Sunday, November 30, 2008

Screaming Kids Assault Rock Hill Mummy

ROCK HILL, S.C. (UPI) -- The mad mummy of Rock Hill came undone Monday -- and no wonder, what with a bunch of screaming kids chasing him through a darkened theater.

"They tried to kill me!" gasped 16-year-old Charles Norton, whom the management had hired to play a "live monster" to liven up the showing of THE LEMON GROVE KIDS MEET THE MONSTERS.

As thunder crashed and lightning flashed on the screen, Norton stepped onto the stage in a mummy costume, complete with what he describes as a "horrible mask."

But the children in the crowded movie house -- which seats 597 -- didn't scare that easily. They charged Norton, punching and pinching until they knocked him down.

Norton fled through a back door, with a pack of noisy youngsters on his heels, and locked himself in the manager's office.

After a few minutes, he decided his pursuers were gone. He opened the door and discovered he was wrong. The kids chased him to the projection room, throwing paper cups and ice.

"They had to stop the movie and turn on the lights before the kids would settle down," said Norton, who stated he was through with show business.

[reported 8/13 and 8/14, 1969]

One-Sheet of the Week: 3 EVIL MASTERS (1984)





THE MASTER / BUI BUN SI MUN (1980)


U.S. release as 3 EVIL MASTERS (1984)

Saturday, November 29, 2008

The Endangered List (Case File #5)


In the summer of 1999 I interviewed cult movie actress Marlene Clark for Fangoria magazine, and this is when I first heard about a movie she had starred in called STOP (1970). Along with THE LEARNING TREE in 1969 and COTTON COMES TO HARLEM in 1970, STOP was one of the first three major studio productions to be directed by an African-American filmmaker. Unfortunately, STOP was given an X rating by the MPAA and shelved by its studio, Warner Brothers. The film's cinematographer, Owen Roizman, would go on to receive an Oscar nomination a year later for THE FRENCH CONNECTION, and another four nominations over the next 23 years. STOP was never released.

The writer-director of STOP was Bill Gunn, a playwright, novelist and screenwriter who wrote THE LANDLORD (1970) and THE ANGEL LEVINE (1970) and would later make the enigmatic African-American horror film GANJA AND HESS (1973), also starring Clark (she appears briefly in THE LANDLORD as well). In 1990, one year after Gunn's death, the Whitney Museum of Art screened a 35mm print of STOP during its New American Film & Video series. That was the first-ever public screening of STOP -- and also the last. The film has remained unseen for the past 18 years.

In 1999 there was no entry for STOP on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) -- and little or no info related to the film anyplace else on the 'net -- but I did find Lawrence Cohn's review in Daily Variety from the one Whitney screening. A few days later I went to the Whitney's library (the woman at the reference desk gave me a strange look when she saw "Fangoria" listed as my employer on the sign-in sheet), copied all of the film's credits out of the series program they had in their archives, and posted the information on the IMDb that same night. It's now nine years later and I don't think any more information has been added to the entry. Although STOP has turned up on a few grey market video dealers' "want lists" in the past few years, the possibility of a DVD release has never been addressed during the Home Theater Forum's occasional live online chats with reps from Warner Brothers Entertainment.

The b&w photo of Marlene Clark in the bikini and sunglasses is an official studio still with press info on the back, so Warners did come close to releasing STOP at one point. I'll post more info related to the movie as I find it...or it finds me.


STOP
(1970)


CAST
Edward Bell (Michael)
Linda Marsh (Lee)
Richard Dow (Richard)
Marlene Clark (Marlene)
John Hoffmeister (John)
Anna Marie Aries (Ellen)
Benito Alvarez (Yacht Steward)
Nydia Caro (Girl in the Nightclub)
Charlie Gibbs (Man in the Cemetery)
Vicky Hernandez (The Whore)
Miki Jaeger (Mrs. Dome)
Michael Peters (Mr. Dome)
Angel Rigau (The Butler)

CREW
Written & Directed by Bill Gunn
Produced by Paul M. Heller
Cinematography: Owen Roizman
Music: Fred Myrow
Editor: Sam Ornstein
Script Supervisor: Felix Ramirez
Set Designer: Nina
Consultant Art Director: Gene Callahan
Sound Recordist: Paul Jaeger
Fashion Stylist: Georganne Aldrich

Filmed in Puerto Rico
MPAA rating: X
Running time: 89 minutes


The following was taken from Adam Film World (Vol. 2, No. 8 - October 1970, p. 80-89)

Once Negro actor Bill Gunn said, "When a good part for a Negro actor does come along, they always offer it to Sidney Poitier. If he turns it down, they rewrite it for a white actor."

Well, we've come a long way, baby, since 1964 when he made this beef. And especially the irrepressible Gunn – because shunted aside from film acting, he wrote a novel, All the Rest Have Died, and Delacorte Press published it. He played on Broadway in TAKE A GIANT STEP and finally had a featured part in the Hollywood film of William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury.

Then Bill Gunn wrote two movies that went before filmland cameras: THE ANGEL LEVINE and THE LANDLORD. If you can't play in them, baby, make them join YOU!


Above: Bill Gunn (standing) directs Linda Marsh and Edward Bell

Now Warner Bros. is releasing Bill Gunn's "total" picture STOP! – he wrote the original story, scripted it, cast it, directed it and co-produced it. That's film making!

There's mysticism in Bill Gunn's first film and elements of violence that go with the deep, dark tropical currents swirling around the overheated Caribbeans.

A man (John Hoffmeister) has a passion for his wife Ellen (Anna Aires), but he shoots her dead. Why? Richard (Richard Dow) and Michael (Edward Bell) get a passion for each other. Then Richard holds a pistol to Michael's head. Why? A mystery broods over the colorful, foliated footage of STOP!

Linda Marsh as Lee has a special thing for Michael – she smokes a joint she puts between his toes. Taking a drag or kissing his feet – is she sole-kissing?

The killer-husband (Hoffmeister) hangs it out nude in his lush suburban villa. He meets the two other couples Lee and Michael and Richard and – now the new character, the exotic black woman Marlene, brought to "throbbing screen life" by exotic actress Marlene Clark.

A new dimension enters the American film with the interrelations of Richard and Marlene, Richard and Michael, Michael and Marlene, Lee and Marlene…

Linda Marsh also has come a long way, baby, since she made her declaration of independence from the sex and nudity revolution only a year ago.

She said then, "Most young Hollywood actresses will do anything to get the right part – trade their charms, pose in the nude. But I can't separate my body from my mind. Cheesecake is a promotion device to get men to undress a girl optically. What I want is for people to accept all of me, the entire personality, not Linda Marsh from the neck down. Any other way, I don't want it."

Of course, in STOP! we get Linda's acting personality as well as her entire person.

The producer of STOP! Paul M. Heller also has made a sashay from the prizewinning smash indie film that made him famous (and flush) – DAVID AND LISA. That was a sensitive study of friendship-love between disturbed adolescents, and Heller wanted to follow with a film of homosexuality. That was a bit premature (before STAIRCASE and THE BOYS IN THE BAND) but it may be back off the shelf now!

The following was taken from Knight (Vol. 8, No. 6 - October 1970, p.68-73)

Mysticism, sexuality, violence, and the teeming technicolored tropics are the basic ingredients in Bill Gunn's new Warner Bros. release, STOP! Basically the film is a study of social and sexual intercourse among a strange group of people who converge to do their things upon a lush Puerto Rican villa inhabited by a murderer. Black author-actor-playwright-director Gunn exercised total control of the project -- the second attempt of Warners to give a black artist complete artistic freedom. (The first was THE LEARNING TREE, Gordon Parks' autobiog film about growing up black in Kansas.) STOP! would seem to be less concerned with autobiographical realities than with Kafkaesque truths and the Pinteresque mystery approach to the sex-love-hate-cruelty dynamics of human behavior.


Below: Daily Variety review by Lawrence Cohn (July 4, 1990 - p. 26)

Stop
__________

New York  A Warner Bros. presentation of a Paul M. Heller production.  Produced by Heller.  Written and directed by Bill Gunn.  Camera (Duart color), Owen Roizman; editor, Sam Ornstein; music, Fred Myrow; guitar solos, Ry Cooder; sound, Paul Jaeger; consultant art director, Gene Callahan; set design, Nina; assistant director, Alan Hopkins.  Reviewed at Whitney Museum of American Art, N.Y., June 30, 1990. MPAA Rating: X. Running time: 92 MIN.
Lee Berger....................................................Linda Marsh
Michael Berger.................................................Edward Bell
Marlene Matheson...........................................Marlene Clark
Richard Matheson.............................................Richard Dow
John.......................................................John Hoffmeister
Ellen......................................................Anne Marie Aries
Whore.....................................................Vicky Hernandez
Mr. Dome....................................................Michael Peters
Mrs. Dome......................................................Miki Jaeger
Also with: Nydia Caro, Angel Rigau, Benito Alvarez, Charlie Gibbs.
__________

     “Stop” is an ambitious but unsuccessful dissection of empty people in an arid marriage. X-rated feature was permanently shelved by Warner Bros. in 1970 and is reviewed here for the record.

     It’s easy to see why WB rejected this uncommercial effort. Obscure narrative is tedious to the point of an audience almost sharing the suicidal tendencies of the unsympathetic protagonists. Film nonetheless has several sharp scenes and would be of retrospective interest to European film fest programmers.

     Writer-director Bill Gunn, who died last year, made a noteworthy breakthrough here as a black helmer not restricted to a black-themed picture. (Only Sidney Poitier’s “Hanky Panky” vehicle for Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner, Michael Schultz’ “Sgt. Pepper’s” or Asian American director Wayne Wang’s nonethnic “Slamdance” since have escaped that sort of typecasting.)

     Opening scene, reminiscent of the classic breakfast sequence in Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane,” establishes a whitebread, yuppie couple Edward Bell (a writer-translator) and Linda Marsh already at the end of their tether, barely able to talk to each other without sarcasm. They fly to San Juan, Puerto Rico to take up residence at an inherited mansion, Bell’s brother having just murdered his wife and committed suicide.

     With Bell haunted by nightmarish fantasy-memories of that incident (he obviously wasn’t present but imagines the details), film immediately suggests potential as a gothic horror pic, like Gunn’s well-regarded next feature “Ganja and Hess.” Since film’s structure and subplot suggest WB’s Stanley Kubrick adaptation of “The Shining” a decade hence (writer in a remote mansion going crazy), that’s a missed opportunity.

     Instead, “Stop” disintegrates into a series of ‘60s semi-obligatory lyrical interludes. Always artfully photographed, these sequences of sex, brooding or just wandering are dullsville.

     Final half of the picture degenerates into the then-hot topic of spouse swapping (e.g., “Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice,” “All the Loving Couples”) when old pal Richard Dow (named Richard Matheson in the script as an apparent in-joke) pops up with his beautiful black wife Marlene Clark.

    Sex scenes are rather tame (no full nudity), but a homosexual tryst plus strong language probably earned the X tag. Low point here is a gauche dinner party scene using a Screw Magazine story on masturbation as a starting point for a vulgar dissection.

     Gunn’s best footage is a stark confrontation between Marsh and a Puerto Rican prostitute (Vicky Hernandez in pic’s best performance) after she catches Bell in bed with the working girl. Another setpiece has camera mounted overhead in the bedroom from a God-like point-of-view to record a take of Bell and Marsh screaming at each other and almost coming to blows. It lasts a couple minutes but is too shrill to be effective.

     Heroine Marsh, who looks somewhat like Gayle Hunnicutt and Barbara Harris, played Ophelia to Richard Burton’s “Hamlet” in WB’s 1964 Electronovision feature, but has little characterization to chew on here. Bell is a blank. When the two are locked together in a “No Exit” finale, the viewer still doesn’t know what makes them tick.

     Gunn reportedly was unhappy with the studio’s final version of the film. A cryptic penultimate scene and heavy use of voiceover exposition indicate some postproduction second thoughts.

     For a color-blind feature, it is perhaps not surprising that the one black role, played by Marlene Clark (later to star in “Ganja and Hess”), is presented as merely an exotic, erotic cipher rather than given an independent voice.

    Pic notably represents the first feature for Owen Roizman, soon to lense William Friedkin’s landmark “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist.” Roizman’s compositions are unusual as is Fred Myrow’s eclectic musical score, featuring guitarwork by Ry Cooder. - Lor.

Friday, November 28, 2008

NOW SHOWING -- November 28th, 1980

Here are some of the movies that were in theatrical distribution twenty-eight years ago today (November 28th, 1980) and quite possibly were playing at a theatre near you!


ALLIGATOR
THE AWAKENING
BEYOND THE FOG
THE BIG RED ONE
THE BLACK STALLION
BLAZING SADDLES (re-release)
THE BLUE LAGOON
THE BLUES BROTHERS (double-billed with THE JERK in some areas)
BON VOYAGE, CHARLIE BROWN!
THE BOOGEY MAN
BORDERLINE
BRUBAKER
BRUCE IS LOOSE
THE CHILDREN
THE COED MURDERS

THE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN
DIVINE MADNESS
THE ECSTASY GIRLS
THE ELEPHANT MAN
FADE TO BLACK
FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN
FANTASIA (re-release)
THE FIRST DEADLY SIN
GLORIA
THE GREAT SANTINI
HAND OF DEATH
HANGAR 18
HOPSCOTCH
THE IDOLMAKER
IT'S MY TURN
THE KIDNAPPING OF THE PRESIDENT
LOULOU
THE MASTER KILLER
MOTEL HELL
MOTHER'S DAY
MY BODYGUARD
OH GOD! BOOK II
OH! HEAVENLY DOG
ORDINARY PEOPLE
PRIVATE BENJAMIN
THE PRIVATE EYES
RESURRECTION
ROCKSHOW
SANTA AND THE THREE BEARS (matinees)
THE SAVAGE FIVE
SAVAGE WEEKEND
SHOGUN ASSASSIN
SONG OF THE SOUTH (re-release)
STARDUST MEMORIES
THE STUNT MAN
TIMES SQUARE
THE UNBEATABLE DRAGON
URBAN COWBOY
USED CARS
WIFEMISTRESS
ZOMBIE

Thursday, November 27, 2008

The Szurek Zone: BLOOD ORGY OF THE SHE DEVILS

Alternate titles have reputedly been ORGY OF THE SHE DEVILS, ORGY OF THE SHE-BEASTS, BLOOD LUST OF THE SHE DEVILS and BLOOD OF THE SHE-BEASTS, but none of those have been utilized very often, and in most areas it's known as BLOOD ORGY OF THE SHE DEVILS. Made for about $10 in 1972 by Ted V. Mikels, the man behind such blockbusters as THE ASTRO-ZOMBIES, THE CORPSE GRINDERS, THE DOLL SQUAD and THE BLACK KLANSMAN, it was given such a spotty and elongated release that it was not widely seen until almost ten years later. In the Detroit area, it waited nearly that long before going direct to drive-ins as part of a five unit special also consisting of NIGHTMARE IN BLOOD, BLOODEATERS (known on video as TOXIC ZOMBIES and as I understand re-issued to a handful of theaters under that title) and re-releases of BLOODTHIRSTY BUTCHERS and INVASION OF THE BLOOD FARMERS.

Shot against paper-mache backdrops with a cast that keeps stumbling over its lines, some of the worst background music in years, a camera that is often unfocused and choreography that makes this look like a deliberate spoof, BLOOD ORGY OF THE SHE DEVILS is by no means a landmark moment for the silver screen. But the script, also by Mikels, shows surprising "so-so with good elements" potential only to be knocked on its butt by precedent-setting ineptitude and an apparent unwillingness to do it in more than one take, thespians who make it painfully obvious that they don't take their vehicle serious at all and a director who seems to have enjoyed "writing" it, but evidently fell into a coma about actually putting it on film. The dancing girls at the ritual look like go-go performers. The bongo playing "Black Token" sounds as if he's doing low-grade soul music. At least two members of the cast don't even bother to conceal their contempt for the material. Lila Zaborin as head witch Mara NEVER displays acting skill, but climbs embarrassingly far out on a limb during a "séance" sequence in which -- apparently losing sight for a moment that is not "supposed to" be a comedy -- she strains very hard for camp. Tom Pace, the incompetent non-entity who was the hero of THE ASTRO-ZOMBIES and is the hero again in this (only here he's unconvincingly passed off as a forty year-old college student), repeatedly breaks into supercilious, smartass grins at the most inappropriate moments and doesn't try to hide or muffle them. Considering his almost nonexistent acting ability, and his totally nonexistent charisma, this is the oven calling the kettle black. The meandering script occasionally dips into a tangent that looks like it's going to remain an integral portion of the plot – only to fade into limbo fifteen minutes later and one of these tangents is a feud between underground figures and "occult" ones. Mara is even murdered during this feud, comes back to life, the murderers are quickly done in my magic, and then...the whole shmeer is forgotten about. Things like this ultimately give the flick a nagging sense of pointlessness.

To his credit, Mikels laces the "action" with a focus on occult "details" – so much so that it eventually looks like a semi-documentary. And even more to his credit, as a one-time student of demonology, I was surprised by the impressive accuracy. He obviously did his homework, and was probably a practitioner or at least a student, himself at the time this was made, or BLOOD ORGY has been envisioned as exploitation for esoterica buffs. This doesn't make it a good movie, though, and 'tis a pity Mikels hadn't a quarter the expertise at filmmaking.

Briefly, Mara is a Southern California professional medium/tarot card reader/psychic adviser/astrologist. Well, those are her legitimate fronts anyway, as she projects an image of harmless eccentricity, of a con artist, at the very worst. Behind closed doors, she practices memory regression on her female clients, all of whom seemingly were executed for witchcraft in a former life and upon learning this are eager to join her cult of men-sacrificers and demon-summoning hopefuls. Mara, who's aided by a weird bearded male servant named Tourke, also operates a psychic hit man service, which is how she gets in hot water with the underworld, but after pulling a single job, she – or Mikels – seems to forget about it. Co-ed Lorraine has been following the career of Mara and, somehow convinced that the latter is not a fraud, drags boyfriend Mark (Pace) to one of Mara's séances. Although an uninterested skeptic, Mark goes along out of lust. Now, he becomes interested and wondering if Mara is genuinely gifted with occult powers or is just an exceptionally good flim-flam lady. He consults a professor who dabbles in the Black Arts himself. In between the professor's lectures on both diabolism and paganism, we cut to sequences of Mara's activities. Finally, the couple's curiosity ebbs to the point where they agree to participate in one of Mara's age regressions. The professor learns they are pawns in a demon-conjuring ritual, and accompanied by a few "white witches" dashes to the rescue.

BLOOD ORGY OF THE SHE DEVILS just escapes the "Good-Bad" label by not being quite strong enough in the "good" department. At least, invalids won't find it painful to watch, but that's as good as I can say.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

STANLEY arrives

I opened my mailbox about an hour ago and was thrilled to discover that screenwriter Gary Crutcher had sent me the new special edition DVD of William Grefé's snake shocker STANLEY (1972), starring Chris Robinson, Steve Alaimo and Alex Rocco. I've seen this movie a few times, but only the cut TV print, so I'm looking forward to enjoying this fully uncut version.

I'm also excited about the extras, which were put together by the very talented Daniel Griffith. I've talked with Daniel a couple of times and I can't wait to see his documentary THE WONDER WORLD OF K. GORDON MURRAY, which is due out next year. Gary showed me one of the supplements Daniel did for the upcoming DVD of THE NAME OF THE GAME IS KILL! and it's a lot of fun, so I'm sure the STANLEY disc will be a blast from start to finish.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

One-Sheet of the Week: LINDA

Since I'm photographing all of my one-sheets for insurance purposes anyway, I figured why not post the pictures on the blog as a regular feature. Here's the first installment of "One-Sheet of the Week." Enjoy!

Jess Franco's LORNA THE EXORCIST / LES POSSEDEES DU DIABLE (1974)

U.S. release as LINDA (1976)


Monday, November 24, 2008

The Endangered List (Case File #4)



THE COMING OF SEYMOUR (1975)

Banned in the U.K. in 1976
Released by Constellation Films (Independent-International Pictures) in 1977 as THE FABULOUS FANNY with a self-imposed X rating
Re-released by Constellation with new scenes as THE BOOB TUBE STRIKES AGAIN! in 1978

LEE FROST says:
"It was called THE COMING OF SEYMOUR originally. I was writing RACE WITH THE DEVIL, and some producers had this picture that was the funniest thing they'd ever seen. I went over, met with them, read it, and said, 'OK, I'll tell you what you guys should do – go in your room there, read this script, and circle all the laughs. Every line and situation that gets a laugh or even a chuckle, circle it for me.' They said, 'OK, we'll do that.' They came out about a half an hour later – 'There are none.' I said, 'That's the problem with your picture.' So I rewrote the picture, added some jokes, and shot it. I have no idea what's happened to it."

SAMUEL SHERMAN says: "We had a picture called THE COMING OF SEYMOUR. It was a sexy, soft X picture, probably one of the best of those pictures. Very funny, very sexy, very cute. Connie Hoffman was in it – she was a friend of ours who had been in our stewardess pictures. I put that thing out as THE FABULOUS FANNY, because it was a take-off on [the comic strip character] Little Annie Fanny from Playboy. We couldn't give that thing away! There was nothing we could do to sell that picture."


THE FABULOUS FANNY -- radio spot

Who's America's most adorable X-rated sweetheart?

[Crowd answers: "WHO?"]

Why, it's Fanny of course!

[Sound effects: Applause, cheering]

The girl of your wacky comic strip dreams is now on the screen in the new adult comedy movie, THE FABULOUS FANNY!

It's a zany spoof all about a boy who finds out too late that his entire teenage years were just spent in a wasted fantasy – a crazy fantasy called Fanny! Cute, blonde, and oh so adorably sexy. But she's just a comic character – or is she?

THE FABULOUS FANNY!

The movie that answers the question, "Can you take a bath in peanut butter and enjoy it?"

[Sound effect: BOING!]

Tell your troubles to the fabulous Fanny! The sweetest gal in town!
It's all in fun, in the new wild comedy, THE FABULOUS FANNY!

In color, from Constellation Films, rated X for adults!


SAMUEL SHERMAN says: "We went ahead and re-shot some of it with the producers and made it into THE BOOB TUBE STRIKES AGAIN because THE BOOB TUBE had been a big hit for us. Well, lightning wouldn't strike a second time, and that died too. We ended up giving it back to the producers."

From the pressbook of THE BOOB TUBE STRIKES AGAIN!

CAST

Alan Spitz (Seymour)
Murphy Cross (Zelda)
Diane Sommerfield (H.T. Washington)
Connie Marie a.k.a. Connie Hoffman (Fanny)
Paula Mitchell (Louise)
Angela Field a.k.a. Angela Carnon (Dr. Clitstone)
Peter Dane (Lawyer)
Ken Scott (Rabbi)
Honey Saunders (Mother)
Patrice Rohmer (Sandy)
Cindy Arnold (Rabbi's Girl)
Lee O'Donell (Quasi)
and
Kelly Patten, Christine Burk, Joyce Mandel, Rene Bond
and Signe Johnson
as
The Party Girls


CREDITS

Directed by Lee Frost
Produced by Wes Bishop
Screenplay by Cass Martin and Norman Spelvin
Director of Photography: Mark Wade
Film Editor: John Hayes
Production Manager & Assistant Director: Carl Olsen
Sound Mixer: Art Names
Still Man: Ken Scott
Music Supervisor: Igo Kantor
Script Supervisor: Karen Arthur
Set Decorator: Schotzie Barron
Property Master: Richard Schuyler
Wardrobe: Donna Allen
Technical Advisor: Orla Rivers
Makeup: Ray Sebastian
Key Grip: Jack Oliver
Grip: Phillip Hoover
Boom Man: Lee O'Donnell
Production Assistant: Cass Martin
Casting: Don Chastain

Running Time: 87 minutes
A Constellation Films Inc. release


SYNOPSIS

A couple goes to an X-rated motel and becomes involved with the zany story they are watching on X-rated TV. It is about the voluptuous cartoon character of Fanny, who dominates the daydreams of young Seymour. It is this sexual obsession with a fictitious character that stands in the way of his siring a child that will enable him to inherit the family fortune.

Seymour thoroughly enjoys his attempts to impregnate as many beautiful women as possible, but each time he is unable to reach that million dollar climax. Potency does not let him down – it just keeps him from his riches.

Not until Terri, the girl next door, learns about his secret love is it possible for Seymour and the impossible dream to come together.


ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

"THE BOOB TUBE STRIKES AGAIN" is a high budget, quality sex-comedy, produced and directed by Wes Bishop and Lee Frost – the same creative team that brought you 20th Century Fox's "RACE WITH THE DEVIL" which starred Peter Fonda and Warren Oates and Dimension's "DIXIE DYNAMITE," also starring Warren Oates.

The star of "THE BOOB TUBE STRIKES AGAIN" is 23-year-old Alan Spitz, a talented new discovery whose previous film credits include "HESTER STREET" and "NEXT STOP, GREENWICH VILLAGE." Alan, as the young man with a "big problem," had the unique opportunity to work with Hollywood's most attractive new starlets, several of whom have graced the pages of PLAYBOY magazine.


[Lee Frost quotes from an interview I did that appeared in Shock Cinema magazine]


Sunday, November 23, 2008

BLACK COP


The late Joseph Nazel wrote 60 black experience paperbacks for the Holloway House Publishing Company without achieving anything close to the legendary status of their two best-selling authors, Iceberg Slim (Pimp, Trick Baby) and Donald Goines (Never Die Alone, Dopefiend). In 1974, the same year he cranked out The Black Exorcist and six of the seven books in his popular Iceman series under his own name, Nazel penned the first of four novels about L.A. cop James Rhodes under the pseudonym "Dom Gober." The decision to assume an alias for Black Cop could’ve been Holloway House’s due to Nazel’s increased output that year (the reason Goines’ Cry Revenge! and Kenyatta series were published under the "Al C. Clark" sobriquet), but it’s possible that he didn’t want his name anywhere near Black Cop to begin with; it’s a piss-poor effort on just about every level imaginable.

Detective James Rhodes is the titular protagonist, as well as an unmitigated moron. Let’s, for the next several paragraphs, put ourselves in the shoes of this breathtakingly stupid human being and try to understand the pea-brained, round-about way he conducts an investigation. Ready? Here we go.

We are James Rhodes, angry black L.A. cop saddled with a racist white partner, Larry Turner, who hates our guts. We’re on our way to a big drug bust when all of a sudden Turner nervously asks us to pull over to a payphone because he wants to make a call to his wife. So we pull over and let him make the call, and when he gets back in the car he seems even more nervous than he was when he got out. A moment later, as we carefully approach the site of the scheduled drug transaction, we see the three guys we were planning to bust heading for the hills. Hey, ya think someone tipped them off? Before we can rub our chins, frown and go "hmmmm," a gun battle erupts and two of the perps are killed. We take the third perp alive but as we are marching him over to the squad car, that good-for-nothing honky Turner shoots him twice, killing him. "I thought he had a gun," Turner explains clumsily. "I thought he was going to draw down on you. Didn’t you see him move?"

Honestly, no, we didn’t see the perp try anything of the sort -- this unarmed perp, don’t forget, who would’ve revealed not only the name of his supplier but the mole who blew the whistle on the bust -- but it’s comforting to know that at least our racist redneck partner’s got us covered, isn’t it? A few pages later we’re at the station house and on the carpet in front of Captain Graebo (also white and a bigot, but at least he’s honest), who’s apparently seen SHAFT once or twice because he has no problem playing Charles Cioffi to our Richard Roundtree.

"It does look like these dope smugglers are tuned in on us," Graebo says, like the truly swift police captain that he is.

"Yeah," we say, trying not to choke on our own saliva. "I can’t figure it. There’s no way that they were supposed to know that we were on to them. Maybe, it was just a lucky guess on their part."

"I can’t buy that," Graebo tells us. "We’ve got a leak somewhere. A leak that we can’t seem to plug. Every time we get ready to make a raid, they know it. Every time we get ready to so much as sneeze at them, they know it. We might as well throw in the towel and let them have the whole damn city!"

OK, enough of the role-playing. At this point, Rhodes and Graebo -- if they had half a brain between them -- would start going over every single drug bust that went south to see if there are any questionable patterns (like maybe the same rotten cop’s been calling his wife five minutes before all of the raids?). But that’s too much to ask of these knuckleheads. Instead, Graebo decides to send Rhodes into the ghetto under cover to locate the main drug supplier, with the hope that (fingers crossed) he will lead them to the mole inside the department. And Rhodes goes along with this plan, because he never once suspects that Turner is the one who keeps mucking up the drug busts!

As inept as Nazel is in setting up an even halfway believable police procedural, he at least knows that his target audience understands the hardships of inner-city African-Americans. Once the dim-witted investigation relocates to the meanest L.A. streets, with Rhodes (now codenamed "Dark Alley") trying his best to play an average Joe, one or two supporting characters with real-life problems turn up to hold our interest. Rhodes immediately falls for the lovely but troubled Sue, whose brother Roger is a hopeless junkie in debt to Wilson, a flashy local dealer. Wilson is obsessed with Sue and thinks he can parlay Roger’s habit into a roll in the hay with his fine sister. Rhodes and Wilson tangle, as expected, with Rhodes coming out of it the victor; Wilson ends up hiring him as one of his henchmen. Turner, meanwhile, is in cahoots with white syndicate honcho Morrie Slater, who is planning to knock off Wilson and seize control of the ghetto drug trade. From there it’s connect-the-dots, and because the reader knows more than Rhodes every step of the way, none of it is even remotely suspenseful. Beyond the terrible plotting and often embarrassingly bad prose ("He puffed vicariously at the ever-present cigar"), I can't see where Rhodes is a character worthy of one book let alone four. And being the fool who follows the fool, I'm now determined to read the other three!

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Roger Corman unrealized projects

After 50+ years in the business, legendary exploitation movie producer-director Roger Corman has more titles on his filmography than probably the combined output of every major American filmmaker working today. The man once directed 9 movies in one year, so you know the list of his unrealized plans must be endless. Below is a small sample of Corman deals that never closed.

ACAPULCO (1980)
Screenplay by Frances Doel

ALL THE BRIDES CAME BLOODY (1971)
Starring Jerry Talbert and Melissa Miles.

ALTAR OF BLOOD (1971)
Corman's company during the 1970s and early '80s, New World Pictures, was set to release the French horror film MIDI MINUIT (MOON AND MOONLIGHT) as ALTAR OF BLOOD, but that apparently never happened.

AVALANCHE (1974)
Written and directed by George Armitage
"A tale about an avalanche at a ski resort," this project was later assigned to director Corey Allen and uncredited writer Gavin Lambert. The finished movie was released in 1978.

A BULLET FOR EVERY AMERICAN (1974)
Co-produced with Mark Damon Productions
Written by Michael Wakely
Directed by Joe Dante
"To be filmed in Rome"

CAR WARS (1978)

THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS (1974)
Briefly on the New World release schedule, this was eventually put out by New Line Cinema in 1976 as THE CARS THAT EAT PEOPLE.

CHEERLEADERS (1978)
A sexy thriller produced by Don Schain and John Ashley

CLAWS (1978)
New World Pictures
Story: Killer cats on the loose
Produced by Max Rosenberg & Charles Fries
(Three years earlier, American International had announced a killer bear movie called CLAWS, written by Alan Caillou and also never made)

COED DORM (1971)
Written by Ed Medard & Art Elonson

THE CONFIDENCE MAN (1974)
Directed by Jonathan Demme
Screenplay by Demme, based on the novel by Herman Melville
"Set on a Mississippi riverboat in the 1850s"

DEATHSPORT II (1979)
Starring David Carradine

DEATHWORLD (1978)

THE DISC JOCKEY (1980)
"Youth comedy with music"

DISCO HIGH (1978)
Became ROCK 'N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL

DUNE
Based on the Frank Herbert novel

EXPLOSION (1968)
American International Pictures
Story: On the heels of IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, this was the "story of a negro sheriff and his exploits in tracking down a negro killer."
Produced by Roger Corman
Directed by Monte Hellman
Written by Cliff Osmond, Sylvia Richards, Mildred Walter
(Two years later American International released an unrelated Canadian film called EXPLOSION)

THE FRAT RATS (1977)
Starring Deborah Raffin

FURY IN THE FAST LANE (1978)
Screenplay by Joel Rapp & David Brod

THE GRAVE IS ALIVE (1974)
Co-produced with British Lion
Written and directed by Curtis Hanson
Based on 3 short stories by Clark Ashton Smith
"Big budget horror film" to be shot in London and Vermont

HARD TIME ACES (1978)
"An action-adventure story"

THE HORSE IS DEAD (1978)
Comedy based on the novel by Robert Klane
Produced by Samuel W. Gelfman
Directed by Ernest Pintoff

IWO JIMA (1978)
$9,000,000 budget

KILLER BLIZZARD (1977)
New World Pictures
Written by Joe Dante and Allan Arkush.
Budget: $1 million
Two camera crews were supposedly sent to Buffalo, NY for three weeks to get blizzard footage.

KUNG FU 2000 (1980)
"Futuristic martial arts film"

THE LAST WORLD WAR (1981)
Story by Roger Corman
Music by Fred Karlin
(see also WORLD WAR III)

LOVE'S TENDER FURY (1977)
Produced by Julie Corman
Based on a novel by Jennifer Wilde

THE MOVIEGOER (1978)
Starring Karen Black and Sam Waterston
Based on Walker Percy's novel

NEON LIGHTS (1979)
Screenplay by Rita Mae Brown

OUTLAW MAMA (1971)
Written by Stephanie Rothman

PHIBES RESURRECTUS (1977)
New World Pictures
One of many sequels to THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES that were announced but never made. Starring Vincent Price and Roddy McDowell

THE PLOT TO KILL CASTRO! (1978)

ROBERT E. LEE (1979)
Written by Richard Adams
Planned TV miniseries

THE SIN OF ADAM AND EVE (1971)
[See THE TWILIGHT PEOPLE]. This was the second film released by Dimension Pictures.

SPIDER-MAN

THE SUZANNE LENGLEN STORY (1980)
Screenplay by Frances Doel
To be filmed in Paris sometime in 1979
Starring Maray Ayers as the tennis star of the 1920s and '30s

SWIM TEAM (1979)
Acquired for release by New World Pictures but dropped in April 1979

TIE A YELLOW RIBBON ROUND THE OLD OAK TREE (1978)

THE TWILIGHT PEOPLE (1971)
Originally to be released by New World Pictures, this was part of Lawrence Woolner's buyout deal with Corman when Woolner left New World. THE TWILIGHT PEOPLE became the first film released through Woolner's Dimension Pictures in 1972.

WORLD WAR III (1978)
$15,000,000 budget
(see also THE LAST WORLD WAR)

THE WALRUS AND THE WATERGATE (1973)
This title appeared on the New World Pictures release schedule for several months. Anyone?

Friday, November 21, 2008

NOW SHOWING -- November 21st, 1983

Here are some of the movies that were in theatrical distribution twenty-five years ago today (November 21st, 1983) and quite possibly were playing at a theatre near you!

ALL THE RIGHT MOVES
AMITYVILLE 3-D
ANNIE
THE BIG CHILL
THE BIG SCORE
BILL COSBY: HIMSELF
BLUE JEANS
A CHRISTMAS STORY
CITY OF THE WALKING DEAD
COME BACK TO THE FIVE & DIME, JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN
THE DEAD ZONE
DEAL OF THE CENTURY
DEATHSTALKER
EDUCATING RITA
THE GOLDEN SEAL
THE LAST UNICORN
MR. MOM
NATE AND HAYES
NEVER CRY WOLF
NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN
A NIGHT IN HEAVEN
NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES
OBLOMOV
OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN
THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND
PASSIONE D'AMORE
THE PRODIGAL
REAR WINDOW [re-release]
RICHARD PRYOR: HERE AND NOW
THE RIGHT STUFF
RISKY BUSINESS
RUMBLE FISH
RUNNING BRAVE
SAVANNAH SMILES
7 DOORS OF DEATH
SLEEPAWAY CAMP
THE SMURFS AND THE MAGIC FLUTE
THE STAR CHAMBER
THE STATIONMASTER'S WIFE
STILL OF THE NIGHT
TERMS OF ENDEARMENT
TESTAMENT
UNDER FIRETHE YOUNG WARRIORS

Thursday, November 20, 2008

The Endangered List (Case File #3)



WILLY’S GONE
(1968)
a.k.a. GHETTO RAT

CAST
Ronald Bagley
Deborah Massey
James Sherouse
Ed Wolf
Mike Yeager
Bruce Watkins

Produced and directed by Joe Wiezycki

Color by Movielab
A Mix Ten Motion Pictures production

Five years before he made the truly diseased SATAN’S CHILDREN, Joe Wiezycki's first stab at feature filmmaking was the long-lost race drama WILLY'S GONE. A cameraman for WTVT (channel 13) in Tampa Bay at the time, Wiezycki obtained the money to make the movie from his colleagues at the station, many of whom invested $1,000 each. WILLY'S GONE was later re-released as GHETTO RAT, on a double bill with GHETTO FREAKS (a re-titling of another Florida-lensed exploitation film, Robert Emery's AGE OF AQUARIUS).

Read more about Joe Wiezycki here: http://www.big13.net/Satans%20Children/making_of_satans_children.htm


Wednesday, November 19, 2008

The Zine Scene: Before there were blogs

Sometimes I think the only reason Paul and I started Temple of Schlock was so we could get lots of cool things sent to us in the mail. It seemed like every week someone was starting a fanzine and contacting us to trade with them for a plug in our monthly "Zine Scene" column. Here's a list of fondly remembered 'zines (and their editors!) from the "good old days" before Internet, cell phones, iPods and MySpace. Some of these 'zines were around long before the Temple opened, others appeared after we closed up shop -- a few are still around! -- but the majority were being published during the Temple's lifespan.

BITS AND PIECES – Nathan Miner
BLOOD TIMES – Louis Paul
CHICAGO SHIVERS – Ron Carlson
CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT – Derek Jensen
CITY MORGUE – Arpad Jasko
CONFESSIONS OF A TRASH FIEND – Richard Green
CRITICAL CONDITION – Fred Adelman
DAMN-FINO – John W. Donaldson
DEMONIQUE – Barry Kaufman
DRACULINA – Hugh Gallagher
DREADFUL PLEASURES – Mike Accomando
ECCO – Charles Kilgore
EUROPEAN TRASH CINEMA – Craig Ledbetter
EXPLOITATION RETROSPECT – Dan Taylor & Lou Goncey
FEAR OF DARKNESS – Tim Mayer
FESTERING BRAINSORE – David R. Williams
FILM EXPERIENCE – Randy Johnston
THE GORE GAZETTE – Rick Sullivan
THE GOREFEST – Rod Sims
GRIND – Richard Green
GRINDHOUSE – J. Adler & Rat
GRINDHOUSE (renamed THE GRINDHOUSE JOURNAL) – Vincent Basilicato
HI-TECH TERROR – Craig Ledbetter
IT'S ONLY A MOVIE – Michael Flores
KILLBABY – Steve Fentone
LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS – Richard Klemensen
MAGICK THEATER – Raymond Young
MIDNIGHT MARQUEE – Gary Svehla
MONSTER – Timothy Paxton
NAKED! SCREAMING! TERROR! – Tom Weisser & Timothy Paxton
PSYCHO VIDEO – Gary Lesley
PSYCHOTRONIC VIDEO – Michael Weldon
RAVE SENSATION! – Dan Snoke
SCAREAPHANALIA – Michael Gingold
SHEER FILTH – David Flint
SHOCK CINEMA – Steve Puchalski
SHOCK EXPRESS – Stefan Jaworzyn
THE SHOCK REVIEW – Tom Stockman
SLEAZOID EXPRESS – Bill Landis
SLIMETIME – Steve Puchalski
SOME LIKE IT CHILLED – Dennis Fischer
SPAGHETTI CINEMA – Bill Connolly
THE SPLATTER TIMES – Donald Farmer
SPROCKETS – Martin Klug
STICKY CARPET DIGEST – Thomas Deja
STINK – Nick the Yak
SUBHUMAN – Cecil Doyle
A TASTE OF BILE – Keith Brewer
THE TERRORNAUTS – Dennis Fischer
THEY WON'T STAY DEAD – Brian Johnson
TRASH COMPACTOR – Hal Kelly
TRASHOLA – Jim Morton
VIDEO CONFIDENTIAL – Carl Morano
VIDEO DRIVE-IN – Herb Schrader
VIDEO VOICE – Timothy Paxton
VIDEOOZE – Bob Sargent
VIDIOT – Flint Mitchell
VIOLENT LEISURE – Ant Timpson
WE ARE THE WEIRD - Joe Bob Briggs
WEIRD CITY – Dave Szurek
WEIRDNESS BEFORE MIDNIGHT – Dave Szurek
WESTERNS ALL'ITALIANA – Tim Ferrante & Tom Betts
WET PAINT – Jeff Smith
ZONTAR – Jan Johnson & Brian Curran