Tag Archives: 70s

The Cheerleaders (1973) Review

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One from the to watch pile…
The Cheerleaders (1973)

The cover of the UK Arrowdrome DVD release


Film: The teen sex comedy was a huge thing in the 80s, and I reckon as a teenager I saw most of them, which were basically stupid jokes mixed with hot half-naked girls in a soft-porn environment. 

As a teen in those days it was hard to get your hands on prom so this was as close as you could get… you kids have it so easy these days.

The film, The Cheerleaders, from 1973, clearly inspired by the films of Russ Meyer, were personably an inspiration to those eighties films and there is a lot of the bare bones of them in this. 

Written and directed by Paul Glickler, this film was also a clear influence on 1978’s Debbie Does Dallas not so much plot-wise, but certainly with the environment and the over-sexed teenaged girls.

The Cheerleaders of Amorosa High need a new cheerleader to make up their squad, seeing as how one of them has ended up pregnant. Now these Cheerleaders are, well, somewhat slutty, and so the head (heehee, ‘head’) cheerleader Claudia (Denise Dillaway), in cahoots with the ladies physical education teacher, decide to get a virgin to be their replacement so they don’t have that problem of pregnancy flare up again.

Claudia (Denise Dillaway) is concerned about something over there.


The problem is Jeannie (Stephanie Fondue) is desperate to ‘lose her cherry’ and the rest of the team want her too as well… and she does! Very soon the team are caught up in a match rigging exercise where their team are tired out by a massive orgy organised by an unscrupulous crook, but to make things even the Cheerleaders kidnap all the opposing team and proceed to have their way with each and every one.

Jeannie (Stephanie Fondue) does her best Jan Brady impression


The acting is terrible and the jokes are sophomoric at best, but it has a weird charm to it, which honestly might just be due to its age, rather than actual quality… the fact I love 80s teen sex comedies probably play into that as well. Heaps of ‘ nice balls’ and businesses with the names ‘Beaver Wash ‘ (a car wash) styled jokes run riot. Its Carry On and Russ Meyer all mixed together.

The weird thing is the world in which this movie exists. All teenage girls are oversexed, men are dumb crooks, and every adult male is an ephebophile.

It’s fun and dumb and I reckon an absolute influence of the biggest teen sex comedy of the 80s, Porkys, but it doesn’t necessarily hold up like Porkys does.

Score: **1/2

The DVD menu screen for disc one


Format: The reviewed copy of this film was on the UK Arrow films release DVD, and was an ok image, but far from great. The films image is a 1.78:1 aspect and has heaps of artefacts and some streaks, but everything that needs to be seen, can be, so it’s not too detrimental to the viewing experience. The audio is in 2.0 stereo and is just fine.

Score: ***

Extras: This disc was one of Arrow Films’ ‘Arrowdrome” series of releases, and comes with a reversible cover, an Arrow Films catalogue and a booklet featuring an essay from Cinema Sewer legend, Robin Bougie.

There are two extras on disc one: the trailer and a radio spot for the film.

Disc two though, has the full feature length sequel Revenge of the Cheerleaders, and includes trailers, radio and TV spots for the film. Make sure you watch this one too as it does feature Cheryl ‘Rainbeaux’ Smith, and a young David Hasselhoff as ‘Boner’.

Score: ****

WISIA: Once was enough for me.

Peripheral vision was at an all-time low in the early 70s.


Summer vs Zombruary: Zombie Flesh-Eaters (1979) Review

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This film serves a double purpose. It is the first of February, the final month of the Australian summer, and what better way to spend your final month of summer than on a beautiful island, with clear waters to sail upon, and the undead who wish for your destruction. Also, this is the first review of the To Watch Pile’s Zombruary: a whole month of nothing but reviews of zombie films!
One from the re watch pile…
Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979)

Zombie Flesh-eaters: The Arrow Bluray steelbook… unfortunately mine is battle damaged!


Film: I love Lucio Fulci films as they appeal to all the things I love about horror: the disturbing tale, the gore, the nudity, the violence, and especially in Fulci’s case, the sheer oddball-ness of it, or as ‘proper’ educated film critics may put it, his use of surrealism to convey the supernatural.

But I’m just some dude who likes horror movies, so I probably wouldn’t say that!

An abandoned ship enters New York Harbour with a soul occupant who attached a harbour police officer before being shot, and knocked off board. The owner of the boat’s daughter, Anne (Tisa Farrow) is notified of the murder and decides to sneak onboard to see if she can what happened to her missing father, who did not return with the vessel.

Zombie Flesh-eaters: Ian McCulloch and Tisa Farrow using the 70s version of a mobile phone.


When she sneaks onboard, which is being guarded by the NYPD, she meets reporter Peter West (Ian McCulloch) who is looking for a story, and the pair of them quickly team up to back track her father’s movements to find where he has been, and what may have happened to him. They charter a boat owned by Brian Hull (Al Cliver) and his lovely girlfriend, Susan Barrett (Auretta Gay) and make their way to the island of Matul.

…but what they find is a seemingly mad doctor, Dr Menard (Richard Johnson) fighting against the undead!!! Will they find out what happened to Anne’s father? Will all of them escape the island alive? Is this the beginning of some kind of zombie holocaust; some kind of dawn of the dead?

This isn’t my favourite Fulci film: The Beyond has that honour, but instead this still sits high on the cool list for me. 

First up it’s cool that a zombie film of this period actually has a reason for the dead coming back and it’s not just some kind of facility for cinema to tell us about ourselves. I love the fact it’s just a film about zombies, and not ‘consumerism’ or whatever.

Then its just the flat out insanity of some of the scenes: the zombies aren’t freshly dead like in Dawn of the Dead, they look almost mummified and have a real creepy texture about them. Except for one, the one that fights the shark, near the basically naked Audretta Gay in a g-banger and a scuba tank.

Zombie Flesh-eaters: surf ‘n’ turf


Finally, the gore is just so fantastically over the top one can’t help but just marvel at it, I mean, it’s not extraordinarily realistic, but even to attempt some of the ideas in a world of practical effects is absolutely awe inspiring. Even going back around to the zombie versus shark sequence, one can’t help but marvel at the job.

Basically, this movie is awesome. Get it, watch it, love it!

Score: *****

Zombie Flesh-eaters Bluray menu screen


Format: The film is presented in a really nice 2.35:1 restoration with a choice of two excellent audio tracks, English or Italian, in Dolby Digital 2.0. It’s never looked at good as this, for certain!

Score:****

Extras: Not sure if it’s an extra or not, but there is the opportunity to watch this film as either Zombie Flesh-Eaters, Zombie or Zombi 2. Which ever one you pick, it’s introduced by Ian McCulloch, and it’s really just a change in the title card and nothing else. Is that an extra? I’m not sure, but I thought it bore mentioning!

Also the release I have is a pretty fancy steelbook with some cool original art, and the packaging contains an excellent booklet with articles by Stephen Thrower, Calum Waddell and Craig Lapper, photos of the original script with comments by Jay Slater, Fulci’s CV and a full cast and crew list, all fully illustrated.

Outside of that it’s an Italian smorgasbord of extras. This disc treats us to two commentaries, one with Elisa Briganti who co-wrote the film with her husband Dardano Sancchetti and the other with U.K. horror journalists Stephen Thrower (writer of Nightmare USA) and Alan Jones (writer of Dario Argento: The Man, The Myth and The Magic). Both are fascinating, with Briganti’s being a fantastic look at the making of the film and the Thrower/ Jones one is a fantastic retrospective from two movie journalists, and fans, with whom I have a lot of respect.

Next we have a documentary called From Romero to Rome: The Rise and Fall of the Italian Horror Film. Starting at Night of the Living Dead, but with reflections upon older ‘zombie’ films, it looks at the Italian output in reference to Romero’s output. It’s a great look at zombie films for zombie fans.

There is a heap of trailers and advertising material here, with a U.S. trailer, the Vipco trailer, 2 TV trailers and some radio spots.

Then we have a second disc of just extras!

The first on this disc is called Aliens, Cannibals and Zombies: A Trilogy of Italian Terror which sees Ian McCulloch discuss his acting career.

Zombie Flesh-Eaters: From Script to Screen sees doco director Calum Waddell totally nerd-out (and rightly so!) at an original copy of the script with Dardano Sacchetti.

Music for a Flesh Feast is a Q and A with Fabio Frizzi which is pretty interesting look at how a composer approaches a film.

The Meat-munching Movies of Gino De Rossi is a special effects doco featuring the work of Italian special effects artist De Rossi.

Score: *****

WISIA: I couldn’t actually accurately tell you just how many times I have watched this film, it’s awesome!

Zombie Flesh-eaters: here’s worms in ya eye!

Respectable: The Mary Millington Story (2016) Review

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One from the to watch pile…
Respectable: The Mary Millington Story (2016)

The cover to the UK release of Respectable: The Mary Millington Story


Film: I sometimes think, since the advent of DVD, that I love extras, and documentaries about films, more than the films themselves. That is, I’ve always loved documentaries, Helevtica is one of my favourite films, documentary or otherwise, but seeing informative video about the films I love is like a dream come true.

I think the first actual film documentary I saw that wasn’t an extra, was Mark Hartley’s Not Quite Hollywood, and I lapped it up, and I have actively pursued as many as I can and have amassed a collection of about 20 films, ranging from Roger Corman’s history, to the legend of Britain’s Video Nasty period.

If anything, this documentary is almost complimentary for the Jake West Video Nasty docos, as it tells not of the banned videos from the early 80s, but instead tells of UK porno star Mary Millington’s life, and her rise from glamour photo club model, to lad’s magazines to the illegal market of porn films in the 70s.

The Queen of Blue herself, Mary Millington.


The doco is written and directed by Simon Sheridan, Millington’s biographer and writer of Come Play With Me: The Mary Millington Story and has is narrated by Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrel’s Dexter Fletcher. There are recent interviews with several family members and Millington’s film contemporaries of the time, not to mention archive interviews with porn producers and anti-porn activists (like Mary Whitehouse), and an audio interview with Millington herself.

Hers was a life of drugs and sex and money, and as most documentaries of people with these lifestyles, it doesn’t end well, as the tragedy of their lifestyle can sometimes catch up with those involved. 

The odd dance sequence from Come Play With Me.


 My interest in this period of cinema comes as an extension of my love of the so-called saucy cinema of the UK, whether it’s the less risqué Carry on Films, or some of the slightly more-so borderline soft-core porn films of the period, and I’ve always been a fan of Millington. This doco is surprising as it is rated a U.K. (18) but has quite a lot of full frontal nudity, both male and female, and some actual sex… not a great deal, but enough to raise my eyebrows at the idea I grabbed this from Amazon!

It’s a tragic and fascinating story, told well with heaps of supplementary material and when you have a story about someone who was filmed and photographed as often as Millington, you know there is gonna be lots of nudity and a decent slog of sex. 

Score: ****

The DVD menu screen for Respectable: The Mary Millington Story


Format: This UK release, region 2 DVD runs for approximately 110 minutes and is presented is a 1.75:1 image of varying quality due to the amount of archival material, but essentially the picture is ok. The audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 and is clear.

Score: ***1/2

Extras: Amazing amount of extras on this disc:

The Audio Commentary is done by Sam Dunn from the British film institute and Simon Sheridan, the writer and director of the film. It is a really interesting, in-depth commentary, almost as interesting as the film.

Confession from the Dave Sullivan focuses primarily on Sullivan’s career in the adult entertainment industry, as far as publishing and filmmaking is concerned. An interesting albeit brief look at his career.

Keep it up, Sue! In conversation with Sue Longhurst is similar to the Sullivan short insomuch as it briefly looks at the career of one of Millington’s contemporaries, and her appearance in the Keep It Up films.

Sex Talk with Ed Tudor-Pole is a similar interview with punk musician Ed Tudor-Pole, from Tenpole Tudor.

Party Pieces 1974 silent film is an 11 minute long stag film with no sound which is quite tame compared to today’s pornography.

Come Play With Me original 1977 trailer is obviously a trailer for ‘Come Play With Me’.

Respectable teaser trailer is, obviously a teaser for this film.

Score: *****

WISIA: This sort of doco is right up my alley, so I’ll definitely watch it again.

A newspaper add for Linda Lovelace’s Deep Throat

Summer review: Piranha (1978)

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To celebrate the summer solstice, here’s an oldie from the re watch pile…
Piranha (1978)

Piranha Australian blurry release


Film: In Australia, nothing says summer like a swim in at the beach or a dip in a river in one of our many national parks, and just as Jaws makes everyone stay out of the surf, Piranha is sure to dull anyone’s inclination to enjoy the river ways.

Piranha: Menzies, Dillman and McCarthy


Piranha is a film that is probably just as well known as it’s ‘older brother’ Jaws, it’s written by The Spiderwyck Chronicles screenplay writer John Sayles, from a story devised by him and Kingdom of the Spiders Richard Robinson. The film was directed by Joe Dante, who also gave us the wonderful Gremlins, and The Hole.

Piranha tells of Maggie McKeown (Heather Menzies), a private investigator who enlists the help of mountain man, Paul Grogan (Bradford Dillman) to find two missing hikers. They find the hiker’s devoured bodies at the bottom of a swimming pool that they empty, but what they don’t realise is, they have delivered into the local river, where a Summer Camp and a Resort lie, a school of deadly killer fish. Scientist and creator of the creatures, Dr Hoek (Kevin McCarthy) informs them of their deadly faux par! 

How can they stop them and is the appearance of the military and mysterious Dr. Mengers (Barbara Steele) going to benefit to hinder their efforts?

Piranha: fish food.


This film is pretty much 70s horror/ exploitation/ Corman distilled into the perfect package. It exploits Jaws by its very existence and playing on the fear of the water it gave us a few years earlier, and it does so with bravado: look out for the video game of Jaws, and a copy of Moby Dick in various scenes as well as other references. Throwing in fan favourites Steele, McCarthy and Dick Miller and Paul Bartel doesn’t hurt the proceedings either! 

It does play very cleverly on that fear of the unknown in the muddiness and darkness of the water and there is enough levity to make it fun as well as horrifying. A favourite of mine as well as a damn good Corman film!

Score: ****1/2

Piranha menu screen


Format: The review copy of this film is the Australian multi-region bluray release which runs for approximately 92 minutes, and is a pretty good anamorphic widescreen presentation, with a clear 2.0 stereo audio.

Score: ***1/2

Extras: There’s a cool bunch of extras on this disc.

There’s a commentary starring director Joe Dante and producer Jon Davidson, both of whom give a cool commentary on the film. It is interesting and thorough, and so informative!

Behind the scenes footage has some pretty cool ‘home movies’ of what went on on the set of the film.

The Making of Piranha is a 20 minute doco about the film with reflection on it from Roger Corman, Joe Dante, and various other cast and crew.

Bloopers and Out takes are just what they sound like. Really it feels like more behind the scenes stuff but it is occasionally funny.

Additional scenes from the Tv version is exactly what it is called. There is a pretty cool bit with Dick Millar and Paul Bartel, where Bartel manages to squeeze in a nose-pick joke: well played!

 There is some radio spots, Tv ad and trailers for the film, and a poster and stills gallery is a bunch of international promotional material.

Phil Tippet’s Behind the Scenes photo collection which is about 50 pretty cool behind the scenes shots of the various effects used in the film, including sculpts and the internal mechanics of the fish.

Score: *****

WISIA: It’s a 70s horror classic and I watch it quite regularly.

Piranha: the 70s at its finest

Rabid (1977) Review

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One from the to watch pile…
Rabid

  

Film: Do I think of myself as a fan of the director David Cronenberg? Well, to be honest, I didn’t! Whenever a conversation leads into to Cronenberg territory, the film Videodrome always pops up… And THAT film I am not a fan of, but in the last week or two I have been rewatching some films of his that aren’t Videodrome. These films were eXistenZ, which Cronenberg says it is a reaction to Salman Rushdies’ persecution, his remake of The Fly, which is just amazing, and Naked Lunch, which, whilst it has its problems, I find an intriguing watch. During this rewatch frenzy, fellow To Watch Pile-r Simon (check out his action movie blog explosiveaction.com ) offered me his copies of earlier Cronenberg films, Shivers and Rabid, neither of which I have ever seen. I’m not sure how either passed me by, especially seeing as how I can remember seeing the trailer for Rabid on many films hired on VHS during the 80s.

Rabid is Cronenberg’s second feature film, and has a bit of notoriety as it stars porno actress Marilyn Chambers in the lead role. Now whilst I may have observed the ‘occasional’ pornographic film (and even reviewed things like Sexcula and Debbie Does Dallas for other sites), I haven’t ever, in my cinematic travels, seen Ms. Chambers in anything, and I have to admit I was quite struck by her presence in this: she has a lithe seventies sexiness about her that is quite breathtaking.

I thought the pixie-ish Lynn Lowrey’s appearance in Shivers couldn’t be topped: I was wrong.

  
Rabid tells the story of Hart (Frank Moore) and his girlfriend Rose (Marilyn Chambers) who are involved in a terrible motorcycle accident which sees Hart with a few superficial wounds, but has Rose severely injured after being stuck under the burning motorcycle. 

He wounds are quite catastrophic and she is picked up your the ambulance associated with the local plastic surgery clinic run by Doctor Keloid (Howard Ryshpan), who is an innovator of a type of surgery which involved the manipulation of human tissue so it can be used to assimilate any tissue it may be combined with.

Unfortunately for Rose, it does some thing else to her. She becomes a vampire, of sorts, who doesn’t turn her prey into vampires, but instead infects them with a form of rabies, which there can then spread through their bite.

Soon. Of course, the virus quickly spreads…

  
Simply, this movie is amazing. It is thematically similar to Shivers in its story of a spreading virus, but it is different enough for that not to even matter. All of Cronenberg’s themes of change and bodily transformation are present and clearly in embryo. 

The film is well performed by all the actors, and it clearly has a higher budget then that of Shivers. Special effects and make up legend Joe Blasco had his work cut out for him with the effects in this film, and Rose’s vampiric ways are nothing short of disturbing!

This is definitely a must see, and it will certainly change your opinion of the originality of a lot of the post millennial pandemic films and zombie virus films we have seen since. 

Score: *****

Format: As I stated earlier, I was lucky enough to get this film as one of the UK’s Arrow Video’s bluray steelbooks, which of course means it is Region 2. The feature runs for 91 minutes, and is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, with a mono audio. At first I didn’t appreciate just how excellent the image is, until I watched the trailer, an extra on this disc, and saw just how well it had been cleaned up in comparison

Score: *****

Extras:

This disc has a bunch of pretty cool extras. 

  
Two different commentaries, one with Cronenberg, which he articulates every aspect of the film production and one with William Beard, author of The Artist As Monster: The Films of David Cronenberg. This second commentary explores not just this film, but many of Cronenberg’s work. Beard clearly has a deep and thorough understanding of Cronenberg.

Four interviews with Cronenberg, producer Ivan Reitman, co-producer Don Carmody and special effects artist Joe Blasco. These interviews are all fascinating a really present an interesting picture of how the film was made though for my liking, Blasco’s was a little short.

There are two documentaries: The Directors: David Cronenberg is a 60 minute episode of a series from 1999 that focused on various directors and their processes and people who worked for them. Obviously this one focuses on Cronenberg and interviews the man himself, and Holly Hunter, Peter Weller, Marilyn Chambers, Michael Ironside and others, and is a full exploration of his career up to eXistenZ. Raw, Rough and Rabid takes a look at the production Canadian company Cinepix, who released Rabid and is a fascinating look at the Canadian film business of the time.

The trailer is also one here as a special feature, and you don’t realise just how beautiful the film looks until you see just how ordinary is the video quality of the trailer. There is also a promotional gallery of various materials used to advertise the film.

This set also features a DVD presentation of the film, in standard definition as opposed to the bluray’s 1080p and a booklet containing several articles: Plastic Surgery Disaster: Rabid, The October Crisis and the Pathological Body Politic by Kier-La Janisse, A Biologically Correct Vampiress by David Cronenberg and An Interview With Marilyn Chambers by Calum Waddell, not to mention the films credits and several notes about the transfer. These are all interesting and essential reads for the Cronenberg fan.

  
Score: *****

WISIA: A resounding ‘Hell yeah’ from this lowly critic on the rewatchability of this pic. I just finished writing this review and I am thinking about watching it again now!