Where the underworld can meet the elite
I finally got my hands on volume 5 of Synapse Films' "42nd Street Forever" series, and to celebrate, I put together a video playlist culled from trailers found on each of the volumes.
First, a word about the folks that put out these compilations. Let's face it, we're never in danger of losing, say, "The Wizard of Oz" or "Jaws," because someone rich will always be around to maintain and protect major cultural touchstones and big moneymakers. I'm mostly glad for that, but what about everything else? Synapse Films is one of several cool DVD companies that's taken an interest in preserving the lurid, lascivious, gross and nutty classics no one else is looking after. Thanks to Synapse, we have souped-up, uncut, definitive digital releases of Jim Muro's "Street Trash," Doris Wishman's "Let Me Die a Woman" and Jean Rollin's "The Grapes of Death," along with curious Asian titles such as "Karaoke Terror," "Horrors of Malformed Men" and "Terrifying Girls' High School: Lynch Law Classroom."
Now, Synapse isn't the only company out there doing such important work, but I want to praise them for another reason entirely. A few years ago, I happened to buy my copies of "42nd Street Forever" volumes one and two at a famous big box retail store, which at the time offered them in an exclusive double-pack for the price of a single volume. I jumped on that deal, but when I opened the shrink-wrapped discs, I found blank DVD-Rs where the DVDs should have been. Seriously. Dismayed, I took the only course of action I imagined might help: I sent an e-mail to Synapse, explaining in mundane detail exactly what had happened. Not only did I get a prompt and personal reply, I was told to send in the cases and packaging for a full replacement. This came very quickly, and with a free t-shirt, which I proudly wear from time to time.
Synapse is a cool-ass company. They do good things and genuinely care about the people who purchase the fruits of their loving labor. If you have the funds in these lean times, I'm telling you that Synapse is worth supporting. (No, I am not getting a kickback for this wholly unsolicited endorsement.) You'll find many crafty artifacts in their catalog. For instance, for all the classic porn fans out there, they offer an additional volume in the 42nd Street Forever series, a "XXX-Treme Special Edition" with dozens of vintage adult film trailers. Sorry, I'm only featuring the regular volumes here.
42nd Street Forever Volume 1
The initial offering has an egalitarian mix of classic exploitation genres: action, horror, sex, sci-fi, biker, mondo, blaxploitation, hippie counterculture, martial arts, gialli, peplum and more.
1. "The Crippled Masters" (1979) - One dude gets his arms chopped off, another gets his legs burned up, and they seek their vengeance by becoming deadly kung fu warriors. This infamous chopsocky entry stars real-life cripples, who, like a low-budget Asian Master Blaster, occasionally pool their physical resources to become a single head-busting machine.
2. "The Pink Angels" (1971) - Aside from Kenneth Anger's experimental landmark "Scorpio Rising," this is the best-known gay biker film in existence, with a bit role by Dan "Grizzly Adams" Haggerty as a straight guy from another biker gang. Although these cross-dressing queens don't represent a very enlightened view of homosexual life, this rambling, surprisingly chaste z-flick wasn't aiming for an Oscar.
3. "Teenage Mother" (1967) - From the producer of "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song," here's a typical out-of-control youth flick featuring endless go-go dancing, tinny garage rock, hypocritical morals, clumsy line delivery and grotesquely aged footage of actual childbirth, complete with episiotomy. The best thing about the incredibly long ad is its meathead voiceover ("Teenage Mutha! Means 9 months o' trouble...").
4. "The Raiders of Atlantis" (1983) - I remember seeing ads in the newspaper for this action obscurity directed by Ruggero "Cannibal Holocaust" Deodato, but I have sadly never seen the film. Beloved by fans of such Italian-bred nonsense, it involves the awakening and resurfacing of sunken Atlantis, which turns out to be populated by motorcyclists of the insane post-apocalyptic variety.
42nd Street Forever Volume 2: The Deuce
This edition contains a greater number of older trailers than the other sets, with a good number of cheap flicks from the '60s and even '50s representing the legacy of the drive-in more than the grindhouse.
5. "The Dark" (1979) - The great '70s mugs of William Devane and Cathy Lee Crosby meet the grave growl of famed voiceover dude Percy Rodriguez in this exciting ad for a dull supernatural thriller produced by Dick Clark that in no way earned its R rating. Casey Kasem cameos as a pathologist, but that's no reason to sit through it.
6. "Spy In Your Eye" (1965) - Here's one of the many James Bond knock-offs ("An Out-BONDing Thriller!") that proliferated in the '60s, this variation made in Italy despite featuring aging American movie star Dana Andrews, who is not the spy of the title. It looks painfully boring.
7. "Dixie Dynamite" (1976) - Lee Frost, director of "Love Camp 7" and "The Black Gestapo," contributed to the era's redneck chic movement with this PG-rated hayseed shitkicker about moonshine runnin', cleavage displayin' and vehicle crashin'. The highlight of the trailer is when the cop sits on the exploding toilet.
8. "The Evictors" (1979) - King of the based-on-regional-lore '70s horror flick, Charles B. Pierce ("The Legend of Boggy Creek," "The Town that Dreaded Sundown") made this awesome-looking, impossible-to-find rural nailbiter, which my gal Jessica Harper appeared in between shooting "Suspiria" and "Shock Treatment." Sadly, Pierce passed away in March.
42nd Street Forever Vol. 3: Exploitation Explosion!
A good number of excellent cult horror, action and shitty comedy trailers, along with the addition of informative audio commentary by film geeks, make this one of my favorite volumes of the series.
9. "Jaguar Lives!" (1979) - There are few varieties of vintage film trailer more hilarious than those attempting to promote a new movie star as the next sensation, only to have failed miserably. While the ad does all it can to make this film look watchable, how many people today would mention its star, Joe Lewis, alongside tough-guy icons Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood and Bruce Lee?
10. "Beyond the Door" (1974) - Here's a fine Italian hack job, a splattery riff on "The Exorcist" and "Rosemary's Baby" starring Hayley Mills' less fortunate sister. Director Ovidio Assonitis was also behind the dreary octopus-themed "Jaws" ripoff "Tentacles" (through which I recently suffered) and James Cameron's flying-piranha-themed "Jaws" rip-off "Piranha II: The Spawning."
11. "Seven" (1979) - No, not "Se7en." This is an early movie by Andy Sidaris, a pioneer in professional sports broadcasting. He later went on to late night cable fame by masterminding a long series of action adventures with awesome names like "Savage Beach" and "Hard Ticket to Hawaii," all starring gun-toting, frequently naked Playboy and Penthouse models .
12. "Tattoo" (1981) - Another mostly forgotten movie for which I remember seeing print ads as a child, it's one of Bruce Dern's more notorious "obsessed madman" vehicles due to the actor having claimed in an interview that he was actually railing Maud Adams onscreen (Maud did not concur). Of all the oddities in my fabulous girlfriend's video collection, this is the oddest.
42nd Street Forever Volume 4: Cooled By Refrigeration
This volume has a really strange, if typically fascinating, mix of material ranging from crime, horror and blaxploitation to lame comedy, historical epic and adolescent sports drama.
13. "The Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman" (1971) - Another cult horror favorite recently taken from us, Spanish icon Jacinto Molina (aka Paul Naschy) unfortunately passed away in November. This is a classic ad for his biggest hit, one of a dozen movies in which he played gloomy aristocrat/bloodthirsty werewolf Waldemar Daninsky.
14. "Combat Cops" (1974) - The late William Girdler is best known today for such well-advertised '70s b-horror films as "Three on a Meathook," "Abby" and the immortal "Grizzly." However, he also made this missing doozy, aka "The Zebra Killer," in which a white psycho puts on blackface and shoots up white people in Louisville, Kentucky.
15. "Breaking Point" (1976) - This lesser-known entry in the popular '70s "peaceful guy pushed too far by criminal scum" genre came from director Bob Clark, whose uniquely diverse filmography also includes "A Christmas Story," "Porky's" and "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things." Apparently, Bo Svenson uses a bulldozer to knock over a house in it.
16. "Tender Flesh" (1974) - Actor Laurence Harvey ("The Manchurian Candidate") directed his own final film before dying at age 45, a creepy-looking tale of kidnapping, incest and cannibalism that originally had the more ambiguously evocative title "Welcome to Arrow Beach." This ad is for a retitled re-release that was apparently cut, but having seen neither version, I can't verify that.
42nd Street Forever Volume 5: Alamo Drafthouse Edition
Curated by the programmers of Austin, Texas' cult cinema mecca, this set has a number of obscure, outrageous gems as well as a fun, informative commentary track and a documentary about the theater. Talk about a place worthy of a well-timed road trip!
17. "Lucky Seven" (1986) - Kidsploitation movies don't attract the same number of obsessive fans as cult horror and action, but when so many outrageous time-wasters have been churned out for the supposed entertainment of childen, it's hard to see why. Dig this insane kiddie kung fu trailer, in which egregious bodily offense is committed against what are obviously real children.
18. "The Secret of Magic Island" (1956) - Another amazing kid picture ad, this one's a French-made fantasy romp with an all-animal cast that played cheapo American matinees in the '60s. This ad is so freaking awesome, its inclusion on this disc is liable to spark a nationwide hunt for the movie, since all English language prints of "Magic Island" are unfortunately considered lost.
19. "Caged Virgins" (1973) - This famously lurid trailer, packed with brazen nudity and kinky violence, obscures the fact that it's advertising a very artsy film, Jean Rollin's "Vierges et Vampires," aka "Requiem for a Vampire." It was the first Rollin movie I ever saw, and it bored the crap out of me upon initial viewing, but I found it mesmerizing once I came to appreciate his singularly salacious style.
20. "Norman, Is That You?" (1976) - This was Redd Foxx's big bid for movie stardom, a politically incorrect comedy based on a flop stage play about a crusty old crank who finds out his son is gay right after his wife leaves him for his brother. It's hard to believe something so '70s fabulous (Wayland Flowers and Madame are in it!) could be as forgotten as this movie is.
First, a word about the folks that put out these compilations. Let's face it, we're never in danger of losing, say, "The Wizard of Oz" or "Jaws," because someone rich will always be around to maintain and protect major cultural touchstones and big moneymakers. I'm mostly glad for that, but what about everything else? Synapse Films is one of several cool DVD companies that's taken an interest in preserving the lurid, lascivious, gross and nutty classics no one else is looking after. Thanks to Synapse, we have souped-up, uncut, definitive digital releases of Jim Muro's "Street Trash," Doris Wishman's "Let Me Die a Woman" and Jean Rollin's "The Grapes of Death," along with curious Asian titles such as "Karaoke Terror," "Horrors of Malformed Men" and "Terrifying Girls' High School: Lynch Law Classroom."
Now, Synapse isn't the only company out there doing such important work, but I want to praise them for another reason entirely. A few years ago, I happened to buy my copies of "42nd Street Forever" volumes one and two at a famous big box retail store, which at the time offered them in an exclusive double-pack for the price of a single volume. I jumped on that deal, but when I opened the shrink-wrapped discs, I found blank DVD-Rs where the DVDs should have been. Seriously. Dismayed, I took the only course of action I imagined might help: I sent an e-mail to Synapse, explaining in mundane detail exactly what had happened. Not only did I get a prompt and personal reply, I was told to send in the cases and packaging for a full replacement. This came very quickly, and with a free t-shirt, which I proudly wear from time to time.
Synapse is a cool-ass company. They do good things and genuinely care about the people who purchase the fruits of their loving labor. If you have the funds in these lean times, I'm telling you that Synapse is worth supporting. (No, I am not getting a kickback for this wholly unsolicited endorsement.) You'll find many crafty artifacts in their catalog. For instance, for all the classic porn fans out there, they offer an additional volume in the 42nd Street Forever series, a "XXX-Treme Special Edition" with dozens of vintage adult film trailers. Sorry, I'm only featuring the regular volumes here.
42nd Street Forever Volume 1
The initial offering has an egalitarian mix of classic exploitation genres: action, horror, sex, sci-fi, biker, mondo, blaxploitation, hippie counterculture, martial arts, gialli, peplum and more.
1. "The Crippled Masters" (1979) - One dude gets his arms chopped off, another gets his legs burned up, and they seek their vengeance by becoming deadly kung fu warriors. This infamous chopsocky entry stars real-life cripples, who, like a low-budget Asian Master Blaster, occasionally pool their physical resources to become a single head-busting machine.
2. "The Pink Angels" (1971) - Aside from Kenneth Anger's experimental landmark "Scorpio Rising," this is the best-known gay biker film in existence, with a bit role by Dan "Grizzly Adams" Haggerty as a straight guy from another biker gang. Although these cross-dressing queens don't represent a very enlightened view of homosexual life, this rambling, surprisingly chaste z-flick wasn't aiming for an Oscar.
3. "Teenage Mother" (1967) - From the producer of "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song," here's a typical out-of-control youth flick featuring endless go-go dancing, tinny garage rock, hypocritical morals, clumsy line delivery and grotesquely aged footage of actual childbirth, complete with episiotomy. The best thing about the incredibly long ad is its meathead voiceover ("Teenage Mutha! Means 9 months o' trouble...").
4. "The Raiders of Atlantis" (1983) - I remember seeing ads in the newspaper for this action obscurity directed by Ruggero "Cannibal Holocaust" Deodato, but I have sadly never seen the film. Beloved by fans of such Italian-bred nonsense, it involves the awakening and resurfacing of sunken Atlantis, which turns out to be populated by motorcyclists of the insane post-apocalyptic variety.
42nd Street Forever Volume 2: The Deuce
This edition contains a greater number of older trailers than the other sets, with a good number of cheap flicks from the '60s and even '50s representing the legacy of the drive-in more than the grindhouse.
5. "The Dark" (1979) - The great '70s mugs of William Devane and Cathy Lee Crosby meet the grave growl of famed voiceover dude Percy Rodriguez in this exciting ad for a dull supernatural thriller produced by Dick Clark that in no way earned its R rating. Casey Kasem cameos as a pathologist, but that's no reason to sit through it.
6. "Spy In Your Eye" (1965) - Here's one of the many James Bond knock-offs ("An Out-BONDing Thriller!") that proliferated in the '60s, this variation made in Italy despite featuring aging American movie star Dana Andrews, who is not the spy of the title. It looks painfully boring.
7. "Dixie Dynamite" (1976) - Lee Frost, director of "Love Camp 7" and "The Black Gestapo," contributed to the era's redneck chic movement with this PG-rated hayseed shitkicker about moonshine runnin', cleavage displayin' and vehicle crashin'. The highlight of the trailer is when the cop sits on the exploding toilet.
8. "The Evictors" (1979) - King of the based-on-regional-lore '70s horror flick, Charles B. Pierce ("The Legend of Boggy Creek," "The Town that Dreaded Sundown") made this awesome-looking, impossible-to-find rural nailbiter, which my gal Jessica Harper appeared in between shooting "Suspiria" and "Shock Treatment." Sadly, Pierce passed away in March.
42nd Street Forever Vol. 3: Exploitation Explosion!
A good number of excellent cult horror, action and shitty comedy trailers, along with the addition of informative audio commentary by film geeks, make this one of my favorite volumes of the series.
9. "Jaguar Lives!" (1979) - There are few varieties of vintage film trailer more hilarious than those attempting to promote a new movie star as the next sensation, only to have failed miserably. While the ad does all it can to make this film look watchable, how many people today would mention its star, Joe Lewis, alongside tough-guy icons Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood and Bruce Lee?
10. "Beyond the Door" (1974) - Here's a fine Italian hack job, a splattery riff on "The Exorcist" and "Rosemary's Baby" starring Hayley Mills' less fortunate sister. Director Ovidio Assonitis was also behind the dreary octopus-themed "Jaws" ripoff "Tentacles" (through which I recently suffered) and James Cameron's flying-piranha-themed "Jaws" rip-off "Piranha II: The Spawning."
11. "Seven" (1979) - No, not "Se7en." This is an early movie by Andy Sidaris, a pioneer in professional sports broadcasting. He later went on to late night cable fame by masterminding a long series of action adventures with awesome names like "Savage Beach" and "Hard Ticket to Hawaii," all starring gun-toting, frequently naked Playboy and Penthouse models .
12. "Tattoo" (1981) - Another mostly forgotten movie for which I remember seeing print ads as a child, it's one of Bruce Dern's more notorious "obsessed madman" vehicles due to the actor having claimed in an interview that he was actually railing Maud Adams onscreen (Maud did not concur). Of all the oddities in my fabulous girlfriend's video collection, this is the oddest.
42nd Street Forever Volume 4: Cooled By Refrigeration
This volume has a really strange, if typically fascinating, mix of material ranging from crime, horror and blaxploitation to lame comedy, historical epic and adolescent sports drama.
13. "The Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman" (1971) - Another cult horror favorite recently taken from us, Spanish icon Jacinto Molina (aka Paul Naschy) unfortunately passed away in November. This is a classic ad for his biggest hit, one of a dozen movies in which he played gloomy aristocrat/bloodthirsty werewolf Waldemar Daninsky.
14. "Combat Cops" (1974) - The late William Girdler is best known today for such well-advertised '70s b-horror films as "Three on a Meathook," "Abby" and the immortal "Grizzly." However, he also made this missing doozy, aka "The Zebra Killer," in which a white psycho puts on blackface and shoots up white people in Louisville, Kentucky.
15. "Breaking Point" (1976) - This lesser-known entry in the popular '70s "peaceful guy pushed too far by criminal scum" genre came from director Bob Clark, whose uniquely diverse filmography also includes "A Christmas Story," "Porky's" and "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things." Apparently, Bo Svenson uses a bulldozer to knock over a house in it.
16. "Tender Flesh" (1974) - Actor Laurence Harvey ("The Manchurian Candidate") directed his own final film before dying at age 45, a creepy-looking tale of kidnapping, incest and cannibalism that originally had the more ambiguously evocative title "Welcome to Arrow Beach." This ad is for a retitled re-release that was apparently cut, but having seen neither version, I can't verify that.
42nd Street Forever Volume 5: Alamo Drafthouse Edition
Curated by the programmers of Austin, Texas' cult cinema mecca, this set has a number of obscure, outrageous gems as well as a fun, informative commentary track and a documentary about the theater. Talk about a place worthy of a well-timed road trip!
17. "Lucky Seven" (1986) - Kidsploitation movies don't attract the same number of obsessive fans as cult horror and action, but when so many outrageous time-wasters have been churned out for the supposed entertainment of childen, it's hard to see why. Dig this insane kiddie kung fu trailer, in which egregious bodily offense is committed against what are obviously real children.
18. "The Secret of Magic Island" (1956) - Another amazing kid picture ad, this one's a French-made fantasy romp with an all-animal cast that played cheapo American matinees in the '60s. This ad is so freaking awesome, its inclusion on this disc is liable to spark a nationwide hunt for the movie, since all English language prints of "Magic Island" are unfortunately considered lost.
19. "Caged Virgins" (1973) - This famously lurid trailer, packed with brazen nudity and kinky violence, obscures the fact that it's advertising a very artsy film, Jean Rollin's "Vierges et Vampires," aka "Requiem for a Vampire." It was the first Rollin movie I ever saw, and it bored the crap out of me upon initial viewing, but I found it mesmerizing once I came to appreciate his singularly salacious style.
20. "Norman, Is That You?" (1976) - This was Redd Foxx's big bid for movie stardom, a politically incorrect comedy based on a flop stage play about a crusty old crank who finds out his son is gay right after his wife leaves him for his brother. It's hard to believe something so '70s fabulous (Wayland Flowers and Madame are in it!) could be as forgotten as this movie is.
posted by SoulReaper at 2:27 PM
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