Russ Meyer

Russ Meyer. His name typically conjures up one image: women with enormous breasts. Now, let's be clear. It doesn't take a whole lot of effort for a guy like me to conjure up images of enormous breasted women. If a person could wager on what I'm thinking about at any given time, if they bet on boobs they would be a frequent winner. My love of boobs is what drew me to Russ Meyer movies in the first place, let's be honest, and I'm sure I'm far from the only one. But like many others, I discovered that behind the breast-obsessed voyeur was a gifted director and storyteller who made quality adult films.

Now, you'll notice I wrote "adult" films because Russ Meyer did not make porn movies. His movies contained plenty of sex and nudity, to be sure, but what his films did contain, unlike the "nudie" movies of the late 50's/early 60's, and most of the hard-core porn of the 70's and beyond, was a plot. In fact, according to John Landis in the great documentary American Grindhouse it was Meyer's 1959 debut The Immoral Mr. Teas that introduced the idea of plot driven nudie movies. Until then most of those movies were "documentaries" about nudist colonies where people stood around talking, hiking, or playing volleyball in the nude. Mr Teas, with it's story about a salesman who obtains X-Ray vision after a trip to the dentist, was a major financial success, and to many ushered in what was known as the "nudie cutie" genre. Meyer followed this up with a series of similar movies over the next five years.

In 1964, with the release of Lorna, starring Lorna Maitland, Meyer began creating the films that would eventually become his trademark: campy movies with darker themes, featuring domineering, statuesque women. This trend continued in 1965 with what would turn out to be a very prolific year with Mudhoney, Motorpsycho, and, what would become his most well-known feature, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, which is now an endearing cult classic. A story about three murderous, thieving go-go dancers, it contains no nudity, very uncharacteristic of Meyer's films. An interesting (to me anyway) sidenote: all three of these 1965 films had at least semi-famous bands named after them.

Meyer's output remained somewhat prolific through the remainder of the decade, the high points being the 1966 "documentary" Mondo Topless and the 1968 hit Vixen! starring frequent collaborator Erica Gavin in the title role. Vixen! contained very taboo (at the time) themes including lesbianism, racism, and even incest. As the decade ended, Meyer would begin work on what would be his most mainstream feature, the sequel to the popular Valley of the Dolls. Released in 1970, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls was written by Roger Ebert (!) and really bore no resemblance to it's predecessor in either style or subject. It did feature a performance by one-hit wonder psychedelic pop band Strawberry Alarm Clock ("Incense and Peppermints"), which alone makes it worth watching.

His output slowed somewhat in the 70's, although several collaborations with Ebert were highlights. Up! (1976) and  Beneath The Valley of the Ultravixens (1979), which would prove to be his final film, were graphic and surreal. Both featured the legendary Kitten Natividad, and were far more sexually graphic, even by Meyer's standards, than his earlier features. The latter contained an appearance by the equally legendary Uschi Digard (who had also appeared in one of his earlier features, 1970's Cherry, Harry, and Raquel!). He was hired to direct a movie about The Sex Pistols, which never came to fruition due to numerous problems. The screenplay Ebert wrote (with Pistols manager Malcolm McClaren) would eventually evolve into The Great Rock and Roll Swindle.

Though Meyer would never direct again, his films continued to make him large sums of money through the 80's and 90's via home video. He died in 2004 at age 82, from complications due to Alzheimer's disease.

Andy Warhol

The man who once said that everyone would be famous for at least 15 minutes certainly had a much longer moment in the spotlight as one of the most recognized artists in the world during his lifetime. His role in the film world, while maybe not as celebrated as his art and his ties to music via the Velvet Underground, were revolutionary in their impact. It is his films that we will celebrate here, and that ensure his stature as a grindhouse legend.

In the 60's, Warhol was prolific with his movie camera, creating hundreds of shorts shot mostly at his "factory" and starring the members of his circle, including Edie Sedgwick and Mary Woronov, who would go on to act in many cult movies over the course of her career. The most well known of these is probably The Chelsea Girls featuring Marie Menken and Woronov, notable mostly because it was actually two movies being shown simultaneously, each one featuring a different story. It was also during this era that Warhol created his nearly 500 famous "screen tests" of renowned (and sometimes unknown) visitors to the factory. These icluded the likes of Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, Salvador Dali, Edie Sedgwick, Lou Reed, Donovan, and Nico. Many of his films were frankly sexual, often dealing with gay themes that were extremely taboo at the time and were thusly relegated to "underground" screenings, or merely at his own private exhibitions.

Warhol stopped directing after he was shot in 1968, and interestingly enough this began the period when the most well known of the films associated with him were produced. A trilogy of films, Flesh, Trash, and Heat, were directed by Paul Morrissey and starred Joe Dallesandro ("Little Joe" from Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side") beginning in 1968. Warhol was the producer, and they achieved modest success and gained instant cult status. All three are remarkable portrayals of underground city life and regarded as exploitation classics.

The 70's brought a move toward horror with the release of Flesh for Frankenstein in 1973 and Blood for Dracula in 1974. Also known as Andy Warhol's Frankenstein and Andy Warhol's Dracula, both films found Morrissey again in the director's chair and Dallesandro starring. The two movies turned out to be the most successful and well known of Warhol's career, and are good, albeit different (it's Warhol, whaddya expect?) genre pieces. Both were rated X upon release because of the excessive sex and violence, and were trimmed for an R but are now easily attainable in unrated versions.

Warhol would go on to produce a small number of films after that, most notably Andy Warhol's Bad in 1977, and his movie career effectively came to an end upon his death 10 years later. Warhol can certainly be viewed as a pioneer of avant-garde cinema with his 60's directorial efforts, and a less pioneering but effective purveyor of exploitation with his 70's productions. With his contributions to the arts in any medium, he was nothing if not a true original.

 
 

"He's a complicated man...

...but no one understands him but his womuhhhnn...John Shaft! I must admit I heard (and fell in love with) the theme before I ever saw the movie, but what a theme and what a movie! Shaft is great. Put the whole "blaxploitation" thing aside, and take it for what it is, a first rate action movie. Yes, it is often credited with kickstarting the blaxploitation genre (although the less polished but more overtly political Sweet Sweetback's Badass Song came first), and though I am a HUGE fan of them, it's hard to dispute that few of the films that followed were able to match it's quality. The acting and direction are solid, the script is well written (despite some cheesy dated dialogue), and the soundtrack is, indisputably, one of the best ever.

I mentioned the dialogue, and despite it's cheesiness, it's my favorite part of the movie. Lines like "You're a very wise caucasian, Vic", " 'Where are you going, Shaft?' 'To get laid! Where are YOU going?'", and "Cut the crap, man, this is Shaft!" are some of the coolest ever written, and could only, ONLY have been written in the 70's. But the greatest dialogue in the movie, and my favorite dialogue exchange between characters in any movie ever takes place between Shaft and one of his girlfriends, as he's talking to her on a pay phone: she says "I love you!" Shaft says "Yeah, I know. Take it easy." Chauvinistic? Sure. But undeniably cool.

Horror Cliches

One of the things that makes horror movies great is that there is no true definition of what is "scary". What may be scary to some may not be..blah, blah, blah..you get the idea. But it's true. I've watched The Exorcist with people who had no reaction to it at all, and even some that found it funny. Needless to say, I don't understand that (see my previous Exorcist post), but I'm not one to judge. There are many horror cliches that I find annoying or unappealing, some that involve the movies themselves and some that involve those of us who enjoy them.  I'd like to touch on a few of those.

I know I'm in the minority on this but I'm getting kind of tired of the idea that in order to be scary a movie has to have lightning fast editing, that staticy (is that a word?) electric buzzing background noise, and have frequent scenes shot in sepia tones. I'm not saying that it doen't work sometimes, but it shouldn't be a requirement. The customary "person being dragged through an opening by some unseen force" scene is getting kind of tired with me too. I often find more subtle, psychological horror a little scarier than the in-your-face variety, a notion which will make the following sentence border on ridiculous: I get suckered in to the "six teenagers go to a cabin in the woods for a weekend of partying, but then get more than they bargained for..." movie every time one comes out. Of course there is no cliche in horror that is more well represented than that one, which proves my point that there is no true definition of scary.

I also find it annoying that there is a stereotypical "horror fan".  Take me for example. I seldom dress in black. I don't listen to metal, I don't even particularly care for it. I don't have any tattoos. I haven't watched wrestling since 1985. I haven't been to a haunted house or worn a costume since I was in high school. I'm a 40-ish, overweight, balding, married father of a well-adjusted grade schooler, who lives in the suburbs with a normal day job. I would suspect that many of you have a similar life, and many of you fit the stereotypes (or at least some of them), and it really makes no difference. I hear on occasion that I "don't look like a horror fan", to which I typically reply, "no, but you certainly look like an asshole!", then I stare at him with my glowing red eyes until his head explodes, another non-believer sacrificed for Satan...uh, wait, I mean..I just chuckle and say "yeah, go figure" and make my way home.

There's Something Weird about that...

As I mentioned in my previous post, I didn't discover the non-horror exploitation films of the 60's and 70's until I was in my late twenties. The most prominent purveyors of these classics for me was Something Weird Video. Named after a 1967 obscure H.G. Lewis classic, Something Weird Video delivers exactly what the name conveys: obscure, wacked-out and, for lack of a better word, weird exploitation movies that cross many eras and genres.

It was through renting these movies that I discovered the productions of such luminaries as David F. Friedman and Harry Novak, who produced sleaze classics directed by the likes of A.C. Stevens and Bethel Buckalew, to name a few. Biker movies, hippie movies, drug movies, and, of course, the short lived genre (which I believe they invented, if not they ceratinly perfected) the Naked Hilbilly movie. Sometimes they may contain elements of all four! Often containing the same group of actors (people like Rene Bond, Marsha Jordan, Ric Lutze, and the venerable George "Buck" Flower), these movies all contain lots of nudity and soft core sex, very little plot, horrible dialogue and acting, and hilarious music, all blended together for hours of sheer exhilarating, blissful awfulness. Some can't miss titles? The Pig-Keepers Daughter, Sassy Sue, Tobacco Roody, Southern Comforts, and last but not least, Midnight Plowboy.

If you're unfamiliar with Something Weird Video (I should hope not, but hey, ya never know) check them out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/#!/SomethingWeirdVideo Twitter @swvonline on Twitter or their website http://somethingweird.com/ and see what all they have to offer, which is extensive, and trust me, worthwhile. I only touched on a small portion of it here, Go see for yourself.

VHS Memories

Like most people who grew up in the 80's, my childhood was greatly shaped by the video boom of the time. Cable was a factor, but not a great one because cable came and went in my house at the whims of my dad. When he got tired of messing with the rabbit ears and missing out on the cable programming he would hear about, we would get cable. Six months later when he got tired of paying the bill, we would get rid of it, a cycle that lasted the better part of a decade. I was 12 when we got our first VCR in 1985 and it was love at first play.

Starting that summer I stopped spending my lawnmowing money on candy and spent it at the local video store. I was in awe of the place, it was paradise for a pubescent boy who loved horror. I knew the right times to go, when the guy in his early 20's was working who didn't give a crap how old you were as long as you didn't ask him any questions. I rented hundreds of horror movies at that place, from the standard familiarity of all the movies featuring Jason, Freddy, Michael, Leatherface and Pinhead; to soon-to-be video classics like Re-Animator, Evil Dead and Scanners all of which were sheer glory.

But the ones that stand out in my head were some of the more obscure titles, that brought the right amount of scares, gore, and nudity to make any boy of that age quite happy. Movies like Junior, Eyeball, The Mad Butcher, To The Devil a Daughter, Creepazoids, Nightmare Sisters, Terror at Orgy Castle, Because of the Cats, Return of the Aliens: Deadly Spawn, What?, Barn of the Naked Dead, and the great, great compilation video Terror on Tape. Not to mention my first exposure to the great Troma pics of the era. I could probably continue this list for hours as more titles come in to my head.

These days of course, you can probably obtain most of these movies with a few clicks if you're willing to look, which is a great thing to be sure. But I have to say I miss the days of spending an hour+ reading the back of box after box trying to find the perfect movie to rent,and the anticipation of  waiting to pop it in and escape reality (and your mom's fears that all these movies were going to turn you into a serial killer). Even in 2012 I think it's essential that everyone own 2 VCR's just in case one of them breaks.

(Two notes: in my mind the local video store does NOT include the giant monolith chains which shall remain nameless. Also I didn't discover the greatest indie video store I ever patronized until my mid 20's, B-Ware Video and Books in Lakewood, OH (an entire post or two will be devoted to it's greatness), which closed in '04, and is where I was first introduced to the 60's and 70's exploitation classics that I also love.)

The Greatness of Vincent Price

I've been a horror fan from an early age, and many of the horror movies I first saw were Vincent Price films on late-night TV. As I got older, my tastes turned to more gore and nudity (uh, go figure), and while he never really went away, Vincent Price and his movies kind of made their way off of my radar for many years.

Fast forward twenty-five years or so and the death of one Michael Jackson (stay with me here, this is not another homage to the self proclaimed King of Pop, but he's essential to the story). As everyone will recall, his death brought about a resurgence of his music, and my grade school aged daughter was among the targeted audience. She heard Thriller. Heard it often. Next thing ya know, she's asking me who the man is talking at the end of the song. "It's Vincent Price" I told her. "A great actor who starred in many scary movies years ago." "I want to see one of his movies", she said. "We can make that happen", I said, my heart swelling with pride.

Since then we've managed to watch a few of his movies here and there, like The House on Haunted Hill and The Last Man on Earth, among others, and it's been a real treat. She's become a fan, and my interest has been renewed. He is and will always be a horror legend, a status that is well deserved. His acting was always superb, and his voice could bring chills on a muggy summer night. If you haven't had a chance to watch any of his movies lately make a point to do so. Yes, they will seem tame compared to what is available today, and there will certainly not be the shock value that the horror movies of the last thirty years can boast. But you will find quality acting and good scares that are still alot of fun.

It all started with The Exorcist

The title of this post is a tad misleading, of course, because The Exorcist was not the FIRST horror movie I had seen. I had been watching late night horror movies via local horror hosts and (a little later) cable since I was about seven. The Exorcist was the first movie that really scared me. I mean REALLY SCARED ME!! Let's set the story:

I was about 10 years old, and staying the night at a friend's house. Not a great friend, but a better friend because he had HBO and I didn't. I had heard about The Exorcist but was not allowed to watch it. I had read that it would be playing on HBO late that night and convinced my friend that we should watch it, not knowing that it would change my life forever.

I will assume anyone reading this blog has seen the movie so describing it would be pointless. When the movie ended we stayed up all night, in silence, just staring at each other mulling over in our heads what we just saw. I ran home at dawn, and tried to go to bed but could not sleep. I'm sure thirty years has affected my memory, but it felt like I didn't sleep for days. My sister was 13 at the time, close in age to Regan McNeil, and I was convinced that she would become posessed. It was even harder to try and act normal around my parents without telling them what I had watched.

Time passed, and of course I came to realize that demonic posession was not in my sister's future, and I have seen The Exorcist probably 100 times since then. I must confess it still gets me a little bit every time though, and it has maintained a soft spot in my heart. There are probably scarier movies, although not many I bet, and for me, it's the benchmark for movie scariness. When I watch a horror movie now, I always ask myself if it was scarier than The Exorcist, and I usually know the answer.

The Nerd and I

I should begin this post by telling everyone that I reside in the greater Cleveland area. If you are familiar with American Splendor and the works of the late Harvey Pekar, you will know that Cleveland was his hometown. You will also likely be familiar with the Genuine Nerd, Toby Radloff, who gained a small amount of fame and notoriety through his appearances in Pekar's comics and later on MTV. Via Judah Friedlander's portrayal of him in the American Splendor movie, Radloff's poularity gained a small resurgence. (Note: In late 2001 I inadvertently disrupted a scene being shot for that movie in front of my apartment in Lakewood, OH. The story involves a kidney stone, the ER and lousy parking. I didn't know it was that movie being filmed until I saw my apartment on the screen while watching it a few years later. But that is a story for another post. Back to the story at hand.)

Now, if you're reading this blog, I'm guessing that you're even more familiar with Toby Radloff's work in the movie Killer Nerd and it's sequel Bride of Killer Nerd. I knew of the movies for a while but I never got the chance to see them until about a year ago, when I picked up a double feature DVD from the Troma table at the Cinema Wasteland convention in Strongsville, OH (a copy signed by none other than the great Lloyd Kaufmann, by the way, but that's also another post). So, the movies were great, and I wished I had seen them sooner, so I would have had the chance to discuss them on the several occasions I crossed paths with the Genuine Nerd himself, something everyone should have an opportunity to do. We live in the same suburb of Cleveland now, and he is a fixture at several community events, and I like to talk to him whenever I can. I can also tell you that there is nothing phony about the nerd persona. What you see in American Splendor is exactly how the man is in real life. He truly is a genuine nerd and proud of it.

Orgy of the Dead

 Orgy of the Dead, directed by Stephen C. Apostolof and written by the immortal Ed Wood is one of the most inceredible films you will ever see. Wood's dialogue reaches new highs (lows?), the acting is atrocious and the direction is worse. Giving away too much of the plot would be a crime to anyone who hasn't seen it (which would also be a crime), so I won't divulge here. Watching the clip below would give you a small idea. This also raises a question: was Pat Barrington the proud owner of Hollywood's first pair of fake boobs? Probably not, but it would be worth looking into. Someone should really do that.

A tribute to Jamaa Fanaka

 Some of you may or may not know that Jamaa Fanaka passed away April 1st at the age of 69. Some of you may not know who he is. He is best known for directing the Penetentiary movies in the '80's, as well as being the director of Soul Vengeance (a.k.a., Welcome Home, Brother Charles), which is, in the humble opinion of this blogger, the greatest movie of all time. It is without question the Citizen Kane of killer penis movies, or if you believe the recent critics polls, the Vertigo of killer penis movies. Regardless, all of his films are essential viewing for any fan of exploitation cinema.

Mr. Fanaka was also a very outspoken critic of the Director's Guild for it's lack of black members and the difficulty black directors had finding work in the studio system, and he claimed to have been blacklisted for a period because of his criticism. Whether that's true or not, despite the limited number of films to his credit, there can be no mistaking his impact on exploitation films, and, to a degree, independent films.

I won't give away too many details of  Soul Vengeance if you haven't seen it, but you will not believe it. pick up a copy and watch it. You'll be glad you did. Check the link below to watch the trailer.

.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYs5Ly8a-WA

Welcome to Grindstone Grindhouse

Welcome to Grindstone Grindhouse, a blog and forum designed for fans of exploitation cinema to discuss, review, and share thoughts on the movies we love. If you like horror, sci-fi, biker, kung-fu, blaxploitation, etc., check us out often. Hopefully you will learn about movies you haven't seen, or find a review of one you have and wish to disagree. Regardless, I think anyone who has a deep appreciation for bad movies will find something here they like. Enjoy, and stay tuned!