The Goddesses of Underground Cinema: UTA ERICKSON

Uta Erickson is the second entry into my Goddesses of Underground Cinema feature; I hope to add many more audacious, alluring, ambrosial, adorable and accomplished actress to this feature before year’s end. Ms. Erickson has much in common with my first recipient Darlene Bennett. Like so many of the women who acted in underground cinema through the sixties little is known about either actresses personal life and shortly after the decade was over they both disappeared from filmmaking. Bennett and Erickson worked with many of the same directors, although I don’t think their paths ever intersected role-speaking. Uta Erickson has thirty-nine acting credits to her name; or more accurately her many names. Ms. Erickson may hold a world record for the amount of pseudonyms she used in her eight years of acting in underground cinema. Her aliases included Arti Jane, Artie Giovanni, Sharon Spitz, Tia Trevino, Artimidia Grillet, Jennie Reeves, Carla Costa, Artemida Diannini, Marion Shelton, Carla Erikson, Jo-Ann Perry, Gia Nina, Rose Dunn, Willa Mist, Dyana Alicia and Britt Hansen. Erickson worked with many of my favourite directors of the period including Doris Wishman, Michael Findlay, Joe Sarno and John and Lem Amero. Erickson’s natural beauty and ease in front of the camera made her a real stand-out among her peers. Uta brings a perfect balance of sexy, sweet and shy with intelligence, intensity and strength. Many of Uta’s roles have been dubbed over and others like the excellent Love Toy she speaks very little. Much can be relayed without speaking a word as is the case with so many of Uta’s memorable performances. For a solid representation of Uta Erickson’s work I would recommend checking out Lem and John Amero’s beautiful 1970 film Bacchanale, Michael Findlay’s drug-induced 1969 odyssey of insanity The Ultimate Degenerate, Doris Wishman’s deliciously sleazy 1973 film Love Toy, Joe Sarno’s mesmerizing melodrama Passion in Hot Hollows and the quirky, satan-worshipping, cat-fighting shenanigans of Olga’s Dance Hall Girls whose director is unknown. Below are several pictures of the lovely and talented Uta Erickson as well as her complete film resume.

Uta (credited as Artimida Grillet) is Maria in Michael Findlay’s The Ultimate Degenerate.

Uta (credited as Britt Hansen) is Jean in Joe Sarno’s Passion in Hot Hollows.

Uta (uncredited) is noted as “blonde Sitting on couch” in Olga’s Dance Hall Girls. Despite receiving more screen time than practically any of the other film’s cast, Uta’s character never gets a name and the actress is not credited.

Uta (credited as Dyana Alicia) is Maria in Michael Findlay’s The Kiss of her Flesh. Pictured also is Earl Hindman (credited as Leo Heinz) who plays Don. Picture courtesy of My Kind of Images.

Uta in her final film appearance (credited as Willa Mist) is Mary in Doris Wishman’s Love Toy.

Uta in another uncredited role in Andy Milligan’s Seeds of Sin.

Uta (credited as Carla Costa) is Monika in Peter Woodcock’s Daughters of Lesbos.

Uta in another uncredited role as a hooker in Barry Mahon’s The Sex Killer.

Uta (credited as Rose Dunn) is Lola in Kenny and Ray Wells’ Wendy’s Palace.

Uta plays Ruth in Lem and John Amero’s Bacchanale. This was the first film I seen Uta in and her appearance and performance left a lasting impression on me. Picture courtesy of My Kind of Images.

***Uta Erickson was often cast alongside the seriously sassy Linda Boyce; the two had some sizzling chemistry together. Below are images from a selection of Ms. Erickson and Ms. Boyce’s onscreen appearances.***

Uta (credited as Carla Costa) is Phyllis and Linda (credited as Claudia Cheer) is Babette in Peter Woodcock’s Return of the Secret Society (aka Babette)

Uta (credited as Rose Dunn) is Lola and Linda (credited as Mary Poey) plays Wendy in Kenny and Ray Wells Wendy’s Palace.

Uta (credited as Artemidia Grillet) is Maggie and Linda (credited as Linda Mactavish) is Jackie in Michael Findlay’s A Thousand Pleasures. Picture courtesy of My Kind of Images.

Uta is uncredited playing the stage partner to Linda Boyce’s (credited as Lena Brice) character Stella in Michael Findlay’s The Curse of her Flesh. Picture courtesy of My Kind of Images.

Love Toy (1973)
Love Me… Please! (1972)
Dynamite (1972)
Lovers by Appointment (1970)
Torture Me, Kiss Me (1970)
Wendy’s Palace (1970)
Women Women Women Moira (1970)
Only in My Dreams (1970)
Interplay (1970)
Bacchanale (1970)
The Amazing Transplant (1970)
The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful (1970)
Yellow Bird (1970)
Mnasidika (1969)
She’s Doing It Again (1969)
Passion in Hot Hollows (1969)
Monique, My Love (1969)
Marcy (1969)
She Came on the Bus (1969)
Sex Circus (1969)
Donna and Lisa (1969)
Anything Once (1969)
Olga’s Dance Hall Girls (1969)
The Ultimate Degenerate (1969)
Return of the Secret Society (1968)
The Kiss of Her Flesh (1968)
The Curse of Her Flesh (1968)
See How They Come (1968)
Daughters of Lesbos (1968)
Seeds of Sin (1968)
Private Relations (1968)
Beware the Black Widow (1968)
The New Life Style (Just to Be Love) (1968)
A Thousand Pleasures (1968)
The Sex Killer (1967)
Unholy Matrimony (1966)
Sin in the City (1966)
Electronic Lover (1966)
The Love Cult (1966)

Goregirl’s Dungeon on YouTube: White Lightning

Music and images from Herschell Gordon Lewis’s Moonshine Mountain (1964) from the compilation The Eye Popping Sounds of Herschell Gordon Lewis. I rather enjoyed Mr. Lewis’s country bumpkin comedy musical.

“Filmed in the beautiful Carolinas.”

White Lightning…

Favourite Five Series: Something Weird Video Triple Features

This is it, my final Stepping Into Something Weird and The Films of Michael Findlay post! This has genuinely been the most fun I have ever had doing a feature for Goregirl’s Dungeon! Seventy-five Something Weird titles watched and nineteen Something Weird DVDs added to my personal collection; a collection I intend to grow. I look forward to continuing my journey through the rest of Something Weird Video’s catalog in the months and years to come. I hope I was able to turn you on to some of these gorgeous grindhouse gems and early exploitation extravaganzas!

Thank you to my good friend and Co-host David Arrate over at My Kind of Story and My Kind of Story Images for his contributions and assistance during Stepping into Something Weird and The Films of Michael Findlay.

Let us just get right down to business here shall we? Here is My Favourite Five Something Weird Video Triple Features! All five of the triple features on this list should be in every single exploitation fans collection!

The Touch of her Flesh/The Curse of her Flesh/The Kiss of her Flesh

Michael Findlay’s Flesh trilogy received my highest combined rating of all the triple features on this list. The Curse of Her Flesh received a perfect rating and made my favourite five something weird films (part two), The Kiss of Her Flesh was not far behind with a 4.5/5 and The Touch of Her Flesh a 3.5/5 for a combined 13. The trilogy follows weapons expert Richard Jennings who flips a switch after catching his voluptuous wife in bed with another man and goes on a three film killing spree where numerous broads (and a few men too) are killed in a number of creative ways that include various weapons, poison and a booby-trapped dildo! The Touch of Her Flesh seems so conservative in comparison to The Curse of Her Flesh and The Kiss of Her Flesh but all three are an absolute shitload of fun! I can say the same thing about this entire trilogy that I said about The Curse of Her Flesh; outrageous, nasty, hilarious, naughty, sleazy, entertaining brilliance! Having seen six Findlay efforts offered through Something Weird Video I can say with confidence that Findlay is one of the most outrageous and entertaining directors in their library! I said it before and I am going to said again right freaking now; every film on this list is a must have for exploitation fans but none of them more so than Michael Findlay’s Flesh trilogy!

For more images from The Touch of Her Flesh click here.

For more images from The Curse of Her Flesh click here.

For more images from The Kiss of Her Flesh click here.

Taken from the Something Weird Video Website:

Get ready to be Shocked and Appalled with an All Out Assault on Humanity! Here’s the infamous “Flesh Trilogy,” three of the most outrageously insane Sexploitation Sickies of the 60s from husband and wife filmmakers Michael and Roberta Findlay which mix sex and violence into a malignant cocktail still potent today.

The madness starts with The Touch of Her Flesh where Richard Jennings discovers his wife Claudia in bed with another man, goes berserk, and is promptly hit by a car. In a classic case of overreaction, the now-crippled Jennings not only vows revenge on his wife but on all women everywhere, slaughtering strippers, hookers and go-go girls in a series of psycho killings which climax with a lovely little buzzsaw beheading.

Next Jennings extends The Curse of Her Flesh to the man he caught with Claudia as well as “everyone connected with him,” leading to murders by machete, a poisoned cat’s paw, and even a lethal G-string!

Finally in The Kiss of Her Flesh, Jennings fights the ultimate Battle of the Sexes with a tire iron, blowtorch, and, believe it or not, a lobster claw. Yipes! Hilariously depraved, deranged, disturbing, and definitely not part of our PC-world, here are three gruesome gems sure to make your jaw hit the floor!

Special Features
• Original Findlay Trailers for The Curse of Her Flesh, Satan’s Bed, The Touch of Her Flesh and The Ultimate Degenerate
• Gallery of Sick Sixties Sex Stills with Audio Oddities

Submission/Vibrations/Fluctuations

This triple feature was a no-brainer for the list. It contains two films that I gave a perfect rating to and made my favourite five Something Weird Video lists part one and part two! Submission is a little tale about an infantile woman named Vickie and her violent criminal boyfriend Barry who keeps her submissive with toys, candy and sex while bumping off and robbing rich broads. The unique and spellbinding Submission also received the full review treatment. Vibrations is about the complicated relationship between two sisters with an incestuous past; a sexy, well-acted masterpiece! The weak link in this trilogy being Fluctuations. Fluctuations had me hypnotized for the first 15 minutes, than it started to get tedious, and tedium turned to irritation and irritation turned to anger and then I wanted to take the disk out and stomp on it 40 or 50 times and then set it on fire. And then I remembered that Submission and Vibrations were on the same disc so I didn’t. It has a sound loop of two people having sex and the woman sounds like she has asthma and every 8 or 9 minutes or so a male voice says “I’m cumming”. It is the sort of thing you would put on to torture someone. In fact, the only reason I would ever put Fluctuations on ever again is if I was torturing a man in my apartment. And I’ll tell ya one thing, I’d be taping headphones to the bastards ears so I didn’t have to listen to it. On the plus side some of the imagery is interesting briefly and Findlay favourite Kim Lewid is in it. Submission and Vibrations are so freaking brilliant I could not possibly leave this trio off the list; despite the inclusion of Fluctuations. You can look at Fluctuations as a historical curio, or endurance test; whatever. You are buying this set for Vibrations and Submission. Do it now! SUBMIT! SUBMIT! SUBMIT!

For more images from Submission click here.

For more images from Vibrations click here.

For more images from Fluctuations click here.

Taken from the Something Weird Video Website:

It’s a triple bill of sexploitation skin and sin mixing Joe Sarno sophistication with sleaze and schlock, exactly as they played Times Square back in 1970!

Good VIBRATIONS go in ultra-kink when sex-happy Julia moves in with her uptight young sister and becomes irresistibly drawn to a next-door storage room where mistress Georgia holds nightly orgies with an oddball sex cult. Armed with a giant joy buzzer, Georgia likes to turn herself on, turn her fiends on and, ultimately, turn Julia and her sister on: “I specialize in pleasure. Pleasure so intense, it’s akin to torment, exquisite torment…” An offbeat, psychologically twisted skinflick from the always excellent Joe Sarno!

Plus: The kink-a-thon continues with FLUCTUATIONS, a Bizarre don’t-even try-to-make-sense-of-it bombardment of sexual imagery that plays like stream of-consciousness from a degenerate: threesomes, foursomes, lesbians, bondage, hair-whipping(!) and, believe it or not, even kung-fu. Avant garde masterpiece or pure gutter trash? Perhaps both…

AND: A psycho sex-fiend keeps his infantile girlfriend Vicky (Jennifer Welles) in SUBMISSION with candy bars, toys and, yes, hot wax. But when they plan on killing a wealthy lesbian, Vicky discovers she likes a woman’s touch and plans a nasty surprise for her boneheaded boyfriend.

Special Features
• Digitally Remastered!
• Bonus Deleted Scenes: 7 minutes of never-before-seen footage deleted form the final cut of SUBMISSION
• Gallery of Sick Sixties Sex Stills with Audio Oddities!
• Total running time: Over 3 1/2 hours of Grindhouse guignol!

Olga’s House of Shame/White Slaves of Chinatown/Olga’s Dance Hall Girls

Olga’s House of Shame is one of those films I always instantly associate with Something Weird Video. For years I have meant to watch it and for some unexplainable reason just never did. It was the first set during this feature that I added to my personal collection and it was worth every last penny too! I enjoyed the hell out of all three of these films. I actually re-watched the entire trio a week back. On my initial watch I was all about Olga’s Dance Hall Girls. It does after all have a Satan worship subplot and two of my favourite goddesses of exploitation; Uta Erickson and Linda Boyce! What it is missing; and this is important, is Audrey Campbell who plays Olga in all three of Joseph P. Mawra’s films. Dance Hall Girl’s director is unknown and for some strange reason this unknown director decided not to use Ms. Campbell. I didn’t mind Lucy Eldredge as Olga but she is certainly no Audrey Campbell! I still enjoyed the film but on a re-watch I felt even more warmly towards White Slaves of Chinatown and Olga’s House of Shame. Audrey Campbell is a solid actress as she proves in both Sin in the Suburbs and One Naked Night (not an SWV film) and she brings something special to this series that should not have been replaced by anybody. The three films are done in a sort of documentary style with narration and in some cases a wee bit of improvised dialog. The series is exploitative to be sure, but didn’t entirely live up to its bad-ass reputation; the idea and themes are nastier than the actual execution. That said the imagery is incredibly memorable. Some of my most popular tumblr posts have been for these films. I must give a thousand thanks to my tumblrgasmic friend over at the aptly named Olga’s House of Shame who generously reblogged many of my Olga sets. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU OLGA’S HOUSE OF SHAME! The bad-ass Olga tortures, blackmails, hooks on drugs and prostitutes countless young damsels over the course of the films. So many of my favourite exploitation godesses turn up like the aforementioned Erickson and Boyce and my girl Gigi Darlene is here getting her blonde ass in trouble again! Audrey Campbell’s co-star Judy Young who plays her daughter Kathy in Sin in the Suburbs has a feature role in Olga’s House of Shame! Young’s character Elaine is tortured mercilessly before Olga molds her into her Doppelganger! How could you Olga?! She’s your own daughter! Another absolutely positively must own trio that also features my very favourite supplements of any of the triple features listed here!

For more images from Olga’s House of Shame click here.

For more images from White Slaves of Chinatown click here.

For more images from Olga’s Dance Hall Girls click here.

Taken from the Something Weird Video Website:

Meet Olga: a woman who “possessed a mind so warped she made sadism a full-time business,” and the maniacal character in five of the most notorious, hilariously twisted sexploitation films from the sic, sick sixties.

In the first of the series, Olga uses pot parties and comic-book violence to turn Gigi Darlene and other female captives into her WHITE SLAVES OF CHINATOWN before putting them to work as drug-addicted hookers. But Olga has her tender side too and, in the mood for romance selects an occasional slave for a little lesbian loving: “The disease called Olga cannot be fought!”

Then, after relocating to New Jersey, OLGA’S HOUSE OF SHAME is open for business! With the help of Nick, her malignant brother and a sweet-faced Elaine, a victim-turned-protégé, Olga runs a crime syndicate while gleefully engaging in such extracurricular activities as bondage, torture, and the always popular “horse discipline.” The most outrageous of the series, OLGA’S HOUSE OF SHAME also features a surprise announcement for an unmade Olga with a truly mind-boggling title…

Finally, things take a bizarre turn with the most obscure Olga of them all, OLGA’S DANCE HALL GIRLS, in which a new brat-faced Olga recruits suburban housewives as “hostesses” for a dance hall which is really just a front for – are you ready? – a satanic cult!

SPECAIL FEATURES:
Digitally Remastered!
Olga Trailers for the entire Olga series: WHITE SLAVES OF CHINATOWN, Olga’s Girls, OLGA’S HOUSE OF SHAME, Madame Olga’s Massage Parlor, and OLGA’S DANCE HALL GIRLS!
The Olga sequence from Mondo Oscenita featuring rare footage from the “lost” Olga film, Madame Olga’s Massage Parlor!
Special Booklet Interview with Olga star Audrey Campbell!
A pre-Olga Audrey poses for Byron Mabe in the Nudie-Cutie Shortie, Audrey Campbell, Art Lover!
Gallery of Sexploitation Ad Art with Exploitation Audio!
Total Running Time: Over 3 1/2 Hours of Pain & Pleasure!
OUCH! For maximum effect, view while shackled.
Warning: This program contains nudity, violence, and bullwhips.

Aroused/Help Wanted Female/Rent-a-Girl

This one is a real mixed bag of nuts! Extra salty nuts! Aroused made my top ten favourite horror films of 1966;a feature I did November 2012. I felt much warmer towards Aroused on this re-watch and upped its score a full point to a 4.5/5! This is a must see for fans of William Lustig’s Maniac as I pointed out in my short blurb I wrote for the film. Look at the shot I posted below that David included in a tumblr post he did! Almost identical to a shot Lustig included in Maniac. It also features mannequins and a killer who offs prostitutes! Aroused is one of Something Weird’s best horror films and one of their best films period; it is sleazy-creepy perfection! The wacky Help Wanted Female is a charming companion piece to Aroused. Help Wanted Female is funny and quirky with a touch of violence and a few surprises as well as a very appealing group of characters and performances. Friends Jo-Jo and Luana are a couple of hustling babes; Jo-jo a Kung Fu master and Luana a prostitute. Luana doubles her price for regular customer Sebastian Gregory but ends up getting more than she bargained for. I did a full review of Help Wanted Female so you should read it and it has lots of pretty pictures to go along with it. Unfortunately I found Rent-a-Girl to be a bit of a weak link in the set. It certainly isn’t Fluctuations but it has a pretty muddy pace and some unnecessary and exceptionally long and dull scenes. There was a scene of two people painting a woman that was especially dull. I wonder if whoever came up with the expression “It was like watching paint dry” came up with that after watching Rent-a-Girl. It isn’t completely without some charm however. Rent-a-Girl had a great opening scene that got me really excited for the film and it has a game of strip billiards featuring Darlene Bennett, June Roberts and Judy Adler (I “think” that is Judy Adler in that scene). I’d actually probably squeeze this film in for a pass for having just enough memorable moments. The trio is certainly worth owning for Aroused, Help Wanted Female and the bonus features.

For more images from Aroused click here.

For more images from Help Wanted Female click here.

For more images from Rent-a-Girl click here.

Taken from the Something Weird Video Website:

RENT-A-GIRL
Pretty New Yorker Karen Anderson becomes involved with a shady modeling agency. She is easily persuaded to do cheesecake poses and soon asked to reveal all. Little does she know, in her infinite innocence, that her employers actually procure young nymphets as sexual playthings for their wealthy clientele. The girls are whipped, beaten, painted, sprayed and burned. Poor Karen eventually gains first hand knowledge of the gang’s sick practices and flees (with a newly-branded buttock) to the cops.

AROUSED
“There’s a maniac loose out there! He’s gonna kill again! He’s probably ripping some girl apart right now!”

Fact of Life: you can’t go wrong with any film that features the two major cornerstones of big-screen entertainment — hookers and a psycho killer. Which means, of course, that you can’t go wrong with Aroused, a grim and gritty little piece of primo Sixties exploitation — nestled somewhere between a skinflick and a horror film — that still holds up remarkably well today.

A “sex killer” prowls the streets of Manhattan preying on prostitutes. “This guy’s a nut! He’ll grab any woman he thinks is a whore!” And why exactly does he pick on hookers? Because — “Nya, nya,nya, nya.nya…” — his mama was a ho! Now, as another deeply disturbed resident of The Big Apple, the killer — whose identity is slowly revealed during the course of the film — sits on a fire escape silently watching working girl Pat Wilson turn a trick. Finally, when she’s finished, he climbs in the window, attacks Miss Wilson while in the shower, wraps the shower curtain around her head, and strangles her. Then he…well…yeah. He does. He climbs on top of her….

Young Detective Johnny (STEVE HOLLISTER, who also plays the doomed young man in the color inserts added to Love Hunger) is so upset by the crime — “What a way for a human being to die!” — that he tries to catch the killer by joining forces with Ginny Smith (JANINE LENON, whose first name is billed as “Djanine”), the seen-it-all, done-it-all, knife-wielding hooker-without-a-heart-of-gold-slash-lesbian-lover of Pat: “We’re just pieces of meat hanging on a hook waiting for a butcher!” But when one of Ginny’s galpals agrees to act as psycho bait — oops! — it all goes wrong and she gets hacked up before Johnny can get to her.

Ginny, meanwhile, is suspicious of one of the lugs who work at Gus’ Bar, the Official Hooker Hangout, sneaks into his loft, and finds it decorated with mannequin parts! In an ending that bears a striking resemblance to the climax of Bill Lustig’s Maniac, Ginny returns to the creep’s apartment with some of her prostitute pals, surrounds the screaming loon on his bed and, with her trusty knife, turns him into “a boy soprano….”

Set in a New York that’s eternally at night and choking in sleaze. Aroused is a surprisingly fun piece of filth: the murders are nasty, there’s plenty of skin and, believe it or not, we actually care about the characters — especially when Johnny’s dutiful wife finds herself unwittingly sipping coffee with the killer: “You’re a whore like all the others….” Sure, they’re all cardboard cliches spouting crime-magazine dialogue but, hey, that’s what B-movies are all about. You’ll also recognize most of the music as library cues used endlessly by Doris Wishman. lt’s a shame director ANTON HOLDEN didn’t make more like this. Though Something Weird has sold Aroused from day one, it’s now finally been digitally remastered from a crisp 35mm print.

“And the moral is…no moral.”

HELP WANTED FEMALE
Don’t be fooled by the innocuous title. Happily hiding behind it is a delightfully demented, luridly loony, off-kilter sexploitation gem that mixes LSD and murder with two sexy mankillers.

Jo-Jo runs a karate school — “Jo-Jo’s Kung Fu” — and robs middle-aged men in her spare time. Her galpal, Luana, is a high-priced hooker who goes on a 5200 date with SEBASTIAN GREGORY who stars as… well… Sebastian Gregory. She strips and dances as Gregory gobbles down a sugar cube: “LSD? Say, you won’t start going ape on me, will you, Daddy?” Ape, no; babble, yes. “I might start talking too much. I might tell you things I don’t want you to hear….’ And talk he does, telling Luana what happened to his ex-girlfriend Barbara as the film takes a definite turn for the weird….

“Barbara had a wild erotic imagination,” says Gregory by way of explaining why cat-eyed Barbara deliberately burns him with an ember from the fireplace: “My pain aroused her!” She then takes out a knife and asks him to slice her thigh. “To inflict pain with pleasure only led to the inevitable: to kill for pleasure!” Next thing you know, the two pick up a high-school hitchhiker and have her pose for nude photos before Barbara stabs her in the gut and Gregory slits her throat. On a roll, Gregory then strangles Barbara with a plastic bag over her head and cuts up her body. All of which he calmly relates to Luana who doesn’t believe a word he says. Until she sees blood in the bathroom, an aluminum-wrapped “head” in the fridge, and a trunk full of bones. Oops.

Freaking, Luana bonks him on the noggin and runs home to Jo-Jo, but Gregory follows, leading to a karate-chopping battle of the sexes (“I could rip your arm off if I choose but instead I’ll just rip the back muscles a little!”) and a wacky twist ending….

The sexploitation market of the Sixties was aimed primarily at middle-aged men, and Help Wanted Female is both a cautionary tale warning that audience of the perils of predatory females, and a victory by one of their own over such women — sort of a instruction manual and dream-fantasy all in one. As the ultimate surrogate for that audience, Sebastian Gregory is perfect as the man who’s both the mark and the menace. With his gruff looks and the tough-guy attitude of a barroom brawler, Gregory starred in such skinflicks as Hollywood After Dark (’68). Like Mother like Daughter (’68), and The Hangup (70). Like contemporaries John Alderman and William Kerwin, Gregory is very much a “real” actor giving very much a “real” performance, though one that requires him to be more silly than scary. At one point, he’s underneath the sheets with Luana — meaning they both have the bedsheets pulled over their heads — as he frantically jabbers on about World War II in a voice that sounds like a parody of Richard Burton!

With an offbeat sense of humor, a couple of luscious bodies, and a smattering of the macabre. Help Wanted Female is a kookie cult film just waiting to be discovered — with or without acid. From an original 35mm theatrical print.

Special Features
• Digitally Remastered!
• Original Theatrical Trailer for Aroused!
• Bonus Kink-O-Rama Short: Lesson of the Strap!
• Gallery of Sick Sixties Sex Stills with Audio Oddities!
• Total Running Time: Over 3 and 1/2 Hours of Sex and Psychological Sickness!

Warning: This Program Contains Nudity, Sexual Situations and a Unique Way of Bathing Darlene Bennett!

Blood Feast/Two Thousand Maniacs/Color Me Blood Red

Well…duh? You can’t have a Something Weird Video collection without Herschell Gordon Lewis’s Blood Trilogy! Yeesh! Blood Feast, Two Thousand Maniacs and Color Me Blood Red; three Gordon horror classics! The infamous Blood Feast which has made appearances all over the place in the Dungeon including my top ten horror films for 1963 and my favourite five Herschell Gordon Lewis films not to mention getting the full review treatment. Blood Feast is a long time favourite of mine! A caterer is murdering women all over Miami and swiping body parts to prepare for a feast to honor his goddess Ishtar. Blood Feast is good old-fashioned hilarious gory fun! Two Thousand Maniacs is a personal favorite of Lewis himself and another film from the director that made a top ten list, this time for my favourite horror films of 1964! A Southern town, population 2000 lures tourists to their yearly centennial celebrations where they become unwilling participants. Each death is a creative and unique masterpiece and its got Blood Feast’s William Kerwin and Connie Mason! Hee Haw! Rounding out the trio is Color Me Blood Red. Unhinged artist Adam Sorg discovers human blood makes great paint after his girlfriend cuts herself. When his blood-red painting is a hit he starts slicing and dicing to get more supplies. Lewis’s leads are usually a lot of fun and Gordon Oas-Heim’s Sorg is no exception. He is crazier than a rabid weasel! Color Me Blood Red is an enjoyably gory and darkly humorous Gordon offering. This ain’t called The Blood Trilogy for nothing! When the Godfather of Gore puts the word blood in the title you know he is going to deliver! Go buy this now.

For more images from Blood Feast click here.

For more images from Two Thousand Maniacs click here.

For more images from Color Me Blood Red click here.

Taken from the Something Weird Video Website:

THE BLOOD TRILOGY Blu-ray

Three Time the Gore for One Low Price! In High Definition!
See the world’s first three gore films from legendary exploitation film pioneers Herschell Gordon Lewis and David F. Friedman – Blood Feast, Two Thousand Maniacs!, and Color Me Blood Red! Experience every splat, every slice and every drop of fake blood and guts in full 1080p glory!

BLOOD FEAST
Most people think America lost its innocence when JFK was assassinated. Actually, it happened four months earlier when BLOOD FEAST opened at a Peoria, Illinois, drive-in. With its bright colors, bubbly babes, and minimal production values, Blood Feast resembled the average nudie flick. However, the pretty young beauties in Blood Feast didn’t get naked. They got dismembered. Yes, folks, the infamous, notorious, ultra over-the-top Blood Feast is the world’s first “gore” film. Less a horror movie than extreme exploitation, it may even be argued that Blood Feast is the first horror roadshow since 1934’s Maniac.

Shot in five days in Miami for under $25,000, Blood Feast’s simple-minded script and wildly overwrought Amateur Night theatrics also helped transform it into the world’s first gore comedy. Blood Feast is, in fact, simultaneously disgusting and hilarious. It’s as if the local loony bin had made a home movie and got a little carried away with the killings.

TWO THOUSAND MANIACS
The TWO THOUSAND MANIACS of a small town celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Civil War by forcing a handful of Northerners to serve as “guests” for a variety of macabre, blood-crazed fun and games.

The festivities include a screaming man placed in a rolling barrel lined with nails, a hit-the-bull’s-eye carnival game with a pretty gal and a boulder, and a blonde sexpot whose arm is hacked off and barbecued! But before they can slaughter the only smart Yank (Thomas Wood), he and the lovely Terry Adams (Connie Mason, “Playboy’s Favorite Playmate”) try to escape…

A marvelously perverse cult classick, TWO THOUSAND MANIACS! is also the second of the infamous “blood trilogy” (which includes Blood Feast and Color Me Blood Red) from producer David F. Friedman (Trader Hornee) and director Herschell Gordon Lewis (The Wizard of Gore). Yeeeee-Ha! Oh, the South’s gonna rise again!

COLOR ME BLOOD RED
When his girlfriend, Gigi, cuts her finger on a frame, maniacal artist Adam Sorg discovers a new shade of crimson that will make his artwork so special – human blood!

He stabs her in the head and smears her face on a canvas and – voila – a macabre masterpiece is created. His bloody new painting causes a sensation on the local art scene, a crazed Adam continues creating sanguine specialties by extracting art supplies from victims outside his beach house. It all goes bad, however, when he zeros in on April (Candi Conder) whose scarlet pugment he plans to remove with an axe…

A witty mix of dark humor and gory horror, COLOR ME BLOOD RED is also the third installment of the Blood Trilogy (following BLOOD FEAST and TWO THOUSAND MANIACS!) from director H.G. Lewis (THE GORE GORE GIRLS) and producer David F. Friedman (SHE FREAKS). Starring Don Joseph and Candi Conder.

Special Features:
Original Theatrical Trailers!
Audio Commentaries by HG Lewis and D.F. Friedman!
Rare Outtakes!
Campy Classic Carving Magic, with William Kerwin and Harvey Korman!
Rare Gore Short Film from 1964, Follow That Skirt!
Lewis and Friedman Exploitation Art Galleries!

HAVE A GORETASTIC WEEKEND ALL!

Cheers,
GG

Favourite Five Series: Something Weird Video Double Features

Something Weird Video offers dozens of double features in their catalog. Most of their DVD double features cost about $14.95; a very fair price even for one film. Obviously if you can find a solid and enjoyable duo all the better. It wasn’t really intentional but the vast majority of the 75 films I watched for Stepping Into Something Weird were part of a double or triple feature. This favourite five is also a guilty pleasure post that allows me to talk about some of the films I thoroughly enjoyed that did not make it into my top ten. Below my little blurbs I included detailed information from The Something Weird Video Website. The special features included with every last one of these duos are absolutely superb and alone practically make these sets worth owning!

***Select pictures courtesy of my co-host David Arrate***

Bad Girls Go to Hell/Another Day Another Man

Something Weird Video offers several Doris Wishman double features. My dream duo would have been Indecent Desires and Another Day Another Man; both films I gave a perfect rating to but this pair is definitely the next best thing! Another Day Another Man and Bad Girls Go To Hell are both mighty fine example of Doris Wishman’s work. That Gigi Darlene is always getting her blonde ass in trouble! In Bad Girls Go to Hell Ms. Darlene as Ellen/Meg really does go through hell and is roughed up and/or raped by nearly everyone she meets! The extra special highlights were Dawn Bennett playing Della a body stalking wearing lesbian and my man (and Wishman regular) Sam Stewart playing Ed a kind hearted fella who takes in the misguided blonde; kind hearted that is until he falls off the wagon and goes berserk! Helluva finale too! In Another Day Another Man Barbara Kemp as Ann and her hubby fall on some hard times and Ann if forced to prostitute herself to pay the bills. And it could not be easy keeping your chin up with that tower of hair! Once again Sam Stewart is a huge highlight as Bert the pimp and Mary O’Hara is fab as Barbara’s best friend Tess. Both these films made my favourite five Doris Wishman list; check it out here.

For more images from Bad Girls Go To Hell click here.

For more images from Another Day Another Man click here.

Taken from the Something Weird Video Website:

Gigi Darlene learns that BAD GIRLS GO TO HELL when she’s attacked by a janitor with bad teeth, accidentally kills the guy, then flees to New York…where her troubles really begin! With its crazed plot, rampant nudity, and predatory sex maniacs BAD GIRLS GO TO HELL is one of director Doris Wishman’s wildest “roughies” which, amazingly, was theatrically re released in 1998!

Plus: Ann, a “Miss Prim” with a giant hairdo, doesn’t approve of her friend tess’s employer, Bert the pimp. But when Ann’s Husband suddenly gets a mystery illness, Ann has to find some way to pay the bills and, yup, quickly becomes one of Bert’s girls…With a hoarsely tragic ending and Wishman’s trademark camera work that seems to be constantly distracted by inanimate objects, ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER MAN also stars Gigi Darlene as a hooker whose hayseed boyfriend gets manhandled by sexy twins Rita and Darlene Bennett.

Two lunatic masterpieces from the woman who gave the world Deadly Weapons and Double Agent 73!

SPECIAL FEATURES
• Digitally Remastered
• Original Theatrical Trailers for Doris Wishman’s Bad Girls Go To Hell, Another Day Another Man, Indecent Desires, My Brother’s Wife, Too Much Too Often and A Taste Of Flesh
• “Let’s o to the Drive-In!” – An Interactive Feature Allowing Uninterrupted Playback of Almost Three Hours Worth of Doris Wishman Drive-In Madness
• Drive-In Adult Book Pitch
• Classic Drive-In Intermission Shorts
• Doris Wishman Gallery of Exploitation Art

The Psycho Lover/Heat of Madness

I’ve talked the hell out of The Psycho Lover; I gave it a full review and it made my ultimate top five favourite Something Weird films. The Psycho Lover is a thoroughly perfect, well-executed bit of horror and a must see for seventies genre fans. Though the Heat of Madness definitely has a completely different vibe and feel; I think it is fair to say that both film’s antagonists are bat-shit crazy. In Heat of Madness Kevin Scott plays photographer and artist John Wilright. Wilright is a talented but moody loner. He makes ends meet by snapping nude shots for calendars; work he is not proud of. He is instantly smitten when he meets the conservative Susan (Jennifer Laird) and the two start dating. It isn’t long before Wilright’s lesser personality traits begin showing themselves. Wilright slowly descends into madness over the course of the film. Meanwhile Susan is the heiress to a large fortune and Wilright is being investigated in accordance with her father’s will. Heat of Madness is a slow boil with two excellent performances from its leads Scott and Laird. The pace is a touch slow but I didn’t find it bothersome. A neat little film and character study and a marvelous finale. While just about anything in my mind would be inferior to The Psycho Lover I very much enjoyed Heat of Madness and thought it was a solid pairing.

For more images from The Psycho Lover click here.

For more images from Heat of Madness click here.

Taken from the Something Weird Video Website:

The only thing worse than being a homicidal maniac is being treated by a doctor who’s just as crazy! Marco, a PSYCHO LOVER who strangles women that “threaten his maleness,” becomes a patient of lizard-like Dr. Kenneth Alden, who uses wacky nightmares to brainwash Marco into killing the doc’s nasty wife who won’t give him a divorce. A gaudy mix of sex, violence, pop-psych, and even some quick necrophilia, this drive-in shocker (a.k.a. “The Loving Touch”) is a fun descent into B-movie psychosis.

PLUS: Oddball photographer, Johnny’s dismissive attitude to sex radically changes when he’s hired to illustrate a book called “Great Sex Murders” and soon has models staging mock whippings, robberies and assaults. Trouble is, all the fake violence fuels the poor guy with the HEAT OF MADNESS, and pretty soon he thinks one of his naughty models is actually his fiancée and promptly goes berserk…

Two twisted sickies, proving once again that romance is always more exciting with a deranged lunatic.

Special Features
• Sex-Psycho Trailers for “The Psycho Lover,” “Aroused,” “The Exquisite Cadaver,” “The Flesh and Blood Show,” “Poor Albert and Little Annie,” “Scream Bloody Murder,” “Twisted Nerve” and “The Woman Hunt”
• Obsessions leads to Murder in the Twisted Psycho-Sexual Short, “The Naked Flower”
• Teens become Targets of Pervert Predators in the Sid Davis Classroom Scare Short, “Name Unknown”
• Kink-O-Rama Short Subject, “Captain Bondage vs. Women’s Lib”
• Gallery of Underground Sexploitation Movie-Magazine Covers with Audio Oddities

Sin in the Suburbs/The Swap and How They Make It

Of the three Sarno double features Something Weird video offers Sin in the Suburbs and The Swap and How They make It is my favourite by a wide margin; this duo in fact received the highest combined rating of this list earning a 5/5 and 4.5/5 respectively (and my undying love). The other two offerings are Passion in Hot Hollows/Flesh and Lace and The Layout/The Love Merchant. Like The Psycho Lover, I have talked the hell out of Sin in the Suburbs giving it a full review and along side the aforementioned it was awarded a place on my ultimate five favourite Something Weird films. I found Sin in the Suburbs’s story and characters particularly compelling and the performances are among the best you will find in Sarno’s work. Better accompaniment could not possibly be found than the similarly themed The Swap and How They Make It. Two couples new to a suburban neighborhood are introduced to a circle of swingers who change their lives and relationships irreversibly. While The Swap and How They Make It is definitely an ensemble piece it is Mona played by the lovely Patricia McNair (as Lorraine Claire) that gets special focus. It is also McNair’s character and performance that lingered most in my mind afterwards. The Swap and How They Make It is a fantastic looking film with a strong story, smart dialog and some outstanding performances. A perfect duo and a highly recommended way to start your Sarno viewing if you are so inclined.

For more images from Sin in the Suburbs click here.

For more images from The Swap and How They Make It click here.

Taken from the Something Weird Video Website:

Yes, before they made their marks as pop-culture dominatrices Audrey “Olga” Campbell – as well as her two costars from Olgas’s House of Shame – starred with Dyanne “Ilsa” Thorne (billed here as “Lahna Monroe”) in one of the greatest sexploitation films of the sixties: director Joe Sarno’s wild and witty SIN IN THE SUBURBS! Eager the make money off the rampant sexual shenanigans sweeping through their neighborhood, Yvette Talman (Miss Thorne) and her creepy brother Lou organize a sex club in which Mrs. Lewis (Miss Campbell) and other lust-loving suburbanites pay to participate in anonymous sex while wearing cloaks and masks: “If you’ll direct your attention to the center of the ring, the greatest animal act on earth!” But what Mrs. Lewis doesn’t know is that her teenage daughter is also a member of the club. Oops…

PLUS: With Mona’s husband too busy for love, and after Karen’s fling with a college kid fizzles, they decide to take a neighbor’s advice and “trade the old model for a newer one” when they join a group of wife-swappers called “The Exchange.” But when that college kid threatens to expose THE SWAP AND HOW THEY MAKE IT, he’s allowed to join the club until a cruel joke makes his swap especially sick…So be the first on your block to savor these scintillating, stylish and surprisingly intelligent skinflicks from director Joe Sarno….And be sure to invite the neighbors!

SPECIAL FEATURES
• Digitally Remastered!
• Audio Commentary by director Joe Sarno, Peggy Sarno (Miss “Cleo Nova”) and special guest David F. Friedman!
• Original Theatrical Trailer for THE SWAP AND HOW THEY MAKE IT!
• Bonus Joe Sarno Theatrical Short: A Sneak Peek at Strip Poker!
• Extra Swingin’ Suburban Trailers for: The Case of the Stripping Wives, Drop Out Wife, Matinee Wives, Suburban Wives, Suburbia Confidential and Swedish Wife Exchange Club!
• Gallery of Something Weird Sixties Sexploitation Art!
• total Running Time: Over 3 1/2 Hours of Suburban Roulette!

A Thousand Pleasures/Take Me Naked

I had seen Take Me Naked for the first and only time during a sixties feature I did November 2012. I enjoyed the wonderfully warped Take Me Naked and gave it a fair rating of 3.5/5. On this recent re-watch I felt more warmly about it and upgraded it to a 4/5. Take Me Naked features Roberta Findlay, and it is probably going to make me terribly unpopular to say it, but another lead actress (my vote would have to be Linda Boyce) could have earned the film a perfect rating. The crazy perverted bum plot is outrageous and the film is a shitload of sleazy skidrow fun. What tipped the scales to get this duo added to the list however was A Thousand Pleasures. Michael Findlay’s character Richard Davis picks up two hitchhiking broads named Jackie (Linda Boyce) and Maggie (Uta Erickson). Jackie unzips Richard in preparation for a blowjob. Richard nervously looks toward the backseat stating “You Can’t do that here”. Boyce basically poo-poos him and adds “Besides, I haven’t had lunch yet.” I almost sprayed my vodka and orange juice on my monitor! Richard ends up becoming their prisoner. Boyce and Erickson play lesbians who are repulsed by men but want to have a child of their own. They kidnap Findlay’s Davis with the intention of using him for his seed. In the interim they have a grown woman they refer to as “baby” who…well…she acts like a baby. Baby walks around in nothing but a cloth diaper, sucking her thumb and sleeping in a crib! Although sometimes she does things a baby should not be doing; like masturbating with a candle?! And then there is the quietly mental Belle (Janet Banzet) who plays the nanny(?), Donna Stone who plays Boobarella(?) and John Amero who plays the house muscle Bruno. A Thousand Pleasures is packed full of wacky dialog and the premise, as has been the case with all the Findlay features I have seen thus far is equally as insane. I laughed constantly from beginning to end of its short runtime. I loved it so much I ordered it for my collection immediately after watching it; it’ll be at my door any day now. The ultimate must have Findlay collection will be featured on my triple feature list (and many of you can guess what that is) Take Me Naked with A Thousand Pleasures is a fantastically entertaining duo that is well worth owning!

“These two must have escaped from a fruit cake.”

For more images from A Thousand Pleasures click here.

For more images from Take Me Naked click here.

Taken from the Something Weird Video Website:

Yes, Michael and Roberta Findlay – the outrageous auteurs of the infamous “Flesh” trilogy (The Touch of Her Flesh, The Curse of Her Flesh, The Kiss of Her Flesh) – continue their bizarre Battle of the Sexes with this utterly deranged, diseased and degenerate double feature!

Peeping out the window of his skid row room, a Bowery bum in the becomes obsessed with Elaine “a living tomb of flesh” who lives in the building next door (and who’s played by Roberta Findlay in a rare starring role). But when his sexual fantasies are invaded by “a twisted mental hunchback” (director Michael Findlay, of course), the bum snaps, goes into a homicidal rage and, completely bonkers, brings Elaine a carving knife he thinks is a bouquet of flowers…Another maniacally morbid masterpiece, TAKE ME NAKED is a foaming-at-the-mouth mix of art film lyricism and horror movie excess as only the Findlay’s made ’em!

PLUS: Wife-murderer Richard Davis (director Michael Findlay again) picks up deranged hitchikers Maggie and Jackie, takes them to their house of A THOUSAND PLEASURES and meets their brain-damaged adopted daughter, “Little Baby,” a full-grown woman in a diaper. Maggie and Jackie, however, want a real child, but because they’re “true lesbians” who “hate the filthy touch of men,” decide to turn Davis into their very own sperm bank….

But please consult your doctor after viewing. These films are so sick, they might be contagious.

Special Features
• Digitally Remastered!
• Original Theatrical Trailer for TAKE ME NAKED!
• Additional Freaky-Findlay Trailers for: The Curse of Her Flesh, Satan’s Bed, The Sin Syndicate, The Touch of Her Flesh, and The Ultimate Degenerate!
• A Sex-Crazed Schoolgirl is Turned-On by Murder in a psychotic sequence from Janie, photographed and narrated by Roberta Findlay!
• Bonus Featurette: Michael Findlay Runs Amok in Ancient Greece in a 30-minute Lesbian-laced excerpt from Mnasidika!
• Gallery of Sick sixties Sex Stills with Audio Oddities!
• Total Running Time: Over 3 and 1/2 Hours of Pleasure & Perversion!

Scum of the Earth/The Defilers

One of the first double features I watched for Stepping Into Something Weird was Scum of the Earth and The Defilers. It was really the ideal way to kick off the feature. Two absolutely classic Something Weird Video flicks from Herschell Gordon Lewis and David F. Friedman; friends and collaborators and two men who make up the cornerstones of SWV’s collection! Scum of the Earth focuses on the sleazy business of modelling where women are drawn in by the lure of easy cash and next thing they know they are posing with their tits out. Kim Sherwood is one such young woman in need of funds. Initially she poses for cutesy shots in dresses and bathing suits but is soon being blackmailed into posing nude. Generally considered to be one of the first roughies it is captivating viewing with an especially great performance from William Kerwin as photographer Harmon Johnson (looking pretty handsome with a beard). Scum of the Earth is one of Lewis’s most esthetically pleasing films too. A delicious slice of exploitative pie well worth taking a bite of. David F. Friedman only directed five films during his career and is better known in the industry as a producer. The Defilers stars one of Friedman’s frequent collaborators Byron Mabe who would direct several films he produced. Carl Walker Jr. (Byron Mabe) is a spoiled rich kid who spends his days and nights hanging about looking for a way to get “kicks” with his friend Jameison (Jerome Eden). Jameison is well-known as a womanizer but Carl has earned a reputation as a rough and unsavory partner among their lady friends. Carl is looking for the ultimate thrill and upon meeting Jane a young woman new to town has an epiphany. Carl and Jameison will kidnap Jane and keep her in one of his father’s abandon storage rooms. Carl does not want to kidnap Jane for money but power; the power to rape and rough up the unfortunate woman whenever he feels like. The plan inevitably results in dire consequences for all three. The Defilers is a pretty mean little film. A competently made and acted mean little film. Jamieson is pathetic; he agrees with pretty much anything Carl suggests so he can have access to a vehicle. Carl for his part is a psychotic sonofabitch. Mabe and Eden do a top drawer job as hipster assholes who should be beaten mercilessly. This is a great early roughie duo; two classics that are must-have’s for anyone interested in the birthing of the exploitation film.

For more images from Scum of the Earth click here.

For more images from The Defilers click here.

Taken from the Something Weird Video Website:

Here’s a double dose of drive-in depravity with two kinky classicks from producer David F Friedman!

THE DEFILERS are two hedonistic young men who, just for kicks, abduct a sexy blonde (Mai Jansson, “Mouth-Watering 20-Year-Old Scandinavian Screen Find!”) as their own personal sex toy. Directed by R. Lee Frost (Love Camp 7), this shattering story of the shameless “sick set” is the quintessential “roughie”: downright nasty but you can’t look away!

Plus: Trying to earn money for college, wholesome cutie Kim (Vickie Miles) is sucked into the degenerate world of the dirty picture racket when she agrees to model for the SCUM OF THE EARTH. Under the tutelage of a sleazy photographer, Kim is soon posing topless, before being blackmailed into appearing in raunchier shots where she’s mauled by a muscle-bound moron named Ajax. Worse, she’s soon embroiled in events which lead to a police raid, two murders and sucicide… Featuring most of the cast of Blood Feast, SCUM OF THE EARTH, is slick grindhouse exploitation from cult director Herschell Gordon Lewis (Two Thousand Maniacs) and a hilariously outrageous expose’ of sixties-style smut. And remember, “Deep down inside you’re dirty! Do you hear? Dirty!”

Special Features
• Digitally Remastered
• Audio Commentary by Producer David F. Friedman!
• Two Theatrical Trailers for THE DEFILERS
• Trailers for other Twisted Sixties Sexploitation Classicks: All Women Are Bad, The Curse of Her Flesh, The Pick-Up, Sex Killer, Sock It to Me Baby, and Ultimate Degenerate!
• Archival Short Subject #1: Sandy and Ajax together again in Intimate Diary of Artists’ Models!
• Archival Short Subject #2: The Bennett twins in Barry Mahon’s Naked Fury
• Classic Drive-In Intermission Shorts!
• Gallery of Drive-In Exploitation Art
• Audio Sex-Hygiene Book Pitch from the Projection Booth!
• “Let’s Go To the Drive-In!” – An interactive feature allowing uninterrupted playback for three hours worth of exploitation drive-in madness!

Favourite Five Series: Something Weird Video Films Part Two

No long introductory blurb this time around, so if you missed yesterday’s post click here for a summary of the project and my ultimate Favourite Five Something Weird Video films! At the bottom of this list I also included all the Something Weird Video films that I rated a 4/5 or better. Without further ado; My Favourite Five Something Weird Video Films PART TWO…

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CONFESSIONS OF A PSYCHO CAT (1968)
Directed By: Herb Stanley
Starring: Eileen Lord, Ed Garrabrandt, Frank Geraci, Dick Lord, Arlenne Lorrance, Jake LaMotta, Rita Bennett

Confessions of a Psycho Cat is about Virginia Marcus; a wealthy eccentric with serious daddy issues. Virginia offers three men $100,000 if they can stay alive in Manhattan for 24 hours; Buddy “the addict”, Charles Freeman “the actor” and Rocco “the wrestler”. The challenge? Virginia intends to hunt each one of them down. The film details the hunt peppered with a bunch of unnecessary sex scenes. Unfortunately some brainiac thought Confessions of a Psycho Cat would be more marketable as a sexploitation flick and added several sex scenes to the film. I didn’t dislike these scenes but they are little more than occasionally amusing filler. Despite this, the enticing story and characters that make up the central plot and the outstanding performances more than make up for the filler bits. The black and white photography and the sets and props are quite excellent. Especially outstanding is Virginia’s intimidating trophy game room! Confessions of a Psycho Cat’s greatest asset and the best reason I can give as to why you should check out this film is Eileen Lord who plays Virginia. Lord gives a truly magnificent and memorable turn in Confessions of a Psycho Cat. Her look, her expressions, her shouting and yelling, her hysterical laughing, her hand gestures, her body movements, her costumes; all puuuuuurfection. It is one of those epic crazy performances that linger in the mind. Lord never holds back the emotions going from reasonable to insane regularly through the film. According to IMDB this is Eileen Lord’s only acting credit. Bloody shame that! Confessions of a Psycho Cat is well worth watching just for Eileen Lord and her Virginia character. Virginia’s three victims were also well cast and included boxer Jake “Raging Bull” LaMotta. Confessions of a Psycho Cat is a wild ride worth taking. The central plot is certainly the highlight and the reason you must see this film but the clumsily added sex scenes were not completely without their charm. To read my full review of Confessions of a Psycho Cat click here.

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THE CURSE OF HER FLESH (1968)
Directed By: Michael Findlay
Starring: Michael Findlay, Eve Bork, Ron Skideri, Linda Boyce, Sally Farb, John Amero, Jane Bond, Vivian Del Rio, Uta Erickson, Cindy Freemont, Suzanne Marre, Steve Roule

The Curse of Her Flesh is the second entry in Michael Findlay’s Flesh trilogy. The trilogy begins with The Touch of Her Flesh and finishes with The Kiss of Her Flesh. I enjoyed all three films but The Curse of Her Flesh in my opinion is the crème de la crème of the trio. Michael Findlay directs and stars as the film’s central character; weapons expert Richard Jennings. In the first film he discovers his wife cheating and the film ends with Richard Jennings on the receiving end of his own crossbow. Richard Jennings is a pretty resilient fella. The Curse of Her Flesh opens with one of the most salacious, kinky and salty striptease/burlesque acts I have had the pleasure of seeing! The fabulous Cindy Freemont sporting her super spectacular bouffant hairdo will knock your sox clear off! We are updated by a radio broadcast as to what Mr. Jennings has been up to since last we seen him. “The Police are still baffled by the series of brutal murders started one year ago today. The strange chain of events began when Richard Jennings famous weapons expert discovered his young voluptuous wife in the arms of another man. As he watched the two of them together his mind snapped and turning from them in horror he ran. On the street he was struck down by a car and temporarily crippled losing one of his eyes. He vowed vengeance on all other women whom he considered like his wife. The series of murders began. The first girl to die was a go-go dancer. The police were completely baffled; Jennings didn’t even know this girl. The next was a stripper; she was killed on stage with a poison dart from a blowgun. The third was a beautiful model, a good friend of his wife. The fourth a prostitute who knew where his wife was hiding and after getting the information from her he killed her. And finally he killed his own wife; the woman who had driven his berserk. He since has disappeared entirely but the police hunt goes on. They are looking for him all over New York.” And so continues Jenning’s killing spree! Jennings is now going by the pseudonym Joe Davidson and has purchased a burlesque theatre with the intention of killing his wife’s lover Steve who has been hired as an actor. Jennings/Davidson concocts a convoluted plan to completely fuck with Steve’s life and eventually eliminate him. I’m not going to tell you the whole damn story but bloody hell does it have one hell of a finale! One of the most memorable finales in recent memory! The Curse of Her Flesh boasts not only one of the craziest finales but one of the craziest plots I have ever stumbled upon! You will not believe the insane plan that Jennings comes up with to mess with Steve. The icing on the cake is the hymen plastic surgery?! All I can say is, see it for yourself! Several folks die in the nuttiest ways possible! A booby-trapped dildo and a poisoned kitty paw to note a couple! There really is nothing like a Michael Findlay film! The Curse of Her Flesh is a seriously outrageous, nasty, hilarious, naughty, sleazy, entertaining film. The Flesh trilogy is a must have for any fan of sixties exploitation and The Curse of Her Flesh is the extra whipped cream with a cherry on top!

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VIBRATIONS (1968)
Directed By: Joe Sarno
Starring: Maria Lease, Marianne Prevost, Peggy Steffans, Sue Akers, Dan Machuen, Morris Kaplan

Vibrations is about sisters Julia and Barbara and their strained relationship. The intrusive Julia shows up out of the blue and invites herself to stay at her little sister Barbara’s tiny apartment. The two share an incestuous past that makes Barbara excessively uncomfortable but which Julia seems to embrace. The sisters are polar opposites in every way. Julia is aggressive, self-involved and has a unquechable sexual appetite. Maria is quiet, hard-working, decidedly uptight and sexually oppressed. While the two unhappily co-habitate various complications come up. One complication is in the form of Dick Parrish; a handsome man living on the second floor who Barbara is typing a manuscript for. The second complication is in the form of a quirky broad named Georgia who keeps a storeroom next to Barbara’s apartment. Georgia shows up after dark to masturbate or have group sex in the storage room. I have become a big fan of Joe Sarno whose work I discovered during this Something Weird Video journey. Not everything the man directed is a winner, but I have enjoyed the vast majority of his library. I have delved outside of Sarno’s Something Weird titles also and remarkably have awarded nine of the fourteen films I’ve seen with a 4/5 or better and four of those earned a perfect score; Sin in the Suburbs (featured on my ultimate top five), Passion in Hot Hollows and Laura’s Toys (not on SWV). Mr. Sarno’s vibrators and unhappy women are an ongoing theme in a good many of his films. Vibrators and unhappy women are an especially strong theme in Vibrations; as its title suggests. The incestual aspect made me cringe a couple of times but generally speaking this is an effectively sexy bit of erotica. I have no idea why this film is listed as “adult” on IMDB. Did you know that you can not look up “adult” titles by name on internet movie database? Seriously, go try looking for Vibrations (1968) right now. The whole concept is ridiculous; but you can access it by doing a general internet search; IMDB is the first link that pops up! Vibrations is NOT an “adult” film. I certainly have no issue with XXX, but Vibrations is erotica and there is a huge difference. There is no visual entry or cumshots, just a lot of nudity, touching and simulated sex. Vibrations has a solid story and character development to accompany its erotica. The characters are fascinating and extremely watchable. Georgia, played by an unknown actress who also appears in Confessions of a Psycho Cat is unforgettable. Such an odd woman with the most peculiar delivery imaginable. She almost seems irritated the way she barks out some of her lines. She sports what made me think of drapes around her waist and comes equipped with a two-headed vibrating massager for your pleasure. And it is for your pleasure! In Georgia’s own words when she first meets the curious Julia “I specialize in pleasure. Pleasure so intense it is akin to torment. Exquisite torment.” Both sisters Julia played by Marianne Prevost and Barbara played by Maria Lease are attractive talented women who know how to emote and have a comfortable screen presence. Director Joe Sarno’s wife Peggy Steffans has a small part in the film as the building caretaker. “I just wonder what they could be doing staying in that storeroom all night long. You can bet they’re not playing mahjong.” Steffans is sort of the film’s comic relief; she’s freaking adorable! Vibrations is an attractively filmed, enthralling, ferociously sexy bit of erotica and a personal favourite in Sarno’s oeuvre. Batteries not included.

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SHANTY TRAMP (1967)
Directed By: Joseph P. Mawra
Starring: Eleanor Vaill, Bill Rogers, Lawrence Tobin, Ed Anderson, Lee Ann, Dan Craig, Warren Day, Kenneth Douglas, Ben Duran, Lewis Galen, Gary Goch, Jean Hanna, Rick Jarvis, Helon Lacount, Chris Mitchell

The titular Shanty Tramp is Emily; a flirtatious, trampy hustler living in a shanty with her alcoholic father in a small backwoods town. Emily seems to have a sixth sense detecting new men in town who she sniffs out and puts under her spell. When first we meet Emily she is strutting her stuff in a tight dress and heels into a travelling revival tent. She quickly catches the eye of the sleazy evangelist who she agrees to meet with later. The townsfolk including her own father are well aware of Emily and her shtick. Emily’s bad mojo does not prevent Daniel, a young African American man from being attracted to her. Daniel catches Emily’s eye in the revival tent to his mother stern disapproval. Meanwhile Emily kills some time by hooking up with a biker rolling through town at the local dive bar. This meeting will prove to be serpentine for three of the town’s residents. Eleanor Vaill (as Lee Holland) is picture perfect as Emily. Despite some dire consequences for others due to her actions she continues her tramping ways to the bitter end. I should loathe this character, but there was a part of me that thought Emily was a bit sad. She lives in a depressing racist town in a little dump of a house with her pathetic rummy father and no mother to be seen. She is still a loathsome bitch, but a mildly empathetic one. Emily oozes sexuality and wears is like a thorny crown. She unabashedly takes a fin for a romp in the local bar’s storeroom. Eleanor Vaill has a strong screen presence and is unforgettable in the role. I was surprised Vaill only had two other films on her resume; both are Herschell Gordon Lewis’s films, A Taste of Blood and The Girl The Body and The Pill. All the performances in Mawra’s low-budget effort are quite good especially the sleazy evangelist. The Something Weird Video website credits the director as Jose “Joseph” Prieto. IMDB lists Joseph P. Mawra as director but does denote “as Joseph G. Prieto”. I watched five other Mawra flicks during this feature and this is the first time I seen the director use a pseudonym. I wonder why he would choose to use a pseudonym for this particular film? Mawra is best known for his Olga trilogy (Olga’s House of Shame, White Slaves of Chinatown, Olga’s Girls); Olga’s House of Shame was serious exploitative sleaze for 1964. I also watched Mawra’s Peek Snatchers, All Men are Apes and his lesbian documentary Chained Girls and Shanty Tramp has bar none been my favourite. Shanty Tramp has a great soundtrack and I really dug the use of When the Saints Go Marching In which I will now forever associated with this film! Below is a YouTube post I did for Betty Dickson’s song Shanty Tramp with images from the film. It is unfortunate that the Something Weird Video print isn’t in better condition but it did not spoil my enjoyment of Shanty Tramp; a sort of grindhouse version of an Elia Kazan film with a meaty story, great performances and a hearty helping of exploitative goodness.

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THE WIZARD OF GORE (1970)
Directed By: Herschell Gordon Lewis
Starring: Ray Sager, Judy Cler, Wayne Ratay, Phil Laurenson, Jim Rau, Don Alexander, John Elliot, Karin Alexana, Jack Gilbreth, Corinne Kirkin, Monica Blackwell, Sally Brody, Karen Burke, Eric Kelner Raynard

The Wizard of Gore is about magician Montag the Magnificent. Montag is a magician with a particularly graphic and gory stage show. He appears to kill a member of the audience during a performance but at the end of the act the “volunteer” takes her bow and leaves seemingly unscathed. Daytime television talk show host Sherry Carson and her reporter boyfriend Jack attend one of the shows and Sherry is anxious to do a piece on the magician. The couple eventually begin to question how Montag is involved when his volunteers later turn up dead. The Wizard of Gore has a pretty nutty premise and the delivery is pretty nutty too. I had not seen The Wizard of Gore in years before doing this feature. In fact, I had done a top ten list for each year of the seventies February 2011 and didn’t bother to re-watch it thinking I remembered it well enough. That was pretty dumb as it turns out because The Wizard of Gore definitely would have made my top ten for 1970! I loved this film! It is full of over-the-top outrageous performances and gore! Each death is nasty and unique; a real grisly delight it is! I laughed and was delightfully disgusted in equal measure! I laughed and laughed hard throughout The Wizard of Gore which has replaced Blood Feast as my number one Herschell Gordon Lewis film. In fairness to Blood Feast, I have seen the film so many times over the years I can quote well over half the film. I really enjoyed Judy Cler as Sherry Carson and Wayne Ratay as Jack but no one entertained me more than Montag the Magnificent played by Lewis regular Ray Sager. Montag is not only a magnificent magician he is also a master hypnotist! As Montag, Sager is flippant, arrogant, rude, and spectacularly self-important. The eccentric lead performance from Ray Sager alone makes The Wizard of Gore worth seeing. Montag is indeed The Wizard of Gore and brings heaps of gooey and grotesque theatrics to his dastardly stage show! And like so many of my favourite films it has an unbelievable and completely unforgettable finale! The Wizard of Gore is a Goretacular Spectacular and one of Lewis’ best. The Wizard of Gore was included on my Favourite Five Herschell Gordon Lewis films; to find out what the other four films were click here.

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SWV Honorable mentions that I also gave a perfect 5/5 rating: PASSION IN HOT HOLLOWS, BLOOD FEAST, and ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER MAN.

SWV Honorable mentions that I gave a 4 or 4.5/5 rating: A Smell of Honey A Swallow of Brine, Olga’s House of Shame, Help Wanted Female, The Kiss of Her Flesh, Love Toy, Heat of Madness, The Immoral Three, Scum of the Earth, A Thousand Pleasures, White Slaves of Chinatown, The Defilers, Bad Girls Go to Hell, Take Me Naked, Scream of the Butterfly, My Tale is Hot, The Swap and How They Make it, The Gore Gore Girls, The Curious Dr. Humpp, Career Bed, Aroused, The Fat Black Pussycat, The Exquisite Cadaver, Fleshpot on 42nd Street, A Taste of Flesh and Mantis in Lace.