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"Straw Dogs", from Tuna
Tuna's thoughts: They
did a beautiful job on the DVD, producing a large
number of excellent images of Susan George. I
find this a very well made film, but a disturbing
story. It is the story of an American
mathematician (Dustin Hoffman) who rents an
English farmhouse for a year with his young wife
in her home town. He hopes the country quiet will
help him with the studies for which he has
received a grant.
Hoffman is a wimp, a
pacifist and a loner. His wife (Susan George) is
also easy to intimidate. When she is seduced by
an old boyfriend, then raped by his buddy, and
then the town folk decide to break into their
home, Hoffman finally has had enough, and snaps.
Good performances, lovely settings, great
transfer, and compelling story.
thumbnails thumbnails thumbnails Susan George (1,
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"Disturbing
Behavior", from Johnny Web
I don't even remember
the movie, even though I watched it a few months
ago. Maltin rated at a BOMB, and said it was just
a sop to the teen-bucks crowd. Yeah, he's
probably right. But I wanted to do a couple of
things here.
First, some people on
the message board requested the Katie Holmes
deleted scene, so I thought I'd give it another
look. Snowblind, feel free to post it if you care
to. Strange scene. That bump on the lower left -
is it a nipple? Whatever it is, it was blue
before I started to color correct it. Perhaps a
piece of tape over her nipple? I don't know.
This is another strange
interpretation of "widescreen". Look at
the standard and the widescreen version
side-by-side. Notice anything unusual? The both
start and end in the same places, despite the
ratio difference. The widescreen is just the
standard version stretched out like silly putty
until it reached the theatrical aspect ratio,
then shrunk back in its new aspect ratio to a
width of 720. Brother! I thought the No Way Out
DVD was bad because the widescreen was just the
standard version trimmed on the top and bottom
with no additional right or left visibility, but
this one really takes the cake. This is just a
deleted scene, but still! By the way, this one,
like "No Way Out", is an MGM DVD.
Holmes
in the deleted scene. both
versions compared
"The
Erotic Adventures of Zorro", from Johnny Web
I only did a couple of
screen shots that I liked. After all, Tuna did do
200 images from this film only a couple days ago!
I thought I would chat a bit about the film and
its producer, the exploitation king, David F Friedman. I don't know how many of these
second features and grade b's he produced, but a
lot. If you went to drive-ins back in those days,
you've probably seen his movies, ranging from
"Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS", to
"The Ribald Tales of Robin Hood",
"Trader Hornee", the "Long Swift
Sword of Siegfried", and others. But that
was only a small portion of his career. He told
his remarkable story in not one, but two
autobiographies. The first, "A Youth in
Babylon", concentrates on his carny days and
his early partnership with Herschell Gordon
Lewis, producing first nudie flicks, then the
gore films that made Lewis' name synonymous with
splatter. Friedman and Lewis split up in 1964,
and the solo part of Friedman's career is covered
in the second book, "Kings of Babylon".
I found references to "Kings of
Babylon", but could not actually find any
source to buy the book, either new or used. The
first volume is available in large paperback
format.
The early days of
exploitation films were ... shall we say
exploitative? Many of the participants came into
the business from the carnivals, and the actual
filmmakers learned their trade in the Army Signal
Corps. The circuit was independent indoor
theatres at first, where the roadshow and the
gimmicks were often more important than the
movies. No one admitted without a vomit bag. As
the drive-in age emerged, the shows had an
expanded base of operations, and they were able
to add fireworks, playgrounds, and other
inducements. Very often the gimmick was the
entire show, and the movie turned out to be
dreadful, sometimes with no nudity at all.
As the fifties eased
into the early 60's, the drive-ins and
independent indoor theaters became the circuit
for soft-x films, like Zorro. Friedman was
probably the undisputed king of this genre. These
usually included plenty of nudity, but in theory
the sex was only simulated, with no close-ups.
Zorro is the most explicit one I can recall, as
there is one good look at Zorro's alternate sword
in the fully extended position, and an
rear/overhead shot of Zorro-on-top sex that
appears to be real, not simulated. I don't know
if these shots were in the theatrical release, or
were added back in for the DVD. There is a
trailer on the DVD which includes more explicit
footage than any in the feature, and implies that
they tinkered with a hard-x version.
The things that make
Zorro extraordinary are as follows: The sets are
as good as any sets in a multi-million dollar
picture. Of course, they should look that good
because they came from a multi-million dollar
picture, namely King Vidor's "Duel in the
Sun". The set from the 1946 picture was
still sitting there on the Selznick lot nearly a
quarter of a century later, and Friedman managed
to wrangle it for his main set. I suppose that
set included some interior appointments as well,
I don't know, but they did a great job at
finishing it off. Look at the third image below.
Look at the beautiful backdrop, with the book set
in the alcove and the reddish-brown light. Very
impressive detailing in the shot. So credit King
Vidor of the shell of the set, but the producer
and director finished it off impressively. The
music is terrific. The entire score is a simple
flamenco guitar motif, but perfectly handled. The
score perfectly accentuates the mood of the
scenes, and provides appropriate stress for the
dramatic moments, without ever descending to the
soap opera organ level. I thought the score was
as good as 95% of studio releases. The script is
often quite funny, and some of the actors have
the polish of top performers. Zorro is no great
actor, but he is graceful and convincing in the
horse- and sword- playOf course, some of the
others are not so adept, and some of the comic
relief is played very broad, but the good moments
are quite convincing. Friedman made this movie
for $76,000, and that was about triple the normal
budget for these
Robyn Whitting (1, 2, 3)
"She-Freak",
from Tuna
Tuna's comments: She Freak (1967) is
universally hated judging by the IMDB comments.
It is the story of a poor white trash waitress in
a greasy spoon who joins the carny to better
herself. She starts as a waitress, but soon
seduces and marries the head of the "Freak
Show." By the way, they are not called
freaks in carny lingo, but "human
odities" and it was illegal in California in
1967 to display human oddities for money, so
Friedman had to create some for his film.
The images, as you can see, contain no nudity.
This is as much exposure as you could get away
with in 1967 in this type of exploitation films.
This film launched a promising career for Claire
Brennen that was cut short by her death from
cancer in 1977 at age 43. Lynn Courtney was a
one-time-wonder as the Hoochy Coochy girl. The
critics of the film complain about slow pace, and
lengthy montages of carny life including a 6
minute scene of the carny being taken down and
set up. I actually enjoyed this facet of the film
as the images showed Friedman's love of carny.
The DVD transfer is very well done, and the
commentary track is worth the DVD cost alone.
Certainly not for everyone, but a good addition
to your library if you are a serious film buff
interested in exploitation cinema.
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Lynn Courtney (1,
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Claire Brennen (1,
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