The Exotic Ones

I rented this video back in the early nineties, not only due to its seductive exploitation vibe, but also because it featured swamp - rockabilly - country musician Sleepy LaBeef a.k.a " The Human Jukebox "as the monster. This film opens with a New Orleans travelogue then plays like an R rated version of the Ed Sullivan Show on acid with strippers, flaming tassels, human contortion, mobsters, giant harmonicas and a Bigfoot style bog monster. Beautifully lurid full color sleaze allegedly filmed in a studio that belonged to the Methodist Church with exterior shots at the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia. The premise involves the mobster/ owner of a strip joint who seeks a bigger and better attraction by capturing the swamp thing but not before the creature rips off the arm of a would be captor and beats him with it. Now, that's entertainment! I was in Connecticut a few years after viewing this film and caught Sleepy at a local venue where he was kind enough to let me sit in on a few songs and what a blast that was. I asked him about this movie, referring to it as " The Exotic Ones " although he called it " The Monster and The Stripper " and that's the title of the VHS copy I bought shortly afterwards. He said the Ormonds wanted him in more films, but in his own words ( more or less ) " hell, I'm a musician, I ain't no actor ". He certainly is a terrific musician and made a great film monster as far as I'm concerned. I recommend checking this one out along with his many C D's so you can decide for yourself.

This is perhaps the most amazing exploitation film every made from the director/co-writer of Mesa of Lost Women (perhaps the very worst movie ever made), and his wife, Ron and June Ormond. In fact their son is in the film too. The Ormonds, the first family of exploitation film makers-=-who later made gospel films, made this, their masterpiece--also known as The Exotic Ones.

It was almost a lost film, being repossessed by the lab who produced the prints after a brief run in 1968.

Set in New Orleans, it opens documentary style, showing us Pg-13 type strip clubs on Bourbon Street. The color has those oversaturate reds that give it a great garish look.

You have drug dealing gangsters, music, comedy, bits of nudity and gore and oh yes a monster too!!!

In its own alternate universe way it makes sense too. There is a big-foot in a swamp type creature and he does rip a victim's arm off and beat him with it.

June Ormond plays the older stripper Bunny with her little girl voice and Marie Osmond attitude that demands repeat viewings.

Oh there just is so much packed into this film, if you like your films a little sleazy and very campy, you'll be forcing all your friends to sit through this one.

Don't Miss!!!!

... from writer-director Ron Ormond. He also co-stars as Nemo, a New Orleans nightclub owner and crime boss. After hearing about a monster lurking in the nearby swamps, he orders his henchmen to capture it and to add it to his club's stage revue, which mainly consist of strippers and one singer who does her white-girl-imitating-Motown best. With Jack Horton, Peggy Ann Price, June Ormond, Georgette Dante, and Sleepy LaBeef as the monster.

This no-budget effort combines the best of the stripper-revue subgenre of skin-flick with bad comedy and a terrible monster played by 6'5'' rockabilly singer Sleepy LaBeef. The monster does a geek act on stage that I'm not entirely certain was faked. One stripper does a pasty-tassel-twirl act with the tassels on fire! This is available in the public domain and on YouTube in a pretty good looking print, so I recommend you gather the family and enjoy this one as soon as possible with as many people as possible.

My 8/10 rating is for the "so bad it is good category. It is 3/10 if you are looking for uplifting cinema. On second thought, if you are looking for uplifting cinema, do look elsewhere.