Uninvited (1987)

Given the option, most people would consider themselves to be either dog people or cat people.  Now, there are all-around animal lovers, and people who love both dogs and cats but not other animals (and even other animals but not dogs or cats), but we’re not talking about them.  Personally, I’m a dog person.  Dogs seem to want to be friends (you know, barring the ones that want to take a piece out of you), and they love letting you know it.  They love when you give them some attention, and they’ll wait all day for it, if they have to.  Cats, not so much.  If you’ve ever been on the internet, you’ve seen at least one photo of a cat doing whatever it damn well pleases along with a sentence or two describing how selfish and aloof cats are.  I’ve been around cats that loved being petted.  I’ve been around cats that couldn’t care less if you lived or died, so long as they stayed fed.  But this is the defining difference in the perception of the two animals.  Dogs are seen as warm and friendly.  Cats are their polar opposites.  I don’t think preferring one or the other defines a person in any way whatsoever in the same way I don’t think the animals prefer the type of owner they have if that person simply cares for them.  So, before the five of you who read these reviews decide to bombard me with passive-aggressive hate mail or just your garden variety hate mail (I know, I laughed at the thought of hearing anything from anyone, good or ill, too), kindly bear two things in mind.  One, I know this is not an in-depth dissection of the psychology of our four-legged friends.  It’s not meant to be.  It’s an introduction to a crummy film review.  Two, I do not hate cats.  I simply like dogs more. 

Doctor Grey (director, writer, producer Greydon Clark) and assistant Paul (Paul Martin) work at a genetic testing lab.  Discovering something odd about an orange tabby (I think) called Subject ST-618, they decide to have a look-see, but before they can sedate the little bugger, he manages to get away.  While in pursuit, it’s revealed that there’s an angry, mutant cat monster (cat-ster?) living inside ST, and it swiftly takes out its pursuers and makes good its escape.  Meanwhile, Wall Street honcho Walter Graham (the ever-crusty Alex Cord) and cronies Albert (Clu Gulager) and Mike (George Kennedy) need to cruise to the Cayman Islands before the SEC (that’s the Securities and Exchange Commission, for those who don’t know) can close in on them.  The naturally charming Walt manages to tempt Spring Break bimbos Bobbie (Clare Carey) and Suzanne (Shari Shattuck) aboard his yacht.  Of course, the girls want to bring along more age-appropriate companions in Corey, Lance, and Martin (Rob Estes, Beau Dremann, and Eric Larson, respectively).  As well as a certain orange tabby.

Uninvited has at its center a premise which is both keenly interesting and fundamentally ludicrous.  The cat-ster lives inside the normal cat.  Actually, it would be more accurate to say it wears the cat as a disguise (which I suppose makes some sort of sense from a predatory perspective), making the tabby a kind of Trojan horse.  By that same token, I can’t help but think that this particular mutation would really only be useful in very specific circumstances (say, stuck on a yacht with a bunch of jerks?).  So, was the mutation created to produce some type of living weapon so that the military could just drop cat-sters into the homes of feline-loving despots and let nature take its course?  Was it an unforeseen mutation that still doesn’t make any sense, since it’s the monstrous equivalent of a jack-in-the-box?  In an odd way, the creature is reminiscent of the armpit penis from Cronenberg’s Rabid, but whereas in that film (and in the films of most storytellers presented with a basis like this) the ridiculous aspects were a jumping-off point for the story.  Here, it is the story in total.

Conversely, the aspect of symbiotes and parasites is intriguing as it relates to the characters in the story.  The cat-ster has a kind of symbiotic relationship with the tabby (though, the more I think about it, and not to get too graphic, the cat-ster and cat have a relationship closer to foreskin and penis rather than human and tapeworm).  Just about everyone in the film forms a parasitic relationship with Walt, needing what he has to get what they want or need.  Mike and Albert want money from him.  Rachel (Toni Hudson) wants ownership of her boat from him.  The other guys and gals want to use what he owns to enable their own carefree good time.  Walt, on the other side of this coin, is happy to grant these things, so long as he remains on top and richer than all of them.  He’ll let the others leech him, but he can get rid of them any time he wants, or so he believes (ever tried removing a tick you can’t see?).   

 While these wants (most of which are strictly of the base variety) drive the characters’ actions, it’s also interesting to note that the truly bad characters (creature notwithstanding) are all older.  The young characters are basically dumb and want to get their rocks off and have a good time, and Corey is even outright venal, but they’re not out to hurt anyone.  It’s the older characters who kill to get their way.  Most people’s natural inclination is to look to their elders for proper guidance of some type (at least for a few years).  In Uninvited, however, you can’t trust anyone over thirty.  The filmmakers equate the point-of-view of the film with the film’s target audience.  For my part, I give Clark and company credit for matching up the disparate generations, and the first two-thirds of the film actually works fairly well developing the relationships between the characters and creating some compelling conflicts and foreshadowing.  

The last third of the film, on the other hand, just disintegrates, trying to satisfy generic tropes, both Horror and Exploitation, in general and not quite doing either.  The film’s climax is so farcical and impossible to swallow, I refuse to believe that the filmmakers didn’t go in with that knowledge and just played it up to the nth degree.  The film is still entertaining to some extent.  It has aerobicizing, some wicked hot licks, and Cord, Kennedy, and Gulager in a three-way race to see who can eat every last ounce of the scenery before they all drown.  Plus, the silly cat-ster puppet does have a cheapjack charm all its own.  You know, I thought about writing this review as a dialogue between myself and my dog, Pepper Ann.  In retrospect, I probably should have.   

MVT:  As stated, the cat-ster is pretty neat as a monster.  Despite the monster’s ever-changing size, it’s still the thing I looked forward to seeing most throughout the film (not including the female skin I was deprived of setting eyes on).  The creature looks like a shrunken-head version of King Seesar from Godzilla Versus Mechagodzilla (1974), which is probably why I like it as much as I do, since Seesar was basically a giant dog with a jewel on his forehead.  Irony, no? 

Make Or Break:  The monster makes its presence known on the boat in quasi-spectacular fashion.  There’s a little bit of blood, some chaotic violence, and George Kennedy swinging for the fences of Histrionics Memorial Field.

Score:  6.25/10

Episode #201: Island of Lost Joysticks

Welcome back Gentle-Minions!!!

This wee we bring you our episode sponsored by diabolikdvd.com and it was Sammy's turn at the helm for this recording. Sammy chose Island of Lost Souls (1932) with Charles Laughton and Joysticks (1983) directed by Greydon Clark. Head over to the website and buy some films from Diabolik, they are a great bunch and have been very gracious to us.

We also go over what we have been watching and we discuss the wonderful madness that is a Horrorhound Weekend.

Direct download: Island_of_Lost_Joysticks.mp3

Emails to midnitecinema@gmail.com

Voicemails to 206-666-5207

Adios!!!

The Greydon Clark Interview

Conducted By: Justin Bozung; Host of The Mondo Film Podcast

Greydon Clark is one hell of a nice guy.  I've exchanged many emails with him over the years, and we've met face to face, having dinner in Indianapolis.  We appeared on a radio show together talking about the tragic passing of actress Elizabeth Taylor in 2011, and he's even helped me secure an interview or two with some of his esteemed colleagues as well.  He's a true gentleman.

Clark has spent an entire career making film's the way he's wanted to.   Coming to work in film by a chance meeting/pick up basketball game in the mid '60s with Z-Grade schlock-master Al Adamson, Clark would befriend the director and eventually act in Adamson's biker cult classic, Satan's Sadists.  Throughout the '70s and '80s, Clark would write and direct several low budget horror and exploitation films that would by today's standards be considered to have achieved a cult status.  Films like, The Bad Bunch, Black Shampoo, The Hi-Riders, Joysticks, Wacko and Without Warning would en-grain themselves in the consciousness of drive-in loving teenagers across the United States of the '70s looking for that first cinematic impression.

Here's the first interview I did with Clark in the spring of 2010 on the heels of the release of his film's The Bad Bunch & The Hi-Riders onto DVD for the first time via VCI Entertainment.

JUSTIN: Greydon, it's well documented how you came about to work in the film industry. But I can't imagine that you really just sat up in bed one day, and said " I'm going to Los Angeles to be an actor." There must have been some sort of catalyst growing up in Michigan, that put that thought or dream into your head. So, growing up what influenced you to make this decision? Was there a film or a particular actor you liked or idolized growing up that made you want to act and direct? And what was it about either that inspired you?

GREYDON CLARK: I was raised in Niles, Michigan - a small town in Southwest Michigan. At that time there was one drive-in and one walk in theater. The movies would change each week and I’d see everything that was playing. I liked all genres – comedy, western, horror, science fiction. I knew nothing about how movies were made. The only thing I knew about directing was that the director’s title was the last credit and the movie was about to begin.

I’d never been in a play or taken a drama class. However, during my first year in college I took a speech class. I’d always been able to tell a story and keep people’s attention and the class went well. When I received an injury my dream of continuing to play basketball in college ended. I foolishly dropped out of school and waited to be drafted into the army. This was just prior to the Vietnam War heating up. During the physical for the draft it was discovered that I had a scar on my ear drum from a childhood disease. I received a deferment.

A bit of soul searching followed… what did I really want to do with my life? A small voice whispered… “You love the movies… wouldn’t it be fun to be an actor in the movies?” I was young and very naive regarding the movie business, but I knew most films were made in Los Angeles. I figured I could do anything I really wanted to do if I put my mind to it. I’d always had super self confidence… blame my parents I guess. Within a month I was driving west with everything I owned - a small black and white TV and record player in the back seat of my car. After several years of knocking on doors I got lucky and my career began.

On Set of The Bad Bunch

JUSTIN:  With the release of your film The Bad Bunch on DVD, I went back and watched it again.  It's really aggressive in it's tone and the message there was pretty powerful.  Did you ever worry when you wrote it  that the public opinion would back-lash against you or the film?   For example, in the film's written and directed by someone like Spike Lee, some have perceived that there's a negative portrayal of white people in his film's, so with something like The Bad Bunch, could it be seen in that same way?  Meaning, could it be interpreted that the African American's are the villains of The Bad Bunch in a sense, simply because of their relentless assault on your lead character whom just so happens to be white.  Did you worry about?  

GREYDON CLARK: I’m a big fan of Spike Lee and enjoy his films a great deal. I was always a political person. Unlike most in Southwest Michigan where I was raised I was strong supporter of liberal ideas. The civil rights struggles of the 1950’s and 60’s dominated the news when I was in school. One of the proudest moments of my life was in the fall of 1963 when I participated in a parade honoring Dr. Martin Luther King in South Bend, Indiana. Friends of mine asked, “How could I do that?” My response, “How could you not?”

When I began to make films my personal views of life became part of my movies. In the fall of 1972 I was able to make The Bad Bunch. Those that look at the young African Americans as the villains have misread the intent of the film. The white racist cops played by Aldo Ray and Jock Mahoney are the villains in the piece. Our racist society and the way these young men are treated is an even greater villain. I was trying to shed as much light on the situation as possible. The inter-cutting of the life circumstances of the young black man and the young white man was intended to illustrate conditions in our society. Until society actually examines treatment of minorities we’ll continue to have nothing but tension, violence, and sadness. The Bad Bunch is a very explosive, political film with offensive situations and dialogue. It is a sincere look at the times during which it was made and a sincere desire to expose conditions and a plea to make them better.

JUSTIN:  Originally you released the film under the title, Nigger Lover right?  With the DVD release did you consider that original title for the DVD or ultimately wasn't that something that was left up to you?

GREYDON CLARK: The film was released theatrically under both titles. The decision regarding which title would be used for the DVD was not mine. I support VCI Entertainment’s decision and feel that at this time The Bad Bunch is the appropriate title. I hope people take a look at it and give some thought to the message behind the film.

JUSTIN:  The thing I've always admired about your career in relation to the films  you made in the '70s and '80s was that you were always making films that seemed very current in comparison to what was trendy in pop culture at the time.   You made Joysticks during the early '80s video game arcade craze. You made The Hi-Riders in the middle of the '70s custom car craze.  Was that something you always intended to do?  Also, working that way did it ever delay you from making a more personal picture that maybe you wanted to?

On Set Of Joysticks

GREYDON CLARK: I have always been a very curious individual - aware of what’s going on in the world. Getting the funding for a picture is very difficult. I found that if you could come up with an idea that was “current” it would be easier to raise the funding. I can’t say that I actively looked for story ideas; most of them came by accident. I was in San Antonio, Texas attending a “sneak preview” of Wacko when the idea for Joysticks came to me. I saw a group of young people standing in line to play a video arcade game in the lobby of the theatre. It was the first video arcade game I’d seen and I realized I could create a movie based around an arcade. Most of my movies come from an idea that somehow snuck into my consciousness. Often I’d have an idea, work on it for a few months find it didn’t work and walk away from it. Sometimes the story would work out and I’d be able to raise the financing and make the movie.

JUSTIN:  Trying to get your foot in the door in Los Angeles in the mid/late '60s must have been a exciting and frustrating time for you.   Do you have any stories about those days in Los Angeles?

GREYDON CLARK:  The late 1960’s were an interesting time in Los Angeles… an interesting time in the world. I was selling stuff door to door in the evenings – trying to pay the rent. During the day time I was knocking on doors trying to get acting jobs. When I first got to Los Angeles I found an acting class and began lessons. After a couple of years I got lucky and met low budget director, Al Adamson. Al was making a movie and I managed to get a small part and got into Screen Actors Guild. Getting in SAG is a big step for a young actor. At the time I had no thought of directing. After a few days on the set I became fascinated with the job of directing. I thought it was the best job in the movies – I still do.

Within a year I’d written a script and wanted to direct. Once again, I got lucky and was able to raise a few bucks and make the film. Over the next three decades I was able to direct twenty films… I feel luck played a great part in my career. I think back to the young man who happened to take a speech class and sometimes wonder what might have happened to him if he’d not taken the drive to Los Angeles.

JUSTIN:  You haven't made a film in a while.  Do you see yourself coming back to filmmaking any time soon?  If so, what are your plans?

GREYDON CLARK:  I’ve been working on a remake of Without Warning for several years. MGM owns the U.S rights to the original. We’ve been discussing the remake in detail and we’re working on it. As you may know, MGM is re-organizing and may be purchased by another company so we’ll see what happens. I may have to start over. Making movies has never been easy… just keep trying.

JUSTIN:  Without Warning, has achieved a pretty impressive cult following over the last few years.  Are there any updates as to when fans could actually see an official DVD release?

GREYDON CLARK: MGM controls the US DVD rights. For years they’ve been saying that they are going to release a DVD. I’ve encouraged them. I’m told that Without Warning is the most pirated film on the internet. MGM should release it.

JUSTIN:  Looking back in retrospect, what's the one project that is your all time favorite, and why?

GREYDON CLARK:   I can’t select a favorite. I see so many mistakes in each of my films… I’d like to do them all over again. Some work better than others… some were received better than others. I do like all my films. Each brings back fond memories. I’ve been fortunate to work with exceptional cast and crews and owe them all a big thanks.

JUSTIN:  Listening to the commentary tracks you've done for some of your DVD's, you mention several films that have been made over the years that you seem to be a big admirer of.  Do you enjoy one genre of film over another, and if so what are some of your favorite films?

GREYDON CLARK:  I’m a film lover… all kinds of films… all genres. When I first got into the film business and learned what a director did I began to notice that many of the films I liked were directed by the same people. This was before the internet, before cable TV, before people really knew anything about directors. I began to scour the book stores in Hollywood looking for more information on directors and directing. I devoured books about the great American directors… Ford, Hawks, Capra, etc. I loved reading about their lives and directing philosophies. I guess it was sort of my film school.

For more information on Greydon Clark, or to purchase autographed behind the scenes photos or DVDs of Greydon Clark's films, please visit www.greydonclark.com

For more interviews by Justin, please visit his official website here 

Episode #97: Without Gloria

This week the Gents cover WITHOUT WARNING (1980) from director Greydon Clark and THE SIEGE OF FIREBASE GLORIA (1989) from director Brian Trenchard-Smith. We also have a massive amount of feedback and lots, I mean lots, of adult toy and other perverted talk....I have no idea why or how but it happened....

Direct download: Without_GloriaRM.mp3