Wasted Weekend - 8/27/21

 We've nearly made it to the weekend once again and I'm going to do my level best to give you some good or at least serviceable suggestions of things to watch online instead of doing anything responsible. I feel like there's a little bit of a slowdown of new things popping up on streaming services around this time of the month before the wave of new titles hit over the next week. Still, it's the internet and there's always something to wrap your eyeballs around.

Grizzly is hardly obscure but it is a solidly entertaining Jaws-on-land with a bear animal attack jam. It's is just the kind of thing I like to put on during a bleary eyed Sunday morning while I muster the strength to go pick up breakfast tacos. It's a little slow in parts but it's filled with actors I like - Christopher George, Richard Jaeckel - the kill scenes are all pretty great and the ending is totally bananas. Grizzly regularly hops on and off different services but I noticed it on Tubi earlier this week.

Speaking of actors I like - I have never seen the 1972 made for tv prison drama The Glass House but it stars Alan Alda, Vic Morrow, Clu Gulager, and Billy Dee Williams! Based on a Truman Capote story and directed by Tom Gries - Helter Skelter - Glass House has a reputation for being a truly bleak slice of prison life and it's definitely the kind of obscure, downer 70s film that I look for. I'm willing to give it a shot and it's currently streaming on Prime.

Nothing I tell you can prepare you for the cast featured in 1990s Catchfire/Backtrack. Directed by and starring Dennis Hopper opposite Jodie Foster and an onslaught of familiar faces - Dean Stockwell, Joe Pesci, Catherine Keener, Charlie Sheen, and Vincent Price (?) just to name a few. The question of whether Catchfire is any good is one only you can answer but it is an absolutely brain melting bit of late 80s-early 90s WTF material. See Dennis Hopper playing saxophone in front of an Hieronymus Bosch triptych, witness him defend a burrito in a gunfight, marvel while he saves a baby lamb from falling into a crevasse. You can watch all of this insanity on Prime and Vudu.

I often struggle with modern attempts at psychotronic/exploitation/drive-in fare as they are frequently too self aware for my tastes. I prefer that even the lowest of budget genre flicks take themselves somewhat seriously. I can't say from the looks of things that Lake Michigan Monster takes itself seriously at all but it does look like a genuinely earnest attempt at low budget regional filmmaking - also people say it's really fun! This has been available on Arrow for some time but appears to be streaming on Prime and Tubi as well. 

Doberman Cop - 1977

 Last week the film world lost a legend in Sonny Chiba and many of us sought to celebrate his life by watching one or more of his movies. Though I wished it had been under better circumstances I decided it was time for me to finally catch up to Kinji Fukasaku's Doberman Cop. Fukasaku had a long and wildly varied career beginning in the 1960s and he might still be best known in the US for directing the Battle Royale films in the early 00s. However, in the 1970s Fukasaku directed a string of violent and gritty crime dramas including the blistering Yakuza Papers/Battles Without Honor or Humanity films which include his first collaborations with Chiba. Doberman Cop is one of those crime films - focusing more on the police than on gangsters in this case - and is based on a manga inspired by Dirty Harry. If you took Dirty Harry and combined it with the rural cop in the big city set-up of another Clint Eastwood flick - Coogan's Bluff - you might have some approximation of Doberman Cop but this is Fukasaku at work so things get much crazier.

Doberman Cop opens strong with a murder scene and a burnt corpse - according to the attending detectives this killing is part of spate of murders/arsons targeting sex workers. The evidence on the scene leads them to believe the latest victim is a girl named Mayumi from Okinawa. We then cut to the main theme/credits which are played over some gorgeous city night footage and Chiba as Joji Kano - sporting a straw hat, white slacks, and a pig in a sack. Kano is a detective from Okinawa looking into the details of the murder - the pig was meant as a gift to the Tokyo police from his mom - as well as return the remains to the island. Kano believes that Mayumi is still alive and that the identity of the murdered girl is mistaken. This belief largely stems from Okinawan folk traditions - Mayumi's mother is a kind of Okinawan priestess and Kano himself keeps performing a divination with tiny shells. Despite the evidence and frequent demands that he return to "the boonies" Kano sticks around to investigate resulting both in some fish out of water comedy and opportunities to demonstrate his virility and physical prowess to the relatively soft city folk. While Kano investigates and makes some new friends - a couple that run a live sex show, a biker who is suspected to be the murderer - we're also introduced to Yakuza backed, drug addicted, rising pop star Miki Harakuze who Kano believes has some connection back to Okinawa. 

The action in Doberman Cop is wild and energetically shot - often using handheld set ups similar to the Yakuza Papers. My usual preference for fight sequences featuring someone as skilled as Chiba's is for wide and medium shots that allow for the action to flow - instead Fukasaku presses close and uses a lot of edits. The results are frantic, claustrophobic, and brutal - a fight between Kano and some gangsters in a small apartment is an absolute scorcher. Chiba's stunt skills are on display when - as far as I can tell - he actually rappels down a high rise building to foil a hostage situation earning Kano the nickname "Tarzan." Fukasaku was never one to shy away from gore and once Kano comes into possession of a Dirty Harry inspired .44 Magnum revolver some bloody results follow including a head explosion and three gangsters impaled by the same bullet. While he is ferocious and a self-described "furimun" - madman - Chiba's Kano isn't nearly as grim as Harry Callahan. He finds amusement in his city experiences, he hangs out and smokes dope with the biker gang, he seems to really care for that pig, and he's mostly looking to get a lost girl home to her mom. 

It's not easy to juggle a hardboiled, gritty crime story with lighter elements - I mean there's a pop star competition at the heart of this film - but I think Fukasaku is successful here. Part of this is that despite any levity the film mostly leans into the grime - the industrial showdown between Kano and the killer is truly gruesome and the film ends on a somewhat bleak note. However the tone is also managed due to Chiba's natural charisma and screen presence. The man was absolutely electric in action and while more expressive in many ways than Eastwood or Bronson - like them he could do a lot with a glance. Doberman Cop is not the most essential Chiba film or even the most essential Chiba/Fukasaku collaboration but it's an excellent crime flick and one deserving of a larger audience. As of this writing it is available on blu-ray from Arrow and is also streaming on their subscription service.

Wasted Weekend - 8/20/21

 It's nearly official - as of this writing my weekend has nearly begun - and I'm ready to discuss wild and wonderful films to indulge in. Depending on your tastes, it's actually a pretty solid streaming weekend for new films - Annette has dropped on Prime, Jakob's Wife starring Barbara Crampton is now on Shudder, and a movie I don't know much about but looks interesting - Cult Following - a mockumentary about an occult investigator has appeared on Vudu. However, I'm here to talk to you about older, often weirder gems for you to mine over the weekend so lets get to it.

You could be excused for thinking that 1990's Blood Games is just another sleazy T&A trashfest and its alternate title Baseball Bimbos in Hillbilly Hell does very little to disabuse you of that notion. However, Blood Games is in fact a fairly relentless and brutal revenge exploitation flick combining aspects of I Spit on Your Grave and Deliverance so if you need to heed content warnings - consider yourself warned. This is the only feature from director Tanya Rosenberg and it stars accomplished stuntwoman Laura Albert. Blood Games saw a Blu Ray release from Vinegar Syndrome but is currently streaming on Hulu.

Another VS release seen streaming in the wild is Psychic Killer - Ray Danton's supernatural quasi-slasher about a former mental patient who learns astral projection and uses his newfound powers to wreak revenge on the people who had him locked up. It stars Jim Hutton as the titular killer and Neville Brand makes an appearance. Actor/Writer/Director - Black Shampoo, Satan's Cheerleaders, Joysticks - Greydon Clark is in the film and has a co-writing credit as well. This one is currently free with ads on Vudu.

I have to give a tip of the hat to my friend Tim who let me know that a bunch of Arrow Video titles had dropped onto Tubi including several films from Floridian William Grefe. Of the bunch I have to highly recommend Sting of Death - it is a zany 60s monster mash where a group of swinging biology students are hunted and killed by a mutated jellyfish monster. It's goofy, it's fun, there are dance numbers, and the body count is shockingly high. It's not as gruesome as what I usually go for but it oozes with low budget regional charm and Grefe has a real knack for lovely natural landscape photography - who knew? Sting of Death is available on the Arrow Player but also streaming Tubi with ads.

In addition to the Grefe films, Tubi also has a bunch of films from one of the kings of 60s low-budget horror - Herschell Gordon Lewis. I haven't seen many of Lewis' films since VHS and I keep meaning to revisit them. I'm thinking I'll get reacquainted with Blood Feast. At an economical 67 minutes - Blood Feast gives you the best of Lewis' aesthetic - bright red gore, earnest performances, low budget ingenuity - without wearing out its welcome. Reserve a seat at the Egyptian Feast via Arrow, Kanopy, or on Tubi

Last but certainly not least - the film world lost a legend in Sonny Chiba this week at the age of 82. Chiba's influence on martial arts and action cinema would be difficult to overstate and he will be missed terribly. I can't really do his career justice but I did like this tribute to him by Simon Abrams. We are left with a treasury of Sonny Chiba's contributions and films and there are a ton of them also on Tubi if you're looking for something this weekend. Essentials like The Street Fighter and Hiroshima Death Match to his earlier films like Terror Beneath the Sea. 

Blu-Ray Review - Rancho Deluxe (1975)

Fun City Editions is a relatively new blu-ray company and partner label with Vinegar Syndrome that has been busy impressing collectors with both the curation of their catalogue and the quality of their releases. My reaction to all of the Fun City releases so far has been - What on earth is that movie and when can I see it? or Oh man that's a movie I absolutely loved and I'm so thrilled to see it getting a blu-ray release. Rancho Deluxe falls into the latter category and I absolutely couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy. 

Released in 1975 and directed by one of the great, still somewhat unsung directors of the era - Frank Perry (The Swimmer, David and Lisa, Play It as It Lays) and written by novelist turned screenwriter/director Tom McGuane (92 in the Shade, The Missouri Breaks) Rancho Deluxe is an oddball, low stakes, quasi-crime hangout in the new American West. Jeff Bridges and Sam Waterston play Jack and Cecil - two cattle rustlers who land on the bad side of a wealthy ranch owner on account of their small time schemes. The ranch owner hires not only his two hands Curt and Burt - Harry Dean Stanton and Richard Bright - but also a detective played by Slim Pickens to apprehend the cattle thieves. It's a weird little universe unto itself populated with Pong playing cowboys and hotel room destroying bulls where you can pay your rent with beef and the West isn't really the answer to anyone's problems. Rancho is a clever satire of American myth-making but it isn't a particularly savage one - the stacked cast is incredibly likeable and the idiosyncratic downbeat humor feels like a precursor to what the Coen Brothers would do in the following decades.

Fun City's disc is comprised of a new 2K restoration - my understanding is that all of FCE's releases are predicated on new scans - that looks excellent while retaining the warm grain of the original film. Special features include a commentary by film critic Nick Pinkerton who is largely familiar to me through his work with Kino Lorber. Pinkerton provides the kind of commentary that I like best - one that is dense with information about the production and the historical context as well as tying in other films in interesting ways. If you prefer something more conversational the zoom-style interview with Jeff Bridges is charming due to Bridges' affable nature and of the significance this film and Montana has to his personal biography. Tom McGuane gets an interesting, more traditional interview and then there's a terrific essay provided by film historian Gavin Smith.

I've so far been loving what Fun City Editions has been doing and Rancho Deluxe has been no exception. It's a movie I've truly fallen for on repeat viewings and it somehow, shockingly still has fewer than 1000 views on Letterboxd. I'm hoping this new edition can help remedy that and I'd encourage anyone interested to seek it out.

https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collections/fun-city-editions/products/rancho-deluxe-fun-city-editions

Stone - 1974

Stone is a film I knew very little about other than it was part of the wave of 70s Australian film partially funded by the government and paving the way for what many of us now call Ozsploitation. Stone was hardly the first Aussie exploitation flick but it looks as though it might be the first outlaw biker movie produced Down Under. As such it was marketed as a precursor to Mad Max after that movie made such a huge splash internationally - Stone was sometimes marketed as a follow up to Max despite preceding it by several years as the truth should never get in the way of a good marketing scheme. So to some extent I was expecting a fairly rough, possibly post-apocalyptic, bleak exploitation jam and instead got something closer to Australia's answer to Easy Rider. Stone is the only film writer/director/star/producer/production designer Sandy Harbutt made and it's clearly a very personal vision and one that defied my expectations. One of the taglines for Stone said "take the trip" and it truly is a journey into the counterculture with the GraveDiggers motorcycle club and the titular rebel-cop Stone.

The first 15 minutes of the film are equal parts challenging and relentless eschewing any kind of conventional wisdom on how to open a movie. There's a political assassination, disorienting POV shots from a member of the GraveDiggers who is tripping hard, throbbing electric drone tunes, a series of biker murders, and eventually a biker funeral procession consisting of hundreds of bikes - all without real dialogue or officially introducing any characters. One of those biker kills involves a guy doing an absolutely insane motorcycle jump off of a cliff side into the ocean - it definitely commands your attention. Once we get to the semi-satanic biker funeral we start to learn more about the individual GraveDiggers and their personalities and then 25 minutes into the film proper we're introduced to Stone - a cop who's flowing locks and motorcycle enthusiasm make him the natural choice to embed with the Diggers and solve the mystery of who is killing them and why. That mystery is investigated but a lot of what follows is Stone proving himself to Undertaker - the leader of the gang played by Harbutt - and the rest of the pack while they share their freewheeling lifestyle and philosophy with him. While they are ostensibly a satanic outlaw gang - the GraveDiggers hijinks aren't too nefarious and consist mostly of brawling, racing, strip poker, and smoking grass. In a memorable scene - reportedly achieved in a day-long shoot involving actual weed - Stone and the gang get high, vibe with each other on the freedom of motorcycling and doing your own thing, and then go for a sunrise skinny dip on the beach. These guys are hardly arch-villains. Even the locals who think the GraveDiggers can be a nuisance also recognize they're a curiosity for the straight crowd - a kind of local attraction in their way.

In the end - the conspiracy behind the murders is unraveled and Stone has to decide between upholding the law as is his charge or embracing the code of the outlaws and face the consequences either way. However the real strength of the film is spending time with Stone and the GraveDiggers - Toad, Dr. Death, Midnight, Hooks, and Undertaker - many of whom are played by actors who would turn up in later Australian films like Mad Max, Turkey Shoot, The Man from Hong Kong and others. I have never been a massive biker movie enthusiast but I really did have a good time with this - it's true that a lot of the runtime is dedicated to scenes of motorcycles driving around but that's kind of the point and it's helped by the pounding, proggy rock music provided by Bill Green, later known as Wil Greenstreet. While the film isn't a completely bleak, Outback scorcher like some that would follow it the ending does get satisfyingly grim pulling us back down to earth after our oceanside, sunrise reverie. Stone is an interesting moment and inflection point in Australian genre film but it really stands on its own and it's a shame Sandy Harbutt never made another film despite its domestic box office success. Of course part of Stone's success is its place in time - long gone are the days when someone would give some quasi-hippie filmmakers a pile of cash to go get drugs and cameras and hire actual bikers payed off in beer to film the scene and see what happens. It's that vitality and sense of danger that make this one worth seeking out.

Wasted Weekend - 8/13/21

 

Something new I thought I'd try out here is a brief weekend watchlist of mostly older films that I think are interesting and I've noticed pop up on streaming services relatively recently. You don't really need anyone to bug you about watching the latest Disney or HBO series - they manage that fine on their own - so why not get weird this weekend instead?

The Eyes of Laura Mars - Irivin Kirshner's disco, fashion, NYC giallo-esque thriller may not be the strongest narrative out there but the cast, clothes, and locations alone are probably worth the price of admission. Faye Dunaway and Tommy Lee Jones star but Brad Dourif is especially memorable here. Co-written by John Carpenter - what a time in American movies! This has been streaming on the Criterion Channel for a bit but also recently appeared on Amazon Prime

The Red Queen Kills Seven Times - If you need more giallo action featuring a fashion photographer - you might want to check out 1972's Red Queen. Curses, keys, a suitably spooky villain, excellent Bruno Nicolai tunes, heavy gothic atmosphere, and Barbara Bouchet looking amazing all help contribute to an enjoyable watch that doubles with Laura Mars pretty well. Red Queen seems to regularly cycle on and off streaming services and is currently available on Shudder, Arrow or Tubi .

The Blood on Satan's Claw - Witch-y folk horror from the good people of Tigon British Film Productions or that company that isn't Hammer or Amicus but feels like it could be. Strong period production design and some solid performances from Patrick Wymark and Linda Hayden as the skeptical judge and burgeoning cult leader respectively. I imagine this film - while already appreciated by many - is going to get some extra love this year as it is highlighted in Kier-La Janisse's comprehensive folk horror documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewtiched. This is another one that fades in and out of streaming catalogues but is currently up on Hulu, Paramount+, and Tubi.

The Blood Spattered Bride - This Spanish riff on Carmilla has actually been on my watchlist for ages but I failed to prioritize it because it always seemed to be available. Unfortunately one day it vanished from a lot of streaming catalogues and I cursed my hubris to the uncaring void. Fortunately it seems to have returned and I'm hoping to fit it in this weekend. I've heard it doesn't necessarily reach the same heights as other adaptations such as Daughters of Darkness but I'm not sure it's possible to best lesbian vampire Delphine Seyrig anyway. Currently up on Tubi so don't be like me and let this one slip by you.

The Marseille Contract - I haven't seen this 1974 Euro-thriller but I'm willing to give it a shot on location footage and cast alone. Michael Caine, Anthony Quinn, and James Mason running around Marseille with a Roy Budd (Get Carter) score coming in at under 90 minutes sounds like solid Sunday matinee material to me. Currently streaming on Amazon Prime under the title The Destructors.

So there you have it - five movies for your weekend pleasure and even a possible double feature. What are you watching this weekend? What did I miss? Lemme know below!

The Oracle - 1985

 

Roberta Findlay is somewhat notorious for not liking actors, other humans, or being particularly interested in filmmaking - and yet she's made her mark on genre cinema from the sensational Snuff to the grimy Tenement to several hardcore films. Whether she appreciates them now or not, Findlay did have a knack behind the camera and lent a certain grit and energy to her films. 1985's The Oracle is no exception - combining supernatural thriller with murder mystery into a sleazy, rubbery anti-Christmas tale.

The set up is scooped up from films like Rosemary's Baby or The Sentinel - a yuppie couple moves into a swanky apartment only to realize things aren't as nice as they seem. In this case Jennifer - Caroline Capers Powers - is gifted a planchette (pictured above) owned by the former resident who happened to be a powerful medium. Jennifer brings out the planchette to impress her guests at a Christmas Eve party only to freak herself out when it seems spirits are communicating through her as well. Jennifer gets clues regarding a murder through the planchette which increasingly gains a hold on her - magically dispatching with anyone who tries to dispose of it. Androgynous murderer Farkas is introduced, gloopy special effects are employed, and Jennifer's husband remains an absolute prick about it until his bitter end.

The budget constraints are obvious in The Oracle and it isn't an undiscovered classic but it is a fun movie that is absolutely worth your time. I am somewhat biased as just the nature of shooting in NYC during this era elevates just about anything in my opinion. In a scene where Farkas picks up a hooker on Christmas Eve, she's standing outside a 42nd Street go-go joint with a display saying "Where's the Beef? It's Here on Stage!" After some brutally sleazy hotel knife-work, Farkas grabs some late night eats at an absolutely immaculate dining car. Jennifer visits an occult bookstore called The Magickal Childe to learn more about the planchette and the supernatural occurrences taking place around her (the proprietor of which sounds a lot like Zacherley to me) - this was an actual store in Chelsea run by occultist Herman Slater and patronized by the likes of Robert Mapplethrope. I'm also a huge fan of the effects utilized here - they occur somewhat sparsely considering the run time, but they are wonderfully bonkers. They run the gamut from the ridiculously lazy - a pair or rubber monster hands from a Halloween shop pull an unsuspecting victim's head off - to the wildly inspired - a maintenance man hallucinates a series of toothy, tentacled slimeballs covering his body causing him to knife himself to death.

My main complaints with The Oracle is that it might run 10-15 minutes too long and there's an extended series of chases that aren't very interesting - though one features both Farkas and Jennifer visibly winded which is pretty funny. All is forgiven by the end which is suitably spooky and features a full puppet special effect that I thought was charming. This would make a great addition to whatever Christmas horrors you plan on watching but is a solidly sleazy watch any time of the year.

Podcast Roundup

I confess to being a bit of a podcast junkie - I'm less than passionate about my day job and while I can't afford the attention to listen to a book or watch a movie while working, podcasts seem to be the right level of distraction. It gives me a chance to indulge my interests while grinding through whatever spreadsheet fuckery the day requires. I also confess to not being the most loyal listener and I frequently fall in and out of love with podcasts depending on how well they match up with my interests at the moment. The one glaring exception being Mike White's The Projection Booth which I have been listening to regularly for years.

Having said all of that, I have become completely enamored of THREE new-to-me podcasts over the last week or two and as in all new relationships I'm eager to blab about them to whomever might listen.

Unsung Horrors - I believe I may have heard one or both of Unsung Horror's hosts Lance and Erica on another film podcast but I "officially" discovered them after finding their episode on The Corruption of Chris Miller (having just watched it myself). The premise of the podcast is fairly straightforward - Erica and Lance trade off picking a movie to review for each episode that is more or less a horror movie and has fewer than 1000 views on Letterboxd at the time they chose it. So you get a relatively deep dive on a lesser known film and then they pick pairings to go with the main feature to help expand your ever-growing watch list. Both hosts bring a lot of horror and exploitation knowledge to each episode but it's also fun and conversational. I'd probably recommend watching the film before listening to the episode but you know your own spoiler tolerance. The Chris Miller episode is great - and got me to watch Bell from Hell - but I'd also recommend this episode discussing The Passing which you should also absolutely watch.

Twitch of the Death Nerve - Twitch is a relatively brand spankin' new podcast on the Cinepunx network featuring Charles Perks, Jon Dzwonar, and Samm Deighan. Samm Deighan was well known to me through her multiple podcast appearances as well as her run of blu-ray commentaries but all three are very knowledgeable and bring a lot of fun background to the episodes so far. The Twitch crew only has two episodes out as of this writing and both focus on a single film while the discussion pulls in many other films for context. Either episode is great, but I was especially impressed with the Shogun Assassin ep - I thought I knew my Lone Wolf & Cub shit, heck I've even been on a podcast discussing Shogun Assassin - and I still learned a lot listening to these three.

Live at the Death Factory - This self described deep dive into scum is newest to me and while I don't have a breadth of listening under my belt - I like what I've heard. Hosts Astrid Rose and Sean McTiernan discuss a single film to a handful of features but the focus remains on shot-on-video, transgressive, confrontational, outsider stuff. If you want to win me over - shitting on slick corporate horror while singing the praises of Twisted Issues is a great way to start. If you can segue into your personal experiences with hardcore or doom metal - all the better. If this sounds interesting to you - as it should - start here