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Supervixens (1975)
SuperVIXENS!
Supervixens is a trip. There are scenes that I love like Christy Hartburg at the beginning! It's interesting that her image from the film's poster is synonymous not only with the film but RM's entire career, but she is only in the film for less that 10 minutes. A lot of people hate the bathtub scene or think it goes too far but I actually liked it. Alfred Hitchcock liked the scene so much ( and it's nod to the master's Psycho) that he gave Charles Napier a contact at Universal Studios. The film does take a frightening turn and Angel's demise is one right out of a real horror film. I have shown other horror fans this film and they claim that the bathtub scene was the most brutal scene they had ever witnessed. I love Ushci Digard returning to the screen as SuperSoul. There is something so joyous about Uschi, even when she is raping Clint midway through the film. Uschi never seems naked she is always nude, a free spirit. This is not my favorite film by RM simply because it goes on forever and ever. I always get bored at the end. I like the queer overtones of his films but oddly there is no lesbianism in this one... However, Supervixens sometimes feels like a homosexual nightmare. The film centers around a man named Clint who is stalked by the impotent psycho cop Harry, throughout the film Clint is constantly fighting on advances from busty females. When he is raped by Supersoul, he screams, "Let go of my cock!" In the end Harry plans to blow up Clint's girlfriend Supervixen...? Am I the only one who reads into Harry and Clint's screwed up relationship? It may be open to interpretation... Not the worst... but not the best from RM.
Up! (1976)
Sheath your sword to it's hilt... are you UP for it?
Russ Meyer's Up! is a nasty black comedy. Totally X-rated. In RM's later years there was something mentally ill about his fantasies. This film is masterful in it's kinetic editing together of a plethora of pervasive perversions. I think the photography is some of the best in his career. Kitten Natividad is one of my favorite parts of the film. She opens up the film as the story's Greek Chorus,(obviously the pen of Roger Ebert)she then opens up her legs with an incredible close up of her Brillo Pad-esque pubic hair. She reminds the audience over and over of the convoluted murder mystery of Adolf "Hitler" Schwartz. Adolf's sex dungeon is one of RM's freakiest and grotesque scenes. I absolutely love Candy Samples aka Mary Gavin as the Headsperson. I love her S&M black leather hood with a zipper on the mouth, "Headsperson,an abyss of gluttony," proclaims Kitten in one of the film's best montages. Like Beyond the Valley and Supervixens, this film is so 'punk' before the fact. Oddly, I think RM was so untouched by 'hipness' of the times. Watching Up! one can imagine pretty clearly why the Sex Pistols wanted Russ Meyer and Roger Ebert to make their movie. This film has an intentional nasty bad attitude in a fun way. Another thing that I love about Up is all the queer overtones. All the men have huge fake penises in this one (perhaps to match the giant tits?). The film opens with Hitler bottoming for his well hung hustler Paul (played by Robert McLane, who was in the queer 'Love Story' A Very Natural Thing 1974). The lesbian scenes are depicted as good and erotic and the male on male scenes are depicted as degrading and perverse. RM was old school and openly homophobic but oddly ALL of his films show an eroticism to men in a lesser degree to the women. RM still fetishizes male muscles, buttocks and torsos and sometimes even the penis... Just an interesting observation. Also, there are lots of shots of feet, his films are great if you have a thing for feet and shoes. All in all, I really like this one. I thought it was better than Supervixens, which is one people always seem to talk about.
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)
Look On Up At The Bottom!
This is not a sequel and there has never been anything like it. It is a shame that Russ Meyer didn't make more films like this at 20th Century Fox. All of his films has a professional look to them but Beyond looks polished and perfect. Russ Meyer called this film one of his, "most important." As far as editing and cinematography, the film is beautiful. Roger Ebert's script is funny and the tone is curious at times. I am a firm believer that Russ Meyer's films were funnier and more unique before Roger Ebert's influence of self parody. With that said, I still think Beyond is one of his best films and is the one he is most known for. The tone of the film totally changes by the end and plays out almost like a serious horror film. I think it is amusing that Roger Ebert and RM changed the ending after the murder of Sharon Tate by the Mason family. John Waters (who pays many homages to RM) changed the ending to his film Multiple Maniacs 1970 based on the Manson murders as well. Great minds think alike I guess... The film has so many endings that it is hard to remember how many exactly. One of them has a narrator reciting a moral road map for the audience. Hilarious. Especially the part about Susan Lake, "Perhaps TOO pure." And how even, "excessive goodness," in itself can be a bad thing. Russ Meyer only made one more film at 20th, The Seven Minutes, a film I like but most people, even the director, dismiss. After seeing the end of 'Dolls' and the bathtub scene in 'Supervixens,' I really wish RM would have made an entry into the horror genre. His violence and gore is always so extreme. This is a great introduction to RM's style. Better with multiple viewings. Erica Gavin is in the film without her weird Vixen eyebrows. I wish she was in the film more but her scenes with Cynthia Myers are some of the most memorable.
Mudhoney (1965)
Powerful. Leaves a taste of evil.
Russ Meyer is a great forerunner of independent cinema and free speech. This is a very bold story. Although the camera transfixes on beautiful female forms, the movie as a whole isn't very pretty. But who said that art had to be pretty or in good taste? There is no question in my mind that Mudhoney is a work of art. I like that one of the film's main focus is the hypocrisy of religion. The insane preacher (who screams the Lord's prayer)played by Frank Bolger hides behind religion to cloak a deeper malevolence. By the end of the film this said preacher turns the whole town into a crazed blood thirsty mob. Fans of RM will see many familiar faces like Lorna Maitland, John Furlong and Stuart Lancaster. There is one of the most insane, inappropriate funerals ever depicted on film. This film is artistic and sleazy and dramatic. The final shots of Rena Horten running through the town in a panic were very tense. The looks of guilt of the townspeople after the lynching was very effective and dramatic. Mudhoney AKA Rope of Flesh is a unique entry in the world of Russ Meyer. I loved it.
Cherry, Harry & Raquel! (1969)
RM's Psychedelic surrealist film
Fun sexploitation! Uschi Digard looks like the 50 foot woman in this film. She is the 'Lost Soul' of the film. Dancing and bouncing through out the desert in nothing but thigh high patine leather booths and a chain around her waste. She interprets the convoluted plot about a corrupt sheriff who smuggles pot through the Mexican boarder into the USA. This film has three introductions. The first is a script about freedom of choice and speech that scrolls over a lightening fast montage of Uschi bouncing around. The montage is so kinetic that the words of freedom of choice become obsolete... Intro number two is a bold narration about the evils of marijuana corrupting the minds of today's (1969) thrill seeking, turned on-generation. It seems to contradict the the previous introduction... very tongue in cheek. The third intro is the film's opening credits... RUSS MEYER'S CHERRY & HARRY & RAQUEL. A blonde woman and a young man are seen driving in the desert. They stop the car and begin fornicating next to the sand and brush and cacti while the psychedelic song, "Toys of Our Time," blasts on the soundtrack. The film ends with the narrator giving the audience a moral road map of the characters. SPOILER: The VERY end of the film reveals that the whole plot has been the novel or story of a female author. She types away on her typewriter and her husband asks her brother if he has ever read his sister's, "anti-social," writing. The film alludes that the said author is carrying on an incestuous relationship with her brother. Perverted and brilliant. A great pot head film!
Lorna (1964)
Southern Gothic Melodrama from the lusty table of RUSS MEYER
Lust..Longing...Love.. Life... LORNA! I bought this Lusty Gothic Years set, having seen MUDHONEY but without ever having seen Lorna before. I was not disappointed. I am a big Russ Meyer fan and I hardly ever hear anyone talk about Lorna or Mudhoney. These are two of his best films. I was really impressed with the beautiful contrast of the black and white photography in both movies. I could see how much RM self parodies in his later work of his older movies. Fans of BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRA- VIXENS will notice the parallels of the opening of LORNA. The dumb husband who studies while his wife is moaning in the bedroom next to him, sexually unsatisfied. Another impressive scene from the beginning of the film is the montage that accompanies Lorn'a inner monologue about her sad disillusionment of sex and love in marriage. The 'Man of God' as the Greek chorus throughout the film is very original and strange. Russ Meyer early films were so much better than the over baked self parodies Roger Ebert wrote in the 70's... I love those films too like UP! and BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS but I think his films were even better when he wasn't so in on the joke.
Vixen! (1968)
The Original 'Nymphomaniac'
This is one of my favorite films. It stands out to me over other Russ Meyer movies because of the simplicity of the plot. Vixen loves her husband but she is a sex addict who can not seem to control herself. I think the way Erica Gavin plays her is sweet even though she is a real super-bitch. I love that you can tell that her husband is something to special to her and everything else was just a maze of bodies. It is strange that she is a racist but I have a hard time thinking of other films from this time that depicted racism in an ugly and blunt depiction. I think it's hilarious that Vixen defends Capitalism in an airplane that is being hijacked by a Scottish Communist. She is a bisexual, racist, sex addict, all American girl in the backwoods of Canada. The fish dance is brilliant. Fans of John Waters will see this films profound influence on his career with Divine. In Female Trouble, Divine looks like a 300lb version of Vixen and she performs with dead fish as well... I love this movie. It is mostly funny... sometimes it is oddly sensitive and sweet. I don't even think this is RM's best movie but there is something special about it. The music by William Loose is great, you will be humming the theme from Vixen for days! "Is she Woman?... Or Animal?"
Good Morning... and Goodbye! (1967)
Underrated Russ Meyer Picture
When you read about Russ Meyer, people usually write about Erica Gavin, Edie Williams, Tura Satana, but I never hear anyone mention how wonderful Alaina Capri is as Angel in Good Morning and Goodbye. Before Vixen, Alaina Capri was the super-bitch with an unquenchable thirst for sins of the flesh. Smoldering bitch glare, perfect dark brown mountain of hair that is always set perfectly, arched eyebrows, she really is the perfect RM archetype. This is a sexploitation film but it is very unique in it's frank depiction of human sexuality. Most films of this era have men that are in control love machines, this one deals with the crippling affects male impotence can have on connubial bliss. The women in 'Good Morning..' demand their sexual needs. Unconventional for its time. I love the scene when Angel gets so horny that she drives to the construction sight and lays on the horn alerting her stud of her presence. This film is also a great showcase for Haji. I love that she is dressed like Eve, Mother of the Earth, her silver fig leafs covering her bronze body, she teaches Burt( the impotent husband) how to make love again with her sexual witchcraft. Haji's role is mysterious, sometimes it is depicting her as a invisible nymph watching and manipulating the other players like Puck in A Midsummer's Nights Dream... other times she is seen interacting with the characters... Is she good? Is she evil? Indeed does she exist at all? This movie is campy and silly but one gets the feeling that the director is in on the joke. The opening narration is some of the funniest dialogue of all time ("They're like a beef stew..."). Although Roger Ebert basically dismissed this film and 'Common Law Cabin' in his retrospective of RM's work as being his lesser films, I think 'Beyond the Valley of the Dolls' pays many homages in its screenplay to 'Good Morning...' The photography is beautiful, Russ Meyer was a master of blending art and sexploitation.
Homicidal (1961)
William Castle's Masterful Satire of Psycho
*Spoilers* Some reviews have stated that this is a blatant knock off of the very famous Alfred Hitchcock horror film Psycho, maybe... and that Homicidal was a film trying to cash in on the success of it's even more famous predecessor, perhaps... But in many ways Hitch took inspiration from William Castle movies like House on Haunted Hill and The Tingler and made his own low budget black and white horror film with a gimmick because he knew it would make a lot of money. I think William Castle was intentionally poking fun at Alfred Hitchcock's horror masterpiece. In many ways it is a satire to the film and at the same time trying to go beyond with a gorier death scenes and an even more confusing trans-gender killer. The imaginary is in many ways parallel with Psycho, I wish I could post pictures side by side, but just to name a few: The night time driving sequences with Emily are copycat to the ones with Janet Leigh, Helga the crippled old woman is reminiscent of Mrs. Bates in the rocking chair. The Justice of the Peace and his wife at the beginning reminds me of Sheriff Al Chambers in Psycho who is also woken up at an ungodly hour of the night to divulge information about Norman and his mother to Marion's sister. In the case of Homicidal, the Justice of the Peace is woken up to marry Emily to a random stranger/bellboy she meets in a hotel, Emily stabs him in the gut multiple times and it's quite bloody for 1961! This is my favorite Castle film. I truly see it as a satire. I think he made his films intentionally campy and funny, it's not as simple as being, "so bad it's good." It's intentionally, "bad," or over the top. It is different from the likes of Ed Wood who thought he was the next Orison Welles, creating the opposite reaction in his attempt to be taken seriously as a director. William Castle had his own unique tongue in cheek macabre humor and made low budget mainstream pictures with the STRANGEST plots of all time. Homicidal is no exception, it is very strange and gender bending! Drag King way before it's time. I love it.
The Babysitter (1969)
She came to sit with Baby... But ended up with Daddy!
I love this movie. If you love exploitation, this is a true gem. The Babysitter really has it all. Bikers, switchblades, pot smoking, rock n' roll hippies, go-go dancers and tacos! All in the first ten minutes. In this story you may find a wide range of sleaze and perversion but I also noticed a real sweetness to the movie. It's about a man who feels like he has lost touch wife and starts to have a wondering eye for the babysitter. What was unique to me was the fact that neither Candy the babysitter nor Mr. Maxwell seemed inherently evil. Even though he is cheating on his wife, it couldn't seem more wholesome. Not only that but his wife is a total shrew! This film doesn't only exploit sex and violence but the, 'youth culture,' of 1969. The babysitter in question is perfectly named, Candy. She just wants to laugh and dance and have a good time. "If that what it takes to be a hippie, I guess we all have a little hippie in us," says our hero George Maxwell. He doesn't have a little hippie in him as much he has a little hippie on him! There is also a subplot that seems to be taking place on Spahn ranch in Death Valley about a bad ass biker chick trying to blackmail George to set her boyfriend free. She photographs the affair and boasts that she will take the photos to his wife and his boss if he doesn't set her convicted murderer boyfriend (her, "Old man," as she puts it) free. She also tries to photograph George's potato faced daughter, in one of the most horrifying lesbian scenes of all time! Each shot of this scene looks like the last known photograph of either party. It's so rough and gritty and awkward but I loved it. This film is so much better than the bigger budget and in color remake, "Weekend with the Babysitter 1970." Watch this with some good friends and you might be surprised how much you get into it. FOUR STARS! Does this seem a little high? Perhaps but I couldn't get this flick out of my mind! SPOILER! The end is the best, Mrs. Maxwell does end of seeing the lurid but artfully crafted photos of the affair and all she has to say to her husband is, "Well, maybe we DO play too much bridge," Hilarious!