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.

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.