1) Scream and Scream Again — This is actually a pretty good British horror film from 1970. It even has a political subtext for those of you who need your horror to mean something. I love the whole “swinging” vibe of the trailer.
2) The Spook Who Sat By The Door — This 1973 film apparently used to be something of a legend because it was extremely difficult to see. It was sold, obviously, as a blaxploitation film but quite a few people apparently saw it as being a blueprint for an actual revolution. I’ve never seen this movie though, believe it or not, I did find a copy of the novel it was based on at Half-Priced books shortly after I first saw this trailer. I bought the book but I haven’t read it yet.
3) The Black Gestapo — This is another one of those old school blaxploitation trailers that, to modern eyes, just seems so wrong. I’ve actually seen this film. It’s surprisingly dull, to be honest.
4) Sunset Cove — This one of the many trailers that I first came across on one of Synapse’s 42nd Street Forever compilations. I’ve never seen the actual film and probably never will as apparently it’s like the uncut version of Greed — lost to the ages. That’s okay because the film really does look really, really bad. However, the trailer fascinates me because it has got such an oddly somber tone to it. Just from the narration and one or two of the clips shown, you get the feeling that this movie ends with the National Guard gunning down a lot of teenagers while the tide comes in. However, I think that might just be my own overactive imagination. The film was apparently directed by Al Adamson who, in the mid-90s, was apparently murdered and buried in wet cement.
5) Autopsy — This 1975 Italian classic is one of my favorite examples of the giallo genre. I can’t recommend it enough. This is one of the most intense and disturbing films ever made. The trailer’s pretty good too.
6) Visiting Hours — I don’t know much about this movie, other than it appears to be a slasher film from the early 80s. I’m posting it here for one reason and one reason only — the skull.
1) Graveyard Shift — This is a Canadian film from 1986. Ever since I first saw it on DVD last year, this has been one of my favorite vampire films. It’s an atmospheric, strangely well-acted film that is just trashy enough to remain interesting.
2) Panorama Blue — I’ve never seen this movie and apparently, it’s a lost film of some sort. The trailer can be found on one of the 42nd Street Forever compilation DVDs. Apparently, this is some sort of pornographic epic. I just enjoy the trailer even though I wouldn’t be caught dead on a roller coaster. (They’re scary!)
3) Zombi 3 — This film is credited to Lucio Fulci but he actually only directed about 60% of it before he was fired and replaced by Bruno Mattei. This trailer deserves some sort of award because it manages to make an amazingly boring film look exciting and almost fun.
4) Rolling Thunder — Another film that I’ve never seen (and another trailer that I first found on a 42nd Street compilation). This is an effectively moody trailer. As a Texan, I also like the fact that Rolling Thunder apparently not only takes place in Texas but was also actually shot there with actual Texans in the cast. And I love the ominous yet casual way that Tommy Lee Jones delivers the “I’ll get my gear,” line.
5) Angel — This is a trailer from the early 80s. This is another one of those trailers that I love because it’s just so shamelessly sordid and trashy.
6) Hitch-Hike — Okay, quick warning — this trailer is explicit. Not as explicit as many grindhouse trailers but it’s still explicit enough that some people might find it objectionable. It’s certainly not safe for work though why are you visiting this site from work anyway?
However, all that taken into account, it’s still a very good trailer for a very good movie, 1977’s Hitch-Hike. Not only is it a nicely cynical little thriller, but it features not only another iconic psycho performance from David Hess but also a brilliant lead performance from Franco Nero. I will also admit right now that if I ever got my hands on a time machine, the first thing I would do would be go back to 1977 and give Franco Nero a hummer. Seriously.
Okay, I’ve said too much. Just watch the trailer and enjoy one of Ennio Morricone’s best scores.
1) Simon, King of the Witches— I’ve never seen this film but I caught this trailer on one of the 42nd Street compilation DVDs. It doesn’t really make me want to see the film but I love the trailer because it is just so totally and utterly shameless. Seriously, could this thing be more early 70s? As well, I’ve always wondered — would witches actually have a king? I mean, seriously, get with the times.
The film, by the way, stars Andrew Prine who apparently had a really promising film career until his girlfriend, Karyn Kupicent, died mysteriously in 1964. A lot of people believed that Prine killed her though he always denied any guilt and there’s really no evidence to connect him to the crime. Interestingly, even more people seem to think that Kupicent was murdered because she knew something about John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Finally, true crime author Steve Hodel has suggested that Kupicent was actually murdered by his father, Dr. George Hodel. (Steve also claims that George was the Black Dahlia killer, the Zodiac killer, Chicago’s lipstick killer, and that George was responsible for just about every unsolved murder in history. Oedipus much?)
2) The Town That Dreaded Sundown — Though I didn’t consider this while selecting this trailer, this is another film that features the unfortunate Robert Prine. I’ve seen this film exactly one time when it showed up on late night television once. Unfortunately, considering that it was 4 in the morning and the movie was obviously heavily edited for television (not to mention that constant commercial interruptions), I didn’t really get to experience the film under ideal circumstances. As a result, I’ve been trying to track this movie down on DVD ever since. It’s not an easy film to find.
One of the reasons this movie fascinates me is because it’s not only based on a true unsolved crime but it actually follows the facts of the case fairly closely. In the late 40s, Texarkana was stalked by a masked gunman known as the Phantom Killer. The case was never solved and its gone on to become a bit of a local legend in the rural Southwest. Part of my interest in this case comes from the fact that I grew up in the rural Southwest. It’s the part of the country I know best and this film was actually filmed in the southwest as opposed to just an arid part of Canada. Interestingly enough, the Phantom Killer had a lot of similarities to the later Zodiac Killer. However, as far as I know, Steve Hodel has yet to accuse his father of haunting Texarkana.
The film itself was made by Charles B. Pierce, a filmmaker who was based in Arkansas and made several independent films in that state. Perhaps this explains why the trailer refers to “Texarkana, Arkansas” even though everyone knows that the only part of Texarkana that matters is the part that’s in Texas.
3) Nightmares in a Damaged Brain — This is one of the infamous “video nasties” (trust the English to not only ban movies but to come up with a stupid and annoying label for those movies). Like many of those films, this is a gory Italian film that seems to bathe in the sordid.
It’s also fairly difficult film to find. The DVD I own is actually a copy of the severely cut version that was eventually released in England, of all places.
(Another thing about the English — why is it that a culture that obsessively uses the word “cunt” in casual conversation seems so driven to distraction by a little fake blood? It’s as if someone told them that banning movies would somehow make up for the attempted genocide of Catholics in Northern Ireland.)
However, even in cut form, this is a disturbingly dark and frequently depressing film. Evil seemed to radiate through my entire apartment the whole time I was watching it and that atmosphere is captured in the movie’s trailer.
As a sidenote, the gore effects in this film are credited to Tom Savini. At the time of the film’s release, Savini announced that he actually had nothing to do with this movie.
4) To the Devil a Daughter— I recently read a biography of Christopher Lee in which he cited this movie, along with the original Whicker Man, as one of his personal favorites. It was also the film debut of Natassia Kinski, the daughter of Klaus Kinski. Considering Klaus’s reputation, the title is ironic.
5) Vampire Circus — This is another movie that I’ve never seen but I’ve heard great things about it. Supposedly, its one of the last great Hammer vampire films. Reportedly, it was controversial at the time of its release because it featured vampires attacking English children. (Which, if nothing else, at least prevented from growing up to kill little Irish children.) Seeing the trailer leaves me even more frustrated that it has yet to be released, in the States, on DVD.
6) Dr. Butcher, M.D.— This is actually a rather odd zombie/cannibal film hybrid from Italy. It was originally titled Zombie Holocaust but the American distributors retitled it Dr. Butcher. I love this trailer for much the same reason I love the Simon, King of the Witches trailer. It is just pure and shameless exploitation. Plus, it features some of the best moments of the great Donal O’Brien’s performance as the “title” character. I recently forced my sister Erin to watch Zombie Holocaust. Ever since, whenever I start to ramble too much, she simply looks at me and says, “Lisa’s annoying me. About to perform removal of vocal chords…” She actually does a fairly good impersonation. Consider this just more proof that the Grindhouse brings families closer together.
1) A Black Veil For Lisa— There’s several things that I love about this trailer. I love the faux-noir narration. I love the teasing tone. I love the old school femme fatale attitude of lead actress Lucianna Paluzzi. But, to be honest, the main reason I love it is because it’s all about a redhead named Lisa. That and the line “Every man wants a Lisa…”
2) The Italian Stallion— This is the trailer for the re-release of Sylvester Stallone’s porn debut, A Party At Kitty and Stud’s. I’ve never seen the movie nor do I have much desire to see it but this trailer just amused me to no end. Whether its the awesomely phony line readings of Gail Palmer or the catchy and empty theme song, this trailer feels like a genuine time capsule.
3) The House On The Edge of the Park— Speaking of catchy but empty theme songs, Ruggero Deodato’s The House on the Edge of the Park features my personal favorite, Riz Ortolani’s infamous Do It To Me (Once More). It can be heard at the end of this trailer and once it gets stuck in your head, it’ll stay there forever. As for the trailer itself, it’s a perfect example of how a well-edited trailer can actually make a somewhat draggy film seem exciting (that said, this movie is one of my all-time guilty pleasures, as misogynistic and wrong-headed as it ultimately is). A few things I love about this trailer — the blue-tinted views of New York City, David Hess’s iconic psycho performance, the sight of my man Giovanni Lombardo Radice dancing, and the fact that the trailer actually manages to 1) get the movie’s name wrong and that 2) nobody ever bothered to fix it.
(Author’s note: Whoops! Before you watch this, I have to admit that I’d forgotten just how explicit, violent, and exploitive this trailer really is. So, consider this to be definitely NSFW — not that you should be watching any of these trailers at work, to begin with — and seriously, no joke, don’t watch this trailer if you are easily upset or offended. Honestly, if I saw this trailer without having any knowledge of how silly the actual movie really is, I would probably find this trailer to be deeply offensive. Well, no, actually, I probably wouldn’t. For the most part, I’m only offended by things that happen offscreen in the real world. — Lisa Marie Bowman)
4)The Texas Chainsaw Massacre— Yes, I know everyone’s probably seen this trailer a hundred times but it’s still probably one of the best and most effective trailers of all time. Plus, I’m from Texas so you know I had to mention this movie at some point. (I may have mentioned this in the past, but seriously — try to imagine this movie being as effective if it was called The Vermont Chainsaw Massacre.)
5) Mindwarp (a.k.a. Galaxy of Terror) — I’ve been eagerly awaiting the chance to buy this film on DVD ever since seeing this trailer on the latest 42nd Street Forevercompilation. Rumor has it that this film was actually directed by James Cameron, back when he was still interesting. Supposedly, this film features a very aggressive tentacle but, to be honest, I mostly just want to see Sid Haig’s arm get cut off. (Seriously, who doesn’t? Take that, Capt. Spaulding!)
6)Stage Fright— This is the wonderfully intense and claustrophobic trailer to the great Michele Soavi’s 1st film, Stage Fright, a movie I’m going to watch as soon as I finish up this post. So, with no further delay…
The only thing I love more than a good exploitation film is a good exploitation film trailer. I’ve been known to buy Anchor Bay DVDs of films that I hate just to see what trailers will be included in the extras. Often times, when I find myself suffering from writer’s block, I cure it by watching 42nd Street Forever.
Below are 6 exploitation film trailers. They are six of my personal favorites though I could easily list 666.
Enjoy!
1) Teenage Mother (1967) — This trailer (if not the actual film, which is pretty dull) is pure exploitation perfection.
2) They Call Her One Eye (1974) — They Call Her One Eye is the American title for a Sweedish film called Thriller, A Cruel Picture. It’s an appropriate title but its also one of the best movies ever made in the history of cinema.
3) Ms. 45 (1981) — I love this movie. Whenever I break up with a boyfriend or just find myself annoyed with men in general, this is the movie that I end up popping into my DVD player. Consider yourself warned. 🙂
4) The House With The Laughing Windows (1976) — This giallo, directed by Pupi Avati, is probably one of the best films ever to come out of Italy period. The trailer only begins to hint just how girm, dark, depressing, disturbing, and downright odd this little gem really is.
5) Starcrash (1979) — Starcrash was Luigi Cozzi’s attempt to cash in on Star Wars. For what its worth, Starcrash is actually a lot more fun and, as played by Caroline Munro, intergalactic priate Stella Starr is actually one of the few truly strong women to appear in Italian exploitation cinema. (The next Halloween party I’m invited to, I’m going to go as Caroline Munro in Starcrash.) The special effects pretty much define the whole concept of “That’s a great movie when you’re stoned.”
6) Spasmo (1974) — Our final trailer is for that rarest of things, a good movie directed by Umberto Lenzi.
Recently, I decided to try to track down and watch every single movie featured in Synapse’s 42nd Street ForeverDVD collection. Some of these movies have been unexpectedly brilliant and quite a few have been the exact opposite. But none have been quite as wonderfully odd as a low-budget blaxploitation film entitled Welcome Home, Brother Charles. If ever I have to explain who I am, I’ll do so by stating that I hated Avatar but I loved Welcome Home, Brother Charles.
The plot of Welcome Home, Brother Charles is almost simplicity itself. Charles (played by Marlo Monte) is a small-time criminal who is struggling to get by in the Los Angeles ghetto. At the start of the movie, Charles is arrested by two, white policemen. While making the arrest, the more racist of the two cops attempts to castrate Charles (or as Charles later puts it, “damn near cuts off my manhood”). Unfortunately, this is America in the 1970s and that can only mean that Charles is destined to go to prison while the racist cop is proclaimed a hero.
After doing the “man’s time,” Charles is released from prison and finds himself back out on the mean streets of L.A. However, things have changed. His former best friend has now set himself up as the local godfather and is none too happy to see Charles wandering around. Even worse, Charles discovers that the man who “damn near cut off (his) manhood” is still being proclaimed a hero. Charles responds the way anyone would. He seeks revenge against his enemies by 1) seducing their wives and 2) strangling those who have betrayed him with his penis.
Yes, that’s right. Charles goes into prison as a small-time criminal but he comes out as some sort of X-rated super hero. Not only can he seduce women simply by kissing them but he can now mentally turn his penis into a boa constrictor. Add to this, director Jaama Fanaka doesn’t shy away from showing us Charles’ penis stretching across the screen and strangling his enemies. When you consider that this feat was accomplished without CGI, you can only conclude that either Fanaka is a very talented director or that Marlo Monte was a very lucky man.
Whether it’s Charles constantly lamenting the fact that he nearly lost his “manhood” or then using that manhood to kill his enemies, Welcome Home Brother Charles is a penis-obsessed film.
(Strangely enough, that word is never actually uttered in the film. Nor do we hear any other of the common terms for the male organ. Instead, we just hear the term “manhood” a few hundred times.)
What was especially odd was that the film took an almost nonchalant attitude towards the scenes involving Charles and his magic penis. At no point are we offered any explanation of just how exactly Charles acquired this power. Nobody seems to be all that shocked by it. You would think at least one of his victims would, at some point, say, “Oh, c’mon, you’re not seriously going to strangle me with your penis, are you?”
I found myself wondering if perhaps this was actually a common thing, maybe one of those guy things that I, as a result of gender, simply do not know about. After I watched the movie, I called up my friend Jeff and I asked him, “If you concentrate really hard, can you use your penis to pick things up and maybe strangle people?”
He was quiet for a few minutes before saying, “Uhmm…sure.”
What’s even stranger than the sight of grown men being strangled by a gigantic penis is that director Fanaka appears to be taking this story very seriously. There’s little deliberate humor in the movie and the actors all play their roles with an admirable seriousness. In the lead role, Monte is probably as a convincing as anyone could be while using their penis to strangle another human being.
The thing about this movie is that when Welcome Home, Brother Charles works, it truly does work. Charles’ time in prison is represented by a series of grim, black-and-white stills that roll over a soundtrack composed of horrific screams. This montage is surprisingly disturbing and, in a manner of minutes, let’s us know the Hell that Charles goes through as a convict. When, after being released from prison, Charles visits his old neighborhood, Fanaka gives us a much more joyful montage of Monte interacting with the people living there. Directed in a cinema verite style, there’s a lively energy to these scenes that actually adds a rather tragic dimension to the rest of Charles’ story.
These are the type of scenes (along, of course, with the sight of Charles strangling people with his penis) that would never appear in a mainstream film. The prison scenes would have been filled with stereotypical predatory homosexuals and shanks-in-the-shower scenes that would have served as traditional crowd pleasers but would have carried absolutely no emotional impact. As for the montage of Charles in his old neighborhood, forget about it. That sequence would have hit the cutting room floor, sentenced to maybe show up as a DVD extra if that. If nothing else, this movie shows why the grindhouses were necessary and how much we’ve lost with their decline.
Like many grindhouse films, Welcome Home, Brother Charles was released under several different titles. It’s been released on DVD under the title Soul Vengeance. If you’re the type of DVD snob who likes to show off by talking about “transfers,” the transfer here is a bit grainy but quite honestly, this is a movie that needs to be grainy. For best viewing experience, invite several homeless drug addicts over to hang out as you watch the movie and turn your living room into your own private grindhouse.
Through the Shattered Lens 