MARYJANE

1968/Director: Maury Dexter/Writers: Maury Dexter, Richard Gautier

Cast: Fabian, Diane McBain, Kevin Coughlin, Michael Margotta, Robert Lipton, Patty McCormack, Terri Garr, , Garry Marshall, Richard Gautier (uncredited)

“Many, many, many years ago, when I was young, there was a singer in the United States whose name was Fabian. Some of you who are my age remember.”There were three of us in it [the Fabian fan club of which she was president]. But we took it very seriously,”

Hillary Clinton
University of Santo Tomas
November 13, 2009

Maryjane is an entertaining little piece of 60’s AIP marijuana exploitation starring teen idol Fabian as high school art teacher Phil Blake. When Blake isn’t working on nailing the frigid girl with a big secret Elli Holden (Diane McBaine) he is trying to hold on to his job and stay out of jail after he confesses to school administrators and the town sheriff he smoked some grass in college and trying to stop ‘good kid’ –but total moody, sniveling wuss- Michael Margotta (Jerry Blackburn) from trying to join the school reefer gang ominously called the Mary Janes. The Mary Janes look like harmless extras from Happy Days. These were the good old days when doper teens all wore letter jackets –since they usually played football- and knit sweaters and the girls looked like proper little cheerleaders. The film was directed by Maury Dexter who did other AIP exploitation gems like The Mini-Skirt Mob, Wild on the Beach, The young Animals and Hell’s Belles. Actually I am not 100% sure if all of those films are AIP productions but the titles sure sound like they should be. Dexter co-wrote the script with Richard (Dick) Gautier whose face would be familiar to anyone who watched prime-time TV in the 70’s. Fabian’s singing career was waning at this time and he made a few pictures for AIP including A Bullit for Pretty Boy Floyd, also directed by Dexter. Gauiter has a brief uncredited role as a prisoner in the film. Also appearing briefly in the film are pretty Teri Garr as a party girl and producer Garry (Happy Days) Marshall as a gas station attendant. The film’s obligatory bad girl is played by the original Bad Seed herself Patty McCormick.

The twisted faces of marijuana addicts! Wasted youth in windbreakers and turtle necks.

The film is not that bad really though certainly a cheese classic. The acting is not really terrible and the photography and color looked great. Even the ‘day for night’ shots are better than average. The film of course garners harsh criticism online from marijuana apologist who feel the sacred herb is beyond reproach and not in any way unhealthy nor does it impair driving or other motor skills. I think these old films were written and shot with tongue firmly in cheek and with most of the cast and crew buzzed out of their gourds on something or another while it was being made. Look at some of the other AIP drug films like The Trip. Can you imagine that Bruce Dern never fried a brain cell or two. I simply think one has to ‘turn off the old mind, relax and float down stream’ while watching these films and forget about social commentaries. Of course the films throws a few in anyway such as when Blake tries to convince the appalled school administrators that weed is less harmful than cigarettes or alcohol and what a shock to find out little miss goody two shoes Elli the history teachers is far beyond grass. Football jock and drug dealer Jordon Bates (Kevin Coughlin) has finally got her hooked on smack, which is where –we all know by know- smoking the devil’s weed leads all who inhale its evil fumes. Lots of unintentional laughs but not over the top or preachy. Good shit.

CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL VIDEO CPATURES FROM MARYJANE >>

Once a person has entered into the realm of 60’s nudist picture he has entered a realm where even angels fear to tread. The stuff was pioneered by the likes of Dave Friedman, Doris Wishman and H.G. Lewis and most of it has become available again to the desirous public due to the noble efforts of the fine folks over at Something Weird Video. In our jaded day and age we take for the granted the effect a bouncy cellulite endowed ass had on our fathers and grandfathers. The films where shot on nudist colonies –and therefore were of social and cultural value- and shown in art house theaters as opposed to more lucrative drive-in theaters of the day. Even great films like the Japanese classic Onibaba were shown in these sleazy little art theaters because there is a scene that showed bare breasts. The nudist films pushed the envelope as much as it could be pushed in the day and age and 1965’s The Beast That Killed Woman is a good starting point for the novice –such as myself- to begin his exploration of what early exploitation film makers were trying to get away with. By the time The Beast That Killed Women –released as a SWV double feature along with The Monster of Camp Sunshine which I am conducting a search for now- the film makers had decided that the films have higher degree of quality is some sort of storyline or plot where injected. Early nudist films where simply actual mondo style documentaries, at best, of flabby white families playing volleyball and sitting around campfires singing in the buff all day. Film maker Barry Mahon took this already engaging concept to the next logical level by having a guy in a hokey monkey suit run around the camp and kill girls. Well, a girl anyway. The movie should be called The Beast Who Kills One Woman actually. There is never explanation as to why a short gorilla is on the loose and why it is stalking the peace loving nekked members of this particular nudist camp but there you have it. There is equally no explanation why some members decide to stay at the camp anyway and why some members sleep in bungalows without doors.

Those that do not sleep in those stalker friendly bungalows sleep in barracks with bunk beds. There is often dispute as who gets to sleep on top and sometimes the girls sit in there see through black panties on the bed and engage in inane dialog about the ‘monster’ outside. Sometimes they boost each other up to the top bunk by shoving each other’s butt or when they hear a sound the girl on top jumps down to the bottom bunk and they both hide under the cover. This happens quite a lot actually. What else that happens a lot is shameless out of shape 60′s nude people walking about doing nothing. Just doing nothing. When they walk away from the camera they are completely nude but the ones coming towards the camera have their naughty bits strategically covered by a towel or shorts. Sometimes maybe two girls jump up and down and try to get a towel off a wall, or a group plays volleyball to run in an endless queue –showing their backsides one after the other- and jump into the pool.  Some people are not nude however. Luckily some fat, hairy guys wear some sort of shorts. There are even some black girls at this nudist camp showing that Mahon was an equal opportunity pervert and visionary.

The dialog is hopelessly ridiculous at best and I have to be honest and confess I was hitting the fast forward at the last part of the film even though it only runs about 60 minutes. I know my dad and his buddies probably thought this was hot stuff but I have become far too jaded to be able to just sit and watch a line of butts prance off to the swimming pool without at lack the minimum of believable dialog or grade z acting to hold things together. Naked women alone just can’t do it for me anymore. The ape suit is one of the worst I have ever seen but I am a sucker for a guy in a monkey suit film so the fakier the suit the happier I am. I sort of wish there had been more of the hairy little guy and some sort of attempt to explain where he came from and why the nudists piss him off so much. The color on this little film. Very bright and vibrant. You just don’t see this kind of color anymore and I think that is a shame. While basically a total cheese festand it is a little fun at times. It is fun to watch the nudity down played all the time.The only time nudity is even mentioned is when our hospital bed ridden hero Byron (played, I think, by Mahon) tells the interviewing detective how his wife Delores got him into being a nudist –a bit like Adam blaming Eve here I think- and how the whole deal started because she needed to go to the camp to get an even tan. Why is Byron in the hospital? What tragedy befell him? I think you’ll have to see that –all along with all those brazen nekked 60’s ladies- with your own eyes to believe it.

A THUMBNAIL GALLERY FOR THE BEAST KILELD WOMEN RIGHT HERE >>

TODAY’S EXPLOITATION FEATURE FROM GERMANY

HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND

SEE HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND HERE! IF YOU DARE! >>

THE LAST HORROR FILM aka FANATIC

1982/Director: David Winters/Writers: Judd Hamilton, Tom Klassen

Cast: Caroline Munro, Joe Spinell,  Judd Hamilton, Devin Goldenberg, David Winters, Susanne Benton, Filomena Spagnuolo( Mary Spinell)

I am certain even the most modest horror film fan has heard of Hammer and Bond girl Caroline Munro. Her long brunette hair and statuesque features are simply stunning and she has starred in some fairly memorable horror flicks like The Abominable Dr. Phibes Rises Again, Slaughter High and the shlocky Italian sci-fi film Starcrush. One of her co-stars in Starcrush was New York City veteran character actor Joe Spinell. Spinell’s name may be less familiar to many except for the cognoscenti of b-films. He is more known as a supporting actor and had small roles in The Godfather, The Seven-Ups, Rocky and Taxi Driver before he had his first starring role in the 1980 William Lustig splatter film Maniac. We will get to Maniac in the second part of this double feature and instead will start off with what is sort of a follow up to Maniac pairing Munro and Spinell up again. That film is 1982’s The Last Horror Movie or Fanatic was it was originally released as on DVD. I got a hold of the Fanatic version of the film and not the new Troma release of the movie that is supposed to include a few extra minutes of scenes and some extras including commentaries and interviews. I have to be honest I never listen to DVD commentaries. Simply never. So I do not know if I going to go out of my way to find the Troma release but we will see. I would be interested in the interviews with Spinell’s buddy Luke Walter and Maniac director William Lustig who seems to have stopped directing films (his last being Uncle Sam, which I liked, in 1997) and now produces and is the head honcho at Blue Underground DVD.

MORE OF JOE SPINELL IN THE LAST HORROR MOVIE AND MANIAC HERE >>

HORRORS OF MALFORMED MENK (Kyôfu Kikei Ningen)

1969/Director: Teruo Ishii/Writers: Teruo Ishii, Masahiro Kakefuda

Cast: Teruo Yoshida, Yukie Kagawa, Teruko Yumi, Mitsuko Aoi

I have been delving back into Japanese cinema of the 60’s and 70’s and focusing on the Pinky Violence variety as well as the b/w noir style films by people like Seijun Suzuki. I have a few films here by director Teru Iishi but had yet to get around to watching one all the way through. I mean I tend to skim over these things for quality assurance purposes before burning them a disk then deleting the files from my hard-drive. I think I have Blind Beast vs. Killer Dwarf, Female Yakuza Tale, Blind Woman’s curse and the focus of this review The Horrors of Malformed Men. I will have to confess something here. I often have no clue as to the history of many of these before I download or that the above films were even all by the same director until I began doing some research for this review. I may download a film simply because I like the title or the poster art and screen captures. I will skim over the review to get some idea of when it was made and what other work the director was involved with then decide whether to use up my bandwidth and hard-drive space with the download. Usually any Japanese film made from the late 50’t to mid 70’s has a better than 50/50 chance of getting downloaded in the first place. So when I saw the review snippets about the Horrors of Malformed Men and how it was banned in its own country for some forty years and never released on VHS I was thoroughly enticed.  My first thought was how freaky could the film be in order to be banned in Japan of all places. Well the lure of a film made in 1969 Japan being banned for so long is something I personally cannot resist but there is actually a slight catch to the banned aspect of this film.

MORE OF THE HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN HERE >>

THE ASTRO-ZOMBIES

1968/Director: Ted V. Mikels/Writers: Ted V. Mikels, Wayne Rogers

Cast: Wendell Corey, John Carradine, Tom Pace, Joan Patrick, Tura Satana, Rafael Campos, Joe Hoover

I have to admit that I have been on a real super B-movie or Z-grade film roll for a long while. God knows I watch more of this stuff lately than I can keep up with as far as posting goes. I may soon be shifting gears for a couple posts and do some posts on some other films I have seen lately, like Mr. Majestyk with Charles Bronson, or the Getaway with Steve McQueen or a Japanese film like Woman of the Dunes or Onibaba.  For a while comic book and music posts are on the back burner simply because they take a lot of work and I am not sure that that is what people come here for. It is also easy for me to do b-movie posts because  I simply love these old B-movies and love writing about them and promoting them. And few Z-grade films have a more special place for me than Ted V. Mikels’ bewildering The Astro-Zombies (sometimes listed as simply Astro Zombies. The poster art says Astro Zombies or Astro-Zombies-with hyphen- while the opening credits say The Astro-Zombies). I picked this up long ago on VHS and saw it a couple times and really knew little about it other than who John Carradine and Tura Satana were. I will have to admit that this film is not fort everyone, but I love it. Yes, there is tons of padding and wasted opportunities. I feel Tura Satana is not used on screen enough and John Carradine is fun as yet another mad scientist but spends too much time tweaking equipment and babbling pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo to his mute and imbecilic henchman and not enough time really being insane and misguided.

But the film is ultimately good and unintentionally campy fun for the super cheese cognoscenti and the dialog is priceless. Whether or not the film was actually intended to be campy or not is a topic for debate I suppose. The dialog is all the more an oddity because the script was co-written by Wayne Rogers, Trapper John from TV’s M*A*S*H. Roger’s was also co-producer and a lot of the property used in the film belonged to him. The film is torn to shreds usually in sites online that I always thought were supposed to pander this stuff. It is a bad film and going into the movie with that knowledge will not make it any better. If you are not a fan of really bad cinema then steer clear. But if you are the type who love seeing greasy haired, stooped over henchmen torment tied up girls in bikinis for no explainable reason, or monsters that consist of phony looking rubber masks with no expression and all of it topped off with the zaniest dialog ever then you will enjoy the time wasted with this grimy jewel. Ted V. Mikels is still alive and working and  I read on his website that is actually planning an Astro-Zombies “part III”, to follow the 2002 straight to DVD release Mark of the Astro-Zombies, which starred Tura Satana. This will not be the only film Mikels film to be featured here at the Café. Coming eventually: The Doll Squad (again with Tura Satana), Blood Orgy of the She Devils, and The Corpse Grinders. You have been informed, or warned depending on your personal tastes.

MORE AMAZING ASTRO-ZOMBIES HERE >>

As I labor over my post on one of my all time favorite Z-grade classics , The Astro-Zombies by Ted V. Mikels, I thought I would take a breather and share these well springs of invaluable information I found at Crazed Fan Boy’s site. The work here all belongs to staff member and correspondent extraordinaire Ed Tucker who was lucky enough to meet a still hard working Mikels at his Las Vegas office and film studio. I added a few extra images to beef it up a bit. Also included is a handy Ted V. Mikles primer by Ed Tucker. Ted, with his trademark handle bar mustache, looks pretty good and fit  for some one pushing eighty and appears to have no plans of slowing down.  Bill

The Ted V. Mikels Interview By Ed Tucker

Hidden in a small industrial complex just a few miles off the Las Vegas Strip is an unassuming building that could easily house a lawn service or pest control office. Upon entering the front door though, visitors are immediately overwhelmed by over thirty years’ worth of movie posters, press books, lobby cards, and photographs lining almost every square inch of available wall space. This museum-quality display of vintage memorabilia highlights the career of legendary cult filmmaker Ted V. Mikels, a true American original who turned his varied talents and driving desire to make movies into an eclectic catalog of feature films and a motion picture career to be reckoned with. It’s hard to believe that a man best known for “blood orgies” and “corpse grinding” could be so friendly and cheerful! Ted Mikels is a walking encyclopedia of the film industry with an enthusiasm for his profession that is nothing short of infectious. I had the extreme pleasure of sampling some of this knowledge and insight when I was a guest in his Las Vegas office and studio.

ENTER HERE TO READ THE TED V. MIKLES INTERVIEW BY ED TUCKER >>