodies l}ing there,and

Peopk never used to see so much death before. Now it's

"Run out there and gct a shot of that corpse; we want it for the

a film

right away. because if you can writeyou can urite!

the next show comts on and there's bodies lying there. that
juxtaposition negates the difference. Bodies mY! bodies!

was

The easiest way to break in is through writing. because it

doesn't cost anybody anything to read it. I mean, ifyou want to
direct even a little movie, somebody's got to give you about

SSO,OOO. But ifyou want to write something. your investment

30 pages of paper and their investment is the half-hour i t

six o'dock news." Everyone wants to be as graphic as

is

possible- show 'em tverything! We were talking about that in

takes them to read i t . And i f they don't like i t , they're going to

movies: if you can figure out how to knock somebody's head

tell you right away, and it doesn't cost anybody anything.

off or chop their arm off and make it look real - that's great

But I would suggest that if anybody writes a script, they try

movie magic. b{:caust: people want to see all that graphic stuff.

and put some good scenes at the beginning. Don't expect

They'w sc:cn evcryt hing. and now they want to see more.

everybody to read

30 or 40 pages to get to the good stuff. Put

something at the beginning to make 'em want to stay. The

I got the idea frorn a movie cc6cl Ia Celli

..... when the production eo111p1my went
cmd rented the actual house where the ,_.,
was ........, cnl shot the scenes in the
actuai i'OOIIII ....... the murders took place. I
thought, "that is ,.., .,.....,

same with a movie-you have to give them something inter

esting to start with.
It was a waste of time to go to college. but who knew? I t was
the thing ro do- to go to college.

A}: Why uas it a uaste of time?

LC: Well. I think I could have gone out into the world and

started selling material \\ilen I was sixteen, rather than having

to spend four years in college. lf I'd done that. I would have
been selling stuff sooner and I would have been making
movies earlier.
'lhc first n' series I wrote for was

V: I like that scene in Q ubere the uindou-u asber gets

Tbe Defenders.

a very

popu lar courtroom series about lawyers. etc that won the

decapitatedpeeting in to that shoes tore tl'itha/1 those racks of

Emmy a\.Yard; E. G. Marshall was in it. The show already was a

shoes.

big hit when I submitted an episode, "Kill or Be Killed." I

A}: You hmoe all sorts ofjokes in yourmo(!ies. ln onescene

in It's Alive. tbetx<5 a sign near tbe killer babies tbat reads:

write for the show. They liked the first scripts, gave me

"Children At Play. "

another assignment. and before I knew it I'd worked on it

LC: When making a mO\ie. you can never tell ll'hat you'll

for three years. I was about

find. You

set

a vehicle go by that says. "Danger! Children," and

you say. "Quick! Run up the block and give that guy S2S; we

went down and they were nice; they gave me a chance to

22

years old at the time.

Then I came out to California and I was "hot" because 7be

Defenders was a top New York show. equivalent to Hill Street

want to use his tmck for a minute." And you bring i t back and

Blues today. I started getting work immediately. and then

use i t . hut a minutebefore youhadn't though tofit. You just see

someone asked. "Do you have any idea'i for a TV series?" I

these things as you're going along and you say, "Wow! That

said. "Yeah," and one of the ideas was Branded, about a guy

would be good- Jet's grab that and put it i n the movie."

who was court-martialed in the U.S. cavalry for cowardice. It

V Yott 'l>e found some g!Y!al symbolic locationsfor your

films. like tbe umY!bouse ll' ith theminialllreStatueofLiberty

was a humiliation

on the roof-

his sword. Then he has to ride around trying to redeem

LC: l11at's real. I thought, " lf we've got to go to a ware

himself-prove he's a hero to dispel the fact that everybody

house. let'sgotoonewith theStatue ofLibertyon the roof." It's

thinks he's a coward. That was on for a couple of years.

an icon. like the Chrysler Building with the gargoyles, or the

top of the temple the creature in Q finally lands on which is

series; every week at the beginning of the

show they court-martial him -tear off his epaulets and break

Then there was

7be

ln t'Ciders, another series like

7be

lnti(ISion of the Body Snatcher-s. Aliens who look like h urnan

shaped likc a p)Tamid. Ifour society was unearthed 2000 years

beings infiltrate our society and this guy knows about it and

from now. what would people: find? They'd find the Statue of

tries to comince people. etc.

 V:

7bey can 't bend their little finger-

means getting up and leaving the swimming pool." I had

LC: That's right. They could do everything else-they

already become successful in television and was writing

could fly hundreds of thousands of light-years through the air

screenplays; I had already bought this house.

in their spaceships, but they couldn't bend their little fingers,

A]: In your tuvmties ?

which was really illogical.

LC: Yeah. It was easy. Then I saiO, "Oh god, now I gotta get

V: You created the concept for both of these senes ?

up at six o'clock in the morning and go running around ."

LC: Right.
A]: Branded

I used to write scripts in such detail (with all the camera

was really about black-listing, right? 7bey

angles and everything) that the directors would get angry

and deliberately change everything, just because they felt

didn 't really know that, did they?

1be /nz!(lders was like a witch-hunt; a para

they had no position unless they changed everything. It was

noia series. Kind of like everybody running around accusing

other people of being a communist. I didn't have much to do

like following a very detailed blueprint; the picture was

already almost pre-cut, pre-directed and everything in the

with the show once it got going; gradually they turned it into

script. So they'd change things arbitrarily for no reason. and

LC: No. And

a rather simple-minded program.

then find out that it didn't make any sense. I had to stop

For instance, it would have been more interesting if the

writing the scripts in such detail.

invaders weren't all bad. But, at least we did have Michael

So directing the scripts became the only way to do it, I'm

1be Day the

afraid. Unless you have a partner who directs-you write, he

Rennie as the leader, who you remember from

Earth Stood Still. We had some fun with it, but it was more or

directs and you have an understanding or something.

less running around doing stuff that had been in other

V: How did you get money?

science-fiction movies, but doing it for television. This was

LC: I knew people who hired me and were accustomed to

when

paying me a lot of money for scripts. So I went around asking

1be Outer limits was on; '67-'68.

Then I wrote three screenplays, Daddy 's Gone a-Hunting

which was directed by Mark Robson, a Western called FJ
Condor, and another one,

1be Return of the Magnificent

them for money for a whole picture, that's aU.

V. Didn 't they say, "Well, you 'tJ(! nezl(!r made a mol'ie

before. so . . .

"

Seven with Yul Bryoner, which is not really the script I wrote

LC: No, there's always people starting out, particularly in

(but I got credit for it, anyway ). They screwed that one up;

the low-budget area. They're not going to get Robert Wise

they cut out the whole middle of the picture, saying there

directing their low-budget pictures; Robert Wise directed

was no development in it.

low-budget pictures at RKO for Val Lewton, but then he

If you want

began directing big-budget pictures like Sound of Music.

'em to turn out like you want, you gotta make 'em yourself. It

There always has to be somebody coming along to make the

After that I thought, "This is a waste of time.

Mk..._. M.n.rty receives

lecture frotn C.IMiy a-k In Q.

low-budget pictures. People get started going to places like

American International or Roger Corman. Beliet >e me. cur
body uho u>ants to get started uri// get started. It may not be
now or next year, but sooner or later, if they're going to stick
with it they're going to get it done. It's just the way it happens.
The people who give up weren't meant to do it in the first
place. Because it's a hard business-even after you write the
picture and finish it. then you have to run it for these
people- people who don't like it because they don't under
stand it, or who advertise it wrong, or who open it on a
weekend when the World Series is on -there's a million
heartbreaking things that happen.
If you don't have the resil iency to stay with it and keep
going-a lot of people just withdraw; they can't stand the
pressure and the sense of defeat. So the best thing to do is:
just keep going on to the next picture. When you finish one,
be ready to do the next one, or be working on scripts for the
next one -have something on your mind so you're not going
to be plunged into hopelessness.
V: Do you think you 're a/u>ays two or three m01ries
ahead?
LC: Yeah. It's a wonderful business. though. People do let

you go off and play-act your dreams . . .

V: So basically, it uas disgust at tbeabuse ofyour screen
plcvs that brought you to directing ?
LC: I was being paid well for the abuse. though, so I didn't
get that uppiry about it. But I wanted to find out if I could
make a good picture. I had written that script for Special
Effects. hut I couldn't find anybody to fund that. Then I wrote
another one, Bone (the title was later changed to House
urife ). and I got the money from somebody to make my first
film. They always change the titles; If I made 13 pictures I
have 26 pictures to my name. That gives me more posters to
hang on the wall.
Bone is about an affluent family who live in Beverly Hills.
He's a super TV car salesman and she's his bored wife; they
hate each other. They have a son they claim is a prisoner-of
war in Vietnam. but really he's in a jail in Spain for smuggling
drugs. But they tell everybody he's a Vietnam War POW so
they can look better.
Into their midst comes a black thief who breaks into their
house to rob them, only to find out they don't have any
money. They have this big house, swimming pool , Rolls
Royce and everything. but they owe money to everybody;
they're absolutely bust. In searching the house the thieffinds
a hank hook listing a S5000 savings account that the wife
doesn't know about-the husband's holding out on her. So
she's furious, screaming at him. The thief says. "I'll tell you
what. You go into town to the bank. get the money, and be
back here in one hour. J'll stay here with your wife. If you're
not back in one hour, I'm going to rape her, kill her and
everything else."
He goes into town to the bank. and then says to himself,
"Why should I go back? I hate that bitch." So he takes off. He
meets a hippie girl-this picture was made a long time ago
when people used to get Blue Chip stamps at gas stations
he meets this girl who makes her living by finding unlocked
cars and stealing the Blue Chip stamps in their glove com
partments. They take off for the afternoon to have a little sex.
Meanwhile the burglar is waiting for the husband to
return. but he never shows up. The wife gets drunk, and
before you know it a relationship evolves between them and
they realize how much they have in common, etc. It's a
comedy. And they fall in love, and then join forces to go find
the husband and kiU him for his insurance. So it's a wacky,
satirical movie about affluent people in Beverly HHls.
We made the picture and I thought it could be controlla
ble because it had a small cast.
V: Did you film it in this bouse ?
LC: Yeah, we did. It was my first picture; I decided to use
my own house-the pool was in it, too. This made it easy;

there was no need to go to work every day! I was making

movies hut I didn't have to leave the house; it was a nice
compromise.
That picture got a minor release from a small distributing
company. Jack H. Harris Enterprises. whose prime claim to
fame was: they had made and distributed a small picture
called 7be Blob. The owner was known as Jack "The Blob"
Harris.

It was my first experience with someone who liked the

picture for the wrong reasons. He thought, "Oh boy. this is
going to be another Superjly! or Shaft! I said, "Jack, this
picture's not a drama, it's a comedy. " He said to me, "Usten,
am I going to stand in the aisle and tell them not to laugh?" I
said, "If you advertise this picture as a drama. they're not
going to know what to make of it. If you pay to see a drama
and it's really a comedy, you're not going to be happy." He
said, "Well. you know, leave it to me-l've been in this
business since 1900."
Anyway, it was released as a drama and got reviews like,
"The most unintentionally funny movie of the year." Hor
rendous. Then he said, "/ know what to do." Next thing I
knew, he's changed the title to Houseurife and now it looks
like a porno-what the idle housewife is doing in the after
noons. Beautiful. great.

However, that led to me being called in to do that black

exploitation picture, Black Caesar, which was a big hit. And
shortly after that I made It s Alit>e!
v- Where'd you get the concept for It's Alive!
LC: I think I had the idea of a super-monster baby when I
was a kid. I thought it was an interesting idea, and that we
could could get all the suspense through the implied pres
ence of something you didn't see.
V: It s ambiguous; you feel sympathetic tou,ard thebaby,
but you also fear the baby.
LC: That's right. And that was a big hit, so I had two big
hits. After that people are always looking to see if you'll have
another big hit, so you get financing.
The second It s AlitY?! picture did okay, but not as good as
the first. Then the business changed a little when American
International went out ofbusiness. It was a good company for
me because they kinda let me make anything I wanted to. But
they sold the company, the new company went out of busi
ness, and that was the end of that. Then I had to make my
pictures wherever I could find a company that was
interested.
Ocasionally I still write a script for somebody if I like the
idea or the people I get to work with. Uke, I wrote Dr.
Strange in conjunction with Stan Lee, who's the Marvel
Comics guy. We enjoyed working together, and now he
wants me to do something else with him, so I will. He's a very
nice guy and one of the really greater people; he created a
whole new look in comic books which revolutionized the
comic book industry. Now Marvel's way ahead ofSuperman
and DC in terms of sales.
V: Back to your filmography. You did It's Alive in 1973
and God Told Me To in 1977, but what didyoudoduringthe
four years in between?

LC: I know I did something during that time! I lived in

England for a year- I guess that was 1975-and wrote a stage
1 37

play called Motive. There were two productions of it, one

crack in the door seeing the murder take place. It was a three

with Honor Blackman, the other with Carroll Baker. Then I

week shoot -an economical little picture, and I had a good

came back and made Hoot>er, which I think was made in '76

time doing it. working with a lot of these new East Village

but released in '77.

people who have a whole kind of subculture society. And

V: You wrote a set--eenplay. Success.

LC: That was in '80 or '81, before Q. It was a cute script

they're good actors.

that had been laying around for years; I didn't have anything

Aj: W1Jen ue1Y! you horn ?

LC: July IS. in Manhattan. I don't like to tell budgets of

to do with making the picture. Then I did a play in New York

films or birthdays.

LC: Well, my favorite part of enry picture is probably just

caJied Trick.

V. Hou come you ne1er turned that into a film ?

LC: Oh, I don't know . . . it was too deep! It was so serious;

at the time it was too heavy for a mo,ie, maybe not now. I

A}: \l"hat 's )'Owfamrite fX111 rf the piclillY! ?

going to the theater and watching it after it's been released.

becaust: then I'm safe -it's otoerl

aJways think about rewriting it, but I never get around to it. I

larry Cohen

think maybe the experience of ha\ing done it on Broadway

holding

was enough; I suffered enough with that one. so maybe I

promotion

better not suffer again!

tontainer

V: That takes us up to Perfect Strangers.

of The StuH
for his
latest movie.

" ... society .. ....... 2000 ,.... from

.., what would ,..... find? they'd find the
Stat.e of ....,..., cmd they'd say, "Oh, this
.... ..... .... the .... that they prayed to."

LC: Perfect Strangers is a little mo,ie we made in conjunc

tion with Special Effects. The deal was to make two pictures

backto-back. Perfect Strangers stars a two-year-old child; it

Photo: Yale

was kind of an experiment in manipulating the audience into

believing that a two-year-old child could act. Since he can't
talk, it has to be a non-speaking child.

Anne Carlisle ( who was in Liquid 5;ky) is in it. And Special

Effects has li:>e Tamerlis who was in Ms. 45. I made these
pictures with these underground movie queens in the Soho
section of New York. It was fun! I had nothing else todoat the

PARTIAL FILMOGRAPHY

time. and it gave me something to do for six months while we

were raising money for 7be Stuf

f

Perfect Strangers is about a liule boy and his mother. Anne

Carlisle, who's separated or divorced from her hushand.

raising a kid. The kid witnesses a murder in an alley behind
the house. The killer, an attractive young guy, is haunted by
the fact that the child may be able to identify him. But then,
the child's only two and can't talk.
He starts following the mother and child around the neigh
borhood to see if the child reacts to seeing him, because he
isn't sure if the child can actually recount what he saw. The
mother sees him following them around. and thinks that he's
interested in her as a girlfriend. They meet and strike up a
relationship,

and

he's convinced

that

the

kid doesn't

remember him.
He starts hanging around the house, taking the kid out, and
they become like a family. Gradually he becomes aware that

the child does remember him and knows exactly11at he did.

AS WRITER:
One Shoc:king Moment
The Defenders (TV series)
Branded (TV series)
Invaders (TV series)
Cool Million (TV series)
Nature of the Crime
Motive
Suuess
I, the Jury,
Dr. Strange (saipt)
Daddy's Gone A Hunting
Tritk
Dr. Strange
El Condor
Return of the Magnifitent Seven

There's a policeman hovering about; the people who hired

AS DIRECTOR:

him to commit the murder are pressuring him to kill the

One Shoc:king Moment, 1965

child, and Anne Carlisle's like a feminist who run afoul of her

Bone aka Housewife aka Dial Rat for Terror

feminist friends because she's taken up with this boyfriend.

Black Caesar, 1973

Meantime the husband wants his kid back and tries to kidnap

Hell Up In Harlem, 1973

it. Naturally she gets the kid back, but we know that the only

It's Alive, 1973

hope it has of surviving is if the father comes around and

God Told Me To (aka Demon), 1977

abducts the boy. Everything's working at cross-purposes.

The Private files of J. Edgar Hoover, 1977

Anyway, there's a surprise ending which I'm not going to

It lives Again (aka It's AJive II), 1978

ruin the picture by telling you. Basically it's a kind of love

full Moon High, 1981

story with a convoluted suspense plot. but a little different

Q-The Winged Serpent, 1982

from the usuaJ run-of-the-mill "child witnesses murder" sto

The Stuff, 1985

ries. It was made before Witness, which has some of the same

Perfec1 StrangCif's (aka Blind Alley), 1985

exact shots we have, with the little child looking through a

Spetial Effec:ts, 1985

script

'W"aS

written by Griffith, author of some of Corman's

hroughout 1965, Hell's Angels had been the targets of

of Blood and 7be Little Shop of

HonYJrs. Corman wasn't completely satisfied with the script,

countless news reports, magazine articles and pieces of fic

however, and turned it over to his young production assistant

tion. Most of the press was negative, overblown, and substan

for extensive rewri ting. For an added touch of realism, Cor

best films. including Bucket

tially inaccurate. By the end of the year an Angel couldn't

man employed the Venice chapter of the Hell's Angels as

even go to the local tavern for a beer without a journalist or

extras. Corman required that ali the actors who played bikers

TV crc::w noticing.

in the film know how to ride a Harley. and when lead actor

In January of '66,

"Mother" Miles-leader of the Angels'

George Chakiris asked for a stunt double to do his riding for

Sacramento branch-died, and when his comrades geared

him, Corman booted him from the film. replacing him with

up to attend the funeral, the press was ready. Every Angel in

the state of california turned out for the event, as did nearly

the man who was to play the second lead: Peter Fonda. By the

every other motorcycle gang, rival or not. The procession

changed from All

was spectacular: wall-to-wall

down the highway as far

as

Harley-Davidsons rumbling

the eye could see. Strangely, the

time it hit the theaters, the title of the movie had been

the Fallen Angels to 7be Wild Angels.

7be Wild Angels is less a story than a series of misadve n

tures. Peter Fonda plays "Heavenly Blues."

brooding young

death of "Mother" Miles sparked the beginning of a new kind

misfit and leader of the motorcycle gang. Bruce Dern plays

of cinema: The Biker Film.

While thumbing through an

Life magazine,

the short end of the stick. Wlen Loser is shot by the police

producer-director Roger Corman came across a picture of

while trying to steal a motorcycle. his friends decide to bust

"Loser" -so named because of his uncanny knack for getting

issue of

the Miles funeral. Struck by the graphic power of the photo, it

him out of the hospital ( figuring it would be easier to get him

occurred to Corman that the Hell's Angels would prO\ide

out of the hospital than out of prison ). Naturally, without

good subject matter for an interesting and profitable motion

proper medical attention, loser dies shortly after he is

picture. He and scriptwriter Charles Griffith paid a visit to

abducted. A funeral is held, and Blues attempts to express his

a gang of Angels, and after an evening of drinking and

"frustration with society" to the minister. Failing, he and th<.:

exchanging stories, Corman and Griffith walked away with

Angels disrupt the funeral, raping loser's wife and turning

the material they needed for a screenplay.

the service into a free-for-all. At the end of the film Blues is

The movie was to be called

left alone. feeling his role as a biker is played out, and won-

All the Fallen AnRels. The

Jade Nichohon, Harry Dean Stanton (background) ond friends go for o spin in Rebel Rousers ( 1 967).

1 40

dering what lies ahead.

The Corman film did little to enhance the image of motor

cycle gangs. portraying the Angels as being only slightly

S I million dollars. but after years of dickering they settled for

S300.
71;e Wild Angels was a hit, especially in the South and

brighter than your average circus hear on a bike. Upon seeing

Southwest - traditionally the market for exploitation and

the film the Angels felt they'd been betrayed, and sued Cor

action films. Much to the chagrin of some American officials,

man for defamation of character. The original claim was for

the film was chosen to play at the Cannes Film Festival.

Russ Tamblyn laughs maniacally and displays the dead bodies of three of his victims in AI Adamson's classic, Satan's Sadists.

America was ready for bikers; the slapstick Erich Von Zipper
image of the motorcycle menace in Beach Party was being
replaced by a more malevolent image. Outlaw gangs were no
longer something to laugh at-they were a real and present
danger, and the public flocked to see them.
As is always the case in Hollywood, a successful film is seen
as a successful formula, and the race was on to produce biker
films. First out of the starting gate was Devils Angels. uke 1be
Wild Angels, it was produced by AlP and had a screenplay by

The market for these ftlms was teenagers, so combining

the motorcycle gangs with another favorite teen genre -the
horror film -seemed a natural. The resulting films are hardly
scary, but certainly worth watching. The first attempt was
Wereuoltlf?s on Wheels, a film about a gang that crosses paths
with a witch and ends up as werewolves. Barf bags were
handed out at the door when the film first opened. A more
intriguing blend of monsters and motorcycles was Psycho
mania, also known as 7be Death Wheelers. It tells the story of

Charles Griffith. AJP had wanted Roger Corman to direct it,

but he was busy working on 1be Trip. Detli/'s Angels starred
John Cassavetes as an aging biker who leads a pack much
younger than himself. Cassavetes as a gang leader was an odd
and clever piece of casting. At the time he was busy directing
independent features, and took the part in Detli/'s Angels to
fa.ise money for his own projects. During the '50s Cassavetes
had made his mark as a gang leader in a television drama
called Crime in the Streets (later made into a movie by Allied
Artists). and playing a gang leader again twelve years later
added a touch of pathos to both parts: the grown-up delin
quent with nowhere left to tum.
Devil' s Angels is a better-than-average biker film, but its
box office draw was nowhere near that of Corman's films.
The big hit of 1967 was Hell s Angels on Wheels, produced by
joe Solomon.
Biker movies were good to a lot of producers, distributors
and actors. They were quick to make, required minimal
scripting, and made few demands on anyone's talent. And of
the people who profited from biker films, none profited
more than joe Solomon.
By the time the biker craze had rolled around, Joe
Solomon was a seasoned expert in the field of exploitation.
As a child he had made theater signs working in his father's
print shop, and later he became the advance publicist for the

a British motorcycle gang led by an o<:cult fanatic who prom

ises the gang memhers immortality if they kill themselves.
They do. and get their wish, but are eventually undone. The
nan1e of the gang is ( logical ly) "The Uving Dead," and the
creature they worship is a bullfrog. Psy chomania is one of
the few biker films to come out of Britain, and definitely one
of the weirdest.
A belated attempt to combine Harleys and horror w-as
Northuille Cemetery Massacre, made in 1977 and set in a

After several ups and downs in the

movie world ( including a failed venture making black light
movie displays ), Solomon invested everything he had in
Hell's Angels on Wheels The film cost 5200,000 to make and
pulled in several million at the box office.Joe took the money
and invested it in another biker film, Angels From Hell, and
yet another, Run, Angel, Run . . until he had enough money
to start his own company: Fanfare Productions.
Hell s Angels on Wheels is one of the best of the biker films.
It starred jack Nicholson as a loner who meets upwith, joins,
and then splits from a group of Hell's Angels. uke The Wild
Angels, this film has very little plot and features real Hell's
Angels, including Sonny Barger, their current leader. Unlike
the Corman film, the Angels liked and endorsed this film-a
gesture few critics could figure out. The director of Hell s
Angels on Wheels was the talented (if self-indulgent )
Richard Rush, but the real star of the film was cinemato
grapher Laszlo Kovacs. Kovacs (who has since gone on to
become one of Hollywood's most sought-after cameramen)
pulled out all the stops for this film. Sometimes fluidly,
sometimes jerkily lopsided, his camera zooms ahead of the
Angels.
Another film that fared well that summer wasBom Losers.
It told the story of a half-breed Vietnam veteran who comes
to the aid of a young woman being raped by a gang of bikers
and gets thrown in jail for his troubles. The film was directed
infamous Mom and Dad.

by "T. C. Frank," a pseudonym for the film's star, Tom

Mclaughlin. The character Mclaughlin played was called
"Billy jack." Later he would resurrect the character for the
execrable Billy jack and its sequel, 1be Trial of Billy jack.
The biker films released in 1967 did well at the box office.
Over the next two years no less than ftfteen more biker
movies were released, and many talented actors used the
genre to keep bread on the table. A few actors played in so
many of these that it's hard to find a biker movie without at
least one of them: William Smith, Robert Dix, Jeremy Slate,
Bruce Dern, Scott Brady and Jack Nicholson.

small redneck town that decides to solve its biker problem

once and for all. The gang fights back and the tt.ro warring
parties meet in the local boneyard. The townspeople make
mincemeat of the bikers, but by the end of the film, they learn
the futility of their hatred . . .
Herschell Gordon Lewis, who carved a career from the
depiction of extreme violence, added his own twisted brand
of filmmaking to the genre in the form of She Detlils on
Wheels: the story of an aU-female motorcycle gang that takes
on-and demolishes-a rival male gang. As with all Lewis
films, the stage blood is not spared. Another film, Sisters in
Leather, explores the concept of an all-female gang in a
similar and even more exploitative manner.
1970 marked the beginning of the end for the biker genre.
America was growing tired of the shenanigans of these
motorcycle maniacs and, as if to drive the final nail into the

coffin, Avco-Embassy released CC

and Company, a worth

less ftlm starring joe Narnath as a lone biker who defends
Ann-Margret against William Smith's gang. 1970 was also the
year Black Angels was released; the first ( and last) blaxploi
tation biker flick. Producers sought new ways to pump life
into the dying genre, and one of the goofiest attempts was
1be Losers, the story of Hell's Angels who are recruited by the
President to rescue soldiers in Cambodia. In addition to an
idiotic premise, the story saddled the bikers with dirt bikes,
and 7be Losers met with scant approval from press and
public.
By 1973 the biker film had virtually disappeared, but New
World Pictures tried one more time to revive the moribund
genre with Bury Mean Angel, which tells the story of a young
woman setting out to avenge her brother's death. The film
stars Dixie Peabody-a woman who can ride a Harley better
than she can act. It's also the only biker film written and
directed by a woman, Barbara Peeters. Probably the best
thing about this film is its advertising, which, i n a shameless
burst of alliteration, proclaimed: "A Howling Hellcat, Hump
ing a Hot Hog, on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge."
Several factors led to the demise of the biker genre. Alta
mont, billed as the "Woodstock of the West," turned into a
series of bloody confrontations between former allies the
hippies and Hell's Angels. The federal helmet law ( since
repealed) took much of the joy out of motorcycle riding for

many bikers, although most gang members tried to compen

sate by wearing helmets shaped like those used in Nazi
Germany. Gas prices drove the highway speed limits down to
55, making a true rip-roaring highway run a thing of the past.
Several states passed laws aimed against choppers. Size lim
itations on forks, handlebars, and wheels-plus countless
other nit-picking details-kept some beautiful machines off
the road for good. Finally, the genre simply did not offer
enough variety to sustain the public's interest, and the biker
film, like the motorcycle gangs they helped promote, quietly
dropped from view.

fter World War Two was finally over with, evt:ryone

thought they were ready to face the future. They thought

the future meant vacations on Mars, 200 mph highways, and
nuclear-powered cars. No one foresaw the development of
the electric guitar and rock 'n roll and the binh of a new kind
of movie for a new kind of teenager: TI1e J.D. Film.
Films dealing with the problem of juvenile delinquency
had been around long before the fifties. ln 1921 As the

World
Rolls On chronicled the exploits of a gang of young hoods. A
year later 7be Angel of the Crooked Street became the first
film to tell the story of

refom1 school girl. In 1937 Leo

Gorcey, Huntz Hall and several other young actors made

their debut as a gang of street-smart kids in

"I call her Mother only

because I don't know
what else to call her."

Dead End, a

stagebound but entertaining film about a big-time hood com

ing home to visit his mom. The "Dead End Kids" were so

MY FATHER

popular they soon appeared in another film, and another

"Now there's always

some woman at the

each succeeding film a little less carefully crafted than the

house-he says they

last, until by 1957 the boys were cranking out some of the

,. 'just drop in' I"

most consistently goofy movies this side of The Three

Stooges. Along the way they changed their name to "The
Bowery Boys."
Early efforts

to

portray

juvenile

delinquency

MYSELF"A l l I k n o w is- n o

were

matter what I do it's

markedly different from the J.D. films that came later. Usually
the delinquency was based on the dehumanizing effects of
urban life, or on some wrong tum made by the protagonist as
a child. From this point of view it's not inconceivable for one
boy to grow up to be an upright citizen while his brother
turns to a life of crime. as in Public Enemy Number One. Oty
Across the Ritl(?r (based on Irving Shulman's gritty novel 7be
Amboy Dukes) was one of the first films to blame delin
quency on the parents, even though the parental neglect was
caused by the high cost of living in the city-forcing the
parents to work all the time. It's

the city that's seen as the

villain, and for most of America juvenile delinquency was

strictly an urban problem.
All that changed in 1954 when Marlon Brando and his gang
roared across the screen in 7be Wild One, a film bau un an

actual event in a small California town.

The bikers in

7be Wild One were a bit too old to be

considered jml(?nile delinquents, but their antics, attitudes

and slang ponrayed a colorful archetype for would-be rebels
across the country to emulate. Unlike the young thugs in
urban dramas, the rebels in 7be

Wild One weren't out to

became big shots or millionaires-they broke the rules just

for the fun of it . . . because they were there. When 7be

Wild
One demonstrated that even the smallest town could be
overrun by toughs, delinquency becan1e etJer)'body's
problem.
1955 was a banner year for teenagers. Until then, popular
music meant Perry Como and Patti Page.

Your Hit Parade and

7be Dolly Mack Shou offered television viewers a chance to

see current hit songs acted out in pantomime by Giselle
MacKenzie and Snooky Lanson. Songs like "How Much is
That Doggie in the Window" ruled the airwaves. But a new
kind of music began to force its way into the national con
sciousness -a raucous fusion of black rhythm and blues and
white country and western that some people thought was
the Devi l's Music; most just called it rock 'n roll. Because this

GINGER ROGERS MICHAEl RENNIE

and lhree slars al lhe lulure

Mildred Natwick
?rod.tti ,

CHARUS RACK[TT

BETTY lOU KEIM WARREN BERliNGER DIANE JERGENS

DrKttt by

f0f11UNO tOUlOING

!J!tl')llr by WAlnR

Rf!SCH ,oj CHARlfS RRACKHf

new musical spirit and juvenile delinquency arose at approxi

used in films to come: it

mately the same time, many parents and teachers blamed

wailing electric guitars and pumping pianos for the rising

teenage hoodlums in a suburban setting. James Dean's

character-the misunderstood "good" kid- would crop up

crime rate among teenagers.

again in many motion pictures. including /nmsion of the

was

the first mO\ie to portray

When director Richard Brooks decided to make a movie

Saucer-Men and

based on an Evan Hunter book about the problems ofjuvenile

feature the game of "Chicken." The number of subSt:quent

delinquency, he included "Rock Around the Clock"

as

part of

the soundtrack -a song that teens loved and parents loathed.

The film

was

Blackboard jungle, and not since Birth of a

7be Blob,

and it was also the first movie to

films featuring variations on Chicken is staggering. Usually it

used as a device to get rid of the "bad" kid-teens lost

was

their lives dri\ing over cliffs, nmning into trains, smacking

Nation had a film raised such controversy. After an advance

into walls and colliding with each other. The creati\'c abili

screening of the film, U.S. Ambassador Clare Booth Luce

ties of Hollywood scriptwriters were sorc:ly taxed as they

declared that if Blackboardjtmgle wem to the Venice Film

struggled to think of new ways to destroy the youth of the

Festival, she would not. Ms. Luce, an influential and head

nation.

strong woman, won the battle but lost the war; her outrage at

As alway:., producers -hot on the seem of profits in the

the supposed degenerate nature of the film only served to

new teen market -scrambled to cash in. None scrambled

spark people's curiosity-Blackboardjungle

faster than S.1 m Katzman, nicknamed "Jungle Sam" because

of his work on C.olumbia'sjungle jim serials. His specialty

was

a hit.

The \flild One started the ball rolling, Blackboardjungle

gave it momentum; then came Rebel Without a Cause. Origi

was

nally Rebel Without a Cause was intended as drive-in fare, to

weeks after Rebel Without a Cause was released, he hired his

producing mO\ics quickly on very low budgets. Just

be filmed in black-and-white on a limited budget. The direc

fa,orite director, Fred ). Sears, started filming, and hit the

tor, Nicholas Ray, had managed to sign an up-and-coming

theatres \Vith Teenage Crime Wal't!. Over the years Katzman

young actor named James Dean to play the lead role. Warner
Bros, sure of the film's success after seeing MGM's profits

added many more teen-oriented films to his filmography.

including such favorites as Rock Around the Clock. Don "t

climb with Biackboardjungle, had Rayscrap his footage and

Knock the Rock and Caypso Heat Wate.

start over in Cinemascope and color-thus destroying much

Nobody took better advantage of the burgeoning youth

of the film's potential impact. Rebel Without a C,nuse is a

market than American-International Pictures (AlP). Started

borderline J.D. film- Dean hardly seems like much ofa rebel.

by a lawyer ( Samuel Z. Arkoff) and an ex-theatre manager

appearing more befuddled than delinquent. A better title for

the film might be Cause Without a Rebel. The film did,

icholson ). A l P aimed at the teen market exclu

Uames H.
sively. Many critics at the time decried A l P's movies. accusing

however, establish certain J.D. conventions that would be

them of pandering to society's basest elements in shameless

Dick Bakalyan, caught in the act in

Juvenile Jungle.

144

Bakalym (with cigarette) and friends pour on the friendly persuasion in JuYenU. Jungle.
pursuit of the fast

buck. Arkoff and Nicholson

were

undaunted, and soon AlP was one ofrhe most successful film
companies in Hollywood. In retrospect, AlP gave us some of
the very best J.D. films of all, including 1be Cool
Crazy,

and the

Refonn School Girl and Hot Rod Girl.

But Sam Katzman and AlP were by no means the only ones
taking advantage of the teenage film market; two other film
companies, Allied Artists and

Howco-lnremational, also

released many films similar in content and style to those of

AJP. Allied Artists (formerly Monogram, a long-time institu
tion in Hollywood ) kept itself afloat during the fifties with
films likejoy

Ride and Roger Corman's classic 7eenage Doll.

vism of urban polyglots has become the American norm. Later, the
ghastly nihilism that life alfords nothing ofvalue greater than a "kick"
is asserted. explicitly and defiantly, in an existentialist "poem"
recited for no story-line reason. Its purpose seems to be to pro,ide a
"philosophical" rationalization for bop-jabber. juvenile delinquency
and dope addiction.
Lewis, who seems to be in his early twenties, recently married the
1 3-year-old daughter of a cousin, five months before his divorce from
his second wife became final.

The J.D. films are, in some ways. the direct descendants of

nuir of the fonies. The heroes arc usually outcasts or

thefilm

misfits, and the stories do not always have happy endings;

indeed , even the happy endings are tinged with feelings of

Much smaller than either Allied Artists or AlP, Howco

doom and despair. Only rarely, though, does a J.D. film

'll!enage 1bunder

exhibit the moody photography and sophisticated dialogue

lntemational joined the teenpix race with

and Carnival Rock. They also released, among other of his

of the film

films, Ed Wood, Jr.'s jail Bait.

schedules prevented much in the way of artistic indulgence.

By

showing a side of life most Americans preferred to

noir.

Miniscule budgets and two-week shooting

Besides, sophisticated dialogue had no place in the world of

ignore, the J.D. films annoyed and angered many people. See

"cool, man," "Crazy, Pops!" and "Hey, Daddy-0." Most were

this review from Films in Review:

HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL

filmed by directors like Ed Cahn, who worked at breakneck

Were this ami-social film merely a poverty-row amorality made by

fast -buckers for the titillation of morons and would-be criminals,
FILMS IN REVIEW would take no notice of it. Instead, it was made
for. and distributed by. a reputable company

( MGM );

it utilizes

well-known actors and actresses; and its producer, Albert Zugsmith,

protests it is an expose of a social evil
This film is itself a social evil.

It begins with Jerry Lee Lewis banging out the rock-n-roU beat on
a piano as he "sings" a monm;yUabic "lyric" suitable for the imelli
gence of a baboon. Gathered about him are seemingly wholesome
high school boys and girls. Their juxtaposition to Lewis is deliberate,
and plant the suggestion. later explicitly reiterated, that the primiti-

speed shooting fifty set-ups a day. Nig_h r shot.'\ were filmed

"day for night," and chiaroscuro was replaced with a flat grey
tone. Most of the movies of the fifties were filmed this way;

you could call them film grls.

By the end of the fifties, America's teenagers were suffer

ing from J.D. burnout. They had had enough switchblades,

chicken runs and reform school girls. Oluck Berry was in jail,
Elvis

Vl.'llS

Also dead

drafted and Buddy Holly

was

was

dead in the ground.

the feeling of the fifties; it was time for some."

thing new-something as different from the fifties as they

had been from the previous decade. It

Party.

was

time for Beach

n the early sixties teen-agers were bored with the grease

and-leather look spawned by Marlon Brando in 1be Wild
One. The new look was clean, scrub-faced and wholesome,
with bikinis, bright colors, hula shirts and bleeding madras
pants. Amid a prospering economy these kids weren't the
social misfits of the previous generation; they all planned to
go to college and settle down into well-paying jobs someday.
But before they did they wanted to have One last fling.
The hedonistic happiness and antics of this new breed of
teenager did not go unnoticed by Hollywood. Tee.ns com
posed a sizable portion of the movie-going public, so Holly
wood scrambled to find the type of film these new kids
would flock to. They came up with "Beach Party'' movies. But
why? Let us backtrack to August 21, 1959, when Hawaii
became a .ate. The entire country went Hawaiian; women
took hula lessons in dance schools across the nation. Albums
of Hawaiian music sold out in record stores and super
markets. People held "luaus," and suburban backyards filled

A new culture headquartered on the beaches of America

sprang up. Spurred by songs of the Beach Boys and other
California bands, the kids of America went surf-mad, and
Southern California became the place to be. Strange new
words like "gremmy," "ho.<faddy," "hang ten" and "cowa
bunga!" crept into the language.
An early film examining this phenomenon was Gidget,
starring Sandra Dee as a young beach bunny caught between
childhood and maturity. In the airheaded plot, Gidget
becomes a kind of mascot to a group of beach bums whose
strange ideas and lingo she finds intriguing. Gidget was so
popular it spawned several sequels (each with a different

. ... ,:..
.. -

""'..,
.;-.
'
...

up with tiki gods, tonga torches, hula hoops and women in

muu-muus and leis.
Along with this came a sport that had long been popular on
the islands: surfing. There had always been a few eccentric
devotees on the California coast, but now surfing was hot.
Kids took to it with a fervor formerly reserved for cars, sex,
and rock 'n' roll . . .

leach Bunnies display their charms in Wild Wild Winter.

..

... .

woman playing the lead), a 1V series starring Sally Field, and

United

at least one parody Oonathan Demme's Gidget Goes 1b Hell).

In the east, meanwhile, thousands of college students on

film starring James Darren and Bob Denver, entitled For

Easter vacation would head south to Ft. Lauderdale for some

daddy routine and the initial screen appearance of Nancy

fun in the sun. The streets of this small Florida beach town

Sinatra, the film has little to offer.

Those

Artists attempted to join the fun with an uneven

W1x>

1bink Young. Aside from Denver's clever ho

would overflow with boisterous students drinking, stagger

Director Lennie Weinrib attempted to recreate the

ing around, shouting, singing, throwing up, trying to over

ambience of AlP films with his film Beach Ball, a movie about

turn cars or taking their clothes off in public. Ten or twelve

an all-guy band pretending to be an all-girl band. By using pop

occupants to a motel room was not uncommon, and sex-or

stars in guest appearances, Weintraub felt he could improve

at least the desire for it-was rampant. As usual, the news

on the Beach Party formula. Whether Beach Ball is an

media proclaimed outrage at the unrestrained antics of these

improvement is arguable, but the film does provide an oppor

drunken youths.
In 1960 MGM decided to capitalize on this annual Florida

tunity to see some now-established stars in their formative

pilgrimage with

Where 7be Boys Are, the story of four female

stages, including a young and nervous-looking Diana Ross

and the Supremes.

students (played by Connie Francis, Paula Prentiss, Yvette

Producer-Director Maury Dexter tried to infuse the beach

Mimieux, and Dolores Hart) who head south during spring

genre with drama and relevance-almost a contradiction in

break to meet boys and have fun. Some do, some don't, and

terms. The result was films like SurfParty and Wild on the
Beach, and though they're worth seeing, they lack the pop

Connie Francis sings a few tunes.

W7R4

wasn't a musical, but it seemed like one. It had a

giddiness of their predecessors.

happy-go-lucky air that many people found appealing. Pclula

Action in the AlP films was, to put it mildly, wacky. Scripts

Prentiss and Jim Hutton were so popul.ar in this film that

were like something out of Mad magazine, bordering on the

they-as a kind of lowbrow Myrna Loy and William Powell

edge of surrealism. For example, dancer candy johnson has

were teamed again in Bachelor In Paradise,

Love

the power to knock men over just by shaking her hips. Erich

7be Horizontal Lieutenant and Looking For Love.

Von Zipper learns the secret of "The Tibetan Finger Tech

Machine,

7be

However, it took American-International Pictures {AlP)

nique" and constantly puts himself-accidentally-into a

to do it right. In 1963 AlP hired pop idol Frankie Avalon and

state of suspended animation. Frankie Avalon often turns to

former Mouseketeer Annette Funicello to play Frankie and

the camera and addresses the audience concerning events in

Dee Dee in Beach Party, the story of a breezy young couple

the film. A derelict sitting in the comer of a local coffeehouse

whose entire life is spent on the beach. With them

turns out to be none other than Vincent Price, exclaiming,

was

the

rest of their gang: Deadhead, Animal, Candy, Donna, johnny,

"Where's my pendulum? I feel like swinging!"

and others. Together they would twist their lives away, exist

None of this seems to bother the beach kids. As longas the

ing in a world of perpetual summer.

sun keeps shining, the music keeps playing, and the supply of

Into every life a little rain must fall, and in the lives of the
Beach Party kids it appears in the form of Erich Von Zipper

Dr. Pepper doesn't run out, they're happy. The only thing
bothering Annette is Frankie's bohemian outlook and resist

and his gang ofbackdated motorcycle hoods,"The Rats" ( and

ance to marriage. The ensuing problems form the backbone

their girlfriend auxiliary, "The Mice.") The Rats do every

of the beach-film plots. The issue of marriage is never re

thing in their power to disrupt the lives of the beach people,

but they aren't very successful; The Rats are a bunch of

solved, but they do manage to sing a few songs about their

dilemma.

morons, and their fearless leader, Erich Von Zipper, is a

Most of the singing is done by Frankie and Annette, either

monument to ineptitude.

as a duo or separately. The rest of the singing chores were

Von Zipper (as played by Harvey Lembeck) is an inspired

mostly handled by Donna Loren, truly the forgotten star of

invention. With his black leather jacket, motorcycle ( with

the Beach Party movies. Her happy-go-lucky air epitomizes

trophy tied to the handlebars), and tough-thug way of talk

the spirit of these films. Her singing was not so bad, either;

ing, Von Zipper effectively parodied the rebellious style of

firmer and less breathy than Annette's. Donna achieved some

the fifties-a style the surfers totally rejected. Von Zipper

popularity during the mid-sixties, appearing regularly on 1V

was 7be

Wild One gone to seed: Marlon Brando played as a

shows such as Hullaballoo and

Where the Action Is.

Unfortu

stuttering cretin. The most memorable moments in the

nately AlP wasn't interested in promoting her career, and

Beach Party films can be attributed to Von Zipper and his

aside from singing one or two songs in most of the Beach

cronies, with lines like " You-stupid," and "Uh-oh, the Boss

Party movies, Donna did little more than stand in the back

gave himself the finger." The character of Von Zipper

ground and smile on cue.

appeared in no less than seven of the Beach Party movies,

Most of the AlP Beach films were directed by William

outlasting Frankie, Annette, and the whole surfing crew.

Asher, a fine low-budget director who is best known for I

After the initial

Love Lucy. The rest were directed by a diverse line-up of

success of Beach Party, Hollywood

(Dr.

scrambled to imitate this new breed of film. In 1964 no less

people, including horror director Mario Bava

than seven films were released, all dealing with the joys of

and the Girlbombs) sleaze filmmaker Stephanie Rothman

partying in the sand. Three, produced by AlP, were sequels to

Coldfoot

(It's a Bikini World), classic 'B' filmmaker Norman Taurog

Beach Party. In Pajama Party Frankie Avalon was replaced

(Dr.

by another ex-Disney star, Tommy Kirk, who played GoGo, a

Don Weis (Pajama Party and Tbe Ghost in the Invisible

Martian sent to spy on earthlings in advance of a future

Bikini), and Don Knott's favorite director, Alan Rafkin (Ski

Coldfoot and the Bikini Machine), pedestrian hack

invasion. ( Strangely, Kirk would play an almost identical

Party). It is Asher's films, however, that remain the most

character in another film, Mars Needs Women.) 1964 also

lively and engaging of the lot.

saw the release of the first Beach Party horror film, HorrorAt

By 1967

Party Beach -a logical synthesis, since the two genres

longer held the magic for the younger generation it once had.

appealed to largely the same crowd.

The times were changing; the ultra-dean look was a thing of

Beach films had just about died out; surfing no

Along with AlP's films came a host of imitators and also

the past, replaced by the shaggy and the unkempt; colors

rans. For surfing, the best of the bunch was Ride

Wild

went from bright to black-light and Day-Gio; stripes and

Surf, filmed in Hawaii at Waiamea Bay where waves occasion

plaids changed to paisleys and wild patterns; the trebly sound

ally reach heights of 100 feet. For sheer zaniness, though,

of the surf guitar was replaced with wah-wah and fuzztone.

Ride

7be

7be

Wild Surf couldn't compare with the AlP films.

The action moved from the beach to smoky dance halls with

When the characters weren't surfing, the action stopped

loud bands and light-shows on the waUs. Surfing had been

cold.

replaced by pot and LSD.

Drugs

truction of their lives. The classic example of this plot is

Reefer Madness.
have long been a favorite topic of exploitation

long before it became popular, LSD was mentioned in

films. They allow the illmmaker to include the seamiest kinds

William Castle's 1959 film, 1be 7ingler, which starred Vin

of sex and violence, while maintaining a facade of moral

cent Price as a doctor who discovered that every time a

righteousness and social concern. Drug movies date back to

person gets frightened, a centipede-like creature begins to

the silent film era, when cocaine was still a new thrill and

grow along the spine. The only way to subdue this creature is

opium was smoked in the hidden dens of Chinatown. An

by screaming. In the film, Price attempts to experience "The

early example is Douglas Fairbanks' 1be Mystery ofthe Leap

ing Fish, which depicted both drugs in use-and with little

vado performance while under the influence stands out as

retribution.

Regardless of the drug involved, the plots of most of these

films follow a general pattern: young Dick and jane are

Tingler" firsthand by injecting himself with LSD. Price's bra

the first acid freak-out in cinema history.
In the mid-sixties, when the world at large discovered the

joys of LSD, people said they saw monsters, flew to the moon

nagged by their "friends" to try a certain drug that is "the

and touched the hand of God. Filmmakers attempting to

rage." Being "good kids," Dick and jane resist at first but

recreate these images came up with a wildly creative new

eventually yield to peer pressure, resulting in the total des-

movie style that could be termed "garage surrealism." Fish-

TASTE A MOMENT OF .
THE SOUND OF PURPLE
come where the

PLEASURE LOVERS are

I
;

Feminist singer Holly Near "grooves out" with Jorct.l Christopher and frienck in Angel. a,...a. Down We h.

eye lenses, painted women, op-art patterns and multiple

exposures became

de n'gueur

for any fJ.lrn illustrating the

Hypnotist),

lesbians again get the treatment, this

time as sadomasochistic leather freaks who have the tables

turned on them after being forced to take the drug.

effects of acid.

Once

Sadstic
i

the drug became a household word, there was no

No-budget filmmaker Andy Milligan managed to include

Tbe

practically every sexual activity imaginable in Deprtwed!

Add Eaters, a gang of office workers shed their establishment

climaxing the film with a girl, high on LSD, leaping from a

stopping filmmakers from exploring its possibilities. In

guises every weekend and hit the road in search of cheap

thrills. Their quest is fi nally fulfilled in the fonn of a ftfty-foot
tower of LSD! 'TUrn On,

'JUne In, Drop Out

was Timothy

Leary's how-to guide for trippers seeking maximum spiritual

enlightenment. And

Rebirth ofa Nation

Ben Van Meter's

Acid Mantra;

Or

showed what happens when you give a

Waters paid homage to this singular type of suicide in his

parody, 7be

The

Diane linkletter Story.

best "trip" movie is also the best known: Roger Cor

man's classic

Tbe

7Hp. Written by Jack Nicholson and star

ring Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern and Dennis Hopper ( acidheads

all), 1be 7Hp chronicled the adventures of a young director

stoned hippie a movie camera.

The

window (a favorite pastime ofgirls on acid). In the '70s, john

starred George

of TV commercials who, feeling that his life has no meaning,

Montgomery as a boozy guru of a flock ofthrilJ-scekers. The

takes a hefry dose of LSD and spends the rest of the film

film was shot in black and white, but director Edward Mann

hallucinating his brain away. Connan, to better understand

hilarious

Hallucination Generation

heightened the effectiveness of the "trip" sequences by film

the subject, actuaJiy took acid before making the film. Along

in color.
Tbe Weird World of LSD aJso examined-purponedly

with 2001: A

special effects. In one scene, a man hallucinating that he's

tering upon a small neighborhood in San Francisco called the

ing them

the dangers of LSD, but lacked funds for much in the way of

Space Odyssey, The 7Hp became required view

LSD

ing for anyone into

With

the advent of acid came the hippie movement, cen

flying on the wings of a great bird is shown lying on a couch,

Haight-Ashbury, next to Golden Gate Park. Hippies advo

grimacing madly, as a crude drawing of a chicken is superim

cated long hair, exploring inner space, a return to nature,

posed over the scene!

and-most important to exploitation filmmakers-free love.

lation: what secret depravities hidden in the libido might he

The first "docudrama" on the Haight-Ashburywas titled

The mind-altering potential of LSD provoked much specu

released? In Alice in Acid/and. a young woman discovers the

joys of lesbian sex after taking the drug. In

Wanda (7be

Porno filmmakers wasted no time In exploring

Evil Pleasure,

this

aspect.

Tbe

a rarely seen scxploitationer that takes a

"mondo" look at some kinky aspects of hippie living. Blonde

1 49

Scene from Mowlo ltr, Amoric11n Style,

or,

UD,

I H..o You.

on a Bum Trip casts a similar (but kinkier) glance at New

York City's hippie community in the East Village. Along the
same lines, Wild Hippy CftiD purported to show what really
went on in those Hashbury crash pads. Produced by a group
called "Pot Heads' Experimental Films," Wild Hppy
i
Orgy
was double-billed with an even wilder feature titled Psy
chedelicsex Kicks, which featured nude body-painting, love
making in a baUoon-filled room and a woman of Russ
Meyerian proportions making lewd gestures with a python.
Together, these films ran a total of eighty-one minutes; "epic"
they weren't.
Occasionally revived at midnight cinemas is 7be Hippie
Temptation, a made-for-1V one-hour documentary on the

substance. "It could be your son or daughter!" the headlines

screamed. "It could even be you!" In 7be Dean 's Wife, a man
commits suicide after being slipped the drug and confronted
with his wife's nymphomania. In Wild in the Streets, the
entire U.S. Congress unknowingly gets stoned. LSD is used in
7be Bi
g Cube to put Lana Thmer out of commission. And in
Otto Preminger's strangest film, Skidoo, we get to see the
effects of acid on Groucho Marx and Jackie Gleason.
All sorts of horrible acts, from robbery to murder, were
attributed to LSD. The rarely shown Mantis in Lace (aka
Lila ) is the story of a topless dancer who turns on and
becomes a mutilation murderer. In SCItan 's Sadists, motorcy
cle thugs dose unwitting girls and then rape them. Russ

Haight-Ashbury, showing interviews with key founding fig

ures, a concert with light show, a visit to the Psychedelic
Shop ( the first hippie store in the world, selling the I Ching,
yarrow sticks, incense, love beads. and books on meditation.
the tarot, palmistry, astrology, etc. ), a visit to a crash pad, and
other archetypal hippie phenomena.
Psych-Out, produced by Dick Clark and directed by
Richard Rush (Hell's Angels on Wheels, 7be Stunt Man ),
starred Susan Strasberg as a deaf runaway searching for her
hippie brother in San Francisco. Arriving in the Haight during
the "Summer of Love," she enlists the help of a ponytailed
jack Nicholson to find her missing brother, played by-in his
usual weird way-Bruce Dern. With music by Strawberry

Meyer-always attuned to the times-joined in the fun by

including the LSD-induced crack-up of "Z-Man" in the cele
brated Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.
The '70s saw a decline in the use of psychedelics. Ingre
dients like strychnine and speed often turned up in hallucin
ogens, making each trip a new and dangerous experience.
The electric madness of the '60s was replaced with a blander,
more "mellow" attitude. But acid had one good film left in it:
Jeff Uebennan's Blue Sunshine, released in 1 976. It detailed
the misadventures of a group of ex-druggies, now respected
members of the community, who suffer from a 10-year
delayed reaction to a bad batch of LSD which turns them into
psychopathic killers who lose their hair along with their
minds.
LSD and psychedelic music-often called "paisley"-are
currently enjoying a speckled resurgence in popularity.
Whether this will lead to any new films remains to be
seen . . .

Alarm Clock and The Seeds, Psych-Out is the definitive fable

of the Hippie Movement.

Reports of people freaking out after being given the drug

unawares began to crop up in the news. Filmmakers leaped
to exploit the situation. Now no one was safe from the

girls" of the silver screen were fading, replaced with more

he appeal of Women in Prison films ( hereafter referred

to as WIP films) is difficult to explain. Films dealing with men

behind bars are unifonnly grim and depressing, yet the same
stories with women replacing the male roles are much more
amusing. The appeal is not merely sexist; women enjoy them
as much as men do. In most films women are presented in
more genteel surroundings exhibiting "ladylike" behavior,
while in WlP ftlms women are hard, mean and take no shit
from anybody. Perhaps in this "breaking of the rules" lies the
beauty of these films.
The WIP film, in its current fonn, began shortly after
World War II. While the men were away in Europe learning
about violence (and sex), the women of America were busy
working, assembling hand grenades and building planes.
When the war ended, America's values and perceptions
would never again be the same.
Women no longer submitted to the role of housewife,
mother, inferior being. Meanwhile, men had discovered that
the bawdy, good-natured sexuality of the French was infi
nitely preferable to the puritanical guilt/shame prevalent in
the States. This shift in attitude is well-chronicled in the
movies of the times; especiallyfilm noir. The vivacious "good

Prison Matron Stella Stevens attempts to maintain order in

adventuresome role models. Goodbye Oara Bow; hello

Uluren Bacall.
Caged ( 1950) is the movie that founded the WIP genre,
providing archetypes and a primary theme. Eleanor Parker
plays a timid woman whose involvement with a robbery was
passive and unaware. Once in jail she quickly learns that only
the strong survive. In spite of attempts by the warden (Agnes
Moorehead ) to keep jail from corrupting her, by the end of
the film Ms. Parker is as callous as the rest of the women in
the pen.
Caged was successful both critically and financially; Elea
nor Parker and Hope Emerson received Oscar nominations
for their performances. But the film was not perceived for
what it was: the first ofa new kind ofmovie. To most people it
was just another crime-drama. But the exploitational aspects
were not lost on Bryan Foy, producer of dozens of exploi ta
tion ftlms.
In 1955 Foy released Women Prison; the critics didn't
like it but it did well at the box office. 1lle film tells the story
of a cruel warden (spectacularly played by Ida Lupino)
whose sadistic practices provoke a riot. Outstanding perfor
mances by jan Sterling and Cleo Moore continually spark
tension, but Ida Lupino's role as the sadistic warden remains

Chained Heat.

151

the definitive performance for all W l P films to follow. Si :Kteen

years later. Ms. Lupino reprised her role in Bernie Kovo.-alski's

More sympathetic to "the system" is Concrete jungle,

directed by Tom DeSimone. In it, a young woman ( Tracy

made-for-T\' mo,ie. Women in ('hains.

Bregman ) is set up by her boyfriend to take the rap for a coke

The most popu lar type of\\1P films durin t he fifties were

bust. When the authorities try convincing her to incriminate

the om: <.kal in with teenagers. A.., each year more and more

him, at first she refuses, but eventually she agrees to help

ended up in juvenile hall. kids readily identified vo.ith films

them. This was DeSimone's second W l P film; his first, Prison

about them. TI1e same year C

aged was rdeased. l'nitcd

Girls, was filmed in 3-D and chronicles what happens to five

Artists rdeaed So Hm ng. So Had: th e story of four i rb

female convicts while on a two-day furlough from jail. This

incarcerated in a co rrective homt.: for iris: More film

film is softcore sexploitation at its worst. Tom DeSimone

\\Tre to follow: amon them: Girls ill Plisrm and Girl's 7imn

went on to direct several porno features, mostly gay. before

By the start of the sixties fi l mmakns appt.:ared to be mn

venturing into the world of R ratings.

ning out of ideas for \X'IP films. In 1962 (flgC!d was remade as

Although WlP films continue to hold their own at the box

1/ouse /' Women This re make was <.: nte rtain ing. but inferior

office, there hasn't been a glut of them as with other genres,

to the original.

partly because their market is smaller, and because they're

By 196';. the genre had been taken mer by sexploitation

relatively costly to make. It's easier to film vacuous teenagers

films. TIK t.:mphasis no longe r was on l egitimate penal insti

being slaughtered i\1 the woods-aU you need is a knife, a few

tutions hut on co/ 'ert ones: most commonly white-slavery

bad actors and two gallons of stage blood. To make a prison

ri ngs. In films like Olga 's Girls and House of 1.000 Dolls.

film you need sets ( although most WlP films suffer from such

women are forced into slmery in prison-like s urrounding.

minimal set design they look like Nob plays).

Durin the Iauer part of the six'lies. the majority of all W I P

Most of the genres discussed in this book are either dead

films were com ing fro m Europe . .Jc..ss Franco. kn<mn for his

(e.g. L5D or Beach Party movies), or have degenerated into

prolific output and de\iant sensibility. joined the ranks of

inferior forms (like sexploitation and gore films). Happil y,

\XlP filmmakers with titles like 99 \fhmen.

Wa nda tbe

WlP films are still going strong. Recent pictures such as

\flcked Warden and /ladJed \\"ire Dolls.

OJained Heat, Hellhole, and Concentration Camp For Girls

By the t.:nd of the sixties the archetypal roles of the W I P

are as enjoyable as their older counterparts. In OJained Heat,

films had been established. i . e . : ll1e Queen &e: dominanr

linda Blair plays the "new fish" in a prison where the warden

female prisoner who lords it over the others. Th e Nnv Fbh :

(played by ever-slimy john Vernon) makes videotapes of

usually the lead actress. in jail for the first time. TI1e Sadistic

himself fucking the prisoners in his hot tub. Hellhole follows

Warden: more often than not the one who proves to he the

a slightly less traditional path by changing the setting to a

root of all C\il and unreM in the prison. me Hooker vo.i th the

mental institution, where the chief doctor (Mary Woronov)

Heart of Gold: a street-smart dame who know'> the ropes and

conducts secret experiments on patients, attempting to per

'ew Fbh. for better or worse. lne Dyke Guard:

..
sometimes named .. Ruhy : no W I P film would be complete

fect the world's first chemical lobotomy. Concentration

befriends the
\Vithout one.

In 1 y- 1 . din:cwr .Jack Hill rook most of t11ese elements

\\ith him when he "e nt

Camp For Girls is a Hong Kong production featuring guards

wearing both Nazi and US uniforms, plenty of torture and lots
of bruised skin.

the Philippines to film the first

Whatever their faults, WIP films are remarkable for being

WIP film made hy Roger Corman., . ew \X'orld Pictures. 7be

consistently unusual entertainment. They show no signs of

Bg
i
Doll /louse concerned the misadventures of sewral

fadin g and hopefully will continue to be made well into the

women held prisoner in a steamy jungle penal colony. Even

future.

to

tually the womt.:n escape. but cannot t'\ade their ill-fated dc'>
tinics. The film cost S 12';.()00. and g roo;scd millions. Corman
followed \\i th \fi"nuen in Cages. which did even hetter. Over
the next ten years , <:w World continued producing \Vl P
fi lms. relc:a-.ing such classics as 77Je Hot /lox. T7X! Big 8ird
Cage. TJx 11( Bust-Out. Caged Heat and Terminal Island.
:\lost of these films were made in the Philippines. and in
Roger Corman fa..,hion
hetwct"n tilt.: sex and

interspered

social commentary

,;o lcnce.

Hm\ evt-r. one of the ht.:st Philippines-\X'IP films WlL" not a

.'Jew \X orld picture at all. .'weet Sugar was released by
Dimenion Pictures and directt"d by 1\lichael Levesque. who
"how a certain talent for low-budget film making. The title
charactt'r of tilt.: fi lm is a yo un woman busted on a marijuana
frame-up Rather than go to prison. she agrees to work in the
cane tklds Sugar soon discowr-. the men in charge of the
cane fidd are nery hit as brutal and sadistic as those in the
prisons. As in most \X' IP films the women arc tough: in spite
of the male guards repeat ed attempts to break them. the
women newr k0\\10\\'. If an1hing. they get stronger.

S<x-ietal anarchy pemtde s the \X1 P films. If the prison

etahlihmcnt smholizes gmernment (which it has to. for
these films

to

make any sense at all ). then the message of the

films uual ly fa,ors revolution and social upheaval.

The lenl of corruption \':tries from fi lm

to

film. In Caged

f/C!at. the l'ntire system is rotten. The warden ( i n tensely

portrayed by Barbara Steele ) is a crippled woman. full of
anger and sexual repression. We catch hits of infom1a tion
that indicate she wasn't ah\'ays wheelchair-hound. but d i rec

tor Jonathan Demme never gi\'e us enough to arouse sym

pathy. A.' in all of Dcmmcs films. the focus is on the quirky
personali ties of the social misfits.

he year

was

1963.

Unusual rituals are a prominent feature of nearly all the

Across the country, movie theater

Mondo films. Movie footage from a small town in Italy docu

screens began to throb with insects, blood, natives, transves

ments people who fill a garage with food and drink for an

tites, strippers, and various distressed animals. A new world

annual feast. Part of the celebration calls for the men of the

opened up to film-going audiences, unlike any they'd pre

town to smash through the garage doors using their heads as

viously known. Some elements of this strange new world

battering rams. Some begin to bleed from the

were:

mouth, go into convulsions, and have to be carried off. Even

ears

and

living insect jewelry

tually the door is smashed in and the anxious villagers rush

meals of cooked insects

a town populated by the distorted look-alike des

inside to eat until they're sick.

cendants of Rudolph Valentino

women wash down the parish steps using their tongues. As

an annual celebration in which men smash in a garage

the cleanup progresses, their tongues become raw and the

In a more solemn ceremony, a crowd of churchgoing

door using their heads

steps are covered with streaks of blood. Although the per

religious fanatics washing a stairway with their tongues

formers of this task are undoubtedly sincere, it's difficult to

imagine how they possibly think that covering something

a chicken who smokes cigarettes

If such subject matter seems too farfetched to be credible,

with saliva and blood could be a cleansing process.

it's probably because the people, places and things just de

Another area often given generous coverage is the world

scribed are all real. Mondo Cane brought to neighborhood

of animals. A visit to a pet cemetery can be both touching

theaters around the world a huge variety of unusual informa

and ridiculous; pet tombstones that humans weep over can

tion disguised as entertainment.

soon be matter-of-factly peed upon by visiting dogs. In

Mondo Cane 's documentation of strange behavior-bi

another part of the world we are shown a restaurant in which

zarre customs, rituals and pastimes-was hugely successful,

patrons select the dog that will provide them their next meal.

spawning a deluge of sequels and copies that comprise the

Elsewhere, snakes are picked from cages, skinned alive and

"Mondo" genre. By way of introduction, what follows is a

sold (stiU twitching) to housewives. Still elsewhere, well

sampling of representative themes characteristic of the

dressed sophisticates order expensive plates of fried insects.

genre:

l}'ing in with the bugs-for-the-rich theme is footage of enor-

TIMES FilM

PRESENT$

omtoo

.JRANCESCO DE FEQ

. .,

GIUSEPPE MAROTTA

.THEQ USUELLI

tnEASTMANCQLQR

<

mous beetles with jewels glued on their backs, crawling

about on elegant women as a sort of living accessory. Tres
chic!

If these films return again and again to the animal kingdom,

it's because there's apparently no limit to the indignities
animals can be subjected to at the hands of man. Geese are
force-fed quantities of grain fu.r in excess of their total body
weight to produce pate. Olicks are dyed dl1ferent colors to
make cute holiday surprises for children, but after being
sealed in plastic eggs and sent through the mails, the surprise
may not always be a pleasant one.
Of course, not all the coverage ofanimals involves abuse by

humans; some depicts the opposite. One hilarious scene

shows the famous "run of the bull" in Pamplona, Spain,
where people see how dose they can actually get to a ram
paging bull. Many spectators do get safely away, but the real
fun is watching those who don't. It's a black-humor expe
rience to watch a man openly flirting with death: one
moment he's doing a sillydance to attract the bull's attention;
the next moment be's helpless in utter horror as the hull's
horns rip into him, toss him up and slam him to the ground!
Another show of bravery, also involving a bull, makes the
Pamplona run look tame in comparison. Intended to demon
strate the readiness of noble young bullfighters to unflinch
ingly face death, this ritual often fulfills that potential. A
single-file line of 6 or 8 matadors slowly approaches the bull
to see just how dose they can get before retreat is necessary.
As a rule, by the time it's necessary, retreat is out of the
question- the bull smashes into the line of matadors and
slams them to the ground like so many dominos. The first
man in line is invariably a casualty. Presumably, the matador's

Young women vie for the title of "Miss Spaghetti" in

Might

willingness to put himself directly in the path of almost

certain agony denotes a high degree of courage, not to
mention a great sense of honor. Whether this courage and
honor are much comfort to a man hospitali7.ed with severe
Internal injuries Is open to question.
Modern art- long a source of irritation to the general
public-shows up repeatedly in the Mondo movies. Legend
has it that French artist Yves Klein bribed Jacopetti and
Prosperi to include him In their Mondo documentary. Not
that bribing was necessary, as his use of paint-covered nude
women as living brushes was already controversial in the art
world.
Another featured French artist's output was primarily old
automobiles crushed down into cubes. For the general pub
lic, finding out what such "artworks" sold for was probably
fu.r more distressing than footage of animals being skinned
alive, or natives bludgeoning each other to death.
The rituals and lifestyles of primitive cultures receive
extensive coverage in nearly all the Mondo films. One shows
a tribe which abstains from meat for one year, while fattening
hogs for an all-out annual feast i n which the animals are
bludgeoned, butchered and devoured in one day-long spree.
Elsewhere the camera focuses on members of a cargo cult
sitting along the edge of a dirt runway they've created, gazing
toward the sky and awaiting the cargo plane they think will
carry them to the next life.
However, the footage most favored by Mondo filmmakers
is that depicting the more brutal side ofprimitive life. Scenes
showing unusual games in which participants inflict and
receive painful wounds provide a highly emotional viewing
experience. In one "match," two natives smash each other

w...... This rarely saeened film

by Claude

Lelouch was

.....,_ in France when first released.

1 54

Scftle from Mondo Puzo.

over the head with logs, each taking turns until one drops

Mondo 7bpless and a rash of others have

unconscious. Another competition involves natives throw

the genuine documentaries except

ing huge rocks at one another. Each stands perl'ectly still as a

Mondo. a word which has come to imply bizarre beha\ior.

While many Mondo films present genuine documentation.

sizable stone smashes into him and bounces off, apparently

with no ill effect. This particular "game" appears to have even
less point than the previous one. although it no doubt

no connection with

title bearing the word

the authenticity of others is questionable ( though no less

fascinating ). Mondo Cane is comprised of nearly all genuine

Mondo Cane 2.

teaches the natives something basic about the nature of pain.

material. hut its sequel.

Natives of New Guinea dive hundreds of feet with only a vine

authentic. with an abundance of patently false scenes added

tied to their ankles to break their fall, but sometimes they

for comic effect.

break their necks instead. In many of the sports and games

is only partially

Later films such as /Hondo Bizanv arc almost entirely fake.

devised by primitive cultures, those who lose the game may

with only a few real S<:enes S<:atten:d throuhout in a vain

also lose their life . . .

attempt to provide credibility. Filmed in and around Los

Most

Mondo films have limited their documentation to

Angeles.

Mondo Bizanv

gives us

close-up look at Freder

strange behavior and unusual customs. Such was the case

ick's of Hollywood. teens who flock to Laguna Beach each

with Mondo Macabro, Mondo Nudo, Mondo lnfame,

Mondo Pazzo, Mondo Bolordo, Ecco, Taboos of the World,
Secret Pains. Go Go Go World, and of course the original
Mondo Cane. Other Mondo films focus on areas that are
especially topical or of special exploitation value; Mondo
Teeno and Mondo Mod explore the odd rites of teenagers.
Mondo Hollytl'ood was also released as Hippie Hollywood:
the Add Blasting Freaks, and boasted an appearance by

Easter to live it up, a "crazy" artist who photographs a topless

model while doing a frenzied dance himself. a Nazi play, a sex
slave auction. a bizarre voodoo sacrifice ritual. a "special"
massage in Tokyo. a man eating glass in a posh restaurant. and
more.

Mondo Bizann

viaS put together by Cresse and R.L

Lmoe Cnmp Set,en ). Frost

Witchcraft 70. a Mondo film

Frost ( who were responsible for

also shot additional footage for

which focuses on the occult, purporting to document the

Bobby Beausoleil, an actor and musician best known for his

widespread existence of practicing witches. At the time of its

associat ion with Charles Manson. One very specific Mondo

release it was rumored to contain hidden camera footage of

documen tary focused solely on the Manson family; it was

the Manson group ( actually. it contains film of another "hip

appropriately tit led

Manson.

Not suprisingly. the most popular theme is sex. Mondo

Oscentia, Moudo Rocco, Hollyu'OOd's World ofResh, Holly
wood Blue. Mondo Daytona, and Mondo Exotica are all

pie" family). Whether the bulk of the film is authentic or not

is hard to say. but \Vith R. L Frost in tow it's doubtful.

Evt:n

Mondo CLine.

for all its credibility. contains scenes

that arc suspect. One sequence about the effect of DOT on

films that purport to explore changing mores. The exploita

eggshells shows turtles making their trek from the sea

tion circuit saw a deluge of sex films containing "Mondo" in

eggs in the sand. For emotional impact. the S<'qu<.n<.-c ends

Mnndo Keyhole. Mundo Depravados,

with a confused turtle who cannot find the ocean and some-

the title, alt hough

10

lay

155

how ends up on her back. Unable to right herself, the turtle

struggles helplessly, and the camera marks her progress from
death throes to carcass to skeleton. How the turtle got on her
back is cause for speculation -more than likely through a bit
of creative intervention, not unlike the Pulitzer Prize

down to the waterfront to watch a suicide's corpse being

pulled from the icy waters of the San Francisco Bay. Though
Mondo America proved quite successful and was fairly inter
esting, it lacked the spark of its predecessors. Sadly, most of
the other Mondo films of the '70s received such poor distri

winning photographer who always carried a child's doll in

his car to toss down in the foreground of his "documenta
tion" of disaster scenes.
One of the first movies ever made, In the Land of the
Headhunters is an obviously fake documentary with a con
trived p1ot. Fake documentaries actually flourished in the
early days of film; some might even be considered true
forerunners of the Mondo genre. The jungles of Africa were
(and still are) a source of great mystery and speculation,
usually involving native girls and gorillas. Dangerous jour
ney, a 1944 documentary, actually depicted bizarre savage
rituals and ceremonies, but was surpassed in sensationalism
by Ingagi. Produced by Congo Pictures Ltd, Jngagi spliced
old documentary footage of Africa and South America to
suspicious-looking footage of a tribe of completely naked

bution that only a handful of people ever got to see them.

Films such as Catastrophe, Days of Fury. and Mondo Magic
are already all but forgotten.
For awhile it appeared that the Mondo breed of film had
outlived its shock value and was on the brink of extinction.
All of that changed with the release of Faces of Death.
Narrated by a doctor, aptly named "Francis B. Gross." Faces
ofDeath presents all kinds of death, both human and animal.
Although much of the footage is obviously faked, many people
found the film so shocking that it was removed from the
shelves of dozens of video stores around the country. A
sequel titled Faces of Death Part Two continues Dr. Gross'
study of death with the same combination of exploitation
and edification. Another film that explores death in a similar
manner is 7be End. which has yet to be released in this
country. The primary outlet for these movies is the Far East,
yet most of the films are made by Italians. In Hong Kong and
japan people queue up to catch the latest installment in the
black comedy portrayed by the human race. Violence U.vi
shows the rest of the world how we in the States treat each
other. Man Man Man takes a particularly cynical view of
human nature. with scenes of executions. whale-slaughters
and the Viet Nam War.
Faces ofDeath was the first in a resurgence of the genre, in
which even more blatant forms of abuse to both animals and
humans are depicted. 7be Great Hunting 1984 has been
( allegedly) banned from the U.S. due to its violent nature.
Scenes depicting the slaughter of an entire herd ofelephants
in three minutes, or goats thrown into water to be eaten alive
by sharks, don't exactly recapture the humor of the early

"ape-women" sacrificing a black woman to a gorilla.

Unfortunately, official investigation forced the film to be
withdrawn from the market, after it was discovered that the
nude ape-women were actually actresses in black face, and
that the locale was a California zoo, not the Congo. The lurid
mixture of sex and ritual death would have been
acceptable-even educational-had i t indeed been docu
mented t some faraway place, but California was a bit too
close to home. Not that anyone who saw the film ever
doubted it was a sham; the narrator, a Sir Hubert Winslow of
London, had no trace whatsoever of a British accent.
Although only on the circuit for about a month, lngagi was
the talk of the town wherever it played, consistently breaking
house attendance records and often doubling them. Of
course, what packed the houses wasn't the drive to be accu
rately informed, it was the desire to see a group of naked
women murder someone (whether it was real or not didn't
matter).

Exploitation pioneer Kroger Babb exhibited a pre

"Mondo" film in the forties when he came across footage of a
tribe in the Congo that, among other things, cut the throats of
cows and drank the blood as it oozed out. Another choice
scene shows the members of the tribe rubbing themselves
with animal excrement for protection against evil spirits.
Babb saw potential in the footage, re-edited it, and gave it the
exotic title Karimoja. The theaters bulged with audiences
hungering for a glimpse of sensational goings-on, and they
got what they paid for, to the extent that some viewers even
threw up.
Although Mondo Cane didn't match Karimoja on the
nausea meter, its early ad campaign implied the promise of a
truly sickening spectacle by offering the audience free Mal de
Mer pills ( Dramamine), in case the film should prove to be
too much. Needless to say, most audiences were far more
fascinated than nauseated. In fact, at the time of its release,
Mondo Cane was so popular that its theme song, "More,"
became one of the most popular songs of 1963. gaining the
film an Academy Award.
Embodying a unique and profitable concept Mondo Cane
soon became widely and blatantly ripped-off, giving rise to an
entire genre. For years anything with "Mondo" in the title
was hot box office; the mere term guaranteed a built-in
audience. Unfortunately, the golden age of Mondo films
peaked in the sixties, a decade which saw the release of more
than 20 such films. The seventies was a far less prosperous
,

time for the genre

with the falling away of old taboos,

behavior that had once seemed outlandish now seemed
conventional. A good example is Mondo America, one of the
few Mondo films released in the mid-seventies. True to its
title, Mondo America explores various aspects of life in
America: from a dildo factory to a Vegas cathouse and then
-

jacopetti and Prosperi films. But then agai n. they aren't

meant to. Grainy, supposedly real Super-S footage of a white
hunter shooting Amazon Indians like fish in a barrel from his
seat in a low-flying aircraft is not exactly amusing. The new
breed of Mondo films are gorier and more explicit. no doubt
keeping pace with changing times.
An exception might be the recent film, Dances Sacred and
Profane. which documents roving photographer Charles
Gatewood as he \isits contemporary American subcults and
unusual rituals-a Miss Nude America contest. the Hellfire
Oub in NYC, etc. The most memorable footage features a
real-life piercing master, Fakir Musafar, enacting a genuine
Sioux Indian "Sundance" ceremony. complete with steel
hooks through chest muscles. The Faki r also stages the Hindu
rite known as Kavandi Beari-ng, in which some 80 spears are
stabbed into his back through an awkward frame which he
then carries up a steep mountainside.
The transvestites that seemed funny or shocking back in
'63 are now part of the scenery in most size cities. Even the
sex change operation in 1984's Shocking Asia wouldn't raise
many eyebrows, were it not for the technique demonstrated.
Careful sex-change surgery is fairly routine, but actually see
ing'power drills clearing the way for vaginal implants is
considerably less common. So in this sense, there are still
exotic sights left to be seen . . . exotic because of their
unfamiliarity.

There are countless other worlds existing concurre ntly on

this planet. So long as humans insist on adhering to strictly
codified values and beliefs. there will be other sets of values

and beliefs that are incomprehensible (and therefore of

interest ). Also. there will always be those who ( for whatever

reason) exhibit behavior different from one's own estab
lished norms. Given such circumstances, it's likely that
Mondo movies will remain a permanent part of the world of
cinema, playing the curious dual role of documenting and
feeding the public's appetite for unusual behavior.

1 56

carado II," but when the original El Murcielago Enmascarado

protested the use of his title, Rodolfo had to find a new name.
xi co's history is a litany ofatrocities -forced Catholi

He chose "EI Santo."

cism, repression, guilt, cultural schizophrenia and an obses

El Santo wore a silver mask. When fighting masked oppo

sion with death that borders on necrophilia. Not surprisingly,

nents the rule

when the Mexican movie industry sets out to make a horror

mask and shave his head. El Santo never lost. He successfuly

l

movie, the results are so singularly "Mexican" they baffle

defended his title from 1942 until the late fifties when

was:

whoever lost would have to take

off his

stateside viewers.

feeling he was losing his touch-he retired from the ring and

Not content merely to ape American horror movies, Mex

went into movies.

ico has created its own gallery of monsters. Instead of an

Santo was an odd sort of character; his mask made him

Egyptian mummy, Mexico created The Aztec Mummy, an

capable of assuming any form it

look more like a bum victim than a superhero. 1llere were

other wrestlers making movies who also had intriguing

pleases. While the vampires appear as standard variants of

masks, sometimes better builds, as well as interesting stories.

ugly-looking creature

Lugosi's Dracula, they often have powers never bestowed

But Santo always had unpredictable timing, unlikely plot

upon Hollywood bloodsuckers. In 1be

elements, and most important-a charisma

World of the Vam

pires the Count is able to tum a man into a werewolf simply

hard

to define;

by playing the organ !

among the Mexican audience he was the most popular of the

wrestling superheroes. More of his films were translated into

One creature unique to Mexico is La Uorona, the crying

English than anyone else's.

ghost. La llorona is the spirit of a woman doomed to search

During the seventies and early eighties, Santo toured Mex

forever for her lost children. In Mexico it is believed you can

ico as part of an entertainment review. During a show in

hear her in the arroyos at night; searching and piteously

February, 1984, he complained of chest pains and died of a

crying. Some say the sound of her crying can drive men mad,

heart attack shortly afterwards.

but this claim has never been scientifically documented. La

llorona, on her own, is slim material for a movie, but ( like

their North American counterparts) the Mexican film indus
try is not above tampering with a legend if the need arises.
Of all the variations in the horror genre, the most uniquely
Mexican is the Horror-Wrestling movie. In these, various
popular wrestlers take on the forces of evil and pin them to
the mat, figuratively and literally. Wrestling in Mexico
(called Lucha Libre) is not very different from wrestling in
the States-there are heroes and villains and the audience
always knows who to root for. The wrestlers always wear
masks and each wrestler has a mask uniquely his own.

One of the first wrestlers to enter the world of Mexican

cinema was Wolf Ruvinskis. He plays a character caUed Neu
tron who wears a black mask with lightning bolts on it. like
all the wrestling superheroes, he battles evil both human and
supernatural.
Neutron proved so popular that many similar films, featur
ing other wrestlers, soon followed. Among the wrestlers to
join the cinematic ranks were Blue Demon, a supernatural
fellow who often teams up with other wrestlers to help
combat evil, and Mil Mascaras ( now wrestling in the States ),
who wears a vividly ornamented mask which he removes at
the start of each match, only to reveal an even more impres
sive mask beneath.
But the undisputed champion of filmic Mexican superhe
ros is Santo, who wears a silver mask and drives around in a
little white Aston-Martin. When not in the ring protecting
his title from would-be usurpers, he is helping the local
police commissioner solve crimes. Santo works out of his
own laboratory, a Batmanesque-place filled with impressive
futuristic machines.
Santo was born in Thrlandngo, a small town in Hidalgo,
Mexico, on September 13, 1915. His real name is Rodolfo
Guzman Huerta. Rodolfo started his wrestling career under
the name "Constantino," but first gained attention as "Hom
bre Rojo," a bad guy-one of the ones you're supposed to
boo. For a short while he wrestled as "EI Murcielago Enmas-

Santo and friend.

Wood's most personal film is Glen

or

Glenda

really

two

films in one. The first is the story of a man who enjoys wearing
ccentric and individualistic, Edward D. Wood, Jr.

his fiance's clothing. He is faced with the problem of telling

man born to film. In the face of studio indifference, lack of

her about his obsession before they are married; then she

was

made

must choose between her love for him and her revulsion

movies-almost all black-and-white. Among them, a western

toward such deviant behavior. The second part of the film

( Crossroads Avenger); a crime melodrama Uailbait,

funds

and

few

Hollywood

connections,

Wood

aka

concerns a man for whom cross-dressing is not enough -he

Hidden Face); two sexploitation films ( Glen or Glenda and

wants to be a woman. Through the miracle ofsurgery he gets

7be Sinister Urge); and a few low-budget science fiction

his wish. The two stories are tied together by a psychologist

Plan

(played by Bela Lugosi ) who throughout the film explains

Nine Prom Outer Space and Night ofthe Ghouls). Even after

the difference between a transvestite and a transsexual.

efforts

(Bride

of the Monster

aka Bride of the Atom,

the market for low-budget quickies dissipated, Wood con

Lugosi's role has long baffled critics; he seems to represent a

tinued his fiJmmaking career in the porno field with fiJms like

negative voice as most of his statements are in conflict with

T
ake it Out in 'Jrade and Necromania. Lesser men, if forced

the tone of the film. Sometimes he is referred to as "The

to make movies under the conditions Wood faced, would

Devil," but a more accurate title might be "The Moral

have thrown up their hands in defeat.

Majority."

has been dubbed "the worst movie ever made" by many

I Changed My Sex; He or She: The Transvestite. Additionally,

critics. Yet Plan Nine is one of the few motion pictures from

at least two versions exist: one print released as I Omnged

the fifties regularly appearing at repertory theaters. If there is

My Sex contains a sequence in which a woman does a strip

a "worst film ever made" it is one that is boring-a sin Ed

tease and then is tied up and raped by the devil.

His best-known film, Plan Nine Prom OuterSpace ( 1959 ),

The film was released under several titles: I Led Tw o lives;

Wood, Jr. is rarely guilty of. Some people point out the flubs

and continuity errors in his films, yet these same people are

sionate, it is because Wood was a transvestite. He often wore

Likely to become angry when you point out the numerous

women's jumpsuits and was obsessed with cashmere sweat

flubs in such favorites as E. T. and Star Wars.

ers. A Marine during World War U, Wood claimed to be

Tor Johmon returns from the dead in Ed Wood's most famous film,

If the first half of Glen or Glenda seems unusually pas

Plan Nine

from Outer

Space.

1 58

wearing a bra and panties under his uniform during a landing

in the Pacific. In Watts . . . 1be Differrmce (an erotic novel
written by him) Wood describes in vivid detail the joys of
cross-dressing and apparel fetishism:
Angie: starll:d laking her clolht
-s off. ar first. slowly. hur as
h is moaning g)Talions on lhe srudio couch increast"d. so did
her mo\'ements. She couldn'r help bul pennil some of his
xual hear to filler lhrough her. She stepped out of her
panlies which she tossed 10 a chair wilh her orher things, and
a.'Sumeu

"hat she thought was an appropriately sexy pose i n

front o f him She lowered her left breasr 1 0 an inch above his
M:arching lips. Suddenly wilh

a sa\'age lunge and a girlbh

squeal from his rhroal. he look her hreasl into his mourh for
Ihe hricfct of an insrant. I hen rearing his own clolhes from

his body. he flew acros.

the room. There was nothing lefl to
hb shon or hb shirt hy the rime he gor through wilh them.
But

in the moment the last of his male au ire slipped away, so

did his spceu. With e\'ery care. with caressing joy, he put on
Angie's clothes. lie saved the sweater for last and rook a greal
lengrh of time i n felling it slip do'l"ll over his head. Then he
moved 10 hb dek and pushed a hidden hullon. A great wall

mirror came into being from a hidden panel. He rook a

it wilh rhe

blonde "ig from hi dt'ltk and carefully adjusled

mirror for hb guidt. Th:n he took a long rime adjusting the

sweater O\'er the kirt until il was 10 h b liking. He turned back
to Angie. only after h: was sure the nylon Slockings were
straight

The only thing he couldn't get into were Angie's

shot.os. hut he had a remedy for Ihat also. Behind rhe mirror he
had a well-Mocked wardrobe from \vhich he sclecred a

pai r

anu put th:m on. It w apparent from thai poinl on he

''"antcd to bt admirtu for hb fl:malc self 'Tm called Ginger,"
hc said.

When it came time to cast the part of the transvestite in the

film, Wood not surprisingly ended up playing the role him

self, using the pseudonym, "Daniel Davis."
Glen or Glenda might never have been made were it not
for George Jorgensen, who made headlines in the early '50s
by taking part in a series of hormone experiments, culminat
ing in a visit to Denmark to undergo a sex-change operation.
Clanging his name to Olristine Jorgensen, George became
the most notorious transsexual of all time. The resulting
furor over "The Olristine Jorgensen Story" provided Wood
with the perfect opportunity to tell the world it's all right for
men to wear women's clothing, if that's what makes them
happy.
However, the film for which Wood is best remembered is
Pian Ninefrom Outer space. like all his movies, it was made
on a budget that barely paid for film and equipment. In order
to complete the movie, Ed Wood cut comers wherever and
'1'\'tlenner he could; e.g., hubcaps and paper plates hecame
flying saucers! Sometimes his cost-cutting borders on Dada,
as when two men dressed as pilots sit in front of an almost
bare wall and pretend they are in the cockpit of a plane'
Wood's lead actor, Bela Lugosi, died a few days after shoot
ing began. Determined to continue, Wood replaced Lugosi
with a friend ( a chiropractor), assuming that as long as the
man kept a cape over his face no one would notice it wasn't
Bela. Unfortunately, everyone noticed-the fact that the chi
ropractor was a fuJI head taller than Lugosi might have had
something to do with it . . .
Wood was also a prolific writer (his novels include It
Takes One to Know One and Killer in Drag) and script
writer. He wrote all of his own screenplays, plus some for
other directors. In this capacity he is without peer. If his
dialogue is sometimes laughable, it is because in reality
people are rarely as candid as they are in his scripts. When the
spaceman in Plan Nine exclaims, "You see? You see? Your
stupid little minds! Stupid ! Stupid!" laugh, but at the same
time not without agreeing with the spaceman's sentiments.
ln 1be Violent Years ( 1956), although credit must be
given to William M. Morgan (or Franz Eichorn ) for direction,
it is Wood's dialogue that grabs you. A girl gang led by a
spoiled rich girl terrorizes a small community "just for kicks."
At the beginning, each member walks by a blackboard on

which are written the words "Good Citizenship," "Self Res

traint," "Politeness" and "Loyalty." The girls sneer at the
sentiments as a narrator intones: "1ltis is the story of vio
lence. A violence born of the uncontrolled passions of adol
escent youth, and nurtured by this generation of parents . . .
those who, in their own smug little world of selfish interests
and confused ideas of parental supervision, refuse to believe
today's glaring headlines."
ln 1961 Wood made his last feature film, 1be Sinister Urge
(otherwise known as 1be Young and the Immoral or Hell
bam.) Ostensibly an attack on pornography ( the plot: a
psycho kills porno models), the film was really just a way of
getting racy material past the bluenoses in charge of the
country's morals. As the demand for 8-movies evaporated
usurped by television-Wood found it increasingly difficult
to obtain financing, and turned to the emerging sexploitation
market.
OrRY of the Dead, made in 1965, was written but not
directed by Wood, and starred his old friend Criswell in
color. Criswell was a true character, every bit as fascinating as
Ed Wood. He had previously starred in Plan Nine, but was
better known as a 1V prophet and author of the book Cris
well Predicts. Among his prophecies: that by the eighties
there would be cities entirely composed of homosexuals;
that the U.S. Government would give all ofNew Mexico back
to the Indians; that an interplanetary convention would be
held in Uls Vegas. In Orgy of the Dead Criswell plays the
Master of the Dead whose job was to mete out punishment to
sinners once they have passed over to the great beyond.
As the sexploitation market shifted toward more explicit
depiction, Wood followed. His first effort toward true porno
graphy was Take it Out in 'Jrade, an innocuous ftJm that
barely qualifies as hardcore. More down and dirty was his
next feature, Necromania (aka Necromancy), a supposedly
hardcore porn film in which Wood appeared as a wizard. He
made a few more pomos, but the exact number is unknown;
most were shot in 8mm and used as loops or sold through
magazine ads. lt remains for some diligent researcher to
unearth the full extent of Ed Wood's filmic and written
achievement.
In 1978, on the eve of a rebirth of interest in his films, Ed
Wood, Jr. died of a heart attack in Hollywood.

B E L A L U G O S I I/#IIttJ
VAMPIRA
LYLE TALBOT
A J. Edward Reynolds Production
Produced nd Oire<.te<l by Edwrd 0. Wood, Jr.

Rl!lmed by

DCA

so shocked people that white bars were painted across the

ex and skin have always been a part of cinema. Explicit

film

to protect the public from viewing something they

porn films date from the beginning of the movies; now they

might enjoy. The effect is somewhat like watching a belly

are reissued as historical curiosities on videocassette. It's safe

dancer performing behind a picket fence.

to say that the history of cinema is one with the history of sex

By 1908, along with the proliferation of movie theaters

in cinema.

across America came the censor boards. Soon every major

When the nickelodeon, precursor of the movies, was

city had watchdogs objecting to movies on the grounds of

"no social or moral values." The basic argument was: it is

invented (you turned a crank and serial photographs simulat

ing continuity of movement flicked by), the public flocked to

"wrong" to glorify and celebrate that which is immoral and

see them. Soon "concerned citizens" were voicing outrage at

illegal. Quick to agree, exploitation producers cloaked their

the inevitable introduction of latently sexual content -in

products in a mantle of false piety, and the "square-up reel"

18H. a peep

was born.

show featuring a belly dancer named "Fatima"

Scene from Muntlo DepriiYCMios.

 This term

referred to the final reel of a film in which the

"good" people are rewarded while the "bad" people go to

Hell, so to speak. Of course, the preceding reels are filled

with every variety of vice and corruption. "This is what will

happen to you if you follow the Road to Ruin!" the ads
shouted. People lined up around the block to see the out
come of a life of sin.

Besides sex and drugs, the most popular early exploitation

theme was white slavery. Sparked by Universal's 1913 hit,

Traffic in Souls, films like China Slaver, 7be Unguarded Girls

and 7be White Slave vividly portrayed dangers lying in wait

for the carefree single young woman. An outrageous exam

ple of white slavery exploitation is

Trapped by Mormons, in

which Mormons are depicted as kidnapping fiends who lure

young woman into their polygamous harems. On grounds of
libel the Mormon Church succeeded in getting the film
withdrawn from circulation.
During the initial decades of filmmaking, independent
producers were little more than a minor nuisance to legal
authorities, the real culprit being Hollywood. Following the
invention of the movie camera, the inventors, Edison and
cohorts, had set up a monopolistic trust on the East Coast,
the Motion Pictures Patents Company, which made illegal
the making and exhibition of films by anyone other than their
members and affiliates! If they heard of anyone making or
exhibiting a film who was not affiliated with them, reportedly
they would send in goons to destroy the equipment and film.
Consequently scores of early filmmakers moved as far away as
possible-to the Los Angeles area, which was conveniently
accessible to Mexico in case flight to avoid prosecution was
required, and began making their "illegal" films. Thus was
Hollywood born.

Early

Burlnque stripper, "Justa Dream." Note phony black lace inlced in to obscure
Justa's ample charms.

films by beginning companies like Universal and

Columbia often featured gorgeous actresses in skimpy outfits

and questionable situations. A frequently used plot involved a
young girl going to Hollywood, being "discovered," and
enjoying

fabulous career as a movie actress. In reality a few

girls did go to Hollywood, perhaps got a bit part in a movie

(but little else ), then turned to prostitution to support them
selves. When arrested by the police they might list their
occupation as "actress," and the newspapers-always eager
for a cheap thrill- would proclaim: "Four actresses busted in

"Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association of

America" was formed, appointing as its President former
Postmaster General Will Hays in 1931.

Hays is often portrayed as an intolerant bluenose, but in

truth he was not-he was a nothing man. A political stooge,

he was chosen for his ability to run an organization without

rocking the boat. The fact that he looked like a hick from the

bawdy house raid." America began receiving avery unflatter

sticks didn't hurt. His image was one of "jes' plain folks" who

ing view of what was going on in Hollywood.

knew what the public wanted.

The press discovered that the "wild" life of famous motion

One of the first acts of The

Hays Commission was to start

picture stars (e.g. Theda Bara and Rudolph Valentino) sold

Central Casting, a talent-screening agency for would-be

newspapers.

actors and actresses which in effect made it impossible for all

Sensational

copy-more

suggestive

than

substantial-became the daily bill of fare, and straitlaced

but a select number of people to "get a break" in motion

citizens began complaining that

pictures. Films about young women going to Hollywood and

something had to be done

about the movie world, lest it corrupt all good Americans.

finding fortune and fame were replaced by films about young

The turning point came in 1921, during a party at the St.

women going to Hollywood and finding tragedy and despair.

Francis Hotel in San Francisco. Popular comedian Roscoe

The party

"Fatty" Arbuckle took a young actress named Virginia Rappe

was over;
Nevertheless, the

Hollywood closed its doors for good.

public clamor for an end to sin in the

up to his hotel room where she died of a ruptured spleen.

cinema continued. Billy Sunday, a popular evangelist a t the

Weird rumors began to fly-Arbuckle was accused of intro

time, led a crusade against Hollywood that the movie indus

ducing a coke bottle into the girl, or of forcing ice into her

tryhad to pay attention to. Hays wasted no time in drafting up

vagina, and other related atrocities. Eventually he was found

a stringent production code for the movie industry to follow

not guilty by

three different juries, but too late to save his

career-he never appeared in another major movie.

(e.g., brutal killing shall not be presented in detail; the tech

nique of murder shall not be presented in a way that inspires

With that the national press turned its full scandal monger

imitation; illegal drug traffic must never be presented; seduc

ing attention on movieland, and everyone became fair game.

tion or rape should never be shown by explicit method; sex

Hollywood reporters became obsessed with tracking down

perversion or any inference of it is forbidden; white slavery

any little bit of filth they could sniff. Popular celebrities (e.g.,

shall not be treated; miscegenation is forbidden; children's

Mary Pickford, "America's Sweetheart" who scandalized the

sex organs are never to be exposed; complete nudity is never

nation by divorcing Owen Moore so she could quickly marry

pern1itted. Repellent subjects included: actual hangings or

Douglas Fairbanks; director William Dean Taylor-killed

electrocutions; "third-degree" methods; brutality and possi

possibly by a drug dealer) were accused of everything from

ble gruesomeness; branding of people or animals; apparent

debauchery to trafficking in drugs. The nouveau-riche

cruelty to children or animals; and surgical operations. ) Hays

motion picture industry began to fear that the government

also created a bureau, The Office of the Motion Picture

would step in and impose laws on them; at aU costs they

Production Code, to see that the rules were obeyed. The man

wanted to protect and control their golden egg. Quickly the

he chose as head was joseph Breen. The Breen Office is what

161

A pagan girl in Barry Mahon's

Pagan Island.

most people meant when they referred to the

"Hays

Commission."
The Hays Commission restrained Holi)'Wood's depiction
of sin, but it didn't stop independent filmmakers from places
like Chicago, Aorida, New jersey, New York, and Texas. The
thirties and forties were golden years for exploitation.
Because most theaters preferred to abide by the restrictions
imposed by Hays, independent producers often ended up
screening their films in tents, strategically placed just outside
city limits. Without intending to, the Hays Commission gave

native life in darkest Africa. Usually they were shot some

where just north of San Diego, with the African "natives"
appearing in a remarkable variety of shades. Often a man in a
gorilla suit makes an appearance, stealing the tribe's comeli
est maiden. There were several such films, all with similar
plot Lines. Among them: Bowanga! Bowanga! ( 1938),

Ingagi, ( 1930) and Love Life of a Gorilla ( 1937).

When movie houses refused to show films like 7be Naked
Truth ( a sex education film) and 7bmorrow's Children
( about the sterilization of a family regarded as degenerates ),

independent producers something money couldn't buy: the

distributors found other venues. A5 impromptu movie theat

in Holi)'Wood.

even bars were enlisted.

exclusive ability to offer the public that which was veriJoten

ers burlesque houses were a favorite choice; occasionally

This was the heydayof"The FortyThieves"-a loosely-knit

During this period the term "square-up reel" took on a

gang of independent producers. Many of these exploi tation

new, opposite meaning. Road agents, always at oddswith the

filmmakers had a "carny" background

law, carried two versions of their films- one tame and one

(and a

"carny"

philosophy-usually they thought of themselves as quite

roguish ) . Often an independent producer would send a road

sizzling. lf the police showed up, the agent made sure the
tame version was projected. lfthe police left early, the agent

agent out with a print of a movie (sometimes the only print in

would end with a reel filled with nudity and depravity. This

existence ) who would travel from town to town, showing

the movie an)'Where he could, on the so-called "road-show

reel became known as the square-up reel; partly because it

''squared things up" with the audience, and partly as a code

circui ts." In the case of the smaller independents, the

to throw the authorities off the track.

In the early fifties public attitudes began to shift. Both

producer-director-distributor (one person) would travel

around the country showing his latest creation. These men

were considered by most to be only a cut above snake-oil

Holi)'Wood and independent filmmakers began to push the

limits of the Production Code to see how much they could

merchants and grifters.

Independent producers usually exploited sex by pretend

get away with. The censors' efforts to crack down just made

ing to

Moon Is Blue (1953)

warn

of its evils. Another favorite approach

was

to

present a fake documentary film, in which it was acceptable

to show bare breasts -as long as they weren't white. Conse
quently several movies were made purporting to depict

them look more ridiculous, as when Otto Prerninger's 7be

was

refused approval because the

words "virgin" and "seduced" were used in it. Preminger

released the film anyway as "Adults Only," and perhaps

because of this billing the film made handsome profi ts. Peo-

162

pie who expected to see something lewd were

disappointed -even by the standards of the day, Tbe Moon Is
Blue is deadeningly chaste.
For awhile the term "Adults Only" took on a patina of
respectability. Exploitationists dusted off old prints of their
films and presented them again. Tell Your OJildren, a campy
anti-drug film from the thirties, was re-released as Reefer
Madness. A 1934 film titled OJildren of Loneliness was exhi
bited in 1953 as 1be Tbird Sex. The film tells the story of a
woman who, after a frightening childhood encounter with a
man, grows up to be a lesbian. Exploitation pioneer Kroger
Babb put his "birth of a baby" classic, Mom and Dad, back
into circulation with profitable results.
The downfall of the Hays code had other causes, central
being the widespread change in sexual attitudes that fol
lowed World War I I . After living in Europe, many American
soldiers discovered their puritanical outlooks were by no
means universal. On the home front, women had been work
ing at jobs previously considered "man's work," all the while
broadening their concepts of identity. The old attitudes
regarding virginity, sex roles, and even technical basics such
as the "French " kiss, oral sex, foreplay, and the orgasm
(words scarcely in the common vocabulary) would never be
the same.
The fifties also spawned another blow to the Hays Code,
the "burlesque" films, which are little more than documen
taries of their predecessors, the real burlesque shows. The
camera remains static, and little is attempted to make the
films interesting or even watchable. Besides the strip-tease
acts, the films often featured many up-and-coming (or down
and-going ) comedians. For example, in Dance Hall Racket a
young Lenny Bruce appears, slapping the dancers and insult
ing the audience. Burlesque films are important because they
helped spawn the more daring Nudist Films, which eventu
ally led to everything.
Actually, the nudist films of the fifties were a revival of the
documentaries of the nudist craze which originally started in
the early thirties and quickly spread world-wide. In 1932, a
film entitled 7bis Nude World examined nudist camps in
France, Germany and the U.S. with a sympathetic eye. The
following year producer Bryan Foy released Elysia, which
also dealt with the joys of nudism. like their predecessors
two generations earlier, the ftfties' nudist films also used an
educational approach to "get away with" displaying all that
skin.
For the most part, nudist films are among the most boring
movies ever made. These accounts of what supposedly goes
on behind the gates of the world's nudist colonies consist of
little more than endless games of volleyball. Any activity that
could possibly be construed as sexual is debarred. Rarely do
people touch each other, and they never kiss or hug. While
the burlesque films are cinematically dull, the nudies are just
plain vapid, offering little more than endless shots of nude
people having "fun in the sun."
If the nudies are important at all, it is for legal reasons.
After a lengthy 1957 court case involving Garden ofEden-a
particularly boring nudist film-it was decided that nudity,
on its own. has no erotic content and therefore is not
obscene.
For filmmakers, the next step was to combine the two
genres of burlesque and nudie films. The resultant light
comedic farces were called "nudie-cutie" films. The first one
was directed by Russ Meyer: 1be Immoral Mr. Teas ( 1959).
Made on a budget of S24 ,000 scraped together by Meyer
and burlesque house owner Pete DeCenzie, Tbe Immoral
Mr. Teas is the tale of a man who, after undergoing anaesthe
sia, develops the power to see aU women stark naked, no
matter what they're wearing or doing. Teas ( played by an old
army buddy of Meyer, Bill Teas) is at first delighted by his
new power, but eventually it wears thin as it complicates his
life more and more.

1be Immoral Mr. 7eas broke box office records every

where. For more than two years it ran continuously in Holly
wood. In New York it was so heavily cut that Meyer had to
film a three-reel short subject called 1bis Is My Body to fill
out the bill. Maryland banned the film completely. Numerous
legal battles ensued, but Meyer and DeCenzie were making
enough money to cover any court costs. The legal rulings on
Tbe Immoral Mr. Teas varied from state to state and city to
city, but enough legal ground was won to open the way for
hundreds more nudie-cutie films.
Out of the woodwork came dozens of aspiring skinpix
producers. From Chicago came 1be Adventures of Lucky
Pierre ( 1961 ), directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis and pro
duced by the dean of sexploitation, David Friedman. The film
cost !45 ,000 and was one of the more expensive films in the
genre. Bob Cresse-who did for sadomasoc hism what Russ
Meyer did for bosoms-produced Once Upon a Knight
( 1961 ). Jack Harris, after raking in the dough for his previous
smash hit, Tbe Blob, added a new twist to the field with
Paradisio ( 1962 ) the first adult film made in 3-D. Numerous
other lesser-knowns were churned out.
By 1963 the novelty of nudie-cutie films had worn out. As
their box office sank, producers and filmmakers sought
something new. Chicago's David Friedman hit on a solution:
If we can't include more sex, we'Ll add violence. Friedman
went down to Aorida with his partner, H. G. Lewis, and on a
budget that wouldn't pay for film stock today created the
gore classic Blood Feast. The story of an Egyptian caterer
who practices the ancient bloody rites of lshtar in his spare
time, Blood Feast was gorier than any movie previously
made. The duo made two more movies together (Two Thou
sand Maniacs! and Color Me Blood Red) before parting
ways. Lewis continued making gore films, while Friedman
further explored the combination of sex and violence.
From 1964 to 1970 a tlood ofsex-and-violence filmshit the
grindhouses of America. The films were referred to by the
trade papers as "ghoulies," "roughies" and "kinkies,"
depending on the ratio of sex to violence. Lorna was consi
dered a "roughie" because people get treated "rough" in it.
Blood Feast is a "ghoulie" for obvious reasons. Love Camp
Seven is a good example ofa "kinky'' -it depicts perversions.
During this period Friedman's talents as a producer came
to the fore, but there were others of similar ability. Bob
Cresse teamed up with director R L. Frost to make a number
of sadistic masterpieces, including the infamous Love Camp
Seven ( 1968 ); husband and wife team Mike and Roberta
Findlay became Julian Marsh and Anna Riva and brought out
the Resh trilogy ( The Touch of Her Resh. 1be Curse of Her
Resh and Tbe Kiss ofHer Resh) three rarely-seen but often
talked-about movies of hitherto unparalleled depravity.
joseph Mawra's Olga movies (Olga's Girls, Olga 's Massage
Parlor and White Slaves of Chinatown) were so violent and
sleazy they alienated even diehard S/M funs.
As the nudie-cuties lost their audience, even Russ Meyer
felt the pinch. His happy little bounce movies began to lose
money. As others had done, he solved the problem by adding
violence. For Meyer it was the last piece to the puzzle; the
films he created during this turbulent era of sexual frustra
tion and violent eroticism are among his best. Considered
the first of the roughies, Lorna ( 1964 ) depicted the story ofa
sexually frustrated housewife who encounters an equally
pent-up escaped convict.
Nudist and nudie-cutie films, by themselves, were not the
sole forces Liberalizing America's censorship laws. While
Russ Meyer was introducing the subject to Middle America,
experimental filmmakers were using sex-sometimes very
graphic sex-as part of their art. Filmmaker Kenneth Anger
shocked the art world, college campuses and the censors
with his fetishistic films illustrating homosexuality, leather
and drug fantasies. George Kuchar used seedy images asso
ciated with low budget cinema to poke fun at the sexual
.

163

mores of the time. Andy Warhol managed to shock even

cosmopolitan New Yorkers with films like Blue Movie and
Blowjob. Whether these efforts were any more artistic than
exploitation films of the same period could be debated, but
experimental films coming from the prestigious "art world"
added a new point of view to the question of censorship and
helped considerably to erode the facade of an antiquated
morality.
Foreign films also did their part to strip away U.S. inhibi
tions, appealing to both the "art film" cineastes and the
raincoat crowd. Roger Vadim's And God Created Woman,
besides introducing millions to Brigitte Bardot, also intro
duced a vision of a more sophisticated, less-guilty sexual
lifestyle. I, A Woman, a blockbuster hit which played for
years, was instrumental in spreading the idea that a woman's
sexual pleasure was also her right. The early films of lngmar
Bergman (e.g., Summer with Monika, 7be Virgin Spring)
shocked American audiences with their display ofbrutal lust
and shameless sensuality, although they had the usual
retribution .endings. Roberto Rossellini's early Italian neo
reaJist films (e.g., Open City) showed women walking
around the house in their slips with bruises showing on their
legs, etc-hitherto not a common sight. Later, films like Iam
Curious, Yellow ( 1968), and its sequel, I am Cu rious, Blue
were instnunental in getting hardcore films out into the
open-the films reportedly depicted actual sexual inter
course, even though most of the film is devoted to the
characters having serious discussions about politics. The
"Curious" films played for years.
The end of World War Two saw an increased use of
the I6mm film format, but mostly in industrial and educa
tional applications. In the sixties, the previously expensive
I6mm movie cameras began turning up in pawnshops; at the
same time they became significantly cheaper through mass
production. Filmmaking took a new turn- hundreds of peo
ple gained access to a medium previously restricted to a
privileged few. The generation that grew up with the movies
could now make their own, and they wasted no time explor
ing ( and exploiting) this new gift. Experimental and stag
films flourished.
At the end of sixties Alex DeRenzy of San Francisco
released his notorious classic, Censorship in Denmark: A
New Approach. DeRenzy went to Denmark and filmed Sex
69, a trade show devoted to the business of sex. Included in
his movie are scenes inside a porno movie club, where he
filmed a hardcore movie directly from the screen as it was
being shown. ln tills way he could defend the material by
explaining he was not making a porno film-he was making
an objective documentary about porno films.
DeRenZ}' followed the successful Censorship In Denmark
with an even more daring experiment: A History of the Blue
Maule. Starting with A Free Ride, circa 1915, Blue Mortie is a
brilliant compilation of classic stag clips, among them
stripper Candy Barr's less-than-enthusiastic introduction to
oral sex in Smart Aleck, and a film titled 1be Nun 's Story,
which is considered to be the first stag film with a cum shot.
A History of the Blue Mottle was a big hit and spawned
several imitations. One of the best was Hollywood Blue,
produced by the Prul Spector of pornography, Bill Osco.
Osco's film was not nearly so interesting or complete as
DeRenzy' s. but it does include Apple Knockers and Coke
Bottle, a film that supposedly featured a young Marilyn Mon
roe ( it wasn't).
During the seventies stag films came out of the Elks Clubs
and into the theaters. Daring filmmakers like DeRenzy and
Osco found supporters among the post-ruppie young genera
tion and the members of the Sexual Freedom League. In San
Francisco ( later to become a major porn movie production
center), the Sutter Street Cinema and the Mitchell Brothers
Theater drew socially "hip" people to their opening parties,
playing their part in introducing the middle-class to explicit

FROM SHOCKING START

TO SURPRISING END . . .
Two desperate men
and one helpless
girl, with a woman's
only weapon of
defense

. . . SX/

"The

CKED
GO TO

H ELLr

sex films. America was in the final throes of the post-World

War Two sexual revolution. "If it feels good, do it!" was the
catch-phrase of the day. The ultimate blow to censorship
came iil 1972 with the release of Gerard Damiano's Deep
1broat.
Deep 1broat tells the story of a young woman whose
clitoris is in her throat, making fe llatio her preferred activity.
She goes to a doctor who "treats" her, then she has sex with a
few other men. etc. The negligible plot accounts for about
two minutes; the rest of the movie is non-stop sucking and
fucking. As a movie Deep 7broat is not cinematically out
standing; there were other films before it just as graphic and
obscene (e.g.. Bill Osco's Mona). But Deep Throat became
important as a legal issue when the authorities in New York
pounced on it, making it the most talked-about movie of the
year. While the couns battled over the legal ramifications,
people everywhere were lined up to see it. Audiences no
longer were composed of old men in raincoats; couples
some in dinner jackets and minks-showed up fo r the film.
Porno chic was born.
The law came down hard on Deep 1broat. The theater that
first exhibited it in New York was fined !3 million, the judge
calljng the film "a feast of carrion and squalor." ( Later, the
verdict was overturned. ) Despite legal battles in cities all
over the country, Deep 1broat was a hit, and no amount of
moralistic outrage seemed to be able to stop hardcore films

164

Bondage and sadism; common themes in the sex films of the sixties as exemplified in this scene from '111 alum Ones.

from being made or shown.

"smokers" -those crude and nasty little films reserved for

The advent of explicit pornography in theaters was the

late-night showings at Elks' clubs, firehouses, and fraternity

death knell for sexploitation. Filmmakers who had previously

parties. Uke a spermacious juggernaut, the hardcore film

invented unusual plots and situations to showcase their non

burst into daylight, derailing a sizable portion of the exploita

anatomically-graphic sex found it harder and harder to find a

tion train.

market for their talents. Some, like Oa\d Friedman, reluc

tantly accepted the inevitability of hardcore's supremacy in

The problem with

hardcore films is their

plotlessness, all

activity being generally centered upon a succession of

the sex film market. Others, like Joe Sarno and Doris Wish

interchangeable anatomical close-ups. In fact the identical

man, rejected it and continued making movies of a less

close-ups are often used in many different films. Talk (as well

explicit nature, with genuine plots and characterizations.

as ideas) is minimized or banali7..ed; any art and discipline

peared in America.

Some

But by 1977 the market for softcore films had virtuallydisap

normally associated with "acting" is simply non de

rlgueur.

of the better hardcore films of the past decades

Europe with exceptionally pretty actresses, lavish sets, plots,

include Tbe opening of Misty Beethoven, Pretty Peaches,

Night Dreams, Randy the Electric Lady, Derl/1 in Missjones,
and T
ake Off (7be Picture ofDorian Gray retold in a porno

dialogue, continuity, suspense, and even some eroticism),

film). There may possibly be a few more worthwhile expe

Curiously, a small number of softcore films were very

commercially successful during the seventies. Filmed in

these films may be categorized as softcore Euro-chic. They

riences, but it remains for other intrepid souls to chart

include Tbe Story of 0 (starring Corinne Clery) and Emmo

nuel/e (starring Sylvia Kristel ). These films were made by Just

through this territory.

)aeckin, who in his filmic approach curiously appears to be

may soon be as obsolete as the nickelodeon. Already most

imitating Radley

porno "theaters"

Metzger,

who in his movies

was

imitating

With the rise of the home video market, the porno theater

are

merely large-screen video projection

French new wave filmmaking-art imitating art imitating

rooms, or are subdivided into small 25-cent video booths.

life . . .
There is no true continuum from early exploitation films

couples watching the movies (women may insist on the

Perhaps with the advent of home video and the increase of

to modern hardcore porn. Exploitation films, no matter how

restoration ofgenuine entertainment values ). there will be a

explicit, were always intended to be shown in theaters.

shift away from endless movements of limbs and organs back

Hardcore,

to more plot-oriented films.

on

the

other

hand,

was

spawned

by

the

ver the past decade film historians have focused a great

deal of attention on genres-and on actors and directors, as

Why, it comes from uheat; America's most important food

source." Or: "It's important that we all learn to conserve
water. Thoughtless water use is harmful to us all. Let's see

well-who have, in the past, gone unheralded. Exploitation,

why!" Often these odd little pieces prove to be better than

sexploitation, 'B' and 'Z' movies are all examined and

the movies that preceded them.

reviewed in fanzines, newsletters and film books. Gore and

porno movies show up regularly at repertory theatres. And

Unfortunately, a good many instructional films are boring;

directors such as Russ Meyer, Herschell Gordon Lewis and

most of us retain memories of these. But some instructional

films get better with age, especially those dealing with social

Even the antics of The Three Stooges have taken on a patina

Grooming for Girls.

Roger Corman are no longer viewed as anonymous hacks.

of respectability. Yet in spite of all the attention now given to

and sexual attitudes, like Dating: Do s mul Don 'ts, or Good

Fear films take a different tack-instead of trying to teach,

previously overlooked films, there is still one genre that

they attempt to instill fear, warning of the consequences of

remains ignored: The Educational Film.

not obeying. In the right (or wrong ) hands, an educational

film can instill a fear of anything. They are predominantly

Most of us sat through them in high school, if not in grade

school as well. On the days when the science teacher didn't
feel like teaching class, we would be treated to Dr. Frank

shown in high school, where teaching often takes on a "you'd

better do as I say, or else " tone. Nearly all safety and drivers'

Baxter discussing the inner workings of the heart in Hemo

the Magnificent, or one of the other wonderful films by Bell

ed films fall into this category.

Laboratories. And few ever forgot the gory films shown in

minds, fear films aim straight for the viscera. You do not team

drivers' education classes at high schools across the U.S.A.

Because educational films were never regarded as impor
tant (either artistically or historically), little has been done
to preserve or examine them. These films rarely have any
credits, so finding out who did what can be a near-impossible
task. Too bad, because some of the best filmmakers around

have made educational and industrial films. Anwng them,

Russ Meyer, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Frank Capra and Edgar
G. Ulmer.
Basically educational films fall into two categories: instntc

tional films and fear films. Each type has its strength.
Through

(often

inadverte ntly)

demonstrating

now

outmoded social mores and behavior, instructional films arc

more likely to develop into good camp, eliciting nostalgia or
ridicule.

Fear films offer a better barometer of what's

"wrong" with society. Any person who has gone through

America's public school system has been exposed to plenty
of both types of films.
The instructional film. most often shown in grade school.
is the more common of the two. Into this category falls the

industrial film -made by large corporations to improve

their public image. Often it attempts to impart a

sense

of

drama and wonder to drab subjects such as wool and soy

beans, usually starting with a boy engaging in some everyday
activity (eating breakfast, turning on the lights, etc. ) when an
off-screen voice says to him, "Say, have you ever thought
about where that comes from?" Or, "Have you ever stopped

to ask how that works?" The narrator proceeds to explain

where milk for the child's breakfast comes from or how we

get electricity into our homes. Often the boy will, by some
miraculous transport, end up at the dairy or the power plant,
or he will travel through time and learn the whole story of
electricity or pasteurization.
During the early days oftelevision. instructional films were
a staple of prime-time programming, but the rapid rise of
Made-for-lV programs forced them out. At present the only
time one airs is in the wee hours of morning, when the
late-late show falls short of its slot and one is inserted to fill
out the hour. As you slowly nod off, a voice asks: "Have you
ever wondered where that bread you're eating comes from?

While the instntctional films attempt to appeal to our

anything/rom them; you respond to them. They are intended
to indoctrinate, not educate. A classic exan1ple of a fear film

aimed at grade school children is Lunchroom Manners. ln it,

a boy named Phil sees a puppet show featuring a slovenly

character called "Mr. Bungle." Mterward a narrator follows

Phil to the lunchroom, explaining to the audience the

thoughts going through Phil's head. "Phil would l.ike to cut

ahead of his classmates," the narrator intones. "But he

doesn't want to be a Mr. Bungle. "[!]

Walt

Disney Studios produced many fear films aimed at

grade school children. With the help of)iminyCricket, Goofy

and Donald Duck, Disney kept the kids entertained while

warning of the dangers ofplaying with matches, or forgetting

to look both ways before crossing the street. Disney raised

of a man who woke up one day to discover what it was like to

live under a communist government. The film

was

intro

duced by Jack Webb, playing a reactionary version of Rod

Serlin g. Made in deadly earnest, thirty years later it stands as a

camp-political classic. The film was recently resurrected by

Rhino Video, with its title changed to Tbe Commies are

Coming/ 1be Commies are Coming.'
0\:c of all the types of fear films, the ones seen most often

are, of course , drivers' education movies. For many young

Tbe Educa
tional Film Locator says i t best in their description of gore
classic Signal 30: 'You are there when the blackened and

people, they were the first really gory films seen.

the fear film to a level of fine art. Who else could take a

brittle, mangled and bleeding bodies of what once were

it into a mini-epic in which the forces of Nazism and Commu

their motorized coffins." Many a high school cheerleader lost

mundane concept like Insects as Carriers ofDisease and turn

nism are repelled by good hygiene and health care?

ln terms of paranoia taken to the point of obsession. fear

films reached their peak during the ftfties, when the Ameri

can government went all out to persuade the public of the

dangers of communism . Titles like Communism At Our

Back Door and Communist Blueprint for Conquest pro
vided indoctrination, not education. The best-and most

outrageous-example was Red Ni

ghtmare. It told the story

living, breathing and laughing human beings are pried from

her lunch at the sight of this movie and others like Red
Asphalt and Mechanized Death.
Most highway safety films are little more than a catalog of
catastrophies-Red Asphalt made no attempt to tell a story
or construct a plot. In Wheels of Tragedy, the filmmakers
took real accidents and used actors to reinact the events
leading up to them, switching to the grisly realities for the

aftermath. In one of the film's most memorable scenes, a

167

black man loses his head (literally) while arguing with his
passenger instead of watching the road.
Another common approach is to follow the last few days or
hours of someone's life, ending the film with a horrible
accident. Although seldom as grisly as the "catalog of death"
approach, the film nevertheless can be quite unsettling. In

the classic 1be last Date, a carefree young woman ignores

her better judgment and goes for "a quick, fifteen-minute
spin" with the local hot-rodder (played by a young and
unctuous Dick York). The woman survives, but her face is so
horribly disfigured she smashes her mirror to avoid seeing
her reflection.
During the late sixties, the shock-treatment approach to
drivers' education came under fire. A more instructional
approach was sought (and found) in the crash test footage
shot by researchers at Stanford University, who rigged cars
with anthropometric dummies and sent them on collision
courses with walls, other cars, etc. Cameras were placed
both inside and outside of the cars. The resulting footage,
while far less gory than the "you are there" films, is neverthe
less mesmerizing. For example Safetybe/t for Susie starts
with a happy family on a trip to an amusement park, and ends
with endless shots of dummies hurtling in slow motion
through windshields and into steering wheels.
Equally i llustrative of anatomical misadventures were
industrial safety films. The format was usually the same: a
worker ignores the rules and pays for it with a horrible
accident. These films were relentless; people lost limbs and
lives with great regularity. A favorite film among woodshop
students was Safety in tbe Shop. Made in 1944, this may be
the first gore film ever made. Within five seconds of the
beginning a man loses the tips of his fmgers in a planing saw.
Later a fellow is impaled on a board because his co-worker
didn't follow proper safety procedures.
The neglected gerue of eye safetyfilms contains some of
the most traumatic footage ever presented. Straght
i
Talk on
Eye Safetymay not sound too thrilling, but don't let thatfool
you. You Bet Your Eyes and Don't Push Your Luck are just
two of numerous films developed to promote eye safety in
industry, pointing out specific eye hazards in shops and
plants. 7b Live in Darkness (1947) is a US Navy film with
dramatized incidents showing how three plant workers lost
their sight through carelessness. How Much Are Your Eyes
Worth ? (1975) shows an eye operation- inspiring most
viewers to shudder and look away; the promo for the film
suggests a preview before showing to a group, to allow for
"viewing preparation"'
In between the "let's all visit the farm or factory" films
shown in the primary grades, and the "if you ignore this
message you will die" approach used in high school, are the
middle grades. In Junior High School, when kids' bodies race
to maturity before their minds, the hygiene films are shown.

For the boys, the content of hygienefilms is usually res

tricted to what constitutes cleanliness and good grooming.
Meanwhile, across the hall, the girls are finding out why some
of them are beginning to leak blood.
Menstruation takes on almost mystical proportions in jun
ior high. Girls are shown films, given booklets and free
samples offeminine products, and are thus initiated into the
secret society of womanhood. They are given knowledge
never intended for male eyes. The booklets, secreted away in
the backs of dresser drawers, are often discovered by snoopy
older brothers who show them to their friends.
It's unfortunate that boys are not shown the menstruation

films; the stigma surrounding menstruation might be

negated, and certain taboos created by male ignorance might
disappear. Guys should be given a chance to see classic films
like Growing Girls, a 1957 film about a girl's initial reaction
to her body's changes; Molly Grows Up ( 1953 ), which man
ages to tie menstruation to the importance of a happy home
life, and 1be Story of Menstruation, a 1943 animated film

made by Walt Disney for the Kimberly-Clark Company.

The middle grades are also the years students are intro
duced to drug films. The intent is to discourage youthful.
experimentation, but the effect is often quite opposite. Many
youngsters who saw the infamous anti-drug film, LSD-25,
consequently tried the substance. The intent of Curious Alice
was to warn about the dangers of various drugs, but most
viewers found their curiosity aroused by Alice's "psyche
delic" journey. As a result, the film is rarely shown and has
been removed from virtually all eduational film catalogs.
In America, sex-education films are generally shown all
the way through high school, with the usual audience reac
tion one of nervous laughter. Older sex-ed films get the
strongest laughs, partly because they are unavoidably camp
ier (because of changes in fashion ) and partly because sexual
mores have changed so radically since the 1950s. One such
unintentional comedy is Invader, a cmdelyanimated histOri
cal overview of venereal disease. A narrator elicits laughs
with lines like: "When Columbus came back from America,
he brought back more than trinkets and jewelry; he brought
back 1be aap!" SmaJI wonder that these films have had little
effect on curbing adolescent sexual activity.
The United States Military is a good source for some of the
most extreme exploitational films ever made, perhaps in
unconscious counterpoint to the rigid, retrograde military
mentality. In one film a young sailor takes LSD and is attacked
by a giant caterpillar. In another, Jack Webb narrates the
story ofa soldier who discovers the girl he is about to marry is
a commie spy. But the films best remembered focus on
combat first-aid. These films are as gory-ifnotgorier-than
the most gruesome highway safety films. Few could ever
forget a film like Sucking OJest Wounds.
But of all films shown to men in the military, the most
infamous was Sexual Hygiene. After World War One the top
brass became aware of a pressing need to educate young men
to the dangers ofvenereal disease-our boys returning to the
States often brought back nasty cases of syphilis and the clap.
Hollywood director John Ford was summoned. His film chro
nicled the misadventures ofa greenhorn soldier who, after an
evening at the local brothel (his first fling), acquires a severe
case of syphilis. The film then graphically illustrates what can
happen if the disease is allowed to progress to the advanced
stages. It probably never stopped any soldiers from engaging
in illicit sex, but they almost certainly enjoyed it less.
At some point, educators began concluding that as a film's
entertainment value increased, its instructional value dimin
ished, especially in the case of fear-type educational films. If
people laugh at a movie meant to shock them, then some
thing is wrong. So when educational films began to be per
ceived as "camp," they were taken out of circulation, or like
Red Asphalt, remade in more contemporary terms. As a
consequence, "outdated" educational films by the thousands
were tOssed into institutional and industrial wastebaskets,
with little or nothing done to save them. Of course, solely
from the standpoint of entertainment these films should have
been preserved. A film like Invader may fail at its original
purpose of convincing kids of the dangers of gonorrhea, but
it's far more amusing than nine out of ten recent comedies.
However, finally there is some increased interest in educa
tional films. One Bay Area cable channel regularly shows
them as filler between rock videos. The makers of 1be
Atomic Cafe created a popular movie simply by splicing
together previously existing short films (about the atom
bomb ) in a clever fashion, establishing an editorial viewpoint
through careful editing. Reportedly they plan to release a
similarly,structured compilation based on "dating" films of
the forties and fifties. If efforts like these continue, perhaps in
the future there will exist widespread awareness of these
neglected films, giving us the opportunity to view them in
their original form- not on videocassette, but on the big
screen.

lings and automobiles to show the effects of atomic weapons.

or every one of the 50,000 features made since the intro

duction of sound on film, six "factual" films were produced.

Safety Beltfor Susie ( 1962 ) produced at a time when seat

belts weren't yet legally mandated as standard equipment in
,

They were made for industrial, advertising or educational

American cars, aims to show the importance ofbelting child

purposes, and junked as soon as the products or ideas they

ren into their seats. It tells the story of Nancy, a toddler who

promoted grew old. No part of American culture and indus

try was untouched by these films, but almost all of them are

won't go anywhere without her life-size doll. Susie. A subtly

now lost. Few are remembered, except by their producers.

woven storyline shows Nancy bringing her doll to the amuse

ment park, as the girl and doll are about to be separated for a

It i n't surprising, then, that factual films often look into

week. Nancy's parents, on the way to pick her up at her

largely untouched by mainstream filmmaking.

grandparents, sit Susie in the back seat of the car. Naturally,

Almo t all were produced to weed out the unusual or anom

they experience an accident on the road, but escape with

territory

alous, to free consumers and students from mental obstacles

minor scratches. The doll, however, is seriously injured

standing in the way of the sale or the diploma. Extensive

( " Suppose it had been Nancy!"). The film then shifts to

series of films exist ( the "Mental Mechanisms" series; the

documentary footage of crash tests shot at UClA in the late

"Industrial Arts" series; the "Discussion Problems in Group

fifties, showing what happens to dolls driving without seat

Living" series; the "Direct Mass Selling" series) all created to

belts. Skillful slow-motion photography, in which dolls'

systematize human knowledge and experience with a high

white shoes smash against fisheye lenses mounted within

degree of efficiency. One of the richest veins of experience,

automobiles as they collapse, dramatizes the seriousness of

treated in depth by factual films, is jeopardy.

the seathclt situation while complying with the taboo

Although gore and other exploitation genres flirt with

( which

jeopardy in all its forms, factual films systematically explore

infanticide.

not

all

factual

filmmakers

observe)

against

morality, shock, accidents, danger, death and the afterlife.

In When You Are A Pedestrian, model people and cars on

Dramatic films overflow with premonitions of ( and some

primitive felt boards show conceptually gory accidents in an

times disguised wishes for) danger; some of the best show

elegant ( though naive ) way. The model cars simply bowl

the awful consequences. Factual films seek to rationalize

down the model pedestrians and leave them lying across the

and organize an infinite number of dangers, a world filled

dotted chalk lines. The expense of filming potentiaJiy dis

with jeopardy, into orderly categories.

tasteful accidents is simply avoided.

As with other private jokes, this pretense doesn't last long.

With the first title card in Play It Safe ( 1954 ). telling us the
film

was

produced by the Peninsular Grinding Wheel Com

pany, we can imagine dangers far more disturbing and anar

chic than the bland title suggests. When You Are A Pedestrian

( 1948 )

starts immediately with an accident, happening so

fast it's almost invisible, followed by pre-war stills of dead

children on morgue tables, automobiles crushed by street
cars. etc. Anatomy Of An Accident ( 1962) takes us into
suburbia, guided on our Technicolor trip by a dead man
whose wife and children ( not to mention the auctioneer
who is liquidating his favorite armchair) cannot see or hear
him.

like most genres. jeopardy films follow well-traveled

paths. The categories most prevalent follow.

SHOCK FILMS These are the famous films most of us have

.

seen. Some, like Signal

30,

Red Asphalt and Wheels Of

Tragedy are mentioned elsewhere in this book. They're not

confined to the highway. Industrial safety situations, where
films play to a highly distracted audience, have encouraged
the use of "shock" imagery as an attention-getting device.
Films such as It's Up to You

( 1960), showing extreme close

ups of Eddie Briggs' eye surgery under a cynical narration

( "Now, Eddie's not getting an anaesthetic here") vie for
supremacy with the military V.D. training films, too many to

DO'S AND DON'TS FILMS ( or "Goofus and Gallant" films,

after the famous characters in Highlightsfor Children maga
zine) work with time-honored images of good and bad, right
path

vs.

wrong path, reward and tragedy. Take Your Choice,

filmed in the early 1960s in Detroit's Mumford High School,

counterposes the pleasures of sports and outdoor activities
against an empty future spent sitting in a room with dark
glasses, all to convince students to wear their safety glasses in
chemistry lab. Let's Be Safe At Home ( 1948 ), a brilliant,
little-known film produced on an extremely slim budget,
shows \'arious children's activities through double-exposure
( the film is actually wound back within the camera and
re-exposed ). A boy, hailed by a friend who is standing on the
front lawn with his pet rat, stands poised at the top of the
stairs, ready to run down ( or walk safely), as the case maybe.
His "ghost" remains on the landing while his other image
somersaults down, receiving grave injuries. Later, two boys
play with their father's gun; the pair freeze and watch their
"ghosts" play a deadly game in which one boy is wounded
and falls to the floor. ( In the "safe" version, the bullet simply
hits the wall, making a small, neat hole.)

Sometimes the images are innocuous and danger is simply

suggested, as in Safety In Winter( 1952) where the narrator
intones, "It's not nice to throw snowballs with rocks or
iceballs inside of them."

be named, which feature numerous close-ups of male genita

PARABLES AND EXAMPLES. We are led to identify with stories

lia in the late stages of syphilis and gonorrhea.

of ordinary victims who have been led into jeopardy, usuaJiy

"Shock" imagery often works through substitution, dou

bling, models, or schematics. Atomic tests in Sumival TOU'11,

the thousands, and are perhaps best exemplified by the

USA ( also known as Doomtoun. USA ), newsreels and Chi!

portentous Days Of Our Years ( 1955 ). produced for the

Defense films

Union Pacific Railroad. Using the standard device of a trilogy,

( 1955

and later) used dumm ies in real dwel-

by their own missteps or carelessness. These films number in

1 69

each episode more heartbreaking than the preceding one,

pleads his case with an unseen judge. His advocate is not

the film argues that people are responsible for abridging

successful, and Joe is sentenced to time in purgatory as a

their own happiness and shortening their own lives.

guardian angel for other careless drivers.

A minister ("My parish is in a railroad town") walks

Safe As You 7bink ( 1950) shows a bureaucratic heaven,

through what appear to be the outskirts of Los Angeles ( the

all fitted out in art deco, where armies of clerks compile

set for many hundreds of safety pictures), recounting stories

statistics on fatalities and injuries on earth. The walls,

of wasted lives. Joe, a young railroad worker, waits to marry

covered with totalizers and meters, look like a network

his girlfriend Mary, a waitress in a luncheonette. As he shaves

newsroom on election night. A bricklayer, about to be killed

his neck in the morning he thinks about her. He stops by the

by a breaking rope, is taken to heaven ( again by an advocate

restaurant to give her a good-morning kiss. Staring at her

who wishes to plead for his life ) but the plea for intercession

reflection in the toaster, she fantasizes about their dream

is not heeded, and he must take his punishment.

wedding and life together. The toast pops up rudely, and the

Outside these more or less established genres, jeopardy

day is on. Joe performs his job (as road electrical foreman)

strikes in many unpredictable ways. bplosion: Danger Lurks

with dangerous speed. In a hurry to get back to Mary, he flips

( 1949), produced by the Watts Regulator Company, brings

his truck, breaking his neck. Though Joe lives, there is no

hundreds of engineers and executives into a New England

dream wedding, and in fact Mary has to stand on her toes in

meadow to witness hot-water heater explosions. Pressures

the empty church to kiss him, since his neck brace prevents

within ordinary hot-water heaters sometimes rise to millions

him from bending down.

"Not all trips to the hospital are unhappy ones," says the

of pounds per square inch, and these heaters shoot hundreds

narrator, as a young welder brings his wife in labor to the

are destroyed.

of feet in the air. As in Doomtown USA, many small buildings

emergency room. The doctors send him back to work, where

Safety In The Kitchen (

he awaits a telephone call. Receiving his call, he proceeds to

nary kitchen utensils and primitive elements ( fire, water)

1969) shows the threat that ordi

pass out cigars in the shop. "One can forgive Frank for passing

pose to a housewife's well-being. At the exact moment she

out cigars on company time," says the narrator. Last cigar in

contemplates an unsafe act ( carrying a pot of boiling water,

hand, Frank slaps a welder on the back who, startled, wheels

cutting the wrong way with a knife, plugging in a wet electric

around, accidentally blinding him! (The effect is shown by a

cord ) , the screen breaks into a kaleidoscopic pattern that

melting frame of film . ) Cut to the yard, where Frank sits on

whiplashes in and out, shocking the eye. Warned, presuma

the stoop wearing Roy Orbison-like sunglasses, groping

bly, by this optical effect, the actress never makes a mistake,

around the crib for his child. "There is nothing more to say;

and the web of safety isn't broken.

he has said it all a million times. Frank has never seen his son."
ln an early film, Bicycling With Complete Safety (

1938 )

Although jeopardy is an important ingredient in medical,

veterinary, mortuary and agricultural films, accident and

reckless riding carries heavy penalties. Wi11ie, riding and

chance take second place to experimentation. As more is

eating popcorn at the same time, wipes out. Flanking his

known about these obscure films, though, significant exam

hospital bed, his parents wonder where they'll get the money

ples may emerge.

to pay his medical bills. They finally decide their Christmas

The importance of films of jeopardy is proportionate to

savings will have to go to the hospital, "and Willie knows

their naivete. Major breaks in the continuity of life (injuries,

what that means."

accidents) and major social problems ( 50,000 traffic deaths

a year in the USA ) are depicted by cinematically-primitive

HEAVEN. Finally, of course, almost everyone ends up in

"mom and pop" producers. There is little attempt to obscure

heaven. In most jeopardy films, though, heaven isn't usually

the economic interests that lie behind so many of these films.

paradise, but instead a place ofjudgment. In the wartime film

They usually avoid philosophizing, or in trying to do so turn

XMarks The Spot ( 1944 ),Joe Doakes, a reckless driver in life,

common sense and logic on their head. Attempting to make

rises from a huge white "X" ( magically appearing in the

sense out of mere chance, they illuminate that area where

intersection where he meets his death) through the clouds

repressed violence collides with the expressed wish for

to a supernatural traffic court, where his "guardian angel"

safety, security and order.

Gunilla to share an apartment where she will ready Gunilla

oung Playthings is an obscure masterpiece relegated by

for the threesome.

its softcore format to late-night viewing on cable 1Vs "Esca

It is in the new apartment house that Gunilla and Nora

pade" or the "Playboy'' channel. Ironically deceptive, the

encounter Britt, a mysterious loner who earns her living

collecting broken discarded playthings which she restores

titillating title lures the audience with the prospect of a

libidinous romp. But this unique sex film penetrates other

and sells to collectors. While seeming detached and reclu

realms. Seducing the mind as well as the senses, it conforms

sive, Britt is strangely charismatic. She first appears before

externally, yet transcends the limitations of its genre. Flesh

Nora and Gunilla at the base of a flight of stairs on the

fondling is not the supreme concern. Rather, sexual experi

threshold of her slightly ajar door. Such sudden appearances

mentation is presented as healthy and indispensable to the

urtderlying goal, which is the rejection of conformist mores,

at crossroads by strange creatures recall the classic role of

the psychopomp in hero journey myths. Heralds signaling the

and liberation from socially conditioned sexual attitudes.

call to adventure, they beckon the vacillating explorer, offer

Radically different from contemporary films of its type,

encouragement.

Young Playthings treats women not as exploited objects, but

knowledge.

and

act

as

guides

in

the

quest

for

as central characters seeking their own sexual identity.

Cinematic clues reflect Britt's function. Her chthonic

Women are neither subservient to men, nor dominated. They

nature is suggested by her focused, confined space. Vertical

are not depicted as vapid sex kittens, victims of Sado

and up-and-down shots of corridors leading to Britt's room

Masochists, nor fetter-bound slaves of DiscipHnarians. Psy

suggest both the aspiration for a higher goal, and the need to

chological motivation is of paramount interest; jungian

delve deep within.

symbols abound, replacing the vocabulary and humorously

Another ambiguous character plays a major role in the

story although she is never seen. We do not know for certain

transforming the apparatuses common to most "hump"

movies. Cognizant of eternal links with universal ancient

if she exists. Britt's sister Julia is depicted only briefly ( in a

rites of passage, joe Sarno presents the hero's journey and

portrait with her sister) as a clown in Columbine make-up. A

utilizes

sexual

poet, Julia composed and narrated stories which Britt has

confusion.

recorded and uses in her pantomimes. According to Britt,

Written, directed, and edited in 1972, Young Playthings

Julia ran away with a man, nearly breaking her heart. When

shot in Sweden featuring amateurs and an English script.

Julia tried to return, Britt refused, and Julia went mad. The

was

fairy tales as

devices for dealing with

Sarno draws upon a legend familiar to modem Swedish

Orphic or Dionysian reference is obvious; julia is the unseen

society despite its nineteenth century origin. As the titles

voice, Britt the silent interpreter of Julia's fantasies. Julia is

run, a quintet of rigidly joined wooden toy soldiers marches

perhaps Britt's alter-ego, symbolizing the irrational side of

briskly across the screen, evoking at once connotations of

human nature.

battle and memories of childhood play with soldiers like

these. Thus in the first seconds of the film Sarno presents a

Britt is a mentor with her own circle of adherents. Anala

gous to the restoration of broken antiques and toys is her

visual image which symbolizes and presages a fundamental

rescue and resuscitation of society's casualties. She invites

concern: here are playthings marching mechanically to an

Gun ilia to view her toys, and performs for her a pantomime of
one of Julia's poems replete with stage, costume, make-up,

ingrained tune. The drum corps precedes troops in battle.

Appropriately these drummers announce a campaign replete

and narration. Gunilia is mesmerized and soon convinces her

with warrior-lover imagery.

friend Nora to take part.

The five soldiers in the preamble foreshadow their human

Henceforth, the plot focus centers on the fairy tales

counterparts. )ana is a traveling businessman in a minor

enacted in Britt's room. These fantasy episodes are con

supporting role. He initiates little action, appearing primarily

trasted with outdoor scenes in real time. The dichotomous

as a foil for the two women he loves. Gunilla, his wife,

patiently endures his prolonged absences, unaware of his

juxtaposition of fantasy and reality gradually diminishes. What

is normally perceived in the outside world as acceptable and

secret liaison with Nora, her oldest, closest friend.

real proves duplicitous and hollow in Britt and Julia's con

Gunilla's sweet demeanor projects an aura of innocence

trived theatrical realm. Society's conventions foster disguise

and purity emphasized cinematically by numerous shots in

and mutation of the true self. Under Britt's direction, com

which she holds a spray of luminous white flowers. Yet

prehension

Gunilla is no simpleton. By means of an eloquent iconogra

accumulated bourgeois mores.

phic device, Sarno hints at her quest for understanding;

Gunilla is often depicted gazing at her reflection in a mirror.

Shortly, Nora and Gunilla become players in Britt's reper

tory and eventually meet her other followers. The initial plot

Her self-perusal is motivated not by vanity, but by an inquisi

device standard in many porn films, the seduction and cajol

emerges

through

make-believe,

replacing

tive, self-examining nature.

ing of an "innocent" ( Gunilla) into a menage a trois, introdu

Nora is single, extroverted, and sexually adventurous. But

ces the theme of initiation, here expanded to include an

she tires of her duplicity and confesses to )ana her feelings of

entire group under Britt's spell. Britt presides as mistress of

guilt. )ana loves both women and is unable to choose. Nora

suggests a menage a trois, butjana questions his wife's amen

ceremonies over a sort of mythological sexual encounter

group. Providing fantasies for her pupils to play out, she

ability. Nora assures him that she will overcome Gunilla's

makes learning fun.

reticence and devises a scheme. )ana is to depart on a ficti

In these episodes Britt engenders a return to a childlike

openness. Through make-beHeve, the players are transported

tious business trip, and in his absence Nora will persuade

1 72

Young Playthings.

to another dimension, cleansed of the fears, attitudes, and

responsib il ities in favor of livelihoods compatible with their

defenses accumulated in adult life. Donning costume and

new-found quest for freedom. The release of the self for these

disguise, becoming diverse characters, they shed the masks

people is predicated on the rejection of socially inherited,

they have clung to. The choice of archetypal figures from

unconditionally accepted mores.

antiquity in Western culture engenders the transportation of

The ensuing scene in Britt's little theater features Nora and

the group ( through similar experience ) to a sublimated

GunilJa as the Red and Blue Duchesses. From the nineteenth

state.

century setting of the Captain's tale, we journey to the Medic

Each successive make-believe session takes place in an

val period. The wood nymph Pan teaches the Red Duchess to

epoch chronologically more remote. The temporal regres

dance. The Blue Duchess ( Nora) considers herselfa superior

sian towards the idyllic Golden Age parallels the psycholog

dancer and wonders how her rival has learned to dance so

ical transformation of the group members as they uncover

well. When she learnsofPan'spart. she begs to be taught. The

and adopt an instinctual awareness ( much like a newborn' s),

two duchesses cavort with Pan and we are told that those

untainted by modem accretions of sexually repressive atti

who have tasted the honey of the nymph's tongue thirst ever

tudes and conformist obeisance to society's dictums. Addi

after for its sweetness and dance to the tune of its pipe.

tionally, each parable features a character with whom the

The pipe certainly connotes Orphic mysteries. Pan in

can identify, and offers pertinent

Classical m}1hs was a goat herder, human to the loins, with

instn1ction to each. References to Orphic, Dionysian, and

goat legs. ears, and loins. He was associated with forests,

various

personalities

Hermetic mysteries and doctrines pervade the pantomime

caves and lonely places, and made flocks fertile. He was also

sequences.
The first pantomime concerns the story of a captain who

medieval times was the mystagogue an d psychopom p of the

abandons his regiment for a white maiden he adores from

afar. Britt applies androgynous features with theatrical white
face. Donning a tri-corn captain's hat and flowing cape over
her nude form, she plays the role of the captain in front of a
crudely executed backdrop ( reminiscent of a carnival set)
encrusted with stars and moon. Gunilla only observes this
scenario, but actively participates in the next.

Gunilla

plays the white maiden ( symbol of the soul). In

this, there are two recurring motifs, the abandonment of a

regimented milieu, and the theme of disguise. The soldier
gazes longingly at the white maiden, but is too timid to
approach. Sensing this, she assumes the role of a bandit in a
conqueror mode. Union is effected through role reversal.
The two women disguised as a man and a woman now ldss
and fondle each other erotically. ( l ronicaJly, Nora's calcu
lated attempts to seduce Gunilla have brought about the
erotic friendship with Britt. Her sexual antics with a new
lover sent Gunilla, lonely, embarrassed and excited, running
down the stairs. At the Landing she encountered Britt and
accevted her invitation to see her toys. )

The soldier's abandonment

of milieu and the white maid

en's transformation into a bandit prefigure the antics of

Britt's group of fo!Jowers. They also abandon their stations in
life. Respectable professionals become pick-pockets and
thieves in order to participate in Britt's games. All disguise
themselves and reject their no longer relevant affiliations and

the son of Hermes, the messenger of the gods. Hermes in

Alchemists. These connotations in mind, it is plain that Britt,
as Pan, imparts sexual wisdom.

In the tale of the Peach and Plum Queens and their daugh

ters. Britt plays Puck, whose namesake is the famous trickster

from

Shakespeare's "Midsummer

Night's

Dream."

Puck

wants to play with the Peach and Plum princesses. But they
are timid. and their mothers are present. Puck knows that
queens like to ride, so he produces a strange horse with no
heads, two rumps and two dildoes on its back. The queens
. mount the horse and gaJJop in endless circles of delight, as
the two princesses and Puck make love. Puck tires and flees
into the forest; the

two

princesses wander in search of a

strange horse.
The horse symbolism, mounting and riding, is sexually

explicit. Further, horses provide transport to another place.

One controls the direction of the horse; here, the horse takes

control. The queens abandon their regal decorum, and sur.

rendering, achieve pleasure. The strange horse recalls the
Centa urs a tribe of wild beast-like monsters usually thought
,

of as being half-human and half-horse. They live in woods or

mountains, and for the Greeks, represent wild life, animal
desires, and barbarism, although the most famous centaur,
Chiron, was the mentor of divine children.
There are intriguing associations with other horse divini

ties in antiquity. The dualist personas of Britt and Julia, Nora

and Gunilla. and the Plum and Peach princesses and queens

1 73

recall Castor and Pollux, who lived half of the time in Olym
pus and the other half below the earth. (Compare the des
cent to Britt's room, a chthonic image-delving into the
subconscious.) Castor and Pollux had a cult in Uicadaemon
where they were symbolized by the "do-kang" -two upright
pieces of wood connected by two crossbeams. They are
often identified with the constellation Gemini and are caJied
"riders on white steeds." Their Greek counterparts, the Dios
curi, were connnected with the Phrygian Cabiri, who pro
moted fertility and protected sailors. Phallic rites connected
their worship with the more familiar cults of Hermes, Deme
ter, and Dionysus.
The Hermetic reference is reiterated in the story of a
sorceress whose attempts to unlock the mysteries of the
universe are interrupted by the warriors of two rival queens.
The sorceress gives them a magic potion which causes them
to be drawn amorously together, thus ending the rivalry
between the kingdoms.
)ana has now joined Nora and Gunilla in their vacation flat.
The trio spend days and nights in sexual exploration. Nora
and Gunilla ask for and receive Britt's permission to intro
duce )ana to the group. In the midst of one evening's fantasy,
Julia's taped voice orders the players to place Britt on a
vibrating dildo surmounting a wooden horse: "Show her no
mercy. Put her on the horse. If you hesitate, she will destroy
yuu all as she destroyed me." The tape runs out and the
players stare in silence as Britt rocks savagely on the contrap
tion. Nora begins to laugh; hesitantly the others follow suit.
Gunilla is at first shocked, but eventually joins the others in
their mirth.
The following day, we learn that Britt is very ill . She claims
that her insane sister Julia has escaped from a mental institu
tion and is pursuing her. All the players except Gunilla search
the city frantically for Julia. Nora demands why Gunilla
abstains and Gun ilia replies: "There is no Julia."
''you think Britt is insane."
"I think Julia is a character that Britt has created."
Nora asks why she doesn't just pack up and leave, and
Gunilla responds that she can't tear herself away: "I am as
hung-up as the rest."
But Gunilla senses an irrational undercurrent. She tells
Nora that she and )ana wiJI not be oining
j
in the evening
fantasy, but are leaving instead. Nora rushes to inform Britt,
who silently hands her a knife. Nora returris to her flat, and as
Gunilla rushes up apologetically, stabs her. Gunilla screams
and collapses.
Nora returns to Britt and recounts the deed. Britt announ
ces a change in the evening's exercises, playing instead, "The
Saga of the Red Witch and the Scarlett Countess." The tale
concerns a "tree of sexual fulfillment" which a terrified
princess tries to destroy. Her enraged friend then kills her.
The taped voice orders the players to thrust the scarlet
princess ( Nora) on a vibrating dildo. The voice drones:
"eternal to rment . . . eternal pleasure . . . eternal torment . . .
eternal torment, eternal pleasure, eternal torment for the
woman who killed her friend. Drive her out of her mind so
that she will forever be an inmate of our group."
Nora faces the same predicament which she found so
amusing when Britt was the victim. But Britt's pleasure
torment was martyr-like; she became ill the next day, having
taken on the burdens of the group. Her enforced orgasm
resembled the Dionysian frenzy of a Maenad; she herself
demonstrates a lesson she has been trying to impart: one
must relinquish control, accept role reversal, undergo con
flict, even be victimized, in order to learn. The captain is
united with his white maiden only when he abandons his
regiment and she exchanges her demure persona for that of
an outlaw. The sorceress resumes her lofty pursuits only after
transforming two warring factions into amorous allies. The
Plum and Peach Queens experience pleasure when they are
oblivious to regal status and dignity. Britt's followers gladly

Nora and Gunilla in Young Playthl.._s.

give up their respectable lives in exchange for the pleasura

ble: pun;uit of knowledge. Nora is punished because she has
shown herself to have changed little since joining the group.
She is still a pseudo-sophisticate who thinks she is liberated.
Ever mindful of her own gratification, most recently she has
shown herself still obsessive. Her punishment is apt.
While Nora endures her pleasure-torment,Jana cradles his
stricken wife. Picking up the knife, he discovers that it, too, is
a toy. Britt has released Gunilla from her circle because
Gunilla is the least innocent of all; she understands the
duality in nature, the relation between pleasure and torment,
reality and make-believe, the rational and the irrational.

1 74

\\

jack remains skeptical and unimpressed. After leaving the

am Montag. master ofillusion . . . defier ofthelaus

theater still arguing, they come across a crowd gathering

of Reason. A magician, ifyou u'ill . . . but then, uhat is a

around a restaurant-a woman has just collapsed in a booth,

magician ? A person lt ho tears asunderyour rules ofLogic?

intestines spilling out onto the floor. The corpse's dangling

And crumbles your uorld of Reality? So that you can go

hand brushes against Sherry, staining her hand wi th its blood.

home and say. 'Ob, uhal a cle11er trickster he isl What a sly

Later, Sherry returns to the theater hoping to persuade

decei1'erl -and go to sleep in the secun'ty ofyourown 'real'

uvrld . . . w hat is 'Neal?' Are you certain you knou what

Montag to appear on her show. At first he haughtily refuses,

but when he sees the bloodstain mysteriously reappear on

reality is? Hou do you knou that, at this second, you aren 't

her hand, he relents. Attracted by the latest newspaper head

asleep in your bed, dreaming that you are here in this

line: "Psycho Murder in Restaurant," jack recognizes the

theater? I knou . . . it all seems too real . . . well, bal'en 'lyou

victim as the woman Montag sawed in haJJ with his chainsaw,

bad a dream that seemed so very real . . . tillyou woke

and goes to the police with his suspicions. The police, typi

ever

up? Then again, hou do you know thatyou e11er really did

cally unimaginative and conservative, are of no help what

wake up ' In fact, perhaps uhen you bad thought that you

soever in preventing Montag's subsequent volunteers from

were uaking up. you had actual)' just begun to dream?

meeting similar fates. ( I n the meantime, Montag has been

You see uhat I mean. don 't you . . . ? All your life, yourpast.

stealing the corpses of his victims. for unexplained reasons,

your mles of uhat can and cannot be . . . may all be pari of

and dumping them down what looks like a laundry chute ( ! )

one long dream from which you are about to awake. and

located i n a deserted cemetery.)

disc01 'er the uvrld as it really is . .

/"

-THE WlZARD OF GORE

When at last Montag appears on Sherry's TV show, he

hypnotizes not only those in the studio but et'eryone viewing

The act of viewing a movie enlists the individual into a

the show ( " . . . hut first, let us link our minds," he intones

symbiotic relationship with the film itself, founded on the

audience's willing suspension ofdisbelief. A "good" movie is

ominously, looking straight into the camera). Wisely, jack

has averted his gaze-thus escaping being hypnotized. Fro

identified with verisimi litude-if we do not "believe," then

zen in trance, all the audience within transmitter range sport

the movie was "bad." "Bad" movies are commonly qualified

the bloody stigmata on their hands. Montag's final illusion is

by one or more of the following components: 1 ) a concep

revealed to be the immolation of his entire audience, and he

tual or actual element which conflicts with the belief

proceeds to lead Sherry, the studio crew, and all viewers to

parameters of its audience, 2 ) a noticeable lack offunds, and

their deaths in a flaming furnace. At the last instant Jack

3) "bad" acting. What different groups or individuals believe

bursts in and pushes Montag into the flames, thus breaking

to be "true" always varies widely, but all film audiences want

his evil spell.

to beliet'e in the movie they've come to see. When an

audience is presented with a film outside the boundaries of

As the film ends, Jack and Sherry are wondering just how
Montag could have performed his heinous deeds. Suddenly

their "logic,'' the symbiosis between the film and the

Jack peels off his mask, revealing himself to be Montag in

audience dissolves.

disguise, and tears into Sherry with his bare hands. She,

The Wizard of Gore defies the notions oflogic, reason, and

however, laughs in his face and announces to him that he was

restra int with carefree (or careless) abandon, stopping at

her illusion a U along, and transports him back to the film's

nothing to trap our attention. The camp elements cannot he

beginning, fating him to "start his little charade all over again

ignored, but the careful viewer will realize this is one of the
most intellectually provocative films ever to emerge from the

. . . " Fin.

depths ofgore cinema. Complex notions of Time, Space and

In Montag's performances throughout the film, heady

theoretical phrases such as "tearing asunder the rules of

Logic are presented in the midst of some of the wildest

logic" and "crumbling the world of reality" are bewilder

flaunting of cinematic "good taste" ever to appear on the

ingly substantiated by extreme gore atrocities. The actors (as

screen.

well as their dialogue) are amateurish, often to the point of

Viewers expecting potent metaphysical themes to be pres

ented in a subdued, restrained manner would be better off

hilarity; an exuberant hamminess shared by the cast predates

elsewhere. Of Lewis's films, The Wizard ofGore is easily the

one of Waters' major influences/inspirations. )

most outlandish in premise, if not in execution. To synopsize

Montag's character is particularly droll. Given to punctuat

ing his performances with cheerfully morbid patter ( " Isn't

the story, Montag is a magician whose ghastly specialty is the

the flamboyant emoting of John Waters' players ( Lewis was

violent dismemberment of female volunteers from the

there one lady among you who is considerate enough to

audience-sawing one in haJJ with a chainsaw, hammering a

satisfy her fellow human beings' lust for blood?"), he often

railroad spike through the skull of another, blasting through

plays the jokester. When displaying his chainsaw, he remarks,

another's midsection with an industrial punch press, and

'You were expecting a mere handsaw? And a covered

forcing two more to swallow wicked-looking swords. Leav

ing the stage apparently intact, his volunteers always suffer

wooden casket? Oh, no . . . that's the old-fashioned way of

sawing people in half. Today, magicians are mechanized,

delayed reactions shortly after leaving the theater-Montag's

too!" Later, his predilection for updated industrial technol

illusions become fatal realities.

ogy is further evidenced by his unconventional application of

In the audience is Sherry Carson, hostess of the daytime TV

show. "Housewives' Colfeebreak," and her sports V-Titer

the punch press.

boyfriend,J ack. Sherry is amazed by Montag's illusions, while

The film's notions of plot and continuity are remarkable

blatant non-sequiturs abound. Montag's motivation for these

1 75

grisly murders is never explored, nor is the source of his

powers revealed. The significance of the bloody stigmata
appearing on everybody's hands during the mass 1V hypnosis
remains a mystery. The grave-robbing forays seem to exist for
no reason at all. The list goes on, but such trivial considera
tions are far beside this movie's point-or as Montag himself
puts it, "What makes you think you know what reality is?"
Part of The Wizard of Gore's unique chann is predsely that
element ofchaos: "Never explain, never complain" seems to
adequately summarize Lewis' philosophy of plot.
When aiming for his audience's reactionary jugular. Lewis
is deadly accurate. As the progenitor of the blitzkrieg-gore
approach. he was singularly aware that movies need not be
expensive or have "serious" content; his films succeeded by
sheer imaginative force and by breaking taboos of decency
and propriety-people paid money simply to see them
broken.
The Wizard of Gore is singular for consciously acknow
ledging the idea of Gore As Entertainment. Indeed, the
entire plot revolves around the concept of people paying
their money to passively observe a maniac subjecting young
women to spectacular tortures. ( When an interviewer once
grilled him on the misogynistic aspects of his films, Lewis
snorted that he would just as readily have killed off males as
females. had he believed an audience existed for such films. )
The implications are obvious as Montag matter-of-factly
comments: "Torture and terror have always fascinated man
kind . . . perhaps what made your predecessors see the
sadism of the Inquisition and the gore of the gladiators is the
same thing that makes you stare at bloody highway accidents
. . . and thrill to the terror of Death in the bullring . . . "
Montag, like Lewis, is consummately oblig.ing of his audien
ce's desires.
The average moviegoer will certainly be mortified by The
Wizard of Gore 's extreme sadism, as well as the "seedy"
quality which pervades all of Lewis' films. Absent are the
sophisticated latex prosthetics of Tom Savini or Dick Smith,
which, while technically virtuosic, appear merely slick and
facile next to the crude and vicious carnage of the animal
innard school which Lewis himself pioneered to hideous
extremes. In this film, Montag displays a special fondness for
mangling the victims' organs with bare fingernails, gleefully
kneading them as though dough before the appreciative eyes
of the audience.
His illusions are shown in a series ofjump-cuts, alternating
between two distinctly separate realities-the scene of the

placidly enduring assault as though in trance, juxta

posed with the sight of the victim becoming gore. Particu
larly eerie is the aftermath of the sword-swallowing scene.
where the rwo victims stand calm and erect on either side of
Montag, sword handles protruding from open mouths, inter
cut with scenes where they dangle from their bonds like
broken puppets, crumpled and bloody, while Montag takes
his triumphant bows between them.
The film's conceptual denouement takes place in the final
scenes where jack peels off his face in front of Sherry's
horrified eyes. revealing himself to be Montag before he
proceeds to disembowel her with bare hands. Sheri")S reac
tion, however. is to brush her guts off her chest and laugh in
his face-as startling an event for Montag as it is for the
audience. She tauntingly informs him that she, too, is a
"dealer in illusion." Then the hostess of "Housewives's Cof
feebreak" transports herself and Montag back to the film's
beginning. dooming him to repeat endlessly his cycle of
illusion and murder, while in the audience Sherry remarks to
jack as the film closes, "You know what I think? I think he's a
phony!" The turn of the screw is complete: Reality and
IUusion have finally become an indistinguishable blur, even
to their very manipulators. A radical concept. indeed . . .
On a multitude of levels this film constantly challenges its
audience to examine what is "true" or "real, " forcing them to
acknowledge ( rei uctant ly or otherwise ) that these supposed
truths are merely human tnlfbs-therefore subjective. We
as humans are capable only of perceiving dimly what brilliant
chaos extends beyond our puny laws and sciences. As john
Barrymore cunningly remarks in St1engali, "You would do
well to remember that there are more things in heaven and
earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy . . ." The asser
tion of sophisticated, abstract concepts in such a consum
mately crude film will doubtless provoke derision in that
intellectual "elite" which accepts themes of metaphysical
content only when clothed in genteel surroundings.
In all its shoddy glory, The Wizard of Gore serves as an
wwsual reminder that the mysteries of the cosmos extend
themselves as readily into the gutter as they do to the stars,
implying a vast realm of similar film experiences antithetical
to the promoters and consumers of mass media "Reality" and
"Illusion." Regardless of whatever intentions he had, in 7be
Wizard of Gore Lewis succeeding in creating a total effect of
demented cosmic anarchy. The Wizard of Gore is a film
which is tnt)! perverse, and in all the best possible defini
tions of that word.
victim

convey the presence of a hostile God overlooking his flock. A

ne clue connects a series of killings: the killers all

confess. "God told me to . . . " In the film written and directed

by Larry Cohen. police detective Peter Nicholas (Tony Lo
Bianco ) discovers God to be the wrathful diety of the Old
Testament transplanted to contemporary Manhattan. This is
the God who calls the powerful to liis side while he slaugh

happy throng at the Saint Patrick's Day parade is reduced to a

terrified mob when a marching policeman opens fire on the
crowd, causing mac;s hysteria.
Screaming crowds are common elements in films. They
are generally portrayed negatively as the result of terror
(crowds fleeing hostile ants or hostile armies). Viewed

ters the masses in the streets. His messiah is a hippie named

through the anarchistic vision of

Bernard Phillips whose mother immaculately conceived by

life-affirming and mob scenes are elevated to exhilarating

GTMT, chaos becomes

the divine light of a spaceship. When this God looks down on

spectacles. When the journalist glorifies chaos, he articulates

the world, run for cover.

the perspective of classic mythology in which chaos is an

Peter Nicholas. the good cop, becomes a visionary hero as

indispensable element of the world cycle, destroying the old

his investigation reveals that both he and Bernard are divine

order. Chaos is an essential aspect of the eternal round of

beings. the children of virgin mothers and extraterrestrials.

destruction and regeneration.

The New York locations. urban sounds and vivid true-to-l ife
characters fade into a mythic landscape as Peter and Bernard
compete in an epic struggle for power.

God Told Me To

Religious imagery appears grotesque in contrast to scenes

of mayhem. A bloody crucified Christ looms over Peter as he

prays. At a street fair he kneels before a neon altar which is

appropriates the structure of detective

significant as a pretty, glowing theater marquee. Peter is a

films, but this is no formula movie. Larry Cohen alters the

devout Catholic, but the symbols of his faith appear either

formula, depicting disorder as a catalyst to expand the hero's

sinister or meaningless. Although separated from his mystic

role toward irs archetypal fulfi llment as the bearer ofchange.

reclusive wife, Martha ( Sandy Dennis), he returns to her

The hero's work, according to joseph Campbell, is to journey

often to express his devout nature. Her suburban home is an

into thl" unknown and there slay the tyrant, ogre or cor

oppressive cloister filled with religious rctlics. Beneath a

rupted god, and so Liberate the earth from the domination of

print of a suffering Jesus, she consoles him, "You really

believe, hut where is the joy?" Spiritual decline, empty sym

the old order.

The

iconoclastic universe of G7MT condemns dogma and

organized religion. posing the question: If God and religion

are ideas conceived by man, what would happen if these

bols and rising violence define the parameters of the known

world.

Peter's investigation leads him closer to Bernard. Wit

concepts rook form and turned against their creators? All hell

nesses describe seeing a hippie with "no face" talking with

breaks loose when the malevolent manifestation of the Chris

the killers before the murders. One of the killers' mothers

tian "God" combines with the notion of UFOs and "gods

states, "Anybody who walks barefoot around New York has

from outer space." The film takes the position: you

got to have something wrong with him."

made it

up, nou you hat>e to lize with it.

In myths, heroes appear when society is in decline. The

killings in the film create a crisis which tests the validity of

When Peter enters Bernard's mother's apartment build

ing, Mrs. Phillips appears. knife in hand. They struggle on the

dark stairs and she falls, gagging as she dies on the word

authoritarian figures and institutions. Religion, law enforce

"God." From this point on, interiors become dreamscapes

ment and the social microcosm of the family are all revealed

and hallways passages to enlightenment. Peter descends in

as corrupt. God -the ultimate authority figure-is stained

an elevator to confront Bernard Phillips in an infernal boiler

with blood. The police. rendered ineffectual by their concep

room. His adversary appears wreathed in flames, the simul

tual conservatism, fu tilely attempt to impose order by

taneous incarnation of Christ and Satan.

Now

on a quest for his own identity, Peter follows a

how he shot his wife and children. When asked why he did it,

( Sylvia

Sydney)

Dad concludes (smiling beatifically), "Because He gives me

enlightens him as to the secret of his virgin birth. At this point

so much and asks for so little."

he renounces his religion and realizes his power before the

suppressing information. A father exercises his "divine right"

over his fami ly and in a testimonial to blind faith describes
,

Whose side is God on, anyway? Consistent with history,

God's elect in GTMT are a small groupofwealthyand power

ful men, seemingly representing the "New Right" and funda

labyrinth twisting through New York, leading to his mother

who gave

him

up

for adoption.

She

labyrinth leads him back to Bernard.

The stairs of an abandoned building lead Peter to his

long-sought confrontation with Bernard. who confirms what

mentalist government politicians. In an impressive board

Peter suspects . . . they are of the same origin, but different.

room, they await exalted positions in the new millennium.

Peter is superior, not only as the new avatar, but genetically

One of the powerful expresses concern over the fate of the

as well. Bernard explains, "In me, all that is you became

dying masses. Another sums up the inequity of a religion

recessive." He exposes a multisexual orifice on his side ( a

based on guilt when he replies, "The only way He has ever

sexualization of Olrist's wound) and invites Peter t o mate

communicated is through fear." It appears ill-advised to trust

with him. Peter's refusal, an affirmation ofhis power, signifies

those who believe they have a direct line to God.

"I love chaos. Out of chaos comes reason, and out of

Bernard's death. The vanquished messiah assumes a gesture

of benediction as flames envelop him and walls collapse. The

reason, science." So says the science editor of a New York

destiny implicit in the myth is fulfilled . . . making way for a

tabloid before he breaks the suppressed story of the killings.

new miJienium.

The disintegrating city is observed from above as aerial shots

When

the press asks Peter why he killed Bernard, Peter

1 77

answers,

"He told me to."

always be a new order waiting in the wings to overthrow the

The film ( but not most videotapes ) ends with a conclud

ing line

stating that Peter

old.

sentenced to a mental institu

The message of the film is greater than the fate of its hero.

tion. The ending is left ambiguous: will the new messiah be

Larry Cohen utilizes the mythic possibilities of film to its

was

dismissed as a crazy killer, or wiU he orchestrate the dawn of

fullest. The hero's journey into the realm of darkness corre

a new age? In a mythic sense, the film ends appropriately

sponds to an individual's process of psychic growth. God

open-ended. G7MT is an unfinished chapter in a larger sys

1bld Me 1b explores and explodes the major delusions

tem which celebrates transformation, but also poses a warn

underlying our culture's religious beliefs; it is an exorcism of

ing: today's hero becomes tomorrow's tyrant. There will

hypocrisy.

might trip you up"). This tension is an inversion of normal

last of Silence is another exceptional film disguised as a

movie conventions which dictate that you're supposed to get

low-budget gangster movie. It looks cheap; it sounds cheap;

nervous when the character is committing a crime, and relax

it's great.

when he's socializing. When Frankie's doing a crime, he's ice

The plot is straightforward: Frankie Bono, independent hit

cold.

man, is hired to knock off a crime boss. He contracts with a fat

friend to buy a gun with silencer. He trails his mark. He runs

Sometimes the voice is simply an emotional barometer, as

when it alerts Frankie, ''You're nervous, your hands are hot,"

into and falls forsome skirt he knew from his orphanage days.

or "You're comfortable, your hands are cold."

The fat gun supplier wants more dough, so Frankie offs him.
Then he knocks off the target. When he goes to collect his

Even though the most memorable srylization of the film is

the constant narration, there are exceptionally visual scenes

fee, he gets gunned down by men hired by his employers.

such as when Frankie is dancing in the living room with the

This may all may sound somewhat familiar. The plot, how

girl he used to know. She is relaxed, gazing at the ceiling

ever, is only a vehicle for fleshing out the character of the

( toward the distant romantic horizon or back to fond old

paranoid, existential, post-adolescent-loner Frankie Bono.

The first indication tht this is not an ordinary crime

memories?) when out of nowhere he tries to rape her. Then

thriller comes with the oi>ening shot and voice-over. A tiny

there's the scene when ( with great difficulry) he kills the fat
guy, initially employing a fire axe . . .

spot of light in the middle of a black movie screen grows until

There's also a memorable scene in a cocktail lounge where

it hecomes the ooenine of a tunnel into Grand Central Sta

we see Frankie's prey and girlfriend sitting at a table ( he's

tion. The voice-over (which sounds like Uonel Stander,

greasy-looking; she's a gold-digger). Laughing, she gives him

although no one is given credit) begins,

a big kiss. Then a live black jazz band appears with a singer

You were born with hate and anger built in. Took a
slap in the backside to blast out the scream. Then you
knew you were alive. B ibs, 5 oz. Baby Boy Frankie
Bono. Father doing well. Later you learned to hold
back the screams and let out the hate and anger in
other ways.

who plays congas, singing about how he's "dressed in black

a-all the ti-ime" -a plaintive tune furnishing a subtext
appropriately reflecting Frankie's thoughts. Then the singer
goes "over the top" relating the saga of "trying to find (his)
baby iq this torrid, torrid, town."-one of the most uninhi
bited performances ever captured on film.

This voice-over is constantly informing us ( and Frankie)

In another classic scene Frankie is walking through Har

what is going on. Rather than revealing privileged insights, it

lem, the camera tracking alongside him. As he walks, the

appears to be Frankie's trained, conscious image of himself

people hanging out on the street stare sullenly back at the

talking, reminding him how tough he is, and nagging him

camera, refusing to be faceless extras. This documentary

when he gets soft.

sequence makes Frankie seem unimportant, while these

Eventually the film becomes a somewhat schizophrenic

unknown "real people" steal the scene, generating genuine,

experience as this disembodied voice increasingly grows

uncomfortable emotional tension.

stronger than Frankie, whose own voice is high, soft, nasal,

The ending, filmed in a horrific wind and rain storm at an

Frankie almost

isolated summer cottage landing, ranks as one of the bleak

disappears-the high-contrast grainy photography reinforc

est, even among noir films. This low-budget masterpiece

ing the decline of his character.

involving exceptional locations, casting, narration and film

and

badly

The

recorded.

Toward

the end

voice frequently stresses Frankie's need to be alone,

ing is credited to "Allen Baron" ( screenplay, director and

and in fact the only real tension in the film occurs when he

star). The modem composer Meyer Kupferman composed

talks to the girl ("you're making a fool of yourself, buddy''),

and conducted the score. None of the other names in the

or making contact with other humans ("watch out, they

credits were recognizable.

tor/"demon" who possesses her soul-leads her through a

''You . . . you out there. Do you know what horror is?
Smug, confident, secure because you're sane. Do you know

graveyard and shows her scenes from her childhood, some of

them most bizarre and imaginative.

what madness is, or how it strikes? Have you seen the demons

The woman re-lives the night she murdered her father

that surge through the corridors of the crazed mind? Do you

who had just killed her mother. The tableau is set in a

know that in the world of the insane you will find a kind of

cemetery, with living room and bedroom furniture arranged

truth more terrifying than fiction? A truth that will shock

amidst the tombstones. Her father ( resembling thf: police

you!"

man who came to her aid in the alley) is an abusive lush. Her

So begins john Parker's strange

1953 classic, Daughter of

mother, clad only in a black slip and lying on a couch next to a

Horror. Originally filmed MOS (without sound), Daughter

tombstone marked "Mother," is eating chocolates from a

of Horror is augmented by a music soundtrack and a narra

box. She appears low-class and amoral. When the father gets

tion by Ed McMahon. With its long shadows and lonely

home, his attempts at sex with his wife are repulsed. lben he

figures, the film's visual style resembles that of the painter De

notices a cigar butt in an ashtray. Incensed by his wife's

Olirico.

cavalier attitude and the apparent evidence of her infidelity,

The movie begins in the hotel room of a young woman

he shoots her dead. As he stares at the body his daughter

suffering from recurring nightmares. Awaking from one, she

comes up from behind and st.abs him to death.

gets out of bed,

walks to her dresser, takes out a switchblade

The scene in which the woman is being led through the

and pockets it. On her way out she sees police talking to her

cemetery will be recognized by many, for Daughter of Hor

neighbors, and though we can't hear what they're saying, it's

ror is the movie the teens are watching just before 7be Blob

streets-probably Venice, California. The location, along

invades the theater. Seeing this scene years later in the origi
nal context can produce a strange deja vu.
The woman snaps out ofher reverie in time to leave the car

with the noirci nematography, gives the film a visual similar

and follow the fat man to his upstairs apartment. Inside, the

apparent that a drunken man has just beaten his wife.

The young woman ventures out into the darkened city

ity to Orson Welles' Touch of Etlil. Responsible for the film's

man sets her aside temporarily for a bite to eat. She watches

moody look is William Thompson, an excellent cinemato

in disgust as he stuffs his face with food, greedilypuUing meat

grapher whose work includes the films of Ed Wood,

from chicken bones with his teeth. For sheer prandial gross

Jr.

The woman buys a newspaper from a dwarf which pro

ness, only Le Grande Bouffe can match this scene.

After

claims: MYSTE RIOUS STABBING. Smiling, she throws the

paper away, but it begins to roll along the ground after her.

the woman; she rebuffs him. He pulls a wad of bills from his

finishing his meal the fat man tries making a pass at

She runs down an aiJey and the paper lands on her feet; a slash
of light illuminates the headline: MYSTERIOUS STABBING.
This time the guilt is explicit.
These scenes reveal genuine directorial finesse. Unfortu

nately john Parker, possibly stung by critical reaction (or

lack of it ), abandoned filmmaking. Daughter ofHorror is his
only known picture.
Next the woman encounters 5everal winos in the alley.

One tries to force her to take a drink, but she resists. Sud
denly a police car pulls up; a plainclothes cop emerges and
begins to beat the man. The woman looks on, laughing
gleefully.
Wandering away from the brutal scene, she encounters a

greased Lothario who stops to buy a carnation from a flower

girl, pins it to his lapel, and then converses with the Daughter
of Horror. Because the film is silent we cannot hear what he's
saying, but it's obvious he's attempting to persuade her of
something. Eventually she nods and smiles, seemingly in
acceptance. They stop to light cigarettes and a newspaper
brushes against her feet: MYSTERIOUS STABBING. She kicks
the newspaper away; it tumbles into the street and is run over
by a car. The car stops. From the backseat a fat man peers at
them.
The Lothario walks over to the car and, after talking to the

fat man and accepting some money, beckons

the

woman

over. She gets in the car; he doesn't. The woman and the fat
man

(played by stock heavy Bruno Ve Sota) spend the even

ing traveling from club to club.

While driving through the city, the woman fades into a

memory of the past. A faceless figure -presumably the narra-

Daughter of Horror.

pocket and approaches her again. This time the woman

light on her as she runs. Suddenly she encounters the flower

smiles, but when he tries to kiss her she pulls her knife and

girl and by an impulse places the dismembered hand in the

stabs him. He stumbles backwards through a window and

basket ( much to the girl's horror), then continues flight.

falls six stories, his money trailing behind him like confetti in
the air.

way behind which a jazz band is practicing. Immediately a

Finding herself trapped in an alley, she ducks into a door

Shocked at her deed, the woman runs down the stairs to

man bolts the door behind her to keep the police from

the street. Near the body of her victim she pauses to cry.
"Guilty!" the narrator scolds, "Mad with guilt and the demon

basement nightclub, where Shorty Rogers and His Musical

that has taken possession of your soul."

Suddenly she realizes she has lost her pendant -the fat

hipsters and lowlifes. This scene provides a rare glimpse into

entering. He provides her with a satin gown and they enter a

Giants-an actual band-play bebop before an audience of

grabbed it as he fell, and now it lies clutched in his

the jazz underworld that thrived in the early fifties. Later

lifeless hand. Vainly she tries to pry the pendant loose from

due largely to the efforts of Jack Kerouac-these hipsters

his rigid fingers. Pulling her switchblade out once more, she

became known as the "beat generation," or "beatniks."

man

severs the man's hand. At this point she appears to be sur

The woman begins dancing to Shorty's music, and an air of

rounded by people watching her, but the people have no

normalcy resumes. All too soon a police officer arrives. Saun

faces. The narrator informs us they are the "ghouls of insan

tering around the club, accepting payoffs from various

ity," real only to the Daughter of Horror.

patrons, he at ftrst ignores her; but slowly, slowly he works

The police appear and begin to chase her, shining a spot-

his way to the front of the stage, where she stands.

At the window another policeman kneels beside the fat
man,

who-very much alive again-points at the woman

with his bloody stump. The people in the club look at the fat
man, then turn and point at the woman. The policeman holds
up a pair of handcuffs, the fat man laughs and the people
surround her. She looks down and sees the pendant around
her neck. As the theme song reappears. mingling with the

._.Iller of

Horror.

jazz of Shorty Rogers, a montage of faces spin in and out ofher

vision-her

mother,

her father,

the

fat

man and

the

Lothario-all of them laughing. The pendant spins before her

eye and giant waves crash down upon her as she runs.
The movie ends where it began, with the woman arising
from her bed. "Only a dream," the narrator tells us. "Or was
it?" She notices a gold chain hangingfrom her dresser drawer
and opens it. Inside, still clutching the pendant, is the fat
man's hand. Again and again we hear her scream as the
camera pulls away from the hotel and out of her life.

Daughter of HonYJr was first released in 1955 under the

title Dementia. Critical response

was

underwhelming, and

the film quickly disappeared. It resurfaced briefly in 1956.

again without much notice. During the seventies the film
gained stature among horror fans as one of the strangest
.novies ever made, with many considering it an overlooked
classic. Unquestionably it deserves far more attention than it
has received to date.

One of the most memorable aspects of the movie is its

haunting. repetitive score. The theme song. written by
George Antheil and sung by Marni Nixon, is repeated in
variations throughout the movie. The only time we don't
hear it is when Shorty Rogers plays; even then, Shorty doesn't
play long before the theme music comes swelling back,
ascending through his jazz in a mad cacophony. Composer
Antheil -who first gained fame for his unorthodox scoring of
Fernand Leger's Ballet Mecanique-was obviously influ
enced by Miklos Rozsa's Spellbound. The singer, Marni
Nixon, rose to prominence by dubbing vocal parts for many
actresses appearing in musicals, among them Natalie Wood
in West Side Story and Deborah Kerr in

7be King and I.

Daughter of HonYJr is not an easy film to analy-. Its

depictions of murder, resurrection and dismemberment
all common elements in horror films- are presented as the
hallucinations of an insane mind. Despite the noircinemato
graphy and depictions of pimps, payoffs, and venal police,

Daughter of HonYJr is not a crime movie. The original title,

Dementia, probably reflects the film's essence most accu
rately. In a conventional horror film the terror comes from
the outside, with the central figure a victim in a world gone
mad. In Parker's film the horror originates from the inside, as
an aberrant mind turns upon itself.
For three decades ignorant critics and a somnolent public
kept Daughter of HonYJr in obscurity. Now, looking at the
movie so many years later, we can only wonder at what
prevented them from seeing it as the remarkable film it is.

1 80

espite late-night TV and local revival theaters, each year

foot toddler. The children are watched over by Bruno, the

obscure films are lost -some irretrievably. Only an arbitrary

family chauffeur, who made an oath to Titus Merrye to take

fraction achieve the cult status necessary for survival.

care of the children forever.

Ralph, who, being the oldest, is the most regressed-a six

If any film ever deserved cult status, it is jack Hill's unique

Spider Baby, which defies classification. Untited distribution

Two distant cousins of Titus W. Merrye, Peter and Emily

Howe, arrive with their lawyer and his secretary. The Howes

and bad marketing, including misleading title changes to 1be

plan to claim the Merrye inheritance, including the mansion,

Lit'er Eaters (no livers are eaten) and Cannibal Orgy ( there

for themselves. It's obvious this is all Emily's idea, Peter being

is no orgy, cannibal or otherwise) contributed to the film's

a soft-spoken, likable fe!Jow who seems only along for the

neglect. Fortunately it was rereleased on videocassette, but is

ride.

still seldom seen on the big screen.

At

times Spider Baby is like a television sitcom directed by

spider Baby was released in 1968, but was made in 1964 or

earlier in Los Angeles. The film opens with Lon Chaney, Jr.
"singing" about vampires and werewolves, neither of which

prepared by Bruno and the children. The main course con

sists of a "rabbit" caught by Ralph ( it's really a cat, and for the

has anything ro do with the film. But the song, with its eerie

guests only; Bruno and the children are vegetarians); mush

Luis Buiiuel. In one scene the interlopers are served a dinner

accompaniment. does set the mood.

rooms picked by Virginia ( "She has an uncanny knack for

The film tells of Merrye's Syndrome, a rare disease affect

picking only the non-poisonous varieties" ); and a slimy black

ing only members of the Merrye family. This illness causes its

stew only Virginia will eat ("Oh, no, sir!" Bruno warns Peter,

victims to regress mentally to a pre-infantile state ofsavagery

"You wouldn't want any of that!"). When Ralph grabs the

and cannibalism. In the large fantily mansion, the only survi

"rabbit" and begins gnawing on it, Peter asks if Ralph isn't

vors are the children of Titus W. Merrye: Elizabeth, who

also a vegetarian. "Oh yes," Bruno replies with unfathomable

dresses like a little girl and wears her hair in pigtails; Virginia,

logic, "but Ralph is allowed to eat anything he catches."

who fancies herself a spider and likes to eat insects; and

This remark is typical ofSpider Baby. All the characters -

Spider Baity.

1 81

even the "normal" ones-are odd, yet unaware that others

As in most horror movies, the monsters (in this case, the

consider them odd. Only Bruno seems cognizant of the

children) are damned from the start; we know the kids are

conflicting realities held by the "children" and the intruders.

Part of Spider Baby 's appeal is due to near-perfect casting.

going to die. But death, when it comes, has no sting. It is met

Lon Chaney, Jr.-whose

shrug. The shrug sums up the prevailing philosophical atti

acting was usually somewhat

by the children with naive anticipation, and by Bruno with a

substandard -is brilliant as Bruno, giving the character just

tude of Spider Baby- as Bruno says near the beginning of the

the right qualities of compassion and desperation. Carol

film, "Nothing is very bad."

Ohman, once touted as Hollywood's hottest new sex sym

jack Hill, who wrote and directed the film. made dozens of

bol, seethes like a frustrated dominatrix. Jill Banner's perfor

movies for Roger Corman and other Hollywood producers

mance as Virginia, the Spider Baby, is perfect; her character

and worked with some of the industry's most talented actors.

evokes just the right amount of sex, naivete, and menace.

However, none of his other works is as unusual as Spider

Beverly Washburn as Elizabeth is only slightly less effective.

Baby. Probably because the film did so poorly at the box

Sid Haig, who has since become a successful Hollywood

office, Hill never made anything remotely like it again.

character actor, is almost unrecognizable as the bald cretin,

Categorizing this oddity is no easy task; spider Baby is a

Ralph. Quinn Redeker, another character actor who special

horror-comedy, but lacks the buffoonery and dumb jokes

izes in nervous nerds, gives the movie great comic moments.

that most comedies rely on. It has been referred to as a black

The only weak characterization is Karl Schanzer, who, as

comedy, but as such it lacks the cynicism and sophistication

Schlocker the lawyer, appears too young for the bloated,

of typical humour noir. It is macabre and grotesque, but in an

self-important role he portrays.

offbeat, fun-loving way. In offering bizarre situations and

Spider Baby 's visual impact may be attributed to Alfred

weird

Taylor, who gave this black comedy the chiaroscuro look of

response. Contradictory emotions abound.

film nair: the shadows are deep and the lighting melodra

With

ethical dilemmas the film rebuffs the

the

simplistic

increased exposure that video distribution

matic. Except for a day-for-night chase scene, his cinematog

affords, spider Baby will perhaps receive the attention that

raphy is faultless. Throughout there are clever touches; when

has long been its due. If not, the film remains one of the best

Elizabeth announces she has devised a plan for dealing with

examples of extreme, idiosyncratic cinema both witty and

unwanted visitors, her face literally glows with malevolence.

macabre.

have passed, its nightmare imagery retains the ability to

ror the film remains unparalleled; even though two decades

eorge Romero's infamous trilogy of "Dead" films

Night of the Litling Dead, Dawn ofthe Dead and Day of the

appall an audience.

Dead-have provoked not just visceral response but serious

The movie begins with Barbara and Johnny. a sister and

critical debate, and for good reason. Not only are these

brother who've driven to an isolated Pennsylvania cemetery

movies capable of inflicting dizzying levels of tension and

to place a cross on their grandfather's grave. As the skies

paranoia, they all carry a heavy freight of potent psychologi

darken, Johnny remembers how as a child Barbara had been

cal elements and

afraid of the cemetery, and begins to tease her: "They're

tribal, group-behavioral

and political

concepts.

coming to get you!" Noticing a man staggering toward them,

The films in this "survivalist" series-which span

1 7 years

he cries, "Look! Here comes one of them now'" Ap

between them-share the common themes of territorial

propriately enough.

defense, self-defense, and the invader within. Each movie

johnny rushes to her aid, is immediately killed, and the

depicts the efforts of small groups ofhuman.ity to secure their

attacker pursues her to a farmhouse where she locks herself

the

stranger suddenly attacks her.

lives and environments against hostile armies of animated,

in, only to find the building deserted and the phone out of

flesh-eating corpses.

order.

Ever-present is the tense awareness that each living body is

In the meantime, other blan.k-eyed strangers have joined

a potential zombie; hence the continual foreboding that

Barbara's attacker outside in ominously circling the building.

and

At the top of a flight of stairs she stumbles on a 1-}alf-eaten

underground military fortresses are ultimately futile gestures

boarded-up

windows,

corpse; screaming with terror she flees outside straight into

against a ravenous, inexorable enemy capable of surfacing

the glare of a truck's headlights. Ben, a young black man, gets

. . Romero's masterful handling of

out and pushes her back inside the farmhouse, locking the

under your l'eTJI skin .

camouflaged

elevator

shafts

pacing and action, combined with his ironic wit and pro

door. Desperately he asks, Does she live here? Is there a key to

found sensitivity for the mechanics of fear and paranoia, have

the gaspump in front ? How many of those "things " are out

earned for these three movies a unique stature in the annals

there?-but Barbara has retreated into catatonia, shocked

of horror cinema.

out of her wits.

In the first film, Ni

ght of the LitJing Dead ( 1968), Romero

Ben proceeds to board up the windows and doors of the

communicates raw paranoia untarnished by sentiment, pro

entire house (discovering a rifle and ammunition in his

jecting a vision of pure nihilism-all at the expense of the

search for tools), and informs her that the phenomenon

horrified audience's sensibilities. For sheer, unrelenting ter-

seems to be happening everywhere-people are being

182

attacked and killed for no apparent reason by people who

Coolly and dispassionately Romero's camera reveals carnage

seem to be in a trance. Suddenly, a door to the cellar swings

in a grainy aura of apocalyptic, dreamy horror, economically

open-five other people have been hiding downstairs as

sketched . . .

well: the Cooper family ( Harry, Helen and their injured

Throughout the trilogy Romero maintains a radical purity

daughter, Karen) and two teenage lovers, Tom and Judy.

of vision, declining traditional reliance on romantic entan

Immediately a conflict arises: Harry scoffs at the makeshift

glements, "happy'' endings, pseudo-scientific "explanations"

barricades, insisting that "the cellar is the only safe place,"

or any other of the cinematic cliches so common to films of

while Ben maintains that by remaining upstairs, they're bet

this genre. There are no "explanations," just as there are no

ter able to anticipate and forestall attackers. Finally Ben

"solutions," Begrudging hints at a connection between the

declares, "You go be the boss in the cellar-/'m boss up

zombie phenomenon and a recently returned space mission

here." thus splitting the group into two factions.

are dropped, but the subject of cause-and-effect is bypassed.

The full horror of the situation is revealed when the group

finds a television and learns that all over the country bodies of

graphically delineating what horror can actually mean, and

newly dead are coming back to life, killing and eating the

here it means your worst fears, the most terrifying and insane

flesh of any victims they can find. Outside, the zombies gain

events imaginable-being stabbed, roasted alive, devoured,

Instead, Romero concentrates on action and atmosphere,

in number while their prey desperately barricade the house

etc. Here, horror need not explain itself to exist; existence

against imminent siege.

itself is sufficient justification.

In the cellar they discover the keys to the gas pump

Romero made the film for S I I4 ,000 and peddled it to

outside. Tom and Ben volunteer to fill Ben's truck with gas

various distributors-some of whom offered to release it

while Harry throws Molotov cocktails from the upstairs win

only

dow as a diversionary tactic. As they unboard the doors,Judy

ending. Happily, Romero declined. The film was released in

if it were seriously censored and reshot with a "happy''

suddenly bolts, C!")ing, "I'm going with them!"

1968 and has been in circulation ever since. As part of the

The three drive to the pump. fending off ghouls with

Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection, Nght

i
of the

torches and gunfire. Unfortunately, gas splashing onto the

living Dead immediately set new standards for the aesthetics

truck is ignited by a clumsily-dropped torch-incinerating

of horror.

Tom and Judy. This abortive escape attempt provides a canni

Originally a student filmmaker who directed 1V commer

balistic feast for the living dead in a scene so disturbing it

cials and industrial films before forming his first production

continues to be regularly excised from televised screenings.

company, Latent Image, Romero remains a regional film

Ben manages to make his way back to the house, only to

maker, preferring to pursue his obsessions in the relative

fmd himself locked out by the cowardly Harry. Breaking his

way in, Ben secures the door and then vengefully beats Harry

obscurity of Pittsburgh. far away from Hollywood.

Romero's subsequent films include two curious forays

into submission . . . The power fails, and the siege begins

outside the gore genre

again in earnest. with the zombies now inside. As boarded-up

windows begin to splinter. Ben lays down his rifle to bolster

( There 's Alu>ays Vanilla, a 1972

a 1973 tale of suburban
witchcraft- both box-office failures). In 1973 he returned to
comedy,

and Hungt)'

Wit,es,

the rapidly disintegrating barrier. Seeing his chance, Har!")'

the themes of paranoia and invasion with The Crazies. Similar

grabs the rifle and tells Ben, "You want to stay up here-you

to Nigbt, the plot concerns bunglnJ Army m:rvc:: gas c::xpc:ri

..
can. Ben grabs the gun away and shoots Harry, who tumbles
downstairs into the cellar.

ments which turn the inhabitants of a rural Pennsylvania

community into homicidal maniacs- "Why are all the good

The zombies' attack is gaining in force and vehemence.

people dying?" was the question posed by posters for the

Finally all hell breaks loose as the makeshift fortress of Bar

film. The Crazies, too. failed at the box office.

bara, Helen and Ben crumble under the zombie onslaught;

Martin

our shock and dismay deepen as the living are methodically

departure from the "Invasion" format. Set in the subur

destroyed one by one. The once-dead Johnny returns for his

ban/industrial wastelands of Braddock, Pennsylvania, the

sister Barbara, dragging her into the frenzied melee of

story centers on Martin, an alienated young man ( interest

(1976 ) was a considerably more provocative

ghouls; Helen is butchered with a garden spade by her now

ingly portrayed by John Amplas) with a disturbing penchant

zombie daughter; and Ben, the final survivor, is mistaken for a

for murdering young women and drinking their blood. The

zombie by a posse of redneck gunmen who blow his brains

film attains a surprising ambience of murky, perverse eroti

out. The nihilism is complete: the dead have "won."

Some critics have pointed out the film's psychological and

cism. While not a box office smash, Marlin enjoyed an

thematic inheritance from '50s "Invasion" films, e.g. lm,ad

critical acclaim.

extended run as a midnight feature, and received much

jromMars. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, lnttisible

Martin also marked the beginning of Romero's association

Jm,aders, et al. Others have tied in the EC horror comics of

with Tom Savini, who invented some of the most eye

the same period. Just as these cultural relics illuminate the

popping gore effects ever to splatter across a screen.

ers

Cold War climate of that era, Night's cinematic images of

Night is completely resolute: it is difficult to imagine an

invasion, paranoia, cannibalism, matri and sororicide, etc, as

ending more ironic or a sequel capable of surpassing its bleak

subtexnal leYels of inarticulate racism, were widely

message. Romero wisely let up on the acute claustrophobia

discussed as metaphors for the turbulent and unprecedented

and introduced elements ofdarkest humor with Daw n ofth

e

social upheavals of the mid-sixties. Meanwhile other, more

Dead ( 1978).

as

well

as

predictably outraged critics (such as Roger Ebert. whose

The most visually luxurious of Romero's films, Dawn

disparaging polemic appeared in the June,

Readl>l<

expands the investigation of territoriality to unexpectedly

Digest) saw nothing but gore, gore, gore.

satiric extremes by confining the action within a suburban

A moral ambiguity suffuses the film: while the gore is

shopping mall. Here the four "heroes" ( two renegade SWAT

1%9

indeed hideous, it lacks actual sadism. Far from being gratui

cops -one white, one black; and a helicopter pilot and his

tous. the carnage is simply there, a byproduct of opposing

girlfriend) establish their terrain against the ever-advancing

biological imperatives . . .

zombies, who have significantly increased in number.

swift determination, accel

Once secured, the four proceed to surround themselves in

erating the film's inexorable pace to a plateau of panic when

bourgeois material splendor. Idly ransacking the various

the escape attempt ( i tself a marvelously executed and

stores, inspired as much out of boredom as greed, the heroes

choreographed sequence ) ends in the incineration of the

while away the long hours alternately mowing down the

Romero wields violence with

teenage lovers, whose unlikely status as victims is the first

zombies and enacting a hilariously morbid satire on an uJti

intimation that something unspeakable was in the offing.

mate consumer fantasy: goods for the taking.

 Their American dream of material largesse is interrupted

experts and officials televised in Daun ( at one memorable

by the abrupt intrusion of a tribe of bikers who proceed to

point, a grotesque. one-eyed, overweight commentator hys

loot stores and trash zombies right and left, spraying them

terically insists that the populace nourish itself on the flesh of

with seltzer bottles and tossing cream pies in their uncom

prehending faces . . . before they, too, are overcome. The

the zombies-an idea which suggests a remarkably efficient

food chain).

gore is even more explicit than in Night ( thanks to Savini ) .

At the end of the trilogy we find one lone. playful Dr.

yet somehow absurd-this movie has some ofthefunniest

Frankenstein

gore around. While not quite upbeat, the ending of Dau'11 is

behavior-modification techniques and performing quaint

not as depressingly nihilistic as Night- Romero does allow

surgical experiments on the rotting housewives and con

his two survivors ( the black cop and the woman-easily the

struction workers, in an attempt to domesticate the savage

most sympathetic of the fou r ) to escape intact.

tinkering

with

the

"dumbfucks,"

using

dead . . . The result is "Bub." the Friendly Zombie ( well.

racial

almost ). Not only can Bub play a tape deck. thumb through a

implications-not only does each movie features a black

Stephen King paperback, and salute his commanding officer,

hero, but black characters ( as well as women ) are shown to

he's quite a good shot with a pistol. too . . .

In

the

tri logy,

especially

noteworthy

are

human beings-as

Initially portrayed as murderous machines, the zombies

opposed to the sniveling Harry Cooper in Night, or the white

become progressively more droll with each sequel as the

be

intelligent,

resourceful,

effective

cop in Dawn whose gung-ho attitude ultimately gets him

police/military become more vicious. Day brings us Rome

killed. This type of social comment is not usually associated

ro's most caustic depiction of military "intel ligence" to date,

with the gore genre.

in the deeply unattractive person of Captain Rhodes. who

Romero's political consciousness is most acidly expressed

in Day uf the Detlfl ( 1985 ), the saddest, most cynical of the

commands an equally bestial platoon of subhuman oafs ( all

of whom get what they so richly deserve ).

three films. Isolated in the dismal cinderblock gloom ofa vast

The fascistic Captain Rhodes is hostile to the point of

underground military installation, only a handful of the living

psychosis-at one point threatening to shoot the heroine, a

remain, miserable and barely sane ( no shopping sprees for

no-nonsense scientist, when she refu.ses to obey his order to

this unlud:y group). Above ground the zombies have tri

sit down. One assumes his hostility towards her is at least

umphed, inhabiting entire cities and outnumbering the liv

panially due to her gender-for she is easily the strongest

400,000

cavernous

member of the scientific team ( even her wimpy boyfriend

installation, internal power struggles pit a civilian scientific

acknowledges at one point, "We all know you're stronger

team researching zombie-control against macho military

personnel there to guard them. In his most merciless depic

than anyone else. So what-so fucking uhat. ). Rhodes

finally murders her rwo colleagues. including the loveable old

tion of the primit"ive gunman-mentality to date, Romero

doctor ( who is caught literally red-handed treating Bub to

brings us Captain Rhodes, a notably despicable redneck

the remains of the Captain's deceased comrades). and is

ing

by

some

to

one.

Within

the

"

defender of law and order.

churlishly discouneous to the vel')' end-screaming "Choke

Yet a third faction exists. removed from the idiotic clash of

on it!" as the zombies greedily tear him limb from limb. The

ideologies by their situation and common sense: a radio

heroine's monally-wounded boyfriend has let the zombies

officer and a black helicopter pilot who dream of a place

where a normal life can be resumed. They favor the total

into the compound; whether his motives were heroic or

merely spiteful is left to the viewer to decide.

abandonment of scientific or military methods of dealing

Day ends in much the same manner as Dau'11- Romero

with the zombies. By far the most reasonable and sympa

allows his most sympathetic characters to beat a hasty retreat

thetic of Day's characters ( with the exception of a female

via helicopter to parts unknown. At the film's end we find the

scientific researcher, mentioned below), their markedly

heroine. the pilot and the radio officer lounging on a tropical

apolitical sensibilities are emphasized by their environment.

island ( reminiscent of the backdrop in their underground

While the rest of the personnel huddle in depressingly ste

haven ) . . . yet again, the triumph of the zombies is implicit.

rile, prison-like quarters, these rwo have transformed their

No one has conquered them, nor won any real victol')-the

part of the cave into an oasis of human warmth ( complete

living have managed to survive only tentatively. In the mean

with backdrops depicting tropical splendor)- the only emo

time, will the zombies learn how to sail boats?

tionally cheering space within the entire cavern. Yet their

Romero's

arguments are unheeded, and the futile experiments of the

comprehensive-from the oven

effect

on

horror/gore

cinema

is

plagiarisms of Z
ombie.

scientists continue.

C
hildren Shouldn't Play With Dead Tbings. Night Of 7be

Notewonhy in Day is the development of three separate

Comet Dr. Butcher, Gates ofHell. et at. to the subtler, more

groups: the zombies, whom Romero has grO\vn progressively

more sympathetic toward; the military gunmen, whom

intell igent homage paid by filmmakers such as Wes Craven.

D;tvid Cronenberg. and even John Waters. Where Herschell

Romero disparages; and media personalities, who have ulti

Gordon Lewis first chaned the perimeters of the newborn

mately disappeared. As a former video technician, Romero

territOI')' of gore, Romero's films defined their aesthetic

displays a knowingly wicked flair for depicting TV at its most

standards. and in the process nearly invented a genre-that

surreal-witness the cornball commentators and unbelieva

of the cannibalistic living Dead. Regrettably. the Dead tril

bly bizarre interviews in Nght,

i
or the bellowing, fatuous

ogy is now closed.

Murphy held the top spot ). At a Hollywood shindig he met

The film personalities interviewed in this book represent

and later married Shirley Temple. They appeared in a few

films together, but by

1949 the marriage was falling apart

1950 he was

only a fraction of persons worthy of inclusion. Many out

Agar had developed a bad drinking problem. By

standing figures are no longer available for interview

no longer sought out for 'A' movies, so he turned to making

some have died, the whereabouts of many are unknown,

drive-in fare. During the Late sixties he appeared in Curse of

and at least one has fled the country in fear of his life. Would

the Swamp Creature and Zontar, 7be 7bing from Venus,

that we could give every person mentioned here as much

made by his friend Uirry Buchanan. In

space as Herschel! Gordon lewis or Ray Dennis Steckler, but

we can't. We can, however, do this much: we can salute
them.

1970 Agar dropped out

of acting and became an insurance salesman. Although he

appeared in a few films during the seventies-including the
atrocious remake of King Kong

he never tried to become a

full-time actor again.

..... .......
The most talented of the recent crop of Italian horror film
directors, Dario Argento knows how to create suspense and
deliver one hell of a shock in his slickly designed films. like

... .......

his American counterpart, Brian DePalma, he shows a defi

AI Adamson's films feature low budgets, acting passable to

nite llitchcockian influence. Argento is best known for his

awful, and dialogue full of non-sequiturs. His first movie was

strong use of color which in Suspiria almost bleeds off the

Psycho A Go-Go! ( Los Angeles,

screen. This, combined with a maddening musical score by

1965 ), about a gang of jewel

thieves (including a Vietnam vet with a brain mplant

i
that

Italian jazz-rock group Goblin, turns the movie into an over

makes him crazy) trying to recover the booty they lost.

whelming assault on the senses. Argento's innovative color

Additional footage featuring John carradine was added later,

usage seems less striking now than it once

and the title changed to 7be Fiend with the Electronic Brain.

to music videos and modern television commercials.

was,

thanks largely

1971 more footage was added and the title again changed

Classic films by him include 7be Bird with the Crystal

to Blood ofthe Ghastly Hon-or. The film also appeared as 7be

Plumage, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, Cat o ' Nine Tails, and

Man with the Synthetic Brain.

Deep Red. Also of major interest is his trilogy about three

In 1969, Adamson teamed up with producer Sam Sherman

to form Independent-International Pictures. Their first

the storyof"The Mother of Sighs.'' Inferno is the story ofthe

In

witches called "The Three Mothers." The first, Suspiria tells

release was Satan's Sadists, ahout a group of vicious hikers.

"The Mother of Darkness." The third film (yet to be made)

The film co-starred former dancer Russ Tamblyn as the

wiJI tell the story of "The Mother of Tears."

carrot, Adamson's wife.

Recently Argento has released Inferno, Creepers (Pheno

Released during the height of the biker craze, the film made

mena), Unsane ( 7imebrae), and produced Uimberto Bava's

enough money to fmance several more movies.

Demons- L Bava is the son of Mario Bava. Of his latest efforts

Adamson's best-known film is Dracula vs. Frankenstein,

the stand-out

the story of a mad scientist operating out of a carnival fun

resemblance to Suspiria but is even more surrealistic-it is

J. carrot Naish, Lon Chaney, Jr and

one of the closest film interpretations of a dream (or a

leader of the gang, and

house. The film stars

Regina

features Zandor Vorkov in what is undoubtedly the worst

nightmare ) in the history of cinema.

Dracula performance by any actor alive or dead (or undead ).

WIWAM UIIIa

like most of Adamson's films, Dracula is full of choice dia

logue, and also features former Famous Monsters of Film
land editor Forrest

J. Ackerman in a cameo appearance.

Adamson's other films include Blood ofDracula s Castle,

Five Bloody Graves. Hon-or of the Blood Monsters.

7be

Female Bunch and Brain of Blood.

is easily Inferno, which bears a physical

Asher directed most of the Beach Party films, including

Beach Party, Bikini Beach, Muscle Beach, Beach Blanket
Bingo, How 1b Stuff A Wild Bikini, and more. He also
directed hundreds of episodes of I Love Lucy, and now
spends most of his time working in television. Although he
has devoted a large part of his career to situation comedies

... ....
Leading actor who reached his height of matinee popularity
during the fifties, when he starred in dozens of great horror
and science fiction films. Among them: T
arantula, 7be Mole
People, Brain from Planet Arous, Attack of the Puppet Peo

and lighter fare, he is equally adept at suspense. His recent

film,

Night

Warning

(aka

Butcher,

Baker,

Nightmare

Maker), is one of the few decent films to emerge from the

slasher film glut of the early eighties.

KllHUaaaa

ple, Invisible Invaders and Hand ofDeath. Agar got his start

Exploitation filmmaker extrordinaire, whose showmanship

in pictures when he received media attention for being the

and style remains unequaled. For more information see the

second most-decorated man in World War 1Wo (Audie

David Friedman interview.

1 86

FRANKIE AVALON . ANNETTE FUN ICELLO

FABIAN CHILL WILLS

A CURVE ANY CURVE !----...

fROM

AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL

PANAVISIONnd COLOR
IN

,-----also starrm: --------,

HARVEY
JULIE
LEMBECK . PARRISH . wiLLiAM ASHERand LEO TOWNSEN D . wiLLIAM ASHER. j;\t,1'[s''H. NICHOLSON and SAMUEL Z. ARKOFF . ,. '6u'R'i TOPPER

Hungarian aristocrat who is said to have put over 600 young

girls to death because she believed bathing in the blood of
virgins would keep her youthful. Her story has inspired sev
eral films, including: Countess Dracula, Daughters ofDark
ness, Tbe Female Butcher, 7be Detlil's Wedding Ni
ght, Im

moral Tales and La Comtesse Pemerse.

IIAitiO IIAYA

Italian director who started his career as a cinematographer.

The first film he directed, Black Sunday (starring the queen

of mad love, Barbara Steele) was initially panned by Ameri

can film critics, but later achieved its rightful recognition as a
classic horror movie. He followed this with Black Sabbath; a
trilogy of horror stories hosted by Boris Karloff. Other films
by Bava include Planet of the Vampires, a stylized science
fiction film with supernatural overtones; Blood and Black
Lace, an early slasher film stylistically similar to the films of
Dario Argento; and Twitch of the Death Nerve (aka Bay of
Blood), which was heavily plagiarized by the makers of Fri
day the Thirteenth, Part Two. Uke all Italian filmmakers, Bava
directed his share of low budget exploitation films. Among
them: Hercules in the Haunted World, Beyond the Door II,
and Dr. Coldfoot and the Girl Bombs. In the final analysis,
Bava never made a movie as good as Black Sunday, his first.
WIWAM IIAUMR
Few directors, f
i any, have made more films than William
Beaudine, and few have weathered more criticism. He hit his

stride during the early days of Hollywood when studios were

less devoted to big-budget productions and more interested
in getting as many films as possible out to the American
public. In those days, a western had an immediate audience;
if it was a western, it could not fail. These took anywhere
from two days to two weeks to make. Beaudine dutifully
churned them out, rarely lavishing much attention on any of
them. His films, along with those of Uunbert Hillyer, must
account for two-thirds of all the westerns ever made!
One of the ways Beaudine kept his costs down (and his
speed up) was by avoiding retakes whenever possible. He
became so notorious for his refusal to reshoot a scene that he
earned the nickname "One-shot" Beaudine. If a boom mike
dipped into the frame, if a cowboy started to fall before he
was shot -oh well. Only the most glaring errors and serious
gaffes could induce him to retake a scene.
But it was not a western that gained Beaudine his greatest
notoriety, it was a film called Mom and Dad. First released in
1949 and later in 1955, Mom and Dad caused an unprece
dented furor. The film is-to a certain extent, anyway-a
postwar primer on sexual relationships: in it, a young couple
falls in love, has sex, the girl becomes pregnant, the couple
weds, and a baby arrives. In that order. Purporting to be a
plea for adequate sex education, the film indeed does its bit
for sex education by showing an actual live birth. At some
screenings, men in the audience fainted during the birth
scenes. (At that time, few men in America had ever witnessed
childbirth; additionally, theaters were under orders to tum
off their ventilation during premiere screenings). After
someone passed out, promoter Joe Solomon would make
sure the press was there when the ambulance rolled up.
1 87

Solomon knew the power of the press -Mom and Dad was a
bit. As with 7be Exorcist, people went to iC to find out what all
the fainting was about.

After Mom and Dad,

soon as he could, he headed for Hollywood, where he

worked both as an actor and assistant director for George
Cukor. Returning to Texas, he made Naughty Dallas, a film

Beaudine began to slow down. The

heyday of the western was over, and he wasn't much inter

about the popular night spot owned by Lee Harvey Oswald's

assasin, Jack Ruby.

ested in making the teen fare that took over the low-budget

During the latter half of the sixties, Buchanan was hired by

field after the war.

AlP to make eight made-for-television movies-for which he

is best remembered. The first, 7be Eye Creatures, is a remake

All

but forgotten today, William Beaudine's effect-for

better or worse-on low-budget filmmaking, particularly

cheap westerns, cannot be underestimated. Curiously, he is
one of the few directors in this book who has succeeded in
getting a sidewalk star at Hollywood and Vine.

Out of the current crop of Hollywood actresses. Unda

Blair stands out as the premier star of exploitation movies.
Her portrayal of the "new fish" in Chained Heat, coupled
with outstanding performances in Savage Streets and Hell

Night, assure her stature. Other classic appearances include a

reprise of her role in 7be Exorcist in john Boorman's screwy
sequel, E:r:ordst II: 7be Heretic. and a television J.D. film
called Born Innocent, in which she gets raped with a broom

of the Ed L. Cahn sci-fi comedy, 7be Invasion of the Saucer

Men. Most of the subsequent AlP-Television films were also
remakes of previous AlP films; among them: Creature of
Destruction (a remake of The She Creature). Year 2889
(reprising Corman's 7be Day the World Ended), and the
unforgettable Mars Needs Women (oddly, a serious remake
of the teen comedy Pajama Party).
These fil ms were made on the lowest budgets conceiva
ble. Some of them (Creature of Destruction, It's AlitJf!! and

Curse of the Swamp Creature) used the same rubber mons

ter costume. The most memorable is Zontar, 7be Thingfrom

Venus, a remake of Corman's 1956 classic, It Conquered the

World. Zantor starred john Agar (in one of his last roles) as a

handle. Unlike other stars who used exploitation ftlms to

further their careers and then denounced them (e.g., Jamie
Lee Curtis), Blair continues to give her fans what they want.
Her style and appearance are too idiosyncratic for the main
stream market.

David Bradley's career started as a director of "tasteful" and

pedestrian films like Treasure Island and Peer Gynt; he also
received favorable comments for filming stage productions
ofMacbeth and julius Caesar. But critics quickJy turned their
backs on him when he switched from Shakespeare produc
tions to exploitation films. He made the shift gradually: first,
there was Talk About a Stranger, a mildly amusing item
about a foreigner who becomes the subject of malicious
gossip. The film starred Ronald Reagan's wife, Nancy Davis.
Soon after, Bradley made Dragstrip Riot, a classic J.D. film
that unfortunately was overshadowed by 7be Cool and the

Cmzy, the film it was released with.

In 1964 Bradley made his ultimate film: 1beySaved Hitler's
Bmin; the title says it all. The shift from Peer Gynt to 7bey
Saved Hitler's Brain is astounding. David Bradley made rela
tively few movies, but the list of his films betrays either a man
of remarkable complexity, or callous indifference . . .
To. ......
Some might object to including Browning, a successful Hoi
lywood director, in this list. He is best remembered for the
original Dracula starring Bela Lugosi. However, at the time it
was released, Dracula was laughed at (there exists eye\\<it
ness testimony to back this up). Here Browning gets menti

oned for his other classic: Freaks. Even today, Freaks packs a
punch.
.... ......
Texas-based director best known for his psychokiller classic,

Don't Look in the Basement, about a young nurse who goes

to work for a mental hospital unaware that the hospital
director is really a patient. Other ftlms include Keep My

Grave open and Poor White Trash II. The latter film has
nothing to do with the original; instead, it tells the story of a
Vietnam vet killing hillbillies.
UIUlY IIUCIIUQ
Filmmaker Larry Buchanan grew up in Dallas, Texas. His
father, a Texas Ranger, died when Buchanan was four, and
the boy spent the rest of his youth in a Baptist institution. As

Scene from They Saved Hitler's Brain (aka Madmen of Mandorasl

A stripper performs in Jack Ruby's nightclub in the Larry Buchanan film,

Naughty Daftas.

for L(wing the best is The Abductors, about a gang of

man trying to stop an alien creature trying to take over the

are

planet.

kidnappers that specializes in training abducted cheerlead

Buchanan is noteworthy for his paranoia. A firm believer in

ers to become bondage sla\'es for wealthy men. Caffaro

almost any conspiracy theory, he's made several movies pur

brings to the role a tOugh. slut()' charisma.

porting to tell the "truth" about subjects that the government

Trial of
Osuoald, Goodbye Nonnajean and Down on Us.

(or Hollywood ) ha\'e hushed-up. Among them: The

Lee Haney

D L CAD

The latter- Buchanan's latest- manages to tie the deaths of

1955

Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison into a weird

It wasn't until

anti-rock conspiracy plot.

hired t o dire.ct a low-budget shocker about a gangster who,

that Ed L Cahn hit his stride. He was

with the help of a mad scientist, gets even with his enemies
by using reanimated corpses to murder them. The film was

Gllll CAffAIO
I

titled
Blonde buxom actress noted for her role as Ginger-a female

Creature Witb the Atom Brain, and it stands today as a

classic example of fifties science fiction. Unforgettable is the

spy who specializes in horizontal espionage. As Ginger, Cat

scene in which police banle to the death with wmbies in

Ginger; TheAbductors and Girls

from of the scientist's house. The "creatures" in the film wear

faro appeared in three films:

1 89

business suits and ties, and aside from the stitches in their
foreheads, appear quite normal Yet their mundane appear
ance makes the monsters all the more frightening. Cahn must
have realized he was onto something with these grey flannel
creatures, since he used them again a few years later in
Invisfble Invaders, the film that inspired George Romero's
Night of tbe living Dead.
Creature Wfth tbe Atom Brain was a big success. During
the late fifties and early sixties Cahn was one of the most
prolific directors in Hollywood, making anywhere from six
to ten movies a year! Although he made several westerns,J.D.
films and crime dramas, he is best remembered for his horror
and science-fiction films. Among them : 1be She Creature,
Voodoo Woman (which featured the She Creature's body
with a different head), Invasion of tbe Saucer Men (a sci-fi
teen comedy starring Frank Gorshin ), and It! 1be 'R!rror
from Beyond Space (the original version of Alien).

Slimy-looking lead actor who appears in dozens of films;

mostly AlP releases. Among his performances: Cell 2455,
Death Row (in which he plays killer Caryl Chessman ), Blood
Bath (which casts him as a vampire artist ), and Francis Ford
Coppola's Dementia /3.

American exploitation filmmakers have their Mexican coun-

terparts: the men who make the horror-wrestling films so

loathed by Mexican cineastes and enjoyed by everyone else.
Ofall these men, none is better at his job than Rene Cardona,
Sr.
Cardona began his career as an actor but made his greatest
impact on world cinema directing movies like Santo, Wres
tling Women vs. tbe Aztec Mummy, Doctor ofDoom, 1be
Brainiac, and Night of the Bloody Apes. His films are fun to
watch.
like his father, Rene Cardona, Jr. makes exploitation
movies. Unlike his father, however, he has crossed the border
with his films, in part by using both Hollywood and Mexican
actors. His most successful film to date is Guyana, Cult ofthe
Damned, based on the mass suicide of People's Temple
members in Guyana. The names have been changed Qim
Jones becomes Jim Johnson), but the story, in a lurid way, is
essentially accurate.
lacking most in the films of Rene Cardona, Jr. is the seedy
reality displayed in his father's films.

Ofall filmmakers in this book, none has exploited his craft as

well as William Castle. During the late fifties (when movie
attendance was down), William Castle managed to draw
people to the box office with a variety of gimmicks: every
thing from inflatable skeletons to shock-inducing electrically
wired theatre seats.
William Castle's gimmick mania was born during a stormy

night in Hollywood. Seeing a long line of people waiting

During the

patiently in the

rain to see Diabolique, Castle was struck by

and started his own film company, New World Pictures. As a

an insight. People were waiting in the rain to see the film, he

producer he has given several talented directors, such as

reasoned, because they had beard it was scary. Whether it

really was scary or not was almost beside the point; as long as

Michael Pressman and Ron Howard, their first opportunities.

people were promised thepossibilityofbeing frightened out

of their wits, they would take their place in the ticket line. He
contacted Uoyds of London and devised a plan whereby
everybody who went to see his film, Macabre, was insured
for $ 1 ,000 against death by fright. Thanks largely to this
"fright insurance," the film

was a big success.

After Macabre, Castle never missed an opportunity to add

a new slant to his pictures. In House on Haunted Hill,

theatres

were equipped

with inflatable

skeletons that

wheeled out over the audience at the crucial moment. For

Zotz! thousands of plastic

"Zotz" coins, similar to the one in

the movie, were handed out. For

ing the theatre

13 Ghosts, everyone enter

was given a pair of "ghostviewers" that

allowed you to choose between seeing and not seeing the

ghosts (as though anyone would choose not to look!).

One of Castle's most interesting gimmicks was employed

in Mr. Sardonicus, the story of a man who, after robbing his

father's grave, suffers a strange affliction which turns his face
into a horrible, grinning mask. At the end of the film, the
audience

was allowed to choose whether Sardonicus would

was done with cards depicting the notorious

seventies Roger Corman abandoned directing

wu ....
Director who shocked the world with his grimly realistic
portrayal of killers in Last House on tbe Left. His next film
was the classic Hills Have Eyes, about a middle-class family's
struggle for survival when their car breaks down in the desert
and they're attacked by an inbred barbarian dan. Although
talented, Craven is disappointingly uneven. His horror film
Deadly Blessing could have been a classic, but lacked a
needed dimension of outrageousness. Next he made Swamp
7bing, which right from the beginning held little promise.
Surprisingly, Craven turned around and made a classic, Night
mare on

Elm Street,

the story of a dead child-killer who

returns in the dreams of teenagers to haunt and kill them for

the sins of their parents. Recently, Craven has turned his
attention to television, directing several (disappointing) epi
sodes for the new
-

Twilight Zone

series.

Citllll

Producer

Bob Cresse is responsible for some of the sleaziest

live or die. This

films to come out of the sixties. Along with director R Lee

thumbs signal used by ancient Romans to determine the fate

Frost, he gave us such classics as

of gladiators. Depending on your whim, you could give Sar

7be Ravagers, Love Camp

Seven and Mondo Bizarro. Sadism is a key ingredient; at some

donicus a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" gesture. Audien

point in all of his movies a woman finds herself on the

ces almost never chose to let the man live, and the film is now

receiving end of a whip. Not one to ask his actors to do

exhibited with the "thumbs down" ending.

magnum

opus.

T1:H!

something he wouldn't do, Cresse appears in several of his

Tingler is William Castle's

own films and is, happily, just as slimy as his scripts. And what

The film features a host of novelty effects:

he lacks in acting talent he makes up for with enthusiasm.

In terms of gimmickry,

lights go on during the showing of the film and Vincent

In

Price's voice is heard admonishing people to scream as

loudly as they can. The Tingler attacks a movie projectionist

Nazi concentration camp for women used as brothel whores

and suddenly we are treated to a blank screen while the

Jewish adds a strange aspect to the affair.

Love Camp Seven

Cresse plays the commandant of a

for SS soldiers. That some of the men who play Nazis are

shadow of the creature marches across it. Although most of

At

the film is in black and white, in one scene we see bright red

being shot in the stomach.

blood pouring from faucets and a bathtub filled with red

blood. But most ambitious was the use of "Percepto," a
method of shocking members of the audience by means of
tiny motors attached to the bottoms of selected theater seats.
As the sixties wore on, Castle's films became less and less
gimmicky. He began producing films rather than directing
them, gaining a certain amount of mainstream credibility as
the producer of

Rosemary's Baby.

His last attempt to add a gimmick to a film

was Bug!, the

story of giant cockroaches that spit fire from their tails. Castle
planned to install little brushes beneath the theatre seats,
which would, at certain times, brush against the calves of the
movie-goers. He nixed the plan when theater owners com
plained it might cause panics. Besides, Castle figured, most of
the theaters showing the film would be providing their own

last report, producer Cresse has fled the country after

CRIIWBL
Prophet, soothsayer and good friend of Ed Wood,Jr., Criswell
appeared in three of Wood's films: Plan

Nine from Outer

Night of tbe Ghouls (aka Revenge of tbe Dead) and
Orgy of tbe Dead. He has published several books of his
prophecies and was once a television favorite in the Los

space,

Angeles area. Among his predictions: that entire cities will

one day be populated by homosexuals; that the laws of

gravity will

stop working and icebergs will float through the

skies, making air travel impossible; and that the entire human
race will go "pleasantly insane."

eaw. ca
David Cronenberg manages to make films cerebral enough

live roaches for free . . . .

for the loftiest of critics, yet bloody enough for the most

.... -

jaded gorehounds. His first major film, 1bey Came From

Corman began his career as a screenwriter, but

was soon

directing more films than almost anyone else in Hollywood,

dividing his time and talents between Allied Artists and

Within (aka Shivers),

is about a condominium infested with

slug-like parasites that cause wanton sexual behavior. It is

one of the few outstanding examples of "venereal horror."

international. Working with ten-day shooting

All of Cronenberg's horror films arc biological. ln Rabid, a

schedules on limited funds, Corman was adept at making

movies that appealed to youths and critics alike. A common

young woman ( Marilyn Chambers ) undergoes experimental

American

skin graft surgery which turns her into a sort of vampiric

Corman technique was to take a male role and script it for a

'JYphoid Mary. In Scanners, a drug used by pregnant women

woman!

causes their children to develop acute psychic powers.

Although his early output was mostly westerns and crime

In
Dead Zone, Cronenberg's only film based on someone else's

dramas, Corman is best known for his horror films, in particu

story, the protagonist gains precognitive powers after a

lar the ones based loosely on stories ofEdgar Allan Poe . Some

serious

car accident puts him in a coma for five years.

of his best films were scripted by long-time cohort Omck

Cronenberg is at

Griffith, who wrote such favorites as

Before working on

Bucket of Blood

and Wild Angels.

little Shop of Horrors,

his

best when at his most personal.

7be Brood Cronenberg went through a

nasty divorce; the effects of which show up on screen. Basi-

191

loberto Fincloy appearing as "Anno liwo" in

llelly ef ........

cally the film is about a man trying to save his daughter from

for the film was handled by jack Pierce, the man responsible

his mad wife, who has the abiliry to give birth, via exterior

for the makeup in the classic

womb sacs, to dwarf-like creatures. The creatures, which live

critical success nor a box office smash,

only a short time, seek out and bludgeon to death anyone

enough to keep Screencraft Enterprises afloat, convincing

who gets in the woman's way. Eventually the man solves the

Astor Pictures to continue bacldng the filmmakers.

Frankenstein. While neither a

Giant did well

problem by strangling his wife. After seeing the movie an

Cunha decided to forge ahead into even more exotic

outraged San Francisco critic compared the experience to

locales. She Demons tells the story of a band of shipwrecked

that of watching concentration camp documentaries.

people who find themselves on an uncharted island inha

Even more outrageous is his 1983 release Videodrome, the

story of a cable 1V executive who, while watching pirate

bited by beautiful dancers and fugitive Nazis. The Nazis are

videotapes broadcast from a mysterious "snufffilm" channel,

beloved wife, performs weird experiments on the dancers,

undergoes a weird biological metamorphosis. During the

turning them- temporarily-into ugly "she demons." When

film we see things as the protagonist sees them; by the end it

Irish McCalla ( best known for her 1V portrayal of Sheena,

led by a man who, attempting to restore the face of his

is impossible to tell where fantasy begins and realiry ends.

Queen of the jungle) stumbles onto the island, the Nazi

The film did not do well at the box office; Cronenberg's

quickly loses interest in his wife and begins making passes at

hallucinogenic approach left movie-goers be-wildered.

Irish. The situation is resolved when a timely volcano erupts,

Now that David Cronenberg is working in Hollywood, it

offering the heroes a chance to escape. like most truly

remains to be seen whether he can sustain his intensiry.

wonderful films, She

Reportedly his next project is a film adaptation of William S.

limely ridiculous and the unusually imaginative.

Burroughs' pioneering cut-up novel,

Naked Lunch, to be

filmed in some of the actual locationswhere W.S.B. Iived and

Demons is a combination of the sub

After She Demons, Screencraft Enterprises was disbanded,

Cunha joining forces -with Mark Frederic to form U!yton
Productions. The first film was Frankenstein Daughter, the

wrote.

story of one Oliver Frankenstein, a descendant of the original

monster-maker.
The films of Richard Cunha, though few in number, are

Cunha's next film is the one for which he is best remem

legendary. As did many low budget filmmakers, Cunha began

bered: Missile

his career by making industrial films. During the early days of

with the idea of remaking

television he worked for Toby Anguish Productions, writing

to the Moon. Astor Pictures approached him

Cat Women of the Moon. Uke Cat
Women, Missile to the Moon was made on a low, /ow budget.

and directing episodes for 1V shows. When Anguish decided

To its credit (or lack of same, depending on your perspec

it was time to retire, Cunha and long-time friend and asso

tive ), the Cunha film budgeted more for special effects than

ciate Arthur jacobs bought Anguish Productions and started

the original did. The script is somewhat sluggish, but the

their own company, Screencraft Enterprises.

Gumby-like rock monsters and a description-defying spider

Their first film was titled

puppet make the film a joy to watch.

Giantfrom the Unknoum, about

a very large Spanish Conquistador returned to life by a bolt of

lightning. The giant was played by 7' 7" Buddy Baer. Makeup

Since 1962 Cunha has eschewed the big screen in favor of

the small one, directing hundreds oftelevision commercials.

1 92

...

-.ntll

David Durston's two films

hubby is lounging, thus evening the score.

(I Drink Your Blood and Stigma)

seem very different from each other, yet are really quite
similar. I Drink Your Blood is the story of a group of hippies
who come to a small backwoods community, give an old man
LSD, and in revenge are fed rabies-infected meat pies. Soon
afterward they are reduced to a band of frothing murderers.
One of

e only v.rays to fend off the maniacs is by spraying

them With v.rater (hydrophobia, get it?).

Stigma is a different story, but Durston again shows his

concern over the effects ofcontagious disease. In it, a young,
black doctor (played by Miami Vice star Philip Michael
Thomas ) takes up practice in a small coastal town where
syphilis is rampantly destroying the lives of people. This time
Durston heightens the impact by showing a few choice shots
of actual V.D. victims. It turns out the cause of the epidemic is
none other than the Sherifi's daughter, whose syphilis was
ongenitally acquired. The last shot shows her fervidly kiss
mg her father, thus reinfecting the source of her disease.

But the best-known death scene from a Findlay film occurs

at the end of their infamous Snuff Ironically, however, the

Findlays had nothing to do with it-the scene, in which an
apparently unwi lling actress is killed by some "filmmakers,"
was tacked on later. Snuf
f. originally titled Slaughter and
based on a script by Michael Findlay that Roberta described
as "really awful," v.ras shot in South America MOS (without
sound ), thereby saving a bundle on sound set-ups and retakes
of flubbed lines. Findlay figured he could dub the voices
when he got back to New York, and everyone who saw it
would then assume it was a foreign film dubbed into English.

He was almost right.

The film he came back

Times about the possible existence of a "snuff' movie

smuggled into the U.S. from South America, Alan Shackleton

of Monarch Releasing Corporation had a brainstorm: with a
little reworking, the Findlay film might lend itself to the snuff
scenario quite nicely . . . The faked film made a small fortune.

Shortly

._ ...

The
ther of modern exploitation is Dwain Esper. During
_
the thtrttes, when the Hays movie code was strictlyenforced,

with was judged worthless and

quickly shelved. But after reading an article in the New Yom

after Snuff was released the Findlays split up.

Roberta Findlay began her career as a porno director, achiev

_
tg notoriety when an American film critic announced pub
ltcly that her Angel Number Nine was directed by a man; the

Esper circumvented it by showing his films at burlesque

name Roberta Findlay was "obviously a pseudonym." Michael

hows and road houses instead of movie theaters. By adopt

mg a tone of moral indignation and candid righteousness, he

Findlay fared less well. On his v.ray to Europe to demonstrate

a new, portable 3-D camera, a helicopter slammed into the

got av.ray with presenting controversial, racy material. His

roof of the Pan Am building, decapitating him and destroying

films include Maniac; Marihuana, Weed with Roots in Hell;

the camera.

and How to Undress in Front of Your Husband. The latter

stars Elaine Barrie, wife of john Ba.rrym ore. The films all

Roberta Findlay still lives in New York and continues to

work in film, having recently released Game ofSurolval (aka

feature glimpses of nudity and displays of moral turpitude.

'Rmement). Preferring privacy to publicity, she generally

Esper defended his films and supported the movie code as

declines interviews.

well, reasoning that adults could see adult fi lms and then
ascertain whether a film should be seen by children. It is
ironic that the very code Dwain Esper defended would even
tually cause the deterioration of the adult movie industry.

....cal

During the forties and fifties this actor-director usually

appeared in westerns. In the sixties Francis fulfilled a long
cherished ambition-he wrote and directed the immortal

...... .. .... .....y

Beast of Yucca Rats, the story of a Russian scientist who

The most notorious filmmakers in the annals of sexploitation

filmmaking are the husband-and-wife team of Michael and
Roberta Findlay. Their films include scenes of graphic vio
lence and sadomasochism, as well as some of the most
bizarre and imaginative methods of murder ever commited
to celluloid. In their early films Roberta Findlay often played
the leading role; later, as she took on more technical duties

she moved to smaller parts, and eventually settled into th

role of cinematographer. Michael Findlay continued as a

director throughout his career. In the early films they used

pseudonyms: he was Robert West and Julian Marsh; she was

Anna Riva. One of their earliest films v.ras Satan s Bed star'
ring the then-unknown Yoko Ono.
Their most notorious work in the sixties was the Aesh
Trilogy: 1be 7buch of Her Resh, 1be Curse of Her Resh and
1be Kiss of Her Resh. The films chronicle the exploits of an

misogynist named Richard jennings, a man who has a v.ray

With murder. In 7buch of Her Resh he kills a woman with a

poisoned rose: she dances to a frenzied death in the night
club where she works. In Kiss ofHer Resh a pair of earrings is
wired for electricity. 1be Curse ofHer Resb features some of
the most relentlessly imaginative death scenes ever con
cocted; in one, a woman dies when jennings takes her cat,
dips its paws in poison and drags the animal across her
stomach.
Bizarre death scenes became a Findlay trademark.

COliMA

In A

Thousand Pleasures a man is suffocatedby a woman's breast

in Shriek of the Mutilated a woman, after being stabbed

drags herself and a toaster across the floor of her apartment .

Upon reaching the bathroom the mortally wounded woman
plugs in the appliance and throws it into the tub where her

defects to the U. S. with top-secret information. After a

high-speed car chase, American and Russian agents shoot it
out while the scientist (played by Tor johnson in his last film
appearance) escapes through a nuclear testing site. Expo
sure to an atomic blast turns the scientist into a monster who
likes to kill men and take women back to his cave to drool
over. A sheriffs deputy is sent out with orders to "shoot first
and ask questions later." Unfortunately the deputy starts
shooting at the wrong person, causing much confusion.
Eventually aU is resolved, with retribution descending from
heaven in the form of bullets fired from a police airplane, and
the film ends with a particularly poignant scene featuring a
dead Tor johnson and a bunny rabbit.

Beast of Yucca Flats belongs in that strange sub-genre of

The Narrated Horror Movie. Apparently filmed without
sound, the film is narrated throughout, with occasional

voices obviously du bed in. The words are sparse and enig
_
matic; e.g. at one pomt there is talk of people being "caught
up in a web of technology," but what this has to do with the
plot is a mystery.

Coleman

Francis made two more films after Beast

Skydivers and Night 7rain to Mundo

Fine)

(1be

but they were

comparatively mundane.

By the end of the sixties

Francis had fallen on hard times.

He appeared in a few Russ Meyer films (Motor Psycho,

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls) and showed up briefly in Ray
Dennis Steckler's Body Fever

(aka

Super Cool) before he

died.

... .....
One of the most prolific and controversial directors worldng

193

in exploitation today, jess Franco makes his films quickly and

of rear-screen projection, lots of mattes ( a method ofplacing

seemingly with little regard to production values. Neverthe

an object or person, by means of an optical printer, amidst

less his films have a definite style and flavor. His overuse of

surroundings they're not really part of), and a few postcards.

Gordon's first excursion into the realm of brobdingnagia

the zoom lens is notorious. Multilingual, Franco has made

films all over Europe in many di.fferent languages. Usually

was a rarely shown item titled Serpent Island. His lowest

heavily dosed with sex, most of his films are in the horror

budget production, this film substitutes talk for special

effects.

genre, and several concern the exploits ofwomen in prison.

7be Awful Dr. Orloff; jack the

Ripper; Venus in Furs; De Sade '70; 1be Diabolical Dr. Z; Kiss
Me, Monster; La Comtesse Pr!roerse (about Elizabeth
Bathory); Necronomicon; justine; Vampyros/Lesbos; Night
of the Blood Monster; and Eugenie . . . 1be Story of Her
journey into Pr!roersion. Because of their "sexism" and "bad
Among his better efforts:

His next effort, King Dinosaur, is the story of an inter

planetary encounter between a giant gila monster and an
armadillo. The film was successful, so Gordon decided to
tackle even more ambitious material. In Beginning of the
End, a horde of giant locusts attacks Chicago. In one memor
able scene, the insects are shown climbing the side of a

taste," his films are sometimes loathed by even staunch fans

building. Upon reaching the top, several of the creatures

of weird films.

continue crawling into the sk1 and out of the frame!

Bert Gordon is best remembered for his 1957 classic Tbe

Lll .....,

Amazing Colossal Man. about a man who catches the full

Of the many sexploitation directors who started during the

sixties, R lee Frost is one of the best. He directed several
movies and was cameraman on numerous others. Frost had a
special knack for showing as much skin as possible without
giving the audience the slightest peek at genitalia (a severe
taboo during that era).
During the sixties most of the films Frost worked on were
produced and written by Bob Cresse -it's impossible to

blast of an atomic bomb and ends up growing 50 feet tall! The

film was so popular it spawned a sequel, War ofthe Colossal

Beasts.
During the sixties Gordon suffered a dry spell- atomic
monsters were "out" and sex was "in." He was never wont to
explore that subject, a fact that leaves The Amazing Colossal
Man less of a movie than it might have been! He made a
couple of fantasies ( 1be Boy and the Pirates and The Magic

discuss the career of one without mentioning the other. The

team worked well; Cresse had an obvious affinity for sadism
and Frost knew how to film it and make it work.
Their peak production was the

1968

classic Love Camp

Movie bosed on the mass murderer Ed Gein.

Seven. Supposedly based on fact, the film told the story of two
female Allied spies who allow themselves to be captured by
the Nazis. They are taken to a special concentration camp
where they're forced to have sex with German officers.

PRETTY SALLY MAE

DIED A VERY UNNATURAL ;

There is much degradation and torture, most of it meted out

by the camp commandant ( played by none other than
Cresse ). When the movie was released, trailers advertised:
"From the people who brought you Hot Spur and Mondo
BizaTTO comes another movie of this fine caliber." They
weren 't kidding'
During the seventies, Frost drifted away from the porno
film world and now works as an editor at a film laboratory.

Gaffney made few films, but one of them was the outrageous

Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster, the story of a robot

spaceman named Frankenstein who helps save the world
from losing all its women to creatures from another planet.
In the fifties, this mass murderer who lived on an isolated
farm in Wisconsin manufactured various household items
and pieces of apparel out of the body parts of his victims, who
were mostly passers-by. His curious practices have served as
the basis for several movies, among them: Psycho, Deranged,
7bree on a Meathook and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A
20-minute video based on interviews and close-ups of old
photographs was filmed, hut the definitive documentary has
yet to be made.

Bert Gordon not onlywrites and directs most of his films, but
also creates the majority of his special effects. This in itself is
nothing new-Herschell Gordon lewis went so far as to
formulate his oum brand of stage blood-but Bert Gordon's
attempts at special effects, both in scope and imagination, go
far beyond those of other low-budget filmmakers. During the
fifties, when atomic monsters were all the rage, Gordon
convinced his backers he could make movies. about giant
monsters at negligible cost. And he did so-by extensive use

1'1-"

COLOR ,. .,., MOVIELAB

ROBERT PAT

,. "

ROBERTS BLossoM - cosmE LEE - MICKI MOORE wARNER - oRR

"'""' """'TOM KARR

"'''"'', JEFF GILLEN

., ALAN ORMSBY

,.,.,

w.
"' ALAN ORMSBY
Rrlt!ne:d t, AM(RICAN lfifHRNAHONAI.

194

Sword) and a couple of thrillers ( 7brmented and Picture

Mommy Dead), but his best effort of the decade was Village
of the Giants, yet another film about his favorite subject.
By the seventies Gordon's films were beginning to look
suspiciously alike.

Village of the Giants is basically an

Gods. In

tale of drug dealers, ripoffs, and murder which st2rred Wil

liam Kerwin) and

never produced

updated version of H.G. Wells' novel, Food of the

1973

he used the same subject matter again, but this time

Food of the Gods. In 1977 he remade

his locusts movie: Empire of the Ants features an army of
under the book's title,

giant ants which are not only big, but smart.

Death Curse of Tartu, ( 1967; ancient

monster seeks revenge for being disturbed ), but

a truly

wild

so

movie.

far he's

...y ...
jerry Gross is better known
career in

1964

as

a producer. He beg;an his

1966 he
on a O:laln

with a film titled Vice Girls, Ltd. In

turned out his fll'St attempt at directing: Girls

Gang. Purported to have been shot under extremely adverse

conditions in the Deep South, the film was actually made in

.. ......

New jersey. Next Gross directed

Some directors make dozens of movies, but never anything

memorable. In 1959 Tom Graeff made only one movie, Teen.

agers From Outer Space, but it's enough to

earn

him a place

7eenage Mother, a fiJm title

of the sixties, Gross

that needs no explanation. By the end

had abandoned directing completely in favor of producing.

The name jerry Gross has become

associated

in this book. It featured giant lobster shadows and "alien"

budget horror oddities such as I Drink

teenagers in silver jumpsuits and motorcycle helmets.

Boogey.man.

._ L IUII'r

with low

Your Blood and 7be

n 7be Weird World of LSD ('67)

Another one-film wonder, john Grant entered the sexploita

The technique and style of

tion market with

suggest that Robert Ground is primarily an educational film

7be Sexterminators, a film about a group of

women who take it upon themselves to rid the world of

maker. The film may be more of a happy accident than a n

"o,ersexed" people. In true "roughie" fashion, the movie

outright

ends with a castration.

AltCII
WII&IAII ....

In

attempt a t deviant cinema.

MLL, ...

1960, most no-budget independent filmmakers either

Grefe is a director who never quite found his niche. His

worked for distributors like AlP and Allied Artists, or went

indifferent morality and slapstick approach to violence were

the sexploitation route, establishing shoestring distribution

demonstrated in films like

companies to peddle their products. Arch Hall, Sr. formed his

7be Hooked Generation ( 1968; a

Young Swingers in the Jerry Gross film, THIIago Mott...

distribution company before making films. Although he did

make one sexploitation film (Magic Spectacles), most of his
movies are cypicaJ sixties dth'C-in fodder-in other words,
great.
To begin his career Hall wrote, produced and directed 7be
O:Joppers as a showcase for his son, Arch HaJI, Jr. The film
depicts the acth.-ities of a gang of young car thieves. Junior,
when he's not stripping cars for parts, takes time out to sing a
couple oforiginaJ songs he wrote, "KongoJoc:" and "Monkey
In My Hatband." The film did well, enabling Hall to finance
two more films.
The first, Eegab! was again directed by Hall; this time
under the pseudon}'m "Nicholas Merriwether... He also
appears in the movie using the name "William Watters."
Eegah! tells the story of a teenage caveman found in the
desert near Palm Springs. The second film, Wild Guitar, is a
more subdued tale of a young rock singer's rise to fame and
fortune. and the girl who loved him when. (Incidentally, this
was Ray Dennis Steckler's directing debut. ) In both films
Arch HaJJ, Jr. serenades us with several tunes.
Although he neither wrote nor directed it, Arch HaJJ, Sr.
also produced an amazing film called 1be Sadist (aka 7be
Profli e of Terror). Here Junior gave his best performance,
playing a demented young man with a \icious hatred of
teachers. The film was written and directed by James umdis,
and once seen is never forgotten.
Arch Hall, Sr. worked with Landis on two more films (7be

Nasty Rabbit and Deadwood '76). but in 1966 he stopped

producing films. ln 1979 he died while teaching a class on

Arm HoD Sr. in Whtlt's Ut Front.

film. Curiously, the ultimate Arch Hall movie is one in which

he neither appears nor had anything to do with producing.
Titled 7be Last Ttme I Sau Archie, the film \'\'aS directed by
Jack Webb and chronicles the misadventures of Arch Hall
(played by Robert Mitchum) as seen through the eyes of his
close friend, screen....,Titer Bill Bowers (played by jack
Webb). HaU comes off as a likable con man with an inordi
nate amoum ofchutzpah who succeeds in becoming a gover
nor on the way to the Presidency.

Starting as an art director at AlP, Daniel Haller is noteworthy

for creating the e,ocative atmosphere in many of Corman's
"Poe'' films, including 7be Pit and the Pendulum and 7be
Premaltlre Bun'al. The first film he directed was DieMonster

Die!, about a town full of radiation-deformed people. Based

on H.P. l.ovecraft's TJ>e Colour Out ofSpace. it starred Boris
Karloff. like Connan's Poe films, Die Morzster Die! is atmos
pheric to the poim of other-worldliness-a dry-ice fog cov
ers the ground in almost every scene.
Haller's next effort as a director was DetJ/I's Angels, an
excellent biker film following the traiJ blazed by Corman's
7be Wild Angels. But after a few more films of little note, he
drifted inro television, where he achieved some success
directing episodes of Kojak and Ironside.
Y1CJM & IDW... ........
These two brothers were early exploitation filmmakers: Vic

tor directed and Edward produced. Their earliest and best

known horror film, White Zombie ( 1932), was a successful
attempt to cash in on a popular New York play. The star was
Bela Lugosi. For its time, White Zombie was remarkably lurid,
featuring pre-Hays code scanty costumes. A few years later
the Halperins tried to squeeze a little more money out of
their zombie hit by making a sequel, Revolt of the Zombies.
The sequel met with less favor. Other horror films by the
brothers include 7brture Ship, Supernatural and Burled
Alive.

unusual filmmaker who began his career making experi

mental films, Curtis Harrington's initial efforts include 1be
Fall of the House of Usher, Picnic, Dangerous Houses and
1be Wonnuood Star. His first commercial fllrn was Mght
7ide, an outstanding film fantasy about a lonely sailor who
falls in love with a sideshow mermaid. Harrington also gave
us Queen of Blood (about a hemophiliac Martian vampire),
and a "sick" film, 1be Killing Kind, about a psychopathic kid
who, while living with his mom, kills people.

An

and screenwriter for several Ray Dennis Steckler films.

Steckler and Haydock first teamed up on 1be Deceivers, a
tense drama about the kidnapped girlfriend of a popular rock
Star

star. Halfway through the movie Steckler turned it into a

comedy about two bumbling superheros, changing the title
to Rat Pfink and Boo Boo. A typographical error turned the
film into Rat Pfink a Boo Boo In the film, Haydock stars as
singer "Lonnie Lord." Haydock was formerly the leader of a
rockabiUy band called Ron Haydock and the Boppers, so not
surprisingly he sings all the songs, many of which were
originally released by Haydock's band on 45's from ChaCha
Records. Besides helping Steckler, Haydock was an avid hor
ror movie fan, contributing often to the f.mzines Famous
Monsters of Film/and and Monster 1fmes. In 1977, while
trying to hitchhike back to Los Angeles from Steckler'shome
in Nevada, he was hit by a car and died.
.

!MI

,.

The director who shocked everybody vvith his 1974 classic,

1be 7exas Oxlinsaw Massacre. 1bis film, about a fun.ily of
cannibalistic killers, set the standard for all future slasher
films. What's remarkable is how funny it is-although It
takes several viewings to truly appreciate the humor. Next
Hooper made Eaten Alive (aka Death 7mp, Starlight Slaugh
ter, and Legend of the Bayou), a garish tale of a man-eating
crocodile. With this film he seems to have taken pains to
avoid any resemblance to O:Jainsaw; Eaten Alive is filmed on
stage sets with stylized lighting and a chase scene where the
victim actually gets away. Unfortunately, each successive
film (Salem's Lot, Funbouse, Poltergeist), is progressively

197

worse; the latest (lifeforce) being the worst yet. Whither to

Martian sent to spy on earth people. 1\vo years later he

now, Mr. Hooper?

appeared in a virtual remake entitled Mars Needs Women!

Without a doubt, Kirk's strangest film of all is Mother

Goose a Go-Go, the story of a young newlywed who faints
Lumped together here are sometimes marvelous, sometimes
inept Italian directors who over the past few years have
collectively created dozens of all-too-similar horror movies.

every time someone reads to him from Mother Goose. The

man's problem is solved after a psychiatrist sprays him with
LSD while he is sleeping.

They are: Umberto Lenzi, Lucio Fulci, Ruggero Deodato,

Sergio Martino, Luigi Cozzi, Antonio Margheritti, and Fran
cesco Martino.

The most prolific

This photographer-publisher made dozens of short films for

is Lucio Fulci, who, showing less talent

America's sexual underground during the tat forties and

than many of the others, makes up for it in sheer volume.

early fifties. He started his career as a Manhattan photo store

Ruggero Deodato is easily the most bizarre; often his films are

owner, and soon discovered there was a potential gold mine

extremely sadistic and realistic in their gore. CannibalHolo

in "girlie" pictures. At first he specialized in pin-up photos,

caust is the classic of the cannibal genre (a singularly Italian

genre, spawned by Romero's Dawn of the Dead). Umberto

the kind U.S. soldiers used to hang up in their lockers.

Lenzi displays a certain amount of technical talent; as does

bondage, with a marked penchant for spike heels and black

In the late forties Klaw began emphasizing themes of

Antonio Margheritti, the "old-timer" of the bunch listed

nylons. Despite his racy themes, Klaw's ftlms apotheosize

here. Sergio Martino has yet to prove his individuality as a

indifferent cinematography-little, if anything, is attempted

director. Luigi Cozzi is better known to American audiences

in the way of artistic or directorial control . Often the

by the name "Lewis Coates." His version ofHercules, starring

actresses stare past the camera, obviously receiving unheard

Lou Ferrigno, is one of the funniest examples of sword-and

instructions, and sometimes they laugh when they're trying

sandal cinema.

to look serious. Jump cuts abound.

These men are the Italian equivalents offifties exploitation

In 1963 Klaw demonstrated, once and for all, his indiffer

directors. Before a movie gets made in Italy, the director

ence to his art when, threatened with a jail sentence, he

must answer the question: "What's it like?" -originality

burned an entire collection of photographs and negatives. In

being a worthless commodity. However, from time to time

spite of this indifference (or maybe because of it) Klaw's

these directors manifest a few choice moments of brilliance

films are compelling; the actresses (there are no men in his

all their own.

films) appears genuinely nonchalant and unpretentious.

They seem to be truly enjoying themselves.

&.,

Ray Kellogg's first film, 1be Giant Gila Monster, is a classic of

the atomic monster genre; the story of a boy who sacrifices
the thing he loves most (his new hot rod) in order to save his
town from destruction.

The Giant Gila Mo nster was released on a double bill with

another Kellogg film, 1be Killer Shrews, a work that took
filmmaking into a realm seldom entered nowadays-the
monsters are dogs with fake fangs and carpets strapped to

Although tame by today's standards of anatomical explicit

ness, Klaw's ftlms are still fun to watch and are treasured by
fans of bondage and the bizarre. His effect on the field of
exploitation-especially during the sixties, when themes of
violence were prevalent-cannot be ignored. Everything
from Barbarella to Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill! shows the
influence of Klaw's little movies and photos. He is best
remembered for his photographs of pin-up and bondage star,
Betty Page.

their backs! Such i.r.lprovisatory genius could not long

remain ignored; small wonder John Wayne chose Ray Kel
logg to help him direct his outrageous The Green Berets.

This underrated director made the classic J.D. film Hot Car
Girl, about the story of a }'Dung hoodlum (played by Dick
Baka1yan) who ignores the pleas of his squeaky-clean girl

Comic actor who started his career with Walt Disney films,

friend to clean up his act. After a drag race in which a cop is

appearing in such favorites as Old Yeller, 1be Shaggy Dog, The

killed, the young hood becomes a fugitive from justice,

Absent-Minded Professor, and the standout Monkey's Uncle

engaging in several robberies before he is gunned down by

in which he played "scrambled-egghead" Merlin jones, col

the police.
Kowalski's next film, 7be Night of the Blood Beast, is a

lege whiz-kid. After leaving Disney, he joined Annette Funi

cello at AlP, appearing in Pajama Party where he played a

Typical examples of the photos sold by Irving Klaw.

favorite among fans of fifties sci-fi/horror movies. His follow-

Two coupiM engage in strange games in Radley Metzger's The Lickerish

up was the even more incredible, more low-budget Attack of

the Giant Leeches, which featured Bruno Ve Sota at his slimi

Quartet.

Blackboard jungle, Young and Wild, and Riot in juvenile

Prison.

est, Yvette Vickers at her sultriest, and a host of poorly

costumed leech monsters. Both films were produced by
Roger Corman's brother, Gene.

Ironically, Kowalski's career as a movie director is oversha

dowed by his work in television. Many episodes of Perry

Muson were directed by him. He also directed episodes of

Ikmacek and Rat Patrol, and is the executive producer of
Barret.ta
Other ftlms by Bernard Kowalski include Krakatoa, East

....... ....
The infamous star of Herschell Gordon Lewis' first two gore
films, Blood Feast and Two 1bousand Maniacs. Her talent
for overacting is unrivaled. When asked where he found her,
Lewis replied,

"Under a rock!" like many exploitation

actresses, she began her career as a ffayboycenterfold-see

the june, 1963 issue for details.

ofjava; Stiletto; and Sssssss, the story of a scientist who turns

his

daughtt:r's boyfrit:nds

into snakes.

Of

aU the sexploitation directors, only H.G. Lewis and

Michael
A Russ Meyer discovery who, like most Meyer discoveries,

Findlay rival joseph Mawra's talent for screen

sadism. Mawra is best remembered for his "Olga" films. Olga,

bas faded into obscurity. Her first film, Lorna, the story of a

the madame of a brothel, runs a white-slavery ring and

sexually frustrated housewife in rural America, is her best

indulges in every form ofsadism. Unlike most film villains she

effort. She appeared in two other Russ Meyer films, Mondo

rarely gets her "just desserts," usuaUy managing to escape

7bpless and Mudboney, as well as two films by Dale Berry,

Hip, Hot and 2 I and Hot Thrills and Warm OJills.

scot-free. Mawra's films include: Olga's Girls, White S/aves of

O:Jinatoum, Madame Olga's Massage Parlor, Olga's House

of Shame, and Oxlined Girls.

MDn MA.. WI
A moody young actor who made an immediate splash as the
heavy in AJP's teens-and-drugs classic, Tbe Cool and the

Director-producer whose films tread the line between sex

Crazy. He had a knack for portraying disturbed young men.

ploitation and "art." Metzger got his start as a film cutter at

Later he would claim this led to an inability to get parts in

janus Films; he also worked as an editor on independent

Hollywood movies. Marlowe's outstanding films include

features including Tbe Flesh Eaters, a low-budget horror

199

Sc-

from TIM L...hlng w...... (Radley Metzger).

movie about amoeba-like parasites that attack a group of

island castaways.

In

the early sixties Metzger formed his own company,

Audubon Pictures. At first he

was

little more than a film

broker, buying foreign films and dubbing them into English.

films

Durin the seventies, when the sex market shifted to

harcicore, Metzger adopted the name "Henry Paris" and started
making pornography. Uke his softcore, his porn films are a
cut above those ofhis peers;

Tbe opening ofMisty Beethoven

is one of few hardcore movies that bear repeat viewing. In

he released were invariably erotic, and if a film

Tbe Punishment of Anne he treads between hardcore and

lacked sufficient sexual content, Metzger would add some.

softcore, with scenes of bondage and discipline so intense

The

For Tbe Twilight Girls he added a sex scene starring Georgina

they are painful to watch.

As a film distributor, Metzger made

"straight" feature, a remake of

Spelvin. For

Tbe Fourth Sex he

added an orgy scene.

his biggest splash with

Currently-after

attempting

to

7be

make

successful

Cat and the Canary

/, a Woman, a Swedish/Danish coproduction intended for

Metzger continues to direct porno films with his characteris

the European sexploitation market. The film, about a nurse

tic visual elegance.

who rejects her strict religious upbringing in favor of sexual

freedom, made millions and inspired two sequels.

During

the late sixties Metzger realized his destiny as a

director. Because he filmed in Europe utilizing large estates

and castles, his movies have an elegant appearance far out
shining their budgets. In many stylistic ways his films resem

.. ...
Olaracter actor in literally hundreds of films, like

7be little

Shop of Horrors, Not of ThisEarth, Sorority Girl (a J.D. film),

and Carnival Rock-a

1959 rock 'n' roll remake of 7be Blue

"New Wave" directors. His films include

futuristic remake of Dumas Camille, and

Angel. He got his start during the heydey of AlP teenpix,

an empty schoolyard encountering scenes from her past. In

played Walter Paisley, a talentless nebbish who dreams of

Tbe lickerish Quartet-a standout Metzger movie -the

someday becoming a famous artist. Paisley's wish comes true

ble those of French

Camille 2000, a

'

1berese and Isabelle, in which a character wanders through

characters find themselves trapped on film, being watched

playing characters on both sides of the law. His best role was
in Roger Corman's

1959 classic, Bucket of Blood,

where he

after he accidentally discovers that murder can directly

by the people they had been watching on film earlier. Thus,

inspire the creation of sculpture .

convolutions.

roles. He has, of late, attained a certain cult status in some

the film folds in on itself in a never-ending series of

Miller

is still making movies, often appearing in cameo

200

horror movie circles.

One of the most controversial directors of all is Staten

Island's Andy Milligan, who boasts of never having made a
movie for more than S 10,000-quite an achievement, con
sidering that most of his 23-plus films areperiodpieces with
costumes, etc. ( However, he reuses the costumes over and
over.) Some critics have dubbed him the "world's absolute
worst" director, while others consider him a genius whose
singular vision only a few can appreciate. No one is neutral
on the topic of Andy Milligan.
Milligan's films are classic studies in no-budget moviemak
ing. The key to his money-saving technique is talk- Milligan
long ago having realized that talk is cheaper to film than
action. His films usually feature a brief bit of gore at the
beginning (to keep the audience from leaving too quickly),
followed by several scenes of conversation (a man and a
woman, a man and a man, a woman and a woman, several
people, and so on), followed by a bit more gore -low
budget, but always effective.
Milligan's filmmaking career began in the early sixties with
a film titled liz; producer William Mishkin saw it, had him
insert some sex scenes, and retitled it 7be Promiscuous Sex.
It did all right, so Mishkin offered him money to film a horror
subject titled 7be Naked Witch, which also did well. A5 in all
ofhis movies, MilJigan used his own 1 6mm camera and did all
the photography.
It would be three years before Milligan made another film,
but once he started, there was no stopping him. In 1967 he
released 7be Degenerates and 7be Depraved. The following
year he made 7be Ghastly Ones; Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me;
Seeds; and Tricks of the Trade. In 1969 he released Gutter
Trash; in 1970 Bloodthirsty Butchers; 7be Body Beneath;
Guru, 7be Mad Monk; and 7be 1brture Dungeon.
Milligan's films usuaJiy fall into one of two categories: sex
or horror. Sometimes they can be tedious, like 7be Rats Are
Coming! 7be Werewolves Are Here! ( 1 972). But all of his
films display his style -summarized by writer Bill Landis as:
"period piece settings; sometimes grainy 1 6mm blowup pho
tography; plots thin yet convoluted; violence ranging from
graphic to obviously fake; utilization of horror movie icons
like mad priests, vampires, werewolves and hunchbacks; and
finally, elements of camp humor." ( Fangoria 20)
With the rising cost offiJm, it is doubtful anyone will ever
again be able to make a movie for less than S 10,000, but if
anyone can, Andy MilJigan can.
WIWAII M--

Producer-distributor William Mishkin is legendary for having

been one of the first to introduce foreign sex films (called, at
the time, "art" films) to the American public. He is also the
man who produced most of Andy Milligan's films.

CIIIY
IT ......
An aptly named nightclub entertainer and actress whose
breasts measure a fuJI seventy-three inches. She is better
known for her posters and photos in "tit" magazines. Two
films she stared in, Deadly Weapons and Double Agent 73,
are legendary and incomparable. In Deadly Weapons she
plays a woman who uses her breasts to kill people-a con
cept that doesn't take much suspension of disbelief. In Dou
ble Agent

73 she plays a secret agent who has a camera

implant ed in her left hreast. Her a'isignment: to kill the

members of a drug smuggling ring and take their pictures.
._

__ _...y

Murray is less a producer than a film broker. During the

sixties he bought several films from Mexico, dubbed them

(badly) into English and sold them to television. Most Ameri

cans got their first glimpse of Santo on television thanks to
Murray. Besides the Santo films, he also distributed virtually
all the Mexican vampire movies, as well as those featuring the
Wrestling Women. Glances are: if it's a dubbed horror film
from Mexico, K. Gordon Murray is responsible.

Virtually unknown in America, Paul Naschy (born Jacinto

Molino) is the number one horror film star in Europe. He
does his own make-up, creating dozens of characters much
like Lon Chaney did; sometimes he is referred to as ''The
Spanish Lon Chaney." Ofhis many films, the few that made it
to the States are so badly dubbed and edited as to be virtually
unwatchable.
Naschy also wrote the screenplays for many of his films.
His most popular creation is Waldemar Daninsky, a Polish
werewolf known in Spain as F1 Hombre Lobo. One of his best
films is Dracula s Great Love, in which he plays a lovesick
vampire who would rather die than spend eternity without
the woman he loves. Other standout Naschy films include /A
Marca del Hombre Lobo (released here as Frankenstein 's
Bloody Terror), La Orgia de los Muertos, F1 Retorno de
Walpurgis, House of Psychotic Women, Night of the How
ling Beast and F1 Transexua/.
..... IUriYiaM

Yet another Russ Meyer find, Kitten appeared in Meyer's

Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens. Of all his starlets, Ms.
Natividad easily possesses the biggest bust of the bunch, and
that's saying a lot! Although no great shakes as an actress,
what she lacks in talent she makes up for in enthusiasm.
Always fun to watch.
..-nY Mel

Actress/model who, thanks to the efforts of Irving Klaw,

became the archetypal fe male bondage and domination sub
ject. She appeared in dozens of films for Klaw, none longer
than fifteen minutes. Upon watching her old films, one can
easily understand her popularity. She was extremely pretty,
with a near-perfect figure to match, and she obviously
enjoyed her work- never losing her spontaneity.
Betty Page got her start as a pin-up in the late forties; soon
she was very popular. Klaw, whose primary source of income
was pin-up photos, was quick to realize her potential in less
acceptable erotic forms. Her shiny black hair and expressive
eyes lent themselves to Klaw's domination films. Whether
playing the role of master or slave, Betty acted out her parts
with enthusiasm, and never a frozen expression.
Ms. Page's whereabouts today are unknown. She is
rumored to have married and moved back to her home state
of Tennessee , possibly without comprehending the scope of
her influence on the sexploitation industry.
... ......

Director John Parker has only one known film to his credit:
Daughter of Horror which is discussed at length elsewhere

in this book. It's too bad critical reaction to his film was so
lethal; his talent-which was never again displayed-is
indisputable.
.. .. ._

Exploitation fiJmmaker joel M. Reed makes films that offend

the most jaded moviegoers. His most notorious film, Blood
sucking Freaks (also known as 7be Incredible 1brture
Show), managed to draw protesters in Ne w York Oty. When
it played in St. Paul, Minnesota, it was billed as a horror
movie. Several unsuspecting parents took their thirteen-year
old sons to see it, only to find out it is mostly a sex film .

201

 Bloodsucking Freaks is a mean, sleazy, misogynistic movie

followed this with The Unguarded Moment, portraying an

with no socially redeeming values. It should not be missed by

obsessive young man who attempts to ruin a teacher's career

any fan of devit cinema. Reed makes his movies on what

because she spumed his advances. When Hollywood began

ever money he can beg, borrow or steal. Considering how

losing interest in him, Saxon moved to Italy, where he has

low-budget they are, his films-notably Career Bed, Sex By

made literally dozens of films, including Evil Eye, The Ni

ght

Advertisement, and Night of the Zombies

Callerfrom Outer Space, Queen of Blood, Cannibals in the

Streets, R/(}()d &!ach, and Tenebrae.

( 1981,

starring

Jamie Gillis in a non-porn role )-are unusually well-filmed,

sound-recorded and edited.

..
.
... n..
French sex/horror film director who specializes in erotic
vampire movies. In France he is somewhat of an institution.
Over the past fifteen years he has churned out several movies,
all with similar themes. Among them: Levre deSang, Le Culte
du Vampire. Le Frisson des Vampires, Les Femmes Vampires,
Vierges et Vampires and La Vampire Nue. Of these films, few
have

been

dubbed

into

English, and

these are rarely

screened. judging from reports, Rollin's films capture just the

right balance of sex and blood, eroticism and horror.

Throughout the sixties, Barbara Steele was the undisputed

Queen of Horror. Her eerie good looks-with more than a
hint of madness in her exceptionally expressive eyes
matched perfectly the Poe-inspired films so popular in those
times. She herself admitted, "I love witchcraft, the supernatu
ral, all that's intuitive. I don't like people who are too
rational." Her horror career began with Mario Bava's classic
Black Sunday, in which she plays a beautiful reincarnated
vampire. Subsequent roles in The Horrible Dr. Hichcock, The
Pit and the Pendulum, I Lunghi Capelli della Morle, and
Nightmare Castle fleshed out her legend as the "acknowl

..... ......

edged queen of some of the finest unworldly, eerie films for

Canadian director who directed only two films: The Blood

y
Brood, about a gang of psychotic, beatnik dope-dealers who

nearly a decade." Recently she appeared in Piranba. David

Cronenberg's 71.xry Came From Within. and Otged Heat.

feed a delivery boy ground glass just for the fun of watching

him die; and The Mask, an extraordinary 3-0 film about a

mask that enables the wearer to see into his own psyche-at
the risk of his sanity.

... ...YII
An actor-dancer with impish good looks, Thmblyn was a
popular actor during the fifties. He started appearing in fi lms
in

... .... 1
The numero uno producer of horror films in Mexico is Abel
Salazar; it would be difficult to find a horror movie made in
Mexico he didn 't produce. Salazar often appears in them and
sometimes writes the screenplays as well. His talent is appar
ent; the films he is involved in are a cut above the average

1950,

at the age of sixteen, but did not receive much

attention until

1954

when he appeared in Seven Bridesfor

Seven Brothers. Throughout the rest of the fifties Thmblyn

appeared in numerous light-hearted films, most notably West

Barbara StHie

south-of-the-border product. His films show a strong Univer

sal Pictures influence, but his Mexican outlook gives the
movies a special atmosphere. Some titles: Vampire's Coffin,
The Witch's Mirror, The Brainiac and Curse of the Crying
Woman.
laiCIC
Canadian

UIITAIA
IAili
director responsible for a small masterpiece

entitled Decoyfor Terror ( also known as 7be Playgirl Killer).

The film stars actor extraordinaire William Kerwin as an
artist whose frustration with models who won't stay still
leads to a chilling solution: he puts the models in deep freeze
while painting them. The film "features" Neil Sedaka, who
only appears in the first half-hour before "leaving for a trip"
but not before he gets a chance to sing a song titled "Water
bug." A classic example of the "Mad Artist" genre; this film is
not to be missed!
,.. .. ......
An exotic-looking, half-Japanese woman whose dark beauty
and chilly portrayals of strong-willed women have left lasting
impressions on anyone who has seen her films. She first

apeared

in the movies, oddly, as Suzette Wong in Billy

Wilder's Irma La Douce. But it is her full-throttle perfor

mance in Faster Pussycat,

Kill! Kill! for which she is best

known. Her only other screen appearances are in The Astra

Zombies, Ted V. Mikels' no-budget tale of cyborgs and

espionage; and in The Doll Squad, another MikeL-. film, this

one about an all-female team of counter-terrorists. Ms. Satana

has retired from films and is currently living in Reno.
.. ....
Leading actor whose "creepy" good looks are well-suited for
roles both as hero and villain. Saxon got his start playing
Sandra Dee's beau in the teen film, The Restless Years. He

202

Tura Satana

Side Story. During the late sixties Thmblyn began experi

menting with drugs, and parts in Hollywood became harder
and harder to find. After becoming friends with independent
filmmaker AI Adamson, he appeared in many of Adamson's
best movies, including Satan 's Sadists, Dracula Vs. Franken
stein and 7be Female Bunch.

..... ....
French director who created a furor by introducing America
to Brigitte Bardot in And God Created Woman, and the
opportunity to see all of jane Fonda in the sci-fi comedy,
Barbat"ella. Vadim can be tedious-as with Pretty Maids All

in a Row -but has still given us some great movies. One of

his best is the rarely screened Blood and Roses, an erotic

WIWA11 C. NO......

retelling of Sheridan LeFanu's Carmi//a. Other standout films

Cinematographer whose fine camerawork appears only in

include Les Liaisons Dangereuses, 7l!stamentof0rpheus, Of

the lowest-budget movies. Thompson's noir lighting in

flesh and Blood and Vtce and Virtue.

Daughter of HoTTOr is responsible for most of the film's

impact. His work for Ed Wood, Jr. is less impressive, but has
its moments -can anyone forget Tor johnson rising from the
grave in Pkm Nine From Outer Space ?

........
Horror show hostess during the fifties and star of Ed Wood's
legendary Plan Nine From Outer space. She also appeared in
other films under her real name, Maila Nurmi. During the
fifties, Ms. Nurmi spent a lot of time running around with

The actress whose performances as Nazi leader Usa Koch

James Dean. After his death, she claimed to be in contact with

make !/sa, She Wolf of the S.S. and Harem Keeper of the Oil
Sheiks as good as they are. Other films featuring Ms. Thome

him. In a published article, she said Dean would caU her on

in more subdued roles include Love Me like IDo

claims was hostile; these days she remains silent on the

( sexploita

tion ) , 7be Erotic Adventures ofPinocchio (she played a fairy

the phone even after the wires had been cut. Reaction to her
subject. After her creation of the character Vampira, some

godmother), and most recently, Hellhole, in which she

pale imitations cropped up, but none can hold a candle to the

played a deranged mental patient.

originaL

Pug-ugly, fat character actor who usually plays heavies

because of his menacing, bad looks. His list of credits include
some of the best horror movies ever made-a Bruno Ve Sota
film festival would be highly entertaining. His films include

Daughter of Horror, 7be Alligator People, 7be Undead,

Attack of the Giant Leeches, Wasp Woman, Night Ttde,
Attack of the Mayan Mummy, Creature of the Walking
Dead and Wild World of Batwoman.

Artist/underground filmmaker whose tawdry explorations

of New York's "in" crowd (e.g. O:Jelsea Girls, Blowjob, My
Hustler, and Vinyl) tread the line between exploitation and
art. Many Warhol films were done in collaboration with (or
were directed by) Paul Morrissey.
.... .....

El Paso fertilizer salesman whose Manos, 7be Hands ofFate

is a cult legend. Manos portrays what happens to a young
couple after they miss a turn in the road and end up at a
strange house where they meet "Torgo," a spastic hippie who
guards the place when the master is away. After forcing their
way in, the couple become frightened by weird goings-on.
Eventually "The Master" shows up along with his bevy of
wives. There is some talk of other dimensions, a catfight, and
Torgo loses his right hand and his job.
Manos, 7be Hands of Fate is a joy to watch. It is a true
rarity: a film completely devoid of Hollywood influence or
conventional filmmaking technique. Jump cuts abound; con
tinuity is non-existent. The editing is leaden; it's doubtful if
any film ended up on the cutting room floor. If the actors
have difficulty remembering their Lines, the camera stays on
them until they do-no matter how long it takes! Warren was
so stingy with his footage that in one scene we catch a

glimpse of the clapper as it pulls out ofthe frame. Manos, 7be

Hands of Fate was his first and last attempt at filmmaking.

Producer-director-distributor specializing in ultra-low

budget films, including Mt:xican imports. Unlike fellow
importer K. Gordon Murray, Warren eschews dubbing in
favor of narration-often radically editing the films he
imports to avoid dubbing whenever possible. His films
include Tenurofthe Bloodhunters, Creature ofthe Walking
Dead, Curse of the Stone Hand and 7be Wild World of
Batwoman. A lawsuit forced him to change the latter title to

She Was a Hippy Vampire.

Zugsmith started his career producing low-budget films,

moved to mainstream, and then returned to the world of
exploitation. Although better known as a producer, he tried
his hand at directing with College Confidential, Sex Kittens
Go to College, Confessions of an Opium Eater, and others.
Zugsmith's first production was the reactionary classic
Invasion, USA (1952). A group of liberals, drinking in a bar,
are hypnotized and shown the danger of their way of think
ing, and how easy it would be for the commies to take over
the USA. In 1985 the film was remade starring 01Uck Norris.
During the fifties, Zugsmith worked for Universal
International and Allied Artists, producing some excellent
mainstream films such as 7buch of Evil, Slaughter on 'Rmth
Avenue, Written on the Wt'nd and Tarnished Angels.
During the sixties, Zugsmith plunged into sexploitation. In
1965 he worked with Russ Meyer on Fanny Hill, not one of
Meyer's better efforts. Later he added his own directorial
touches to the genre with 7be Incredible Sex Revolution, On
Her Bed of Roses and Movie Star, American Style, Or, LSD. I

Hate You!

The hunt for a

rapist leads cops
into the world of
beatniks in The
Albert Zugsmith
production, The
.... Generation.

204

never be able to make a living.

ANGELA: Oh, mother!
MOTHER: If you try to build a life with him, you'll

This is the universe. To the maggots in the

be miserable.

cadaver, the cadaver is infinity. And to you:

ANGELA: Really, Mother! You're way ahead of me.

What is your world? How do you know what

I iust have fun with Jerry, that's all.

is beyond the beyond?

(hom honking)

-Mondo Bi%arro

-Incredibly Strange
Creatures

You don't have to know a man to live with

him

but you have to know a man like a

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to violence; the

brother to kill him.

word and the act. While violence cloaks itself in

-Blast of Silence

a plethora of disguises, its favorite mantle still

remains

Total chaos; that's what I like! Out of chaos

sex.

-Faster Pussycat,

comes reasofl. Out of reason, science.

Kill! Kill!

-God Told Me To

I died for you

Aren't those crimes horrifying. And yet-so

Now why shouldn't you

fascinating!

return the favor?

-Daughters of Darkness

-Deathdream

------

Even dying is an act of eroticism.

I must experience the greatest act of the

-They Came From Within

human mind: to take another life!

-------

-The Mask

JERRY: Hey, are things that bad you gotta

wash your own car?

Ever drop a canteloupe from 40 stories?

MADISON: Things are rough all over.

-Q

JERRY: Yeah, the world's in a state of depression.

-Incredibly Strange

MOTHER: I don't

see

Creatures

how you can prefer Jer'l

to Phil when Phil is such a nice boy.

ANGELA: I like Jerry. Phil just isn't my type.
MOTHER: You're fascinated by Jerry because he's
different. He isn't like any of the boys you know.
ANGELA: Mother, Jerry's fun-he's exciting. We
go places I never dreamed of before.
MOTHER: You're right at the age when you could
make a terrible mistake.
ANGELA: And

you

think

Jerry

would

be

Give this man satin undies, a dress, a sweater

and a skirt, or even a lounging outfit, and he's
the happiest individual in the world. He can
work better, play better, and he can be more
of a credit to his community and his
government because he is happy.
-Glen or Glenda

mistake?
MOTHER: Yes, I do. Jerry has

no

education. He'll

206

Going Steady

I've always thought the profession of llutcher

What is real? Are you certain you know what

is an honorable one. What would we do

reality is? How do you know at this second

without them? They have chosen the profession

you aren't asleep in your bed, dreaming that

that is beneficial to us all. They slaughter and

you are here

chop up their vidims so that the rest of us

-The Wixard of Gore

have the wherewithal to live.

-Snuff

The Axtecs identified flayed skin with the new

garments of young vegetation

-Q

Let a man or woman venture from the well

beaten path of civilization, let him cross the
threshold of the limited intelled, and he
encounters amaxing and wondrous things: the
unknown and terrible. If he escapes with his

JERRY: Angie, baby!

How's college?

MADISON: Fine. You should try it some time.

life, he will usually find he left his reason

behind him.
-Mesa of Lost Women

JERRY: No, thanks. The world's my college.

-Incredibly Strange
Creatures

How cm1 you run from a dead penon, unless

A man runs. Somebody shoots at him.
-Beast of Yucca Flats

you're dead yourself?

-Venus in Furs

207

suicide; that's what stars are made of today.

-Special Effects
Torture and terror have always fascinated

-----

--
---------

mankind. Perhaps, whatever made your

predecesson see the sadism of the inquisition

After Mr. Edison made these tintypes gallop, it

and the gore of the gladiators' arena is the

wasn't but two days later that some

same thing that makes you stare at bloody

highway accidents and thrill to the terror of

enterprising guy had his girlfriend take her

dothes off and that's how exploitation began.
-David Friedman

death in the bullring. Today, television and

films give you the luxury of observing grisly
dismemberments and deaths without anyone
actually being harmed.

You were bom with hate and anger built in

took a slap on the backside to blast out the
scream
and then you knew you were alive.
-Blast of Silence

-The Wizard of Gore

The chief enemy of creativity is 'good' taste.

-Pablo Picasso

-Venus in Furs

Shared love knows no bounds

She was beautiful, even though she was dead.

but it's so

degrading!
-Daughters of Darkness

-------------

Despite Brett's inquiries about what Martin had

I was disgusted, but I was fascinated, too
didn't want to watch, but I couldn't help it.
.

-The Amazing Transplant

You've only dreamed there were women like

this, until now. But they're real! Unbelievably
real!
-Mondo Topless

----------

Thy form is fair to look upon, but thy heart is

in the spacecraft, he avoided specific

details for fear of disturbing her more than
she was. If the truth were known, Martin was
more than a little disturbed himself.
-The Creeping Terror
seen

This is a story of violence . . a violence born

of the uncontrolled passions of adolescent
youth, and nurtured by this generation of
parents-those who, in their own smug little

world of selfish interests and confused ideas of

parental supervision, refuse to believe today's

filled with carcasses and dead men's bones.

-lorna

glaring headlines.

I'm going to awaken you from this earthly

nightmare
awaken you to the sweet repose

You can't get blood out of an illusion.

of

-The Violent Years

-The lickerish Quartet

death!
-The love Butcher

Show me a crime and I can show you a pidure

that could've caused it.
-The Sinister Urge
-

This is the age of the non-entity. The

glorification of the nobody. As long as they're
vidims. look at the virtually non-existant
careers of Dorothy Stratton, or Frances Farmer.
What makes them worthy of a ten million

The tarantulas began to yield amazing

results-they grew as large as human beings.
They began developing new reasoning powers
and I found I had the telepathic power to
communicate with them. Then I reversed the
process, transplanted the control substance of
the insect back into the human body. Doctor,
look at this girl-1 call her Tarantella
If we
are successful, I shall have a super-female

spider!
-Mesa of lost Women

doUar eulogy on film? Murder, madness,

208

No

No

You can't do these things! You're

Torture! Torture! It pleasures me!

-Orgy of the Dead

tampering with the work of the Creator!

- - -

You're-evil!
-Mesa of lost Women

Every case history tells the same story. A story

that's a tragic pattern of men and women's

You must remember-blood must be given

willingly for the gods to appreciate it.
-Q

lives. The cause: mariiuana. This harmless

looking cigarette is doaked in many innocent
disguises. But light the match, and inhale the
smoke, and it becomes an invitation to your
own murder. This killer and the man who sells

-It wouldn't be the first time in history that

a monster was mistaken for a god.
-1 doubt if New Yorkers would take it as a god.
-Why not, if they come to fear it enough?
-Q

it have no respect for anybody. His victims are

any lost souls; it matters not to whom the
souls belong. The seller's method of operation,
Simple: keep the mind from thinking. The mind
thinks; the world becomes a real thing, with
troubles and problems without the answers.
But he has the answer. Escape! Sell the dreams

Do you believe the whole world runs by the

few laws of the sciences we have been able to
discover? There is more; much more. But people
are satisfied. They know so much, they think
they know it all.
-Martin

people want to dream. Keep them from waking

up. Because once they do, you're out of
business. Of course, the rich can afford to pay
more for their dreams. It's a profitable game.
And when boredom sets in, heroin, cocaine and
opium are always the next steps; at higher
prices. If you live that long.
-She Shoulda Said No

Sacrifices to your god are nothing new. Why

are you looking at me like I'm the first?
-God Told Me To
I am Criswell! For years I have told the almost
The only way the lord has ever successfully

unbelievable, related the unreal and showed it

disciplined us is through fear. Kill a man and

to be more than a fact. Now I tell the tale of

you impress a few people who already believe

the threshold people,

anyway. Kill a multitude and you can convince

of you may faint!

so

astounding that some

-Orgy of the Dead

a nation.
-God Told Me To

Regrettable .

I was hoping for a colleague,

but at least we have another experimental

-Say, uh

subiect

-Oh. Why the baby died. Didn't I tell you?

. .

-Mesa of lost Women

..

where's the kid that was born?

-No. No one ever tells me nothin' around here.

-We did our best.
-Well, that's alright. One less mouth to feed.
-Tomorrow's Children

-Why can't you get married and have a home

of your own?"
-Because I've never found a man I'd want to
marry. The ones who'd make good family men are
so dumb I couldn't stand them. The ones I like are

Ah, the curiosity of youth. On the road to ruin!

so worthless I'd starve.

May it ever be

-Mad Youth

------

so

adventurous!
-Orgy of the Dead

209

It is said on clear nights beneath the cold light

of the moon, howl the dog and the wolf; and
creeping things crawl out of the slime. It is
then the ghou'ls feast in all their radiance.
-Orgy of the Dead

MOYIE POSTERS QUOTES

Her other love is God

Within the walls of the

convent of Monzo, our Sister Virginia was violated

.

. She fell in love like any other woman.

-The lady of Monzo

From penthouse to playgirl: she was a lady . . .

Here you are, folks-the biggest bargain to hit
the midway. They'll thrill you. They'll kill you.
You'll even ask for more. Twenty beautiful
girls. Supple as a serpent; twisting, writhing
and twining. ..The most spedacular show to hit
the midway!
-The Incredibly Strange

but wanted to be treated like a tramp.

-The Agony of Love

-----

--

Sex-starved girls

forced to use their guns

and bodies to satisfy the man who owned

them .

he even seduced his own sister!

-The Dirty Dolls

Creatures

Norma had a way with men . . . and they with

her!!!
-Norma
Hollywood, California. The man you're looking
at is Joe Saxon. He's one of many caught in
the web of non-reality.

Non-reality. This is the

reason he is here in Hollywood-land of the

From the shadows of their sordid haunts

stars. Joe's ambition is to be one. A star-a

they slither like predatory beasts to stalk their

star of motion pictures-that world of make

prey! Hell is their only address and they offer

believe. So far Joe has had very little success,

you a cheap substitute for fulfillment in

for that road to stardom can be a long and

hard grind. Unfortunately, Joe has refused to
accept the world of reality and has found

exchange for your soul! Depraved

.

Loathsome .

Demented

. Nameless . . . Shameless . . .

These are the-Scum of the Earth!

himself trapped amongst the monthly payment

plans. He's got a new house, a new car, a new

TV set, swimming pool. Very impressive to the

people here in Hollywood. But unless the
monthly payments are kept up, there won't be
any TV sets or swimming pools.
Time to call his wife and give her the news of

Mad creatures of the night existing only for

sensual sadistic moments of HUMAN SLAUGHTER!
-The Ghastly Ones

today. This is Joe's wife Liz, former actress

turned artist. She gave up the business a long
time ago. The insecurity was too much for her,
but then she met Joe and love won out. But
love can also wear out, and the bills keep

Nothing has ever stripped your nerves as

screamingly raw as-The Gore Gore Girls

coming and the stomach starts to get hungry.

But Joe has another hunger-to be a movie
star, even if he has to play make-believe all
day, iust for himself. Joe Saxon
the world of

. caught in

non-reality.
-The Incredibly Strange
Creatures

If I were to describe in detail what goes on in

'lnga', I'd get arrested.
-Robert Salmagg,
WINS Radio

210

Mondo Blurro

1 ) When you come back from the fields tonight,

See the rack-thumb screw-iron maiden torture
drugs that make men slaves. Bizarre human
sacrifices-today! An authentic catalog of
cruelty. Actually filmed in the Dark Corners of
This Sick World!

I'm going to give you the beating of your life!

2) They said I could go off with her to Perkin's

Motel and she'd be real cooperative!
3) Nellie-the town's plaything. She passed for
white and they loved it!
-Girl on a Chain Gang

-Sadismo
------

--------

A thousand thrills crammed into one hundred

minutes! Bizarre, barbaric sights never before
put on film! Violent beyond belief

yet

beautiful beyond comparison! Ask your

friends-they can't stop talking about it! An
incredible orgy of Sights and Sounds!
-Ecco

It's the film that starts where the other

MONDO pictures chickened out!
-Taboos of the World

Nothing so appalling in the annals of horror!

You'll recoil and shudder as you witness the
slaughter and mutilation of nubile young
girls-in a weird and horrendous ancient rite!
(An Admonition: if you are the Parent or
Guardian of an impressionable adolescent DO
NOT BRING HIM or PERMIT HIM TO SEE THIS
MOTION PICTURE.) More grisly than ever in
BLOOD COLOR!
-Blood Feast

-----

The dead are hungry

and they're coming to

eat you alive!

-Night of the Zombies
-----

The film that uncovers the lid of small town

hate!

An entire town bathed in pulsing human blood!

Madmen crazed for carnage! Brutal
ghastly beyond belief!

evil

Gruesomely stained

in Blood Color!

-2000 Maniacs

--------

211

This

list, compiled by Jim Morton and Boyd Rice, represents

just a fradion of movies worth seeing. Thousands more

await your viewing pleasure!
Abducton, The (1972)
Abominable Dr. Phibes,
Acid Eaten, The

The (1971)

(1968)

Ad of Seeing With One's Own Eyes

(1972)

Curse of Her Flesh (1968)

Gun Cra'ly (1949)

Curse of the Doll People (1960)

Guyana-Cult of the Damned (1980)

Curucu, Beast of

the Ama'lon (1956)

Having a Wild Weekend (1965)

D.l., The (w/Jock Webb, 1957)

Hellhole (1984)

Damaged lives (1933)

Hercules (1983)

Amcning Transplant, The (1970)

Daughter of Horror (1955)

High School Confidential (1958)

Astro-Zombies, The (1968)

Daughter of the Sun (1962)

Honeymoon Killers, The (1970)

Attack of the Robots (French, 1966)

Daughters of Darkness (1971)

Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962)

Atom Age Vampire (1961)

Day the Earth Fro'le (1959)

Horror of Party Beach, The (1964)

Atomic Cafe (1982)

Decoy for Terror (1970)

Horrors of the Block Museum (1959)

Baby, The (1974)

Defilers, The (1965)

House of Whipcord ( 1974)

Basket Case (1982)

Dementia aka Daughter of Horror

Beast of Yucca Flats (1961)

(1955)

Human Duplicators (1965)

Hypnotic Eye, The (1959)

Beat Generation, The (1959)

Depraved! (1967)

I Dismember Mama (1972)

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)

Deranged (1974)

I Drink Your Blood (1971)

Big Doll House, The (1971)

Devil Doll, The ( 1963)

I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957)

Black Jesus (1971)

Devils, The (1971)

lisa; Harem Keeper for the Oil Sheiks

Black Shompoo (1976)

Don't Go In The House (1980)

Black Sunday (1961)

Double Agent

73 (1974)

(1975)
lisa; She-Wolf of the SS (1974)

Blast of Silence (1961)

Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1969)

Immoral Tales (1974)

Blood Feast (1963)

Dragnet (1954)

In the land of the Headhunters

Blood Mania (1971)

Dragon Zombies Return (1983)

Incredibly Strange Creatures, The

Blood of the Virgin (Mexican)

Eaten Alive (1976)

Bloodsucking Freaks (1978)

Eegah! (1962)

Inferno (1980)

Bloodthirsty Butchen (1970)

Eighteen and Anxious (1957)

lnseds as Carriers of Disease (1945)

Blue Sunshine (1978)

Endless love (1981)

Invader (1955)

Body Fever (1970)

Equinox (1967-71 )

Invasion of the Blood Fanners (1972)

Brain

That

Wouldn't Die, The (1959)

Brood, The (1979)

The Bubble aka Fantastic Invasion of
Planet Earth (1966)

(1964)

Eraserhead (1977)

Invitation to Ruin (1956)

Exorcist II; The Heretic (1977)

It's Alive! (Lorry Buchanon, 1968)

Eyes Without A Face (1959)

It's Alive! (lorry Cohen, 1974)

Faces of Death (1981)

It lives Again! (1978)

Bucket of Blood (1959)

Faces of Death II (1984)

Jailboit (1955)

Cafe Flesh (1982)

Far Reef, The aka Beyond the Reef

Juvenile Jungle (1958)

Caged! (1950)

Kitten with a Whip (1964)

(198 1 )

Ccrnival of Souh (1962)

Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill! (1965)

land without Bread (Bunuel, 1932)

Cat Women of the Moon (1953)

Female Butcher (1972)

last Date, The (1950)

Chained for life (1950)

Female Trouble (1974)

Last House on Dead End Street (1977)

Chained Heat (1983)

Freaks (1932)

last House on the left (1972)

last Prom, The (1954)

Cherry, Harry and Raquel (1969)

Froun Dead, The (1967)

Child Bride (1941)

Garden of Eden (1954)

let Me Die a Woman (1932)

Chi...en, The (1980)

Girl Can't Help It!, The (1956)

lickerish Quartet, The (1970)

Cobra Woman (1944)

Glen or Glenda (1953)

little Shop of Horrors (1960)

Color Me Blood Red (1965)

God Told Me To aka Demon (1976)

live Fast, Die Young (1958)

God'lilla (1954)

lorna (1964)

Cool

and the

Cra'ly, The (1958)

The (1972)
1984, The

Corpse Grinders, The (1971)

Gore-Gore Girh,

love Butcher, The (1975)

Creature with the Atom Brain (1955)

Great Hunting

love Camp Seven (1968)

Creeping Terror, The (1964)

Gruesome Twosome, The (1968)

love Me Deadly (1972)

loved One, The (1965)

luss

LSD-25 (1967)

Tamblyn

Macabre (1958)
Mad love (1935)

........

Maniac! (1934)

s.nm.

in

Manitou, The (1978)

Manos, the Hands of Fate (1966)
Mantis in Lace aka Ula (1968)
Marihuana-Weed with Roots in Hell
(1935)

Martin (1977)
Mask, The (1961)
Mechanized Death (1961)
Mesa of Lost Women (1952)
Mr. Rellik (drivers' ed film)
Mr. Sardonkus (1961)
Mam and Dad (1948)
Mondo Balordo (1964)
Mondo Bizarro (1966)
Mondo Cane (1963)
Mondo Hollywood (1967)
Mondo Mod (1967)
Mando Pano (1965)
Mondo Teeno (1967)
Mondo Topless (1967)
Mondo Weirdo (1965)
Monster a Go-Go (1965)
Moonlighting Wives (1966)
Moses the Lawgiver (1975)
Mothra (1962)
Motor Psycho (1965)
Mudhoney (1965)
Mutations (1972)
Night of the Bloody Apes (1968)
Night of the Ghouls (1959)
Night Tide (1961)
Nightmcre Alley (1947)
Octaman (1971)
Of Unknown Origin (1984)
Orgy of the Dead (1965)
Peeping Tom (1960)
Pink Flamingos (1974)
Plan Nine From Outer Space (1959)
Point of Terror (1971)
Poor White Trash (1957)
Private Parts (1972)
Psychopath, The (1973)
Punishment of Anne, The
Q (1982)

Rabid (1977)
Rat Pfink a Boo Boo (1966)
Red Asphalt
Reform School Girls (1957)
Repulsion (1965)
Riot on Sunset Strip (1967)
Robot Monster (1953)
Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy, The (1959)
Sadismo (1967)
Sadist, The (1963)
Safety Belt for Susie (1963)
Safety in the Shop (1944)
Salon Kitty aka Madame Kitty ( 1 976)
Santo in the Wax Museum (1963)
Satan's Sadists (1969)
Scorpio Rising (1964)

Scream, Baby, Scream (1969)

Sex Hygiene (1942)
Shade Out on 101 (1955)
She Freak, The (1966)
She-Devils on Wheels (1968)
Shock Corridor (1963)
Shock Waves (1977)
Shogun Assassin (1974)
Shriek of the Mutilatecl (1974)
Signal 30 (1959)
Something Weird (1966)
Special Effects (1984)
Spider Baby (1964)
Star Pilot (Italian, 1966)
Sugar HiD (Blaxploitation, 1974)
Supervixens (1975)
Suspiria (1976)
Swinwner, The (1968)
Taboos of the World (1965)
Teenagers from Outer Space (1959)
Terrified (w/Rod Lauren, 1963)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
These are the Damned (1961)
They Came From Within (1975)
They Saved Hitler's Brain (1963)
Thirteen Ghosts (1960)
This Nude World (1932)
Thrill Killers, The (1965)
Thunder Road (1958)
Tingler, The (1959)
Tomorrow's Children (1934)
Trip, The (1967)
Two Thousand Maniacs (1964)
Undead, The (1956)
Undertaker and His Pals, The (1967)
Unseen, The (1981)

Vampire and the Ballerinas, The (1960)

Vampyres, Daughters of Dracula (1975)
Veil of Blood (1973)
Venus in Fun (1970)
Vernon, Florida
Violent Years, The (1956)
Vixen (1968)
Wall of Flesh (1967)
Watts Monster, The aka Dr. Blade,
Mr. Hyde (Blaxploitation, 1976)
Werewolves on Wheels (197 1 )
Wheels of Tragedy (1963)
White Slaves of Chinatown (1964)
Wild Guitar (1962)
Wild in the Streets (1968)
Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield,
The (1968)
Witchaaft Through the Ages (1921)
Wizard of Gore (1970)
Woman Eater, The (1959)
World of the Vampires (1960)
World's Greatest Sinner, The (1962)
Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec
Mummy (1965)
Xanadu (1980)

Young Playthings (1977)

Zontar, The Thing from Venus (1966)
MAIISOII FaMS
....._ .a.-tty ...... on Mc.t1011)

Heft Skelt, 1976

The Hitchikers, 1972
Manson, (clocumentary, 1975)

Manson Massacre, 19n

Sweet Saviour, (Troy Donahue, 1971)
SnuH, 1976

E/S E A RC H

ATA LO G

2 N EW B O O KS
RE/SEARCH

RE/SEARCH CLASSICS

# 1 1 : PRANKS.

REPRINT SERIES.

A prank is o "trick, a
mischievous

oct,

l ud i crous

oct."

garded as poehc or

CALIFORNIA

pranks

and genre in them

ramon nair:. the first two novels by

selves. Here pranks

Charles

ters such as Timothy

works of Jim Thompson in profun

Abbie

Hoffman,
Boyd
Biofro,

surpass

G
y

the

tion, simultaneously oHenng o deep critique of contemporary morality.

Unusual plots, tough dialogue starring anti-heroes both brutal and com

Rice,

plex, and women living outside the lie of chivalry: "She wasn't wearing

Monte Cozozzo,
Jello

Willeford

L
0

dity of hord-bo1led characteriza

Paul

Krossner, Mark Pau

line,

(novel
& p l a y ) ; WILD WIVES
(novel).

constitute on art form

leary,

H I G H

T R I L O G Y :

Although n o t re
artistic ads,

C ha r l e s W i l l eford.

much beneath her skirt. In on instant it was over. Fiercely and abruptly."

Bruce

Plus a ploy. Beautiful B&W photos by Bobby Adams. 304pp, 5V2x8W'.

Conner, SubGemus
Church, John Waters, & Henry Rollins challenge the sovereign authority
of words, images & behavioral convention. Some tales ore bizarre, as

Paperback $ 1 2 ($ 1 7 air overseas); s1gned hardbound (collector's 1tem;

edition of 250)

$42

(air

$47).

ISBN 0-940642- 1 1 -5; hardbound:

0-940642-12-3.

when Boyd Rice presented the First lady with a skinned sheep's head on
a plotter. This iconoclastic compendium will dazzle and delight all lovers
of humor, satire and irony. Interviews, plus essays, quotations, biblio
graphy, index & photos. 224 pp, 8V2x 1 1 ",

($24

$17

ppd;

$18

sea moil

air overseas). ISBN 0-940642-10-7

lllllll'H!iiiii:NI
J[J{Cj
jWfJ!fjA
compre-

..
....,
....,.
A funct1onol guide to

hensive special on this supreme-

important territory neglected by

ly relevant science fiction wnter,

the film-critiosm

who in

spotlighting

esta blishment,

unhoiled

direc

gan's

--Iiiii

1 967 predicted Rea

Presidency.

W.S.

Bur

tors- Herschell Gordon lewis,

roughs described

Russ Meyer, lorry Cohen, Roy

novel Love & Napalm: Export

Dennis Steckler, Ted V. Mikels

U.S.A

"profound

A
L

( 1 972)

as

Bollard's

and others-who hove been

and disquieting. The nonsexual

critically cons1gned to the ghet

roots cf sexuality ore explored

tos of gore and sexploitotion

with a surgeon's precision. This

films. In-depth 1nterviews focus

book

on philosophy while anecdotes

touched

enterto1n as well as illum1note

illustrated porn." long interv1ews

theory.

Includes

biographies,

stirs

sexual

by

the

depths

un

hordesf.<:ore

L
A
R

on many top1cs; key writ1ngs '------'""

genre overv1ews, filmographies, bibliography, quotations, on A-Z of film

personalities, lists of recommended films, sources, etc. 81hx 1 1 ", 172

and rare short stories; a biography; bibliography; dlustrot1ons, etc

8 1hx 1 l " with over 1 25 photos, 1 76 pages. Beoullfully des1gned. $ 1 2

photos, 224 pages.

ppd,

ISBN 0-940642-09-3.

$17

ppd,

$18

seo moil

($24

air overseas).

$ 1 3 sea

moil

($ 1 6 air overseas).

ISBN 0-940642-08-5

RE/SEARCH

#4/5:

WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS,

G Y S I N ,

B R I O N

Essential library reference

guide to the deviant performance artists

THROBBING

and mus1cions of the Industrial Culture:

Interviews, scarce fiction, essays: this

GRISTLE.

Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire,

is o manual of ideas and insights.

SPK, Non, Monte Cazazzo, Johanna

Strikingly designed, with rare pho

Went, Mark Pauline, Sordide Sentimen

tos,

I
""ILo.lAM.

C.GRIT! F
To.l tt

bibliographies, discographies,

tal, R&N, and Z'ev. Some topics dis

chronologies,

cussed: new brain research, forbidden

etc. 8112x 1 1 ", 100 pp, with 2 new

startling

illustrations,

medical texts & films, creative crime &

photos

interesting criminals, modern warfare &

$ 1 2 ppd ($16 air overseas). ISBN

weaponry, neglected gore films & their

0-940642-05-0

by

Bobby

Adams.

directors, psychotic lyrics in post pop

songs, ort brut, etc. With discographies, chronologies, bibliographies;
lists of selected books, films, records, etc. Over 1 20 photos. 81hx 1 1 ",
1 4 0 pages. $ 1 2 ppd, $ 1 3 sea moil ($ 1 7 air overseas). ISBN
0-940642-07-7

ideas.

Gysin

talks

about

his

years of colloborotion with Wil

liam S.

Burroughs,

the

Beat

Hotel, etc. Chapters on psychic

warfare, Moroccan magic and
mus1c, early experiments with
tope recorders & the cut-up
method, the Dreomochine and
much more. Texts & introduction
by

SEARCH & DESTROY:

incendiary

interv1ews,

W.S.

Burroughs.

80 rare

photos, 8112x5'h'', 304 pp. $ 1 4 postpo1d ( $ 1 8 Olfma1l overseas). ISBN

passionate

0-940642-03-4

photographs, art brutal. Corrosive

minimalist documentot1on of the only
youth

rebellion of the seventies:

HERE TO GO hardbounds.

punk rock ( 1 9 77-78). The philo

Limited edition of only

sophy and culture, before the

1 00 copies lor libraries end collectors. 304 pp. Gray covers.

moss media takeover end inevitable

$27.00 ppd. ($35 air overseas). ISBN 0-940642-04-2

cloning. (Issues # 1 , 5, 9 & 1 0 ore

only available in the complete set.)

ME AND BIG JOE: by Michael Bloomfield. Poignant

encounters with some of the lost living Amencon blues artists, esp Big

0 #1 -The first issue, o collector's item. Not available.

0 #2-Devo, Clash, Romones, lggy, Weirdos, Patti Smith, V1v1enne
Westwood, Avengers, Oils, etc.

heart, Blondie, Res1dents, Alternative TV, TG. $4

0 #4-lggy, Deed Boys, Bobby Death, Jordon & the Ants, Mumps,
Metal Urbain, Helen Wheels, Sham 69, Patti Smith. $4
#5-Sex Pistols, Nice, Crisis, Screamers, Suicide, Crime, Tolking

Heeds, Anarchy, Surrealism & New Wove. Not available.

0 #6-Throbbing Gristle,

Clash, Nice, Talking Heads, Pere Ubu,

Nuns, UXA, Negative Trend, Mutants, Sleepers, Buzzcocks. $4

0 #7-John Waters, Devo, DNA, Cabaret Voltaire, Roky Erickson,

Clash, Amos Poe, Mick Farren, Otis, Vermilion and more. $4

#8-Mutonts, Oils, Cramps, Devo, Siouxsie, Chrome, Pere Ubu,

Judy Nylon & Patti Pollodin, Flesheoters, Otis, Weirdos, etc. $4

Williams.

Entertaining.

$5

ppd.

($7

Olf

overseas).

ISBN

$4

0 #3-Devo, Damned, Pott1 Smith, Avengers, Tom Verlo1ne, Beef

Joe

0-940642-00-X

#9-Deod Kennedys, Rockobilly Rebels, X, Winston Tong, David

RE/SEARCH:

Deep into

the heart of theControl Process.

Preoccupation:

Creativity a n d

Survival, post, present & future.

These ore the early tabloid issues,

1 1 x 18", full of photos ond innova

tive graphics. Issues It 1 & 3 only
ovoiloble in complete set os they
ore extremely rare.

# 1 -J.G. Bollard, Cabaret Voltaire, Julio Cortozor, Octavia Paz,

Sun Ro, The Slits, Robert K. Brown (Editor, Soldier of Fortune), Non,
Conspiracy Theory Guide, Punk Prostitutes, and more. RARE Not
available.

lynch (Eroserheod), TeleviSIOn, Pere Ubu, DOA, etc. Not available.

0 #1 0-J.G. Bollard, William S. Burroughs, The Feederz, Plugz, X,

con Music Guide, Surveillance Technology, Monte Cozozzo on Po,sons,

Dione Di Primo, Se 1/sdo, German Electron1c Mus1c Chart, Isabelle Eber

Russ Meyer, Steve Jones, etc. Not available.

0 # 1 1 -The all photo supplement. Block and White. $5

SEARCH & DESTROY: INCOMPLETE SET: For $ 1 7
we ore otfe'"'9 oil thr S&Ds EXCEPT Nm

1 , 5, 9 , & 1 0

Oversea' 01r $30

#2-DNA, James Blood Ulmer, Zev, Abong1nol MusiC, West Afn.

hardt, and more. $5.00

#3-Felo, New Brain Research, The Rattlesnake Man, Sordide

Sentimental, New Guinea, Kathy Acker, Sodo-Mosoch1sm (Interviews),

Joe Dante, Johanna Went, Surgical Penis Klinik, Flipper, Physical Modifi
cation of Women, and more. RARE Not available.

0 Add

$ 1 .00

lo each for overseas moil.

SEARCH & DESTROY: COMPLETE SET: EXTREMELY

SPECIAL: SET OF RESEARCH # 1 , 2 & 3

RARE. A collector's 1tem. $ 1 00. Overseas O l f : S 1 1 5

Over,em air: S 1 10. Extremely RARE.

$ 1 00

BOOKS D I ST R I BUTED BY RE/SEARCH

V I D EOCASSETTES

h!tlfilli:@fiio!!!!tb

HALLOWEEN by Ken Werner.

A classic photo book.
Startling photographs from the "Mardi Gras of the West," Son
Francisco's adult Halloween Festivities . limited supply; 9x12" hardback,
block covers, $12 ppd. ($20 air overseas).

RE/SEARCH editor A. Juno, probing the

motives, methods and manias of indus/rio/ per
formonce artist, Mark Pauline and his Survival
Research laboratories, whose anarchist inven
lions fuse machines, corpses, explosives ond
oviotion-tech into new prototypes and orche
types appropriate for a war universe.
Entertaining! 30 mins. $30 plus $3 shipping
(air foreign $35) USA NTSC V H S only.
SRL VIDEO:
Negative

. ..._ __ _ ..
----------...

-------------.._ .. - - --

-- - .... -

"Virtues of

TATTOOTIME #3: MUSIC & SEA TATTOOS. Edited by

Ed Hardy. Deluxe double book issue with over 300 photos, examining
aquatic themes from Japan, Pacific Islands and the West; plus
comprehensive coverage of tattoos associated with music (emphasis:
london and los Angeles). And much more. $17 ppd. ($21 air
overseas) .

Fascination":

5 Mechanized Performances 1 985-86.

Beautifully shot & edited, with excellent

interview footage. BO min, NTSC VHS
Only. $42 ppd. ($45 air)
SRL VIDEO:

"A Scenic

Harvest from the Kingdom of

Pain." Footage of 3 one-ofo-kind
1983-84 destruction shows plus interviews . Exciting! 60 min, USA NTSC
VHS Only. $42 postpaid. ($45 air foreign) .
SRL VIDEO:

"Seven Machine Performances," 1 979-

1982. The early legend-making explosive shows! 60 min, USA NTSC

VHS Only. $42 postpaid . ($45 air foreign).

BAITED TRAP: Powerful film nair video by Jon Reiss (who shot
the 3 previous SRL videos) with o nightmare machine sequence by SRL .
1 3 mins. $ 1 9 postpo,d. ($22 air foreign).

SOME FORTHCOMING RE/SEARCH PROJECTS:

(Not necessarily i n this order)

MODERN PRIMITIVES: Tattooing, scarification, piercing and

other body modifications, modern and historical.
INCREDIBLY STRANGE MUSIC.
A for-ranging survey
exploring the relationship between imagination and music. Morfin
Denny, Musique Brut, sound effects & film soundtracb, Muzak, easy
listening, subliminols, Einsturzende Neubouten, John Cage, plus o host
of unknowns.
INCREDIBLY STRANGE PEOPLE:

A series of interviews

with illuminated eccentrics.

JEFFREY VALLANCE. The master prankster whose life and
work vindicates the word "art". Hilariously funny, insightlul.

Edited by Ed Hardy. This issue

examines oil facets of magic & occult. Tottoo
symbolisms around the globe ore explored in this
dazzling compendium, filled with rare full-color
photos and illuminating articles. $ 1 2 ppd.
($15 oir overseas).

TATTOOTIME #4: LIFE & DEATH. Edited by Ed Hardy.

Deluxe FINAL double book issue with fantastic photos, examining
trademarks, architectural and mechanical tattoos, the Eternal Spiral,
o Tattoo Museum, plus the gamut of Death imagery. $ 1 7 ppd.
($21 air overseas) .
SIDETRIPPING. Unforgettable deviant-fringe photographs by
Charles Gatewood, deep-locus commentary by William S. Burroughs. A
classic photo book, long out of print, available here in o limited offering.
9x 12", $22 ppd. ($26 air overseas).

GIFT CERTIFICATES AVAILABLE

IN ANY AMOUNT SPECIFIED
DANIEL P. MANNIX ANTHOLOGY.
A compendium
surveying hordcore history, naturalism, and social deviancy from the
writer of Those About To Die, The History of Torture, The Hell-Fire Club,
etc.
INCREDIBLY STRANGE FILMS, Vol. II.
Further
investigation of the territory which Vol. I highlighted, with many photos,
much philosophy and reference material.
RE/SEARCH CLASSICS REPRINT SERIES. Mo ny crucial
writings remain out-of-print, os though they hod never existed. A vast
territory of inspiration, knowledge and psychological truth remains to be
rediscovered .
SURREALISM:

SUBSCRI PTION: T h e Next 3 Issues

of RE/SEARCH $35 ($45 overseas a i r
$ 5 0 Australia/ A s i a )

Selected Graphics and Texts.

Re/Search: SEX & CONTROL.

:Ut)::
U
.. Kit) 1'0 REISEARCH.

RDER:

Neglected Writings.

SITUATION!:

Donate To:
THE RE/SEARCH PROJECT:
( ) Member $25
( ) Associate $50
( ) Patron $500
( ) Sponsor $1 00

INSTITUTIONS: $60

Xerox this form and

.t.

Order From:
RE/SEARCH PUBLICATIONS

20 Romolo St., Suite B

San Francisco, CA 94133

( 4 1 S ) 362-1465
AMOUNT ENCLv.>----------

G I F T C E R T I F I C A T ES A V A I L A B L E

WRITE FOR O U R CATALOG &

NEWSLETTER

BOOKS

Slecrzoid Express, PO Box 7 79, Peter Stuyvesant Station, NYC NY 1 0009

Adam Film World Directory of Aduh Films. Knight Publishing, 1983

Aduh Movies. Pocket Boolcs, 1982

Splatter Times, ($9 sub) 603 S.W. 35th St. #3, Palm City, FL 33490
Trashola t ( 1 981-1985; legendary film/weird culture newsletter

The American Film lnstitvte Catalog, F6:1961-1970. R.R. Bowker, 1976

produced/ distributed free by Jim Morton) A few incomplete sets

Bolun, Chos. Gore Score ($4)

available: $25 from J.M., 1449 Woshington #4, SF (A 94109

& Connoisseur'sGuide to Contemp.

Homlr Films $5 from C.B., 8452 Carnegie, Westminster CA 92683

Castle, William. Step Right Up! G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1976

SOUNDTRACK$

Cross, Robin. The Big Book of B Movies. St. Martin's Press, 1981

Angels From Hell, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy, The Lollipop Shoppe,

Sadism in the Movies. Medical Press, 1965

& Newman, Roger. a-ned Films. R.R. Bowker, 1982

De Coulteroy, George.
DeGraxia, Ed

Dellar, Fred. NME Guide to Rock Cinema. Hamlyn Paperbacks, 1981

di Franco, J. P. Movi
e World of Roger Corman. Chelsea Hse, 1979
Dilauro, AI and Rabkin, Gerald.

Dirty Movies. Chelsea Hse, 1976

Dowdy, Andrew. Movies are Better than Ever. Wrn. Morrow, 1 9 7 3

Educational Film Locator. R.R. Bowker, 1980

Ted Morckland. Tower, 1968

Beach Blanket Bingo, Donna Loren. Capitol, 1965

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, The Sandpipers, The Strawberry Alarm
Clock, The Carrie Nations. 20th Century Fox, 1970

Blood Feast/2000 Maniacs, Herschel! Gordon Lewis. Rhino, 1984

Cheny, Hany and Raquel, Bill Loose. Beverly Hills Records, 1970
Golden Turkey Awards, Rhino Records, 1986. (Highly recommencled)

Ehrenstein, David and Reed, Bill. Rock on Film. Delilah Bks, 1 982

Ride the Wild Surf, Jan and Dean, The fontostic Boggys. Liberty, 1964

Fernett, Gene. Poverty Row. Coral Reef Publications, 1973

Riot on Sunset Strip, The Stondells, The Mugwumps, The Sidewalk Sounds,

Glaessner, Verina. Kung Fu; Cinema

of Vengeance. Bounty Bks, 1974

Hogon, David. Who's Who of the Hon-ors. Bornes, 1980

House of Horror: The Complete Story of Hammer Films. Lorimer, 1984

Kah, Ephraim. The Film Encyclopedia. Perigee Boolcs, 1979
Knight, Arthur and Alpert, Hollis. The History of Sex in the Cinema

Playboy Magaxine, 1965-1 969

Krogh, Daniel with Mcfarty, John.

The Amcning Herschel! Gordan Lewis.

Fantaco Enterprises Inc, 1983

The Movie Business. Vintage, 1981

Lenh, Harris M. Science Fiction, Hon-or & Fantasy Film & TV
Credits, 2 vol. Mcfarland & Co, 1983
McCarthy, Todd and Flynn Charles. Kings of the B's. E.P. Dutton, 1975
McGee, Mark T. and Robertson, RJ. The J.D. Films. Mcfarland, 1982
Maltin, Leonard. TV Movies. Signet, 1986
Lees, David and Berkowih, Stan.

Milner, Michael. Sex on Celluloid. Macfadden, 1964

3-D. Little, Brown and Co, 1982

The Celluloid Vampires. Pierian Press, 1979

Morgan, Hal and Symmes, Dan. Amcning

Murphy, Michael J.

Newman, Kim. Nightme Movies. Proteus Books, 1984

Debra Travis, The Mom's Boys, Drew. Tower 1967

Ron Haydock and the Boppers, (songs used in Rat pflnk a Boo Boo and
The Thrill Killers). Rock and Country Records, 1979

The Trip, Mike Bloomfield and the Electric Flog. Tower/Sidewalk, 1967
Thunder Alley, Annette funicello, Fabian. Sidewalk Records, 1967
Vixen, Bill Loose. Beverly Hills Record Company, 1970

BOOKS BY ED WOOD, JR
(all out-of-print; check used porno bookstores)

Censorship, Sex and the Movies

Diary of a Transvestite Hooker

h Takes One to Know One

Killer in Drag
Orgy of the Dead

TV Lust
Watts

The Difference?

Watts

After?

Ragan, David. Who's Who in Hollywood; 11976. Arlington Hse, 1976

Rimmer, Robe.-t H. X-Rated Videotape Guide. Arlington Hse, 1984
Sarris, Andrew. The American Cinema. E.P. Dutton

& Co, Inc, 1968

F'rfties. Houghton

Saxon, Martha. Jayne Mansfield and the Fabulous

Mifflin, 1 9 7 5

See, Carolyn. Blue Money. David McKoy Company, Inc, 1974

Singer, Michael (ed). Film Dlrecton: A Complete Guide. Lone Eagle, 1985
Stanley, John. Creature Features Movie Guide. Warner Books, 1 984
Starks, Michael. Cocaine Fiends and Reefer MCICMess. Cornwall, 1982
TurCK, Kenneth and lito, Stephen. Sinema. Praeger Publishers, 1974
Turner, George CX'Id Price, Marshal. ForgoHen Horrors. Cranbury, 1979
Tyler, Parker. Underground Films. Grove Press, 1969

SONGS

Waters, John. Shock Value. Delta, 1981

(Title in parentheses indicates movie title if different from song.)

Weldon, Michael. Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film. Ballantine,

Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill"., The Bostweeck

1983 (essential)

& T. Vahmogi. The American Vein. E.P. Dutton, 1979

Wood, Edward D., Jr. Censorship, Sex & the Movies. Gallery, 1973

Wicking, C.

Ziplow, Steven. Film Maker's Guide to Pornography. Drake, 1977

PUBLICATIONS
(Note: publications listed with a dagger <tl are no longer in print.)

Adam Film World

ChiiMn of the Night, ($4) 7450 Village Dr, Prairie Village, KS 66208

Monster A Go-Go, The Other Three

Spider Baby, Lon Chaney Jr.
That's the Way It's Gat to Be (Frankenstein Meets the Space
Monster), The Poets
Toys of Our Time (Cheny, Hany and Raquel), The Jacks and Balls
VIcki (Wild Guhar), Ardl Hall Jr.

The Zombie Stomp (Horror of Party Beach), The Del-Aires

VIDEO SOURCES

Confessions of a Trash Fiend t (1982-1984)

(Many bixarre, wonderful movies ore available on videocossette. These

Fangoria, 475 Park Ave South, NYC, NY 10016

sources were chosen for their prices and selections. Endose a SASE.)

Fe of Darkness t (1981-1983)
Gore GaxeHe, c/o Sullivan, 7 3 N. Fullerton Ave, Montclair, NJ 07042

VIDEO YESTERYEAR (catalog $1.75), Box C, Sandy Hoole, CT 06482

($13/yr US; recommended)

Mogick Theatre, ($12 sub) P.O. Box 0446, Boldwin, NY 1 1 510-0129

NILES CINEMA, 1141 Mishawaka Ave, Box 70, South Bend, IN 46624
BVM VIDEO (Catalog $1), 11 S Stanton St, Ripon, WI 54971
HORROR HOUSE, 720 West 27th St #337, Los Angeles, CA 90007

Midnight Marquee, ($4) R. Svehla, 4000 Glenarm, Baltimore, MD 21206

SINISTER CINEMA, 583 Manor Dr. Pacifico, CA 94044

Monster Times t (1973-1974)

MICHAEL BURGUJIAN, 15-35 1 46th Place, Whitestone, NY 1 1 3 5 7

Nostalgia (formerly known as Heretic)

MORCRAn FILMS, 8 3 7 N . Cohuengo Blvd, Hollywood, C A 90038

Abogo/1 leslie Is 8oclc In Town

(film) 9B
Abductors, The (film) 1B9
Abel, Robert (screenwriter) 20
Acid Eaters, Tlte (film) 1 09, 149
Acid Montr,o, or Rebirth of a
Notion (film) 149
Ackerman, Forrest J. (ex-editor,
Famous Monsters of Fllmlond) 1B6
Adamson, A I (filmmaker) 1B6
203; forms Independent
International Pictures, 1 86
Adventures of tuclcy Pierre, The
(film) 22, 24, 34, 1 OS, 1 08, 163
Aflermotlt, The (film) 65, 73, 75
Agor, John (actor) 1 88; marries
Shirley Temple, 186
Agent For H.A.R.M. (film) 75
Alex Joseph And His Wives aka
Tlte Rebel Breeds (film) 64, 75
Allred Hitcltcoclc Presents (TV
show) 53
Allee in Addfond (film) 149
AII tlte Fallen Angels: see
The Wild Angels
All tlte Sins of Sodom (film) :
stills, 96, 98
Allen, Rusty (actress) 34
Allen, Woody (filmmaker):
appeal of, 2 1 ; basis of films by, 49
Alley Tramp (film) 35
Allied Artists, 142, 1 9 1 , 195,
204; formerly Monogram, 145
Alligator People, Tlte (film) 204
Allison, Bonnie (actress) 44
Altman, Robert (director) 8B
Amazing Colossal Man, Tlte (film)
1 94
Amazing Herscltelf Gordon tewls,
Tlte (book) 25
Amazing Transplant, Tlte (film)
1 1 1 , 1 1 2; plot, 1 1 3
American International Pictures
(AlP) 52, 1 24, 1 37, 142, 147, I BB,
190, 1 9 1 ' 195, 196, 198-200;
started by Samuel Z.. ArkoH and
James H.. Nicholson, 144, 145; AlP
Television, 1 8 8
Amplas, John (actor) 1 B 3
Anatomy o f An Accident (film)
169
And Gad Created Woman (film)
102, 1 64, 203
Angel, Angel, Down We Go
(film): still, 149
Angel Number Nine (film) 193
Angel o f tlte Crooked Street, Tlte
(film) 143
Angels From Hell (film) 142
Anger, Kenneth (filmmaker) 163
Ann-Margret (actress) 142
Anotlter Day, Another Man (film)
111
Ansoro, Michael (actor) 63
Anthell, George (composer):
scores Fernond Leger's Ballet
Meconlque, 179; influence d by
Miklos Rozsa's Spellbound, 179
Antonlonl, Michelangelo
(director): book on, 42; tribute to,
44
Apple Knockers and Colee Bottle
(film) 164
Arbuckle, Roscoe "Fatty" (actor)
161
Argento, Dorio (director) 8, 1 8 6
A s the World Rolls On (film) 1 4 3
Asher, William (director) 1 47,
1B6
Astor Pictures, 192
AJtro Zombies, Tlte (film) 58, 60,
63, 65, 66, 69, 74, 75, 202; stills,
65, 70, 75; sypnosls, 70
Atomic Cafe, Tlte (film) 168
Attock of the Giant leeches (film)

199, 204
Attock of the Mayan Mummy
(film) 204
Attack o f the Puppet People
(film) 186
Audubon Pictures, 200
Avalon, Frankie (actor) 147
AVCO Embassy Pictures, 21, 142
Awful Dr. OrloH. The lfllml 10A
Bobb, Kroger aka Howard W.
Bobb (filmmaker) 102, 104, l OS,
1 08, 1 56, 163, 186
Bachelor In Paradise (film) 147
Bod Girls Go to Hell (film) 1 10,
1 1 3; still, 1 1 1
Boer, Buddy ( actor) 192
Bagdad, William (actor) 68
Bokolyon, Dick (actor) 88, 89,
198
Boker, Rick (make-up) 1 1 7
Bolin, Bobby (asst. cameraman)
100
Boll, Warren (odor) 61
Ballantine Books, 1 1 1
Bonner, Jill (actress) 1 8 2
Bora, Theda (actress) 1 6 1
Borborelfo (film) 203
Barbed Wire Dolls (film) 1 5 2
Bordo, Joe "Brick" (actor) 39, SO
Bardot, Brigitte (actress) 1 02,
164, 203
Barkett, Steve (filmmaker) 65,
75
Boron, Allen (filmmaker) 178
Barr, Candy (actress) 164
Barrie, Elaine (actress) 193
Barrymore, John (actor) 176
Basket Case (film) 8, 1 1 ; pix of
Belial, 9; still, 1 4
Bathory, Elizabeth (aristocrat)
187, 194; films Inspired by, i nclude
Countess Dracula, Daughters of
Darkness, The Devll's Wedding
Night, The Female Butcher, Immoral
Toles, to Comtesse Perverse
Bottle Beneath Tlte forth (film) 8
Bava, Lamberto (director) 186
8avo, Mario (director) 1 47, 1 86,
187
Bayou (film): see Poor White
Trash
Beach Boll (film) 147
Beach Bfonlcet 81ngo (film) 186
Beach House, The (film) 98
Beach Party (film) 1 42, 145, 147,
186
Beach Party Films (genre) 146,
147; see also William Asher
Beast of Yucca Flats (film) 193
Beat Generation, Tlte (film): still,
204
Beaudine, William (director)
187, 1 8 8
Beausoleil, Bobby (actor) 1 SS
Because of Eve (film) 1 OS
Beginning of tlte End (film) 194
Bell, Bore and Beautiful (film) 25,
34, 106, 108
Bell, Virginia (actress) 24, 106,
108
Beneath the Valley of the
Ultra-VIxens (film) 79, 201
Benedict, Laura (actress) 39
Beowulf (film-in-progress) 64
Bergman, lngm or (director) 102,
lOS; films of, mentioned, Summer
With M011llca, Tlte
164
Bernard, Susan (actress) 78
Berry, Dale (director) 199
Beyond the Door II (film) 187
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
(film) 76, 78, 79, 80, 87, ISO, 193;
still, 79

Virgin Spring,

Bicycling With
(film) 170

Complete S afety

Big Bird Cage, The (film) 1 5 2

Big Bust-Out, The (film) 152
Big Cube, Tlte (film) 1 SO
Big Doll House, Tlte (film) 152
8lg Valley, The (TV show) 135
Biker Films (genre) 140-142;
Hell's Angels, 1 40-142; "Mother"
Miles' funeral as reported In tile,
140; Sonny Barger, Hell's Angels
leader, 1 42; stars of, Include Scott
Brady, Robert Dix, Jeremy Slate,
William Smith, 142
Bikini Beach (film) 186
Bird with the Crystal Plumage,
The (film) 186
Birth of a Baby Films (genre) 9,
35, 102, 1 04, 1 OS, 1 08; see also
Mo!7' and Dod
Birth of a Nation (film) 144
Bizarre Ones, Tlte (film): still, 165
Block Angels (film) 142
Block Caesar (film) 1 1 4, 124,
125; sequel, 1 2 5
Black, Karen (actress) 34
Block Klansman: see I Crossed
Tlte Color tine
Black Sobboth (film) 1 8 7
Block Sunday (film) 1 87, 202
Blackboard Jungle, The (film)
1 44, 199; based on Evon Hunter's
The Blackboard Jungle
Bfoclcensteln (film) 8
Bloclcsnalcel (film) 83
Blair, Lindo (actress) 53, 152,
188
Blast o f Silence (film): review,
178
Blost-OH Girls (film) 35
Blaze Storr Goes Nudist (film)
1 13
Slab, Tlte (film) 1 44, 163, 180;
Jack Harris (Jack H. Harris
Enterprises), distributor of, 137
Blonde on a Bum Trip (film)
149, ISO
Blood and Block lace (film) 1 8 7
Blood and Roses (film) 203;
based on Sheridan Lefonu's
Cormilla
Blood Both (film) 190
Blood Beach (film) 202
Blood Feas t (film) 8 , 20, 27, 28,
lOS, 106, 108, 1 1 2, 163, 199; first
gore film, 18, 34,- shooting of, 24,
25; the role of blood In, 29, 30;
plot of, 34; stil'ls, 2 1 , 29, 30
Blood Feast II (film-in-progress)
1 8 , 106
Blood af Dracula's Castle (film)
186
Blood Orgy o f the S ite Devils
(film) 63, 66, 69, 75; poster, 67;
produced by Occult Productions,
Inc., 72; stills, 6 1 , 63, 7 1 ; sypnosls,
68
Blood Shack aka Tlte Chaoper
(film) 37, 47, SO, 57; stills, 48, S 1
Blood Shed, The (theater) 35
Bloodsucking Freolcs aka
The Incredible Torture Show (film)
201, 202
Bloodthirsty Butchers (film) 201
Bloody Brood, Tlte (film) 202
Bloody Jack the Ripper (unreleased
film) 54
Slaw Job (film) 164, 204
Blue Demon ( wrestl er/actor)
157
Blue Movie (film) 164
Blue Sunshine (film) 1 SO
Bob and Sally (film) 105
Body Beneath, The (film) 201
Body Fever aka Super Cool (film)
37, 47, 49, 54, 57, 193
Body of a Female (film): still,

192
BOIN-N-GI (film) 34, lOS, 1 08 ;
poster, 107
Bane aka Housewife (film) 1 24,
137
Boogeymon, The (film) 195
Boorman, John (director) 1 8 8
Borgnlne, Ernest (actor) 79
Born Innocent (TV movie) 188
Born tasers (film) 142
Bowongol Bowongol (film) 162
Bowers, Bill (screenwriter) SS,
196
Boy and the Pirates, Tlte (film)
194
Bradley, David (director) 188;
films by, Include Treasure Island.
Peer Gynt, Macbeth, Julius Coeso
188
Braga, Sonia (actress) 39
Brain From Planet Arous (film)
186
Brain of Blood (film) 1 8 6
Brolnlac, The (film) 1 90, 202
Brand of Shame (film) 107
Branded (TV show) 1 35, 136
Brondo, Marlon (actor) 143, 1 46
Brandt, Carolyn (actress) 36, 39,
43, 44, 54, SS; pix of, 56
Breast of Russ .Meyer, The
(film-in-progreu) 76, 83
Bregman, Tracy (actress) 1 52
Bride of the Monster aka Bride af
tlte Atom (film) 1 58
Brood, Tlte (film) 1 9 1 , 192
Brooks, Richard (director) 144
Browning, Tod (director) 1 88
Brownrigg, S.F. (director) 1 88
Brummer, Andre aka Henry
Price (composer) 36, 44
Bruce, Lenny (comedian) 163
Brynner, Yul (actor) 136
Buchanon, Lorry (director) 1 86,
188, 189
Bucket of Blood (film) 52, 1 40,
1 9 1 , 200
Bugl (film) 1 9 1
Summer! (film): poster, 1 03
Buried Alive (film) 197
Burr, Ron (actor) 39
Burroughs, William S. (writer)
22, 192
Bury Me on Angel (film) 142
Butterflies (film) 97
Bye, Bye Brazil (film) 39
CoHoro, Cheri (actress) 1 8 9
Caged (film) 1 5 1
Caged Heat (film) 83, 1 5 2 , 202
Cohn, Ed L. (director) 145, 189
Caligulo (film) 1 S
Calypso Hear Wove (film) 144
Camille 2000 (film) 200; based
on Dumas' Camille
Campbell, Audrey (actress) 92
Campbell, William (actor) 190
Cannibal Girls (film) 8
Cannibal Holocaust (film) 198
Cannibals in tlte Streets (film)
202
Copra, Fronk (director) 1 66
Cardona Jr. & Sr., Rene
(filmmakers) 190
Career Bed (film) 202
Carey, Timothy (actor) 37, 43,
657
Carlisle, Anne (actress) 138
Carmen, George (film editor) 92,
93
Cornivof Roclc (film) 145; remake
of The Blue Angel, 200
Carpenter, John (director) 126
Carrodine, David (actor) 122,
1 23, 1 3 1
Carrodlne, John (actor) 65, 70,
186

Carrera, Barbara (actress) 131

Carrol, Regina (octreu) 186
Corson, Sunset (actor) 40
CosobloMo (film) 40
Cossovetes, John (actor) 142
Castle, William (filmmaker) 148,
190; gimmicks of, 27, 1 9 1 ; contacts
Lloyds of London, 191; producer of
ltosemory's Baby, 1 9 1

Cat and tile Canary, Tlte

(film-In-progress) 200
Cat o' Nine Tolls (film) 186
Ccrto/lno Caper (film) 75
Ccrtostroplte (mondo film) 156
C.C. and Ccrmpcmy (film) 142
Cell 2455, Decrtfl /tow (film) 190;
based on killer Caryl Chessman

Censorship In Denmark: A New

Approach (film) 1 64
Chained Girls (film) 1 99
Chained H-t (film) 152, 188;
still, 1 5 1
Chokirls, George (actor) 140
Chambers, Marilyn (actreu) 1 9 1
Chaney, Jr., Lon (actor) 1 8 1 ,
1 82, 186
Chariot of tile Gods (film) 1 1 7
Clte/s- Girls (film) 204
Children of loneliness: see
The Third Sex
Children Sltcw/dn't Play With
Dead Things (film) 75, 184
Chlno Slover (film) 161
Cherry, Harry and ltcrqve/ (film)
85
Cltooper, The: see Blood Shock
Choppers, The (film) 55, 196
Cltorvs Cal/ (film) 107, 1 09
Christopher, Kathy (actress) 99
Cltvck Wagon lays (TV show) 1 8
Circus o f Horrors (film) 10, 1 6
City Across the ltlver (film) 1 43;
based on Irving Shulman's The
Amboy Oukes
Clark, Candy (actress) 122, 131
Clark, Dick (producer) 150
Clery, Corinne (actress) 165
Cobra Woman (film): still, 7
Cohen, Lorry (director) 1 1 4, 138,
177, 178; films of, 138; Frank
HenenloHer on, 1 1 ; 1 1 4-138; on
Alfred Hitchcock, 133; pix of, 1 1 5,
1 1 6; writes scr-nplay (Success),
138, produces play Trlc.k, 138;
writes play, Motive, 138
Cole, Dennis (actor) 50
Co/lege Confldentlo/ (film) 204
ColOT Me Blood /ted (film) 18,
20, 1 05, 1 06, 108, 163; David

Friedman and Herschel! Gordon

Lewis part ways during filming of,
34; poster, 20
Columbia Pictures, 5 1 , 102, 144,
161

Common law Cabin (film) 87;

still, 8 1
Communism A t Our lack

Door

(film) 167
ComnMHtlst Blueprint for Conquest
(film) 167
COMentrcrtlon Camp for Gw/s
(film) 1 52
COMrete Jungle (film) 152
Confessions af a Young American
H041Hwife (film) 99
Confessions of An Oplvm Eater

(film) 204
Congo Pictures Ltd., 156
Cool and tile Crcny, The (film)
88, 89, 145, 188, 199; still, 89
Cordell, Frank (composer) 1 1 9
Corey, Wendell (actor) 65, 70
Corman, Gene (producer) 1 99
Corman, Roger (producer) 52,

105, 1 1 5, 1 1 6, 137, 140, 1 42, 145,

1 49, 152, 1 82, 1 88, 1 9 1 , 1 96, 200
Coronet Film, 28
COTpse Grinders, The (film) 8, 13,
58, 60, 63, 69, 75; corpse grinding
machine, 61; poster, 59; promotion
for, 64; sypnosis, 6 1 ;

Cox and Underwood (carny

men) 102, 1 04
Cozzi, Luigi aka Lewis Coates
(director) 1 98
Craven, Wes (filmmaker) 184,
191

Crawford, Broderick (actor) 132;

plx, 1 1 6
CrcrzJes, The (film) 183
Creature of Destruction (film),
1 81; remake of The Site Creature
Creature of tile Walking Dead
(film) 204
Creature Wi
th tlte Atom Brain
(film) 1 89, 1 90
Creepers (Pite-nal (film) 186
Cresse, lab (producer) 66, 106,
1 07, 1 55, 1 63, J 9 1 , 194
Crime In tile Strec.-ts (TV drama)
142
Crime Wave (unreleased film) 1 7
Criswell (actor) 9, 1 9 1 ; author of
Crls-/1 Predicts, 1 59

Cronenberg, David (filmmaker)

1 84, 1 9 1 , 192
Crossroads Avenger (film) 1 5 1
C rvlse MluJ/e (film) 75
Cukor, George (director) 111
Cunha, Richard (filmmaker) 192

Cunningham, s-n (producer)

105
Curious Allee (film) 161
Curse of Her Flesh, The (film) 193
c- of tile Crying w-n (film)
202

c- of tile Stone Hand (film)

204

Curse of

tile Swamp Creature

3(fllm) 186, JIS

Czar, NOMy (actress) 40

Daddy, Darling (film) 97

Daddy's Gone a-Hunting (film)

1 36

Dolley, Don (actor) 132

Damiano, Gerard (director) 1 64
DoMe Hall ltocket (film) 163
DoMes Socred and Prof(mondo film) 156
Dangerow Hcwses (film) 197
Dangerow Journey (film) 156
Darren, James (actor) 147
Dos Boot (film) 102
Dating: Do's and Don'ts (film)
166
Daughter of F-y Hill (film) 107
Doughter of Horror aka
Dementlo (film) 203, 204;
compared to De Chirico, 1 79;

compared to le Grande 8ouffe,

180; compared to Touch ol Evil,
179; contains Jock Kerouac-type
characters, 1 80; review, 179-110
Daughter of the Svn (film) 34,
105, 1 06, 108, 109

Davis, Nancy (actress) 188

Dowrl of the Dead (film): review,
1 82-184

Doy After, The (TV movie) 30

Day of the Dead (film): review,

1 82, 184
Doy of the Nightmare (film) 75
the forth Stood Still, The
(film) 136
Days of Fury (mondo film) 156
Days of Our Y-rs (film) 1 69,
170
De $ode '70 (film) 194
Dead fnd (film) 143
Dead End Kids, The (actors) 143;

Day

later the Bowery Bays

Dead Zone, The (film) 1 9 1
Deadly 8/esslng (film) 1 9 1
Deadly w-pons (film) 1 1 1
201

'

1 1 3,

Deadwood '76 (film) 196

Dean, James (actor) 43, 144,
203
Dean's

Wife, The (film) 150

Death Curse of Tortv (film) 195

DeCen:de, Pete (burlesque

owner/producer) 86, 163
Decoy for Tenor aka The P/ayflllr/
Iller (film) 202
D-, Sondra (actress) 1 46, 202
Deep lted (film) 9, 1 86
Deep Tlwocrt (film) 83, 97, 1 64
Defenders, The ( TV show) 135
Defilers (film) 1 07-109; based on
John Fowles' The Collector
Degenerates, The (film) 201
Delicate Dellnqvent, The (film) 88
Delinquents, The (fUm) 88, 89
Dementlo: see o-ghter of
Hrcrr
o--ttlo

J 3 (fllm) 1 90
DeMille, Cecil I. (director)
1 1 6, 1 1 7

60,

Demme, Jonathon (director) 13,

147, 1 52

Demon: see God Told Me To

Demons (film) 186
Dennis, Sandy (octre.s) 1 1 , 177
Denver, lob (actor) 147
Deodoto, Runero (director) 191
Depraved (screenplay): Me
acrt Pflnlc G 8oo 8oo
Deprcrvedl (film) 1 49, 201
DeRenzy, Alex (director) 1 64
Dem, Bruce (actor) 140, 142,
149, 150

DeSimone, Tom (director) 152

Devil In Miss . The (film) 99,
165

Devl/'s Angels (film) 142, 1 96

Devll's Gambit (film) 75
Dexter, Maury (producer) 147
l>lobollcal Or. Z, flte (film) 194
l>lobo/lcrue (film) 127, 1 9 1
l>lone llnlcletter Story, T lte (film)
149

Die Monster Diet (film)

196;

based on H.P. Lovecroft's The

Colour Out of Spoce
Dlgort, Ushl (actress) 84, 15
Dimension Pictures, 1 52
Oirto (film) 81
Doakes, J- (actor) 170
Doctor of Doom (film) 190
Doctors, The (film) 75
Dol/ Squad, Tlte aka Seduce and
Destroy (film) 58, 65, 69, 75, 202;
compared to James Band films, 63,
69; forerunner of TV's Cltcw/le's
Angels, 63; still, 62
Don't ICnock the aock (film) 144
Don't look In tile Basement (film)
181
Don't Puslt Your luck (film) 168
Donahue, Troy (octor) 49, 50
Dors, Diana (actress) 1 00
Dotty Mack Show, T he (TV show)
143
Double Agent 73 (film) 1 1 0, 1 1 1,
1 1 3, 201
Dowd, Thomas (producer) 35,
1 06
Down on Us (film): d-ths of

Janis Joplin, Jlml Hendrix and Jim

Morrison In, as conspiracy, 189
Downe, Alison Louise
(scriptwriter) 35
Dr. lutcller M.O.(film) 15, 184
Dr. Chasm's Chasm of Spasms
(film) 102
Or. Ooldfoot and tile 8Hclnl
Machine (film) 147

Dr.

Oo/dfoot

ond the Girl Bomh

(film) 147, 187

Dr. Strange/ave, Or Wily
Stopped Worrying and 1_,_, To
love tile 8omb (film) 51
Draw/a (1931 film) 1 11
Drawler vs. Franlcensteln (film)
186, 203
Drawlo's love (film) 201
IHogstrlp ltlot (film) 188

Drlvas, Robert (actor) 129

Drivers In Hell (film} 37, 46, 47,
55
Durston, David (filmmaker) 193
"Dust to Dust": see Hlglt Sclt-1 Girl
ECJr.n Alive aka DeCJtlt TrCJp aka
Legend of tlte BCJyou aka StCJrllgltt
SICJugltr.r (film) 1 9 7
Ebert, Roger (critic) 87; review
of Nlgltt of tile Living DeCJd In
lfeCJder's Digest, 1 83
Ecco (mondo film) 1 55
EutCJCy on Lovers IJICJnd (film):
still, 105
Edison, Thomas (inventor) 1 6 1
EducatiOtKJI Film LocCJtor, Tlte
(book) 1 6 7
Educational Films (genre)
1 66-168
EegCJitl (film) 49, SS, 196
Eichorn, Franz CJkCJ William M.
Morgan (director) 1 59
fl Condor (film) 136
El Hombre Lobo (film) 201
El lleto..- de Wolpurgis (film)
201
fl Trunsexuol (film) 201
Elliot, T.S. (poet) 25
Elysia (film) 1 06, 1 6 3
Emerson, Hope (actress) 1 5 1
EmmCJrtUelle (film) 165
Empire of rite Ants (film) 195
End, The (mondo film) 156
Entertainment Ventures, 108
Enyo, Erina (actress) 39
Erotic Adventures of Pinoccltlo,
Tile (film) 57, 203
Erotic Adventures of Zarro, Tlte
(film) 107, 109
Esper, Dwain (filmmaker) 105,
193
Eubanks, Shari (actress) 84, BS
Eugenie . . . Tile Story of Her
Journey Into PerversJon (film) 1 94
Eve and tile HCJndymCJn (film) 80,
82, 86; still, 87
Every AfterrtCJon (film) 100
fvl/ DeCJd, Tile (film) 1 7;
confiscating copies of, 1 1 , 1 6
Evil DeCJd II, Tlte (film) 1 7
Evil Eye (film) 202
Evil PleCJsure, Tile (film) 1 49
Exorcist, Tile (film) 1 88
Exorcist II: Tile Heretic (film) 188
fxplosJon: DCJnger Lurks (film)
170
Eye CreCJtures, Tlte (film) 1 88;
remCJke of Tlte Invasion of tlte
SCJucer Men
fCJCe of Evil: see Tlte Incredibly
Strange Creatures Wlto Stopped
Living and Became Mixed-Up
Zombies
fCJCes of DeCJtlt (mondo film)
15, 156
faces of DeCJtlt PCJrt II
(mondo film) 1 5 6
facts of Life, Tlte (book) 9
Fairbanks, Douglas (actor) 148,
161
Falbo, Billy (actor) 34
Foil of tlte House of Uslter, Tlte
(film) 197
fCJnny Hill (film) 8 1 , 204
fCJster PussycCJtf Killl Kllll (film)
76, 78, 79, 86, 202; The Cramps'
cover of title track, 84; soundtrack,
83, B4; stills, 77, 80. 185
femCJie, 8unclt, Tlte (film) 1 86,
203
Ferrigno, lou (actor) 198
Field, Sally (actress) 147
Finders Keepers, Lovers Weepers
(film) 87; still, 82
Findlay, Michael and Roberta
aka Robert West/Julian Marsh and
Anna Rlva (filmmakers) 1 S, 1 63,
1 92, 193
Fine, Bernie (CJctor) 49
Fine, Mort (scriptwriter) 44
Fireball 500 (film): poster, 187
Five IJIy Grcrves (film) 1 8 6
Flagg, Cash: see RCJy Dennis
Steckler
fleslt CJnd BI-d Sltow (film) lOS
F/eslt CJnd Lace (film) 99
fleslt ECJfers, Tlte (film) 199
flesh trilogy, The (films) 163:
Tlte Curse of Her fleslt, Tlte Klu of
Her fleslt, Tlte Touclt of Her flesh

Fonda, Jane (actress) 203

Fonda, Peter (actor) 140, 149
F of rite Gods (film) 1 95;
based on H.G. Wells' food of tlte
Gods
For Tltase Wlto Tltlnk Young (film)
147
Force of One (film) 73
Ford, John (director) 77, 168
Forrest, Frederic (actor) 127
"Forty Thieves, The" (gang of
Independent producers) lOS, 162;
Includes Dwaln Esper, Steve Fays,
Pappy Golden, the Sonneys, etc.
Foster, J. Byron (actor) 61
Four flies on Grey Velvet (film)
186
Fourtlt Sex, Tlte (film) 200
Fowles, John (writer) 1 08, 128;
larry Cohen on Tlte Frenclt
LleutertCJnt's WomCJn, 1 2 7
Foy, Bryan (producer) 102, 1 07,
1 5 1 , 163
FrCJnces (film) 1 35
Francis, Coleman (filmmaker)
47, 48, 49, 193
Francis, Connie (actress) 147
Franco, Jess (director) 152, 193,
94
frCJnkensteln (film) 1 92
frunkensteln Meets tlte SpC>ce
Monster (film) 194
FrCJnkensteln's DCJugltter (film)
192
FreCJks (film) 1 8 8
Frederic, Mark (producer) 192
free lllde, A (film) 1 64
FrldCJy tlte 1 3 tlt films: 1 1 , 1 06,
125, 126, 1 87
Friedman, David (producer) 26,
79, 102-109 1 1 2, 1 63, 1 65; films
of, 109; team of, and Herschel!
Gordon lewis, 18, 23, 24, 34
Frost, R. lee (director) 66, 107,
108, ISS, 163, 1 9 1 , 194
Fulci, Lucio (director) 1 9B
Full M-n Higlt (film) 1 1 8;
compared to Teen Wolf, 1 1 8
fuller, Samuel (director) 1 1 4,
126
Funltouse (film) 39, 197
Funlcello, Anne" (actress) 147,
198
Gaffney, Robert (filmmaker) 194
GCJICJxy Girls (film-in-progress)
18
GCJme of Survival aka Tenement
(film) 193
GCJrden of Eden (film) 34, 105,
163
Garras, Nicholas (composer) 67,
68
Gates of Hell (film) 1 84
Gatewood, Charles
(photographer) 1 56
Gavin, Erica (actress) 85, B7
Gein, Ed (murderer) 1 94; films
Inspired by, Include Deranged,
Psyclto, TexCJs CltolnsCJw MCJssacre,
Tltree on CJ MeCJtlt-k
GltCJstly Ones, Tlte (film) 201
Gltast In tlte Invisible Bikini, Tile
(film) 147
Ghouls CJnd Dolls (film) 75
Giant (film) 76
Giant From the Unknown (film)
192
Giant Gila Monster, Tile (film)
198
Gidget (film) 146
Gidget (ioes Ta Hell (film) 147
Gillis, Jomle (actor) 202
Ginger (film) 1 8 9
Girl In Gold B-ts (film) 64,
74, 75; still, 68
Girl, Tlte Body and Tile Pill, Tlte
(film) 35
Girl's Town (film) 1 52
Girls Are For Loving (film) 1 89
Girls From LomCJ Lomo, Tile (film)
107
Girls In Prison (film) 152
Girls On CJ Chain GCJng (film) 1 95
Gleason, Jackie (actor) 1 SO
Glen or GlendCJ aka He or Site:
Tile Transvestite aka I CIICJnged My
Sex aka I Led Two Lives (film) 158
Go, Go, Go World (mondo film)

us

God TCJid Me To akCJ Demon (film)

1 1 , 1 1 4 - 1 1 7 , 1 1 9-122, 124, 126,

129, 133, 135, 1 37; review of,

177, 178; still, 1 2 0
Godard, Jean-luc (director) 1 1 3
Golden Studios 1 1 9 , 120
Golden Turkey AwCJrds, Tile
(book) 52
Goldilocks and the Three Bores
(film) 34, 1 06, 1 08
Good Grooming for Girls (film)
166
Good Morning CJnd G-dbye
(film) 79, 87
Goodbye Norma JeCJn (film) 1 89
Goof on the loose (film) 38
Gorcey, leo (actor) 143
Gordon, Bert I. (filmmaker) 194,
195
Gore Gore Girls, The (film) 17,
18, 25, 30, 32, 35
Gorshin, Frank (actor) 190
Graeff, Tom (director) 195
Graham, Chelly: see Georgina
Spelvln
Grankvist, Sven (producer) 96
Grant, John A. (filmmaker) 195
Groves, Peter (actor) 43
Great Hunting I 984, Tlte
(mondo film) 1 5 6
Green Berets, The (film) 198
Grefe, William (director) 195
Griffin, James (actor) 79
Griffith, Charles (scriptwriter)
1 40, 142, 1 9 1
Griffith, D.W. (director) 32
Griffith, leroy (theater owner)
24, 25, 106
Gross, Jerry (producer) 195
Ground, Robert (filmmaker) 195
Growing Girls (film) 168
Gruesome Twosome, Tile (film)
18, 2B, 31; campaign for, 30; plot
of, 35; stills, 3 1 , 32
Guru, Tlte Mad Monk (film) 201
Gutter TrCJsll (film) 201
GuyCJnCJ, Cult of the Damned
(film) 1 90
Guys and Dolls (film) 76
Haig, Sid (actor) 182
HCJjl (actress) 78, 79
Hale, Alan (actor) 79
Hall, Arch Jr. (odor) 40, 44, SS,
196

Hall, Arch Sr. aka Nicholas

Merriwether aka William Watters
(filmmaker) 44, 45, 55, 56, 195,
196
Hall, Huntz (actor) 143
Hallelujah Tlte Hills (film) 1 00
Holler, Daniel (art director) 196;
directs Kojak and Ironside, 196
Hallucination GenerCJtion (film)
149
Halperin, Victor & Edward
(filmmakers) 1 96, 197
Hamilton, George (actor) 109
Hammett (film) 127
Hammett, Dashiell (writer) 127
Hand o f Death (film) 186
Harem Keeper of the Oil Sltelks
(film} 203
Harrington, Curtis (filmmaker)
197
Harris, Jack (producer) 137, 1 63; see
also The Blob
Harris, Timothy (writer) 1 2 7
Hart, Dolores (actress) 1 4 7
Hawks, Howard (director) 1 2 6
Haydock, Ron aka lonnie lord
aka Yin Saxon (actor) 37, 39, 43,
47, 48, SO; loader of Ron Haydock
and the Boppers, 197 (album
cover, SO); contributor to Famous
Monsters of fllmlond and Monster
Times, 197
Hays, Will: appoints Joseph
Breen, 1 6 1 ; creates the Office of
the Motion Picture Production Code
(aka the Hays Commission), 1 6 1 ,
162; forms Central Casting, 1 6 1 ;
president of Motion Picture
Producers and Distributors
Association of America, 16 I ;
Hayward, Susan (actress) 39
HeCJven's Gate (film) 26, 29
HeCJvenly Bodies (film) 86
Hell Night (film) 188
Hell's Angels on Wheels (film)
142, ISO
Hellhole (film) 152, 203
Homo the Magnificent (film) 166
Henenlotter, Fronk (filmmaker)
8-17
Henson, linn (actress) 68
Hercules (1983 film) 198
Hercules In the Haunted World

(film) 187
Herrmann, Bernard (composer)
119
High School C011fiden tlal (film):
review, 1 4 5
High Scltool Girl (film) 1 0 2
Hill, Jack (director) 1 5 2 , 1 8 1 ,
182
Hills Have Eyes, The (film) 191
Hillyer, Lambert (director) 187
Hlp, Hot and 21 (film) 199
Hippie Temptation, The (TV film)
150
History of the Blue Movie, A
(film) 1 64
Hitchcock, Alfred (director) 32;
almost kil led by Ray Dennis
Steckler, 5 3
Hite, Henry (actor) 35
Hollywelrd (film-in-progress) 44
Hollywood Blue (film) 15S, 164
Hollywood Stran!Jior Goes to Las
Vegas, The (film-in-progress) 36, 44
Hollywood Strangler Meets Tho
Skid llow Slasher (film) 37, 47, 57
Hollywood's World of Flesh
(mondo film) 155
Homage to Herschell Gordon
Lewis, An (film) 35
H011eymoon Killers, The (film) 99
Hooked Generation, The (film)
195
Hooper, Tobe (filmmaker) 1 29,
197, 198
Hoover, J. Edgar, 1 1 4, 1 32, 138
Hopper, Dennis (actor) 149
Hopper, Hal (actor) 79
Horizontal Lieutenant, The (film)
147
Horrible Dr. Hitchcock, The (film)
202
Horror At Party Beach (film) 147
Horror Of tho Blood Monsters
(film) 1 8 6
Hostage, The (film) 73-75
Hot Box, The (film) 152
Hot Car Girl (film) 88, 1 9 8
Hot Rod Girl (film) 145
Hot Spur (film) 107
Hot Thrills and Warm Chills (film)
199
House of I ,000 Dolls (film) 1 5 2
House of Psychotic Women (film)
201
House of Women (film) 1 52; remake
of Caged
House on Haunted Hill (film) 1 9 1
Housewife: see Bone
How Much Are Your Eyes Worth?
(film) 168
How To Stuff a Wild Bikini (film)
186
How To Undress In Fr011t Of
Your Husband (film) 107, 193
Howco-lnternotional, 1 4 5
Hullaballoo (TV show) 1 4 7
Hungry Wives aka Jack's Wife
aka Season of tho Witch (film) 183
Hunter, Evon aka Ed McBain
(writer) 144
Huston, John (director) 23, 76
HuHon, Jim (actor) 147
I, A Woman (film) 1 64, 200; still,
171
I A m Curious, Blue (film) 164
I Am Curious, Yellow (film) 164
I Crossed The Color Uno: original
title The Black Klansman (film) 64,
69, 74, 75
I Drink Your Blood (film) 193,
195
I Love Lucy (TV show) 147, 186
I Lunghi Capelli della Morto
(film) 202
I Sailed to Tahi
ti with on All-Girl
Crow (film) 50
I, The Jury (film) 1 1 4, 1 30-132
If (film) 1 1
lisa, Harem Keeper of the Oil
Sheiks (film) 13, 203
lmmarol Mr. Teas, The (film) 34,
76, 82, 86, 1 02, 105, 108, 163
In Cold Blood (film) 134
In tho Land of the Headhunters
(film) 156
Incredible Sex Revolution, The
(film) 204
Incredibly Strange Creatures Who
Stopped Living and Become Mixed
Up Zombies (film) 36-39, 43-45, 54;
campaign for, 26; compared with

Black Orpheus, 40; filmmlng of, 42;

lawsuit over, 5 1 ; original title,
Face of Evil, 50; plot, 56; poster,
37; sequel, 57; soundtrack, 50;
stills, 40, 4 1 , 45, 46, 52, 55
Indian Fighter (film) 66
Inferno r'The Mother of Sighs"J
(film) lB6
lnga (film) 96
lngogi (film) 156, 162
Insects as Carriers of Disease
(film) 167
Inside Jennifer Welles (film) 99
Inside Soko (film) 99
Interview with the Vampire
(novel) 1 1 8
Invader (film) 1 6 8
Invaders, Tho (TV show) 135, 136
Invaders from Mars (film) 183
Invasion of tho Body Snatchers
(bath films) 126, 1 8 3
Invasion o f tho Sauce r Men (film)
1 44, 1 90
Invasion USA ( 1 9 5 2 film) 204
Invisible Invaders (film) 183, 1 86,
190
Ireland, John (actor) 126
Irma Lo Douce (film) 202
It Came From Hollywood (film)
52
ltf The Terror from Beyond Space
(film) 1 90
It's a Bikini World (film) 147
It's Alive (film by Lorry
Buchanan) IBB
It's Ali
ve! (film by La"y Cohen}
1 1 4, 1 18, 122, 127, 128, 1 32, 135,
137; compared to Tho Elephant
Man, 1 1 7, 1 1 8; still, 1 1 9
It's Alive Ill (film b y Lorry
Cohen) 1 2 1 , 1 37
It's Up to You (film) 169
lzay, Victor (actor) 68
Jack the Ripper (film) 1 94
Jackson, Eli (producer) 24, 106
Jackson, Jean-Pierre (writer) 83
Jacobs, Arthur (producer) 192
JocopoHi, Gualtiero (filmmaker)
154
Jade, Bonito (actress) 42
Joockin, Just (director) 165
Jail Bait aka Hidden Face (film)
145, 158
J.D. Films (genre) 143-145; see
also Dick Bakalyan
Jeopardy Films (genre) 169, 170
J.E.R. (distributors) 1 1 1
Jimmy, Tho Boy Wonder (film) 35
Johnson, Tor (actor) 193, 203
Jones, Jim (cult loader) 190
Jorgensen, Christine
(transsexual) 1 59
Joseph, Irwin (distributor) 23,
105
Joy Ride (film) 1 4 5
Jungle Hell (film) 75
J.U.R.I. Productions 1 1 1
Just Far The Hell Of It (film) 28
"Justo Dream" (stripper): pix of,
161
Justine (film) 194
Juvenile Jungle (film) 88; stills,
144, 145
Karimoja (film) 1 05, 1 50
Korloff, Boris (ac:tor) 1 87, 196
Katzman, Sam aka "Jungle Sam"
(producer) 144,145
Kaufman, Andy (actor) 1 1, 120,
1 24
Keep My Grove Open (film) 1 88
Kellogg, Ray (director) 198
Kelly, Monika (actress) 61
Kenney, Sean (actor) 61
Kent, Gary (actor) 39
Kerwin, William (actor) 195, 202
Kiol, Richard (actor) 49
Kill The Dragon (film) 75
Killer Shrews, Tlte (film) 198
Killing, The (film) 43
Killing Kind, The (film) 197
Kindling, Dave (special effects)
12
King, Alan (actor) 130
King, Atlas (actor) 39, 40, 4 1 ,
52, 54; publicity pix of, 4 1
King Dinosaur (film) 1 94
King Kong ( 1 976 film) 186
Kirk, Tommy (actor) 147, 198
Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (film)
201
Kiss Me, Monster (film) 1 94

Kiss of Her flesh, Tlte (film) 193

Klaw, Irving (photographer)
198, 201
Klein, Yves (artist) 1 5 4
Knee Oonclng (film) 73
Knight, Arthur (writer) 107
KoHo, Yaphet (actor) 124
Kovou, Laszlo (cameraman) 107,
142
Kowalski, Bernard (director)
152, 198, 1 99
Krakatoo, fast o f Java (film) 199
Krlstel, Sylvia (actress) 165
Krogh, Dan (author) 25
Kubrick, Stanley (director) 36,
43, 5 1
Kuchar, George (filmmaker) 163
Kupferman, Meyer (composer)
178
La Comtesse Perverse (film) 194
La Marco dol Hombre Lobo (film)
201; relased a:J franlf.enateln 's
Bloody Terror)
Lo Orgla do Los Muortos (film)
201
La Vampire Nuo (film) 202
Lancaster, Stuart (actor) 79
Landis, Bill (writer) 201
Landis, James (director) 196
Lange, Jessica (actress) 1 3 5
Lost Date, The (film) 168
Lost House on the Loft (film) 1 91
Last Time I Saw Archie, The (film)
55, 196
Laughing Woman, The (film): still,
200
Laura's Toys (film) 9 7
Lazar, John: see Z:-Man
Lo Culte du Vampire (film) 202
Lo frlsson des Vampires (film)
202
Leeds, Lila (actress) 105
Lelouch, Claude (director) 54,
154
Lembeck, Harvey (actor) 147
Lemon Grove Kids Meet The
M011stors (film) 36, 37, 47, 50, 54,
57; still, 38; sypnosis, 49
Lenzi, Umberto (director) 198
Les femmes Vampires (film)
202
Les LIGisons Dangereuses (film)
203
Let's Be Safe A t Home (film) 169
Levesque, Michael (director) 152
Levre de Sang (film) 202
Lewis, Herschel! Gordon
(filmmaker} 10, 1 1 , 18-35, 102,
105, 106, 108, 1 1 1-1 13, 142, 163,
175, 1 76, 1 84 , ; co-owner of Lewis
& Martin Films, 1 8; films of, 35;
founder of Communi-Camp, 35;
member of Society for Clinical and
Experimental Hypnosis, 26; pix of,
34
Lewis, Jerry (actor) 88
Lickerish Quartet, The (film) 200;
still, 1 99
Lieberman, Jeff (director) 1 5 0
Llfeforce (film) 198
Liljedahl, Marla (actress) 96
Linville, Allee (actress) 92
Linda and Abilene (film) 1 8
Lindberg, Christina (actress) 94,
99
List of Adrian Messenger, The
(film) 126
LIHle Shop of Horrors, The (film)
140, 1 9 1 , 200
Living Venus (film) 19, 20, 34,
105
Liz (film} 201; re-releosed as The
Promiscuous Sex
Lo Blanco, Tony (actor) 133, 1 77,
178
Looking for Love (film) 147
Loren, Donna (singer) 147
Lomo (film) 76, 79, 86, 163, 1 99
Losers, The (film) 142
Love Camp Seven (film) 1 02, 107,
108, 163, 1 9 1 , 194; still, 109
Love Life of a Gorilla (film) 162
Love Machine, The (film) 147
Love Me Like I Do (film) 203
Love Merchant, The (film): still,
95
Lov With A Proper Stranger
(film) 49
Lovers, The (film) 102
LSD-25 (film) 168
LSD Films (genre) 1 48-150

Lucas, George (director) 97

Lugosl, Bela (actor) 9, 158, 159,
118, 197
Luncllroom Monners (film} 167
Luplno, Ida (actress) 1 5 1
Lynch, Jimmy (soundman} 1 00
Mobe, Byron (screenwriter) IUO,
107
Macabre (film) 191
Mack, Ju- (actress) 83
MacKay, Gordner (actor) 49, SO
Madame Olga'I MOSJage Parlor
(film) 199
Mogle of Slrtbad, The (TV pilot)
43, 54
Mogle Spectacle (film) 196
Mogle Sword, The (film) 194
Maitland, Lorna (actress) 199
Malte1e falcon, The (film) 1 3 1 ,
132
Man And A Woman, A (film) 54,
127
Man Man Man (mondo film) 1 5 6
Maniac (film) 193
Maniacs Are Loose: e rite Thrill
Killen; poster, 53
Mann, Edward (director) 1 49
Manos, The Hands Of fate (film)
204
Man10n (film) 1 SS
Monson, Charles (murderer) 18,
134, 1 55
Mantis In Lace aka Lllcr (film) 1 SO
MargheriHI, Antonio (director}
198
Marlltuano, Weed Wltlo llootw In
Hell (film) 193
Marlowe, ScoH (actor) 88, 199
Mars Need Women (film) 147,
198; remake of Pajama Party, 1 8 8
Marshall, E.G. (actor) 1 3 5
Martin (film) 183
Martino, Francesco (director)
1 98
Martino, Sergio (director) 198
Marx, Groucho (actor) 1 5 0
Marx, Harpo (actor) 49
Mascaras, Mil (wrestler) 1 5 7
Ma1k, T he (film) 202; 1tlll, 202
Mason, Connie (actress) 107, 1 99
Ma1que O f The lied Death, The
(film) 52
Mossey, Raymond (actor) 1 04
Matinee Idol (film) 109
Mowra, Joseph (director) 163, 1 99
McCalla, Irish (actress) 192
McConn, Chuck (actor) 99
McCarty, Joe (author) 25
McCurdy, Elmer (outlaw) 1 0 8
McDonald, Ross (writer} 127
McGuinn, Jim (screenwriter} 20
Mclaughlin, Tom aka T.C. Fronk
(filmmaker} 142
McMahon, ld (norratOf') 179
McQueen, Steve (actor) 49
McRae, Leslie (actress) 68
Mechanized Death (film) 167
Medium Cool (film) 1 1
Mekas, Adolph (filmmaker) 1 00
Mesa O f Lost Women (film) 1 0
Metzger, Radley aka Henry
Paris (director) 83, 1 99-200
Meyer, Ruu (filmmaker) 1 2 , 34,
76-87, 102, 105, 108, 1 1 3, 1 50,
163, 193, 199, 201' 204
Mid-Continent Films 34
Midnight Cowboy (film) 1 1
Mikels, Ted V. ( filmmaker) SO,
57, 58-75; forms Genenl Film
Distributing, 74; member, Motion
Picture Pioneers of America, 62;
office at Goldwyn Studios, 7 1 ; pix
of, 72, 73; stuntman for Indian

fighter, 66

Mllland, Ray (actor) 18

Miller, Dick (actor) 200-201
Miller, Pete (actor) 89
Milligan, Andy (director) 1 49,
201
Mlmleux, YveHe (actress) 147
Mineo, Sal (actor) 88
Mishkin, William (producer) 201
Mlulle To The Moon (film) 192;
remake of Cat Women of the Moon
Mitchell, Sanford (actor) 6 1
Mitchum, Robert (actor) SS, 105,
196
Modern Film Distributors 23, 105
Moede, Titus (actor) 39, 43
Mole People, The (film) 186
Molly Growl Up (film) 168

Mom Jbtd Dad

(film) 9, 104, 105,

108, 142, 163, 117, 188
Mona (film) 164
Monarch Releasing Corporation,
193
Mondo America (film) 1 56
Mattdo BhGrro (film) 1 9 1 , 1 5 5
Mattdo Bolordo (film) 1 5 5
Mondo c- (film) 1 53, 1 5 5 , 156
Mondo Cane 2 (film) 1 5 5
Mondo Daytona (film) 155
Mondo fxotka (film) 1 5 5
Mondo Films {genre) 1 53-156
Mondo Hollywood aka Hippie
Holywood: Tlte Acid Blasting Frealcs
(film) 1 5 5
Mondo lnf- (film) 1 5 5
Mondo ICeyltole (film) 155
Mondo Macabro (film) 155
Mondo Magic (film) 156
Mattdo Mod (film) 155
Mondo Nudo (film) 155
Mattdo Oscentia (film) 155
Mondo Pcruo (film) 1 55; still,
155
Mondo Rocco (film) 155
Mondo r- (film) 155
Mondo Topless (film) 86, 87, 155,
199
Monlcey's Uncle (film) 198
Monroe, Marilyn (actress) 135
Monster A Go-Go! (film) 34
Montgomery, George (actor)
149
Moon Is Blue, Tlte (film) 162
Moonlighting Wives (film) 93
Moonshine Mowotaln (film) 2 1 ,
28, 35
Moore, Cleo (actress) 1 5 1
Moorehead, Agnes (actress) 1 5 1
Morgan, Chesty (actress) 1 1 0,
1 1 1 , 1 1 3, 201
Morgan, George J. (producer)
37, 39, 55
Moriarty, Michael (actor) 122,
123, 1 27. 1 28, 1 31
Morrissey, Paul (director) 204
Mother Goase A Go-Go (film)
198
Motion Picture Board of Review,
1 17
Motion Pictures Association of
America (MPAAl 1 3
Motion Pictures Patents
Company, 1 6 1
Motor Psycltol (film) 79, 1 93;
still, 78
Movi
e Star, American Style, Or,
LSD, I Hote You! (film) 204; still,
150
Mr. Sardonicus (film) 1 9 1
Mudhoney (film) 76, 79, 8 1 , 86,
199
Mundo Depravados (film)
155; still, 1 60
Murray, K . Gordon (film broker)
201
Musofor, Fakir (performer) 156
Muscle Beach (film) 186
My Hustler (film) 1 64
Myles, Ray (actor) 68
Mystery of the Leoplng Fish, Tlte
(film) 148
Nadjo (actress) 97
Naish, J. Carrol (actor) 186
Nalced Gols of the Golden West
(film) 86
Nalced Lunch (film-in-progress)
192
Nalced Night (film) 102
Nalced Truth, Tlte (film) 162
Nalced Witch, Tlte (film) 201
Nalced World (mondo film):
poster, 153

Namath, Joe (actor) 142

Napier, Charles (actor) 79
Naschy, Paul (actor) 201
Nasty Rabbit, The (film) 196
Natividad, KIHen (actress) 8 1 ,
83, 84, 85, 201
Nature Camp Confidential (film)
1 13
Nature's Playmates (film) 34,
1 06
Naughty Dallas (film) 1 88; still,
1 89
Nec.._ma aka Necromancy
(film) 158, 159
Necronamicon (film) 1 94
New World Pictures 142, 152,

191
Nicholson, Jack (actor) 142, 149,
150
Night Caller From Outer Space,
The (film) 202
Night Dreams (film) 165
Night Of The Beost aka House of
the Blaclc Death (film) 75
Night Of Tlte Blood Beost (film)
198
Night Of The Blood Monster
(film) 194
Night Of The Bloody Apes (film)
190
Night Of The Comet (film) 184
Night Of The Gltouls aka Revenge of
Dead (film) 158, 1 59, 1 9 1
Night Of The Howling Beast (film)
201
Night Of Tlte Living Deod (film)
182-1 83, 1 90
Night Of The Zombies (film) 202
Night Tide (film) 197, 204
Night To Dismember, A
(unreleased film) 1 1 1 , 1 1 2, 1 1 3
Night Train To Mundo Fine (film)
193

Night Wamlng aka Butclter,

Balcer, Nightmare Malcer (film) 186
Night Women (mondo film): still,
154
Nightmare Castle (film) 202
Nightmare Malcer (film) 186
Nightmare On Elm Street (film)
191
Niles, Fred (producer) 19, 20
99 Women (fllm) 1 5 2
Nixon, Marnl (singer) 1 79, 180
Noble, Ann (actress) 61
Northville Cemetery Massacre
(film) 142
Not Of This Earth (film) 200; still,
1 90
Notorious Daughter of Fanny Hill,
The (film) 107
N1111's Story, The (film) 164
O'Brien, Keith (actor) 39
O'Hara, Bette (actress) 5 1
Obadiah J B (film): sypnosis, 66;
see also Alex Joseph and Hi
s Wives
Of Flesh and Blood (film) 203
Ohmart, Carol (actress) 182
Olga's Girls (film) 152, 163, 1 99
Olga's House of Shame (film) 1 99
Olga's Massage Parlor (film) 163
Omen, The (film) 1 1 5, 126
On Her Bed of Roses (film) 204
Once Upon A Knight (film) 163
One Shoclcing Moment aka
Subur,_ AHalr (film) 75
One Summer of Happiness (film)
102
One Too Many (film) 105
Ono, Yoko (actress) 193
Open City (film) 1 64
Opening o f Misty Beetltoven, Tlte
(film) 165, 200
Operation Overlc/11 (film) 64, 66,
69, 72, 75
Orgy of the Dead (film) 8, 9,
1 59, 1 9 1
Osco, Bill (producer) 1 64
Outer Limits, The (TV show) 136
Pace, Tom (actor) 68
Pagan Island (film): still, 162
Page, BeHy (actress) 1 98, 201
Pajama Party (film) 147, 1 98;
remake, 188
Pandora's Box (film) 93, 1 00
Panic in tlte Year Zero (film) 88
Paradislo (film) 13, 163
Paramount Pictures, 23, 102,
108
Paris, Henry: see Radley
Metzger
Parker, Eleanor (actress) 1 5 1
Parker, John (director) 1 79, 1 80,
201
Parker, Woody (actor) 92
Parks, Bruce (cameraman) 1 00
Peabody, Dixie (actress) 142
Peacock, Kemper (film editor)
100
P-ters, Barbara (director) 142
Perfect Strangers (film) 138
Phenix City Story, The (film) 108
Pickford, Mary (actress) 161
Picnic (film) 197
Picture Mommy Deod (film) 195
Pierce, Jack (make-up) 192
Piranha (film) 202

the

Pit and tlte Pendulum, The (film)

196, 202
Plan Nine From Outer Space
(film) 158, 1 59, 1 9 1 , 203; poster,
1 59; still, 1 5 8
Planet of tlte Vampires (film) 187
Play It Safe (film) 169
Playboy (magazine & channel)
78, 82, 86, 97, 107, 1 32, 199
Poe, Edgar Allan (writer) 191;
films bosed on stories by, 52, 196
Poltergeist (film) 197
Poor White Trash (film) 43;
original title, Bayou
Poor White Trash II (film) 188
Portman, Dick (sound mixer) 120
Post, Don (mask-maker) 5 1
Premature Burial, Tlte (film) 196
Premlnger, OHo (director) 85,
1 50, 162
Prentiss, Paula (actress) 147
PreHy Maids All in a Row (film)
203
PreHy Peaches (film) 165
Price, Henry: see Andre
Brummer
Price, VIncent (actor) 10, 147,
1 48, 1 9 1
Prime Time, The (film) 18, 19, 34,
105
Prince of Peace (film) 104
Prison Girls (film) 1 5 2
Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover,
Tlte (film) 1 1 4, 1 1 5, 132
Profile of Terror, T lte aka
Tlte Sadist (film) 55, 196
Promiscuous Sex, The: see Liz
Prosperi, Franco (filmmaker) 154
Psych-Out (film) 1 50; poster, 148
Psycltedellcsex ICicles (film) 150
Psyclto (film) 1 94
Psyclto A Go Go! aka Blood of
the Ghastly Horror aka The Fiend
With the Electronic Brain aka The
Man With the Synthetic Brain (film)
186
Psycltomania aka The Death
Wheelers (film) 1 4 2
Publi
c Enemy Number One (film)
143
P1111s
l hment of AIVIe, The (film)
200
Q (film) 1 1 4, 1 2 1 , 1 26, 1 27, 129,
1 3 1 , 135, 1 38; based on legend of
Quetzalcoatl, 1 22; stills, 1 30, 1 34,
136
Qu-n of Blood (film) 197, 202;
poster, 197
Rabid (film) 191
Rafkin, Alan (director) 147
Raimi, Sam (director) 1 6, 1 7
Randolph, VInce (owner,
Pussycat Theaters) 107
Randy tlte Electric Lady (film)
165
Rappe, VIrginia (actress) 1 6 1
Rat Pflnlc a 8oo 8oo aka
Rat Pfinlc and 8oo 8oo (film) 36,
38, 43, 44, 45, 50, 52, 56, 197;
how title got changed, 44; original
title The Depraved, 50; soundtrack,
50; sypnosls, 52
Rats Are Coming! The
Werewolves Are Here!, The (film)
201
Ravagers, The (film) 191
Raw Meat (film) 8
Ray, Nicholas (director) 144
Reagan, Ronald (actor) 1 1 8; both
legs cut oH In ICing's Row, 90
IIebei Rousers (film): still, 1 40
IIebei Without a Cause (film) 144
lied Aspltolt (film) 9, 167, 1 68,
169
Red Nightmare aka The Commies
Are Coming! The Commies Are
Coming! (film) 167
Redeker, Quinn (actor) 182
Reds (film) 26
Reed, Joel M . (filmmaker) 201
11-fer Madness (film) 9, 148;
formerly Tell Your Children, 1 63
Reems, Harry (actor) 97
Reform School Girl (film) 145
Renay, Liz (actress) 39, 50
Rennie, Michael (actor) 136
Restless Years, The (film) 202
Retig, Tommy (actor) 43
Return Of Tlte Magnificent Seven,
Tlte (film) 136
Revenge Of The Ripper (film) 37,

45
Revolt of the Zombies (film) 197
lllde The Wild Surf (film) 147
lllfHI (film) 1 2 7
lllot In Juvenile Prison (film) 1 99
Ripps, Mike (producer) 43
Robins, Herb (filmmaker) 39, 49,
50, 75
Robson, Mark (director) 136
lloclc Around rite Cloclc (film) 144
Roclcabllly Baby (film): still, 139
RoHman, Julian (director) 202
Rollin, Jean (director) 202
Romero, George (filmmaker)
1 82-1 84, 190; forms Image 10, 183
Rose, Rosa (stripper) 105
Roshea, Tammie (actress) 83
Ross, Doreen (filmmaker) 58, 73
Rossellini, Roberto (director) 1 64
Rater, Ted (actor) 44
Rothman, Stephanie (filmmaker)
147
Rowey, Eddie (actor) 45
Rozsa, Miklos (composer) 132,
1 79
Run, Angel, Run (film) 142
Rush, Richard (director) 142, 150
Russell, Don (actor) 44
Ruvlnskls, Wolf (wrestler) 157
Sadist, rite: see The Profile of
Terror
Safe As You Thinlc (film) 170
Safety In tlte K
itchen (film) 170
Safety in the Shop (film) 9, 168
Safety in Winter (film) 169
Safetybelt for Susie (film) 9, 168,
169
Sahara (film) 40
Salazar, Abel (producer) 202
Salem's Lot (film) 197
Samples, Candy (actress) 83
(Santo VIsits) The Magic Land of
Motlter Goase (film) 35
Santamaria, Erick (director) 202
Santo (wrestler/actor) aka
Constantino aka Hombre Rojo aka
Huerta aka El Murclelago aka
Enmascarado II, 1 57, 201; pix of,
157
Sarno, J o e (filmmaker) 90- 1 0 1 ,
1 65, 1 72; films of, 1 0 1 ; pix of, 101
Sarno, Peggy (actress) 90,
95-100
Satan's Bed (film) 193
Satan's Sadists (film) 1 50, 1 86,
203; still, 141
Satana, lura (actress) 65, 70,
75, 78, 83, 86, 202; pix of, 203
Savage Streets (film) 1 8 8
Savini, Tom (special eHects) 1 76,
183
Saxon, John (actor) 202
Scanners (film) 1 9 1
Schanzer, Karl (actor) 1 8 2
Schmidhofer, Marty (producer)
18
Scream Of The Butterfly (film) 57
Screencraft Enterprises, 1 92;
formerly Toby Anguish Productions
Scum Of The Earth (film) 34, 105,
1 08; still, 1 9
Sean, Fred J . (director) 144
Sebastian, Ferd (filmmaker) 1 07
Secret File: Hollywood (film) 37,
43, 55
Secret Pains (mondo film) 155
Secrets of Beauty, rite (film) 105
s-ds (film) 201
Serpent Island (film) 1 94
Serra, Ray (actor) 99
Seven Brides for Seven Brotlters
(film) 202
Seven Into Snawle (film) 107, 109
Seven Minutes, Tlte (film) 80
Sex '69 (film) 164
Sex and Comedy
(film-In-progress) 107
Sex By Advertisement (film) 202
Sex Kittens Go to College (film)
204
Sexterminators, The (film) 195
Sexual Hygiene (film) 77, 168
Shackleton, Alan (producer) 193
Shatner, William (actor) 52
She Creature, The (film) 190;
remake, 188
Site Demons (film) 192
She Devils on Wheels (film) 1 1 ,
18, 35, 142; poster, 22; still, 33;
sypnosls, 33
Site Frealc (film) 8

Site Sltoulda Said No aka Tlte

!>evil's w-d (film) 105
Sheena, Queen of tlte Jungle
(TV show) 1 92
Shennan, Sam (producer) 1 86
Sloocklng Asia (mondo film) 156
Shorty Rogers and His Musical
Giants (musicians) 179, 1 80
Slwlek af tlte Mutilated (film) 193
Signal 30 (film) 167, 169
Silent llcrge, Sudden Death
(film-in-progress) 72
Sin In Tlte Suburbs (film) 92, 93,
97, 98;' poster, 91
Sin, Suffer, and Repent (film) 35
Sinatra, Nancy (actress) 147
Sinister Urge, Tlte aka The Young
and the Immoral aka Hellborn
(film) 158
Sins Of Tlte father (film) 9
Slntllia: Tlte Devll's Doll (film) 44
Sisters In Leatlter (film) 142
Six Million Dollar Man, Tlte (TV
show) 108
Ski Party (film) 147
Skidoo (film) 150
Skydivers, Tlte (film) 193
Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (film)
204
Smart Aleck (film) 1 64
Smell O f Honey, A Swallow Of
Brine!, A (film) 1 07, 108
Smiling Mail Bandit, Tlte (film)
108
Smith, Dick (special eHects) 176
Smith, William (actor) 142
Snow Monsters (film) 75
Snuff (film) 15, 1 93; original
title, Slaughter
So Young, So Bad (film) 152
Solomon, Joe ( producer, Fanfare
Productions) 142, 1 8 7
Something Weird (film) 9 , 25, 35
Sonney, louis and Dan
(producers) 105, 106-108; starts
Sonny Amusement Enterprises, 108
Sorority Girls (film) 200
Space Angels (film) 64, 75
Special Effects (film) 133, 135,
137
Spelvin, Georgina aka Cheily
Graham (actress) 99, 200
Spider Baby aka Cannibal Orgy
aka Tlte Liver Eaters (film): review,
1 8 1 , 182; compared to a Bunuel
fi lm, 1 81 ; still, 1 8 1
Spielberg, Steven (director) 8,
11
Sprinkle, Annie (actress) 100
Sssssss (film) 199
Stallone, Sy lvester (actor) 26
Standing, Lionel (actor) 178
Star Wars (film) 97, 1 1 3
Starlet (film) 1 08; still, 104
Steckler, Ray Dennis aka Cash
Flagg ( filmmaker) 26, 27, 36-5B,
73, 75, 1 93, 196, 1 97; films of, 57;
pix of, 57
Steele, Barbara (actress) 1 52,
187, 202
Step Out of Your Mind (film) 99
Sterling, Jan (actress) 1 5 1
Stevens, George (director) 76
Stlgmo (film) 193
Stiletto (film) 199
Stann, Tempest (stripper) 86
Story of Menstruation, Tlte (film)
168
Story of 0, Tlte (film) 165
Stralgltt Talk on Eye Safety (film)
168
Strasberg, Susan (actress) 150
Stratton, Dorothy (actress) 135
Street Corner (film) 1 OS
Strike Me Deadly (film) 63, 70,
71, 74, 75; poster, 64
Stuff, Tlte (film) 1 1 4, 1 1 5, 127,
128, 1 32, 138
Stunt Man, Tlte (film) 150
Suburban Roulette (film) 35
Sucking Chest Wounds (film) 168
Super Cool; see Body fever
Supemateral (film) 197
Supervlxens (film) 79
Surf Party (film) 147
Survival Town USA aka
Daomtown, USA (film) 169, 170
Survivalists, Tlte (film) 57, 72, 75
SCispirla r'Tite Mother of Siglts"J
(film) 8, 186
Svengall (film) 1 76

Swamp Tltlng (film) 1 9 1

s-t wgar (film) 1 52
Swltclt, Tlte (film) 98, 99; poster,
94
Sydney, Sylvia (actress) 177
Szigmond, Vllmos (cameraman)

40

Taboos of tlte World (mondo

film) 155
Take It Out In Trade (film) 1 58,
159
Take OH (film) 165; based
on Oscar Wilde's Tlte Picture of
Dorian Gray
Take Your Cltalce (film) 169
Talk About a Stranger (film) 188
Talk Dirty to Me, Part Two (film)
16
Tamblyn, Russ (actor) 186, 202,
203
Tamerlls, Zoe (actreu) 138
Tarantula (film) 186
Tarnished Angels (film) 204
Taste of Blood, A (film) 27, 35
Taurog, Norman (filmmaker) 147
Taxidennist (film-In-progress) 67
Taylor, Alfred (cinematographer)
182
Taylor, William Dean (director)
161
Teas, Bill (actor) 86, 163
Teenage Crime Wave (film) 144
Teenage Doll (film) 145
Teenage Motlter (film) 195; still,
195
r..nage Psycho Meets Bloody
Mary (film): poster, 43; also
released as Tlte Incredibly Strange
Creotures Who Stopped Living and
Become Mixed-Up Zombies
Teenage Rebel (film): poster, 143
Teenage Tltunder (film) 145
Teenagers from Outer Space
(film) 195
Ten VIolent Women (film) 73, 75
Tenebrae aka Unsane (film) 202
Terminal Island (film) 152
Terror At Halfday (Incomplete
film); see Monster A Go-Gal
Terror of the Bloodltunters (film)
204
Testament of Orpheus (film) 203
Texas Clooinsaw Massacre (film)
106, 194, 197
Thor Site Blows! (film) 108
Tltere's Always Vanilla (film) 183
Tlterese and Isabelle (film) 200
Tltey Came from Witltin aka
Sltivers (film) 1 9 1 , 202
Tltey Must Be Told {film) 9
Tltey Served Hitler's Brain aka
Madman of Mandoras (film) 1 88;
otlll, 1 aa
Tltlng, The (1982 film) 1 1 7, 126
Tltlrd Sex, Tlte aka Cltlldren of
L-finess (film) 163
I 3 Gloosts (film) 191
This Is M y Body (film) 163
This Nude World (film) 163
This Stulf'll Kill Yaf (film) 35
Thomas, Philip Michael (actor)
193
Thompson, Jim (writer) 127
Thompson, William C.
(ci nematog rapher) 1 79, 203
Thorne, Dyanne (actress) 203
Tloousand Pleasures, A (film) 1 93
Tlwee on a Meatltook (film) 194
Thr- St-ges, The (actors) 1 6
Thrill Killers, Tlte aka Tlte Maniacs
are Loose (film) 36, 38, 39, 4 1 , 44,
45, 49, 50, 52, 54-56; still, 47;
sypnosls, 39
Tingler, Tlte (film) I 0, 27, 1 48,
1 9 1 ; still, 10
To Live In Darkness (film) 168
Tomorrow's Cltlldren (film) 9, 162
Tormented (film) 1 9 5
Torture Dungeon, T lte (film) 201
Torture Ship (film) 197
Touclt of Evil (film) 204
Touch of Her flesh, Tlte (film) 1 9 3
Trader Hornee (film) 107-109
Traffic In Souls (fllm ) 161
Trapped By Mormons (film) 161
Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, Tlte
(film) 189
Tricks of the Trade (film) 201
Trip, Tlte (film) 142, 149
Turner, lana (actress) 150
20th Century Fox, 83, 85, 87,

1 26, 130
Twilight Girls, Tlte (film) 200
Twlllgltt Zone (TV series) 1 9 1
Twltclt of the Dead Nerve aka
aery of Blood (film) 187
Two Tloousond Maniacs aka 2000
Maniacs (fllm) 18, 20, 26, 27, 28,
105, 106, 1 08, 163, 199; plot, 34;
poster, 27; still, 24; theme song of,
sung by Herschel! Gordon Lewis,
10
200 1 : A Space Odyssey (film)
149
Ulmer, Edgar G. (director) 166
Ulysses (film) 102
Uncle Tom's Cabin (novel) 1 04
Undead, Tlte (film) 204
Undertaker And His Pals, Tlte
(film) 75
Urtfl"arded Girls, Tlte (film) 161
Unguarded Moment, Tlte (film)
202
United Artists, 93, 147, 1 5 2
Universal Studios, 53, 1 0 4 , 105,
161
Umone (T-brae) (film) 186; see
also r-brae
Up! (film) 79, 85
Welnrlb, Lennie (director) 147
Weird World of LSD, Tlte (film)
1 49, 195
Wels, Don (director) 147
Weisenborn, Gordon (director)
19
Weldon, Michael (author, Tlte
Ptycltotronlc Encyclopedia of film)
111
Welles, Jennifer (actress) 99
Werewolves on Wlteels (film ) 142
West Side Story (film) 180, 203
What Tltey Scry Aboelt Young Stuff
(film) 99
What's Up front (film): sti ll, 196
Wheels of Tragedy (film) 1 67,
169
When You Are a Pedestrian (film)
169
Where tlte Action Is (TV show)
147
Where tlte Bay Are (film) 147
White Slave, The (film) 161
White Slaves of Cltlncrtown (film)
1 63, 1 99
White Zombie (film) 197
Whitman, Dawn: see Doris
Wlshman
Whitman, Stuart (actor) 50
Wicked Go to Hell!, Tlte (film):
poster, 1 64
Wild Angels, T lte (film) 1 9 1 , 140
Wild Guitar (film) 37, 40, 43, ...
45, 54, 55, 56, 196; still, 42
Wfld Hippy O'lJY (film):
produced by "Pot Heads"
Experimental Films, 150
Wrld In tlte Streets (film) 150
Wild on tlte Beaclt (film) 147
Wild One, Tlte (film) 143, 146
Wild Ones On Wlteelt: see
Drivers In Hell
Wild Wild Winter ( fi lm): still, 146
Wild World of Batwoman aka
Site Was a Hippy Vampire (film)
204
Williams, Edy (actress) 80
Wilmoth, Paul {actor) 68
Wisher, Doris: see Doris
Wlshman
Wlshman, Doris aka Dawn
Whitman aka Doris Wisher
(filmmaker) 1 1 0-1 13, 165
Wltclt Of Hominy Hill
(film-ln- rogress) 93
Wltclt's M rror, Tlte (film) 202
Witchcraft '70 (mondo film) 155
Wizard of Gore (film) 18, 3 1 , 35,
1 1 2; review, 175, 176
Wolf-, Tlte (film) 1 1
w_, In Cages (film) 152
Women in Chains (TV movie) 152
Women In Prison tWIP) Films
(genre) 1 5 1 , 152
Women's Prisort (film) 1 5 1 ; still,
1 52
Wood Jr., Edward D. aka Daniel
Davis (director) 145, 1 58, 1 59,
1 91, 203; d-th of, 1 01 Frank
Henenlotter an, 9; Ray Dennis
Steckler on, 52; books by, Include
Watts . Tlte Difference, It Take1
One to Know One, Killer In Drag,

r,

159
World of tlte Vampires, Tlte
(film) 157
World' Greatest Sinner, Tlte
(film) 49, 57
Worm Eaters, Tlte (film) 50, 7 1 ,
75; sypnosls, 7 1
Wormwood Star, Tlte (film) 197
Woronov, Mary (actress) 152
Wrestling W-n vs. tlte Aztec
Mummy, Tlte (film) 1 90
Written on the Wind (film) 204
Vadlm, Roger (director) 164, 203
Valentino, Rudolph (actor) 161
Vamplra (actress) (real name
Malia Nurmi) 203
Vumplre's Coffin (film) 202
Vampyras/Lesbos (fllm) 194
Van Meter, Ben (filmmaker) 149
Ve Soter, Bruno (actor) 1 79, 199,
204
Veil Of Blood aka Tlte ltevenge of
the Black Sisters (film) 97
Velvet Trap, Tlte (fllm) 57
VertCs In furs (film) 194
Vernon, John (actor) 152
VIce and vw- (film) 203
VIce Girls, ltd. (film) 195
VIckers, Yvette (actreu) 199
Vldeodrome (film) 192
Vlerges et Vampires (film) 202
VIllage of tlte Giants (film) 195;
based on H.G. Wells' Food of the
Gods
VInyl (film) 1 64
VIolence USA (mondo film) 156
VIolent Years, Tlte (film) 159
VIrgin Bride (fi lm) 107
VIxen (film) 85, 871 still, 84
Vood- Woman (film) 1 90
Vorkov, Zandor (actor) 186
Wages of feor (film) 1 2 7
Wal ker, Peter (producer) 105
Walker, Stacey (producer) 107
Wall Of fle11t (film) 97
Walt Disney Productions 26, 168,
198
Wanda (The Sadistic Hypnotltt)
(film) 149
Wanda the Wicked Warden (film)
13, 152
War Gamet (film) 23
War of the Colossal 8ea1ts (film)
194
Warfield, Chris (filmmaker) 107
Warhol, Andy (filmmaker) 164,
204
Warm Nlgltts And Hot Pleaseres
(film) 100
Warner Bros., 83, 124, 126, 1 2B,
, ..
Warren Hal (filmmaker) 204
Warren, Jerry (filmmaker) 204
Warrick, Ruth (actress) 105
Washburn, Beverly (actress) 182
Wasp Woman (film) 204
Waters, John (director) 149,
175, 184
Webb, Jack (filmmaker) 167,
1 68, 1 96
X Marks the Spot (film) 170
Xlca (film) 39
Yang, Tiger (actor) 73, 75
Year 2889 (film) 188; reprise of
Tlte Day the World fnded
Year of tlte Drasron, Tlte (film)
123
York, Dick (actor) 168
York, Francine (actress) 63, 67
You Bet Your Eyes (film) 168
Young and Wild (film) 1 99
Young Playtltlngs (film) 93, 94,
96, 97; poster, 99; review, 1 721 74; stills, 92, 1 73, 174
Youngman, Henny (comedian
actor) 35
Your Hit Parade (TV show) 143
Z-Man aka Superwoman (actor
John lazar) 78, 150
Zaborln, Lila (actress) 68
Zombie (film) 184
Zontor, the Tlting from v..,us
(film) 1 86, 188; remake of It
Conquerecl the World
Zarro, Tlte Goy Blade (film) 1 09
Zohl (film) 1 9 1
Zugsmlth, Albert (producer) 145,
204