All posts by Rod Lott

Reading Material

Gods of Grindhouse: Interviews with Exploitation Filmmakers

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godsgrindhouseUnderstandably, Andrew J. Rausch just can’t seem to pull himself away from Herschell Gordon Lewis. Having co-authored a book with Lewis last year in the heartily recommended The Godfather of Gore Speaks, Rausch wrangles Lewis once more as a participant in Gods of Grindhouse, a collection of interviews with 16 notable filmmakers, almost all known best for their work as directors.

I’ll state my one caveat right upfront since it’s right there in the alliterative title: While synonymous, the term “grindhouse” is not always interchangeable with “cult movies.” That quibble aside, I had an absolute blast with this book from Bear Manor Media. I read it in one sitting, in roughly the time it takes it watch any given one of the guys’ most memorable flicks.

Although all 16 interviews adhere to the Q-and-A format, not all of the Qs stem from Rausch’s mind. He interviews Lewis, Night of the Living Dead co-creator John A. Russo and multihyphenates Roger Corman and Larry Cohen; the rest of the talks come from a dozen others. Lengths vary and all but two have been published elsewhere previously. That turned out not to be a problem, as I had read only one previously: Mike White’s conversation with Wacko‘s Greydon Clark.

Kicking off Gods, Brian Layne speaks with Full Moon Pictures emperor Charles Band, which is nice to see because one rarely, if ever, finds Band in these sorts of things. Among the rest of the paperback’s contents, certain pieces stand out, including:
• Frank Henenlotter bemoaning his own job on Basket Case 3: The Progeny;
• Bill Rebane detailing how he started shooting The Giant Spider Invasion without the benefit of, y’know, money;
• and Ray Dennis Steckler decrying Mystery Science Theater 3000‘s episode of his Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up
Zombies as “just disgusting” and “anti-Semitic” (!).

Also grilled about their careers — although not always in full — are David F. Friedman, Jack Hill, Lloyd Kaufman, William Lustig, Russ Meyer, Ted V. Mikels (of course he’s pictured with that god-awful boar’s-tooth necklace) and, the odd man out of the group, Alejandro Jodorowsky. Posters and photos pepper the pages.

After reading Gods of Grindhouse, you may find yourself filling your free time with viewings of some of the films mentioned. This should be listed on the back cover as a possible side effect. —Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon or Bear Manor Media.

Contests

Wanna Win A Boy and His Dog?

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boyhisdogUPDATE: Winner is Tony Ungawa!

We’re giving away a copy of A Boy and His Dog on Blu-ray and DVD to one lucky summabitch in these United States of America. How to enter? Easy!

Just leave a relevant comment on any review on this site before next Saturday, Aug. 31. That’s when one lucky commenter will be picked at random to have this movie shipped to his or her door. Winner will be notified via email, so make sure the email address you leave to comment is a valid one.

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Action

Shoot First… Die Later (1974)

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shootfirstLt. Domenico Malacarne (Luc Merenda, Torso) is not the saintly officer of the law he appears to be. Although he’s technically on the side of all that is good, he doesn’t exactly play by the book to enforce it. And there’s plenty to enforce, given his department’s new hard-line policy against gangland violence, but how much the lieutenant adheres to it is another story.

From Eurocrime specialist Fernando Di Leo, Shoot First… Die Later clearly drew influence from William Friedkin’s The French Connection, one of the films repsonsible for igniting the Italians’ new approach to police pictures. Here, Di Leo approaches the material with a mix of noir and pulp that reaches for the ring of gritty realism while also reveling in the fact that it’s still a piece of crowd-pleasing cinema.

shootfirst1He mostly succeeds, much of it due to Merenda’s magnetic presence and the major subplot, examining the torn allegiance Lt. Malacarne’s father (Salvo Randone, My Dear Killer), also on the force, comes to feel toward his son. Sticking out is the use of a pet-toting resident as comic relief, primarily because his arc ends with a huge tonal shift (not to mention an act that would get PETA all riled).

On the plus side, bookending Shoot First are expert car chases. The first runs a breathtaking six minutes, partially through tiny Italian alleys, and is one of the all-time greats. If more people saw the film, they’d been inclined to agree. —Rod Lott

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Horror

The House of Seven Corpses (1974)

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house7corpsesWhen it comes to dead bodies, The House of Seven Corpses plays home to 993 fewer than Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses. This is an argument against the axiom of “less is more.”

In the first and only turn in the director’s chair from H.R. Pufnstuf writer Paul Harrison, the wonderful old manse of the title has remained in the Beal family for generations, despite so many members of the Beal family experiencing tragic death within its walls. The opening credits demonstrate how they came to leave this mortal coil by drowning, gunshot, hanging and other methods nefarious and felonious.

house7corpses1The premise isn’t very imaginative: When a crew comes to shoot a movie there about the Beals, and stays there instead of at a hotel, they befall the same fates as the family members did long ago. This comes after the discovery of such residential amenities as an on-site cemetery and secret passages, one of which leads to a room containing the Tibetian Book of the Dead and various volumes of witchcraft.

None of this comes as a surprise to Edgar Price (genre mainstay John Carradine), the grounds’ longtime caretaker and clan defender, nor should any of it come as a surprise to you. The House of Seven Corpses operates by the numbers, yet sometimes that’s okay. This is one of those cases: an average, harmless horror movie served up as comfort food. For such a promising title, it should hold more panache, more atmosphere, more thrills. That it doesn’t, however, hardly marks it for automatic write-off; the stay is pleasant enough. —Rod Lott

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Action

Assassination (1987)

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AssassinationAssume your best Trailer Guy voice: “The United States’ new first lady is a major bitch … and only Charles Bronson can protect her from … Assassination!”

In this rickety product from the Cannon Films assembly line, Death Wish master Bronson plays Secret Service agent Jay Killion (note that last name), who’s assigned to guard the life and body — upturned nose included — of Lara Craig, wife of the newly elected POTUS. That she is portrayed by frequent co-star Jill Ireland, then Bronson’s real-life wife, is the most interesting element of an otherwise routine actioner.

assassination1Killion takes his job very seriously, whereas Mrs. Craig could give a shit, assuming her haughty attitude of entitlement somehow makes her impervious to bullets. She slowly changes her tune when bad guys in their vicinity start playing tag with heat-seeking missiles. She and Killion fight; she and Killion flirt; she and Killion are trapped in what feels like Hart to Hart fan fiction.

One would expect a tighter film from Peter Hunt — director of the James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and editor of many more 007 adventures — but Assassination is a royal mess, overstuffed with weaponry, a dune buggy chase and so. Many. Motorcycles. It’s one of the weakest, least engaging projects to emerge from the Bronson/Cannon partnership, so wrong that Bronson even quips, “I don’t want to die from a terminal orgasm.” Sorry, Chuck, but that sounds like exactly the way to go. —Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.