News

Since its release in April 2025, "Sinners" has proven to be a box-office behemoth and a bona fide mainstream hit. However, along with its more conventional accolades, it has also solidified a spot in the niche but expanding canon of unconventional vampire movies. Sure, Ryan Coogler's horror flick revels in its blood and guts, but if you were to watch the first hour alone, you wouldn't realize you were watching a vampire movie. The word "vampire" isn't even dropped until well over an hour in. Those qualities don't even address the vampires themselves, which are far from the caped and cowled creepers of gothic staples like "Dracula" or "Dark Shadows."

For the record, we're not complaining. Most folks associate the vampire with horror movies and period pieces, but this fanged, folkloric creature is far more malleable than you might realize. For every remake of "Nosferatu," there's a "Reinfeld" or an "El Conde" or an "Abigail,...

Presented by Steven C. Miller’s Werewolves, Bloody Disgusting is looking to the stars and howling at the moon with Werewolves Week. Today, Rachel Reeves takes a bite out of seven under-seen werewolf movies you don’t want to miss.

Werewolves have long prowled the shadows of horror cinema, their natural knack for a meaty metaphor and fur-clad ferocity captivating audiences for generations. While classics like An American Werewolf in London, The Howling, and The Wolf Man often lead the crowded werewolf genre pack, it also teems with lesser-known gems waiting to sink their teeth into new fans.

From campy cult favorites to atmospheric thrillers brimming with eerie allure, the enduring appeal of the werewolf metaphor lies in its raw exploration of duality—the primal versus the civilized, man versus the beast. It’s a vessel for themes of transformation, rage, addiction and identity, resonating with anyone who has wrestled with their inner demons.

The cast of Sanford and Son may have passed away, but their legacy lives on with fantastic performances. Redd Foxx's portrayal of Fred Sanford is iconic, showcasing a wise yet brusque older gentleman with a big heart. The ensemble cast, including Lawanda Page and Don Bexley, brought depth and authenticity to the beloved show.

"Who passed away on Sanford and Son?" is what some nostalgic viewers may be wondering about the NBC sitcom from the '70s. Sanford and Son premiered in 1972 and ran for six seasons, ending in 1979, making the TV show 50 years old in 2022. It's based on the British series from a few years earlier, Steptoe and Son, but follows a Black father and son duo. The cantankerous and suspicious father, Fred Sanford, and his eponymous son, Lamont, run an antique/junk store from their home in Los Angeles while frequently dreaming up get-rich-quick schemes.

While not...

Marlene Clark, an actor who appeared on “Sanford and Son,” the horror movie “Ganja & Hess” and several other films of the ’60s and ’70s, died on May 18. She was 85.

Clark starred in several films ahead of landing her breakout role as Lamont Lawson’s (played by Demond Wilson) wife Janet in “Sanford and Son.” She later starred in the 1973 horror movie “Ganja & Hess” alongside Duane Jones.

Clark was born and raised in Harlem, N.Y., and spent time in West Virginia during her summers. She returned to New York after attending Morristown Jr. College in Tennessee and enrolled in City College. While at school, Clark participated in school plays, igniting her interest in the acting world.

Clark later moved to Los Angeles with her then-husband Billy Dee Williams. She began her career in entertainment as a fashion model before landing her first role in the 1968 film “For Love of Ivy.

Actor George Maharis has passed away. THR reports that the Route 66 star died at his Beverly Hills home on Wednesday, according to his friend and caregiver Marc Bahan. Additional details about Maharis' passing were not revealed. The television star was 94 years old.

Maharis was best known for his role in the classic television show Route 66, which aired on CBS from 1960 to 1964. The series starred Martin Milner alongside Maharis as a pair of pals traveling through the United States in a convertible. Partway through the series, Maharis contracted hepatitis, and because of this diagnosis, he wound up leaving the show during its third season. His final episode appearing in the show was in 1963, and Glenn Corbett came in as his successor to portray a new companion to Milner. The show was canceled the following year.

In 2007, Maharis revisited Route 66 when the show was re-released on DVD. At the time,...

Marlene Clark, an actress and model who rose to fame in the 1970s, has passed away. Per THR, Clark died at her home in Los Angeles on May 18, though no cause of death was immediately revealed. She was 85 years old.

“For 15 years she curated a bustling restaurant scene where underground artists mingled with locals and the stars of film and television,” Clark's friend, Tamara Lynch, said of the news. “She had a vision of culinary excellence coupled with dynamic professional service and would lay out the blueprint for the glamorous L.A. restaurant scene brilliantly casted with her discerning eye."

Lynch added, “Marlene’s style was impeccable. She loved fashion, food and acting. Her large, full laugh that could fill a room will be missed. She leaves behind friends and family that will forever be grateful for her grace, love and beautiful heart. Marlene was one of our finest examples of Black beauty.

Marlene Clark, best known for her portrayals of Lamont’s girlfriend Janet in the 1970s NBC sitcom Sanford & Son and as Ganja Meda in the 1973 horror film Ganja & Hess, has died.

Demond Wilson, who played Lamont on Sanford & Son, paid tribute to Clark on Twitter, writing “Rip beautiful actress Marlene Clark. . . It was a delight to work with you…,” noting she died on May 18. Wilson listed her age as 73, but that has not been confirmed.

Clark joined Sanford & Son in the comedy’s fifth season in 1976 as a recurring opposite Wilson, remaining through the series’ final season the following year.

Raised in the Harlem section of New York City, Clark was a fashion model before her transition to acting.

Her earliest work began in films in the 1960s including For Love of Ivy opposite Sidney Poitier and Putney Swope in 1969, directed by Robert Downey Sr. She went...

Marlene Clark, the statuesque actress who portrayed Lamont’s fiancée on Sanford and Son and stood out in such 1970s’ films as Ganja & Hess, Switchblade Sisters and Slaughter, has died. She was 85.

Clark died May 18 in her home in Los Angeles, her family announced. No cause of death was revealed.

Clark also starred as a reptilian seductress in Roger Corman’s Night of the Cobra Woman (1972) and as one of the suspected werewolves in the British horror film The Beast Must Die (1974), and she was an early victim in the Larry Hagman-directed Beware! The Blob (1972).

Clark played John Saxon‘s secretary in Enter the Dragon (1973), starring Bruce Lee, and her big-screen body of work also included Black Mamba (1974), Newman’s Law (1974), Lord Shango (1975) and The Baron (1977), where she appeared opposite her Beast Must Die onscreen husband, Calvin Lockhart.

In the surreal Ganja & Hess (1973), directed by Bill Gunn,...

Bathtub Teeth Brushing.

Trace and I are cruising through April en route to our live show at Salem Horror Festival this weekend, but we’ve been keeping busy with episodes on Stephen Dunn’s Closet Monster, Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and, most recently, Tony Scott’s The Hunger.

This week we celebrated the 50th anniversary of trailblazing Black queer writer/director Bill Gunn‘s Ganja & Hess (1973). This gorgeous, surreal, and unconventional vampire film stars Duane Jones and Marlene Clark as the titular pair of lovers.

Hess (Jones) is a multi-hyphenate Doctor who is also secretly a vampire. He often preys on members of his community, though his wealth and education keeps him isolated. When suicidal assistant George Meda (Gunn) takes his own life at Hess’ home, the man’s wife (Clark) quickly comes calling.

What begins as an investigation quickly turns into a sexualized affair,...

The New York Underground invaded the mainstream with Robert Downey Sr.’s completely irreverent Madison Avenue satire, in which a token black executive takes over an Ad agency, renames it ‘Truth and Soul’ and goes on a mad reign of creative terror. Arnold Johnson, Stan Gottlieb, Allen Garfield, and Antonio Fargas star in a farce that some critics found intolerably crude — but an independent distributor gave it a national release. 1969 was the year that the Production Code took a tumble — and Downey’s picture proved that freedom of expression was alive and well in the U.S. of A..

Putney Swope

Region Free Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1969 / B&w + Color / 1:37 Academy / 85 min. / Street Date July 25, 2022 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99

Starring: Arnold Johnson, Stan Gottlieb, Allen Garfield, Archie Russell, Ching Yeh, Norman Schreiber, Wendy Appel, Antonio Fargas, Laura Greene, Allan Arbus, Pepi Hermine, Larry Wolf, Ronnie Dyson, Shelley Plimpton, Marlene Clark,...

The 1970s produced a lot of great horror movies, but let’s face it, all those heaving bosoms and creepy castles begin to blur into one another after a while. Watch The Beast Must Die just once, however, and you will never forget it. Is that because it’s brilliant? Not really, but it’s a real oddity, one of those curiosities which become landmarks in cinematic history.

Part horror, part old fashioned whodunnit, the story revolves around eccentric millionaire Tom (Calvin Lockhart) and his wife Caroline (Marlene Clark), who invite a group of people to stay at their stately home in the English countryside and proceed to disclose their suspicion that one member of the group is a werewolf. Who could it be? Is it pianist Jan (Michael Gambon) or the young student he married, Davina (Ciaran Madden)? Could it be former diplomat Arthur (Charles Gray), now mired in scandal?...

From slashers, to zombies, eco horror, and much, much more, MoMA's "Horror: Messaging the Monstrous" is a 10-week film series that includes 110 films, including a 3D screening of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead! Featuring horror from around the world and taking place from June 23rd through September 5th, we have all the details so you can start planning your visit! Full program details can also be found at: moma.org/horror

Press Release:

The Museum of Modern Art announces Horror: Messaging the Monstrous, a 10-week film series that includes over 110 features and a selection of short films that capture the horror genre’s uncanny ability to express the lurking fears of a society and the anxieties caused by social, cultural, and political change. Presented in the Museum’s Titus Theaters in the Black Family Film Center from June 23 through September 5, 2022, Horror: Messaging the Monstrous is organized weekly...

The always-dynamic director Jack Hill goes teen-gang wild with this absolutely crazy take on Jd pictures, pitched three octaves higher than normal exploitation drama. All the nasty-rasty thrills are here, from an episode of Wip sadism to brutal misogyny to a gang skirmish fought on a roller skating rink. What began as one of those exploitation cheapies with three women, comes alive with the dynamic Robbie Lee, Joanne Nail and Monica Gayle — even with all the sexist cruelty on view, the no-limits performances feel liberating, energizing. Hill’s gang epic is so stylized, it’s almost a fantasy. With some good interview and analysis extras.

Switchblade Sisters

Blu-ray

Arrow Video

1975 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 91 min. / Street Date April 27, 2021 / The Jezebels Available from Arrow Video / 39.95

Starring: Robbie Lee, Joanne Nail, Monica Gayle, Asher Brauner, Chase Newhart, Marlene Clark, Kitty Bruce, Janice Karman, Don Stark, Don Marino, Helene Nelson, Bill Adler, Paul Lichtman,...

“No, let me give you some advice, cop. You can beat us, chain us, lock us up. But we’re gonna be back, understand? And when we do, cop, you better keep your ass off our turf, or we’ll Blow It Off! Ya dig? We’re Jezebels, cop – remember that name. We’ll be back!”

Jack Hill’s Switchblade Sisters (1975) will be available on Blu-ray April 20th From Arrow Video

The Wildest Girl Gang That Ever Blasted The Streets!

From Jack Hill, legendary director of Spider Baby, Coffy, Foxy Brown, and The Swinging Cheerleaders comes another iconic cult classic, Switchblade Sisters!

Lace (Robbie Lee), the leader of inner city girl gang The Dagger Debs, meets her match when new girl Maggie (Joanne Nail) moves into the neighborhood. Mistrust and conflict turn to friendship as the girls end up in Juvenile Detention together at the mercy of abusive guards. Meanwhile,...

With readers turning to their home viewing options more than ever, this daily feature provides one new movie each day worth checking out on a major streaming platform.

Pioneering filmmaker Bill Gunn’s 1973 iconoclastic “Ganja & Hess” revolutionized the vampire genre and was effectively suppressed in the United States because it wasn’t the Hollywood horror movie that its producers had commissioned the artist to make. Gunn made a film unlike anything that came before it (and arguably even after), at a time when black films weren’t allowed to be much more than empty sensation. It comes with a mythical backstory that should inspire all filmmakers, but especially young black directors who would use the impulse to get creative.

The early ’70s...

It’s the brightest debut feature of 1970, and perhaps the warmest movie ever about the American race divide. Hal Ashby and Bill Gunn’s work is inspired: rich boy Beau Bridges buys a slum tenement and launches a wonderful ensemble comedy-drama in confrontation with the fantastic quartet of actresses — Lee Grant, Diana Sands, Pearl Bailey and Marki Bey. The humanist picture doesn’t cheat on its subject matter. The cast list contains fresh debuts and and more best-of-career showings: Louis Gossett Jr., Melvin Stewart, Susan Anspach, Robert Klein.

The Landlord

Blu-ray

1970 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 110 min. / Street Date May 14, 2019 / 29.95

Starring: Beau Bridges, Lee Grant, Diana Sands, Pearl Bailey, Walter Brooke, Louis Gossett Jr., Marki Bey, Mel Stewart, Susan Anspach, Robert Klein, Will Mackenzie, Trish Van Devere, Hector Elizondo, Marlene Clark, Gloria Hendry, Bobby V. Garvin.

Cinematography: Gordon Willis

Film Editor: William A. Sawyer, Edward Warschilka

Original Music: Al Kooper

Written by...

While George Romero rightfully gets the majority of the credit for the success of Night of the Living Dead, Duane Jones doesn’t get nearly enough praise for his performance as Ben. Whether or not, as Romero claimed, Jones’ casting was simply a matter of him giving the best audition, I find it hard to believe that Romero didn’t recognize the potency of a black male lead forced to navigate rural white America in addition to the impending zombie apocalypse.

It’s also important to note that the film would not have worked with just any black actor. Jones balances Ben’s flaws with a sympathetic portrayal that makes his brutal end all the more tragic. It’s a phenomenal performance that left me wondering why Jones didn’t have more opportunities in the genre, so I was delightfully surprised when I recognized him in Bill Gunn’s 1973 quasi-vampire flick Ganja & Hess.

Pictures like Midnight Cowboy pulled everyone my age group into the movies, while the entire older generation likely stopped going to movies altogether. John Schlesinger’s masterpiece can boast a number of firsts, and deserves the high praise it receives from every angle — this was the epitome of progressive filmmaking circa 1969.

Midnight Cowboy

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 925

1969 / Color / 1:85 widescreen/ 113 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date May 29, 2018 / 39.95

Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles, John McGiver, Brenda Vaccaro, Barnard Hughes, Ruth White, Jennifer Salt, Anthony Holland, Bob Balaban, Viva, Ultra Violet, Taylor Mead, Paul Morrissey, Pat Ast, Marlene Clark, Sandy Duncan, M. Emmet Walsh.

Cinematography: Adam Holender

Film Editor: Hugh A. Robertson

Production Design: John Robert Lloyd

Original Music: John Barry

Written by Waldo Salt, based on the novel by James Leo Herlihy

Produced by Jerome Hellman, Kenneth Utt

Directed by John Schlesigner

Midnight Cowboy is perhaps the...

Director and documentarian Mark Hartley scores both a film history and comedy success with this ‘wild, untold’ account of the 1980s film studio that was both revered and despised by everyone who had contact with it. The ‘cast list’ of interviewees is encyclopedic, everybody has a strong opinion, and some of them don’t need four-letter words to describe their experience!

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films

On a double bill with

Machete Maidens Unleashed!

Blu-ray

Umbrella Entertainment (Au, all-region

2014 / Color / 1:77 widescreen / 106 min. / Street Date April 4, 2017 / Available from Umbrella Entertainment / 34.99

Starring: Menahem Golan, Yoram Globus, Al Ruban, Alain Jakubowicz, Albert Pyun, Alex Winter, Allen DeBevoise, Avi Lerner, Barbet Schroeder, Bo Derek, Boaz Davidson, Cassandra Peterson, Catherine Mary Stewart, Charles Matthau, Christopher C. Dewey, Christopher Pearce, Cynthia Hargrave, Dan Wolman, Daniel Loewenthal, David Del Valle, David Paulsen, David Sheehan, David Womark, Diane Franklin, Dolph Lundgren, Edward R. Pressman,...

An upcoming documentary you definitely should know about, courtesy of the Graveyard Shift Sisters blog (which celebrates Black women and women of color in the horror and sci-fi). Titled "My Final Girl: The Black Women of 70s Horror Cinema," from director Kristina Leath-Malin, the film surveys the American horror film tradition of the 1970s through early 1980s with focus on the contributions made by black women. Currently in post-production, the film features notable artists of the period, as well as scholars like: Marlene Clark, Beverly Bonner, Gloria Gifford, Pam Grier, Dr. Robin Means-Coleman, Dr. Isabel Pinedo, Sam Waymon, Dolores Smith, and many more. This is definitely a...

Two outings for The Toxic Avenger and a surprisingly good vampire movie feature in this month's Bottom Shelf...

The advent of high definition technology has ushered in an era of unsurpassed quality in terms of the home-cinema experience. With TVs now able to match filmmakers' original visions closer than ever, the path has been cleared for the true maverick masters of cinema to shine on the small screen. Which brings us to Troma Entertainment head honchos Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz, whose final two Toxic Avenger sequelsmake their way onto Blu-ray this month.

Not by any stretch of the imagination a pair of essential HD releases (you could argue the grainy footage of any Troma film is best viewed on ancient VHS), The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation Of Toxie and Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV are what they are: both the best and worst of Kaufman...

S’Blood: Lee’s Facsimile of Bill Gunn an Odd Satisfaction

Surprisingly, after the failure of his 2013 remake of Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy, provocateur Spike Lee’s latest, the Kickstarter funded Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, is also a remake, a modernization of Bill Gunn’s 1973 classic Ganja & Hess, a film tenuously positioned within the spectrum of Blaxploitation. Lee initially explained that the film was about blood addiction and not vampires, with early conversations indicating that this had nothing to do with the likes of Blacula. But those familiar with Gunn’s brilliant and strange (if somewhat compromised) original film will see his stamp all over it, directed with uneasy disconnect from Lee. It’s an odd, sometimes off-putting film, but it strikes a distinctive, addictive chord, generating a particular scent that will draw you down its path. Though Lee expressly wishes the focus of the film to be about...

Reviewed by Kevin Scott

MoreHorror.com

The Beast Must Die (1974)

Written by: James Blish (Original story), Michael Winder, Paul Annett, Scott Finch

Directed by: Paul Annett

Cast: Calvin Lockhart (Tom Newcliffe), Peter Cushing (Dr. Christopher Lundgren), Marlene Clark (Caroline Newcliffe), Charles Gray (Arthur Bennington), Anton Diffring (Pavel), Ciaran Madden (Davina Gilmore), Tom Chadbon (Paul Foote), Michael Gambon (Jan Jarmokowski)

I’ve been on a werewolf kick here lately. I’ve watched new flicks like “Wolves” (review forthcoming), and some really obscure stuff like “Full Eclipse” about werewolf cops. It’s been purely unintentional, it just happened that way. This film is the one that lit the fuse, and the best of the pack. It has volumes of cool stuff going for it, and is ripe for a good remake with all new cool stuff made possible by modern technology. I’ll get to that later.

This is an Amicus film.

Here's another installment featuring Joe Dante's reviews from his stint as a critic for Film Bulletin circa 1969-1974. Our thanks to Video Watchdog and Tim Lucas for his editorial embellishments!

Which one is the werewolf? Finding the answer makes a neat gimmick, smart promotion of which should make this otherwise tame British import a strong contender in ballyhoo markets. Rating: PG.

This British horror mystery has a good audience‑participation gimmick going for it: a "Werewolf Break," during which the story stops to allow viewers to shout out the name of whichever suspicious character they think is the werewolf that's been wiping out other cast members. Reminiscent of the sort of surefire gimmickry that William Castle specialized in during the early '60s, this bit is being shrewdly promoted by the always showmanship‑minded Cinerama Releasing, and should boost The Beast Must Die to good grosses in fast saturation playoff.

"There’s a scene where I get raped by two dozen midgets… and when they jumped on me, half of them didn’t know they were supposed to be acting. They were all pulling their pants down. I said, ‘Oh no! Whoa! It’s time for me to leave, ‘cause these midgets are really trying to rape me!’ The director said ‘Marlene, wait…,’ and started yelling at them, ‘No, this is play! This is pretend!’ I was looking around, like ‘Where’s the plane? Get me on that plane!’” I stumbled upon a year 2000 interview with 1970s actress Marlene Clark, on the Temple of Schlock blog (from where I lifted the above quote), while I was researching past essays written about a notable film that she...

Even though we’re right in the midst of the superhero movie season, that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty being released on Blu-ray and DVD to keep us horror fans happy. This week, we’ve got a handful of new titles coming our way, but also a few retro releases too, including the Roger Corman-produced cult classic Night of the Cobra Woman.

Other new titles arriving on June 17th include the indie sci-fi film Almost Human from Joe Begos, Brett Simmon’s The Monkey’s Paw, as well as the recent remake 13 Sins directed by Daniel Stamm. Teen Wolf Season 3 Part Two makes its home debut this week too, as well as the 20th anniversary DVD edition of Invasion of the Scream Queens.

Spotlight Titles:

13 Sins (Anchor Bay, Blu-ray & DVD)

Elliot (Mark Webber, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) is a bright but meek social services coordinator, drowning...

In The Way We Wore: Black Style Then, designer and professional photographer Michael McCollum provides a fashion archive of African Americans – the famous and the not so famous – from the 1940s through to today.

Click here to see more photos from the book!

Among the celebrities catalogued in The Way We Wore are models Iman, Naomi Campbell and Tyra Banks; actors James Baldwin (below, left) and Marlene Clark (above); and media mogul Oprah Winfrey.

Lesser known African Americans in the photo book include cosmetic line owner Arlene Hawkins (below), who posed leaning against a car in a fur-trimmed coat in 1960 New York City.

Chonicling the decades, McCollum shows the profound influence that African Americans had in shaping the trends of the times. From bell-bottoms and chucky shoes to couture gowns and Sunday bests, the fashions tell a story of a culture and a country.

The Way We Wore: Black Style Then,...

Ganja & Hess (1973) was no doubt intended by its producers to capitalize on the success of the previous year's Blacula, but they must have realized after viewing just the first few minutes what is obvious to anybody: Bill Gunn had produced an offbeat, arthouse indie film expressing a unique personal sensibility.

The film played Cannes, the only American production to do so that year, but was roundly ignored or condescended to by the American press. Gunn was dismissive of the press coverage: "Another critic wondered where was the race problem. If he looks closely, he will find it in his own review." Subsequently the film was re-cut and escaped under a variety of demeaning titles (Black Evil, Black Vampire, etc.). The small sub-set of about ten blaxploitation films with horror themes are quite interesting but remarkably homogenous: only Blackenstein and Ganja & Hess move differently, the former because it's beyond incompetent, the...

A Planet Fury-approved selection of notable genre releases for May.

42nd Street Forever (2012) Blu-ray Available Now

225 minutes of pure awesome. Exploitation fans won’t want to miss Synapse Films' latest trailer compilation. This new release features theatrical trailers from the first two volumes with plenty of additional material. Enjoy classic horror, science fiction, action and exploitation coming attractions remastered in high definition. The 80+ titles include such grindhouse favorites as Dr. Butcher, MD, The Pom Pom Girls, Werewolves on Wheels, Savage Sisters, The Teacher, The Evictors and Chained Heat.

The Wizard of Gore/The Gore Gore Girls (1970/1972) Blu-ray Available Now

Something Weird’s Blu-ray release of Herschell Gordon Lewis’ Blood Trilogy last year was a minor revelation. The Blood Feast print, presented in glorious high definition, was stunning in its gore-soaked clarity. All three films (including Two Thousand Maniacs and Color Me Blood Red) highlighted superior transfers, but Blood Feast was the standout.

Writer/director Bill Gunn’s surreal vampire classic Ganja & Hess is finally getting a proper Blu-ray release. A newly remastered edition of the 1973 cult favorite is coming this May from genre-friendly Kino Classics. Originally conceived as another “blaxploitation” film similar in tone to Blacula, the film defied convention (and expectation) with its aggressive ambiguity and dreamlike imagery.

It stars Duane Jones (of Night of the Living Dead fame) as Dr. Hess, an anthropologist who is compelled to drink blood after being cut with an ancient African dagger. Stunning genre actress Marlene Clark (The Beast Must Die!) co-stars as Ganja, the affluent wife of the doctor’s research assistant (played by Gunn).

The resulting film confused critics and audiences alike and was pulled from release after one week in a New York theater. The producers tinkered with the flick, cutting over half an hour and changing the title several times. Throughout its difficult release history,...

“There’s a scene where I get raped by two dozen midgets… and when they jumped on me, half of them didn’t know they were supposed to be acting. They were all pulling their pants down. I said, ‘Oh no! Whoa! It’s time for me to leave, ‘cause these midgets are really trying to rape me!’ The director said ‘Marlene, wait…’ and started yelling at them, ‘No, this is play! This is pretend!’ I was looking around, like ‘Where’s the plane? Get me on that plane!’”

From a 2000 interview with 70s exploitation queen Marlene Clark, lifted from the Temple Of Schlock blog.

It’s actually a pretty good interview/profile, regardless of what the above quote suggests to, or elicits from you. Informative, revealing, humorous and titillating, I encourage you to read it all. It’s part 70s exploitation film primer (not just blaxploitation), part reference piece,...

The scene below is from the 1977 black film The Baron with Calvin Lockhart, Marlene Clark (who I just profiled in a recent piece about her interview in Shock Magazine Here) and Beverly Johnson – yes the model Beverly Johnson). It was written and directed by Phillip Fenty who wrote the 1973 blaxploitation classic Super Fly, and deals with a filmmaker trying to make a black film but winds up in over his head when he borrows money from the Mafia to make it.

Fenty is currently restoring his film for a 2011 DVD release of the remastered version compete with commentary and extras; below is a very brief scene from the film where Lockhart gets a friend to loan him some money. Now that I know how easy it is, I’m going to be doing it all the time…...

Before Spike or Tyler or Lee Daniels or Antoine Fuqua or George Tillman and all the other countless of black directors working today there was Michael Schultz.

Back in the 70′s Schultz was on the busiest black directors on the scene directing everybody’s favorite Cooley High (…well almost everyone favorite. I still can’t get into the film) and others like Which Way is Up?, Car Wash, Greased Lightning, The Last Dragon and Krush Groove. Is there anyone who hasn’t seen his films? And he’s still very active working today doing features such as Woman Thou Are Loosed (which though mines the same thematic mineshaft as a Tyler Perry film is far superior than any of his films) and TV directing numerous episodes of Chuck and Brothers and Sisters among many other TV shows.

Fortunately in the current issue of the retro movie magazine Shock Cinema (Don...