Pieces (1982)

Based on the rad poster and VHS art for Slashdance (1989), you’d expect a deliciously raunchy slasher, right? Well, read on at the blog for the full review!

Happy birthday to irresistibly trashy glamour icon Mamie Van Doren (née Joan Lucille Olander, 6 February 1931)! The wanton platinum-haired and bullet bra’d bad girl of 1950s and 60s exploitation movies (whose filmography includes titles like Sex Kittens Go to College (1960), The Blonde from Buenos Aires (1961), The Navy vs The Night Monster (1966) and Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968)) turns 93 today! Like her contemporary Jayne Mansfield, Van Doren was ostensibly groomed to “compete” with Marilyn Monroe, but her screen persona was markedly different. Her allure is hard to define. As a dramatic actress, Van Doren is merely competent. Unlike anarchic comedic creation Mansfield, she’s not particularly funny. And yet Van Doren is mesmerizing to watch. Her je ne sais quoi and brazen charisma scalds the screen. I’d argue Van Doren’s greatest performances are in The Girl in the Black Stockings (1957), Vice Raid (1959) and juvenile delinquent flick Girls Town (1959) (although I really need to revisit High School Confidential (1958) - not seen that one since I was a teenager!). The biggest mistake in Van Doren’s career: when John Waters approached her to portray Velma von Tussle in Hairspray (1988), she turned him down – and not very graciously, either (according to Waters, “she said that she deserved better than Divine.” To her credit, Van Doren admits she’s always regretted her decision. Fascinating as that casting would have been, I’m glad Velma went to Deborah Harry because she slays in it). Van Doren is also the authoress of scurrilous and lurid autobiographies My Naughty, Naughty Life (1964) and Playing the Field (1987). As anyone who follows Van Doren on social media knows, she’s still a gloriously unfiltered ultra vixen with no fucks left to give who routinely posts scantily clad peekaboo selfies (and gets in trouble with Meta’s prudish censors). A true “filth elder”! I treasure Mamie Van Doren as the Jayne Mansfield who lived to see old age.

Werewolves on Wheels (1971) - music by Don Gere (Main theme)

Common Law Wife and Jennie, Wife/Child will be released on Blu-ray and DVD as a "backwoods double feature" on June 25 via Film Masters in partnership with Something Weird.

Common Law Wife is a 1961 exploitation film directed by Eric Sayers and Larry Buchanan and written by Grace Nolan. Annabelle Weenick, George Edgley, Max W. Anderson, and Lacey Kelly star.

Jennie, Wife/Child, also known as Albert Peckingpaw’s Revenge, is a 1968 exploitation film directed by Robert Carl Cohen and James Landis from a script by Landis. Jack Lester, Beverly Lunsford, Jim Reader, Virginia Wood, and Richard Cowl star.

Both films have been newly restored in high definition. Special features are listed below.

Special features:

Common Law Wife audio commentary by film historians Millie De Chirico and Ben Cheaves (new)

Common Law Wife audio commentary by director Larry Buchanan

Jennie Wife/Child audio commentary by film historian Millie De Chirico (new)

That’s Hicksploitation: The Origin of Southern Sinema (new)

Common Law Wife original trailer

Jennie, Wife/Child new trailer

Liner notes by Something Weird Video's Lisa Petrucci

In Common Law Wife, Shugfoot Rainey trades in his longtime girlfriend for a newer model… who just happens to be his niece, Baby Doll. Unfortunately, his mistress does her research and discovers she is his common law wife… and he won't be able to get rid of her that easily! In Jennie, Wife/Child, Albert Peckingpawtakes Jennie to be his wife… But Jennie is a whole lot younger and has her eye on the young farm hand. Old Man Peckingpaw is bound to find out what's happening on his farm sooner or later and, when he does, watch out!

Pre-order Common Law Wife and Jennie, Wife/Child.

A new episode of The Corman Catacombs is here! This week we’re driving straight into THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS!

https://www.podbean.com/ei/pb-9yfke-153c767?wlapp=1

born to be a 90s teenager working at blockbuster, who recommends customers the weirdest goriest horniest movie they have ever seen. forced to post on letterboxd.

Evilspeak (1981)

Check out our review of ‘70s exploitation gem Firecracker!

Recently watched: gleefully cheap, nasty and enjoyable exploitation flick The Children (1980). Tagline: “Something terrifying has happened to … The Children.” It was free to stream on Amazon Prime (as well it should be) and their synopsis is more succinct than anything I could come up with: “A nuclear-plant leak turns a busload of children into murderous atomic zombies with black fingernails.” Yes, the contemporary reviews were scathing (The Orlando Sentinel termed the cast “the ugliest bunch of folks we've seen assembled on any screen at any one time” and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette accurately but cruelly noted that the children’s charred victims resemble “leftover pepperoni pizza, complete with black olives and anchovies”). But seen today, The Children looks like a prime example of irresistible low-brow drive-in fare complete with gore, violence, bad special effects and the occasional glimpse of bare breasts. And there is artistry here: as the It Came from Beyond Pulp blog perceptively argues, “once night falls, [director Max Kalmanowicz’s] true gifts come into play. Under cover of near-darkness, he exhibits an almost supernatural mastery of simple, evocative, and scary-as-hell shot framing, shock reveals, and pacing. He doesn’t make the mistake, common in the slasher genre, of overlighting his shots: the lighting here is the familiar blindness-inducing pitch black of a moonless night, in which headlights, flashlights, and candles illuminate just enough to remind you of how cavern-dark everything else is. It’s here, in the dark, where he uses his scary kids brilliantly. Smiling, arms outstretched, calling “mommy, mommy” in their piping voices, they loom out of the blackness like pretty little angels of death: this is the single scariest image I can remember from any horror film.” Unsurprisingly, The Children’s cast is mainly unknowns, but one woman felt vaguely familiar: Gale Garnett (who delivers a very broad, soap opera-style performance). She was the singer of 1964 hit "We'll Sing in the Sunshine", which I remember being ubiquitous on the radio when I was a kid.

Nope + seeing/being seen

SAVAGE SISTERS (1974) | Movie Review | A ‘70s Filipino Exploitation Women In Prison Comedy! | KINO LORBER

This is my movie review for "Savage Sisters" in which 3 barely clothed tough-as-nails ladies goes after 1 million dollars stolen from a corrupt general who tried to smuggle it out of the Banana Republic he rules to keep for themselves.

Directed by Eddie Romaro and stars Gloria Hendry, Cheri Caffaro, Rosanna Ortiz, Hohn Ashley, Vic Diaz and Sid Haig.

Available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber: https://kinolorber.com/product/savage-sisters-blu-ray

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