Wild, Wild Podcast - THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION (1968)

Join Adrian and I in the Orgone Accumulator as we travel back in time to the 1960s for a Sexual Revolution, thanks to Willhelm Reich and a little-known screenwriter called Dario Argento.

This is the final episode in our Psychedelic Mini-Season and we hope you have enjoyed turning on and dropping out with us. We would love to hear from you if you have any favorite psychedelic Italian films, or if you've ever had your name drawn out at random at the same time as your mum's whilst attending a sex party. You can contact us on Twitter or Instagram or by email at wildwildpodcast@gmail.com.

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We also now have a small but developing merch store on TeePublic, so check it out if you have always wanted to wear our logo so that other fans will know how cool you really are! 

Wild Wild Podcast - BED OF A THOUSAND PLEASURES (Finalmente le mille e una notte)1972)

Adrian and I return to the world of the Decamerotici to see what Antonio Margheriti could do with his version of the Arabian Nights. And, brace yourself, it's actually pretty good. Although we do have to qualify that claim quite a lot. So, join us on a magic carpet ride through the wild, wild tales of a Sultan with erectile dysfunction, an Aladdin with carpet dysfunction, and a Queen whose sexual appetite is defeated by a healthy supply of bananas. It's a beautifully photographed series of sex comedy shenanigans that clearly bears the stamp of it's time.

Article on this strange sub-genre HERE! 

Adrian's Margheriti BLOG

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Wild, Wild Podcast Season 2: Episode 1 - ULBALDA, ALL NAKED AND WARM (1972)

We're back and this time we are taking a dive into the world of Pasolini's Trilogy of Life. In this episode we discuss films based on the first in the trilogy, Il Decameron (1971) and its many imitators, in particular the film known to English-speaking audiences as Ubalda - All Naked and Warm. Yes, it's the one with Edwige Fenech in a chastity belt, so grab your skeleton keys and head back to the middle ages with us.

For more information on this Italian sub genre, which morphed into the highly successful commedia sexy all'italiana, this article is a very good primer and one we will be coming back to: “Canterbury Rides Again”… PASOLINI & HIS “DECAMEROTIC” IMITATORS

We would love to hear from you if you have any experience with the Decamerotici films. You can contact us on Twitter, Instagram, or by email at wildwildpodcast@gmail.com

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The Two HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP!

I have been a fan of the original 1980 HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP since I finally got to see it back the late 1980s. For years I had wanted to watch it because it was one of a handful of movies that got talked about a lot when I was in middle school. Cable television and HBO had just crept into our backward part of rural Alabama and the kids lucky enough to live where the wires reached would occasionally get to see something they really shouldn’t have gotten to see. Many a kid my age told tales of catching late night showings of R rated movies with all the dirty parts left in! These were thrilling stories that often expanded ridiculously in the telling but one film that stood out in repeated tales was HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP. The way it was described it had to be one of the most intense things imaginable. Heads got pulled off, arms ripped from bodies, dogs torn apart and most incredible of all – multiple young ladies were seen completely nude! All of this graphic, bloody violence coupled with full female nudity made the film legendary around seventh grade and a kind of Holy Grail for those of us unlucky enough to not get to catch it. Damn, but I wanted to see this movie!

You might expect that once I finally saw the film it was a letdown. Surely nothing could live up to the madness concocted by puberty struck male minds in full hormonal flower. But, believe it or not, the film turned out to be something I quite enjoyed. It’s not a great film and I would never claim classic status for it but it is a well-crafted piece of exploitation monster sleaze and I still enjoy watching it today. Notorious for its violence and nudity it’s just as infamous for its human raping monsters humping away to reproduce offspring like mad spawning fish. THAT was a surprise! I have to figure the kids in my homeroom class describing the film simply had no words to use to get these disturbing scenes across to the rest of us. We couldn’t understand sex much less ‘fish monster on naked girl’ sexual violence!

You can easily see why producer Roger Corman would think it would be a snap to remake this trashy gem in the 1990s. He had struck a deal to produce a few monster movies for the Showtime cable channel and this got tossed out there but, as you might expect, the budget is low and the results are bad. Sadly, the things that make the original film fun to return to for repeat viewings are one of the many things missing from version 1996.

The 1980 film had the feeling of being about a real place with real people that had lives that went on before and after we watched them. There was a sense of a small-town community in which everyone knew each other that made the eventual monster trouble have a sharper edge as old grudges and slights are brought to the surface in the tense moments. In the remake there is nothing believable about any of the characters and I couldn’t even tell you what most of them do for a living. In the 1980 film the characters were defined by their jobs and their attitudes grew out of what they considered important. In the remake characters exist only to create situations that drive the story forward. The original was filmed on a lot of real locations giving everything a lived in, comfortable feel but the remake is shot mostly on some of the cheapest, flimsiest sets I have ever seen. One look at a shack/home and I knew it was going to burn simply because you don’t build well if it’s not going to last past reel three.

I could go on and on but the film bored me and I fear boring you by writing about it. I suggest avoiding the 1996 version of HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP and seeking out the nasty 1980 film. It’s a mean-spirited bit of Corman produced monster mash and it can still entertain the sleaze hungry teenager in each of us. The 1996 film will just give you a headache.

Naschycast #60 - THE UNLIVING (2004)

Sharp-eyed or eared (?) listeners to the Naschycast will recognize THE UNLIVING as an alternate title for a film we've already covered on the show. Troy and I took a look at this Fred Olen Ray joint a few years ago under it's more evocative name TOMB OF THE WEREWOLF and you can still check out episode #30 for our original assessment. This time out we revisit this problematic entry on Paul Naschy's credits at the request of our new guest - David Zuzelo! David is an old friend from the early days of Euro-Trash horror online fandom and someone I should have included in the show much sooner than now. He's a horror comic writer and expert on the trashier side of cinema making him the perfect man to talk about this uncut sex-filled werewolf romp.

The three of us spend a lot of time on this film discussing it's flaws, it's points of interest and David brings some fascinating behind the scenes information to the table. Of course, as you might expect with Euro-Horror fans, we also branch off onto related subjects with a lengthy musing on Jess Franco and the more obscure films of Amando De Ossorio. David and I reminisce a bit about our first podcast experience together on Horror Rise From Spain and his upcoming work in horror comics. Troy and I wrap the show with a brief email from Our Man In The Field before we let you go.

POWERWOLF! 

If you have any comments or questions the address is naschycast@gmail.com or you can join us on the Facebook page. Thanks for downloading and listening!

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The Bloody Pit #68 - SEX & FURY (1973)

SEX & FURY (1973) is more properly known as 'Story of Delinquent Female Boss: Ocho' and is a prime example of the Pinky Violence genre. Although Troy and I are both curious about this strange Japanese variation on the revenge film we have had very little exposure to it. Luckily our occasional podcasting buddy Jason chose this fine period action tale to cover giving us the opportunity to dig into one of the best of the type. I guess you could say we came for the naked swordfight and stayed for the compelling story of intertwining vengeance plots.

The film stars two of the most recognizable female leads of violent cinema circa the early 1970's. The first is Japanese actress Reiko Ike as the titular Ocho. As the movie begins in 1905 she is a woman seeking three people responsible for the murder of her father decades before. She is getting closer and now knows that each one has an identifiable animal tattoo that will point her to the guilty parties. Adding to the complexities is American gambler and spy Christina (played by Swedish beauty Christina Lindberg) who is being forced by her military controller to push Japan into a second Opium War. But Christina is conflicted because her actions might cause her Japanese lover to be killed as he carries out his quest to assassinate a nasty politician. Confused yet? Wait until you hear us take a dozen sidetracks as we go through this one!

The show can be found at The Bloody Pit of Rod or on iTunes or Stitcher. If you have any comments the show's email address is thebloodypit@gmail.com and we'd love to hear what you have to say. Thank you for downloading and listening!  

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FRANKENHOOKER (1990)

The films of Frank Henenlotter are not for everyone. I wouldn't call them an acquired taste because I think most people have a visceral reaction to them that defines how they feel about movies like BASKET CASE without any deep thought getting in the way. I think this reaction is mainly because, as much as they appear on the surface to be horror films, Henenlotter's movies are actually comedies. Anyone who has ever tried to recommend a funny film to someone can tell you that the hardest genre to get two people to agree about is comedy. If you don't find something or someone funny there is nothing anyone else can do to get you to appreciate the humor of, say- The Three Stooges. You either laugh at the eye-poke or you don't. In the same way, if the sight of a talking parasite that feeds its host a narcotic for carrying out its homicidal requests doesn't strike you as amusing then Henenlotter's second film BRAIN DAMAGE is not for you. And, by extention, I can say that this means your reaction to any one of his movies will tell you if you'll like all of them.  None of them are going to ever be called the best filmmaking the world has to offer but his energy, inventiveness, humor and warped sense of the way the world works marks Henelotter as one of the best kinds of American auteur - the truly independent kind! 

FRANKENHOOKER was the writer/director's fourth film and appears to have had a higher budget than the first three combined. This extra cash is clearly onscreen from the beginning with a very professional look to the production that, to 21st century eyes, seems to simultaneously improve and date the movie a bit more than earlier efforts. This movie is an unashamed product of the late 1980s and only a story as over-the-top as this could make that a good thing. The fashions alone make FRANKENHOOKER  an embarrassing time capsule of hideousness - and then the sewed together hooker beast shows up and the madness goes into the stratosphere!

Obviously based loosely on the classic Mark Shelly novel the film tells the sad story of misunderstood inventor and part-time medical student Jeffery Franken. After his modified lawn mower accidentally reduces his fiancée to a pile of veal cutlets Jeffery's grief is so great that he vows to bring his beloved back to life. As he has only been able to salvage her head he will need to find her a fresh or semi-fresh body for attachment. Now, where would you look for a female that wouldn't be missed by too many people? That's right- Time's Square in the 80s was packed to the gutters with prostitutes of every description so its there our mad doctor goes with a stethoscope, a tape measure and a plan. That his plan involves his rather dangerous new invention Super-Crack might not seem too bad an idea- what Time's Square prostitute is going to turn down free drugs . But the fact that this drug has the terrible side effect of making the user literally explode doesn't factor into Jeffery's thinking until he's standing in a room filled with random hooker parts wondering which pieces he should salvage. Needless to say, our hero eventually fashions a serviceable woman out of the bits but things don't go quite the way he would have wished.

If you can get on this movie's wavelength it is an extremely funny tale. As already mentioned Henelotter's movies are cock-eyed horror comedies and that makes them harder to appreciate than the average low budget horror film or low budget comedy. I suspect that only horror fans with a taste for low brow humor will be able to get past the first 20 minutes and discover the real cleverness at the heart of this mad scientist love story. The story is filled with real wit, amusing observations and a cast of colorful characters that make predicting what will happen next almost impossible. The film is over the top and completely insane in a ways that defy easy categorization. What other movie features a stitched together woman turning tricks in an hysterically robotic manner like some fantasy blow-up doll in the middle of a story punctuated by touching scenes of its main character reciting love poetry to his dead girlfriend? The film is strange- maybe stranger than it needs to be- but I really enjoyed it and if the idea of a man filing a bunion off a foot he's about to attach to his beloved's new body causes a grin for you, so be it. I'm tempted to chant 'One of Us' repeatedly.

Synapse Films has issued FRANKENHOOKER on Blu-Ray with all the love you could hope for. The film print was taken from original vault materials and is presented in gorgeous widescreen with both 5.1 and 2.0 audio options. I had never seen the movie before this disc arrived but I can't imagine it looked this good in earlier incarnations. The picture is bright with colors that really pop, especially in the neon lit scenes shot on location in New York. The Blu comes with lots of great extras as well starting with a commentary track featuring Henenlotter and his Make-Up Effects Designer Gabe Bartalos. The writer/director does most of the talking, as he should, and proves to be just as entertaining in this venue as he is as a filmmaker. His tales of the madness involved in shooting around crack houses and only semi-legally are a hoot. I would hope he is given the chance to do similar tracks for all of his work. The other extras include a short interview with the mighty Frankenhooker herself, Patty Mullen called A SALAD THAT WAS ONCE NAMED ELIZABETH; the featurette A STITCH IN TIME: THE MAKE-UP EFFECTS OF FRANKENHOOKER and TURNING TRICKS, an interview with actress Jennifer Delora and her time spent as a cinema 'hooker'. Miss Delora is very funny relating he attitude toward doing onscreen nudity at the time and I was glad that she was given another short piece to show off her photo scrapbook from the production. This unexpected peek behind the scenes is a blast. The film's theatrical trailer rounds thing out and the case comes with a reversible cover sporting alternate promotional art. What more could a horror hound wish for?

The Fantastic Films of Vincent Price #77 - Percy's Progress (1974)

Would you believe that Vincent Price appeared in a film about a penis transplant? Of course you would! It was the 1970's and the shackles of censorship were (mostly) off. Madness! 

THE CANDIDATE (1964)

DVD production company Vinegar Syndrome seems to be trying to pick up the market that Something Weird Video cultivated over the past fifteen years or so. And that is a good thing! Their desire to restore and release as many independently produced exploitation films as possible is both laudable and impressive. I count myself as a cult film fan but a look at their list of titles leaves me scratching my head in wonderment as I have never heard of most of the movies they are dealing to the public. My few dips into the VS catalog have been interesting sleazy fun but I was caught off guard by this disc. 

The Candidate (1964) (also known as Party Girls For The Candidate) was pitched to me as a sexploitation film staring Ted Knight and my mind rejected that description sight unseen. There can be no such film, said logic and reason. Surely the planet would rip asunder if movie existed, said sanity. Ted Knight of The Mary Tyler Moore show engaged in sexual shenanigans? This cannot be true. And in the end this thought process was proven right enough for me to retain my intellect after screening the film.

Now, there are sexploitation elements in the film as you might expect with any film that top lines sex kitten Mamie Van Doren, but those are the least interesting parts. Of the film, I mean! She plays Samantha, a hard working modern woman who, because of a chance encounter with Senatorial candidate Frank Carlton (Ted Knight), is offered a job by conniving campaign runner Eric (Buddy Parker) aiming to work for the prospective senator. She agrees and we are then shown the complicated way various relationships shape the campaign and how it all falls apart. In a strange choice the story is related as a series of flashbacks as the main characters are grilled in front of a Congressional hearing which causes the film to feel like a mild and overly solemn courtroom drama.

 It can be pretty entertaining to watch Eric procure ladies for the Washington elite but the film bogs down once the shape of the downfall of Knight's character comes into focus. Parker plays the ruthless Eric as a cynical bastard and he isn't bad in the role but its Knight that is actually impressive. As his character meets and falls in love with Angela (June Wilkinson) we see this shy man come alive and have to face that the woman he cares for will destroy his hoped for career. Knight is exceptional in the role investing great care in showing very nuanced emotions as he struggles with his options. In the scenes with his character the film is solid and the courtroom sequences are very well scripted but the rest of the movie- the sexploitation parts- are dry as dust. This is the movie's problem- it has half of a good movie but it has been shackled to a silly lingerie show with Miss Van Doren. In the end The Candidate isn't a bad movie but it isn't very good either which is a shame. 

THE TRUE STORY OF THE NUN OF MONZA (1980)

Set in northern Italy in the early 1600s, The True Story of the Nun of Monza relates the sad but sexy convent life of the daughter of that city's feudal lord. She is dowered into the care of the nuns by her father to remove her from the temptations of the world. This seems to have been a good idea, as the newly christened Sister Virginia de Leyve (Zora Kerova) has very vivid dreams of humiliation by the nuns and of herself in a nude embrace with men. When these dreams culminate in Jesus stepping down from the crucifix to allow the kneeling girl to kiss his stomach, you know she has some problems with fornication. Not that she's alone in this in the convent... 

We quickly learn that several of the nuns sleep with each other on a regular basis as well as slipping away in the night to visit men. This hidden sexual life extends to the local priest (Giovanni Attanasio) as well, who is carrying on a long-term relationship with one of the more beautiful nuns. Not content to sleep with his beloved, the priest lusts after Virginia. After a drunken night of debauchery with some wealthy friends, he tries to rape the poor girl in the confessional booth. That he's costumed in a red devil outfit at the time only adds to the bizarre nature of the sequence, driving the symbolism home with a hammer.

It briefly looks like Virginia is also going to be pursued by one of the priest's rich wastrel friends, Giampaolo Osio (Mario Cutini), an aristocrat with a quick temper and the blood of a few dueling opponents on his hands. But this budding scheme comes to a halt when news arrives of her father's death. This makes Virginia the new noble Lady of Monza, with the power to have herself elected to replace the elderly, ailing Mother Superior. To this end she enlists fellow nun Benedetta (Paolo Montenero) as her second in command, which turns out to be a mistake. The priest and his lover fear the new leader will discover their secret and so blackmail secret lesbian Benedetta to help them set her up. They lure the new Mother Superior to a quiet location in the convent and watch while Osio rapes her. Sadly reinforcing every misogynistic thought about women, Virginia becomes Osio's willing lover and eventually realizes she's pregnant.

Her condition is kept quiet and when the child is stillborn she prays for forgiveness. Proclaiming not to love Osio any longer, she vows to mend her ways. But young novitiate Margherita (Leda Simoneti), who midwifed the baby, threatens to reveal everyone's dirty secrets unless she is given whatever she wants. Mere moments after Osio silences the girl the Inquisitor shows up to strip away all deceit and wield the mighty sword of Church justice.

The Nunsploitation genre is one I've never really understood. Not being Catholic, I don't have any childhood fears, erotic or otherwise, linked to the sight of women covered from head to toe in black drapery. Nor do I attribute these "Brides of Christ" any special reverence that would cause the sight of them acting with sexual abandon to be more alluring than any other attractive woman. Sadly this lack of any Catholic background or even direct knowledge of the religion seems to blunt the titillation factor of these films. This means that, for me, they succeed or fail solely on their merits as well told stories. Unfortunately this film lacks a strong narrative line which blunts any sense of forward momentum. Until the final 20 minutes the movie has almost no drive making it feel more like a series of anecdotes rather than a story with a purpose. As a matter of fact I'm sure that you could scramble the order of about 10 scenes in the middle of the film without changing the structure of the tale or the tragic arc Virginia follows. The overwhelming feeling for most of the film was of drifting from scene to scene with little forward impetus. It was as if we were simply seeing incidents along a timeline with only a few connecting threads until the pregnancy occurs and the heavy duty guilt kicks in. I guess this might be a case of adhering to the facts of the historical events they are supposed to be dramatizing but it makes for a rambling, occasionally dull movie.

I guess I was expecting something sleazier as this was directed under a pseudonym by Bruno Mattei (as "Stefan Oblowsky"). His other films from the same period are trashy glories brimming with nastiness that he seems to relish wallowing in for the sake of cheap thrills. Maybe that’s the reason for the false name on the credits- to distance The True Story of the Nun of Monza from his other work. But it's strange that this well-mounted but mostly flat film would be attributed to a fictitious person while his junk film epics like Rats and SS Girls sport his given name. I wonder which he's more proud of when he looks back.

Top Euro-Trash Lists

Recently a Facebook post link sent me to this list of The Top 50 Euro Trash Films and quickly the online discussion of the contents made for more interesting reading than the list itself. I have several problems with this ranking with the foremost being that it slights the massive horror output of the European 1960's, 1970's and 1980's to the point of becoming a giant glaring hole in the middle of the entire endeavor. If you are going to make a Top 50 list of this type without including Fulci's ZOMBIE (1979) and/or THE BEYOND (1981) or a single Mario Bava film you are going to have to work to justify their absence. Also, if you start your description of a film for this list with this sentence - "You couldn’t in all honesty call this film Eurotrash." - you have failed in your task.

But the reason for any such list is to generate conversation and I guess in that it is a success. Oh - and bonus points for the inclusion of THE SISTER OF URSULA (1978) - more people need to see this trash classic. 

NUDE FOR SATAN (1974)

Nude for Satan presents a conundrum for any reviewer. Or, at least, any reviewer that hopes to offer up something more than hyperbolic babble about the how bizarre the stuff on display becomes in this not quite coherent splay of images. Should this film be called stream of consciousness gothic fluff? Or perhaps a low budget sleazy creepfest? Is it maybe just a silly shaggy dog story with a punch line that lands with a thud instead of a pop? Or maybe it should simply be noted as a typical 1970s European entry in the 'hell is a place on earth' camp of EC comics inspired horror tales? No. While those labels might do for someone with less interest in this sub-genre those terms will not suffice for me. This movie more accurately falls into a category I like to call 'Foregone Conclusion Theater'. You've seen these stories before. The entire movie builds slowly to a final revelation that sharp viewers have copped to long before the onscreen characters gasp in reaction to the supposedly amazing information. Except even that description isn't quite right because both main characters are openly wondering if they are really dead by the half way mark of the movie. So what the hell is this thing? Crazy as a rat trapped in a coffee can, to be perfectly honest. Cinema delirium! But is it entertaining? Well...

The story begins simply enough with Doctor Benson (Stelio Candelli) driving through the night on his way to the Witmore Estate to make a house call. Unsure of his way, he stops for directions and is warned that going to the Witmore villa is a bad idea. He ignores this advice and drives on until a woman dressed in white looms up out of the dark into the path of his car. The doctor swerves and misses the woman but as he searches the roadside for her afterwards there is nothing to be found. Puzzled and at a loss to explain this he is about to continue his journey when a second car crashes on the road only a few feet from him. Just for the record, this is one of the worst faked car crashes in cinema history. The sound of a skid and crash are heard on the soundtrack and a lone tire rolls past Benson in the road. Hysterically, the tire would never have fit the car it's supposed to have detached from. This was the first indicator of just how strange things were going to get.

Benson pulls Susan (the very lovely Rita Calderoni), the only passenger of the 'crashed' car, out and loads her into his own vehicle. He recognizes her and decides it would be best to get her to the estate to care for her injuries. Once there he has a strange encounter with a servant who makes odd statements and then disappears into thin air. Unable to get anyone to answer his knocking he is about to return to the car when the front door of the castle opens on its own. Clueless that this is a BAD sign, he enters and looks around the apparently deserted, dusty and cobwebbed place. Searching for people he stumbles from room to room and behind each door there seems to be a new strange sight. There is a laughing, web-covered corpse, a nude woman being molested by a man dressed in Victorian clothing, etc. Confused as can be, Benson is then greeted by the hale & hardy woman he pulled from the car wreck, wearing a 19th century style dress. She insists her name is Evelyn, not Susan, and persuades the doctor to join her to be introduced to the family as her beloved.

From here on in it becomes increasingly clear that time has no meaning and both the present day events and 19th century happenings are jumbled together. The narrative swings back and forth between the modern day Susan meeting the lord of the Witmore castle and Dr. Benson trying to figure out his predicament with Evelyn. Susan is ushered into the house by the mysterious Lord (James Harris) and it quickly becomes evident that he is some kind of devil or demon pushing the characters around. Susan acts as if she is under a spell, never asking his name and blithely going along with his suggestions. She is shown to a room, given a hot bath and slips very naturally into a lesbian tryst with the black chambermaid. She then goes to bed but has a dream of her sexy new female lover that becomes a nightmare as the servant strangles her. Awakening out of this she goes wandering around the castle while a storm rages outside. Following odd sounds, she is horrified to find the chambermaid being whipped by an older male servant. Then things get weird. (I know — just bear with me!)

Running away from the torture scene, Susan stumbles into a room and becomes trapped in a giant spider's web. And here comes the big hairy spider right toward its new prey! Okay. Remember earlier when I said the faked car crash was hysterical? I should have saved that word to describe the fake spider in this sequence. Seriously! I have seen some bad fake spiders in my day. The ones Fulci set next to real ones in The Beyond. The awful one that leaped onto Rod Taylor in World Without End. The Volkswagen beetle in The Giant Spider Invasion. All of these now take a back seat to the miserable excuse for a spider in Nude for Satan. But that's not the funniest part! By this time the separate storylines are mashed together in such a way that confusion is par for the course. So when Dr. Benson bursts into the room and shoots the spider off Susan, all the questions lingering in my mind about what is actually happening evaporated as I sputter-laughed at the site of what looks like feathers flying off the thing. Disregard the madness of shooting at the girl-  the fake spider's ignominious death is a classic of bizarre cinema.

Anyway, things continue on like this for a good long while with doppelgangers running about the place getting naked and more hints that the lord of the castle is Old Scratch himself — all to little real effect. The film reaches its nadir with a ten minute chase through the castle grounds that ends with Benson catching himself. Yeah, it's that kind of film. It's crazy, nonsensical and mostly silly but I have to admit I didn't really dislike it. It's not for every audience and will most likely only please fans of Euro-Trash or those interested in bizarre cinema in general. Although I fit both those categories I only think of this as a middling experience. But as with any movie of this type, your mileage may vary. It's sleazy, sadistic and displays plenty of perversity making it a fun experience — if you know what I mean. On the 'Weird-Ass European Cinema' scale it's stranger than Delirium but not as freaky as Black Magic Rites (AKA The Reincarnation of Isabel). Take that for what it's worth. And did I mention that Rita Calderoni is gorgeous? And nude for a considerable percentage of the running time? That is well worth mentioning. (Trust me.)

RICA (1972)

I don't know much about the "Pinky Violence" genre of Japanese women's revenge movies but I know what I like. And if this is a good example of them then I'm a big fan! Other than the Female Prisoner 701 films I've seen very little of this strange genre and was warned that not all were of the quality of those artistic movies. It's true that Rica doesn't have the high art aspirations of those films but it more than makes up for it by being a relentless, speeding bullet of a tale. Exhilarating and eventually exhausting, Rica is an amazing 'motion picture' with very little time spent without our athletic star either in action or in a tricky situation requiring her to devise an escape. And the nudity helps as well. Not so much the singing...

The time is the early 1970s as we are introduced to half-Japanese Rika Aoki playing (of course) Rica — leader of a small gang of tough girls with yakuza connections. The illegitimate daughter of a woman raped by American GIs, she's grown up as an outsider with a considerable amount of anger directed at the world. Raped herself at a young age by one of her prostitute mother's customers, she certainly has little love for men. So it's easy to understand why, as the film begins, she takes it upon herself to beat the hell out of a low level gangster who'd gotten a girl pregnant but left her on her own. After the girl dies in childbirth, Rica takes the infant's corpse to him and demands he bury the child. During the brawl that ensues the gangster is killed and Rica is sent for her first visit to a prison-like reform school. She is slipped notes from the outside informing her that the rest of her gang has been sold into sex slavery in South Vietnam. The actual turn of phrase used is a sneering "to be fed to the GIs" — that image of girls being imprisoned, used and discarded reoccurs constantly in the film.

Rica makes her first of many breaks form the reform school, extorts ¥3,000,000 from the businessman who raped her and tries to use the money to buy back her friends. The gang boss she deals with, however, is less than honorable (imagine that!) and only through the violent intervention of loner good guy Tetsu (Fuminori Sato) is she able to escape.

The gangsters seek revenge on Tetsu by kidnapping his girlfriend as bait. But Rica thanks her new buddy by striking a deal with yakuza boss Tachibana (Yoshiro Nakadai), in which Rica agrees to dance nude at his nightclub in exchange for the girl's freedom. Strange I know, but in the world of this film it actually makes sense. At least until you realize she sings as well as dances! Some things are more bizarre than others.

Some time after this, Rica learns that her long-absent mother has been spotted working in a nearby department store. But while there looking for her only parent our Amerasian heroine sees one of Tachibana's goons steal secret government papers from an older man. Tachibana doesn't trust Rica to keep silent and orders her killed but he fails to reckon with her feminine wiles. She seduces the thief sent to murder her, cuts off his hand and delivers it to the crime lord to throw it in his face. This leads to another fierce battle and soon Rica is off to reform school again. At a certain point I actually lost track of the number of times Rica escapes from the school. You'd have thought they might have realized she was going to get out somehow and just chain her to a tree or something. But I guess that might have gummed up the plot.

Once back on the outside she finds that the man who raped her as a child is the new gangster running girls to Vietnam. Rica manages to kidnap the man from his legitimate business office and reunite him with her mother, his old lover, who is now ravaged by venereal disease and near death. Using this situation to get the name of the ship being used to transport girls to Vietnam, Rica and Tetsu gather friends and plan an assault to free the women.

Believe it or not this is the short-form story detail for this film. There is so much plot crammed into this 90 minutes that it has the feel of an adaptation of a series of stories compacted down with just the good parts retained for maximum effect. And boy, are there plenty of good parts! An endless stream of fist fights, sex scenes, gun fights, prison breaks, nude dancing, car chases, criminal conniving, ridiculous coincidences and last minute rescues race by so fast its hard to keep track. The movie just keeps coming at you. I don't think I could really call Rica a great movie but it definitely kept me glued to the screen and smiling. Not that there aren't quite a few nastier elements that would make the average inexperienced exploitation viewer squirm. Most of the female characters get raped, only two of the male characters are better than scum and the unhappy fate of several characters is gruesome. But that is the nature of this particular beast. Vicious and cruel, just like the central characters, the Pinky Violence movies showcase a breed of women that were far from the norm at the time the films were made. Rica herself is a perfect example of what I guess would be a nightmare for the very male-dominated culture of Japan. Half Caucasian, taller than most of the men around her, violent and demanding the same freedoms men command, Rica would almost certainly strike fear into people on sight. Add to that a fierce desire for revenge and you have one of the scariest 'juvenile delinquent' concepts imaginable. And the wellspring for dozens of movies!