Babes of Yesteryear: a wasted life's irregular and PI feature
that takes a meandering look at the filmographies of the underappreciated actresses cum
sex bombs of low-culture cinema of the past. Some may still be alive, others
not. (Being who we are, we might also take a
look at some actor cum beefcake, if we feel like it.)
As the photo above possibly doesn't reveal but the
blog-entry title above does, we're currently looking at the films of one of
the ultimate cult babes ever, a woman who needs no introduction to any and all
red-blooded American hetero male whose hormonal memory goes further back than
the start of the 80s: the great Uschi Digard.*
* A.k.a. Astrid | Debbie Bowman | Brigette
| Briget | Britt | Marie Brown | Clarissa | Uschi Dansk | Debbie | Ushi Devon |
Julia Digaid | Uschi Digaid | Ushi Digant | Ursula Digard | Ushie Digard | Ushi
Digard | Alicia Digart | Uschi Digart | Ushi Digart | Ushi Digert | Uschi
Digger | Beatrice Dunn | Fiona | Francine Franklin | Gina | Glenda | Sheila
Gramer | Ilsa | Jobi | Cynthia Jones | Karin | Astrid Lillimor | Astrid
Lillimore | Lola | Marie Marceau | Marni | Sally Martin | Mindy | Olga | Ves
Pray | Barbara Que | Ronnie Roundheels | Sherrie | H. Sohl | Heide Sohl | Heidi
Sohler | U. Heidi Sohler | Sonja | Susie | Euji Swenson | Pat Tarqui | Joanie
Ulrich | Ursula | Uschi | Ushi | Mishka Valkaro | Elke Vann | Elke Von | Jobi
Winston | Ingred Young… and probably more.
As The Oak Drive-In puts it: "With
her long hair, Amazonian build & beautiful natural looks (usually
devoid of make-up), nobody seems to personify that 60's & early 70's
sex appeal 'look' better than [Uschi Digard]. She had a presence that truly was
bigger than life — a mind-bending combination of hippie Earth Mother looks and
a sexual wildcat. […] She always seemed to have a smile on her face and almost
seemed to be winking at the camera and saying 'Hey, it's all in fun.' Although
she skirted around the edges at times, she never preformed hardcore…"
Today, Uschi
Digard is still alive, happily married (for over 50 years), and last we heard retired
in Palm Springs, CA. To learn everything you ever wanted to know about her, we
would suggest listening to the great interview she gave The Rialto Report in 2013.
Herewith we give a nudity warning: naked babes and
beefcake are highly likely to be found in our Babes of Yesteryear entries. If such sights offend thee, well,
either go to another blog or pluck thy eyes from thee...
Please note: we
make no guarantee for the validity of the release dates given… or of the info
supplied, for that matter. And if you know something we don't, let us know.
Uschi Digard, Part II: 1970, Part I
The Last Step Down
(1970, dir. Lawrence Ramport)
A.k.a. Young Love and Even Devils Pray. A simple
online search finds this film available for free at any number of online porn
sites — look and ye shall find.
Over at that bane of free enterprise known as Amazon,
you can find the most common commentary on the film, probably taken from the
DVD itself: "The recent revival of interest in 1970s grindhouse cinema has
unearthed some bizarre and seedy films, but none are as shamelessly exploitive
as these two entries in the softcore horror genre. The Last Step Down observes the
initiation of several voluptuous young women into a satanic cult. With its
zoned-out actors and lethargic plot, The Last Step Down is a cynical
reaction to the counter-cultural fascination with the occult in the early 70s,
reducing the worship of the Prince of Darkness to a prolonged
humping-and-groping session. Also included is Russell Gay's ultra-rare [short
film] Blood Lust, an especially
salacious (and unexpectedly stylized) adaptation of Le Fanu's Carmilla." The image below is of the
German 8mm release of Blood Lust (image
found at Gav Crinsom). The German title translates, literally, into something like "Dracula and His Bold Teeth"; in daily slang, however, it translates into "Dracula and His Hot Babes".
Cartelera de Cine reduces the plot of this one-day wonder to "A naive country girl new to the big city gets involved in the underground sex scene," but TCM goes into greater detail: "Prostitutes Norma and Sue (Uschi Digard & Neola "Malta" Graef) decide to initiate Kathy (Terri Johnson), a virgin, into prostitution. They take her to a hidden monastery where devil worshipers are holding a black mass. Kathy zealously submits to a series of sexual assaults during the black mass, in reality, an orgy. Norma and Sue force Kathy to join them in a lesbian orgy when they perceive that the bacchanal has stripped her of her inhibitions." The image below shows Graef and Johnson conducting verbal intercourse.
The "Monk with Mustache" is played by Michael Donovan O'Donnell, who is also found in bit parts in Dick Tracy (1990 / trailer) and Satan's Cheerleaders (1977 / trailer below).
Cartelera de Cine reduces the plot of this one-day wonder to "A naive country girl new to the big city gets involved in the underground sex scene," but TCM goes into greater detail: "Prostitutes Norma and Sue (Uschi Digard & Neola "Malta" Graef) decide to initiate Kathy (Terri Johnson), a virgin, into prostitution. They take her to a hidden monastery where devil worshipers are holding a black mass. Kathy zealously submits to a series of sexual assaults during the black mass, in reality, an orgy. Norma and Sue force Kathy to join them in a lesbian orgy when they perceive that the bacchanal has stripped her of her inhibitions." The image below shows Graef and Johnson conducting verbal intercourse.
The "Monk with Mustache" is played by Michael Donovan O'Donnell, who is also found in bit parts in Dick Tracy (1990 / trailer) and Satan's Cheerleaders (1977 / trailer below).
Trailer to
Satan's
Cheerleaders:
Bill R.,
at the blogspot The Kind of Face You Hate, thinks that "The Last Step Down is the kind of film that can make you
think that sex is maybe just gross and stupid and you shouldn't ever do
it." He also mentions that, "Released in 1970, The Last Step Down
is the vision of director Lawrence Ramport and screenwriters Arthur Allen and
Phil Miller. It could be that each of those names is a pseudonym, and, indeed,
it appears that none of those men ever worked on another film again, if, I
repeat, they're credited here under their real names. Both possibilities strike
me as equally likely. Who would want the credit for having made The Last
Step Down, and who would want to offer work to the men who made The Last
Step Down?"
The imdb, at least, lists Phil Miller as the production manager of two far superior films, Peter Bogdanovich's credited feature film directorial debut Targets (1968 / trailer) and Ted V. Mikels' The Black Klansman a.k.a. I Crossed the Color Line (1966 / trailer), the latter of which did not serve as the inspiration for Spike Lee's Black Klansman (2018 / trailer).
In any event, "It should not come as a surprise that The Last Step Down was Lawrence Ramport's one and only film as a director. [10K Bullets]"
The imdb, at least, lists Phil Miller as the production manager of two far superior films, Peter Bogdanovich's credited feature film directorial debut Targets (1968 / trailer) and Ted V. Mikels' The Black Klansman a.k.a. I Crossed the Color Line (1966 / trailer), the latter of which did not serve as the inspiration for Spike Lee's Black Klansman (2018 / trailer).
In any event, "It should not come as a surprise that The Last Step Down was Lawrence Ramport's one and only film as a director. [10K Bullets]"
Love Thy Neighbor and His Wife
(1970, dir. "B. Ron Elliot" & "L. Ray Monde")
Written by
"Virginia Vulvania". As Letterboxd
points out, "Mark 12:31 instructs, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself.' After Hours 69:69 suggests, 'Do unto thy neighbor as she likes
it.'"
"B. Ron Elliot" is actually actor/director
Byron Mabe (10 April 1932 – 13 May 2001)
who, of course, achieved everlasting cult fame due more to some of his more
infamous directorial projects, of which this sex film is not one — but what
true trash-film fan hasn't heard of A
Smell of Honey, a Swallow of Brine (1966), She Freak (1967 / trailer further below), The Lustful Turk (1968 / trailer)
or The Acid Eaters (1968 / a trailer of sorts)?
Co-director "L. Ray Monde", otherwise known as Lee Raymond, is less renowned, but he did appear in She Freak and, in 1972, directed the trashy and fun The Adult Version of Jekyll & Hide (1972 / body swap). Supposedly his real money-making career was as a pilot for United Airlines.
Co-director "L. Ray Monde", otherwise known as Lee Raymond, is less renowned, but he did appear in She Freak and, in 1972, directed the trashy and fun The Adult Version of Jekyll & Hide (1972 / body swap). Supposedly his real money-making career was as a pilot for United Airlines.
Trailer to She
Freak (1967),
Mabe's tacky remake of
Tod Browing's Freaks
(1932):
Love Thy Neighbor and His Wife is one
of two Mabe films Uschi appeared in; the other one being one of Mabe's lowest-budgeted
and least-liked films, The Big Snatch (depending
on the source, 1968 or 1971, see Part I).
That film he directed as "Ronnie Runningboard", the same name he uses
in this film as the actor playing the character of Dan. Uschi, credited as
"Heidi Sohler", plays the character named Uschi. (The wardrobe, by the
way, was supplied by "Phunkie Attire", while "Otto Focus"
was the cameraman.) As the title infers, the thematic focus of the movie is the
oh-so-contemporary topic of wife swapping.
Altered Trailer:
"Filmed at
a Swapping Center", Love
Thy Neighbor and His Wife doesn't seem to be readily available
any longer — or it is so dull no one wants to write about it. So, let's go to TCM
(again) for the plot: "A prominent attorney and his client bring their
wives to a lakeside cottage for a weekend. The group's sexual inhibitions break
down after much drinking and the screening of stag films. The two husbands
exchange partners, and the wives later have sex with each other. On the other
side of the lake, a lecherous, middle-aged professor has brought three of his
female students to a rented cabin. Two raunchy dune buggy enthusiasts make camp
near the professor's cabin, smoke marijuana, and attract the attention of the
three coeds. They soon become sexually acquainted. Later, the five young people
go to a nearby tavern and meet the lawyer's party. After some initial
disagreement, they proceed to have an orgy."
We found the newspaper advertisement directly above at Chateau Vulgaria, which points out that the clipping is for an "Entertainment Ventures double-feature at the Center Drive-in, from June, 1971. Love Thy Neighbor and His Wife (1970), with Uschi Digard, has been MIA on video; Starlet! (1969 / scene), with Shari Mann and John Alderman, told the story of an actress' rise to the top; on VHS and DVD-R from Something Weird."
We found the newspaper advertisement directly above at Chateau Vulgaria, which points out that the clipping is for an "Entertainment Ventures double-feature at the Center Drive-in, from June, 1971. Love Thy Neighbor and His Wife (1970), with Uschi Digard, has been MIA on video; Starlet! (1969 / scene), with Shari Mann and John Alderman, told the story of an actress' rise to the top; on VHS and DVD-R from Something Weird."
Contrary to some
sources, including the imdb, the Ann Dee [Mann]
of this movie is not the same Ann Dee singing in A Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967 / trailer).
The Ann Dee of ATMM
singing
a medley of Carnival/This
Dream:
It is probably
also safe to assume that the movie Love
Thy Neighbor and His Wife has absolutely nothing in common with
the 1968 Brandon House erotic novel Love
Thy Neighbor and His Wife by "Lew Palmer", other than the title
[image below from alt glamour].
"Lew Palmer", by the way, if we are to believe the Library of
Congress's Catalog of Copyright
Entries. Third Series: 1968: July-December, is
actually Thelma L. Reahm,
"a happy, healthy, married, active Christian writer, content with a simple
life."
As for the US poster, it is yet another example of the fine art from the forgotten, self-taught (!) Mexican American artist Rodolfo Escalera (1 June 1929 – 25 Jan 2000); the current purveyors of his legacy tend to ignore his days as a sleaze film poster artist.
As for the US poster, it is yet another example of the fine art from the forgotten, self-taught (!) Mexican American artist Rodolfo Escalera (1 June 1929 – 25 Jan 2000); the current purveyors of his legacy tend to ignore his days as a sleaze film poster artist.
The Magic Mirror
(1970, dir. Unknown)
Another
one-day wonder featuring Uschi as an unnamed woman who buys a magic, antique
mirror that takes her on sex trips by making her fantasies become real; the
result is four distinct sexual scenes. Some people assume The Magic Mirror to merely be an a.k.a. title for two other later
hardcore movies Love and the Great Grunt
(1972 / trailer)
and Satisfaction
Guaranteed (1976?), which are pretty much the same
movie, but The Magic Movie is the
egg that came before the chicken: scenes from this softcore sex film were
edited into the later hardcore versions to pad time, add characters, and/or make
a "new" movie … in which it looks like Uschi is actually taking chorizo
onscreen. (She, famously, denies to this day that she ever filmed
"real" hardcore scenes — but if you search long and hard, you can
find a rather boring homemade B&W short of her on her back doing the
dirty for real with her husband.)
The pedigrees of
all three films mentioned are open to conjecture: the "unknown"
director of The Magic Mirror is
claimed by some as being Stu Segall,
while the imdb claims that Satisfaction Guaranteed was directed by
"Melvin Kissem" (which just happens to be the name of a no-budget
porn flick from around the same time [full movie]
supposedly directed by Charles Davis Smith [18 June 1930 – 20 Sept 2017]). In
turn, tapatalk
says Love and
the Great Grunt "employs copious footage from […]
The Magic Mirror, as well as
hardcore footage lifted from Devil's Due*
(1973)," the latter of which was shot by "Ernest Danna".
In its graffiti credits, LATGG
claims to have been directed by Antony Weber, who directed Uschi in Cries of Ecstasy, Blows of
Death (1973), a film we look at later. More
than one website claims Weber as the director of "Satisfaction
Guaranteed a.k.a. Love
and the Great Grunt". (So you decide for yourself
who did it. We think it was the butler.)
* Famous for
its inspired line of dialogue, "You must kiss the cock of Satan!"
(And also for being one the many porn movies that derailed the career of former
Cortland County district attorney
Mark Suben when it was revealed that he was the former
porn actor "Gus Thomas", one of the the lead wieners of Devil's Due. [Poster below.])
Way back in
2002, at the imdb, Sum Flounder wrote
that the film, "in grainy, sweaty 16mm", is for "the most
undiscerning members of the 'raincoat' crowd": It "involves Uschi
purchasing a large mirror. Whenever she gazes into it she witnesses (or
experiences?) various fantasies. The only one I can still remember after all
this time involves a copious amount of shaving cream. [...] There are probably
more than a few people out there who will watch any movie with Uschi in it. Those
guys won't be disappointed, although I won't say the same for everybody
else."
Also the imdb, five years later john22900 has a slightly different take on the same basic tale of what he says is "not a particularly great film": "Uschi purchases a haunted mirror that she is told has the effect of making one's inhibitions disappear and their dreams and fantasies come true whenever they gaze into it. There are four separate episodes in which Uschi (or others) gaze into the mirror and lose their inhibitions — and clothes. The first involves a balding TV repairman, the second some lesbian poll takers, the third some friends of hers, and the final episode concerns a burglar and a cop. Low budget and very simple in concept. The best thing — correction: the only thing — worthwhile here is the fabulous Uschi."
Also the imdb, five years later john22900 has a slightly different take on the same basic tale of what he says is "not a particularly great film": "Uschi purchases a haunted mirror that she is told has the effect of making one's inhibitions disappear and their dreams and fantasies come true whenever they gaze into it. There are four separate episodes in which Uschi (or others) gaze into the mirror and lose their inhibitions — and clothes. The first involves a balding TV repairman, the second some lesbian poll takers, the third some friends of hers, and the final episode concerns a burglar and a cop. Low budget and very simple in concept. The best thing — correction: the only thing — worthwhile here is the fabulous Uschi."
The rest of the unnamed
skin is supplied by Maria Arnold (of Meatcleaver Massacre [1977 / trailer]), Kathy Hilton (of Sex and the Single
Vampire [1970] and Blood Sabbath [1972 / full movie]), William Howard (of Terror at Orgy Castle [1972 /
full movie], poster above), and
other people with Joe and Jane Schmoe bodies.
Music from
Blood Sabbath:
Blood Sabbath:
Oddly Coupled
(1970, dir. Henry Bolder
& Karl Rawicz)
Produced by
William Byron Hillman.
More than one website claims that this movie is a.k.a. Betta Betta in the Wall, Who's the Fattest Fish of All? They might
be the same film, but then they might not be. Though the VHS cover below does
share some of the same names, Betta
Betta in the Wall, Who's the Fattest Fish of All? shares more same names with 1977 cheapie What A Way to Go a.k.a. Bottoms Up,* also by director Karl
Rawicz and producer William Byron Hillman (or William B. Hillman). The thing
is, that movie, marketed as a teen T&A comedy, shares the exact same plot
and some of the same characters as the adult film Oddly Coupled, but seems to have a completely different cast ...
but then, none of the cast of Bottoms Up
ever made another movie, which lends credence to the concept that all names
might be pseudonyms — which in turn leads to the logical assumption of simple
repackaging.
* Neither of the two titles, What A Way to Go or Bottoms Up, should be confused with the earlier films likewise bearing
them: What A Way to Go (trailer
below), the odd black comedy from 1964 starring Shirley MacLaine (and featuring
Dick Van Dyke, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Gene Kelly, Bob Cummings and Dean
Martin), and the unknown British comedy from 1960 (poster above).
Trailer to
What A Way to Go (1964):
Compare the plot
of Bottoms Up — "A skinny,
virginal mechanic (Adam Janas) is taken into erotic
captivity by three lovely nymphs who decide to give him an enlightening course
in sex education. Their goal: to transform a naive nerd into a sexual dynamo
for the voluptuous Gertie (Sparky Abbrams)." —
to that of Oddly Coupled as given by Mike
King at the imdb: "Nerdy
Hobart Moore is kidnapped by three women, and brought to a house occupied by
Gertie, a morbidly obese nymphomaniac. Hobart is more interested in making sure
his tropical fish are being fed than in any of the women." Also at the imdb, dardura108 mentions how he "especially liked the
heavy-set chick who gets compulsively excited anytime someone says the word
'sex'. Also, the slo-motion slap-stick on the water bed is pretty funny."
In any event, Uschi appears (uncredited) in Oddly Coupled as the "Brunette in Bed" — or rather, as the woman in a sex film the lead character is made to watch.
Oddly Coupled is available at Something Weird, where Don the Deviate, says: "A jumbo order of Fish 'n' Chicks! The vivacious Malta [a.k.a. Neola Graef] screws some guy in the front seat of her convertible. Pretty Donna Young screws some guy on a beach blanket. But Hobart Moore prefers the company of his fish. Say what? Hobart ('My friends call me "Ho-Ho".') is a shy skinny proto-nerd (and Huntz Hall clone) who is kidnapped by a carload of pretty gals — Gloria (plain), Didi (airhead), and Sheri (tart) — and taken to their home as a prospective boyfriend for Gertie. Say who? Gertie is an obese nymphomaniac who doesn't like to be called 'Madam' because 'it sounds so dirty, boo-hoo'. (Are we in a brothel of some sort? Don't know.) Fat-mama Gertie desperately wants Ho-Ho to be amorous, so the gals (including Maisie Day, a prunish, washed-up cook and former beauty queen who talks and acts like Ruth Gordon) take turns trying to interest Ho-Ho in the birds and the bees rather than fish. This includes watching home videos of normal people having sex (like Uschi Digard and Johnny Rocco). Trouble is, the gals prove to be too neurotically wacky to screw — indeed, in light of Sheri and Didi's behavior in bed, Ho-Ho's preference for fish actually appears perfectly sensible. Moreover, anytime the word 'sex' is uttered, Gertie comes charging through the door like a rhino in heat! Obscenely clad in a baby-doll nightie, all 300 pounds of her quavering in slow motion, she launches herself into bed like a dirigible gone amuck. In a final touch of delirium, Oddly Coupled (a.k.a. One More Time) keeps flashing to a hallucinogenic scene shot through a fish tank where some lovely naked woman beckons. Ho-Ho's fantasy? Who knows. Just how odd is Oddly Coupled? Its original title was Betta Betta in the Wall, Who's the Fattest Fish of All? That odd."
In any event, Uschi appears (uncredited) in Oddly Coupled as the "Brunette in Bed" — or rather, as the woman in a sex film the lead character is made to watch.
Oddly Coupled is available at Something Weird, where Don the Deviate, says: "A jumbo order of Fish 'n' Chicks! The vivacious Malta [a.k.a. Neola Graef] screws some guy in the front seat of her convertible. Pretty Donna Young screws some guy on a beach blanket. But Hobart Moore prefers the company of his fish. Say what? Hobart ('My friends call me "Ho-Ho".') is a shy skinny proto-nerd (and Huntz Hall clone) who is kidnapped by a carload of pretty gals — Gloria (plain), Didi (airhead), and Sheri (tart) — and taken to their home as a prospective boyfriend for Gertie. Say who? Gertie is an obese nymphomaniac who doesn't like to be called 'Madam' because 'it sounds so dirty, boo-hoo'. (Are we in a brothel of some sort? Don't know.) Fat-mama Gertie desperately wants Ho-Ho to be amorous, so the gals (including Maisie Day, a prunish, washed-up cook and former beauty queen who talks and acts like Ruth Gordon) take turns trying to interest Ho-Ho in the birds and the bees rather than fish. This includes watching home videos of normal people having sex (like Uschi Digard and Johnny Rocco). Trouble is, the gals prove to be too neurotically wacky to screw — indeed, in light of Sheri and Didi's behavior in bed, Ho-Ho's preference for fish actually appears perfectly sensible. Moreover, anytime the word 'sex' is uttered, Gertie comes charging through the door like a rhino in heat! Obscenely clad in a baby-doll nightie, all 300 pounds of her quavering in slow motion, she launches herself into bed like a dirigible gone amuck. In a final touch of delirium, Oddly Coupled (a.k.a. One More Time) keeps flashing to a hallucinogenic scene shot through a fish tank where some lovely naked woman beckons. Ho-Ho's fantasy? Who knows. Just how odd is Oddly Coupled? Its original title was Betta Betta in the Wall, Who's the Fattest Fish of All? That odd."
One must say,
the plot as given at SWV sure doesn't correspond to the movie's poster, does
it? Also, contrary to one or two online sources, the actress credited as
"Betty Blake" in this movie is not the forgotten lounge singer Betty [Ann] Blake
(9 Apr 1937 – 19 Sep 2001).
Betty Blake sings
Moon and Sands:
Raquel's Motel
Raquel's Motel
(1970, dir. Unknown)
A.k.a. Uschi's Hollywood Adventure, a title
given once she became legendary. But under its original title, which obviously
enough was inspired by the name of the then A-list actor Raquel Welch, Raquel's Motel was theatrically
distributed by the legendary firm Distribpix.
Speaking of Raquel Welch —
Space-Girl Dance:
As Uschi's Hollywood Adventure, you can
get it at Something Weird,
where Mike Accomando of Dreadful Pleasures offers the following description of events:
"See Uschi French kiss a foot-long hotdog! Gasp in amazement at her
gravity-defying pumpkins! Thrill to Uschi and her coital colleague Maria Arnold
[a.k.a. Carie South, Tina La Wise, Franki Rider, Marie Arnold, Maria Aronoff, and
Maria Jamison] in the climactic group orgy! Gag in horror at the acne-scarred
hillbilly stud who wears two different colored socks! This paean to perversity
features [...] sex goddess Uschi Digart in another sin-soaked, soft-X bonanza
of blazing lust. Uschi is a peek-freak who admits, 'There aren't too many women
voyeurs around, but I'm one of them!' She operates a sleazy motel that's
'rigged with secret panels and peepholes'. John, 'a good, strong,
sturdy-looking guy', and his new bride Barbara (Mycle Brandy),* check into the motel on their
honeymoon. Uschi, nostrils flaring, spies on them as they have a pillow fight
then consummate the marriage: 'He was some man. He met her stroke for stroke
and she gave him one hell of a ride!' Back in her bed, Uschi wiggles out of her
low-cut nightie. She kisses her reflection in the mirror, tweaks her erect
nipples, rubs baby oil over her [...]. In no time our newlyweds are crotch-deep
in carnality. John goes all giddy over a horny maid (skin flick veteran Maria
Arnold). He bends her over a table and skewers her doggie style. While this is
happening, Uschi is delivering her own special brand of 'room service' to
Barbara. Uschi's Hollywood Adventure
(a.k.a. Raquel's Motel) culminates
in a 4-way orgy: 'The more the merrier!' If you're a fan of Uschi Digart — and
who the hell isn't? — this movie will affect you the same way a full moon
affects a werewolf."
* Mike Accomando, like "heystevesteinberg" below, is a bit mixed up here: Barbara is played by Nora Wieternik (a.k.a. Sally Acres, Me Me, Nora, and Paula Principe), while Mycle Brandy, now a "four time stroke survivor", is the bearded dude who two years later played Prince Precious in the classic Flesh Gordon (1974) — you see him in the trailer below. (Nora Wieternik is also there to play Queen Amora.)
* Mike Accomando, like "heystevesteinberg" below, is a bit mixed up here: Barbara is played by Nora Wieternik (a.k.a. Sally Acres, Me Me, Nora, and Paula Principe), while Mycle Brandy, now a "four time stroke survivor", is the bearded dude who two years later played Prince Precious in the classic Flesh Gordon (1974) — you see him in the trailer below. (Nora Wieternik is also there to play Queen Amora.)
Trailer to
Flesh Gordon (1974):
Over at the imdb, back on 8 October 2013 heystevesteinberg shared some childhood memories with us: "I
saw this, first run, Times Square in NYC. Before the projectionists got their
mitts on this, there was original hardcore action in this movie. I think, like
many movies of that specific timeframe, it was released in two versions, one
harder than the other. Most of the action in the movie is simulated and as all
Uschi fans know, there is no existing footage of her doing anything hardcore,
but Mycle's bj scene definitely included hardcore, non-simulated action. Which
should surprise no one: she did a ton of h/c stuff in the early 70s. [...]
Sexploitation flicks in 1970 and 1971 were pushing the envelope, often shooting
two versions, one with h/c scenes and the other, for the adult drive-in
circuit, were tamer. [...]"
Score the Film says, "This is typical of the era during the transition into hardcore pornography, monotonous simulated sex with strange narration and a groovy soundtrack. This one is better than most in that the visuals aren't as repetitive and it's got Uschi Digard and her jungle drums. I swear those things should be hanging in a museum like the Louvre."
Score the Film says, "This is typical of the era during the transition into hardcore pornography, monotonous simulated sex with strange narration and a groovy soundtrack. This one is better than most in that the visuals aren't as repetitive and it's got Uschi Digard and her jungle drums. I swear those things should be hanging in a museum like the Louvre."
The newspaper
clipping above is from Pittsburgh, where Raquel's Motel was paired with the
1972 release Distortions of Sexuality
(full movie), another Distribpix picture, written and directed by Gary Kahn (a.k.a.
Khan). "Distortions of Sexuality is a
serious film. It deals with rape, voyeurism, chronic masturbation, hypnotism.
The hardcore sex scenes are explicit in detail, boldly conceived, and visually
stunning. An intelligent film for mature audiences has finally been made that
meets the standards of a perceptive audience. [One Sheet Index]"
The Art Cinema is still around, though it was renamed the Harris Theater
in 1995.
Roxanna
(1970, dir. Nick
Millard)
Art house
porn that, imagine, if you can, was remade direct-to-video by Ted W. Crestview
in 2002 as — Duh! — Roxanna (credit sequence).
Ted W. Crestview disappeared after the mildly
diverting direct-to-video Satan's
Schoolgirls (2004 / trailer).
Nick Millard (a.k.a. Jan Anders | Max Boll | Joe Davis | Hans Dedow |
Hans Delow | Jamie Delvos | Pet Elephant | Bruno Geller | Alan Lindus | Allan
Lindus | Allan Lundus | John Meyer | Nicholas Millard | Philip Miller |
Nicholas Milor | Clem Moser | Alfredo Nicola | Nick Philips | Nick Phillips |
Don Rolos | Helmud Schuyler | Otto Wilmer) is still
around, but no longer seems to be able to get the funding to make movies.
Little known fact: Millard's father, Sam S. Millard, was an early exploitation
film distributer/maker and one of the infamous "40 Thieves",
alongside illustrious names like Kroger Babb and Dwain Espser
(see: Maniac [1934]), "a circle of
innovative and money-minded American exploitation film distributors. [Gentle Thug]"
Of Sam S. Millard's movies, the most famous one is perhaps Is Your Daughter Safe? a.k.a The Octopus (1927), a now lost movie that "was one of
the earliest exploitation films which contained nudity. A compilation of
medical documentary films and stock footage of nude scenes dating back to the
1900s, it was presented as an educational film about the dangers of venereal
disease, white slavery, and prostitution. [Wikipedia]" (Notice how, on the advert above, the screenings were segregated by sex.) Other early [also lost] titles he was involved
include Scarlet Youth (1928) and Pitfalls of Passion (1927, poster below).
But back to Nick Millard and the original version of Roxanna. Therein, Uschi shows up, un-credited, as the "Lesbian in Gloves" who breaks the heart of the movie's lead actress (Louise Thompson) — watch Uschi put on the gloves directly below.
But back to Nick Millard and the original version of Roxanna. Therein, Uschi shows up, un-credited, as the "Lesbian in Gloves" who breaks the heart of the movie's lead actress (Louise Thompson) — watch Uschi put on the gloves directly below.
Scene with gloves:
As odd as it
might sound in this contemporary world of direct-to-internet plotless porn, once
upon a time porn was considered by some as a radical statement and/or a genre
within which artistic statements could be made. Be it the early softcore
roughies of Russ Meyer or the later porn chic fluff of "Henry Paris"
(i.e., Radley Metzger), some of those involved were talented filmmakers, and
others simply wanted to go places where no man had gone before: whether the gay
flicks of Wakefield Poole
or the avant-garde heterosexuality of the Amero Brother's Bacchanalle
(1970 / scene)
or the hippy B&W Thundercrack
(1975 / trailer)
— the last a film that could easily be mistaken as a Guy Maddin
film, had Guy Maddin ever made porn — or even the
surreal hardcore sex and gore of Hardgore
(1976), many filmmakers agitating in the nether regions of the sex film would
try (some more often, some less often) to add some art to their product. This
is also the case with Roxanna, a
depressing, almost anti-sex sex film by the underappreciated West Coast
exploitation filmmaker Nick Millard.
Some of Nick Millard's Roxanna
set to Sebastien Tellier's Fantino:
Over at Women In Prison
films, the film description they surely stole uncredited from elsewhere also
makes note of this: "[...] Roxanna
is classic softcore in the freaky 70s tradition and unlike most 'modern'
pornography, it's void of any hardcore scenes. But while most of the films of
this genre and from this decade are basically just fluff, Roxanna stands out with its genuinely unsettling tale of a
(possibly) drug-addicted girl (Louise Thompson) who finds more than she
expected with her first lesbian encounter. She becomes so enthralled with her
experience that when her lover (played by Uschi Digard [...]) leaves her, she
finds herself needing to fill the void that's been left. She does this by
basically taking her sexual experiences to more and more outrageous extremes.
[...] The film ends as it started, with scenes of Roxanna, naked and screaming to herself, tearing out her hair, and
evidently locked in a white room that looks very much like it's supposed to
represent an institution. She's there because her sexual appetite has gained
her nothing, and because of this, she tries to take her own life. This is one
of the most unusual films of this nature that I've ever seen. There is no
dialogue ever during the movie, only narration; done in a strange 'jivish' beat
style, over top of one of the best 70s scores I've heard. The movie is filmed
from bizarre angles that only go to accentuate the genuine weirdness that
permeates every part of this film. Roxanna
is basically an artsy porno with morals."
Also on hand enlivening the procedures is cult fave starlet Monica Gayle, whose nubile assets graced exploitation films for around ten years beginning in 1969 and whose career spanned from movies like Paul Hunt's The Harem Bunch (1969), Ed Wood's Take It Out in Trade (1970 / trailer) and Larry Buchanan's Strawberries Need Rain (1970 / a trailer) to Jack Hill's The Jezebels a.k.a. Switchblade Sisters (1975 / trailer) and Gus Trikonis's Nashville Girl (1976 / Monica sings). Like so many of those working in the soft-core biz, she eventually disappeared… for years no one knew what happened to her, but dedicated research reveals that Ms. Gayle-Kern, "a former actress who had television roles in General Hospital, Days of Our Lives and Fantasy Island", currently lives in a section of the Valley previously belonging to Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Also on hand enlivening the procedures is cult fave starlet Monica Gayle, whose nubile assets graced exploitation films for around ten years beginning in 1969 and whose career spanned from movies like Paul Hunt's The Harem Bunch (1969), Ed Wood's Take It Out in Trade (1970 / trailer) and Larry Buchanan's Strawberries Need Rain (1970 / a trailer) to Jack Hill's The Jezebels a.k.a. Switchblade Sisters (1975 / trailer) and Gus Trikonis's Nashville Girl (1976 / Monica sings). Like so many of those working in the soft-core biz, she eventually disappeared… for years no one knew what happened to her, but dedicated research reveals that Ms. Gayle-Kern, "a former actress who had television roles in General Hospital, Days of Our Lives and Fantasy Island", currently lives in a section of the Valley previously belonging to Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Spread It Around
(1970, dir. Unknown)
Spread It Around is found
listed on almost all Uschi Digard filmographies, including the one at what seems to be her own
website.
What's odd is that she isn't in the movie, at least not in the Spread It Around available at Something Weird,
where you can watch a rather entertaining trailer to a movie entitled Spread It Around… Basically, there seems to be
more than one movie bearing that title. What a surprise — not.
At Something Weird, in any event, Don the
Deviate (who would surely always mention when Uschi is there), makes no note of
her in his film description for SW:
"A redhead, a brunette, and a blonde decide to spread it around in, yes, Spread It Around. You see, they're
unsatisfied suburban housewives who need extra cash. In the end, of course,
they become satisfied suburban housewives with plenty of cash. The gals — each
looking more delicious than the other — make a valiant attempt at acting and
there's some genuinely funny dialogue here, but the show-stopper is the
soliloquy by 'Lance the Plumber', who claims to be a Ph.D. in chemistry but
who's really, as they might have said in the Seventies, no Olivier." The
beautiful buxom gal exploring the limp dicks and dry tacos of the swinger
lifestyle in the one-day wonder shown in the trailer is the less renown but
equally attractive Malta (a.k.a. Neola Graef).
Has nothing to do with the film —
Brian Collins sings
Spread It Around:
Street of a Thousand Pleasures
Spread It Around:
Over at the blog
Scorethefilm,
as part of his Uschi Digard Needs to Have My Babies
project, the dude watched the movie and found further inconsistencies, saying:
"Here's a 47-minute softcore snoozer from 1970 that has five typically
tedious sex scenes, one with the gals and four with each of them balling their
doctor, milkman, etc. The girls are attractive and the acting as is you expect
but there's one thing missing and that's Uschi Digard, the sole reason for my
wanting to see it. [...] I checked out the Something Weird Video
site and they have a movie with this title and accurate description but the
trailer is for another movie of the same title and there's no Uschi in that one
either."
For that,
however, at the imdb Hans-56 also watched a movie entitled Spread It Around and, rating the film a 1 out 10. He wrote on 8 October 2010: "[...] Three women can't get
enough sex at home, so they jump on every man in sight. This is 1970, so we are
talking soft core. And it shows. [...] The acting is awful, the budget super
low, the direction is clumsy, the camera-work is jumpy. So, to sum it up: this
is a misery on celluloid. I cannot recommend this movie to anyone, with the exception of fans of Miss Digart
[italics ours]. But I think even they will be very disappointed, for she did
make tastier movies."
Street of a Thousand Pleasures
(1970
or 72, dir. "Clay McCord")
"Clay McCord" is actually William Rotsler (3 July 1926 – 8 Oct 1997). For some
odd reason, this film is often (and obviously incorrectly) claimed as
Uschi's first film appearance... at best, it might be the first time
she's credited on a poster. She is one of the many naked slave girls bouncing
around in the movie which, depending on which source you choose to believe, was
made either in 1970 or 1972. Street of a Thousand Pleasures
is easily found online at almost every porn film site.
As Harry
H. Novak distributed Street of a Thousand Pleasures
at one point, we took a look at it in Part IX: 1972
of his career review, where we cobbled the following together:
A.k.a. Arab
Slave Market and Dreams. Novak distributes another Rotsler film,
this one co-written by "Sam Dakota", who seems never to have done
anything else. [Since then, we've come to assume that "Sam Dakota" is
actually "William Rotsler".]
Boob GIF:
This movie has
the distinction of being mentioned in AMC
Filmsite's History of Sex in Cinema: The Greatest and Most
Influential Sexual Films and Scenes, where they write: "This was a
notorious X-rated sexploitation (called a 'nudie cutie') film from the early
70s [...]. The film's subtitle was: 'There's something in it for everyone.' It
also promised: 'A Journey through the Whispered World of Women.' In the
virtually plotless movie, American businessman/oil field geologist John Dalton
(John Tull), during a trip to the Middle East away from his nagging wife in Los
Angeles, rescued Arab sheik Abdul Ben Hassein from an assassination knife
attack by shooting the assailant. He was rewarded with a trip to the
spectacular 'street of a thousand pleasures,' where he was introduced to the
slave market-harem filled with dozens of naked women functioning as sex
servants.* He viewed scores of feminine treats with 'Girl-A-Vision' (a
hand-held camera presented his point of view from a hands-on perspective, often
with enlarged close-ups of body parts). Bodies could be caressed or kissed, and
eventually, John had brief sex with a few of the females, including a black
belly dancer (Malta**). The film ended with another strike by the Arab
assassin, who killed the sheik (having sex) by stabbing him to death, while
nearby, John was also having sex. After wrestling with the assassin, John left
the Middle East and returned home with a willing American slave."
* [Uschi Digard is the "Busty Slave Girl";
pin-up girl Michelle Angelo is the "Busty Girl with Apple" (the photo
of her above comes from a 1968 issue of Playboy);
Joyce Gibson a.k.a. Joyce Mandel (10 Mar 1950 – 13 Oct 2016) is the "Busty
Girl with Goblet".... "Busty" can be used to describe 97% of all
the gals in the movie.]
** [Interesting casting: "Malta", a.k.a. Neola Graef, was a white chick. So either the credit here is wrong or there was a second Malta on the scene back then.]
Flick
Attack, which finds "the breast-to-penis ratio is something like,
what, 4,200 to 3", says "I have never seen more female nudity in a
motion picture than the flesh on parade in Street of a Thousand Pleasures.
Hell, I have never seen more female nudity anywhere — motion picture or otherwise.
For that alone, you really don't need to read further; just watch it."
The lead "non-Arabic" man of the movie, John Tull, has long since fallen off the face of the earth, but prior to doing so, in 1976 he had a few "assistant director" jobs, including on the disasterpiece Drive-In Massacre (trailer) and, more interesting, on Matt Cimber's The Witch Who Came from the Sea.
The lead "non-Arabic" man of the movie, John Tull, has long since fallen off the face of the earth, but prior to doing so, in 1976 he had a few "assistant director" jobs, including on the disasterpiece Drive-In Massacre (trailer) and, more interesting, on Matt Cimber's The Witch Who Came from the Sea.
Trailer to Matt Cimber's
The Witch Who Came from the
Sea:
Take My Head
(1970, dir. Michael & Roberta Findlay)
A surprise to
us! According to the imdb and her own
filmography at her website,
Uschi (supposedly) takes part in a Michael & Roberta Findlay movie —
admittedly, one of their most obscure titles in a career full of obscure
titles.
"Shot
without sound, this is little more than a series of soft-core vignettes strung
together via narration. Not a highlight in the careers of NYC sexploitation
filmmakers Michael and Roberta Findlay. [Kodiapps]"
Michael Findlay,
as most sleazesters know, died at the age of 39 by helicopter-blade beheading
on 16 May 1977. Roberta Findlay only stopped making movies in around 1989;
we've only ever seen her 1985 horror movie The Oracle,
a poorly made sleazy funfest if there ever was one. Among their early joint
projects is the B&W roughie Satan's
Bed (1965), a movie remembered now primarily because it features a young
Yoko Ono — you even see her in the trailer below.
Trailer to
Satan's Bed (1965):
Take My Head was released by Distribpix — the poster
art alone would indicate that, even if the company name weren't there. At their own
website, they currently (Date: 9 Jan 2019) have the poster but absolutely no
info about the flick.
Interesting here
is that like the Findlays, and unlike Uschi (and Maria Arnold), cast members
Arlana Blue and Alex Mann (24 July 1941 – 6 July 2010) were active on the East
Coast sleaze-film scene, not the West Coast (though Mann did eventually go west
in around 1979). Mann's "best" films are probably The Love Captive (1969 / let's dance),
Behind Locked Doors (1968 / trailer),
the ridiculous Microwave Massacre
(1983 / trailer)
and the "classic" I Drink Your
Blood (1970 / trailer).
Arlana Blue, a lithe actress from the early days of NYC sleaze, faded away soon
after her few final appearances in sublime sleaze like Bloodsucking Freaks (1976 / trailer),
Let Me Die a Woman (1977 / trailer below)
and Invasion of the Love Drones (1977
/ trailer).
Doris Wishman's classic
Let Me Die A Woman:
But to return to
Uschi. Our search of the web dug up only one person who had seen the Take My Head and bothered to write
about it, the ever reliable purveyor of porn lor, which he did on 27
July 2011 at the imdb: "The
Findlays detoured into all-sex filler with this obscure 1970 porn film which,
other than for Michael's purple-prose voice-over, lacks the qualities of their
other work. [...] It survives only in fragmentary form on VHS. The 45-minute
version I watched does not feature
superstars Uschi Digard and Maria Arnold [italics ours] [...]. No matter,
the picture as it stands is merely MOS footage of lesbian gropings or Alex Mann
groping femmes shot in loop fashion, silent and pointless. It cries out for
hardcore, XXX content, which was just around the corner. With scenes presented
out of order, even the slapped-on narration doesn't help, as Michael Findlay
attempts to create interest via his alter ego commentary. He keeps exhorting
Alex to live his dreams, imagine making love to the two lesbians living next
door he peeps at, or to have sex with a young woman he encounters out in the
snow, with an injured ankle. [...] Level of Michael's writing here is below the
campy standards of his best '60s soft porn, for example, telling Alex's
character: 'Eat breakfast David, eat as you have never eaten before!' The
ingestion here refers to the film's dubious moniker, all about cunnilingus.
That's because fully visible simulated cunnilingus on screen was permissible by
1970, not fellatio (the hit Mona [1970
/ NSFW]
changed all that). The actual humping is as phony as all soft porn, with much
full-frontal female nudity provided by the Findlays, but only fleeting shots of
Mann au naturel, he generally
relegated to 'sex in underpants' mode. Non-content includes a distressingly
cheap sequence of thin Nadia (Arlana Blue)
belly-dancing for David and then humping him on his breakfast table — strictly
home-movie production values. She is later pressed into service as a random
lesbian. [...]"
It is entirely
possible that an original copy of the film still exists somewhere, walled away in a
walled-up closet. Trash film fans, listen to this interview of Roberta Findlay
at the Rialto Report and
weep...
Love Secrets of the Kama Sutra
(Trailer) Not to be
confused with the "serious" European flick Kamasutra — Vollendung der Liebe, which made it to the US, recut,
as Kamasutra — Perfection of Love
(1969, poster below). The great soundtrack to that film is by Irmin Schmidt and
Inner Space Productions, otherwise known as the Krautrock band, Can.
Soundtrack to
the other Kamasutra
film:
According to Jason S. Martinko's The XXX
Filmography, 1968-1988, Love Secrets of the Kama Sutra is a.k.a. KAMA SUTRA
'71. At the imdb, however, they are listed as two different films with only a
few names in common (John Holmes, for example, but not Uschi Digard). We don't
see Uschi in the trailer below, but we do see the great Neola Graef...
Trailer to
Love
Secrets of the Kama Sutra:
In any event, Martinko says "Raj
Devi" is actually some guy named "Phil Todaro" and the plot
concerns: "A young couple with an unhappy sex life visit an Indian guru,
and he educates them on the lovemaking described in the Kama Sutra. Different
positions are acted out in a series of vignettes. The couple is enlightened and
has a graphic encounter with the old Indian's maid before they leave. The
screenplay was written by Larry Roberts. Cinematography was done by Stephen
Gibson (as Steve Gibson) and film editing was done by Cineatro. Luristan worked
as the music supervisor. It was distributed theatrically in the USA by Variety
Films in 1970. It was also distributed in the USA as Love Secrets of the Kama
Sutra by Compix in 1970."
"Phil Todaro", by the way, was the producer of a variety of obscure New York sleaze films in the 60s, but seemingly retired after producing, as "Phil Todd", the 3-D gay porn flick Manhole a.k.a. Manhold a.k.a. Manholed (1978), the last directorial effort of the same guy who brought you that trash classic I Drink Your Blood (1970 / trailer), David E. Durston (10 Sept 1921 – 6 May 2010), who is credited in Manhole as director "Spencer Logan").
The guy pictured on the above advert to an Adonis Theater showing of Manhole is probably one-porn-film wonder Eric Swenson, but the notable name of the movie is DeVeren Bookwalter (8 Sept 1939 – 23 July 1987), who started his film career on the receiving end of Andy Warhol's early short, Blow Job (1963, see below).
"Phil Todaro", by the way, was the producer of a variety of obscure New York sleaze films in the 60s, but seemingly retired after producing, as "Phil Todd", the 3-D gay porn flick Manhole a.k.a. Manhold a.k.a. Manholed (1978), the last directorial effort of the same guy who brought you that trash classic I Drink Your Blood (1970 / trailer), David E. Durston (10 Sept 1921 – 6 May 2010), who is credited in Manhole as director "Spencer Logan").
The guy pictured on the above advert to an Adonis Theater showing of Manhole is probably one-porn-film wonder Eric Swenson, but the notable name of the movie is DeVeren Bookwalter (8 Sept 1939 – 23 July 1987), who started his film career on the receiving end of Andy Warhol's early short, Blow Job (1963, see below).
An edit of Blow
Job set to
The Velvet Underground's
Waiting for My Man:
Waiting for My Man:
Manhole also
features Jamie Gillis (!) (20 April 1943 – 19 Feb
2010), Zebedy Colt (20 Dec 1929 – 29 May 2004), and
Wade Nichols (28 Oct 1946 – 28 Jan 1985) — the last of whom we mention so as to
have an excuse to once again embed below his time capsule of a disco song, Like an Eagle.
Wade Nichols as Dennis Parker
singing Like an
Eagle
We assume that Martinko's "Phil
Todaro", a.k.a. "Phil Todd", is the same person that Bill Landis
(1959 – 2008) & Michelle Clifford refer to as "Phil Todero" in their
oddly condescending 2002 publication, Sleazoid
Express, whom they describe as the "bewigged henchman" of the "bottom-feeder
film distributor/exhibitor Chelly Wilson" (25 Dec 1908 – 24 Nov 1994). To
share some of their published gossip regarding Todero and Andy Milligan's (12 Feb
1929 – 3 June 1991) movie Vapors (1965): "Chelly Wilson's Variety Films distributed
the film. But Phil Todero, who worked for Chelly managing the Eros Theater,
got his hands on the print. Todero was a bewigged old queen, a true piece of 8th
Avenue debris who acted as Chelly's front man even while baldly skimming off of
her on the side. Todero was so low that, in the 1980s, he was even stealing $50
from each of the Eros's male dancers' pathetic $125 weekly pay envelopes. Andy
[Milligan] would fume that Todero made money off of San Francisco showings of Vapors, where it played as a gay cult
film through to the mid-1980s. Long before the movie was released on tape,
Todero was selling video bootlegs for $100 a copy to film collectors out of
the Eros box office."
But to get back to Love Secrets of the Kama Sutra. As perhaps
to be expected, the only person who seems to have seen the film and seen reason
to write about it is the ever reliable purveyor of porn
lor, which he did
at the imdb on 8 December 2014: "The fact that KAMA SUTRA '71 was released late in
1970 explains its contents: what would have been a normal storyline porno film
has the semblance of documentary footage appended in order to pass for the sex
education mantle that was permitted during the early days of public exhibition
of XXX features. There is travelogue footage of India, pompous narration about
erotic art and ancient texts on the art of love. […] Film proper begins
presumably back in La-La Land on the West Coast of our proud nation […]. Main
couple of Harry Anderson (John Dulaghan, of The Thing with Two Heads [1972 / trailer]
& Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
[1971]) and his wife Grace (Ruthann Lott) peek
through the doorways of various rooms, a lame loop-carrier technique so that
they can voyeuristically watch folks making love in the various bedrooms and
we, the paying customers can see what they see. […] First porn couple features
an ultra-busty actress whose technique is still arousing 44 years later, and
like some of the other footage was reprised a year later in another junker
titled Worlds of Love (1972). […]
Back home we witness their unhappy marriage, as the film unsteadily segues into
a routine porno soap opera. Grace cheats on Harry with a young stud named Joe (Robert Lott), while Harry's off cheating with his blonde
secretary Susie (Ann Perry).
Turns out Susie is married to Joe. Later the foursome meet up at an unsettling
dinner where the audience enjoys knowing more than Harry does about their
actual relationships. A contrived happy ending occurs after we see the Indian
girl's big dark nipples for one last time. Naturally the end title reads 'The
Beginning'."
As according to the newspaper clipping below, the movie was part of a double feature at the Colony Theater in Schenectady, which had a sad end, and the Oxford, which is also history. The second movie, Temporary Wives — "One's fun... three can kill a guy" — was directed by "Gene Shamblin" and seems lost; check your attic.
Andy
Milligan's
Vapors:
Vapors:
As according to the newspaper clipping below, the movie was part of a double feature at the Colony Theater in Schenectady, which had a sad end, and the Oxford, which is also history. The second movie, Temporary Wives — "One's fun... three can kill a guy" — was directed by "Gene Shamblin" and seems lost; check your attic.
Titillated Tex
(1970, dir. Unknown)
The film seems
to be lost, but the trailer is still around online, just not on any website we would want to embed from. The
trailer
is definitely NSFW. Despite what some sites claim, it isn't a Russ Meyer movie.
DVD Drive-in
goes so far as to say, that the "film [was] apparently unreleased despite
the obvious involvement of Harry Novak".
Plot? Softcore sex and more softcore sex — including softcore senior sex — and Uschi shot from her best angle... or should we say "breast angle"?
Meandering off
to other cast members, Jack Richesin (13 Feb 1917 – 5 Jan 1986), one of the
male members, wrote the screenplay to Ted V. Mikels's The Doll Squad (1973, trailer below), which features the great Tura Satana
(10 July 1938 – 4 Feb 2011).
Trailer
to
The Doll Squad:
The Art of Gentle Persuasion
(1970, dir. Sanford White)
Possibly
a.k.a. The Gentle Persuasion. Director
"Sanford White" is best known, if at all, as the scriptwriter to William Rotsler's great
anti-drug roughie, Lila a.k.a. Mantis in Lace (1968 / trailer further below).
Considering Rotsler's
penchant for being a jack of all trades and using pseudonyms, we find
"Sanford White" a very suspicious name. The
Art of Gentle Persuasion is apparently both White's only
directorial project and his last foray into film, for he disappeared
afterwards. Prior to TAoGP, White
wrote and produced Gordon Heller's Free
Love Confidential (1967 / poster below) — Heller also ceased to exist after
his single film credit.
If we are to
believe The American Film Institute
Catalog of Motion Pictures (Volume 1, Part 1, Page 253), the theme song of The Art of Gentle Persuasion, entitled Sexy World, is sung by "Tushi
Grabasso". We figure this movie here a lost film, as so little is to be found
about it. Check your attic.
Trailer to William Rotsler's
Lila a.k.a. Mantis in Lace (1968):
Though
described as a white-coater by most, TCM
has a plot description — the only one we could find — that doesn't sound very
"documentary": "Rolf, a self-assured executive known as 'The
Boss,' runs his home and his business by the same guiding principle: 'What's
good for the boss — is good for the company.' He dominates an assortment of
people, including his wife and domestic servants, his friends, and his business
associates, and encourages them to participate in a variety of sexual practices
— various positions of sexual intercourse, mate swapping, group sex, lesbianism,
anal and oral sex." Uschi is there for the ride, but we know not where.
Marriage American Style
(1970, dir. Unknown)
This soft-core
short (c. 37 m), which plays like a less-than-one-day wonder but could well be an
eviscerated version of a forgotten longer-length one-day wonder, undoubtedly
makes a titular play upon the then-popular anthology comedy TV show, Love American Style (1969-74). It should
not be mistaken with the Ralph Rose &
Marty Friedman comedy Marriage American
Style? (1966),
a film so obscure that it hasn't even found its way into the imdb yet.
Full movie —
Marriage American
Style?
According to Sex Gore Mutants, "Marriage makes no sense, has no style and appears to have been made with virtually no script. Direction is perfunctory at best, while performances are game but insanely overbearing. Lighting and camerawork are hideous, and production values are strictly non-existent. The sex is limited in this 38-minute production, with the only real prolonged scenes of flesh being the aforementioned lesbian encounter between Candy and Miss Grunt (Uschi). But, let's face it, the only reason you'd want to watch this mess is for Digard. […] Here, she looks fantastic and those breasts are given a healthy amount of screen time."
The magazine that the boss reads at his desk is the December 1970 issue of Playboy (cover above), featuring centerfold Carol Imhof, and the soundtrack supposedly uses (uncredited) Johnny Pearson's (18 June 1925 – 20 March 2011) Sleepy Shores… which seems odd, seeing that the song was released in 1972.
Johnny Pearson's
Sleepy Shores:
Thaw the Frigid Bird
(1970, dir. Unknown)
Another
one-day wonder with no credits in which Uschi has three sex scenes (straight,
lesbian and orgy). Once a "lost" movie, it was rediscovered for DVD
release. The common plot description: "From 1970
comes the classic erotic title Thaw the Frigid Bird, starring
stacked Swedish magazine model Uschi Digard in a tale of what happens when
business and pleasure come together. In this office taboo trysts and scandalous
sex are the order of the day. Enjoy this vintage film digitally for the first
time!"
DVD Drive-In, which only saw the
trailer, says Thaw the Frigid Bird is
"another graphic sex film with an appearance by She of the Gargantuan Bust,
Uschi Digart, the undisputed queen of the Double DDs! It has an unsexy love
scene with a nasty bald guy and his 'secretary' on top of a desk, followed by
the steamy Uschi bedroom scene where she really gets into it! When was she
never into it?! […] It looks ultra-cheap, which is a major plus, and was shot
with live sound apparently!"
Trivia: Uschi's female costar, Fifi Watson, played the title character in Mona: The Virgin Nymph (1970), poster above, "the first, theatrically-released, feature-length 35mm 100% hardcore narrative film with an actual storyline — actually a threadbare plot (accompanied by explicit sex scenes) that created the pattern for future porn films of the 70s. [AMC Filmsite]"
Trivia: Uschi's female costar, Fifi Watson, played the title character in Mona: The Virgin Nymph (1970), poster above, "the first, theatrically-released, feature-length 35mm 100% hardcore narrative film with an actual storyline — actually a threadbare plot (accompanied by explicit sex scenes) that created the pattern for future porn films of the 70s. [AMC Filmsite]"
Sexual
Freedom in Denmark
(1970, dir. "M.C. von
Hellen")
A
"documentary" a.k.a. Dansk sexualitet, Sensual Freedom in Denmark, and Love and Sexual Freedom. "M.C. von
Hellen" was a guy named John Lamb (30 April 1917 – 21 Dec 2006),
a.k.a. John Haynes and/or Harry Z. Ross. Lamb's first movie,
which he wrote and directed, is the seldom seen Mermaids of Tiburon (1962), which features the great Diane Webber a.k.a. Marguerite Empey (29
July 1932 – 19 Aug 2008), one of
the great nudists of all time. She, as Marguerite Empey, was a Playboy
magazine's Playmate of the Month twice: first in May 1955, and then in
February 1956. (She is also a total Babe of Yesteryear and fond memory of many
a post-Baby Boomer.)
The totally unknown music group
Islandrocks
uses Mermaids of Tiburon for their video
to the song Freaky Girl:
As
a director, John Lamb went "documentary" a total of four
times: prior to Sexual Freedom, he took a look at nudism in The Raw Ones (1965
/ trailer), and then he later decided to document Sexual
Liberty Now (1971 / full NSFW doc) and Sex Freaks (1974 / full NSFW film). But perhaps his most out there movie is the
unjustly forgotten head-trip downer, Mondo Keyhole (1966), co-directed by Jack
Hill.
Trailer to
Mondo Keyhole:
To return to
Sexual Freedom in Denmark: according to the
abstract
to Eric Schaefer's scholarly text Hardcore Education: The Case of Sexual
Freedom in Denmark, Sexual
Freedom in Denmark "explored the
liberalization of censorship in Denmark in the late 1960s while advocating for
similar changes in the United States. Lamb used explicit sexual imagery with
educational material to promote enlightened attitudes. The film was a box
office success and became a popular tool with teachers while paving the way for
hardcore movies on American screens."
In Jason S. Martinko's The XXX Filmography, 1968-1988, Martinko says: "This was a groundbreaking film when it was released in American theaters in 1969 or 1970. It gives an honest view of the perspectives of sexuality and pornography by Danish people of all ages. In Denmark at the time, there were no censorship laws against any material depicting consenting adults in a sexual manor. It gives an interesting visual history of Greek, Indian and Chinese erotica; a section on different lovemaking positions; a segment on contraceptives and how to use them; a graphic sequence showing childbirth and breeched birth; prostitution; female frigidity; the history of censorship in the USA; a segment about nudist colonies and more."
Like most white-coaters and marriage-manual films, it hasn't aged all that well. Sex Gore Mutants gets it right by saying, "Freedom is a bizarre relic, an oddly compelling and undeniably amusing throwback to a time when the very idea of pornography worried and offended people. It's impossible in these Internet-savvy times to appreciate how shocking this must've been upon its release, but it holds up as an interesting albeit naïve and overly serious 'documentary' regardless."
Among those featured in the documentary: Rasa von Werder (born 16 July 1945), better-known as Kellie Everts, Miss Body Beautiful of 1969 and Miss Nude Universe of 1969 — that's her above. She was into weightlifting long before it was socially acceptable: "On February 2, 2007 the World Bodybuilding Guild (WBBG) awarded her 'Progenitor' of Female Bodybuilding and in August 2007 inducted her into their Hall of Fame. [Wikipedia]" Currently, she strips for god and runs The University of Mother of God Church.
The female of film's bookend scenes of a nude couple cavorting like Adam and Eve in nature is none other than: Uschi. Who knows who the guy is... Do you know?
In Jason S. Martinko's The XXX Filmography, 1968-1988, Martinko says: "This was a groundbreaking film when it was released in American theaters in 1969 or 1970. It gives an honest view of the perspectives of sexuality and pornography by Danish people of all ages. In Denmark at the time, there were no censorship laws against any material depicting consenting adults in a sexual manor. It gives an interesting visual history of Greek, Indian and Chinese erotica; a section on different lovemaking positions; a segment on contraceptives and how to use them; a graphic sequence showing childbirth and breeched birth; prostitution; female frigidity; the history of censorship in the USA; a segment about nudist colonies and more."
Like most white-coaters and marriage-manual films, it hasn't aged all that well. Sex Gore Mutants gets it right by saying, "Freedom is a bizarre relic, an oddly compelling and undeniably amusing throwback to a time when the very idea of pornography worried and offended people. It's impossible in these Internet-savvy times to appreciate how shocking this must've been upon its release, but it holds up as an interesting albeit naïve and overly serious 'documentary' regardless."
Among those featured in the documentary: Rasa von Werder (born 16 July 1945), better-known as Kellie Everts, Miss Body Beautiful of 1969 and Miss Nude Universe of 1969 — that's her above. She was into weightlifting long before it was socially acceptable: "On February 2, 2007 the World Bodybuilding Guild (WBBG) awarded her 'Progenitor' of Female Bodybuilding and in August 2007 inducted her into their Hall of Fame. [Wikipedia]" Currently, she strips for god and runs The University of Mother of God Church.
The female of film's bookend scenes of a nude couple cavorting like Adam and Eve in nature is none other than: Uschi. Who knows who the guy is... Do you know?
As can be
seen by the advertisement above, and
as one would naturally expect, Sexual Freedom in Denmark was also
screened at one of the many (legendary) Pussycat Theaters, in this case the tenth that was opened (of around
an eventual 30 or 40 locations), at 7734 Santa Monica.
The chain, originally founded by the underappreciated Dan Sonney (23 Jan 1915 – 3 March 2002) and the legendary Dave
Friedman when they bought an abandoned 40-year-old, 400-seat theater at 444
South Hill Street (Fifth and Hill) in downtown L.A. once known as Bard's Cinema Theatre
and/or the Town Theatre, was eventually taken over by the
couple Vince Miranda
(15 April 1933 – 3 June 1985) and George Tate a.k.a. George Munton (unknown –
unknown). Between 1977 and 1994, at the Pussycat at 7734 Santa Monica, which
began its history as the Monica,
"the Los Angeles Police Department made 2000 arrests for lewd conduct on
the premises". By 2003, it was the last remaining Pussycat after filmmaker
Roger Corman saved it "by brokering a deal with an unnamed buyer". It
now belongs to Jonathan Cota, who became George Tate's significant other soon
after Miranda's death from cancer. Currently, the location is known as Studs at the Pussycat
and runs gay porn.
Trivia: When the
theater manager of the original Monica got busted for showing "obscene
materials" in the mid-60s, he got busted for screening the film above, Stephen C.
Apostolof's Motel Confidential (1969
/ scene). Plot: "An old Italian dude runs the aptly named Quickie Motel where a variety
of customers come for romantic romps, seedy sex and afternoon delights. [Movie DB]"
Trailer to
Dad Made Dirty
Movies (2015):
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