Mike Decker of Just For the Hell of It! (J4HI!) sent us this cool ad mat a couple of weeks ago to use for a future "Updating the IMDb" entry, but the title is so rare that we thought it should get its own post. American International Pictures released Pete Walker's HOUSE OF WHIPCORD beginning in November 1974, but by July '75 it had been retitled STAG MODEL SLAUGHTER by United Producers for select territories like Texas, where we found it co-billed with HELL HOUSE GIRLS, a re-release of SCHOOL FOR UNCLAIMED GIRLS (AIP's version of Robert Hartford-Davis' THE SMASHING BIRD I USED TO KNOW). United Producers performed another facelift on Walker's film and in December '75, a year after its stateside debut, it was re-released again as THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S MODELS, paired with HOOKERS REVENGE (a retitling of THEY CALL HER ONE-EYE) on a double bill that played successfully through the rest of the decade.

Duke Mitchell's THE EXECUTIONER -- better known as MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE -- carries a 1978 release date on the IMDb, but above is the ad for its world premiere as LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON at the Globe (a Times Square porno house) on December 19, 1974. By August of '75 it had been retitled MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE and was playing the Skyway Drive-In in Las Vegas (co-feature: WHITE LIGHTNING) as well as two theaters in Washington, D.C., where it was co-billed with VOODOO HEARTBEAT.

John C. Lange's animated 7-minute short JOSHUA AND THE BLOB (1972) -- a follow-up to his JOSHUA IN A BOX (1969) -- was acquired by Jack H. Harris Enterprises, submitted to the MPAA for a G rating, and used as an added bonus with SON OF BLOB (a.k.a. BEWARE! THE BLOB) for some theatrical bookings.

Those fine folks at the IMDb have Curtis Hanson's SWEET KILL listed as a 1973 release, but we've found an opening date of March 15, 1972 for the sexy psychothriller on two screens in El Paso, TX (The film was submitted to the MPAA in 1971 as SWEETKILL). After playing through the rest of the year and failing to set box-offices ablaze, Roger Corman reportedly had Hanson shoot additional nude scenes so SWEET KILL could be reworked into a sexploitation movie and re-released as THE AROUSERS. This is the version that was released on VHS by Embassy Home Entertainment in the '80s and is now available on DVD from Shout! Factory (misleadingly packaged and being sold under the SWEET KILL handle and advertising campaign). The ad below is from the May 16, 1973 opening of THE AROUSERS in Findlay, OH. Jim Hillier and Aaron Lipstadt's 1981 book Roger Corman's New World (BFI Dossier #7) lumps SWEET KILL/THE AROUSERS together in the same entry, with a May 9, 1973 release date and no indication that two different cuts of the film exist.

We haven't done a View-Master post in a while, but you can read Chris' review of THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE packet in the latest issue of Cinema Retro (Vol. 8: #24), on sale now!

How big of a star was Fred Williamson on Friday, December 21, 1973? Big enough for two of his action vehicles to open in New York on the same day! American International unveiled HELL UP IN HARLEM, their quickie sequel to BLACK CAESAR, opposite Universal's internationally shot karate/superspy flick THAT MAN BOLT. The Daily News even pitted the two films against each other by running their opening day ads on the same page.

Hey, fright film friends and fiends everyscare, The Keeper here. Yeah, yeah, I've heard all those stories. The Keeper's daid, or outta his haid, and who could tell witch?


Truth to smell, lust few years of fears and leers I've been down in scummy Boo!-muda, on an hextended romant-ecch in-her-nude with the Mothra-in-law. Yeah, we jest now flew back, and boy are her charms tired! Yeah, she's one earthy Tohold lady, butt terror firma.


So, the question witches most axed, for Shirley, Jackson, is what's the big deal eccch-caison all deady? What could inspire the ole Keep to scum outta self-imPoesed reektirement after all this slime? And the answer is, and what else could it “B”? -- October 9th is the release date of CELLULOID BLOOD BLOOD- BLOODBATH: MORE PREVUES FROM HELL, the follow-up to the original PREVUES FROM HELL VHS and DVD. That's reel soon, goon, that CB: MPFH will be available some scare near you, I SAID fear grue!


And take it from the Keep, who thought wayback in the Temple that PFH #1 was the beast ever fright film movie trailer collection ever: CELLULOID BLOODBATH is not only better, it's even redder, wetter and friggin' living deader! I mean, get a hopefully not tomb lethal look at the DVD box.


Killer, haunt it? Thing is, CB delivers the ghouleds promised, and that's just the front cover! Take a look at the back. Yup, all those trailers are captured and Kongtained in all their gory glory, along with one mystery trailer hidden witchin'. Oh, there's plenty of hextras besides, but that one unlisted trailer? Let's let it “B” what the Mothra-in-law calls a “a little slurp thighs” during the bed of fright, I SAID dead of night!


Hokay, you've seen the cast, the credits, the eeeek!-quential slime cup, I mean, line-up of terror trailers. But that's not all. My disc may not declare it on the box, but CELL B. is also close captioned. Means a lot to me. Man who raised me was hearing impaired somewhat from work during the war. Oh, he'd joke about it, say he was “hard of earring.” And if he was still here, he'd smile when I tell him I miss him and still, like he'd say, “lobe” him all the more.


That sadly said, froth witch we have a partial listing of CELLULOID B'BATH's titles, ghost hosts and, uh, hostettes by, of curse, cat-a-gorey.


(Or, like Hacky Gruesome usedta say, “And a-slay we ghoul!”)


First up, after an animated bloody marquee eeek!-quence, we've Joe Zaso and scream queen Raine Brown and not-so-dumb-he Happy Goldsplatt, who gets to say sometimes movie prevues are better than the movies they hype, dead wooden ya know it.


MONSTERS: hosted by Jack Polito, KING KONG expert w/ a Wray with words.


PSYCHOS: w/ Caroline Munro, who her own self's had to cry out “Mani-ACKKK!” once or sliced.


CARNIVAL HORRORS as hosted by Professor Ouch, whose barker is worse than his bite, and BLAXPLOITATION HORRORS, hosted by Jasmine Shields, who looks, a buddy sez, “Pam -tastic!” Yeah, BH's one cool ghoul category never to be given short Shaft. Especially if that shaft has to be driven through BLACULA's chest by William Marshall arts ...


PROMO GIMMICKS as hosted by Ken Kish. What these bally hooboy babies reely are, hey, I haInt Castle-in'!


CANNIBAL HORRORS as hosted by Mr. Dead Guy, who does not get to say, “Eat, eat, eat, doesn't anybody just canniball any gore?”


WOMEN TREATED BADLY hosted by Seka, featuring films some might say shouldn't even sexist. Original footage modeled by I won't say, so wouldn't you like two nude?

T&A HORRORS intro'ed by Michelle Bauer. Hokay, that set-tles it. This sextion's either the one has folks who don't lick, dang it, like exploy pix in any lay, even in horror, wanna BIG BUST OUT ... or, he sez, BIG BIRD CAGE-illy ... it'll Double-D be the one they like the breasts.


All this directed by Jim Monaco and James F. Murray, Jr; produced by Murray and Dan Kaminski; co-writ by Murray and Nick Paltrow; with gore-iginal music by Billy Marshall. And this time out, production values are, like the knife descending on a slasher flick poster, reely sharp.


Spooking of sharp, though, I gotta admit sometimes I enjoy things slightly more cheesy.


So, letch, sigh, let's leave the above listing ... a too small sampling, yes ... and I'll get back to even more names after this one, I say, making like CARRIE, prom us.










Never fear, dears, there'll “B” more names to get Prevue'd slayed 'er!

And now, the trailers themselves. You know, the reely ghouled SNUFF, I said stuff. I'm saving the come-ons and so bad they're crassick scenes presented in most of these babies, so as not to spoil you fine folks' fun if you've never see either the trailers or the movies, outscare. So, here ghouls, in eeeek!-quential odor, of curse:


THE TWILIGHT PEOPLE, the early Pam Grier pic witches fulla “half-beast, half-monster” terror types and one to Philipine for. Saw this at the same drive-in where my ole bud Don K. Barbecue saw, and didn't hear, BLOOD FEAST as chronic-kilt here at the Temple. TP played with CREATURE WITH THE BLUE HAND and BEAST OF YELLOW NIGHT. Sheesh, no wonder it was called TWILIGHT PEOPLE: along with the other two that night had all the colors of the sunset. I swear, oh pun my Sol.


FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR, thatcha couldn't get away from back in the drive-in daze if you jumped up and down on ... gotta love 'em ... Sam Sherman AND the late great guy Al Adamson's haids till they hollered “I-I.” It's a Paul-in', but I love this pic, although some folks, it jest makes 'em Naschy their teeth.


BARON BLOOD from Mario Bava, maker of my fave'rit horror movie Steele. Trailer's terror-riff-ic, and I dare ya to even start Counting all the instruments of torture on scene. Plus, the guys who watched CB: MPFH w/ me say all the women in BARON B. got “nice racks!”


THE SLIME PEOPLE. Saw this at a loco theatre when it was new, and did we ever Punnsylvania “trow” things at the screen and yell “P. U.!” I swear this flick has a romant-ecch line that went “When I'm with you, I don't even wanna think about slime people.” Yeah, fright, and first date you wanna take the guy home to mudder. SP starred HIDEOUS SUN DEMON Robert Clarke, and had one of the worst chee-eep monsters ever. Number one was THE GIANT CLAW. Two? THE BRAINIAC. TERROR. One look at the stars of the fun butt offal SLIME PEOPLE, you'll know they gotta scum in turd.


Spook, I SAID speaking of killer turds, the next trailer up's Cronenberg's THEY CAME FROM WITHIN, that played in this neck of the Ed Woods with THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION at the now gone Mu-Way Drive-In at Pummeled Dwarf. Pic stars Barb Steele and sweet purrson Lynn Lowry of the CAT PEOPLE remake. The scene in the bathtub with the pooply parasites crawling, uh, up Barbara will always, Steele, get reeksults. A more different in mood and matter & money spent double creature feature, I honestly can't fecal.


THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE's another Bava-wanna-B, and rotsa fun. And I recommend folks to find and buy the poster to it, even if you haveta use an Erika Blanc check. Oh, and my mold pal the monster sez you gotta wonder,:when Evelyn was born, did folks ever axe where she'd beheaded?


BEAST OF THE YELLOW NIGHT. Yup, the scary same Corman/John Ashley pic I mentioned earlier. See this on the same bill like I did, I triple dog scare ya!


THE FLESH EATERS. Boy, was this movie a hoot in theatres. Plus, TFE was the cover feature for an issue of Famous Monsters Of Filmland that had parents across the land hollering at kids who bought the thing like they were gonna pack their turning-weird widdle ones off to live with their ex't of skin.


CURSE OF THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN/CARNIVAL OF BLOOD? Never saw these. Trailer for HORSEMAN, eh, seeing it I might have to say “Neigh.” CARNIVAL OF BLOOD ditto, and carny horror host Professor Ouch could, of corpse, be charged with zomb abuse for what he does in this DVD to Happy Goldsplatt. Then again, knowing Happ, maybe the law wood meet the Prof mid-way!


Next up, a creepy Herman Cohen circus, uh, trailer from Herman Cohen sure to drive you BERSERK, it's so in tents. Some reely creative, gimmicky and imaginative murders here, and Diana Dors for the guys in the back yelling how they'd like to bed of nails her. And ya gotta love how the poor prospective victims fall into the murderer's designs with such willing trap ease!


Will there ever “B” another movie like next trailer's SHE FREAK? Thing's the impure essence of David BLOOD FEAST Friedman sell the sizzle that isn't always there, let alone scare, how the titu-leer turned monsterous heroine keeps appearing in quick, subliminal hot flashes. Ah yes, like the hootchie kootchie dancers of thong a-go-go, they don't shake 'em like that any gore.


THE EXORCIST. Geez, did anyone ever watch this flick and not wanna look behind that door ev'ry time Linda Blaired out?


MEATCLEAVER MASSACRE. Poster and movie's so diabolikill, ya gotta axe, how'd they ever hatchet?


THE WORM EATERS. All fright! This is one of CB's most unbelievable trailers, and one that makes everyone anywhere friggin' yell and, um, SQUIRM. Trust me, WORM EATERS lives ground to its title.


MONSTERS CRASH THE PAJAMA PARTY. Watched this in a reel theatre, too. Wasn't, despite the title, AIP, but I had so much Funicello with it, they hadda drag me away with Annette. Sorry, got anudder Annette on my Coletown mined, one hot lil beach ....


THE ASTRO-ZOMBIES. Jaw-dropping jerkitude, I'm astronaut kiddin'. Look for the splendiferous Tura Sultana, star of many a Russ Meyers movie, who also got to play both dancers in OUR MAN. Trust me on that, ya won't get Coburned.


MONSTER-A-GO-GO is a FIRST MAN INTO SPACE sorta thing from Heap Gorey Lewis, scare-in a feller comes down with symptoms reely oooky when he gets back from launch. Although, from the title the gals probably loved him cuz he could reely rocket!


LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD AND THE MONSTERS. Oh Ghouled *** Choke *** Bored, not K. Gordon Murray! Having been farced to take younger family members to his beyond odd output hackin' the '60's, I can say it: despite what witch ya might read these daze, the little kids capital H hated these things as much as I did. Being kids, when they got home they'd invariably say they got “scared,” and somehow it was my fault. Uh, gee, P&M, like who sent us there in the first place, to the worst junk image-a-bull? Still, of all the KGM stuff I suffered Coletown “tru,” HOOD's the absolute Tom Thumb dumbest! Can ya digit?


WEREWOLF VS. THE VAMPIRE WOMAN. Fur me, when it came to Paul Naschy werewolf movies, I always wanted Valdemar of 'em. Better yet, this one about takes the lycantrophy.


HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS. Be a-Frid, be very, scary a-Frid!


GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE. Ken Kish loves this, and Mu-Way me too. I demean, how can I as the Keeper not love a pic so Pitaki? Plus this features William Smith, who did one honey of a jar, I SAID job in INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS. Now, settle back to this Baby Horror trailer and watch how many people diaper minute!


SUGAR HILL and her zombie hit men! “B” gore you watch the trailer, punder w/ me: do zombie hit men shuffle off to Buffalino?


ALABAMA'S GHOST. I admit it, when it comes to horror movies no one knows every THING. I never heard of this movie until CELLULOID B'BATH, and same ghouls for anyone else I mention it tomb. Pay no attention to the Mothra-in-law, who sez it south of the Mason-Dixon line bored her.


SCREAM, BLACULA, SCREAM. Blacula and Pam Grier, how SHEBAt BABY can it “B”?


EYEBALL. Yeah, yeah, they don't come much cornea, but the box office went into orb-it!


RABID. David Cronenberg pic with Marilyn Chambers remains the only film, ever, to star on a Roger Corman drive-in double bill as the companion to a second movie about the same subject: killer armpits! The other being DEMON, that under its original title of GOD TOLD ME TO, got itself, armpit or rot, friggin' Banned.


THE FIENDISH GHOULS. Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasence's grave robber jobber, that's in, um, parts pretty Burke and Hare-raising.


DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT. No, they didn't say DEBASEMENT. Did anyone out scare ever see a print of this that wasn't purple as a grape popsicle? I never did, and if I DID find such a thing in my basement, I'd for sure try to cellar.


MARK OF THE DEVIL 2 claims to have been censored or banned, if ya believe it, in like a million countries and ev'ry nation on Earth! Uh huh. Gotta give a coven of lovin' to the advertising fellers who came up with that come-on, fright when they sat down with other promo boys to planet.


BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA/ THE WEEKEND MURDER. Yeah, I caught BB at the Mu-Way D-I and, since it stars 3 James Bond babes, Blofeld in love with it first time I spider.


THE BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN. No DEVIL'S RAIN, but unholy water is?


CHAMBER OF HORRORS. Hey, does Marvel Comics know about this? I bonely axe cuz the trailer's fulla Human Torture.


THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH. Fun in the sun via nuclear scum, as creature featured in the mag published by James Warren back in the FJA daze. My bet, there haint a person living on this big ball of bikini wax world who can watch this trailer or the movie without feeling all wet, wicked and wobbly. And quite possibly Del-Aires-headed.


And if you reely want a headache, sample WICKED, WICKED on a drive-in screen like I did. W, W's a psicko mystery killer thriller starring one of my fave femmes of the 70's, Tiffany Bolling, plus Ed Byrnes to make things even more Kookie. Thing was filmed in "Duo-Vision," that maybe on a bat day might have been better than watching BOLLING FOR DOLLAR$. I kid, the Tiffster in this was even better than her usual striking self, it's the pic wound up in the gutter.


The trailer to CASTLE OF EVIL succeeds at making the movie look well and good, I SAID smell & ghouled, witch it haint. In fact, I was so ticked after catching it in a theatre that when I was given the movie poster to it? Yup, I immediately turret up!


ASYLUM. Monumental anthology from Amicus, Robert Bloched out with the hack-sent on the “mental.” And it made a whole lot of PSYCHOld, "hard ca$h."


THE CRAWLING HAND. One of the gore laughable of the entire BLOODBATH batch, but ghoul finger: this trailer and movie are ev'rything that GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW wasn't. Where else can ya hear a) a disrobing gal inquire of her guy what does it mean, she's stacked, or b) The Rivingtons? Whatever yer choice, you'll wanna see and leer, I SAID hear Papa Ow Mow Mo'. And yer boy Jr.? He can see t.v.'s The Skipper take matters into his own hands, Allan a Hale of bullets!


Next? PSYCHO FROM TEXAS, as recalled by the ever lovely Linnea Quigley, who starred in same when she was seventeen, and ya can tell even then of all the folks in this pic, she's the one who was gonna be the Lone Star. That said, from what's seen here, no way could PFT be Dallas they come.


Ah yessss, the slime-honored plot of scum psicko at the drive-in making innocent ... and some not so innocent ... parked patrons d-i their own selves! No TARGETS, this, but D-IM didn't at the Mu-Way Boris. So, why do these slaughterers at the sliver moon screen hack, I SAID act out these things, anyslay? I mean, is it true what my shrink, B. Vera Afreyd, pro-Poes-es -- that they simply have deep, back-seated eeeek!-motions?


RATTLERS. Like PSYCHO above, never saw this film, but whoof, from the trailer there's plenty of potential victims going loaded with serpent-up eeeek!-motions.


SQUIRM. Honest: one of the biggest, longest, traffic-cloggingest lines to any drive-in, let alone the late, cemented screen Mu-Way, I ever saw was for SQUIRM with FROGS. So, I axe ya, what could the crowds have been like to SQUIRM with THE WORM EATERS? I'll tell ya – cars all the way to Nick Adams' connecting closet in Nescopeck could well have come to a crawl.


WILLARD. So, you want more, I mean gore, nature being a fright mother pictures? WILLARD has the rat stuff, and for a little picture it sure in the box office made one huge rodent.


Larry Cohen's IT'S ALIVE. Yeah, ya bring the kid home from the hospital, and from then on STUFF gets much, much nursery.


THE BABY. Hmm, another killer baby film. Screams like one of the people in this pic shoulda seen that sneaky snake movie from a few lines hack. I can hear it now: “Here, kid, we boughtcha a new RATTLER!”


So, next up, I demean, nest schtupp: INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS. As mentioned before, this honey stars William Smith, along with Hammer heroine Victoria Vetri and PRICE IS RIGHT model Anitra, amazing as it is that the producers could a-Ford her. Yowser, and when I was a kid I thought Susan Cabot as Corman's WASP WOMAN was comb-ly ...


And now, “Bee” live it or not, here comes my favorite CELLULOID BLOODBATH trailer: THE DEVIL'S WEDDING NIGHT. DEVIL's the best, bare nuns, I SAID bar none Mario Bava movie Mario Bava never made. Or, is that “Plunder the portals of mortal maidens,” like the announcer ad vices? All that, plus great near-Bava color, sets at their most fear-eccck!, music that makes you feel you're both riding and captive victim writhing doomward, WEDDING NIGHT's got it all. Naughty to forget all, and I hoodoo mean all, the Mu-Way carhorns honking during the naked, spellbound maidens marching in Bava-esque color up tomb the castle to be quite willingly sacrificed, never to be scene again. Music's terror-riff here,, lick thighs, but who could hear it like in C BLOODBATH back then, with every vehicle in the lot blatting a lay, sorry, way? And did I men shun evil sorceress villianess Sarah Bay of Corman's LADY FRANKENSTEIN, whose nude scenes no man on the face of the earthy could not take quite the Joseph Cotten to?


By now we're in the WOMEN TREATED BADLY sextion, featuring intro material shot by CB co-director James Murray Jr., the young whippersnapper. Yeah, you got it, we're off to the second ILSA movie, and whether they have oil and harems or not, NO one in an ILSA movie ever, ever dances cheek to SHEIK. The torture scenes are as they should be, horrible so as never to make anyone, anywhere, get all (t)horn-y over people dyin'.


Then there's THE GIRL IN ROOM 2-A, for a chains of place.


CORRUPTION stars always-still-missed Peter Cushing as a mad plast-ecccck surgeon, along w/ Sue Lloyd of THE BARON.  Film sneaks up on ya, let's face slit. A bud of Coletown mine sez he saw CORRUPTION once with the future luvva his wife on a campus cafeterroria wall as shown via cheepo Bell & Howell projection, and it still had plenty of women going “Eee-yew!” Curse, old as he is, they were perhaps more like go-going. Same bud also saw Corman's THE RAVEN there, although that time he claims the theatrely techno was more like “Cheap Poe.”


Followed by a flick unbeknown tomby: THE HANGING WOMAN, that from the looks of it could “B” reely bad noose.


LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH's a fun little head-scratcher starring Zora Lampert that can, jest when yer getting Ouija board, send you into an early 70's type brainpanic. Witch in this case is a ghouled thing! By the time I caught this years of fears later at a drive-in with THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVED DOWN THE LANE management Ed Woodn't let younger types in unless eeek!-companied by a Jodie Foster parent.


Sexed up? Gene Corman & Paul Bartel's PRIVATE PARTS. Great little flick, with many a different psicko path. You may think from the title you know what's coming, butt it's nuts.


And now, bow down to the goremeister of all slime and time, Hershell Gordon Lewis, or as I like to call him, Heap Gorey Lewis, as represented here with THE GORE GORE GIRLS. Can't say for you, but for me the three G's-ster's still the wickedest H. G. I ever saw in half.


W.ish I knew from the next flick, W. as featuring TW.iggy. Hey, out there, you ever saW. this, “B” sure to W.rite!


Had a-SNUFF? Not yet you haunt! Is this '76 SNUFF stuff real, or reel, you axe? Welllll, one slime on her'ed Horrorwood rule is that it's all in the faking. In other words, it's up to grue.


TENDER FLESH? To quote a certain Pittance of a catlog, it's an epiderm-eccch!


THE SEVERED ARM? I'm told it won a Life (and limb!) magazine award, hands down.


CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, on the other hand, will all ways be revered or reekviled. I axed one of the natives in CH about this, he waggled his hand a little, said he's in the spleen.


So, what frightmeister's material gets the honor of wrapping this whole assordidment of movie mag-eek? Hah! I haint sayin' yet, I got this far without ever having Argentold you.


D'oh!


Okay, so the CAT 'O NINE TAIL's outta the bag, no use Franciscussin' about it.


Followed by 4 FLIES ON GREY VELVET, Argento's take on the old camera obscura trick. As usual, even if he was working on the fly, Argento's the melangomaster.


Now, the moment we've all been wading in gore waiting for: the scary last, scary beast CB trailer isssss ------- Argento's masterpiece so far, SUSPIRIA. You never saw it, hoodoo so. With a friend, not fiend, cuz one never knows which is witches.


Oh, and trust me again here. Prepare for near-lethal loudness from SUSPIRIA's soundtrack. My hearing's survived like four upfront Foghat concerts, but seeing SUSPIRIA in a theatre with a superfine sound system almost eardrummed me outta the expensive or cheep horror movie watching and hearing Cor, man!


We have now finished our run-down of each and ev'ry CELLULOID BLOODBATH's prevues from Hell, fang you very munch. Me, like many a mold-slimer I've been waiting for a 2nd PREVUES FROM HELL since 1987. That's a whole lot of horror movies ghouled and bat since gone Lansdowne, vidtape, DVD or Thee Hack Trick Kill.


Moll a'witch means, CELLULOID BLOODBATH gets my official vote for sure as this year of fear's horror trailer Kongpilation DVDs beast to play at your Halloween party. Like my mold lady sez, it beats bobbin' for ape pulls.


Wait. Ape pulls? What did I furget all deady? Huh, and I was jest saying it no doubt Unca Festerday to the gorilla my screams. Ah well, witchever it was, I bed her not tell the Mothra in law.


Yoko, I mean, oh no, what's that flapping? Lots of names I'd like to ape-plaud yet. What the hey? Ah, key-rap, I know that massive shadow overhead, witch means the Mothra-in-law's headed my way. And I'll be beheaded if she ever finds out about me and Konganette and all her inner rhesuses. (So, Happy Halloween, you Temple of Schlockers and anyone out there reading this, I gotta fly or die, or I'll wind up making a big splatt below the Empire State Building real soon this .... falllllllll!)

Italian actor Bud Spencer (real name: Carlo Pedersoli) had already appeared in a half dozen films as the beefy sidekick to Terence Hill (Mario Girotti) when the director of their most successful team-ups decided to pair Spencer with Giuliano Gemma for the TRINITY-type roaring '20s gangster comedy ANCHE GLI ANGELI MANGIANO FAGIOLI (1973). 20th Century Fox, perhaps eager to cash in on Avco Embassy's stateside success with the Hill-Spencer films, acquired the U.S. rights and began a theatrical rollout on December 5, 1973 in San Antonio, TX. Spencer didn't return for the sequel, ANCHE GLI ANGELI TIRANO DI DESTRO, also directed by Enzo Barboni under his "E.B. Clucher" pseudonym (misspelled "Clutcher" on the IMDb, which has this as a 1974 release in the U.S.).

The tragic interracial love story NEGRO ES UN BELLO COLOR (BLACK IS A BEAUTIFUL COLOR) -- a Mexican production starring Libertad Lamarque, Fernando Allende and Jeanne Bell -- opened in nine New York-area Spanish-language theaters on Wednesday, April 24, 1974.


This was one of the last leading roles for Lamarque, an Argentine actress-singer who was embraced by the Mexican film industry and became famous throughout Latin America after being blacklisted in her home country by Eva Perón. She toplined only two more movies after this one, then made the transition to television, where she continued to work until her death in 2000 at the age of 92.



Lamarque plays Eugenia, a famous actress-singer who is dismayed to find out that her son Mario (Allende) is in love with a black woman, Joyce (Bell), whom he intends to marry.



Allende, a popular Mexican actor who also appeared on American television shows in the 1980s and '90s (including a recurring role on the nighttime soap FLAMINGO ROAD), recently made his directorial debut with the feature film MARÍA (2010), starring his son Adan Allende as Efrain, the role he himself had played 38 years earlier in Tito Davison's filmed adaptation of the Jorge Isaacs novel.



However, what really drew us to this movie was Jeanne Bell, Playboy's Miss September 1969 and the gorgeous star of our favorite Cirio H. Santiago fighting femmes flicks, TNT JACKSON (1974) and THE MUTHERS (1976). Ms. Bell also appeared in POLICEWOMEN, THREE THE HARD WAY, and THE KLANSMAN the same year.



NEGRO ES UN BELLO COLOR is available on DVD, and also turns up on Spanish television stations, but there is no English subtitled or dubbed versions that we know of.

Although he’s known today as America’s premier historical artist, Mort Künstler has painted everything from Classics Illustrated front covers to Mad magazine back covers, with thousands of works in between, during an incredibly prolific career that has spanned over 60 years. During the 1970s he was one of the most prominent artists working in the field of motion picture promotional art, painting the posters for movies ranging from THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE and THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1-2-3 to THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD and THE OMEGA MAN. Earlier this year Mr. Künstler took a break from his very busy schedule to talk with Chris Poggiali about his years designing some of the most exciting movie posters of the 1970s. The full Q&A appears in the latest issue of Cinema Retro (Vol. 8: #24), on sale now. Here are the outtakes from that interview.

Chris Poggiali: You were commissioned to do two different paintings for THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972), which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Did you always paint more than one piece for every movie?

Mort Künstler: No, most of the time it was one. In the case of THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1-2-3 (1974), they asked for three different pieces. There was one that was used for the European poster, of the train coming at you with a guy silhouetted in the doorway.


Then there was another one that I don’t know if they ever used, which shows people on the subway car reading and doing what they’re doing, and three guys among them who all look alike with the same glasses, raincoats, the hats… [Laughs] It’s before the subway car gets taken over.

Poggiali: And then there’s the most common one, with the gun in the foreground.


Künstler: Right, the big machine gun coming from the lower left corner.

Poggiali: You did something similar in the art for BREAKHEART PASS (1976).

Künstler: With the foot in the foreground, about to step on [Charles Bronson’s] hands...

Poggiali:…as he’s hanging from the train! With one image, you manage to capture the action, excitement and danger of these movies better than any trailer.


Künstler: I specialized in that sort of stuff and developed a knack for it, so the work came to me. And I enjoyed doing it.

Poggiali: There’s also a wonderful sense of depth and detail in your work. A great example of this is your art for the Moms Mabley comedy AMAZING GRACE (1974).


Künstler: Oh, that was fun! They told me “Exaggerate it, make it crazy! We want [Moms Mabley] to be coming right at you!” That was done for a movie boutique, which was what we’d call an agency that just did movie advertising. I think it was Rosebud.

Poggiali: Rosebud -- as in the sled?

Künstler: Yes, and they had something from CITIZEN KANE in their waiting room -- maybe the director’s chair or the camera that was used? It wasn’t the sled though! AMAZING GRACE was a very different style for me, almost cartoonish. I don’t know if you would’ve recognized that as mine.

Poggiali: But your signature appears on many of your movie posters.


Künstler: Well, the movie people never wanted to have the artist’s name on the poster. They weren’t interested in selling the artist -- they wanted to sell the movie and the names of the actors. If you signed the picture they would almost invariably take it out. So I used to sign a lot of these movie posters in such a way that they never found it! [Laughs] I remember the signature on AMAZING GRACE. I painted it on the car bumper. For THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1-2-3, it’s on a car card -- y’know, the advertisements on the subway? I made one of the car cards my signature.


Poggiali: What about THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE?

Künstler: I think I put it in the splash of the water. Who knows? I don’t remember. I used to have fun hiding the signatures, like it was a game. I assume other artists did the same thing, because a lot of people know who painted these movie posters. One you probably wouldn’t know I did was THE HINDENBURG (1975).


Poggiali: You didn’t sign that one?

Künstler: No, I couldn’t get the painting done in time! They didn’t give me enough time for it to make the poster, but it was used in every ad you ever saw, in black-and-white and in color. The movie poster itself was done slapdash by someone else, I don’t know who.

Poggiali: That’s the opposite of what happened with GO TELL THE SPARTANS (1978).


Künstler: I did the poster for that one.

Poggiali: And somebody else did the artwork for the newspaper ads. Another poster of yours I really like is THREE THE HARD WAY (1974), which features an ensemble painting of Jim Brown, Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly over three smaller paintings depicting each of them in a separate action scenario.


Künstler: That was done for a movie boutique, but a good part of it was my own concept. It was one of the few times where I was called in at the very beginning, so I had input on that one. I said, “It’s called THREE THE HARD WAY, so why don’t we have three separate pictures of the three stars?”

For the full interview, pick up the latest issue of Cinema Retro (Vol. 8: #24), on sale now!

Harold Clifton left his native Raleigh when he was 18. He returned to the Capital City this month as actor-producer Daniel Clifford for the World Premiere of his first major motion picture, “Watch Out for the Bummer.”

And Friday he will be in Wilmington for the opening of “Bummer” at the Colony Theatre, on hand to meet and greet patrons from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

During a promotion tour of the Port City earlier this week, the ruggedly handsome Clifford left a trail of secretaries swooning in arguments over whether his eyes are green, gray or blue.

Regardless of their color, his eyes sparkle as he discusses “Watch Out for the Bummer.”

“There are so many films these days with terrible endings. You leave the movie, go home and can’t sleep. Our film reverses that syndrome.”

The “our” in “our film” refers to Clifford, who stars in and produced the movie, and writer-director Michael F. Elliot.

“Bummer,” Clifford explains, tells the story of a young writer who is in a negative and unconsciously destructive period of his life.

“He is unable to cope with reality or to relate to other people without trying to use them; he loses his fiancée, his friends.

“Through his interactions with various people, he finally discovers as long as he’s got his health and freedom, he’s got everything.”

Clifford says “Bummer” does not deal with drugs, as the title might imply, since “a bummer can be anything that gets you down on life.

“It’s a film that really turns on the young people, and older people look at it as being a very realistic film.

“And it is an honest film, in that it parallels man’s personal problems with society’s problems.”

To capture the realities of today’s world, Clifford said, Elliot attempted to break every cinematic tradition.

“First, he refused to write the script except as filming was going on, because he said he did not want to lose the determinations of the life force; in other words, write as we live it.”

Also, for the first time in any feature length film, Clifford explained, the camera was hand-held throughout the entire film, “lending the photography an emotionality of its own.”

And, too, Clifford and Elliot formed their own company, Infinite Eight Productions Inc., beginning the quarter-million dollar film on their own without a studio affiliation.

Clifford says neither partner wants a studio affiliation because too many fine films become victims of the “studio syndrome,” being shelved if they don’t meet success in New York or Los Angeles.

In further efforts for realism, “Watch Out for the Bummer” was filmed on locations from Southern California to Northern San Francisco.

Clifford noted, “We tried to capture reality on film. We did not use a sound stage or phony sets, but in the streets and parks of San Francisco and Los Angeles, on a boat in San Francisco Bay going around Alcatraz island, in Topanga Canyon near Los Angeles.

“The reality of this film not only effects the filmgoer with a complete emotional experience, but an enlightening one, and you go home feeling good.”

Clifford is less inclined to discuss his own life. Upon leaving Raleigh as a teenager, he joined the Air Force and served three years in Germany, returning to the Capital City to spend “several years” in the contracting business.

He describes himself as “a shy, introverted kid in high school,” for whom delivering an oral book report in front of the class was “pure, tongue-tied agony.”

However, despite no previous leanings toward the theater, Clifford says one day while knocking around California he noticed the Pasadena Playhouse was accepting students and impulsively decided to try out.

“It was purely an inspiration of the moment, and probably the worst audition to ever happen, but they must have seen something I didn’t because I was accepted.”

Thereafter followed a season of Shakespeare - 55 performances of four plays - and a tour of 30 states with Bishop’s Company production of “St. Joan.”

But, somehow, Clifford still gives the impression of that shy, introverted kid, and readily admits, “I don’t believe I’ll continue as an actor for much more than five years. I really prefer being behind the scenes.”

“The actor is more a tool of the director; he’s told what to do, how to do it; he doesn’t know why and there’s usually no time to explain the directions.

“As a producer or director you can decide what to you’re trying to tell the world, what you really want to say.”

And, Clifford says he wants to stay in films that speak of realism.

“Films in the past have meant escapism, fairy tales. But films can be an important medium in these days when people are being bombarded by information, a tremendous amount of information, form all forms of media.

“Films can show what is happening today; there are changes occurring constantly in today’s world, and if you’re not learning to change, you’re stagnating.”

“This is really the message ‘Bummer’ is trying to get across. The film is trying to say a human being can adapt, he can’t get in such a depressed state that he can’t bounce back, that he can’t get his life in shape.”

Clifford’s plans call for production of another film, “The Road to Jesus,” beginning in February. “In this we hope to investigate the Jesus movement among today’s youth, mostly filming around Asheville.”

But for Clifford’s “today,” Wilmington’s Friday, he and “Watch Out for the Bummer” will be debuting at the Colony Theatre.

One more note for the swooning secretaries: that little two-year-old charmer in the film is Clifford’s real-life son Jimmy. Sorry.

(Star-News - Wilmington, NC - December 16, 1971 - p.6D)

SUPERSONIC SUPERGIRLS, the super unwatchable sequel to the 3-D box-office smash THE STEWARDESSES (1969) and also known as INTERNATIONAL STEWARDESSES, opened in 22 theaters in the New York tri-state area on October 5, 1973. Advertised with a fake R rating, the movie was slapped with a real X rating by the MPAA three weeks later, but that was just the beginning of this movie's strange and confusing history. We thought our review from a few years ago would finally convince the brains at the IMDb that this movie actually exists and isn't a re-release version of THE STEWARDESSES, but no, after years of listing SUPERSONIC SUPERGIRLS/INTERNATIONAL STEWARDESSES as a.k.a.'s for the '69 smash, they've now deleted both sequel titles from the database altogether. As bad as it is, SUPERSONIC SUPERGIRLS is a real movie that was released and re-released under various titles and in different versions, so it should have its own entry. Below is what we know about the movie, collected from 3-D Filmmakers: Conversations with Creators of Stereoscopic Motion Pictures by Ray Zone, 3-D Movies: A History and Filmography of Stereoscopic Cinema by R.M. Hayes, and our own research and viewing of the film. It's enough to start an IMDb entry.

“Farewell Uncle Tom,” at the Cinerama, RKO 59th St. and 86th St. Twin II, is purportedly an “inquest,” or an on-the-spot investigation of slavery in this country.

This investigation is conducted by those cinematic muckrakers, the creators of “Mondo Cane,” Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi. Posing as visiting journalists of the period, the filmmakers pretend to interview everyone from a slave breeder to Harriet Beecher Stowe. After confiding that she intends to write a book, she tells the “European” journalists: “I think I’ll call it ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin.’”

Having recreated our shady past in gross, stomach-turning detail, Jacopetti and Prosperi have the conceit to add a musical score that is pure Fellini. They claim that their film is based entirely on historical fact. But don’t be fooled. These two care nothing for historical accuracy.

What interests them is the hysterical fact, some sensational revelation that can startle or arouse.

What is so loathsome about their style of filmmaking is that they have the gall to pretend that their vulgar exposés are done for humanitarian purposes, when the only thing that appears to interest them is inciting an audience. Do yourself a favor: miss this movie.

(Daily News, 10/28/1972, p.2)

Arthur Roberson's play Don't Leave Go My Hand was first produced in California in 1969, directed by the late, great Vantile Whitfield. Four years later, Roberson himself wrote and directed a stagey, low-budget film adaptation starring his boyfriend at the time, Durey Mason (This letter from Roberson's son to Ferris State University's Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia reveals that Burt Ward of TV's BATMAN was originally considered for the lead role!). Artisan Releasing Corporation premiered the PG-rated DON'T LEAVE GO MY HAND in San Antonio in March 1974. By November the title had been changed to BLACK HOOKER, sex scenes with body doubles had been added to get an R rating, and the Wheeler Film Company out of Washington D.C. was unveiling this grittier version in Maryland and Virginia ahead of a more extensive rollout beginning in January '75. It was released on video in the 1980s as BLACK MAMA and 1990s as STREET SISTERS, but the original title of the play as well as the movie is nowhere to be found in the IMDb and other references such as the poorly researched FAB Press book Blaxploitation Cinema.

“The Long Night,” an American film directed by Woodie King, Jr. and written by the director in collaboration with Julian Mayfield. You see almost every dramatic development coming from a mile away in this drama about a young boy’s marathon search for his runaway father in Harlem, but as the story follows its familiar path, director King presents a compelling picture of Harlem neighborhood life, by day and by night. There’s a crude flashback structure, unfortunately, as well as a fondness for clichés culled from black plays of the past decade. Dick Anthony Williams makes up for much that is wrong with his intense characterization of a man whose black pride isn’t enough to help him overcome his long years of defeat in a white man’s world. “The Long Night” is being screened Sunday at 6 p.m. and Tuesday at 8:30.

Temple of Schlock's friend in Seattle, John Black, told us a while back that his hometown had played host to a number of exclusive movie premieres in the early 1970s, but we only recently got around to investigating his claim. Boy, he wasn't kidding! Here are two major finds that we unearthed within minutes of threading the first reel of microfilm through the viewer.

THE PLOT AGAINST HARRY, writer-director Michael Roemer's second narrative indie feature (following the brilliant NOTHING BUT A MAN), opened in one Seattle theater for a week-long "world premiere" on January 27, 1971.

This quirky, b&w, New York-shot ethnic comedy -- filmed two years earlier -- would've attracted more attention and done some business if it had debuted a few blocks south of 14th Street instead of three thousand miles west of the Hudson. According to Seattle Times critic John Hartl in the review below, the film's "only appreciative audience may be Jewish bookies living in the Bronx."

After this not-so-impressive debut, Roemer put THE PLOT AGAINST HARRY on a shelf and forgot about it for 18 years.

In September 1989, THE PLOT AGAINST HARRY was screened during the Toronto and New York Film Festivals. Press coverage at the time detailed the film's disappearing act without ever mentioning its week-long run in Seattle, alluding instead to a "screening" that failed to secure a distribution deal (New Yorker Films finally released the film theatrically in January 1990). Some sources even claimed that THE PLOT AGAINST HARRY had languished for years unfinished. "Roemer actually shot this film, his second feature, in 1969," wrote Pete Travers in Rolling Stone, "but only recently found the money to complete postproduction."


It’s understandable why Roemer would avoid all discussion of the one-week Seattle engagement, since any kind of theatrical release would’ve made the film ineligible for the major festivals. However, we believe that 20+ years is well past the statute of limitations for this sort of thing, so THE PLOT AGAINST HARRY should now be considered a 1971 film, with January 27, 1971 (Seattle, WA) listed on the IMDb as the official release date.


Less than a month after THE PLOT AGAINST HARRY blew in and out of town, Skip Sherwood's spaced-out independent film DIDN'T YOU HEAR? opened in nine Seattle-area theaters on February 24, 1971. Billed as "The first completely electronically scored motion picture" and shot in widescreen Techniscope at the University of Washington and in the San Juan Islands during the summer of 1970, DIDN'T YOU HEAR? is of interest today for its early lead performances by Dennis Christopher, Gary Busey, and MACON COUNTY LINE's Cheryl Waters. A wider release through Futurama International was scheduled for June 1972, but we've found no evidence of additional playdates.

Skip Sherwood Productions renewed the copyright in 1983, which was the date ascribed to the film when it began showing on TV in 1985. A video release through American National Enterprises (A.N.E.) Home Video/Prism Entertainment also occurred in 1985, but the IMDb considers this a 1983 release. The date should be changed to 1971, with February 24, 1971 (Seattle, WA) submitted as the official release date.

SEX IN THE COMICS is a live action attempt to recreate the notorious adults only "eight pager" comic books (Tijuana Bibles) of yesteryear, starring porn actors like Ric Lutze and Rick Cassidy hiding behind pseudonyms ("Lance Hardon" "Reggie Balls") while wearing masks of famous comic strip characters Dagwood, Dick Tracy, Barney Google and others. One of the performers appears to be Duke Mitchell?! Directed by "Eric Von Letch" (rumored to be Anthony Spinelli), SEX IN THE COMICS opened in two porn houses in New York City on December 20, 1972 (The IMDb has it listed as a 1974 release). Ads for SEX IN THE COMICS appeared in all the New York newspapers except the Daily News, which advertised it as THE 8 PAGERS.


In 2003, Chris interviewed makeup artist Byrd Holland for Fangoria. The following exchange is taken from the resulting article, "Horror Out of the Box" (Fangoria #231, April 2004, pg. 68-71, 80)...

BYRD HOLLAND: In the early 1970s, I was approached to do a film, and they had a budget where I could do my thing, make castings of faces, sculpt and create prosthetics. They wanted me to do Dick Tracy and other famous cartoon characters, men and women --

CHRIS POGGIALI: That sounds like SEX AND THE COMICS.

BYRD HOLLAND: Was that it? I was a little suspicious at first. I asked if they had the rights to use those characters, and they indicated that they did. I was excited about the project, but then the production manager said to me, “Don’t worry, if the police happen to come, we have a buzzer and the red lights will go on -- we'll move you right out the back door, no one will ever know you’ve been here.” I said, “If the police come for what?” He said, “This is an X-rated movie.” I said, “You’re talkin’ to the wrong man!” and I just got up and walked out. [Laughs] Only in Hollywood can you be interviewed for a job in a legitimate profession and get told “You’ll be protected in case the police show up!”

Monte Hellman's COCKFIGHTER (1974), based on the 1962 paperback original by Charles Willeford, was never going to be an easy movie to market, but producer Roger Corman changed the title three times in less than a year and still couldn't come up with a campaign that attracted many ticket buyers. Jim Hillier and Aaron Lipstadt's 1981 book Roger Corman's New World (BFI Dossier #7) gives a release date of June 27, 1974 for COCKFIGHTER, but our research is more in line with Variety's, which reported in June of 1975 that the movie had debuted in the southern U.S. in August '74. We've confirmed playdates for that month in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and the Carolinas (The above ad is from August 16, 1974 in Statesville, NC).


Undeterred by the movie's failure at the box-office, Corman changed the title to WILD DRIFTER, then GAMBLIN' MAN, for test dates like the one above in Joplin, Missouri on October 25, 1974. BIG BAD MAMA, a recent hit for New World, was the wisely chosen co-feature.


By March of 1975, the title was BORN TO KILL and car crash-and-burn footage from NIGHT CALL NURSES and CANDY STRIPE NURSES had been cut into the film as a dream sequence to justify its use in the new action-packed trailer. BIG BAD MAMA was still the co-feature for drive-in dates...


...while the ad campaign above was probably intended for general indoor, arthouse and college bookings following the film's appearance on Sight & Sound magazine's "best of" list for 1974.

Umberto Lenzi's UN POSTO IDEALE PER UCCIDERE (1971) -- starring Irene Papas, Ray Lovelock and Ornella Muti, and best known as OASIS OF FEAR -- was released in the U.S. in late 1974 by International Cine Film as DIRTY PICTURES. The ad above is from a Paris, TX playdate beginning January 15, 1975. The co-feature is Maurizio Lucidi's LA VITTIMA DESIGNATA (1971), a STRANGERS ON A TRAIN-like thriller starring Tomas Milian and Pierre Clémenti.


Above is an ad for another DIRTY PICTURES booking, this one in Biloxi, MS on July 23, 1975. The co-feature is Claude Chabrol's DOCTEUR POPAUL (1972), starring Jean Paul Belmondo, Mia Farrow and Laura Antonelli, released here by International Cine Film under the title PLAY NOW, PAY LATER. It was re-released by Independent Artists in 1981 as HIGH HEELS.