The Return of J.M. Dobies, Austin Classic Movies Examiner

I have revived my film column in an attempt to earn some extra loot. Since I get about a penny per page view, please visit early and often, and share these links via the social media. Thank you.

Weird Wednesday at Alamo Drafthouse: 'The Hellcats' (1968)

'Dirty O'Neil' a/k/a 'The Love Life of a Cop' (1974)

Diane McBain is completely insane in 'The Mini-Skirt Mob' (1968)

 

Dig this: 'The Todd Killings' (1971)

Even More from JM Dobies, Austin Classic Movies Examiner

Clint Eastwood's Greatest Westerns

Doom Noir: Blast of Silence (1961)

Turner Classic Movies' '31 Days of Oscar' for February 8-15

'Terror Tuesdays' at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1966) and Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979)

Subscribe to my Classic Movies column HERE.

I promise to come up with a new blog post soon...

I, Horror Host

Here are a couple of excerpts from my run as host of Surreal Cinema on good 'ol Channel 22 in NE Florida, under my nom de screen, Michael West. I'd love to do a variation on this show here in Austin. Anyway, here's a taste of my former gig as a TV horror host:

The Best of BLOG!: The Glory Stompers

Originally posted 2 November 2007

Act One: Contains Spoilers

If it's one thing I can't stand, it's a movie review that gives away the entire plot. That said, the beauty of 1968's The Glory Stompers is not in the tale, but in the telling. Notably, in the dialogue, and in the wild, over-the-top performance of Dennis Hopper.

Hopper's portrayal of Chino, leader of outlaw biker gang the Black Souls, is a performance that informed every performance that followed, from Billy in Easy Rider to the Harlequin in Apocalypse Now to Frank Booth in Blue Velvet. It's a blueprint for a style of acting best characterized as "Hopperese"

Our story begins with a star-crossed couple whose relationship engenders the drama that is about to unfold. Darryl (Jody McCrea) is a member in good standing of The Glory Stompers motorcycle club and Chris (Chris Noel of Wild, Wild Winter) is his long-suffering girlfriend.

Darryl and Chris are having issues. "I want to be more than just a Stompers girl," Chris laments. As far as she's concerned, the Stompers are just a bunch of "over-age juvenile delinquents."

Darryl tries to explain, "Chris, you don't understand, they're my friends. They're like family."

"Some family."

Darryl tries to hip her on the upside of the biker lifestyle: "Don't you see? They're free. No hassles, no nine to fives..."

But she remains unmoved.

Enter the Black Souls. Hopper and company glide in on their two-wheel ponies to disrupt the proceedings. Following a cryptic hand signal from their fearless leader, the Black Souls crash the Stompers' party. Hopper, as Chino, wastes no time in menacing the female lead.

"Leave me alone," She pleads.

"Hey, baby, like I just want to, you know, dance with you, baby."

Darryl intevenes. "Leave her alone."

Chino replies, "Hey, man, you just had to tell me she was taken, man. You don't have to get physical with me."

"I don't want you to touch her again."

Chino can't believe this clod, who played "Bonehead" in many a beach party picture, is playing the tough guy. "This cat is obviously suicidal, man."

When Darryl and Chris split the scene for a little private time, the Black Souls follow at a discreet distance. Just when Chris is starting to see things Darryl's way, the Black Souls break up their romantic rendezvous with biker-type mayhem and lashings of the good old ultra-violence. After "Magoo" puts a large dent in Darryl's skull with a tire iron, it looks like the Black Souls' fun and games have taken a detour that leads straight to the gas chamber. "It's murder, baby," surmises Chino. But he's a man with a plan, as we soon discover.

Leaving Darryl for dead, the gang heads south, taking the girl with them. Making camp for the night, Chino explains it all for the benefit of his blonde-haired captive: "Here's the situation, baby. Like we accidentally snuffed out your old man. Now the only way out for me and my people is to either snuff you out, or to sell you, to some high-class Mexican friends of ours. Now, being good people, we decided to sell you."

But before the Black Souls go down to Mexico, they're going to blow off some steam at the love-in.

Act Two: Trouble at the Love-In

As the Black Souls prepare to make the scene at the love-in, Chino has to deal with his jealous girlfriend, and the rest of the Black Souls, who, with the exception of his brother "Clean-Cut," want to gang-rape their captive. Even "Mouth," the joker of the bunch, played semi-convincingly by Casey Kasem, of American Top 40 infamy, wants a piece of the action.

Chino sorts out his minions first by kicking Magoo's ass, then telling the gang, "You see this little doll here? She ain't no mama, man. She ain't no mama. Now, if any of you dudes want to hassle, just turn it on. Just turn it on!"

Since they're are no takers, Chino puts Clean-Cut in charge of guarding Chris, and heads down to the love-in with the rest of the gang.

Meanwhile, Darryl has arisen from his braining at the hands of the Black Souls, in a scene laden with Christian symbolism. He hits the road in search of his chick, enlisting the aid of Smiley, a former Stomper, played by a bloated Jock Mahoney (Tarzan's Three Challenges). Smiley hips him to the probable whereabouts of Chris and the Black Souls, and Darryl roars off to get revenge, and salvage his relationship.

At the love-in, Chino and his pals cut loose with the other swingers, including hippie chicks in body paint, and even a few Glory Stompers, unaware of the plight of their brother Darryl and his biker babe.

Darryl gets to the party a little after dawn the following morning, missing the Black Souls by an hour or so. He assembles a small posse, and rides off to give Chino his comeuppance.

Act Three: Rumble at Spahn Ranch

The final act of our drama follows the tried-and-true formula of many a Western, as the lovingly photographed California highways become a collision course where the good guys meet the bad guys in the final showdown. Not wanting to completely ruin the movie for you, o loyal readers, I will just provide a few highlights:

Chino's biker mama attempts to make up with her man after she's earned his disapproval by trying to stick a blade into the kidnapee, prompting Chino to ask her, "What are ya, knife-happy?"

She snuggles next to her man as he blows a joint, offering up her lush charms. Chino gives her the brush, telling her, "Hey, baby, I just want to get loaded."

"Chino, get loaded later."

"Get loaded later? What does that mean?" A brilliant retort, not to mention Hopper's personal credo for much of the next two decades.

In the final reel, the body count is three, all of 'em Black Souls, natch, and two of 'em Black Soul on Black Soul crimes.

This is my favorite biker movie of all time, getting the edge over The Wild Angels and even Easy Rider, which was more than just a genre film, anyway. Extra points are scored by The Glory Stompers fuzz-guitar soundtrack, performed by none other than Davie Allan and the Arrows.

The film was released on videocassette in the late '80s, but I nominate it for a deluxe DVD reissue, with commentary by Hopper, who actually directed much of the movie, and maybe Casey Kasem.

For Your Listening Pleasure...

Click on Images to Launch Podcast:

The Mal Thursday Show #16: Riot on Sunset Strip Revisited

THE MAL THURSDAY SHOW #16: Riot on Sunset Strip Revisited

In an episode dedicated to the memory of Sky Saxon, Mal Thursday trips back in time and space to Los Angeles, California, circa 1966, and the teenage riots that inspired the exploitation classic Riot on Sunset Strip. Then, dig some bitchin' Seeds covers from Thee Headcoats, Alex Chilton, the Zeros, the Fiends, and the Freak Mountain Ramblers, as well as a set of Mal's favorite Seeds tracks. Special guest appearances by Deborah Walley and Mimsy Farmer.

If you want the whole story on the Sunset Rebellion, be sure to check out Dominic Priore's great book, Riot On Sunset Strip – Rock 'n' Roll's Last Stand in Hollywood, which I neglected to mention during the show.

Presented in Living Monophonic Sound.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW!

Playlist:

THE SEEDS: Pushin' Too Hard
THE STANDELLS: Riot on Sunset Strip
TERRY RANDALL: S.O.S.
THE CHOCOLATE WATCHBAND:

Are You Gonna Be There (at the Love-In)/Don't Need Your Lovin'
PEOPLE OF THE SUNSET STRIP: Sunset Symphony
DAVIE ALLAN & THE ARROWS: The Shape of Things to Come

THEE HEADCOATS: No Escape
ALEX CHILTON: Can't Seem to Make You Mine
THE FIENDS: Pictures & Designs
FREAK MOUNTAIN RAMBLERS: Rollin' Machine
THE ZEROS: Pushin' Too Hard

THE SEEDS: You Can't Be Trusted/Satisfy You/Mr. Farmer/

A Thousand Shadows/Bad Part of Town/101 Colorized Bottles/
A Faded Picture


Dig these wild tales from the archives (click on show title to launch):

THE MAL THURSDAY SHOW #13: The Ballad of Mal Thursday, Pt. 1

THE MAL THURSDAY SHOW #14: The Ballad of Mal Thursday, Pt. 2

THE MAL THURSDAY SHOW #15: The Ballad of Mal Thursday, Pt. 3

Classic Rerun: THE MAL THURSDAY SHOW #4: Songs the Lyres Taught Us

Attack of the Giant Leeches

When I was in Florida last week, I got to watch old episodes of my movie series Surreal Cinema on Channel 22 in St. Augustine. The 11:00 slot on Friday night was the steamy, depraved low-budget swamp horror, Attack of the Giant Leeches. Here’s the script for that episode, later adapted into a movie review on Viewpoints.com.

JM Dobies here, a/k/a TV’s Michael West, serving up another heapin’ helping of celluloid slop cooked up in a bubblin' black cauldron forged from used motorcycle parts, pawnshop shotguns, and melted down pieces of movie projectors salvaged from closed-down drive-ins and condemned all-night grindhouses. The posters for this movie promised "crawling horror" and "massive blood sucking monsters" and asked, "What was the terrible power of the demons of the swamp"? For the answer to that and many other loaded questions, I submite for your approval Attack of the Giant Leeches from 1959, directed by Bernard L. Kowalski.

This movie is set in the swamps of Florida, even though it was filmed entirely in Los Angeles, with the LA County Arboretum and Botanical Garden filling in for the Everglades. And since it was made by a bunch of Hollywood city slickers, the stereotypes fly thick and fast: you got your gator-poachin', shine-drinkin' no-count, your round-heeled, backwoods tramp married to a profusely sweating fat slob, and of course, your beefy, brawny, and brain-dead swamp stud who's a-carryin' on with Jezebel behind the fat man's back. You can call 'em cliches if you wants to, but I calls 'em what they is: Leech food. Giant Leech food. Now speaking of them pesky giant leeches, they rank among the hokiest monsters in the history of monster movies, looking nothing like leeches and basically resembling what they are: guys in glad bags with big old octopus tentacles on 'em. Keep an eye out for the scuba tanks on their backs. It'll only add to the enjoyment as you withstand the puckered, sucking maelstrom that is Attack of the Giant Leeches.

In case you're wondering where you've seen the guy who plays moonshine-swillin' otter hunter Lem Hunter, I'm a gonna tell ya. It's none other than George Cisar, who you may remember from his performance as travelling salesman Joe Flake, another guy with a fondness for demon alcohol, in the all-time classic Billy the Kid vs. Dracula. You may also recognize him from his recurring role as Cyrus Tankersley on the TV series Mayberry R.F.D., which was essentially The Andy Griffith Show without Andy Griffith or Don Knotts. In other words, pretty much useless, although it did have some nice bits with Goober. There you have it, in a nutshell, the highlights of the career of George Cisar, whose character Lem Sawyer is the first person to encounter the Giant Leeches of the title.

The director, Bernard L. Kowalski, made his bones making such Grade Z flicks as Hot Car Girl, Night of the Blood Beast, Krakatoa, East of Java, and Women in Chains, but it was in television that he made his fortune. In addition to directing episodes of such shows as Richard Diamond, Private Eye, Columbo, Wild Wild West, and Baywatch Nights, he also had a piece of the action on the hit series Baretta and Mission: Impossible, so he presumably cashed in bigtime when the latter became a massive movie franchise. For Bernie's sake, let's hope he held on to his piece of that show.

The script for Attack of the Giant Leeches was written by tough guy character actor Leo Gordon, who started out as an actual tough guy, doing a stretch in San Quentin for armed robbery, before going on to play one on screen. As an actor, he appeared in such freaky flicks as Lure of the Swamp, Kitten with a Whip, and I Hate Your Guts. In addition to his brilliant screenplay for Attack of the Giant Leeches, Gordon also wrote the Corman quickies The Wasp Woman, The Cry Baby Killer, and The Terror, on which he collaborated with Jack Hill, the mad maestro behind Spider Baby.

Our hero, the poacher-hatin' game warden Steve Benton, is played by Ken Clark, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Stewpot in the 1958 musical South Pacific. But that movie was the exception rather than the rule when it came to Clark's resume: more typical were his roles in 12 to the Moon, On the Threshold of Space, and the junk he made in Italy during the '60s, including Hercules Against the Mongols, Son of Hercules in the Land of Darkness, and Hercules Meets GenghisS Khan in Hell, as well as the barrel-scraping James Bond knock-offs Operation Istanbul and Mission Bloody Mary, in which he portrayed Dick Malloy, agent 077. The same pattern repeats itself with the rest of the cast.

Yvette Vickers, who plays the no-good cheatin' Liz Walker, also appeared in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, Juvenile Jungle, and Reform School Girl. Bruno VeSota, who plays her clueless husband Dave, was also in Creature of the Walking Dead, Daddy-O, The Choppers, Hell’s Angels on Wheels, and The Wild World of Batwoman. VeSota was also something of a triple threat, having written and directed 1954's The Female Jungle, one of Jayne Mansfield's earliest films, as well as directing Invasion of the Star Creatures and The Brain Eaters.

Released in 1959, Attack of the Giant Leeches somehow lost out to Ben Hur for Best Picture at the Oscars that year. Actually, it did get a Golden Globe as Bruno VeSota won for Best Suicide by a fat guy in a supporting role in a monster movie. In his acceptance speech, Bruno thanked Roger Corman, the Hollywood Foreign Press, his agent, his mom, and, last but not least, the Giant Leeches.

Surreal Cinema Easter Marathon

A big thanks to my man Derrek Dembeck at WQXT Channel 22 in St. Augustine for running seven episodes from my two-year run as host of Surreal Cinema over Easter Weekend, starting with a double bill of The Monitors and Attack of the Giant Leeches on Friday night and leading up to an Easter Sunday marathon of The Black Room, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, Abbott & Costello Go to Mars, and Spider Baby.

I hadn't seen the show since I blew town, and it was a gas to dig it once again while visiting the Oldest City.

Roll it, Clyde!

Grindhouse Film Fest: William Grefe Tribute

Awhile back, I mentioned that my friend, Florida filmmaker William Grefe, was in search of a print of his 1972 snake-shocker Stanley for a screening at the Beverly Theater in L.A.

Well, it appears that one has been located:

Tuesday • August 12th, 2008

NEW BEVERLY CINEMA

7165 Beverly BoulevardLos Angeles, CA 90036

(323) 938-4038

Admission: $8.00

Tribute to William Grefe

Special Guests: William Grefe and Gary Crutcher

(additional guests to be announced - Shatner, perhaps?)

7:30pm STANLEY (1972)

Directed by William Grefe

Written by Gary Crutcher

Starring Chris Robinson, Alex Rocco, Steve Alaimo and Susan Carroll

10:00pm IMPULSE (1974)

Directed by William Grefe

Starring William Shatner, Ruth Roman, Jennifer Bishop, Kim Nicholas and Harold Sakata

For more info, go to myspace.com/grindhouse

The Wild Ride

JM Dobies here, presenting the BLOG! Movie of the Week. This time out, our long-forgotten feature is THE WILD RIDE from 1960, written and directed by Harvey Berman for Roger Corman's FilmGroup. The film stars a young Jack Nicholson as arrogant punk Johnny Varron, a teenage tough guy who's got a problem with authority figures. He deals with this deep-seated authority problem by driving way too fast in his souped-up hot rod, running motorcycle cops off the road, just for kicks.

He is, to use his own phrase, a "real far-out stud." He runs his gang ruthlessly as "top man," telling his underlings what to do and who to date. When his best friend Dave goes soft over a new chick, Johnny tells him to drop her, because "She's out...She doesn't fit."

Of course, thanks to his obsessive, control-freak ways, Johnny engineers his own downfall, and all because of this one square chick. If only Dave had listened...

If you think you've seen this film before, but you remember it being in color, you're probably right. There was a computer-colorized home video version retitled VELOCITY released in the 1980s. In an attempt to sucker the viewer into thinking it was a more recent Jack Nicholson picture, new scenes were added as a framing device, with some guy who looked and sounded nothing like Jack playing his character as an old man, telling his story to an '80s street punk with bad hair. Needless to say, it didn't work, and you're better off with the original.

Jack Nicholson has come to be known as one of our finest actors, but few would have predicted that at the time he made this movin' picture. He'd made only one film prior to THE WILD RIDE, 1958's THE CRY BABY KILLER, where he played another young punk with a taste for killing. He appeared in two other films in 1960, TOO SOON TO LOVE, where he again played a troubled teen coping with his chick's unplanned pregnancy, and most famously, a fine comic performance in the original LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, as squeaky-voiced masochist Wilbur Force, who gets off on getting his teeth drilled full of holes at the dentist's.

For Nicholson fans, it's fascinating to watch the young Jack show flashes of his future persona, and certainly a much better way to waste your time than renting THE BUCKET LIST.

Anyway, if you dig fast cars, crazy chicks, and cool hipster slang, this flick is for you. The dialogue is priceless, and while there's not much of a plot, the whole thing's over in less than an hour.

Available on DVD from Alpha Home Video and BCI/Eclipse, while VELOCITY, the colorized, augmented version is available from Concorde and is to be avoided at all costs.

Happy Birthday, Pam Grier

Today is Memorial Day in the U.S., when we Americans pay tribute to our fallen veterans by drinking a lot of beer and eating barbecue, burgers, and hot dogs.

It is also the 59th birthday of the incredible Pam Grier, who starred in some of the greatest Blaxploiation epics of all time, including Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974), as well as Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown (1997).

She's currently playing a lesbian on The L Word.

In this promo photo from Coffy, she re-enacts the scene where she utters the immortal line: "This is the end of your rotten life, dope pusher!"

Happy birthday, Pam.

The Alternative Amazon: Must Have Films

I love movies. If I had the money, I'd build a screening room in my home that would seat a dozen or so, and I'd have a film and DVD library to rank with the Library of Congress. I'd own the entire Criterion Collection, not just Straw Dogs and Gimme Shelter.

But I don't have my own private Xanadu, or a huge DVD collection. If I don't really need to own the DVD, and most times I don't, I get it from Netflix. If I need to own it, I try to get it used on Amazon.com or cheap on Ebay.

That said, there are many titles that have never made it to DVD, or VHS for that matter. There are a number of private collectors who are currently putting their rare and otherwise unavailable films up for sale as DVD-Rs via the internet.

This gray market is invaluable for completists like me. When I was putting together The Oliver Reed Film Festival, I scoured the internet for a copy of The Party's Over, from 1965, to no avail. I even had the poster hanging in my office, yet I'd never seen the film.

So when I came across Must Have Films, and saw that it listed The Party's Over among its titles, I had to place an order. I also picked up the non-horror Hammer flick The Crimson Blade, another early Ollie performance. The service was pretty quick, which given that MHF is located only a few hours away from Austin, was to be expected. The artwork was nicely done, even if the print quality on The Party's Over wasn't great (forgivable given the rarity of the title). However, I would suggest MHF adopt a letter-grading system for dubbing quality/image resolution. Due to the washed-out quality of the taped-from-British-TV source tape, the viewer misses at least 25% of Oliver Reed's sullen scowl, and 30% of his glowering rage.

The site deals exclusively in titles that are not commercially available, and will pull a DVD if it is announced for legitimate release. The fact is, most of these films will never be issued on DVD, so Must Have Films will continue to offer them.

Another cool site is Yammering Magpie Cinema, which deals heavily in film noir titles.

The Brilliant Early Work of Mimsy Farmer, Vol. 2

The second installment in our ongoing tribute to '60s ingénue Mimsy Farmer takes a lingering look at her role in 1967's Devil's Angels, directed by Daniel Haller, and co-starring John Cassavetes, Beverly Adams, and Buck Kartalian (whom you may recall from the film Please Don't Eat My Mother) as "Funky."

The movie, written by the great Charles Griffith (Little Shop of Horrors, A Bucket of Blood) concerns the wacky misadventures of the Skulls motorcycle gang, and their world-weary leader, Cody (Cassavetes). The Skulls like to blow off steam by getting loaded, pouring beer over one another's heads, and outraging the local citizenry. After accidentally running down an unlucky square, the gang splits the scene for greener pastures.

Farmer doesn't appear until midway into the film's 84 minute running time, but when she does, she's mesmerizing. As Marianne, a fresh-faced runner-up in a local beauty pageant, Mimsy is not given a lot of dialog, but she does wonders with her facial expressions. After the beauty contest, Marianne catches a ride on the back of one of the Skulls' hogs and ends up at a biker beach party where she smokes weed and gets pawed by various filthy bikers.

When she runs scared to the Sheriff's office, one of the city fathers inflates her minor hassle into a statch rape beef, and has Cassavetes thrown in jail. The Sheriff releases him after Mimsy admits that there was no rape, but the Skulls decide to address the injustice by staging a mock trial, then thoroughly trashing the town.

Cassavetes leaves the gang and his girl (the gorgeous Beverly Adams, "Animal" in the Beach Party movies) behind and rides off alone, the paycheck for Devil's Angels tucked into his pocket to help finance one of his own projects (Faces, I believe). Meanwhile, a phalanx of county cops descend on the town to bring the pain to the Skulls.

Mimsy is beautiful as ever, a mix of innocence and curiosity, and inevitably, the object of biker brutality.

"Devil's Angels"/Davie Allan & the Arrows 2/20

Wednesday February 20th at 9:30 pm

Devil's Angels (1967)
Classic AIP biker flick starring John Cassavetes and Mimsy Farmer

Plus Davie Allan & the Arrows live on stage!

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
320 E 6th Street
Austin, TX 78701

MORE INFO HERE

I'm there, dude...

The Brilliant Early Work of Mimsy Farmer, Vol. 1

When looking at the career of Mimsy Farmer, it is the brilliant early work that stands out.

From her fresh-scrubbed turn in 1963's Spencer's Mountain to her good girl gone bad roles in such drive-in exploitation classics as Hot Rods to Hell to international productions like Road to Salinas and More, Mimsy always delivered.

In the first of several entries taking a loving look at Farmer's greatest performances, we examine Mimsy's role as a troubled teen in 1967's Riot on Sunset Strip, one of my all-time favorite films.

RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP (1967)

"Meet the Hippies...the Teenyboppers with their too-tight capris...and the Pot-Partygoers - out for a new thrill...a new kick! See for yourself their Mod, mad world... without law or license, morals or manners, God or goal!....The most shocking film of our generation!"

Mimsy plays Andy, the disaffected teenage daughter of LAPD sergeant Aldo Ray and his ex-wife, a whiskey-swilling hag, played by producer Sam Katzman's wife, Hortense. We must assume that Andy is adopted, as there is no way such a knockout could result from the coupling of these two gargoyles. Anyhoo, Andy goes to live with her father and transfers to a new high school, where she falls in with a gang of swingin' teens who are out for kicks. They congregate at Pandora's Box on the Sunset Strip, where they are serenaded by the Standells and Chocolate Watchband. Andy draws the attention of creepy rich kid and would-be hippie mystic Herbie, who invites her to a party, where he doses her with LSD. Andy freaks out, then does a wild interpretative dance. Herbie and his pals then guide her upstairs to the master bedroom, where they have their way with her.

When the cops bust the party, Andy's father discovers what has been done to her. Mayhem, and the riot of the title, ensues.

Farmer is tough but tender, alternately shy and sultry in the part, and beautiful throughout. She's got all the right P's: pretty, petulant, peroxide blonde. When she does her freak-out dance, her bouffant comes undone and she moves like a wild animal. Incredible.

The film's neanderthal attitude toward sexual assault is somewhat apalling, of course, but it is a product of its time.

Next: HOT RODS TO HELL (1967)

Big Bosoms and Square Jaws

I discovered the films of Russ Meyer during my college days in the mid-'80s, when I studied quality lit by day and immersed myself in low culture by night. Musically, I went for '60s garage; I was reading a steady diet of '40s and '50s paperbacks, especially the work of Jim Thompson; and in terms of cinema, I loved '60s sexploitation, especially Russ Meyer movies.

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! was, and still is, my favorite. Although it contains no nudity, it is the ultimate RM flick, with over-endowed superwomen kicking ass, taking names, and spitting out hilariously hardboiled dialogue. I proceeded to work my way through the Meyer oeuvre, seeing everything the man directed, with the exception of some of his early "nudie cuties" that followed in the wake of his first big hit, The Immoral Mr. Teas. The Wall Street Journal dubbed Meyer "King Leer," while Charles Keating and others called him a "smut peddler."

Big Bosoms and Square Jaws by Jimmy McDonough is as definitive a biography of Russell Albion Meyer as we're likely to get, and is certainly more informative than Meyer's 1500-page autobiography, A Clean Breast. I'd read The Ghastly One, McDonough's bio of skid row filmmaker Andy Milligan, but not Shakey, his massive biography of Neil Young. McDonough writes slangy, hipster prose that tells the story of RM and his obsession with big tits in an intoxicating, compelling way.

The book is chock full of hilarious and wonderfully bizarre anecdotes and observations from a wide range of RM associates, including many of his incredible leading ladies. Erica Gavin, who starred in two of Russ's greatest hits, Vixen and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, offers this insightful summation of Meyer's character: "Russ was just a big old teddy bear - a teddy bear who liked to watch you undress through a window and masturbate."

Things don't end well for Meyer, as he slips into senile dementia and spends much of the last several years of his life as a prisoner in his own home.

If you're a fan of '50s cheesecake photography, or '60s and '70s sexploitation "sinema," you're probably already a big fan of Meyer's work. If so, you should read this book, the hardcover of which can be had cheap at barnesandnoble.com or stores like Half Price Books.

It's buxotic!

Viewpoints.com

Viewpoints.com Reviews

by JM Dobies

November 2007

Top Ten Classic Horror Movies - jmdobies says "The Greatest Horror Flicks of the '30s, '40s, and '50s..."

Top Ten Horror Movies of the '70s - jmdobies says "A Bumper Crop of '70s Horror Flicks"

THE AMAZING TRANSPARENT MAN - jmdobies says "Not All That Amazing"

THE ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES - jmdobies says "A steamy and depraved low-budget swamp sleaze classic..."
BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA... - jmdobies says "The real Bela Lugosi, but not the real Martin & Lewis..."

BILLY THE KID VS. DRACULA - jmdobies says "Mind-boggling Horror-Western..."

THE BLACK CAT - jmdobies says "Supernatural? Perhaps. Baloney?..."

THE BODY SNATCHER - jmdobies says "Karloff multi-tasks as graverobber, blackmailer, and murderer..."

BRIDE OF THE MONSTER - jmdobies says "Ed Wood's Greatest Achievement..."

CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA - jmdobies says "Horror-Comedy Parodies Monster Movies and Cuban Revolution...

DRACULA 1931 - jmdobies says "The first great talking vampire movie..."

FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN - jmdobies says "Two of Moviedom's Most Monstrous Monsters..."

GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN - jmdobies says "One of my all-time favorite Frankensteins..."

HORROR HOTEL - jmdobies says "A quaint little inn conveniently located in the city of the dead..."

HORROR OF DRACULA - jmdobies says "Christopher Lee is the ultimate..."

THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH - jmdobies says "So Bad It's Brilliant - Let's

HOUSE OF DRACULA - jmdobies says "Monstrous Free-For-All at Drac's..."

HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN - jmdobies says "Entertaining Monster Mash-up....."

THE INVISIBLE MAN - jmdobies says "Horror! Suspense! Invisibility..."

SON OF FRANKENSTEIN - jmdobies says "The Original 'Young Frankenstein..."

THE SCREAMING SKULL - jmdobies says "It Will Make Your Skull Scream"

SPIDER BABY 1964 - jmdobies says "An Oddball Masterpiece of Anerican Independent Cinema..."

THE WEREWOLF OF WASHINGTON - jmdobies says "Moonlight Becomes Dean Stockwell's Afro..."

WHITE ZOMBIE - jmdobies says "Bela Lugosi is the screen's ultimate zombie master..."

THE WOLF MAN - jmdobies says "The Gold Standard for Werewolf Movies..."

Lost in Negative Space

Here's another cool blog, "Lost in Negative Space" by Dutch movie maniac Peet Gelderblom. He's put together a collection of particularly outrageous exploitation movie posters, like this one for Bigfoot ("breeds with anything...") and if you know me, you know I loves me some exploitation movie posters.

Let them entertain us, the makers of strong images
Let us toss them copper pennies
But let us not forget
They make the images
We give them flesh
— Neil Gaiman