BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS (1970)

So many words have been written and uttered about Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Russ Meyer’s first studio film made at the behest of the then-struggling 20th Century Fox, that you’d think it would be exhausted of all interesting content. But yet, despite the growing accolades it has picked up in the half century-plus […]

SPIDER BABY (1967)

While the reputation for Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre damn near drowns in its tangential relation to real-life serial killer Ed Gein, there is rarely a peep of recognition for Spider Baby, Jack Hill’s incredible film from 1967 which feels like more of a direct influence on the film than the legend of […]

WATER POWER (1976)

“The film you are about to see is based on a true story. The names of places and persons have been changed to protect the innocent. But it could have happened anywhere or to anyone, even to you.” So says the text that opens Water Power, hardcore pioneer Sean Costello’s notorious shocker 1976. And, in […]

DEMENTIA 13 (1963)

At this point in his life, Francis Ford Coppola is all about legacy. An octogenarian, he’s practical enough to know that time is fleeting and that there are some films in his oeuvre that simply aren’t going to re-frame themselves. The legacy of work from the 1970’s is definitely secure and needs no extra effort […]

CHERRY, HARRY, & RAQUEL! (1969)

In Russ Meyer’s Cherry, Harry & Raquel!, released in 1969 as the filmmaker inched closer to Hollywood, the cock of Erica Gavin’s eyebrow causes the soul of Vixen to discorporate and it finds itself inhabiting the shell of Uschi Digard, herself trapped in a lunar landscape of desert nothingness where man’s determination grinds fruitlessly against […]

VIXEN! (1968)

The cool and calming bush country of the Canadian northwest, a far cry from the usual California and southwest American hotspots that serve as the playing fields for Meyer’s usual cast of characters, proves itself incapable in staving off the creeping evil that invades the hearts of men and women alike. For amid the peaceful […]

DARBY O’ GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE (1959)

Once upon a time, a long time ago and in a galaxy far, far away, Disney was just the last name of an animator with big dreams. In fact, there was a long stretch of time in our cultural history when his Christian name was always attached to his surname in our common lexicon. This […]

FINDERS KEEPERS, LOVERS WEEPERS! (1968)

The opening of Russ Meyer’s Finders Keepers, Lovers Weepers!, the first of two Meyer films produced in 1968, is something of a bait and switch. As the red Fiat seen in Good Morning… and Goodbye! rushes across the California desert, it sets itself up to be a typical Meyer film set in his specific brand […]

GOOD MORNING… AND GOODBYE! (1967)

Back in the midst of something that could pass for civilization after the remote and riparian rumpus that was Common Law Cabin, Russ Meyer began to sharpen his satirical knives with Good Morning… and Goodbye! Raucous and horny, sweaty and dirty, Good Morning…and Goodbye! mixes elements from almost every Russ Meyer film that came before […]

BLOOD BATH (1966)

If I were a filmmaker, I would kill for the ad campaign American International afforded to Blood Bath. One could stare for hours at its gorgeously macabre one-sheet which overflows with all kinds of promise for the brave audience member who would dare pay a ticket to witness the horrors ahead. Maidens being lowered into […]