STRIPPED TO KILL – 35 years later!

Posted on November 22, 2024 by Bradley Crain

If you were a teenage boy in the 80’s, and you spent time at video stores, there’s no doubt in my mind that you noticed the VHS box for STRIPPED TO KILL. I certainly did! The box art promised violence and sexy women, and I was all in. I’m guessing that I watched the film when I was around 15 or 16 years old, and I hadn’t seen it since then. A few weeks back, we were recording an episode of our THIS WEEK IN CHARLES BRONSON PODCAST when actress Kay Lenz came up in reference to her part in DEATH WISH 4: THE CRACKDOWN. One of my buddies also mentioned her part in STRIPPED TO KILL. With that seed planted, I decided to give it another viewing and find out what sort of difference an additional 35 years would make in the viewing experience.

Not surprisingly, STRIPPED TO KILL opens with a beautiful young lady named Angel performing a striptease act to an extremely 80’s song called “Deny the Night.” I’ll give Larry Steicher his credit because he was singing the hell out of the song on the soundtrack. A little later, the stripper gets a phone call from someone she knows asking her to meet. When she shows up to meet this mystery person, they throw gasoline on her and burn her alive. Detective Cody Sheenan (Kay Lenz) and her partner Detective Heineman (Greg Evigan) are working undercover in the area and come across this assault and murder in the act, but the killer gets away. When the two cops find out that the victim was a stripper at the Rock Bottom Dance Club, they want the case. Through a series of events, including Cody winning an “Amateur Night” contest, she’s able to go undercover at the club where she gets to know the dancers. Detective Heineman hangs out as well in order to protect her, and I think, to get a look at her performances. Our two undercover cops immediately begin to learn the backgrounds of the ladies at the club, and they also investigate any suspicious characters they see hanging around. When another stripper is murdered, and with several suspects beginning to emerge, it’s a race against time to see if they can catch the killer before other strippers have to die!

I will say right off the bat that STRIPPED TO KILL delivers on the box art. There are multiple strippers killed, and by my count, there are 12 different striptease performances of various quality and duration throughout the course of the 88 minute film. And the cast is downright impressive for a low-budget B-movie like this. Kay Lenz is a fine actress with an impressive resume of TV and films, including productions like Clint Eastwood’s BREEZY, WHITE LINE FEVER with Jan-Michael Vincent, THE GREAT SCOUT & CATHOUSE THURSDAY with Lee Marvin, and FAST-WALKING with James Woods. As referenced in an earlier paragraph, she co-starred with Charles Bronson in DEATH WISH 4: THE CRACKDOWN the same year that she filmed STRIPPED TO KILL. Two classics in the same year is something every actor should hope for, and she doesn’t hold back in her performance here! Greg Evigan was in a show I liked very much when I was a kid called B.J. AND THE BEAR. I also remember him in that show MY TWO DADS when I was a teenager as well. He’s not a great actor, but he’s fine here. And then there’s Norman Fell, Mr. Roper himself, as the manager of the strip club. I have a soft spot for Norman because he played Charles Bronson’s boss in the 1973 film THE STONE KILLER, a film that also features John Ritter in a small role. Norman probably needed the paycheck, but he’s definitely a welcome presence in the film.

This is the directorial debut of actress Katt Shea. She co-wrote the script for STRIPPED TO KILL with her then husband Andy Ruben. She apparently got the idea for the film when she lost a bet with Andy and ended up actually going to a strip club. She was so impressed with some of the performances that she wanted to make a movie showing the ladies in that world. Katt Shea would later direct films like POISON IVY with Drew Barrymore and THE RAGE: CARRIE 2. And, of course, the biggest factor in getting the movie made, Katt Shea was able to convince the legendary Roger Corman to produce the film. STRIPPED TO KILL would turn into a financially successful film for Corman. It was particularly successful overseas and on the home video market. Nice investment, Mr. Corman!

Overall, STRIPPED TO KILL delivers exactly what it promises, and it does so in 1 hour and 28 minutes. That’s a pretty nice combination in my book. I think I felt the same way in 1989 as well!

Late Night Retro Television Review: CHiPs 1.18 “Cry Wolf”

Posted on March 18, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Mondays, I will be reviewing CHiPs, which ran on NBC from 1977 to 1983. The entire show is currently streaming on Freevee!

This week, someone is calling in false emergencies and neither Baker nor Ponch are going to let him get away with it!

Episode 1.18 “Cry Wolf”

(Dir by John Florea, originally aired on February 16th, 1978)

A creepy weirdo named Walt (Brad David) is angry at the world. He hasn’t been able to get a job since he got out of prison and his sister is always giving him a hard time. Walt deals with his anger by driving up to police call boxes and phoning in reports of imaginary accidents. For every call, the fire department and the highway patrol waste precious recourses responding. Getraer wants the caller caught and he’s placed Jon in charge of the task force to take him down.

This is one of those episodes where the emphasis is on how all the various departments work together to keep people safe. Whenever Walt places a call, we’re presented with a montage of cops and firemen racing to be the first one to arrive at the “accident.” Though the show makes clear that Walt is not thinking straight and that he’s not in a good place mentally, the emphasis is still on how many resources are wasted on his calls.

It gets so bad that Jon and Ponch start to assume that every call is a prank. When someone calls in to say that a helicopter has crashed on the highway, Jon is shocked to discover that a helicopter actually has crashed. He and Ponch rush the plane’s cargo — rare blood for an operation — to a local hospital and are scolded for showing up late. That’s the danger of crying wolf. When Walt is finally caught by Baker and Ponch, he attempts to jump off a bridge. Baker and Ponch stop him, of course. As they pull him back to safety, Baker says that Walt is lucky they weren’t busy answering a false call.

This was a good episode for Baker, as he also got a subplot in which a minor motorcycle crash led to him meeting and dating an X-ray technician named Karen Rayburn (Kathryn Holcomb). Baker and Karen were a cute couple and there was something undeniably charming about how nervous Baker got whenever he had to flirt. Larry Wilcox was not the most expressive actor but his stiff demeanor was put to good use in this episode.

This was not a bad episode. Since the majority of the episode focused on one storyline, this episode felt more cohesive than some of the ones that came before it. As usual, the main highlight was watching Baker and Ponch weave their way in and out of traffic. The scenery was lovely and there was even an exploding helicopter! You can’t go wrong with that.

Embracing the Melodrama Part II #48: The Candy Snatchers (dir by Guerdon Trueblood)

Posted on April 30, 2015 by Lisa Marie Bowman

(SPOILER ALERT)

Do you remember how, just last night, I described The Sister-in-Law as being one of the darkest films ever made? Well, I stand by that description but, believe it or not, there was another low-budget thriller that was released in 1973 and which is even darker than The Sister-In-Law! Compared to this film, The Sister-in-Law is a life affirming comedy.

The Candy Snatchers begins with Catholic school student Candy (Susan Sennet) walking home. As a song called “Money Is The Root Of All Happiness” plays on the soundtrack, we watch Candy as she makes her way across the city. However, we’re not the only ones watching Candy. There are also three people in a van and they’re slowly following behind Candy. They’re also wearing fake noses and glasses.

Despite the elaborate disguises, it’s not difficult to tell the three of them apart. Jessie (Tiffany Bolling) is their leader, a high-strung woman who always seems to be on the verge of an emotional breakdown. Alan (Brad David) is her brother and brags that he’s killed twelve people so far and he’s looking forward to adding more to the count. Their partner is Eddy (Vince Martorano), an overly sensitive criminal who wants to make some money but who doesn’t want to hurt anybody. Their plan is to kidnap Candy.

(Hence, the Candy Snatchers!)

See, they’re under the impression that Candy’s father, Avery (Ben Piazza) owns a jewelry store and, that by kidnapping Candy, they’ll be able to get him to pay them a ransom. Pulling up beside her while she attempts to hitchhike home, the three kidnappers grab Candy, pull her into the van, and blindfold her. They drive up to the mountains and bury Candy in a wooden box, leaving her with a breathing tube to make sure that she doesn’t suffocate. They then call Avery and give him their demands.

The problem is that the kidnappers haven’t done as thorough a research job as they thought they had. What they did not realize is that Avery doesn’t own the jewelry store. Instead, he’s just the manager. Even worse, it turns out that Avery is not Candy’s father. Instead, he has just recently married Candy’s mother for her money. As Avery cheerfully explains, with Candy out of the way, he now stands to inherit $2,000,000 when Candy’s mom dies.

In other words, the kidnappers are now stuck with Candy.

After retrieving her from her underground prison, Alan wants to rape Candy while Jessie wants to kill her. Eddy, however, feels sorry for Candy. After telling his two partners that he’s going to kill her, Eddy takes Candy back up to the mountains. Again, he buries her alive but he promises her that he will return to dig her up as soon as he takes care of his partners.

What Alan, Jessie, and Eddy don’t realize is that all of this is being witnessed by Sean (played by Christophe, the actor’s son), an autistic child who apparently cannot speak. Candy begs Sean to let someone know where she is but every time that Sean tries to get the attention of his loathsome parents, they either ignore him or they beat him.

By the end of the film, Jessie, Alan, and Candy’s mother are all dead. When Eddy returns to Candy’s grave, he gets into a gunfight with Avery. Eddy manages to kill Avery but, before he can dig up Candy, he’s shot in the back. As he turns around, he sees that he’s been shot by Sean, who has picked up Avery’s gun. Eddy tumbles down the mountain. Sean goes back to his house and apparently shoots his abusive mother. The movie ends with the sound of Candy struggling to breathe underground…

AGCK!

Seriously, I am totally claustrophobic so the end of The Candy Snatchers is pure nightmare fuel for me. To be honest, the whole film is nightmare fuel. There’s only two likable characters in the entire film and, as the end credits roll, Sean has just killed his mother and Candy is slowly suffocating underground.

As dark as The Candy Snatchers may be, it’s still strangely watchable and compelling. It’s not a film that I would recommend to anyone getting over a serious bout of depression but still, it’s a well-acted, well-directed, and consistently surprising film. In fact, I would say that it’s probably one of the best grindhouse films ever made.

That said, you do have to wonder just how depressing life was in 1973. Between this film and The Sister-in-Law, I’m surprised humanity survived to see 1974.