Archive for Russ Meyer

Nick Cato’s 50th SUBURBAN GRINDHOUSE MEMORIES Column!!

Posted in 2012, 70s Horror, Blaxploitation, Crime Films, Devil Movies, Drive-in Movies, Gore!, Grindhouse, Monsters, Nick Cato Reviews, Suburban Grindhouse Memories with tags , , , , , , , on May 17, 2012 by knifefighter

SUBURBAN GRINDHOUSE MEMORIES
Special 50th Column: “My Grindhouse Wish”
by Nick Cato

Since I’ve spent 99% of this column’s space talking about the experiences I’ve had at my local theaters, I figured I’d take this special 50th installment of SUBURBAN GRINDHOUSE MEMORIES to reveal the top ten grindhouse films (that I’ve seen either on TV or video) that I WISH I could’ve seen at a seedy theater or drive-in upon their INITIAL release.  While I enjoyed the following films for a variety of reasons, I’m sure each one of them would’ve been enhanced, surrounded by wise-cracking theater patrons during a scratchy, poorly-focused screening.

10) I think I was about 10 years old the first time I saw DON’T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT (1973) on late night television.  After a surprising opening, the film drags for a good fifteen minutes, then slowly builds to a finale that (at the time) was quite intense.  This underrated gem about lunatics running the asylum is currently being remade, but there’s just no way they’re going to capture the gritty, desolate tone of this low-budget shocker.

9) SHRIEK OF THE MUTILATED is an extremely low budget 1974 Yeti thriller that goes in a direction few first-time viewers will see coming.  I saw this on TV for the first time around 1979 and couldn’t get enough.  I’d love to have seen an audience’s reaction to the twist ending.

8) Released in the summer of 1972, I’d love to have been at a rural drive-in when NIGHT OF THE LEPUS first screened.  This incredibly goofy film about giant rabbits attacking Janet Leigh, Rory Calhoun, and STAR TREK’s DeForest Kelly must be seen to be believed, and must’ve had the crowds in stitches.  What makes it so good is how serious the filmmakers took the whole thing…

7) Every cult film fan has a favorite Russ Meyer film.  Mine is SUPERVIXEN (1975), which is basically a sexy road trip chase film with a little MANIAC COP thrown in.  But what blew me away was the dazzling editing during an early sequence split between a gas station and an apartment: every film maker should watch this at least once.  There’s a good chance you’ll get dizzy trying to keep up with all the angles and shots.  It’s also genuinely hysterical.

6) There must’ve been something seriously dangerous in the air during the early 70s.  Case in point is 1972’s BLOOD FREAK, about a dope-smoking guy who eats turkey from an experimental turkey farm and is turned into a turkey-headed monster who needs the blood of other drug addicts to survive.  Oh…and it also has a pro-Jesus message and stars Steve Hawkes, who had starred in a few Spanish TARZAN films (got all that?).  I can’t even begin to think what theater-goers must’ve thought of this, but thanks to the lunatics at Something Weird Video, adventurous cinephiles can obtain a deluxe DVD edition loaded with extras.  I’ve watched it too many times to admit…

5) In the late 90s I found a used VHS copy of 1975’s THE BLACK GESTAPO, a film I had never heard of despite being a life-long fan of blaxploitation cinema.  But unlike other films in this subgenre, THE BLACK GESTAPO was just downright nasty and mean-spirited throughout its entire running time: tired of their women being raped by white guys, a group of black men band together and start taking their streets back.  There’s plenty of action, classic dialogue, and violence (including a bathtub castration sequence that pre-dates I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE by four years) to keep any trash-film fan’s interest.  I’d hate to have been the only white guy at a screening of this, but then again it could’ve been a real blast!

4) While the idea behind THE CORPSE GRINDERS (1971) sounds better on paper than it translated to film, this early offering from director Ted V. Mikels is a real piece of cinematic insanity: a floundering pet food company—in an attempt to save money—begin to dig up corpses and grind them into cat food.  In turn, cats start going crazy and attack their owners.  A couple of moronic cops get on the case.  The corpse-grinding machine was made out of a refrigerator box and looks beyond cheesy, yet somehow certain scenes in the graveyard have fantastic atmosphere.  The cat attacks are unconvincing, the acting is horrendous, and I would’ve given anything to have seen this with a group of like-minded film freaks…

3) Since my initial Saturday afternoon TV viewing of SATAN’S CHEERLEADERS (1975), I’ve been hooked: a Satanist (who is also a janitor at a local high school) kidnaps four cheerleaders who get lost on a road trip.  He’s looking to sacrifice one of them in a ritual, but is killed by the Devil when he tries to rape one of them.  A shady couple (the wife played by Yvonne DeCarlo of THE MUNSTERS fame) then attempt to finish the janitor’s job, only to discover one of the cheerleaders is actually a closet witch.  In many ways this is the ULTIMATE 70s exploitation film: cheerleaders, backwoods Satanists, and four of the best looking actresses ever to grace a low budget feature add up to a true guilty pleasure.  This slice of 70s sinema ends with the cheerleaders using their newfound powers to help their football team win!  When I finally found a VHS copy of this sometime in the early 80s, I was surprised to see such a low nudity level (something most grindhouse films rely on), but the sheer nuttiness of this offering from director Greydon (BLACK SHAMPOO) Clark works well, despite its lack of skin.

2) When my family purchased our first VCR in 1983, I immediately ran to our local video store and rented 1963’s BLOOD FEAST, a film I had been reading about in FANGORIA Magazine since their fourth issue.  In the middle of watching it, my dad came home from work and freaked out.  He had seen this at a theater in Georgia a few weeks before he went to Korea with the army.  He told me people—some soldiers—actually passed out during a few of the gore scenes and most of the theater was empty by the time it ended.  NO ONE had seen anything like this at that time, and it was amazing to have first-hand proof that the accounts I had read in FANGORIA were true.  I can’t even imagine what it must’ve been like to be in a theater when something so different and ground-breaking was unleashed for the first time.  And being my old man was there, perhaps my love for this stuff was somehow passed through him to me at the time?

1) Despite the ground-breaking nature of BLOOD FEAST, I thought long and hard about what the A-#1 grindhouse film I wish I could’ve seen in a theater should be.  It might seem a bit typical, but I can think of no better film than NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968).  I remember reading an article from film critic Roger Ebert where he recalled his first viewing: a young child sat next to him, hiding his eyes and shaking in total terror, causing Ebert to write, “What kind of a parent drops their kids off at something called NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD?”  I first saw it on late night TV when I was about seven years old, and it’s the main film responsible for my love of the horror genre.  George Romero’s low-budget classic reinvented the zombie film, and, from all accounts that I’ve read, was one of the scariest experiences since 1960’s PSYCHO for many theater-goers.  What more could any fan of grindhouse cinema ask for?

SO there you have it, folks: ten films I wish I could’ve seen in a theater from the “golden age” of the grindhouse film.  Now it’s time for me to stop dreaming and begin searching my fading celluloid memory for the 51st column.  See ‘ya in two weeks!

© Copyright 2012 by Nick Cato

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AMERICAN GRINDHOUSE

Posted in 2011, 70s Horror, Drive-in Movies, Grindhouse, Indie Horror, Nick Cato Reviews, Suburban Grindhouse Memories with tags , , , , , , , , , on February 10, 2011 by knifefighter

SUBURBAN GRINDHOUSE MEMORIES PRESENTS:
MODERN MEMORIES No. 2:  “Back to the Grind
By Nick Cato

It’s that time again, faithful readers— time for me to cover a new film.  And considering the subject matter of this 2010 documentary (that made its New York City debut this past weekend) I’m sure you’ll agree it fits perfectly with this column’s bi-weekly theme.

AMERICAN GRINDHOUSE is an ambitious (although nowhere near comprehensive) history of exploitation films.  To my surprise, the majority of the film focuses on pre-60s cinema, going all the way back to Thomas Edison and explaining how the earliest of films often featured themes and scenes that were precursors to the sleaze that came decades later.  While younger audiences might groan at this, I found most of it interesting, and for those who haven’t read much on the subject, there are many things to discover.  Director Elijah Drenner does a fine job of highlighting the seedy side of early American cinema, from the silent era through the explosion of “nudie” films that came on the heels of World War 2.  There’s actually so much pre-60s material in the first 60-70 percent of AMERICAN GRINDHOUSE that I’m looking forward to a second viewing just to hear what I missed (there’s plenty of laughs and “I can’t believe they showed that in the 20s/30s/40s!” throughout the film).

When we get to the 60s (specifically, the gore films of Herschell Gordon Lewis and the “Nudie Cuties” of Russ Meyer) the film seems to “speed up.”  There are many on-screen interviews with 60s and 70s exploitation film icons such as Lewis, Ted V. Mikels, and Jack Hill, yet the film seems as if it struggles to stay within its brief 80-minute running time by rushing through most of final quarter. Had there been the same amount of time given to the post-60s films as with the pre-, AMERICAN GRINDHOUSE could’ve easily been a two-hour (or longer) epic.

Yet, as it stands, it’s still incredibly entertaining (if these films interest you).

For the fan boys: there are multiple talking heads-interviews, and thankfully most of them are funny and you might actually learn something about the plight of the low-budget filmmaker.  The most entertaining interview is easily Don Edmonds (director of two Ilsa films, most notably ILSA: SHE WOLF OF THE SS [1975]).  He reluctantly took the directing job after reading the screenplay then basically figured he may as well do it as outrageously as possible.  Herschell Gordon Lewis doesn’t say too much that his fans haven’t already heard, and he even makes one statement that even I—as a major Lewis fan—had to laugh at. He claims the tongue-ripping scene in BLOOD FEAST (1963) changed the direction of American cinema.  Perhaps the ‘ol Wizard of Gore’s getting a bit silly in his golden years?  Any horror fan knows that credit goes to the shower scene in PSYCHO (1960).  There’s a great comparison of Hitchcock’s classic and Lewis’s BLOOD FEAST, as well as a look at PSYCHO’s grindhouse-style marketing campaign.  Ted V. Mikels gives a funny synopsis of his classic THE CORPSE GRINDERS (1971) and Jack Hill speaks of his two women-in-prison classics, THE BIG DOLL HOUSE (1971) and THE BIG BIRD CAGE (1972), but I was disappointed there wasn’t even a mention of SPIDER BABY (1968) or a personal favorite of mine, SWITCHBLADE SISTERS (1975).  There’s a LOT of talk with director John (KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE) Landis, so if you’re a fan of his you’re in for a major treat.  William (MANIAC) Lustig gives some of the best memories of New York girndhouses, as well as the rise of the hardcore porno film.  Blaxploitation is briefly covered, with some short (but sweet) interviews with Fred Williamson and Bob Minor.  There’s many other appearances, including Joe (GREMLINS) Dante, David (LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT) Hess, Judith (THE BIG DOLL HOUSE) Brown, Larry (IT’S ALIVE) Cohen, Fred (HOLLYWOOD CHAINSAW HOOKERS) Olen Ray, James (THE TORMENTORS) Gordon White, and Jonathan (NIGHT CALL NURSES) Kaplan.  Despite all these famous (and infamous) exploitation personalities, the audience gave the biggest laugh and applause to the relatively new film critic Kim Morgan (she’ll be on a revamped “AT THE MOVIES” TV series this year) when discussing sex on film.

There was some talk in the lobby afterwards on how many more films could’ve/should’ve been covered.  My biggest gripe is how the 80s are all but forgotten (the film DOES mention a few post 70s films, including—shocker here—Tarantino’s GRINDHOUSE [2007]).  42nd Street in NYC was home to many grindhouses up until the mid-late 80s (which is where I saw countless slasher, zombie, and action films during my teenage years).  The whole 80s slasher/gore re-kindling was ignored (despite it being a MAJOR part of the latter-day grindhouse scene), and the small amount spoken of women’s prison films was surprising, especially how popular they became in the 80s (mainly due to the mainstream Linda Blair film CHAINED HEAT).  I also found it odd to see a segment on blaxploitation films with no mention of Rudy (DOLEMITE) Ray Moore.

Again, AMERICAN GRINDHOUSE is a fine primer for those interested in where the sleazier side of cinema came from.  While I learned a couple of things—especially about the older films—most of what’s on display here should be common knowledge to trash film aficionados.  And yet as a fan of this stuff, I sat through these 80 fun-filled minutes with a (mostly) satisfied grin across my mug, hoping director Elijah Drenner will give us a sequel (or at least a ridiculously extended “director’s cut” DVD).

© Copyright 2011 by Nick Cato

(Author’s Note: AMERICAN GRINDHOUSE has been playing on many cable in-demand services since June, 2010, and is currently screening at festivals and in several cities)

H. G. Lewis is one of the many exploitation film icons to be interviewed in AMERICAN GRINDHOUSE

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Farewell to TURA SATANA

Posted in 1970s Movies, 2011, Classic Films, LL Soares Reviews, Obituaries and Appreciations with tags , , , , , , , , on February 7, 2011 by knifefighter

(Note: this is a special article in remembrance of actresses Tura Satana and Maria Schneider, who died recently.)

A SAD GOOD-BYE TO TURA SATANA
An Appreciation by L.L. Soares

Tura Satana in her iconic role as Varla in 1965's FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL!

One of the icons of underground cinema died this past weekend, the great Tura Satana. For those not familiar with the name, she was an actress who appeared in some famous cult films during her career. Her biggest film was with Russ Meyer, FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! (what a great title!), in 1965, where she played Varla, the leader of a pack of exotic dancers (along with Meyer regular Haji and Lori Williams), who went around getting into trouble, often including violence. The character of Varla was especially tough as nails. One thing about actresses in Russ Meyer films was he tended to hire woman with bountiful bosoms, and with a 36D bust at the time, she fit right in.

While there is no nudity in FASTER, PUSSYCAT!, there is plenty of violence, mostly perpetrated by Tura as Varla. In the movie she has fist-fights with men and even breaks one man’s back after a drag race. This must have seemed pretty shocking back in 1965.

She also appeared in the Ted V. Mikel’s films THE ASTRO- ZOMBIES (1968),  THE DOLL SQUAD (1973)—considered by many to be a precursor to the show CHARLIE’S ANGELS—and Mikels’ shot-on-video sequel to ASTRO-ZOMBIES, entitled MARK OF THE ASTRO-ZOMBIES (2002). The Astro-Zombies were like robots with human brains implanted in them (in the original film by mad scientist John Carradine!)

Her father was of Japanese and Filipino descent and she was born in Japan. Her mother was Scots-Irish as well as American Indian descent (Cheyenne), which accounted for her very exotic looks. Her family moved to America when she was very young. As a small child, she even spent some time in the Manzanar internment camp in California during World War II, because of her Japanese descent. .She said as a child she was often bullied and beaten for her Asian heritage.

Her life would make a great movie. One of the more dramatic/disturbing aspects was that, when she was nine, she was raped. The men got off (the rumor was they had paid off a judge). Tura mastered the martial arts of aikido and karate. She said in an interview that she tracked down each of the men who raped her and exacted “revenge” on them. She said they had no idea who she was until she told them.

Tura was an exotic dancer at the age of 15 (her employers didn’t know she was underage). Her first marriage was when she was 13 to a 17-year old groom (the marriage only lasted a short time and had been arranged by their parents). She once dated Elvis Presley (and turned down a marriage proposal by him) and later married a retired Los Angeles police officer.

Her first movie role was a cameo as a prostitute in the Billy Wilder film IRMA LA DOUCE (1963), starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley McLaine, but it was in the B-movies of Meyer and Mikels that she got the leading roles most people remember her for.

Despite the fact that her most famous film roles were in the 1960s and 70s, Tura was a cult film star for most of her life, with adoring fans. She was always very kind to her fans and loved their attention, appearing at conventions and being very accessible.

My personal remembrances of Ms. Satana (her real name), were the fact that my wife and I went to double feature of FASTER, PUSSYCAT! at a movie theater in London during our honeymoon (we’d seen the movie several times on VHS before that, but that was the first time we saw it on a big screen—the other half of the double-feature was a package of short films by underground legend George Kuchar, entitled Hug Me While I’m Naked). The other time, which led me to have some direct contact with Tura, was via her MySpace page, where we wrote back and forth a few times. She was a very nice lady, and very appreciative of her fans.

She was 75 when she died, reportedly from heart failure.

She was a class act, and she will be remembered and missed by everyone who loves cult cinema.

***

Also this weekend, Maria Schneider died. She was the girl in the notorious film LAST TANGO IN PARIS (1972) directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and starring Marlon Brando.  The movie was about a Parisian woman (Schneider was 19 at the time) who enters into a sexual, often kinky affair with Brando’s middle-aged businessman. When they both look at the same apartment, they agree to rent it together, and they use it as a place to have sex. The movie received an “X” rating at the time and was famous for a scene involving butter.

Maria Scheider in 1972's LAST TANGO IN PARIS.

She appeared in dozens of films between 1969 and 2008, including THE PASSENGER by another Italian director, Michelangelo Antonioni in 1975, in which she co-starred with a young Jack Nicholson. Most of her films were French, and none was famous as LAST TANGO.

I’ve always thought LAST TANGO IN PARIS was an underrated film, known more for its reputation than for the film itself. It also reminds me of the works of Henry Miller. Schneider was a big part of why the movie worked so well. She was perfectly cast opposite Brando for the film.

She died of cancer at the age of 58.

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