All posts by Rod Lott

Thriller

The Perfume of the Lady in Black (1974)

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perfumeladyWith the complexion of tapioca pudding and a hairstyle eventually made famous by Princess Di, Silvia Hacherman (Mimsy Farmer, Four Flies on Grey Velvet) is married to her work in a science lab. Her cad of a boyfriend, Roberto (Maurizio Bonuglia, Foxtrap), wishes she would be less serious and play more tennis. He just doesn’t understand Silvia has a lot on her mind, not the least of which is The Perfume of the Lady in Black.

While at Roberto’s pad, Silvia first glimpses the image in a mirror: her late mother spraying the smell-good. As writer/director Francesco Barilli’s first feature progresses, and our heroine hallucinates, we slowly piece together the acts of awfulness that befell her mom when Silvia was a child — acts that may extend to Silvia herself.

perfumelady1They aren’t pleasant; revisiting them unhinges Silvia, sending her into a spiral of madness and regression. As this happens, Barilli gives his film a Rosemary’s Baby vibe, made all the more distinct by its apartment-building setting and the strange tenants who inhabit its rooms.

But Perfume is not really a horror film, at least not until the very end. It’s also not a giallo, despite that vague title, the occasional saturated color gel and the fate of Barilli’s characters. The path he takes to get there is a bit too bumpy for narrative’s sake; how much you’re willing to forgive its leaps may correspond directly to your overall enjoyment. There’s no denying this Lady has style; I just wish she made a little more sense, too. —Rod Lott

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Horror

The Playgirls and the Vampire (1960)

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playgirlsvampireBearing more than a passing resemblance to the Mickey-Hargitay-goes-bonkers B-fave Bloody Pit of Horror, Piero Regnoli’s Italian erotic-horror number The Playgirls and the Vampire plunks five easy-on-the-eyes dancers and their Norman Fell-esque chaperone in a spooky castle during inclement weather.

The castle’s host, Count Gabor Kernassy (Walter Brandy, Island of Lost Girls), is all too willing to have these lovelies shack up at his place for the night, but warns them not to leave their rooms under any circumstances. Doing as women do, however, one ignores this piece of advice and gets bitten by a vampire. The next night, she’s already become an official member of the undead, sporting sharp new teeth as she walks around in her birthday suit.

playgirlsvampire1With not much to do, the four remaining gals practice their dance steps, but each in a different style, reminding one of that rehearsal scene in A Charlie Brown Christmas. One decides to break out into an impromptu striptease. You’d think their goofball manager might take advantage of his position, but he’s perfectly happy sleeping next to a girlie magazine that he props up on a pillow and calls “Sweetheart.”

In the underground-catacombs climax, Count Kernassy and the vampire duke it out, with the latter becoming impaled on a conveniently wall-mounted spear. Via the magic of cheap animation, he degenerates into a skeleton — easily Playgirls‘ coolest scene. Only a smidgen less talk and a helping more of nekkid vampire chicks could make this obscure, black-and-white tale more fun than it already is. —Rod Lott

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Action

The Driver (1978)

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thedriverWhy isn’t The Driver mentioned in the same breath as Dirty Harry, The French Connection, Dog Day Afternoon and other bona fide ’70s crime classics? It’s excellent and — sorry, Warriors fans — easily Walter Hill’s personal best as writer/director.

Never a great actor, Ryan O’Neal (Barry Lyndon) also is atop his game here because he has so little to say. With a stoic face and shirt unbuttoned to his chest, he plays a professional getaway driver, perhaps the finest for hire on the West Coast. We see why almost immediately, as an underground casino heist gives way to an incredible nighttime chase through the streets, alleyways and parking garages of L.A.

thedriver1At the scene, a woman (Isabelle Adjani, Ishtar) clearly sees the wheelman’s face, yet lies to the corrupt police detective (a scary Bruce Dern, Silent Running) about it. This so infuriates the cop that he plots a big-score bank robbery specifically to “catch the cowboy that’s never been caught.”

Moody, confident and quiet until tires squeal and sirens blare, The Driver is awash in so much atmosphere that lots were left over for others to soak up, most notably Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, the 2011 film whose taut opening pursuit in particular pays transparent homage. Until the end, I hadn’t noticed that Hill failed to give his characters actual names — they’re credited with crime-fic descriptors like “The Player” and “Exchange Man” — which only goes to show how engrossing this undervalued gem is. —Rod Lott

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Reading Material

Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses — Roger Corman: King of the B Movie

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crabmonstersAnyone who writes off Roger Corman as just a schlockmeister is woefully ill-informed. Whether as producer, director, writer and/or distributor, the man is responsible for some god-awful movies … but he’s also responsible for some legitimately great ones. And even his god-awful ones can be terrific fun to watch.

Because he revolutionized the indie film biz and birthed many A-list careers, he deserves all the accolades he gets, including that honorary Academy Award from a couple years back. Let’s not forget the books, too; many have been written, but Chris Nashawaty’s Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses might be my favorite of them all. It’s definitely my favorite book of the year, fiction or non, for many reasons.

For starters, it’s an oral history of Corman’s career and legacy. Whether the subject is SNL, MTV or ESPN, oral histories on some aspect of the entertainment field are infinitely readable, and Crab Monsters is no exception, star-studded as it is with Corman grads Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Ron Howard, Joe Dante, Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert De Niro, Gale Anne Hurd, James Cameron and a mind-boggling many more.

Sylvester Stallone puts its best on page 145: “Roger was a launching pad of unguided missiles to be launched into space. We were the seeds, and he owned the farm.”

For another reason, it’s also an art book, jam-packed with photos but more importantly, lobby cards and posters — oh, posters, glorious posters! That’s an area in which Corman always excelled; not only would they promise more than the product delivered, but he often commissioned a script after the one-sheet was made.

With coffee-table books, one often finds the text surrounding the visuals to be secondary, if not skipped altogether. That’s not the case here. So well-designed you might mistake it for the work of Chip Kidd at first, Crab Monsters can be enjoyed separately as text or visuals, but is deliciously sublime when consumed altogether as intended.

I fell in love with the book almost immediately; less than halfway in, that affection had blown up into obsession, and I devoured the entire thing in one incredibly enjoyable Saturday. I’ve admired Corman’s work for decades, and Nashawaty’s book sums it up even better than the joyous 2011 documentary Corman’s World.

For movie lovers, Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses not just gets, but earns my highest recommendation. For the Corman faithful, it’s simply an absolute must. —Rod Lott

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Contests

Wanna Win Bounty Killer?

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bountykillerUPDATE: Winner is Sherri Montgomery!

We’re giving away a copy of Bounty Killer on 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, Sept. 14. 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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