BLONDE FIRE (1979)

As the 70’s began to draw to a close, so did filmmaker Bob Chinn’s relationship with Armand Atamian’s Freeway Films. Flush with projects from other companies (most notably, Jerry Mahoney and Gail Palmer’s Caribbean Films) Chinn had mostly been soldiering on with Freeway as a token of gratitude toward Atamian and also because of Chinn’s […]

THE CHINA CAT (1978)

When he made Hard Soap, Hard Soap for Freeway Films in 1976; Bob Chinn established a real talent with light material that focused largely on the relationships between women that were largely devoid of any antagonism or malignant pettiness. Chinn struck further gold in 1977 and 1978 with both Candy Stripers and Hot & Saucy […]

THE JADE PUSSYCAT (1977)

Shifting the Johnny Wadd formula to expand outward as far as the budget would stretch it, Bob Chinn’s The Jade Pussycat sticks the private eye, now a much dandier figure with a swanky office, into a pre-made mystery adventure which, as an explicit riff on John Huston’s 1941 adaptation of Dashiell Hammet’s The Maltese Falcon, […]

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)

After a series of pleasant master shots of the rolling and rural Pennsylvania countryside over which the opening credits are not too obtrusively printed, Night of the Living Dead’s first line of dialogue is one of the hoariest bitches since daylight savings time was implemented. “They ought to make the day the time changes the […]

LIQUID LIPS (1976)

The San Francisco-set third act of Bob Chinn’s original script to White Gold makes up the entirety of Liquid Lips, a true blue sequel to Tell Them Johnny Wadd is Here but released into theaters first due to due to Tell Them Johnny Wadd is Here’s more complicated set of post-production tasks which delayed its […]

SHRIEK OF THE MUTILATED (1974)

It would be tempting to say that 1974’s Shriek of the Mutilated, the final pairing of the legendary filmmaking team of Michael and Roberta Findlay, is a sad capper to a partnership that churned out many pioneering, underground classics. The seemingly sick and dastardly duo who once shocked audiences with a three-story grindhouse of sexual […]

TELL THEM JOHNNY WADD IS HERE (1976)

Bob Chinn’s Johnny Wadd series had come to an end when hardcore became a very risky business in vice-cop heavy L.A. and he had to hang back in the cut while biding his time producing softcore features. But after that had run its course and then dipping his toes back into the waters by helming […]

SNUFF (1976)

When holding a round table discussion about Snuff, there are two separate things that need to be hashed out. The first thing on the agenda would be Slaughter, a mostly worthless and unreleased Michael Findlay film that he and Roberta cobbled together in Argentina in 1971 which makes up the actual bones of Snuff. The […]

TROPIC OF PASSION (1971)

Tropic of Passion came about as director Bob Chinn and producing partner Alain Patrick were keen to get out of the then-hot L.A. area to avoid an all but certain bust by the vice squad as hardcore pornography was most definitely illegal to make at the time and the authorities had a particular hard-on for […]

JANIE (1970)

“It’s autumn now Janie. Your favorite season. The season when everything is dying. When life turns gold and brown and drops from the trees until the whole world is dead. Barren, frozen, stiff, lifeless, dead. Autumn is the best season of the year, Janie. It proclaims death to all.” According to the people actually involved […]