No, the Valley of the Dolls is not one of the trailers included in the latest installment of Lisa Marie’s Grindhouse and Exploitation Trailers. It just happens to be the movie that I’m watching as I edit this post. Anyway, Valley of the Dolls was an exploitation film mostly because of human error. The trailers below are for films that came by their exploitation label honestly.
1) An American Hippie In Israel
There’s some debate as to whether or not this movie actually exists. I originally saw this trailer as an extra on the I Drink Your Blood DVD about three years ago. At that time, Grindhouse Releasing claimed that it would be releasing this film on DVD “soon.” Three years later, the DVD has yet to be released. Perhaps it’s for the best. I doubt that actual film could live up to lunacy and silliness of the trailer.
2) Best Friends
This is a good example of a movie that, if it was released today, would probably be marketed as an indie art film. However, since it came out in the 70s, it played in grindhouses and drive-in movie theaters. It’s actually a surprisingly well-made and well-acted film.
3) Chappaqua
Much like Best Friends, Chappaqua is proof that art and exploitation often go hand-in-hand. The film was produced and directed by Conrad Rooks and features William S. Burroughs at his cynical best.
4) The Hellcats
This is another one of those trailers that proves that, in the late 60s, liberated women were actually more menacing than murderous biker gangs.
This movie, I suppose, could also have been called The Hellcat. Adam Roarke, the star of this one, appeared in every biker film released in 1970.
6) Savage Sisters
This is another one of those films that, frustratingly enough, is not yet available on DVD. That’s a shame. The world needs more movies about women kicking ass.
Through the Shattered Lens 
These are all, with the exception of “Chappaqua”, which looks frenetic and weird, pretty corny- looking (which is, of course where their beauty lies), and likely entertaining. Much as I like the estrogenic bad-ass counter-culture flicks (and especially their taglines – “The Hellcats do what they want to…even if someone gets killed.”), I think, among this offering, the perhaps apocryphal “An American Hippie In Israel” looks the most promising. But you may be right – it may not live up to its ridiculous trailer, But what a great trailer. I wonder if the producers of “An American Werewolf In London” got inspiration for their film’s title from this one.
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The trailer for An American Hippie In Israel looks almost too good to be true, doesn’t it? Everything just screams classic B-movie, from the bad dubbing to the pretentious dialogue to the fact that the American Hippie (and, I assume, Viet Nam vet) appears to be in his mid-40s. That’s why I suspected that the whole thing might be an elaborate hoax because the trailer was just too perfect.
However, I was bored at work today so I did a little research and I discovered that this is a real movie! From what I can gather, it actually is an Israeli production (which explains the bad dubbing) and the English translation of its original title was The HitchHiker. The 1972 film was written, produced, and directed by someone named Amos Sefer who has absolutely no other credits to his name. For the longest time, I assumed that the Hippie was probably played by the director (the trailer just has that vanity production feel) but actually he’s played by an actor named Asher Tzarfati who is apparently still active in film today.
I came across one forum posting that said this film might finally be released sometime later this year. However, there were several more posts saying that wasn’t going to happen and that 2012 was a more realistic possibility.
Which, if I do have to wait another two years to finally see this thing, would really suck! 🙂
But, rest assured, whenever this thing is released, I’ll review it 🙂
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Looking forward to it. I just watched the trailer again, and I laughed out loud, again. Thanks for the research.
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