R.I.P.: Harry H.. Novak, Part VIII: 1971

 

12 January 1928 — 26 March 2014

"When I was a kid, my Daddy told me, 'There's a buyer for everything.' And I lived to find out that he was right."
Harry H. Novak

Harry H. Novak, alongside David F Friedman (24 December 1923 — 14 February 2011) one of the great (s)exploitation kings of the last half of the 20th century, died 26 March 2014 at the age of 86.

A detailed career review of all the projects Harry H. Novak foisted upon the American public would be Sisyphean task at best and hardly possible, as no full and unequivocal list exists. What follows is a review of the films that we found that, for the most part, probably had Novak's involved somewhere along the way — and some that may not have. It is definitely not a complete list, and definitely not infallible, it is merely culled from sources reliable and unreliable that we found online. We also in no way suggest that the given release dates are the correct ones, they are merely the first ones we found.

If you know any we missed, feel free to send the title...

Go here for Part I

Go here for Part II: 1956-64

Go here for Part III: 1965-66

Go here for Part IV: 1967 

Go here for Part V: 1968

Go here for Part VI: 1969

Go here for Part VII: 1970

 

When Men Carried Clubs and Women Played Ding-Dong
(1971, dir. Bruno Corbucci)
 

Original title: Quando gli uomini armarono la clava e... con le donne fecero din-don. Another foreign film Novak picked up to distribute, this time from Italy. Director Bruno Corbucci (23 October 1931 — 7 September 1996) was the younger brother of Sergio Corbucci (6 December 1926 — 1 December 1990), with whom he co-wrote the elder brother's masterpiece Westerns, Django (1966) and The Great Silence (1968), among many films. For this movie here, he shared the writing credits with Fabio Pittorru (who also worked on The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave [1971 / trailer below] and The Red Queen Kills 7 Times [1972 / trailer]) and Massimo Felisatti (who also worked on The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave [1971 / trailer below] and Strip Nude for Your Killer [1975 / trailer]).

Italian Trailer to The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave (1971):

The plot to Quando gli uomini armarono la clava e... con le donne fecero din-don is an update of an ancient Greek play, Aristophanes' Lysistrata, set in caveman times (an obvious reference to the movie's source material is given in the Italian version in the name of the character Lisistrata [Nadia Cassini, of Starcrash (1978 / trailer), Il dio serpente (1970 / soundtrack) and Io zombo, tu zombi, lei zomba (1979 / trailer)], changed to Listra in the foreign versions).

To loosely translate the plot description at the German website Zelluliod: "An exciting tournament is held between the Cave People and the Water People, the main prize of which is the well-built Listra. Soon, only the respective tribal heads are fighting for the super-broad, until the smooth Ari (Antonio Sabato of Barbarella [1968 / trailer], War of the Robots [1978 / a trailer] and Seven Blood-Stained Orchids [1971 / trailer below]), leader of the Cave People, finally wins her. But Grev (Aldo Giuffrè), the chief of the Water People, wants revenge. As the fighting continues, the women of both tribes begin a sex strike."

Trailer to Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (1971):

Rare Cult Cinema says: "This is a pretty bad 70's caveman spoof based on the Raquel Welch classic One Million Years BC (1966 / trailer). But still, there are enough obscure things in it to make it watchable. In this weird film you learn that ladies in the Stone Age were actually sex maniacs who loved to dance. All day long they just waited for their husbands to come home from work/war to have lots of dirty sex with them. [...] The message here is 'Make ding dong not war'. Nice. When Women Played Ding Dong is not exactly a big, juicy roastbeef of a film. It's not even funny and mostly just retarded. I love caveman movies and Raquel Welch and all that, and I have nothing against a good sex/comedy now and then (in moderation that is). But to call this a good movie is madness. Still, I kinda liked it. It's full of dumb jokes, hot cave-chicks sporting 70's hairstyles, a fucked-up title tune that will haunt your ears forever and, of course, plenty of ding dong. [...] There's something about this movie that will appeal to you if you dig bad movies and/or if you're crazy in the head (like yours truly). It's the type of movie that you have to take by the horns and tame as you watch — simply because it's weird. Strange. Odd. It's extremely silly. Seriously, it even has cavemen who play electric guitars. And as we all know; entertainment doesn't get much better than cavemen, shapely ladies and el guitars."

Trailer to When Men Carried Clubs and Women Played Ding-Dong:

Dirty Mind of Young Sally

(1971, dir. Bethel Buckalew)

Maybe made in 1970 or 1973. See what we said in Country Cuzzins in Harry Novak Part VI: Bethel Buckalew was (possibly still is) a real person and a real name and not pseudonym of other sleazemongers. OK? Got that? Now to Dirty Mind of Young Sally...

Future popular porn actress Colleen Brennan (of, among others, Supervixens [1975 / trailer]) made her film debut in the title, billed as "Sharon Kelly". In 2011, the long-retired and generally silent redhead gave an interview to Rock! Shock! Pop! in which she said, in regard to Bethel Buckalew: "Buckalew was the perfect director. He was very even-tempered, mellow. I think he was good at editing in his head while he was shooting. These movies were so low budget raw stock was a major expense, so shooting efficiently was a valuable skill. He was also arguably the best-looking director doing sexploitation in the 70s. But by now, of course, he's dead or worse — way-creepy old.* Sigh. [...] Before the first shot [of Sally] Buckalew leaned in and quietly taught me everything he wanted me to know about movie-making. He pointed and said, 'That's the microphone, and that's the camera. Don't look into the camera.' I never did."

* In comparison to wrinkly and saggy old, like she (born 1 December 1949) must be by now.

Trailer Dirty Mind of Young Sally:

All Movie says that Colleen nee Kelly "is the only bright spot in this sluggish exploitation film": "Kelly plays 'Dirty Sally,' a pirate-radio DJ whose mobile broadcasts center around the sounds of herself having sex in her van or talking dirty to her listeners. Subplots focus on a comic-relief sheriff, who makes his idiotic sidekick Sgt. Dimwiddle (Norman Fields, who supposedly can be found in Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song [1971 / trailer below]) shine his shoes and give him massages. Dimwiddle also picks his nose and eats what he finds, which is about as funny as this film ever gets. Most of it is softcore bump-and-grind, which sometimes crosses the line into more explicit territory. Actually, it also crosses the line into nausea, since the male cast members tend to be fat hairy slobs with grubby beards and huge rearends, while most of the females have large, visible Cesarean scars. Slow-moving, un-erotic, and stupid, this is a major disappointment from a director who usually manages to entertain and titillate in equal measure."

Trailer to Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971):

Trash Cinema Collective is less hard on the film: "The Dirty Mind of Young Sally is an easy, lightweight, bit of none-intrusive social commentary chock full of naked breasts and unaroused members. The glue that holds the whole flick together is Colleen Brennan as the adorable and sexy lead character, Sally. Colleen has a very natural way about her. Almost a girl next door sort of sexiness. She doesn't have much more to do in the film besides talk dirty, smile and get naked, but she does it such charisma and openness one cannot help but be enchanted."

There is a plot, of sorts, a pithy version of which is given by frankfob2 (frankfob2@yahoo.com) at imdb: "Sally runs a mobile 'pirate' radio station — which she operates from her van — where, in her sexy and sultry voice, she encourages her listeners (mostly teenagers) to use the music she plays 'to ball by'. She also takes calls from her listeners and even offers herself as a prize in a contest. Her show is so popular it winds up 'turning on' large numbers of the local population. The authorities, of course, can't allow that to happen, so they send out the cops to find her and shut her down."

DVD Verdict says "The Dirty Mind of Young Sally takes this notion of non-existent storyboarding to an absurd extreme. Long-time Novak hack Bethel Buckalew [...] inserts about 45 seconds of non-dirty dialogue in between every scene of elongated interloping. Plot points (like Sally's organ transplant-based reasons for starting a pirate radio station) are swept under the rug while more and more members of the Oh! Calcutta! cast album get starkers and share STDs. In fact, the last 40 minutes is nothing but boot-knocking."

The Toy Box

(1971, dir. Ronald Víctor García [as Ron Garcia])

Director Ronald Víctor García, who also wrote the flick, went on to a long, still-running career as TV director and cinematographer. The Toy Box can be found on-line in a hardcore version, particularly if you search under the movie's Italian title La Scatola Dei Giochi Erotici, but the truly XXX scenes were obviously added at a later date.

The Opening Credits of The Toy Box:

We took a quick look at this flick in our R.I.P. Career Review of Paul Hunt, where we kept things short: "Paul Hunt acted as producer (along with the great Harry Novak) and cinematographer for Garcia's infamous trash favorite, The Toy Box. Girls, Guns and Ghouls says: 'Ron Garcia [...] created a pure gem of a film in The Toy Box, one of the most enjoyable little movies I've seen in many a year. I can only urge any cult, horror or sleaze fans out there to pick it up, I can't imagine anyone who reads these pages regularly being disappointed. Then again, how any film that shows buxom screen goddess Uschi Digard naked on a revolving bed, being caressed by the bedsheets of the bed can be passed up by anyone is beyond me.' (Full review here.)"

Critical Condition, on the other hand and like most, was less impressed: "[An] incomprehensible mess that has mucho nudity but makes very little sense. A group of sexual exhibitionists gather at a secluded mansion to put on sex shows for the enigmatic 'Uncle' (Jack King of The Creeping Terror [1964 / full movie / trailer below]), who may or may not be dead. Once they are done with their performances, the sexual participants are allowed to pick a prize from 'The Toy Box' as a token of Uncle's thanks. Things are not going good. People are being murdered by their sex partners while Uncle watches. Some people disappear and the occupants are not allowed to leave the mansion. In the end, we find out that this is all a plot by an alien race to kidnap humans and use their brains as a drug to get high! This hodgepodge of sex and horror is confusing to the extreme. The story is downright impossible to follow. Toss in a lot of post-sync dubbing, plentiful simulated sex (including oral sex with hilarious 'slurping' sounds dubbed in) and annoying gel lighting and what you get is a potpourri of nonsense. [...] The Toy Box (aka The Orgy Box) is rough going for even the most patient viewer."

Trailer to The Creeping Terror (1964):

Erika's Hot Summer
(1971, writ & dir. Gary Graver)

Eight NSFW Badly Dubbed Minutes of Merci Montello
Moanin' & Groanin' in Erika's Hot Summer:

Novak distributed this movie, which we looked at briefly in our R.I.P. Career Review of Paul Hunt, where we more or less wrote: "The Erika of the title is no one less than the great Erica Gavin [born Donna Graff] (seen here to the left) of the fun Russ Meyer film Vixen! (1968 / trailer), the Russ Meyer masterpiece Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970 / trailer) and Jonathan Demme's entertaining directorial debut Caged Heat (1974 / trailer). Erika's Hot Summer also features Playboy December 1972 Playmate of the Month Merci Montello (seen here to the right, of Byron Mabe's Space Thing [1968 / trailer below]). Plot? Well, basically, Erica vs. Merci for the heart and wiener of Steve (Walt Phillips), a fuck-around photographer."

The full film can be currently (18 Sept. 2014) found at this Russian website here.

NSFW Trailer to Byron Mabe's Space Thing (1968):

Space Thing 1968 trailer Byron Mabe von soulpatrol 

Machismo: 40 Graves for 40 Guns
(1971 written & directed by Paul Hunt)

Trailer to "the Best Action Film of the Year":

Re-released in 1977, watered down in violence, as The Great Gundown. Novak produced and distributed Machismo: 40 Graves for 40 Guns — and even shows up in it somewhere, briefly, as one the members of Harris' gang — which we looked at briefly in our R.I.P. Career Review of Paul Hunt, where we kept it short: "Pycal at imdb says: 'This is indeed one of the most incompetent and amateurish looking films I have ever seen. [....] Some of the nighttime photography in this thing is so bad that it makes one of the principal actresses look like a two-headed camel. The film's plot is really nothing new and is essentially a cross between The Magnificent Seven (1960 / trailer) and The Dirty Dozen (1967 / trailer): A group of Mexican banditos (led by a Danny Trejo look-alike) receive a pardon for their crimes if they are willing to ride into town and defeat a gang of American outlaws who just made off with a large supply of gold (these details relayed to the viewer through one of the most inept and unintentionally funny voice-over jobs I have ever seen)'."

All Movie is less negative in their description of the movie: "Fast-paced and violent, this Mexico-set western chronicles the bloody struggle over a stolen gold cross. The murderous Harris gang started the trouble by stealing the icon from a Tecate church in a terrifying raid that left many townsfolk dead or brutalized. The head Federale assigned to bring the gang in realizes he is dealing with monsters and that to catch them he must fight fire with fire by enlisting the aid of the most notorious crook in prison with the promise of a pardon if the outlaw and his men are successful. When the two ruthless gangs finally clash, amidst considerable furor and treachery, unparalleled bloodshed and chaos ensues." A Hemingway ending awaits the viewer.

Australian Trailer to "the Best Action Film of the Year":

I Drink Your Blood & I Eat Your Skin

I Drink Your Blood
(1971, writ & dir. David E. Durston)
 
Trailer to the Infamous Double Feature
I Drink Your Blood & I Eat Your Skin:

Film one [I Drink Your Blood] aka Blood Suckers and Hydro-Phobia. We were rather surprised that the normally reliable Critical Condition would get it like totally wrong in their Harry Novak profile by saying "The infamous I Drink Your Blood was one of Novak's early horror pick-ups" 'cause, as everyone knows, the film was actually produced / distributed / regurgitated by the equally noteworthy and pioneering but less idolized sleazemonger Jerry Gross (26 January 1940 — 20 November 2002). But, hell, what'd'ya know: Critical Condition might be right. Yes, Jerry Gross did indeed pick up this film and team it with film producer/writer/director Del Tenney's 1964 mega-cheap, Florida-shot zombie flick I Eat Your Skin (aka Zombie Bloodbath, Zombies, Voodoo Blood Bath and, theoretically, Caribbean Adventure) to produce one of the most-famous double features of all time, but there is some evidence that Novak / Boxoffice must have been there somewhere: during Novak's time with Something Weird, among the many VHSs released was a series of three volumes of Harry Novak's Boxoffice Bonanza of Sexploitation Trailers, all of which featured trailers to known projects of Novak & Boxoffice. And in Vol 3, amidst all the other trailers, is the trailer to the I Drink Your Blood / I Eat Your Flesh double feature. So, hey — let's take a look at the films!

I Drink Your Blood is a violent, cheesy and noteworthy sleaze classic, "loosely inspired by the Charles Manson Family"; according to the Encyclopaedia of Horror (Milne, Willemin & Hardy [Ed.] Octopus Books), I Drink Your Blood was one of the first movies to receive an X-rating from the Motion Picture Association of America based on violence rather than nudity. Due to the early problems with getting an acceptable cut, dozens of versions of the film exist, though a definitive "director's cut" — complete with depressing ending — is now also available.

Director David E. Durston (10 September 1921 — 6 May 2010) has some rather odd films to his resume: after I Drink Your Blood, his last "mainstream" film was the STD horror Stigma (1972 / trailer), but under the pseudonym "Spencer Logan" he wrote and directed two gay porno films — Boynapped (1972 / NSFW trailer) and Manhole (1978) — both featuring the (bisexual) Wade Nichols and the (usually straight) Jamie Gillis; the latter film, in 3-D, now lost (as far as we can tell), also featured Zebedy Colt.

Wade Nichols as Denis Parker Singing Like an Eagle:

Critical Condition says "This film, along with Last House on the Left (1972 / trailer), is the granddaddy of early 70s exploitation sleaze. [...] A cult of Satan worshippers (led by the singularly-monikered Bhaskar) arrive in a small town that is soon to be flooded when a dam is completed. They rape a girl (Iris Brooks of Is There Sex After Death? [1971 / full movie]) and force-feed LSD to her angry grandfather (Richard Bowler). In retribution, a little boy (Riley Mills) injects rabid dog's blood into their meat pies, turning the band of Satanists into rabid, frothing-at-the-mouth maniacs. They infect almost everyone (including a bunch of dam workers who fuck one of the slutty female Satanists) until only a handful of normal people are left. We learn that hydrophobia (aka: rabies) is quite painful. It causes a dreaded fear of water and the color red as well as causing the infected to have murderous tendencies. Thank God that our hero drives a red car and there are plenty of garden hoses on hand! The police are finally called in and shoot all the infected, as the town doctor says he would prefer them to die this way because, 'Death by hydrophobia is agony!' Even though it is a cheap and somewhat-dated film, it really delivers in the gore department. Hands, legs and heads are cut off. Grandpa is found with a pitchfork through his neck. Multiple impalements abound, including an infected pregnant girl who drives a stake through her stomach. [...] David Durston keeps things moving at a brisk pace, never giving you enough time to realize how ridiculous the entire proceedings are. Viewing this film for the first time in nearly fifteen years made me long for the good old days when theaters offered fare such as this on double and triple bills. I Drink Your Skin richly deserves its reputation."

Cult Review might add: "While the film is rather tame by today's standards, it was still ahead of its time compared to other exploitation efforts. The performances are adequate and Carrie, the deaf mute (an uncredited Lynn Lowry) is quite unsettling. Indian dancer and artist Bhaskar Roy Chowdhury is over-the-top as Horace Bones and does a pretty decent job [...]. The gore holds up fairly well considering that it was made forty years ago. It features self-immolation, violence against live and dead animals, decapitation, limb severing, gang rape, and infanticide. [...] David Durston was upset that his original title for the film, Phobia, was retitled to I Drink Your Blood by Jerry Gross despite the fact that there is little blood drinking anywhere to be seen."

Lynn Lowry now enjoys an active career as a "cult actress" in multitudes of low budget horrors, and she has some notable roles in other notable films, including They Came from Within (1975 / trailer), The Crazies (1973 / trailer) and Cat People (1983 / trailer).

Full Movie — I Drink Your Blood:

I Drink Your Blood von crazedigitalmovies

Film two: I Eat Your Flesh, from the legendary (?) Del Tenney (1930 — 21 February 2013), assistant director to Jerald Intrator's Satan in High Heels (1962 / trailer) and Orgy at Lil's Place (1963), writer & director & producer of The Curse of the Living Corpse (1964 / trailer), I Eat Your Flesh, and Descendant (2003 / trailer), and producer of Violent Midnight (1963 / scene), The Horror of Party Beach (1964), the star-studded fiasco that is The Poppy Is Are also a Flower (1966) and the absolutely terrible slasher Do You Wanna Know a Secret? (2001 / trailer)* — among other stuff. According to "common knowledge", after Tenney finished "Caribbean Adventure", it sat unreleased for six years until Jerry Gross (of Cinemation Industries) picked it up for the second half of the double feature with his in-house production I Drink Your Blood / Blood Suckers, retitling it I Eat Your Skin. (Again, we don't really understand how Novak fits into the equation.)

* A film so bad, we couldn't bring ourselves to writing a review after watching it.

Del-Aires performing in The Horror of Party Beach:

Jerry Magoo says: "I Drink Your Blood was quite clearly made in response to the Manson killings. I Eat Your Skin has nothing to do with anything. It also doesn't make a lot of sense. [...] The 'plot' of the film revolves around a romance writer (William Joyce), his agent (Dan Stapleton), and the agent's wife (Betty Hyatt Linton), who make a trip to an Island called Voodoo Island where a plantation owner (Walter Coy of The Pahntom of Rue Morgue [1954 / trailer], Cult of the Cobra [1955 / trailer] and Them! [1954 / trailer]) and scientist (Robert Stanton) are making zombies. The daughter of the scientist (Heather Hewitt of Mission Mars [1968 / trailer]) is a love interest for the romance writer. That makes the film sound like it makes a lot more sense then it does. [...] It doesn't all fit together at any point. [...] I Eat Your Skin must be seen to be believed. The whole film is so absurd I could hardly believe it was real."

After Jerry, Analog Medium almost sounds ironic: "I Eat Your Skin is the first Del Tenney movie I've had the pleasure of watching. It won't be the last. I was impressed, to say the least, at the level of expertise he displayed in juggling the various stylistic elements of the film. It's intentionally funny as well as super-campy. It has sex and violence, zombies, voodoo, and anything else you need for an entertaining night at the drive-in. The zombies were kick ass, too. I Eat Your Skin is another example of the missing link between voodoo zombies and re-animated corpses. [...] Visually, though, they more closely resemble the rotters later pioneered by George Romero. They also look suspiciously similar to the classic zombie from I Walked with a Zombie (1943 / trailer), however. Whatever kind of zombie you like the best, there will probably be something you like in I Eat Your Skin. And if not, there's a huge explosion at the end."

Full Movie — I Eat Your Skin: 

 


Roseland

(1971, writ. & dir. Fredric Hobbs)

"You cannot fart around with love."

Perhaps one of the odder films that Novak ever ended up with, but he was always sure that when it came to ticket sales, "There's a buyer for everything". Director Fredric Hobbs — aka Charles Fredric Hobbs — is/was less a filmmaker than an artist (a graduate of Cornell, he also studied at the Academia de San Fernando de Bellas Artes in Madrid), and as an artist, he occasionally made films.

Bleeding Skull, which admits that they would "never, ever recommend a Fredric Hobbs film to anyone", puts it so: "Like Andy Milligan and William Klein, Hobbs is an outsider — first and foremost. As such, nearly 90% of this planet's population will be repelled, frazzled, or struck comatose in the presence of his ambitious films. They're inexplicable. They're beyond surreal. And most of the time, you're watching in hopes that something more, something aggregated, is going to happen. But it rarely does. Instead, we are left to contend with the affects of a brilliant musical interlude amidst tons of naked people (Roseland), an eight-foot-tall sheep/poop monster amidst political fumbling (Godmonster Of Indian Flats [1973 / trailer]), and a pot-obsessed Nazi vampire amidst something else entirely. Welcome to Alabama's Ghost (1973)."

From Roseland — "You Cannot Fart Around with Love":

The male singer above is E. Kerrigan Prescott (25 March 1931 — 20 January 2009, of Fiend without a Face [1958 / full movie / trailer] and Subway in the Sky [1959 / Hildegarde Knef sings in the movie]). He is billed as "Adam Wainwright the Black Bandit" in Roseland.

The Worldwide Celluloid Massacre has the following to say about Fredric Hobbs and his movies: "A freaky film-maker who takes the art of bad and cheesy film-making beyond this world into another dimension. Combining illogical writing, completely random plot development, b-movie horror and cheese, odd choices of insanely dull scenes and dialogue and other indescribable elements, Hobbs makes some of the most mind-warping movies ever in the sense that your mind tries to run away from the black hole that is Fredric Hobbs in any way possible."

It is a description we here see as positive, but they obviously mean as negative, for they go on to call Roseland "Worthless", describing the plot as follows: "A sex-addict singer (Prescott) goes insane, drooling over stripshows, performing his own show, stealing pornographic films and hallucinating. His dreams and visions include a strange population in skimpy outfits or S&M gear, hordes of nude people, a monumental penis, ominous organ players and lots of sex. He discusses his affliction with a priest who is researching perversion and porn, while his manic shrink tries to treat him, and a black Hieronymus Bosch (Christopher Brooks) appears in his cell telling him he is Adam and inspires him to build a pyramid."

Go here to Atomic Crash for a sympathetic review of Hobbs and Roseland. 

Christopher Brooks, by the way, appears in all Hobbs' films except the first one, Troika (1969), and can also be found in Barry Mahon's Jack and the Beanstalk (1970) and somewhere in The Mack (1973 / trailer below) as "Jesus Christ".

Trailer to The Mack (1970):

The Takers

(1971, dir. Carl Monson [as Carlos Monsoya])

"I've been screwed better by salesmen!"

The perfect movie for a rainy Sunday afternoon...

Boxoffice distributed this movie, the directorial debut of Carl Monson (2 September 1932 — 4 August 1988), the man behind the script to the better-known film title, The Acid Eaters (1968 / trailer below), which Shock Cinema kindly calls "lovably idiotic" and a "amazing, perplexing, T&A (Tits 'n 'Acid) delight".

NSFW Trailer to The Acid Eaters:

The Acid Eaters (1968) von bmoviebabe

Here, however, a one-shot wonder named "Dash Freemont" wrote the script, and it is neither a delight nor lovable: The Takers might also be idiotic, and may be full of naturally blemished T&A (tits 'n' ass), but we're talking late-era roughie territory, which means twice as much simulated (repulsive) sex, misogynist violence and across-the-board unsympathetic characters. Characters that, for the most part, were played by a cast of unknowns who stayed unknowns — with the exception of some of the babes (e.g., Kathy Hilton, Linda Marie, Anna Travers), who had negligible "careers" in expliotation films of the time.

Of the babes in this flick, eight years earlier the dreamy-eyed babe "Vicki Carbe" — aka Victoria Valentino, a name since appropriated by a silicone-enhanced stripper cum porn starlet — was Playboy's Miss September 1963. ("AMBITIONS: Acting. I've studied musical theater, but I prefer drama. TURN-ONS: My husband." The last a highly ironic statement, if you know anything of her bio.)

Film Geek Central explains the meagre plot: "The Takers is a biker film, sort of. They don't stay on their bikes very long, pausing to murder and rob people or sleep with hippie chicks. They follow a couple of high society women (Laura [Vicki Carbe] and Barbara [Anna Travers]) to their house, invade and keep them captive, using them as sexual playthings."

DVD Drive-In finds the appeal of the film limited: "OK, if you're a fan of the 'degenerates-take-hostages-in-their-own-home' sub-genre, you might dig parts of The Takers. [...] Tons of VERY hard sex and nudity and not much else to be found in The Takers. The surprise ending isn't much of a surprise [...]."

The Video Vacuum, which thinks the best line in the movie is "Okay you classy cunts, who wants to party?", tends to disagree with the last, saying: "I particularly liked the ending [...]. I'm not going to reveal what exactly happens, as it's one of the few truly worthwhile things about the picture; just know that it's pretty unexpected and even a bit 'arty' too." The full film can momentarily [18 Sept 2014] still be found online at this very NSFW sex site, XXBunny.

Carl Monson followed up The Takers the same year (1971) with the John Carradine horror flick, Legacy of Blood.

Trailer to Legacy of Blood:

 


Caged Virgins

(1971, writ. & dir. Jean Rollin)

Aka Vierges et vampires, Requiem Pour un Vampire and more. After The Nude Vampire aka La Vampire Nue, the second Jean Rollin film that Novak bought the US domestic rights to and then foisted upon an unsuspecting public which, we are sure, was anything but receptive — the horror auteur Jean Rollin is an acquired taste.

As we mentioned in our R.I.P. Career Review of Jean Rollin, we think "Requiem for a Vampire would make an excellent double feature with that surrealistic non-horror art film Black Moon (1975 / trailer below), if only for the totally in-the-middle-of-an-untold-story way of opening the film." Supposedly, to get around censorship problems in places like the UK, Rollin shot two versions of certain scenes, thus versions exist with more or less nudity. In both versions, the hairy armpits of the Euro-girls remain unchanged.

Trailer to Black Moon (1975):

The plot to Caged Virgins, in its simplest form: Two women (who fuck around a lot for virgins) on the run from something run into lesbian vampires in a castle and must decide between eternal life or remaining human.

Critical Condition knows more about this movie, which "totally lacks any coherence": "Two girls, on the run from the law, try to find a place to hide. After one of the girls falls into an open grave and is nearly buried alive by a pair of drunken gravediggers, the duo stumble upon a château. After some lesbian lovemaking, they search the château and run into a bunch of vampires, who capture the girls and chain them up in a dungeon along with previous female captives. The two girls are horrified as they witness the other women being raped and bitten by the band of horny vampires. The two girls are told by a female vampire that they are needed to perpetuate the vampire race, since they are a dying breed. Since the two girls are virgins, they must be penetrated by the master vampire before the process can be complete. One of the girls likes the idea, but the other detests it and secretly fucks a man she meets in the graveyard. The master turns out to be a compassionate vampire. Since he is tired of watching his minions slaughter innocent victims, he allows the two girls to kill his assistants and then traps himself and his female partner in a tomb. The two girls run off into the night, free to bump pussies once more. [...] What it lacks in sense it more than makes up for in inventive photography, weird lighting and female flesh."

Over at DB Cult, Rollin explains his intentions with Requiem for a Vampire: "My second and last film shot for recreation. I was used to the critics' insults, the public outcry, and I started shooting for my personal pleasure exclusively since the others had rejected me. Requiem is an attempt to simplify the structure of a film to an extreme. This concept was pushed even further in La rose de fer (1972)."

As Movies about Girls says, "Jean Rollin is often accused of making torturously slow films, and while it's true that Requiem's pace is glacial, it is virtually impossible to stop looking at. There is something entirely otherworldly about it, from the clown-suited Lolitas to the tired, frumpled Dracula. It makes no sense in this world, but in some downer-addicted parallel dimension one lost weekend away from this one, it's probably dead-on accurate."

Trailer:

Below the Belt

(1971, writ & dir. Bethel Buckalew)

"A Penetrating Look into the Sordid World of Bruises and Broads!"

Another Bethel Buckalew movie that, as so often, is often (and probably incorrectly) credited to Pete Perry. As AV explains, Below the Belt follows "Novak's early-'70s formula: A few minutes of gangland tough talk in some featureless office gives way to extended scenes of simulated sex, with the principals positioning heads and legs precisely enough to avoid an X rating. Then the crooks hook up and talk some more before the next buxom distraction wanders in..... in Below The Belt, the criminal element convenes in a rural milieu as sweaty and dusty as those in Buckalew's 'hicksploitation' outings Midnight Plowboy (1971) and The Pigkeeper's Daughter (1972)."

NSFW White Slavery Scene from Below the Belt:

At Fandango, Paul Gaita explains the plot: "Sexploitation vet John Tull stars as Sammy Beal, a less-than-scrupulous boxing manager whose current protégé is virginal country boy Johnny (Steven Hodge). Half-pint Sammy is a walking textbook example of Napoleon complex: when he's not screaming his sweaty head off at Johnny or punch-drunk assistant Benny Bravo (George 'Buck' Flower), he's mauling and berating any woman that comes within grabbing distance (including sexploitation mainstays Rene Bond and Uschi Digart, whose poolside romp with Tull should please her fans). Naturally, he dissolves into a whimpering man-baby immediately after sex. Johnny's rough-hewn skill at the sweet science catches the eye of cigar-chomping mobster Louie Gardino (Frank Finklehoffer), who dispatches comely B-girl Lisa (Mirka) to distract him from his training. The naïve pugilist naturally falls for her voluptuous charms, but trouble rears its head when he catches her in a bedroom tussle with Sammy. Things rapidly come to an ugly end for all involved."

Mirka Madnadraszky Gets Naked in Below the Belt:

Woody Anders of The Last New Jersey Drive-In on the Left calls the movie "pretty standard soft-core sexploitation fare", saying "Bethal Buckalew relates the sordid story at a plodding pace, but fortunately crams this schlock with more than enough gratuitous nudity and sizzling soft-core sex to make this junk a perfectly agreeable diversion. The exquisitely busty'n'lusty Uschi Digard steams up the screen by engaging in scorching hot raunchy sex with Sammy in a swimming pool. The ever-adorable Rene Bond [pre-boob job] likewise heats things up as a lovely hooker Sammy first terrorizes before doing just what you think with. Leggy and statuesque brunette knock-out Mirka Madnadrazsky as the enticing Lisa may not be much of an actress, but she sure looks mighty tasty in the buff. The bluesy theme song provides a solid belly laugh. Ditto the surprise downbeat ending."

John Tull seems to have retired from movies after his last film and first fully X-rated performance in Balling for Dollar$ (1980).

A lotta NSFW Uschi:

Below The Belt von bmoviesheroes2

Prostitution Pornography USA

(1971, dir. Susumu Tokunow [as Alvin Tokunow])

Released as Strange Love in Germany. As far as we can tell, Tokunow only ever directed one other film, Bang Bang (1970), co-directed by William B. Kaplan); like Kaplan, Tokunow has had a long and active career in LaLa Land as a sound mixer for films ranging from Microwave Massacre (1983 / trailer below) to The Bling Ring (2013 / trailer). Harry Novak was the executive producer, as "William J. Garvin". The XXX Filmography, 1968-1988, by Jason S. Martinko, says "Director Susumu Tokunov appears on-screen as an interviewer talking to call-girls and street people in this fake documentary. Also known as Porn USA."

Trailer to Microwave Massacre (1983):

DVD Talk says the documentary is "in the true spirit of every other Harry Novak efforts, this 79-minute sizzler is a solid 60/40 — 60% carnality and 40% narrative nothingness". They explain the vignettes: "Set up as a collection of four 'true' stories (though a fifth fatso appears briefly), we meet high-class call girl Joanne (Barbara Mills [23 February 1951 — 15 December 2010], seen lounging below not from the film), sullen streetwalker Marilyn (Ann Perry), pampered porn star Donna (Neola Graef), and junkie whore Lauren (Stephanie Sarver). Our first professional walks us through the tricks (and the 'tricks') of the trade. We see her bathe, primp, and then service two older clients. The second regales us with horror stories about pimps and abusive Johns. Naturally, she screws two sailors, and gets her body beaten by an S&M perv (Norman Fields). Number three allows her story to be told while working on two film shoots. She extols the virtues of making movies, including the caution one needs to apply when working with well-equipped donkeys (?).

After a brief interlude with an obese babe (who uses food as a means of overcoming a teen years' gang rape), we meet the mainlining queen of the BJ. While oral quickies in the dirtiest bathrooms available are her basic bread and butter, she also services female clients with her tongue talents and varied collections of sex toys. Toss in an interview with a love merchant and a man on the street sequence, and you've got an amiable overview that's short on truth but long on softcore lewdness."

For the culturally minded of you, the drawing to the upper left of the four images below is by the great Franz von Bayros (28 May 1866 — 3 April 1924), a master of erotic art well worth checking out if you don't know of him yet.

 

The Exotic Dreams of Casanova

(1971, writ & dir. Dwayne Avery)

Jeri Lynn Sings the Theme Song to
The Exotic Dreams of Casanova:

Aka The Young Swingers — but not to mistaken with the family music film from 1963 of the same name (poster below).

Over at Letterboxed, jeff rouk calls this movie "absolutely crazy": "A sort of Inception (2010 / trailer) meets Flesh Gordon (1974 / trailer below) with the sci-fi replaced by a surreal courtroom 'drama'. It starts out as a period piece. Casanova bedding a beautiful woman. Then it turns out that it's Joe Casanova (a descendent of the more famous 18th-century Italian), and we're actually at a swingers party arranged by, um, Santa Claus. Well, a guy named Bastor (Jay Edwards) dressed as Santa (for the entire movie). After an extended and already rather surreal orgy sequence (including whipping and whipped cream, a man in a fez and a camp man watching some lesbians, a man dressed as Robin Hood (John Vincent of The Psycho Lover [1970 / trailer], The Cult [1971 / trailer] and Flesh Gordon) in a swing and a sailor dropping soap in a shower... I could go on), Joe Casanova (Johnny Rocco of The Joys of Jezebel [1970 / first 2 minutes]) bumps his head while (literally) swinging. This then leads to a dream / fantasy courtroom scenario for the rest of the movie, itself littered with dreams / fantasies within the dream. Of course this leads to the ultimate redemption of Joe (this is a movie with a moral to it!), but it does become a bit difficult for a while working out what is real and what isn't, especially as the cast all dress the same wherever they are (or are undressed in many cases) [...] In the end, I think I actually quite liked it, without really meaning to."

The no-budget poster above, obviously enough, incorporates artwork by the great Tom of Finland, whose tales seldom featured hot gals.
Lots of Uschi Digard — billed here as "Bridgette" — which always makes a film more enjoyable.

Uncensored Trailer to Flesh Gordon: 

Southern Comforts

(1971, writ & dir. Bethel Buckalew)


"They felt the spirit of the hills in her jugs!"

Not to mistaken with Walter Hill's hixpliotation action film Southern Comfort (1981 / trailer). Aka Soft, Pink & Silky, co-scripted with Jack Richesin, who went on to co-write Ted V. Mikels' The Doll Squad (1973, with Tura Satana).

Trailer to The Doll Squad:

It would seem that not many people have seen this movie, and those that have didn't really pay attention. Of the first three websites we found that have a plot synopses, each varies the first details: one claims the film involves three hookers and their pimp stuck in the countryside, another says "a guy and three women on their way to a beauty contest stop at a farm when their car breaks down", while the last says a "funny family" on vacation gets stuck in a town when their car breaks down and to not die of boredom, they organize a party and a beauty contest.

But the website My Duck Is Dead, probably using, like always, someone else's text without giving credit, gets to the point: "The early 70s saw a genre of film that involved rural America, country bumpkins, as it were. One of the best was Southern Comforts. These movies really exist as an excuse for the women to get naked, and get naked they do. There are 3 main girl characters who get stranded in the sticks when their car breaks down. See them skinny dip, see them rape the country bumpkin, see them strip in a barn and strut their stuff. One of the 3 women is Monica Gayle, and her fans will not be disappointed as she spends about 75% of the film nude. Another lead character, Judy Angel, would soon appear in hard core films."

DVD Drive-In is of the opinion that the numerous sex scenes "borderline hardcore sex scenes, [but] there's the welcome humor to be expected [...] and some dialogue that will leave you in stitches." The full movie can currently [18 Sept.2014] be found at this NSFW porn site.

Judy Angel has the honor of being one of the leads in the first American feature-length, non-documentary hardcore pornographic movie with a plot to be released theatrically in the US, Mona: The Virgin Nymph (1970 / full movie). She went on to moan and groan and suck and fuck and show body hair in, among other X-rated flotsam, the incompetent x-rated "horror" flick Satan's Lust (1971 / full movie) before (like most porn actors and actresses of the time) disappearing. As did Monica Gayle, actually, who never went the full Monty with men in any of her films but did muff dive in Roxana (1970).

Another Monica Gayle Movie — Pinnochio (1971): 




Midnight Plowboy

(1971, writ. & dir. Bethel Buckalew)

Yet another movie from "the Colonel Sanders of softcore smut" who, unbelievably enough, considering he specialized in hixsville entertainment, went on to be the co-producer and assistant director of Lady Cocoa (1975 / title track) and do production work on The Black Six (1973 / trailer below) and The Candy Tangerine Man (1975 / credits) — Matt Cimber films, one and all (see: The Joy of Hustling at Mostly Crappy Books). Released in Germany as "Quellen erotischer Lust" by Germany's own Sultan of Sleaze, Alois Brummer, who recut & shortened the original version and then added around 23 minutes of his own material, which might explain the totally non-hick appearance of the German poster and VHS cover.

Trailer to The Black Six (1973):

But let's look at the original version, the title and plot of which — and perhaps needless to say — is a nicely sexploitive rip-off of the Oscar-winner, Midnight Cowboy (1969 / trailer). The Grindhouse Database says the movie, despite a "very minimal emphasis on story", is "one of the more better [sic] of the southern soft-core flicks", very much giving the impression that the movie's brevity, along with John Tull's performance, are the saving graces of the film.

The plot, also from GD: "Junior (John Tull) is a country bumpkin who hitch-hikes his way to a big life in Hollywood. Within the first few minutes of the movie (In what's supposed to be set in Mississippi) Junior is already set for what kind of adventure he's in store for when being picked up a horny blonde who strips both herself and the clueless Junior in front of her gun-toting, driver boyfriend! Upon arrival in Hollywood, Junior gets guided to a brothel — which he thought would be just a normal place to stay at... [...] Once the Madam (Nan Cee) asks if he would like to purchase one of the girls, Junior flips out thinking that the women can be purchased the same way as cattle! All of the girls soon fall immediately in love with Junior's mindless, child-like behavior and end up taking the guy to one of the rooms to sexually devour the cute little redneck [...]. Even though he just got a taste of five women (At once!) Junior feels the most for the redhead, Bernice (Debbie Osborne of Cindy and Donna [1970 / love pillows in motion] and The Cult [1971 / trailer]) and a relationship between these two will start to grow. But first, Junior would like to volunteer for work at this place when the co-runner of the escort service, Herb (Jack Richesin of Titillated Tex [1970 / NSFW trailer) hires Junior to be the chauffeur for Herb's new idea called 'Rent-A-Fuck'. What Junior will do is drive a van place to place to either drop the girls off at a desired destination, or the clients will plant themselves in the back of the 'love cabin' in the van for some fun. A little friction suddenly develops when the Madam gets a warning that the van will be blown up if it ventures into rival territory once more."

Edited Trailer to Midnight Plowboy:

Trash Film Guru finds this "this outing that unites the 'talents' of producer Harry Novak [and] director Bethel Buckalew" somewhat tedious, saying "the 'humor' quotient in this one never really rises above the 'so obvious you just have to groan' level — which is okay for 10, 20, maybe even 30 minutes, but it's not enough to carry an entire 84-minute feature, especially when the only thing punctuating it is bog-standard softcore sex that's even duller than your grand-dad's old pocket knife."

But JoeRA of Arlington, VA, disagrees, saying: "Midnight Plowboy is one of director Bethel G. Buckalew's greatest films in his all too brief career. [...] This movie [...] shows true depth and symbolism that is only matched today by a genius like Andy Sadaris. [...] The Wizard of Oz (1939) was not a success when it was initially released in 1939, why not Midnight Plowboy? Mark my words, in the near future Bethel G. Buckalew will take his place next to Orson Welles as a cinematic genius."

Trailer to the 3-D version of
The Wizard of Oz (1939):

The Godson
(1971, writ. & dir. William Rotsler) 

Breasts & Death in The Godson:

Aka Head Strong and, in Germany, as Blutjunge Mädchen — Hemmungslos, under which title it was rereleased there in 1975 as a porno flick, once again by Germany's very own Sultan of Sleaze, Alois Brummer.

AV Club bitches that The Godson follows "Novak's early-'70s formula: A few minutes of gangland tough talk in some featureless office gives way to extended scenes of simulated sex, with the principals positioning heads and legs precisely enough to avoid an X rating. Then the crooks hook up and talk some more before the next buxom distraction wanders in....."

The Grindhouse Database was also not impressed by the movie: "What we got here is a soft-core porno which follows the adventures of mob enforcer, and the Don's godson, Marco Santino (played by Jason Yukon, who packs a nifty afro and sideburns). Marco's currently stuck in the brothel business and has dreams of moving up in the organization. All the while, he gets it on with the clients and we see the clients get it on with the customers. [Excuse us? Are clients and customers not the same thing?] That's all the plot really. Of course, there's an eventual showdown between Marco and a rival in the end, but the outcome doesn't really matter 'cause you'll be bored and won't care. Might not be hard to believe, but despite alllllll the skin and allllllll the sex, this flick is really tedious."
Keep your eyes open for an un-credited Harlan Ellison as "Guy with Barbara (Jane Allyson) and Brunette" in the orgy scene; he stays dressed.

Trailer:

Trailer till The Godson från rstvideos trailerarkiv.

  

Go here for Part IV (1972).