As we pointed out last year in our blog entry More or Less "Best of" 2021, "Best of" is always relative here at a wasted life, as the films we give good reviews don't always show up in our end of the year round-up while films we trash do. This is because our choice is based less on quality than staying power: how often we think back upon a film, or the general feeling it stirs when we think about it again. This year we wrote about a few more films than in 2021 — 27 to last year's 24 — but, nevertheless, we watch so much crap that coming up with a "Top 10" is a challenge. Unlike most years, this year the list consists of a full ten feature films. Of them all, only one was actually released in 2022, but then what matters for our list is not the release date but the year (2022) we watched the given movie.
As for the Short Films of the Month — they are linked to the left — all 12 are good/interesting or we wouldn't have featured them, but this year our "Best of" list is once again reserved only for full-length movies...
And so, here is our selection: the ten movies we watched in 2022 that we found the most noteworthy, for whatever reason, and in no particular order. And, as an added attraction, the movie we found to be the worst film we watched in 2022. (Roger Rodriguez's Alita: Battle Angel [2019 / trailer] is probably just as terrible, despite its huge budget and name cast, but we didn't bother writing about it — because of its budget and name cast — so we can't do it the [dis]honor of being listed.)
Click the linked titles to read the original, overly verbose reviews.
"Without doubt, it is the sets, costumes and cinematography that truly make this movie so different, so bizarre, so striking — and all that, combined with the cleavage and the muscles and the almost hallucinatory dialogue, is what gives the relatively slow-moving movie its fun factor." Trailer to
"To say that The House is a captivating film is an understatement. An anthology film, The House is of course distantly related to the horror anthology films of yore that so many of us fondly remember, but it takes a thorough turn towards individuality and autonomy by being neither live-action nor pure horror." Trailer to
"The makers of Jason X knew that they weren't making a masterpiece and instead of faking it, simply went with the flow. [...] Jason X ends up a surprisingly well-paced cheese-a-thon with some witty interludes, laughable dialogue, and entertaining low (high?) points, many of which are delivered or occur almost as asides." Trailer to
"Dollar for the Dead isn't exactly a terrible film. It is entertainingly ironic and often laconic, and it zooms along at a quick speed. Furthermore, despite the film's genre, much of the action owes less to the traditional or Spaghetti Western than to the unrealistic excesses of the Hong Kong crime and/or wuxia flicks [...], so even if Estevez isn't all that convincing when he's flipping in the air or sliding along the ground shooting his 12-shooters or 24-shooters or 48-shooters (all of which look like 6-shooters), the set pieces remain entertaining excesses." Trailer to
"An obscure and unknown (assumedly outside of Ireland that is) direct-to-DVD science cum nature-gone-wrong film that truly deserves a wider audience than it has [...]." Trailer to
"Whatever age-related 'flaws' Little Caesar might have, the movie remains a compact and riveting experience that foregoes any excess flab or flash, though more than one scene does owe a nod to the German expressionist films of the previous decade, if only due to the stage design, use of shadow or camera placement." Trailer to
"Strigoi, with its tangents and pacing and overall foreign-film look, probably owes more to what was once called 'art film' than to conventional contemporary horror, but whereas we once would mean that as an insult, here we mean it as a complement. The film is simply different in a good way, with a lot of personality (not to mention a bitchin' Balkan Beat soundtrack), and is definitely undeserving of its general obscurity." Trailer to
"[Horror Express] is a damn good train ride! Tense and well-made, it can still scare the bejeebies out of the younger set, while those who no longer pee in their pants at the scary bits will nevertheless find the slightly uneven journey an engrossing and suspenseful one, if lightly spiced with a touch of cheese and some truly fake science (the latter at a Kellyanne Conway scale of 'alternative science')." Trailer to
"We screened this with a small group of six at our weekly bad-film night, where only two of us even knew who John Waters was or what his filmography includes. And the other four found the movie hilarious, openly agreeing that the movie was way too good to be shown at a bad-film night, that it was a movie one could watch with friends and family — and that despite jokes about zombie porno-film patrons or autographing sex toys, gerbils in the rear, kidnapping and terrorism, incestuous rape, Satanism and so forth." Trailer to
"The Deadly Thief is a bad and dated movie, one would hope even by Bollywood standards, but it has its enjoyable points that makes it a fun watch in a psychotronic way." Argentine trailer to
"It's been a long time (okay, maybe not that long a time) since the last time we felt justified to say it, but in the case of Arturo Anaya's Fallen Angel a.k.a. Ángel caído, we must warn you: 'We've seen it so you don't have to.' [...] Like Donald Trump — and so many of his proto-fascist acolytes — this flick sucks syphilitic elephant dick." Trailer to
To more or less repeat what we have written in almost every previous entry of out multi-part Babe of Yesteryear review of the babes of Russ Meyer's Beyond the Valley of the Dolls:
Fifty-two years and six months ago, on 17 June 1970, Russ Meyer's baroque masterpiece Beyond the Valley of the Dolls hit the screens in the US of Anal. One of only two movies Meyer ever made for a major Hollywood studio (in this case, Fox), Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is without a doubt one of the Babest movies ever made.
"Using unknowns you avoid highly exaggerated salaries and prima donnas."
While we have yet to review Beyond the Valley of the Dolls here at a wasted life (if we did, we would foam at the mouth in raging rave), we have looked at it before: back in 2011, in our R.I.P. Career Review of Charles Napier (12 Apr 1936 – 5 Oct 2011), and again in 2013 in our R.I.P. Career Review for the Great Haji (24 Jan 1946 – 10 Aug 2013) — both appear in the film.
"This is not a sequel. There has never been anything like it!"
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In Haji's entry, we were wrote, among other things, the following: "Originally intended as a sequel to the 1967 movie version of Jacqueline Susann's novel Valley of the Dolls (trailer), Meyer and co-screenwriter Roger Ebert instead made a Pop Art exploitation satire of the conventions of the modern Hollywood melodrama, written in sarcasm but played straight, complete with a 'moralistic' ending that owes its inspiration to the Manson-inspired murder of Sharon Tate and her guests on August 9, 1969. Aside from the movie's absolutely insane plot, the cinematography is also noteworthy — as are the figures of the pneumatic babes that populate the entire movie. For legal reasons, the film starts with the following disclaimer: 'The film you are about to see in not a sequel to Valley of the Dolls. It is wholly original and bears no relationship to real persons, living or dead. It does, like Valley of the Dolls, deal with the oft-times nightmare world of show business but in a different time and context.' [...]"
"Any movie that Jacqueline Susann thinks would damage her reputation as a writer cannot be all bad."
Russ Meyer films are always populated by amazing females sights, but this one literally overflows its cups in an excess of pulchritude that (even if somewhat more demurely covered than in most of his films) lights the fires of any person attracted to women of the curvaceous kind that preceded today's sculptured plasticity. The film is simply Babe Galore — and so, for the year to come, we are looking at the T&As film careers of the women of the Babest Film of All Times, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. The size of their breasts roles is of lesser importance than the simple fact that they are known to be in the film somewhere, so we will look at the known unknowns in the background and the headlining semi-knowns in the front. That is, but for one notable exception: the National Treasure that is the Great Pam Grier. Though she had her film debut in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls somewhere in the background, and therefore should be included, we feel that a Wonderment of her caliber deserves an entry all of her own — a Sisyphean task we might one day take on...
In any event, for more than the year to come, Babes of Yesteryear will look deep into the cleavages eyes of the various females known to be in the movie, although one or two might barely register. They were all date material (barring, perhaps, the ethereal-looking one, now dead, that ended up murdering one husband and tried to do away with the second). So far, we have more or less going alphabetically (last name) and looked at:
Part I (June 2022), The Non-babe of Note of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls:
Part VII (Dec 2022), The Killer Chick of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls:
Samantha Scott
Born Andrea Claire, the attractive young actress credited in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls as Samantha Scott (31 May 1941 – 12 June 2015) had a rather miserable life and a short and mild career in mostly grindhouse trash until her final feature-film appearance in Meyer's first mainstream studio project, playing "Cynthia".
"The way she tells it, Andrea Claire grew up in New Jersey; at age 15 she was raped by a 22-year-old friend of her sister, got pregnant and was forced by her mother to marry the man, bore him yet another child, was beaten violently during the marriage and eventually sued for divorce. [...] Ms. Claire then moved to Los Angeles with her children where she worked off-and-on as a waitress and a secretary. Untrained and unskilled, she drifted from job to job and husband to husband, working intermittently as a call girl to provide for her family. Her second marriage lasted all of three days, ending in divorce after her husband demanded she give up her children. Husband number three was a Jordanian; the union was more of a business arrangement than a marriage, as he needed a wife in order to stay in the U.S. She married a fourth time in March 1980 after a ten-day courtship. That marriage lasted the same amount of time, until her husband went into a jealous rage. Andrea ran him out of their Tarzana apartment at the point of a butcher knife, threatening to put the blade between the man's shoulder blades. [Arthur Lymes @ Palm Springs Life]"
Elsewhere, in Dale Cowell's Samantha Scott: Beauty Queen Killer, her fourth husband after the Jordanian is explained with once sentence: "She married a fourth time to a 'con man' named Dereck who introduced her to his gay lover." In that book, the man she chased out with a knife was a fifth husband... just how many she married seems to vary in the articles found online. (Most sources, however, tend to list the next two men we mention as her fifth and sixth husbands, respectively.)
After Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Samantha Scott had a few appearances in Bewitched, but after 1971 she has no further known acting credits. Apparently she returned to being a call girl, which is how, in 1980, she met her next husband, the handicapped but wealthy and sex-hungry business man Robert Sand. She was 39, he 69, and by all reports not exactly a pleasant person. According to Dale Cowell, Sand's accountant suggested he save money by marrying her, so he did. She ended up stabbing him 27 times, killing him, in 1981. While the police were still trying to build a case, she met a 56-year-old widower named Joe Mack Mims at a church Christmas party and eventually married him — the day after she was arraigned for the murder of her first husband. It was a happy marriage until she tried to kill him a year later on Halloween night. Long story short: marriage annulled; she went to court and then jail (26 to life); Mims and she reconciled and decided to remarry while she was in jail, but he dropped dead of a heart attack in front of the prison door the day they were to tie the knot again.
For a view from someone who thinks her trial was a sham, read the article at True Democracy. In 2009, Andrea Claire Mims was denied parole, but she seems to have been released by 2014, for she appeared at the Bewitched Fan Fare, where she revealed that she was "battling cancer". David Pierce, author of The Bewitched History Book, says she died on 12 June 2015 [Facebook].
In any event, the photo above is the newest photo we could find of her, possible from around 2009. Now let's take a typically meandering and unfocused look at her filmic oeuvre leading up to her final feature-film role in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.
Bad Girls for the Boys
(1966, writ. & dir. William F. McGaha)
Samantha Scott made her "feature film" debut in this Atlanta-set and shot regional nudie cutie from William F. McGaha, whose short oeuvre of projects (variously in any combination of director, producer, writer and actor) ended not with his best-known terrible film, J.C. (1972 / trailer below), but with his fourth terrible (and now possibly lost) film, The Shrink (1973). Wither he went, no one knows, but Bad Girls for the Boys seems to have been his directorial debut.
Trailer to
J.C.:
As late as 2014, Bad Girls for the Boys was rediscovered and released on DVD: "Code Red found a lost film with 1966's Bad Boys for the Girls, so I guess this one has historical value. Because it certainly doesn't have artistic or entertainment value — zing! [...] It's one of those movies with no synced sound. The characters never speak, except when one of the narrators briefly takes a stab at doing a character's voice. The plot is simple enough: a bachelor ('Bill McGaha' as Billingsley Kleinfelter III) is sick and tired of every sexy woman he meets throwing himself at him. His married best friend (Bob Johnson [4 May 1920 – 31 Dec 1993] as Orville Duckworth) has the same problem with his sex-crazed wife (Bonnie Sinclair, below). So they go on vacation together to escape all women, but the wife follows them and they also encounter some more beautiful women who all throw themselves at them. [...] So much time is spent just observing them go fishing and camping you just feel like you're watching somebody's home movies [...]. [DVD Exotica]"
Samantha Scott plays "Daughter Brown". Daughter Brown's mom (?), Lucy Brown, is played by Dianne Stanley; she is generally credited as the same actress that played the un-credited female astronaut Stewert, who died while in suspended animation in space before the rocket landed, in The Planet of the Apes (1968 / trailer), but if you compare photos of the two, the lack of similarity tends to negate that possibility. That's her above to the right, while Samantha Scott is in the midst of taking off her blouse. In the movie, the mommy and daughter tend to catfight.
Orville Duckworth, or rather the actor Bob Johnson, had a very limited career: he does diverse un-credited voices in the English dub of The Black Scorpion (1957 / trailer) and appeared in John A. Russo's Midnight in 1980 (trailer). (Russo, as you might know, did the screenplay to the classic, Night of the Living Dead [1968].) That's Duckworth cum Johnson below looking at an ad for the American release of Der Sittlichkeitsverbrecher (1963), which got retitled The Molesters (trailer) and had inserts added of such fine pulchritude as that of Babe of YesteryearGigi Darlene for its stateside release.
Most of the few who have bothered to watch Bad Girls for the Boys seem to agree that it is a bad movie (as in really "bad"), though some see it as "an amusing time capsule of regional [...] exploitation at its quirkiest. [Indiewire]"
Video Zeta One, whence we took many of the photos here, thinks Bad Boys for the Girls is "Truly one of the dumbest, silliest things ever put to celluloid. It's so innocent it's damn near endearing. I had a great time watching this peppy little romp through mid-sixties sleaze. If there were one thing I'd change it's the dubbing — that did get extremely old. Otherwise, this was the cinematic equivalent of a Twinkie; pure fluff with nothing of substance — but I wouldn't have it any other way. Delish."
As obscure as the film is, it did indeed make it to the theatres. Above, in Akron, Ohio, at the Astor, it shared the bill with the Pat Barrington film Agony of Love (1966 / Pat dreaming), which we looked at in 2014 (Harry Novak Part III); below, in Birmingham, N.C., at the Art, it was paired with the decidedly sleazier Roberta & Michael Findlay film, Take Me Naked (1966 / full film).
Bad Boys for the Girls, in any event, is easy to find on any number of porn film websites. Look and ye shall find.
On YouTube,
Schlockmeisters watched the movie for you:
The Head Mistress
(1968, dir. B. Ron Elliot)
Great poster (poster artist unknown); the film was supposedly shot in five days. Director B. Ron Elliot (10 April 1932 – 13 May 2001) is a.k.a. Byron Elliott Mabe.
"The Head Mistress (1968) is a low-budget, independent sexploitation film written and produced by David F. Friedman and directed by Byron Mabe [10 Apr 1932 – 13 May 2001]. It stars Marsha Jordan, Victor Brandt, and Julia Blackburn. [...] Part of a series of colorful costume dramas Friedman wrote based on literary sources. The story, set in 17th-century Italy, is [supposedly] based on two stories from Boccaccio's The Decameron.* Filmed in and around an elegant Medieval-style mansion in the Hollywood hills. Marsha Jordan, one of the biggest stars of the exploitation genre, plays the lesbian mistress of a girl's school. Features the usual Friedman ingredients: [lots of] lesbianism, nudity, simulated sex, flagellation, and risqué humor. [Internet Archives, whence we found the trailer below.]"
*For a far more "literary" adaptation of the "masterpiece of classical early Italian prose", dare we suggest Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Decameron (1971 / Italian trailer)?
Trailer to
The Head Mistress:
DVD Drive-in has the plot: "Blond and busty Marsha Jordan* [as 'Vanessa Van Dyke'], one of the top sexploitation starlets of the 60s, plays the director at a school of virgins in 17th century Italy. When the old gardener (Ray Sebastian [?] as 'Micro Cosim') of the school retires, a young stud named Mario (Victor Brandt, of Neon Maniacs [1986 / trailer] as 'Barry Cobbler') takes over his job by pretending to be mute and dumb. Mario bangs most of the girls (who mainly sit around having nude picnics). Marsha catches one of the girls (Gee Gentell [as 'Malinda Malice']) with Mario, so she whips her and proceeds to make love to her. Afterwards, Marsha explains to the bewildered girl why she is now a lesbian in a sequence explained as a flashback. Before working at the school, she was madly in love with a young man [John Tull, un-credited]. While making out with him in a field one night, a pair of cretins lops off her lover's head and buries it in the mud. They then rape Marsha in her bedroom (well, one guy fondles her torso while the other sucks on her feet), and then exit the room without ever removing their pants. Marsha digs up her lover's skull and plants it in a flower pot by her bed. The vines from the plant 'arise' to fornicate with Marsha's supple breasts and then smother the two dopes when they try to re-bury the skull! [...]" As to be expected, Mario eventually rapes the Headmistress and he's such a stud that she goes straight again and they live happily ever after. (Considering the final scene in which a variety of pregnant students leave the school, the fertile Mario definitely lived happily ever after.)
*Considering how major of a presence Marsha Jordan, "the First Lady of Sexploitation ", was in her day, and the number of film projects she took part in and personalities she worked with, she remains an oddly elusive figure and has seemingly never been interviewed. And that despite the fact that Marcia Jordan Moore is relatively easy of locate, living so rural that it could be a setting for a horror film.
Samantha Scott (above right, credited as "Sarah Stunning") plays Philomena, one of the students of the girl school and the first one to bang Mario: she hangs herself in her bedroom after she finds out that she is pregnant. When her topless body is discovered by fellow student Leticia (Fancher Fague [?]), Leticia takes off Philomena's dress and starts messing around with the body! But who actually made the baby? Grindhouse Databaseadds some confusion by saying that the "subplot involving a girl who hangs herself when she finds out she is pregnant (supposedly from the handyman's work), features some bizarrely funny developments when her boyfriend comes to the school to uncover the reasons for her suicide despite the fact that he is actually the cause. The ridiculous fight the boyfriend and the handyman get into over the girl's suicide is one of the funniest moments in the film."
Yep, as Video Zeta One points out, the movie is just "Another David F. Friedman sexploitation flick featuring Marsha Jordan, a vengeful house plant, a rapist fake mute, Samantha Scott, decapitation, surprise necrophilia, erotic whippings, and two bathtub scenes. [...] Points for gobs of nudity, but even more points for unparalleled weirdness. The vengeful houseplant scene alone makes this worthwhile. Add in the wildly bizarre necrophilia and you have yourself a curiosity worth watching."
The Head Mistress got the tabloid treatment when it came out: 64 pages, 12 pages in color. "It tells the story of the film and presents photo stills from all the scenes that are described. At the end is a 12-page 'behind the scenes' section about the making of the movie."
The advert of the film above is from The La La Land Times (10 May 1968). At least at the Gala Drive-in in Akron, Ohio, and the Blue Sky Drive-in in Wadsworth, Ohio, The Head Mistress was part of a fun triple feature: She Freak (1967 / trailer) is Byron Mabe's own sleazy remake of Tod Browning's Freaks (1932), while The Penthouse (1967 / trailer) is a British "talky psychos terrorizing innocent people in an environment they can't escape" flick.
Brand of Shame
(1968, dir. Byron Mabe)
Not based on the 1965 lesbian lit novel Brand of Shame written by "Donna Richards" and published by Domino Books, cover below.
"Donna Richards", by the way, was one of many pen names of Donato Francisco Rico II (26 Sept 1912 – 27 Mar 1985), more commonly referred to as Don Rico, the man who created the Black Widow at Marvel. He also co-scripted the Mexican grindhouse classic, Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary (1975 / trailer).
A.k.a. Nude Django (1968) and Django Nudo und die lüsternen Mädchen von Porno Hill, Brand of Shame (trailer) is another Mabe directorial project produced by David F Friedman, who co-wrote the screenplay with Gene Radford... and with another great poster (not to mention German DVD cover) by Artists Unknown.
Samantha Scott (above, credited as "Donna Duzzit") plays Rachel Clark — she is actually the main character of the movie, so this could well be the biggest role of her career. The biggest boobs of the movie are not the male stars but are more or less a tie between those of Marsha Jordan and 60s/70s pin-up Cara Peters, playing Bad Gal Delilah.
German Trailer (NSFW) to
Django Nudo & die lüsternen Mädchen von Porno Hill:
The movie was given its Django Nudo moniker when the great Euro-sleazemonger Erwin C. Dietrich (4 Oct 1930 – 15 March 2018) brought the movie to Europe, adding a few new scenes and redubbing it as a comedy. (Example dialog: "Watch out, Django! Behind you! A cactus!")
The German-language posters with photos further above were designed not by Artist Unknown, but by George Morf, the man who claims to have discovered Ingrid Steeger. The German version even had a theme song sung by "Peter Graf", with music by the great Walter Baumgartner (16 Nov 1904 – 3 Oct 1997); the music to the American release was done by William Allen Castleman (7 Jun 1922 – 5 Feb 2006), whom some might remember as the director of Bummer! (1973 / trailer), starring Carol Speed.
Peter Graf sings the theme song to
Django Nudo:
Once upon a Western has the plot: "School teacher Rachel Clark (Samantha Scott) is heading West to Boone City to claim her father's gold mine. No one in Boone City knows where the mine is, but she's got a map to the general location and a secret that's supposed to reveal the specific location of the shaft once she gets there. She adopts lawyer Steve Turner (Steve Allen as 'Steve Stunning') — Mr. 'I solve more cases with my gun than in a court' — as her protector. And she's going to need a protector in wild and woolly Boone City. The busty saloon owner named Miss Mollie (Marsha Jordan again as 'Vanessa Van Dyke') takes one look at the virginal Ms. Clark and decides she wants to bed her. Gambler Craig Benson (Steve Vincent as 'Bart Black') hears about the gold mine and decides he's going to steal if from her. And if that means tying her to a tree and whipping her until she gives up the location, so be it."
Video Zeta One was disappointed in the movie: "My theory that Samantha Scott was actually a good actress was dashed. She's as bad at acting as she is at not murdering husbands. Marsha Jordan is wasted; only one scene worth watching. The sex scenes overall are filmed poorly. Aside from a few exploitation flourishes, it's pretty low energy overall."
At Guns, Ghouls and Gals, Boris Lugosi has a few nice things to say: "Okay, Mabe [...] does do well on a couple of fronts. The scenery's actually pretty good, and is filmed quite well most of the time. I wouldn't mind exploring the wild west of Brand of Shame. The original music by Billy Allen is more suited to television, but doesn't do the film any damage. The male leads, Steve Allen and Steve Vincent, [...] actually aren't too bad [...]. Steve (the good one) can actually convey the square-jawed, blue-eyed hero type in between taking his clothes off. The women don't fare so well, though. [...] 'Donna Duzzit' [i.e., Samantha Scott] is as wooden as anyone I've seen on the screen. We certainly don't get the impression she's either a virgin, or a schoolteacher of any note! 'Paula Pleasure' as Delilah, Bart's squeeze, is the only really erotic presence in the film, to my mind. Buxom but natural, she's a bad girl with some mighty purty red lingerie. The old west was wild in more than a few ways, apparently. Unfortunately, though looking great, her sex scenes are as vanilla as all the others. Now, to that title. Is there a big 'branding' scene for some hapless victim, for those of you with a penchant for such things? Nowhere to be found, unless I blinked and missed it. No branding, no shame. Oh well, it's quite a good title, anyway. [...] I just wish the sex hadn't been so listlessly filmed and performed by such lacklustre actors. If the sleaze factor was ramped up higher, we could have had a softcore classic on our hands. As such, it's still a pleasant little night's distraction, with some reasonably effective western trimmings."
In Chicago, at the Grand Playhouse, Brand of Shame got paired with another Marsha Jordan film, The Wild Females (1968), which is possibly a lost film by now.
At the good ol' Akron Astor, it was paired with Mondo Pazzo — which we assume could be either Mondo pazzo... gente matta! a.k.a The World Is Crazy... The People Are Crazy! (1966 / full film in Italian) or Gualtiero Jacopetti & Franco Prosperi's Mondo Cane II (1963), which had a release in the US as Mondo Pazzo.
Trailer to
Mondo Cane I (1962) & II (1963):
And, at the infamous Dragon, it got paired A Sweet Sickness (1968).
Opening and closing to
A Sweet Sickness:
College Girls
(1968, dir. Stephen C. Apostolof)
A.k.a. College Girls Confidential. "The late Stephen Apostolof (25 Feb 1928 – 14 Aug 2005) specialized in all-sex films, with threadbare plots serving as clotheslines to hang plentiful sex scenes that bordered on hardcore. Always well-shot and featuring the most beautiful girls in California, this is one of his better films, shot in black-and-white and including some light kink and voyeurism. I was shocked at the scene of a boys' shower room with lots of bare butts! Male nudity in sexploitation? Almost unheard of! Marsha Jordan is the name female star, and Forman Shane [a.k.a. Harvey Shain] appears as a fraternity pledge. [DVD Drive-in]"
Samantha Scott plays a character named Dancer, so maybe she plays a gal who likes to dance in this early career Stephen C. Apostolof exploiter. In 1974, the title was re-appropriated for a lost hardcore sex film, poster below, which, starring Harry Reems, was once considered "director unknown"; nowadays, it is attributed to Michael Findlay (27 Aug 1937 – 16 May 1977).
Back in 2013, here at a wasted life we wrote: "Apostolof, the well-informed might know, made his directorial début as 'A.C. Stephen' with the Ed-Wood-Jr-scripted Orgy of the Dead (1965 / intro / full film) and then went on to work with Wood on at least seven more known projects: The Class Reunion (1972), Drop Out Wife (1972), The Snow Bunnies (1972), The Cocktail Hostesses (1973), Five Loose Women (1974 / trailer), The Beach Bunnies (1976) and Hot Ice (1978). According to TCM, the plot to Apostolof's College Girls, which was distributed by Sack Amusement Enterprises (a now-defunct, once white-owned Texas firm which has its place in film history as once being the major distributor of 'race films'), is as follows: 'Behind the ivy-covered walls of an American University, students pursue a variety of erotic activities. Professor Bryce (Sean O'Hara) prefers sex "research" to teaching biology; no female student ever fails his course. Rosie and Fluff (Gee Gentell) take charge of initiating the virgin Wistful (Randy Lee) into Lamba Sigma Delta (LSD) fraternity. At the celebration that follows, inhibitions are released with a variety of stimulants. Harry (Moose Howard), a roughneck football player, rapes Janie (Dianna Rosano), who is comforted by Prof. Bryce's lesbian wife (Michelle Rodan). 'He-Man' Charlie ([Harvey Shain as] Forman Shane), head of the fraternity, Class president, football hero and playboy, downs too many LSD tablets and attempts to fly off the balcony. He awakens in a doctor's office and swears off drug-induced excitement.'"
College Girls' scriptwriter Herbert F. Niccolls (as "Bruce Mitchell") has only one other known credit to his name: he co-scripted Stephen C. Apostolof's very first known film credit (as scriptwriter and producer), the "true story" Journey to Freedom (1957 – check your attics for that film). Recently, an even earlier film credit has been added to Apostolof's name at imdb: he supposedly had a role in Rupert Kathner's Phantom Gold [1937], an Australian film considered by some as one of the worst ever made down under. Personally, we here at a wasted life doubt that the then 9-year-old Bulgarian is in the film. It is generally accepted that he didn't flee the country until 1948 — Journey to Freedom is based on his experiences. Stephen C. Apostolof has even had an extremely interesting documentary film made about him, Dad Makes Dirty Movies (2011), as well as a book of the same title.
Trailer to
Dad Makes Dirty Movies:
But to return to College Girls. Video Zeta Jonessays, "Unbelievably cheesy, but still a lot of fun. [...] Too much run time is taken up by poor excuses for sex scenes. If they'd have trimmed that down, and kept to the swingin' sexy co-eds and their shenanigans, it would've been much improved."
"Some of the sex is unpleasant (the old professor rapes his frigid wife), but most of the scenes are enjoyably goofy. Even though College Girls Confidential is rather tame, it's hard to hate a flick with this much nudity when the running time is just over an hour long. I've seen better acting from a cardboard cutout, but some of the characters are pretty amusing. The funniest character is the gay male cheerleader who likes to hang out in the boy's locker room and ogle football players in the shower. But the best part of the flick is the hopelessly cheesy dialogue. It's loaded with bad puns and double entendres like: 'Let's review your... assets!', 'Let's do a little field work!', and 'Talk about higher education!' [Video Vacuum]"
"Only at this tail end does Apostolof seem to condemn the behavior of the student body upon which he has capitalized in the preceding hour; you won't buy his sudden about-face, but you'll certainly enjoy it. Go looking for skin, not plot, as the characters have about as much need for identities as they do belts. [Flick Attack]"
Of the cast, other than Marsha Jordan the only one have had a mild film career is the previously mentioned Forman Shane a.k.a. Harvey Shain, who made his un-credited debut in Day of the Nightmare (1965 / full film). He hasn't been seen for a while, but one of his biggest roles was in the psycotronic fave, Planet of the Dinosaurs (1977 / trailer below).
Trailer to
Planet of the Dinosaurs:
The Daisy Chain
(1969, dir. Donald A. Davis)
A possibly lost film, so check your attic. So many of the credited writers that worked with Don Davis never seem to have taken part in another film, thus giving credence to the concept that multitude of names may merely be Davis pseudonyms. The Daisy Chain is hardly any different: the supposed scriptwriter is unknown, as in un-credited.
We've looked at Donald A. Davis a.k.a. Don Davis (7 June 1932 – 23 Sept 1982) before, like in our R.I.P.: Harry H. Novak blog entries Parts IV, V, XII, and XV. And The Daisy Chain even gets a miniscule nod at R.I.P. Dick Miller, Part III (1968-73). Davis began his credited film career* as a production assistant on Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957 / trailer), in which he also appears as a drunk — percipient casting, seeing that drinking killed him. Wood apparently later wrote the screenplay to a lost Davis film, The Gun Runners [1969] and worked on Davis's ode to Meyer-sized mummeries, For Love & Money [1967], which later "inspired" Wood's novel The Sexecutives, one cover directly above.
*The AFI Catalogue, which is often about as reliable as the imdb, has him active as a child actor in a few films like The Return of Rusty (1946) and The Bamboo Blonde (1946 / a song), but we have our big doubts...
Not from this film,
though she is in this film –
Marsha Jordan!
Neither Davis nor his films get much respect, and more than one has seemingly disappeared into the void — as has, apparently, The Daisy Chain. The poster is easy enough to find online (with Samantha Scott roughly at six o'clock — and Marsha Jordan at eight), but there doesn't seem to have ever been a VHS or DVD release.
As the advertisements above and below reveal, The Daisy Chain found its way into cinemas of selective taste: at the Dragon Art in Florida, it was teamed with Peter Perry Jr.'s Kiss Me Quick! (1964 / full film), while at the Strand in Kansas, it was teamed with Arch Hudson's Tortured Females (1964 / full film), both films that have survived.
Over at the imdb, back in 2003 chizchaz remembered the movie: "I saw this film in a small theater in London many years ago and went back to see it again sometime later, so I must have really liked it. I remember it as typical of late 60s sexploitation acting and production values but it actually did have a plot and some very bodacious ladies in the cast, including the lovely Marsha Jordan. Plot: A secret club of airline stewardesses organise themselves to service the sexual needs of wealthy businessmen and also some of the other aircrew. They call themselves 'The Daisy Chain'. Enter an innocent young newcomer stewardess. She is gradually enticed into the club and eventually earns her badge of honour, a gold 'Daisy Chain' brooch which makes her part of the sisterhood. [...] Nothing nasty, froth but fun. [...]" Also at imdb, roughly a year later rogerbutthead added: "[...] There was a gorgeous, busty redhead who had a scene in the cockpit of the airliner and [...] the villain of the movie was the mother of the youngest stewardess."
Of the known actors and actresses in The Daisy Chain, Sanford Mitchell later appeared in one of everyone's favorite psychotronic horror films, Ted V. Mikels's great The Corpse Grinders (1971).
Trailer to
The Corpse Grinders (1971):
As scenes from Davis's The Daisy Chain were among the diverse scenes from diverse Davis films that Davis cut together make his censorship "documentary" Wild Outtakes (1969), in theory that film — which likewise has disappeared into the void — might also feature Samantha Scott.
Has nothing to do with the movie, but the year prior to the release of the Davis's The Daisy Chain, an unknown and unsuccessful all-female psychedelic garage rock band named The Daisy Chain, from Fullerton, CA., released their only album, Straight or Lame.
The Daisy Chain —
Straight or Lame:
Wild Gypsies
(1969, writ. & dir. Marc B. Ray)
Marc B. Ray might be a mildly familiar name to some due to the psychotronic faves Scream Bloody Murder (1972 / full film), which he wrote and directed, and the proto-slasher The Severed Arm (1973 / full film), which he wrote. Wild Gypsies was his directorial debut of his extremely limited directorial career.
You would think that a movie that gets a featured pictorial in Penthouse (April 1970, cover above with Stephanie McLean, PenthousePet of the Year of 1971) would garner a bit more attention, especially since it can be found on VHS, but Wild Gypsies remains obscure.
But then, "[Wild Gypsies] is without merit except for the good photography of Steven Burum, who has become respected doing cinematographically intriguing films like Rumble Fish (1983 / trailer). [Encyclopedia.com]"
Not inspired by the film —
Gypsy songs:
The AFI Catalog, however, has the plot: "A band of gypsies encamped in a forest remain unaware that one of their former kinsmen, Anton (Todd Grange), is stealthily keeping a rendezvous with his lover, Marguerite (Samantha Scott). After making love to her, Anton murders her. The gypsies discover her body, and it is revealed that Anton was refused Marguerite's hand in marriage by the tribe, but that he continued to pursue her. Discovered together in violation of the gypsy code, he was tortured and scarred by the superstitious gypsies. The tribe now pursues him, in search of vengeance. They ransack a nearby farm and kidnap a pair of travelers who are brother and sister. Maria (Gayle Clarke) entices the brother out into the woods to make love. The sister becomes attracted to Juan (Wayne Lundy), and they swim naked in the moonlit lake. The two return to camp and come across the murdered bodies of Maria and the brother. Juan sets out in pursuit of Anton, who he believes is the culprit. Anton steals into the camp just as Juan leaves on horseback to trail him. Anton kills Juan's brother and kidnaps the sister, but Juan returns, kills Anton, and rescues his love."
That's the dead Marguerite (Samantha Scott) above; killed in the nude, the demure white bra was drawn on afterwards just for the movie still.
Somewhere along the way it was part of a triple feature at the Dragon with Zoltan G. Spencer's hilarious Sisters in Leather (1969 / full film) — "They have my wife and they're doing a pretty good job of turning her into a dyke!" — and horror auteur Peter Walker's early sex comedy, School for Sex (1969 / trailer).
Samantha Scott's non-career reaches its nadir in this 60-minute softcore one-day wonder in which no one uses their real name on the credits, when and if there are even any credits. "Real" cast names are the result of the eagle eyes of film fanatics like those at Video Zeta Jones, which describes the "film" as: "Basically just one long sex scene, more threadbare on plot than most pornos. It's nice to see some familiar faces, [Samantha] Scott and [Mary Jane] Shippen, and it does deliver more than its share of sex and skin; otherwise a forgettable waste of time."
Erotica Films use Something Weird's own film description: "A young dude (Rod Marine [a.k.a. Rick Cassidy,* pictured below]), panhandling in the streets of suburban Smutville U.S.A., gets the chance to earn some bread by washing windows but ends up watching bimbos instead. Why? Because he's The Horny Hobo! Peeping through the first window he's about to clean, he watches two peach-titted lovely lesbos, Miss Cute [still unknown] and Miss Cuter [Shippen], as they happily bump beavers in bed. When the gals finally discover him, they drag his horny hobo ass inside and take turns rubbing his bindlestiff raw, while he noses around their sweet little snatches, sneaking licks at their ripe cherries. It's all like some wild Hatha Yoga session as they assume positions no sex-starved swami could possibly dream up. And when Cute and Cuter are all banged out, another gal, Miss Cutest [Scott], a brunette with pigtails and perfect breasts, drops into bed for a bout with our hobo. After her, Miss Cutest of All appears, a platinum blonde who's really got the goods. [...]"
*"For those who don't know, the muscular porn star Rick Cassidy (born Richard Edward Ciezniak, Jr. [22 July 1943 – 23 Dec 2013]) was one of the few and first porn stars to be a success in both gay and straight porn. In the former, he was 'Jim Cassidy', and in the latter 'Rick Cassidy'. He retired soon after making New Wave Hookers (1985), some claim in response to the scandal caused by the revelation that his sperm receptacle of the movie, Traci Lords, was underage and therefore illegal to screw; others claim he got frightened off porn by the rise of AIDS. That's him below." Assuming that "Rod Marine" truly is "Rick Cassidy", Horny Hobo could well be his first non-loop porn film, straight or otherwise.
"The most explicit footage, and there is a lot of it, features Cassidy mouthing the nipples of his 4 co-stars, pretty endlessly. This was rarely seen in American sex films prior to 1969, but by 1970 the focus of softcore had moved to the crotch, where the hardcore explosion also centered. As with most films of the genre, the primary interest 30-odd years later is historical. This film was produced in Los Angeles in 1969; up in San Francisco they had already begun to make hardcore movies and exhibit them publicly. But no one would ever mistake this picture for a hardcore film. [12-string at the imdb]"
BTW: Swinger Girls, the second one-day wonder on the long out-of-print Something Weird double-feature video, is a cut version of an early Anthony Spinelli (21 Feb 1927 – 29 May 2000) porn film titled Youthful Lust a.k.a. Teenage Swinger (and originally credited to the director "John Mirish"). Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the movie is that it features Brigitte Maier (7 Aug 1952 – 13 Nov 2010) — and sex scenes featuring a late-stage, dad-aged man (James Lancaster). Plot: "Maggie Williams plays Harriet, a
concupiscent coed who's caught by her boyfriend's daddy (Lancaster) with his son's
dick in her mouth. And because Daddy is 'an uptight Victorian moralistic
square right out of a Shirley Temple movie,' he threatens to cut his
son off without a dime unless junior drops Harriet. 'It's unnatural to
have her mouth on you like that!' he tells sonny. [...] Harriet and her boyfriend (George Bondie) turn to Ginny (Brigitte Maier) who
takes a breather from balling her own boyfriend (Franklin Anthony) in order to initiate a
very 'unnatural' foursome at her pad. In the end, Daddy inexplicably
winds up with Harriet. Who cares how. Just lie back and enjoy all the 'unnatural' action here and you won't even notice the ironic ending. [Don the Deviate, at Something Weird]" Brigitte Maier & Maggie Williams appeared together in some five-odd films, including 1978's How Sweet It Is, a fact we mention only as an excuse to include that film's great poster below.
Diamond Stud
(1970, dir. Greg Corarito)
A big budget, soft-core rehash of the 1935 film Diamond Jim, which was based on the life of Diamond Jim Brady (12 Aug 1856 – 13 April 1917). It is easily found at NSFW porn sites like this one.
A Scene from
Diamond Jim:
An un-credited Samantha Scott shows up to play the maid, Miss Jackson — she flashes her boobs when she gets naked, like most women in the movie do. Nevertheless: "The director seemed to like filming the train more than any of the naked women."
At The Dragon Art, as obvious by the advert below, Diamond Stud got paired with the inferior Uschi film The Midnight Graduate (1970), which we looked at back in 2018 in Uschi Part II: 1970, Part I. At that time, that film was still "lost", but since then Alpha Blue checked their attic and found it. Now you can find it online, should you care to watch it.
The director of Diamond Stud is Greg Corarito, who seems to have died in 2017. He later made the off-the-wall, PI slab of grindhouse flotsam that is Delinquent Schoolgirls (1975), a.k.a. Carnal Madness, about which one of its stars, Colleen Brennen, once said "I always wondered how anybody managed to pull a movie out of that reeking pile of short ends. Shot over a long weekend in Santa Barbara, working unhampered by the demands of an actual script kept it moving briskly." (Of greater note, Delinquent Schoolgirls is the only known movie to feature the floppies of everyone's favorite hippy skin model, Roberta Pedon. Contrary to popular lore that still persists today, Perdon did not die in the 1980s but returned to her native land of Italy where she eventually published a best seller memoir about her hippy days.) Delinquent Schoolgirls, like Diamond Stud, was scripted by Maurice Smith, who went on to become a producer of low-grade tax deductions like Canes(2006).
Trailer to
Delinquent Schoolgirls:
"Diamond Stud, an ambitious, big-budget, epic-wannabe set in the early 1900s, is the world's first T&T movie: a film about trains & tits. [...] Shot in 1969, this was one of many independent films shot at the old Spahn Movie Ranch, which was also home to Charles Manson and his gang (prior to the killing of Sharon Tate on August 9, 1969). According to an interview with director Greg Corarito in Cult Movies, the catfight in the bar between two bare-ass babes was played by two of Charlie's girls: 'We got the Manson girls wrestling naked. And Manson was like in the background but we never messed with him. He was just always in the shadows. I never even said 'hello' to him.' Wise move, Greg. [Something Weird]"
Over at imdb, lor_ is of the opinion the last bit of trivia is bull diarrhea : "Typically, the notes on the Something Weird video box are misleading, quoting Corarito [...] as stating that two girls from Charlie Manson's cult were pressed into service for a lengthy cat fight in a bar scene. The two actresses we see are definitely soft porn talent, one of them even looks like Cara Peters, though they, like most of the other supporting players, are un-credited. One huge-breasted waitress serving Diamond Jim in a restaurant scene is typically underutilized. [...]"
The plot? "Rugged entrepreneur Diamond Jim (Robert Hall) proposes that railroad cars be made of steel instead of wood, and he offers to ride a fully-loaded train of steel cars across a weak wooden tressel to prove that the cars are safe. As the train approaches this crucial test, Diamond Jim contemplates his career. Diamond Jim, gifted with a magnetic personality, meets the beautiful Sarah (Monika Henreid) and falls in love with her. Diamond Jim's brother Dan is an evil person who leads a low, vulgar life. Diamond Jim's best friend Mark (John Alderman) is a dashing figure who takes his place in high society. The train rolls safely across the tressel, and Diamond Jim calls for a celebration at his mansion that includes Lillian (Ann Dee), a tempestuous singer. Jim's boon companion, hard-drinking John L. Sullivan, celebrates in his own fashion in a low-life bar across town and watches a ribald fight between two women. In 1906, Mark and Lillian travel to San Francisco and are caught in the earthquake. Mark suffers a broken leg and returns to Jim's mansion to recuperate. Jim suffers a heart attack, and while he is in the hospital, Mark and Jim's beloved Sarah fall in love. Dan breaks into Jim's house and is shot to death while attempting to steal Jim's diamonds. Jim's doctor tells him that his penchant for overeating could prove fatal, and when Jim is confronted with the love of Mark and Sarah, he orders a huge meal and begins to gorge himself. [AFI Catalog]"
The once ubiquitous John Alderman (12 Jun 1934 – 12 Jan 1987) is found in trashier as well as better films: Cleopatra Jones (1973), Black Samson (1974) and The Black Godfather (1974), both with Carol Speed, Lee Frost's Love Camp 7 (1969 / trailer) & The Animal (1968 / opening sequence), C.B. Hustlers (1976) & Saddle Tramp Women (1972) with the Great Uschi, Part IX and VIrespectively, Crypt of the Living Dead (1973 / trailer) and the one-of-a-kind Pink Angels (1971).
Trailer to
Pink Angels (1971):
M*A*S*H
(1970, dir. Robert Altman)
OK, a great film, supposedly. We've seen it, and who are we to disagree? In any event, we fell asleep while watching it, so we don't know whether an un-credited Samantha Scott shows up only in picture form as a pin-up, or whether she flits by as a nurse, or both. Different online source claim all or only one. We don't plan to watch the movie again to find out.
Trailer to
M*A*S*H:
The Tale of the Dean's Wife
(1970, dir. Benjamin Onivas)
The plot: "A small group of students is determined to force the hand of the school's dean (Roger Gentry), who they think is too conservative and needs to get with the times. To that end, they have met in the forest to discuss a list of demands that they plan to hand deliver to the dean, but the meeting seems to take a different turn. The students wind up scattering in pairs for sexual adventures instead of discussion, but once the clothes are back on, the group marches to confront the dean. Meanwhile, the dean's own wife also tires of his overly conservative nature and has started affairs with anyone willing, including the couple's own maid. Can the students show the dean the error of his ways and if so, what methods will be used to convince him? [Marc Fusion]"
Over at Trailers from Hell, Joe Dante says: "Tale of the Dean's Wife has nothing to offer but unconvincingly simulated sex, including the sort of orgies where the guys keep their socks and underwear on at all times [...]. The plot makes Sex Kittens Go to College (1960 / trailer below) look sophisticated. It starts with socially redeeming campus protest footage and the assurance that the picture will show the underlying reasons for such behavior. Sure enough, first thing we see is a group of rather elderly, pot-smoking, no-good permissive student degenerates who loll around all day fondling each other. [...]" Spoiler: The dean shoots himself in the end, after an LSD-spiced vodka induces him to partake in an orgy.
Trailer to
Sex Kittens Go to College:
Samantha Scott (as Prudence Smythe) plays Graces sister, Martha; that's her below wearing glasses. Grace, the titular dean's wife, is played by Luanne Roberts, though she is credited as Christine Murray; she is one of the few Californian sexploitation names that seemed to be on her way to crossing over to the mainstream when she suddenly left the biz for, well, who knows. Roger Gentry (25 Oct 1934 – 16 Dec 2013) is also found in The Black Gestapo (1975 / trailer, with the Great Uschi). Director "Benjamin Onivas" never made another film under that name.
Over at Spanking Art, they point out the spanking scenes: "The dean has a sexy French maid, Annabella (Lynn Lyon), who wears a traditional black and white uniform. Grace, the dean's wife, is annoyed to notice that she is not wearing underwear. As the maid bends over, Grace gives her a single hard hand smack. Later, a professor of erotic studies demonstrates his 'pleasure through pain' theory on the dean's willing wife. She lays [sic] down on the couch and he thrashes her vigorously with his belt. After five lashes across the seat of her dress proves ineffective, he gives her twenty more hard strokes on the bare. Her masochistic response has an aphrodisiac effect on the professor's wife and a lesbian sex scene follows."
Mondo Digital finds the film enjoyable: "Running just over an hour, this one's been making the rounds on the public domain scene with various banged-up releases from Something Weird and Alpha Blue Archives [...]. If you're up for some late period nudie cutie nonsense with a psychedelic bent, this could be your favorite title in here."
"[The Tale of the Dean's Wife] plays perfectly without any hard shots at all. The script is really wacked out, and our 'youth' against 'the man' story is pretty damn fucked up to be honest. Because by the time it is over [...], it just shows the rotten core of these kids and hardly shines as an endorsement of a free-love culture. But you won't get caught up in that, you'll just be gobstopped by the insanity in this bite-size slab of pulchritudinous playtime in the weird world of bottom of the bill soft core sex. [...] For those in tune with that hipped out vibe of goofballs, eeeeerawwwtickaaaahhhhh and shut down your brain entertainment. [Tomb It May Concern]"
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
(1970, dir. Russ Meyer)
Somewhere amidst all the pulchritude, hipsterism and soap opera histrionics, Samantha Scott plays Cynthia (below from the film).
Trailer to
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls:
The plot, as found at the good ol' AFI: "Tired of playing to high school audiences, Kelly (Dolly Read), Casey (Cynthia Myers), and Pet (Marcia McBroom), members of a rock trio, travel to Hollywood, California, accompanied by Harris Allsworth (David Gurian), the band's manager and Kelly's lover. There, they are befriended by Kelly's Aunt Susan (Phyllis Davis), an advertising executive, who, despite the misgivings of her lawyer, Porter Hall (Duncan McLeod), decides to share with Kelly the family fortune. At an orgy the band is discovered by the effeminate entrepreneur host, Ronnie 'Z-Man' Barzell (John La Zar), who rechristens them 'The Carrie Nations.' Among lovers quickly acquired at Ronnie's party are Lance (Michael Blodgett), a boorish gigolo, who enters into a liaison with Kelly; Emerson (Harrison Page), a law student who wins Pet's love; and Roxanne (Erica Gavin), a lesbian designer who captures Casey's heart. As the celebrated trio perform on national television, Harris, distraught by Kelly's infidelity and Casey's impregnation by him, hurls himself from the catwalk. He is rushed to the hospital, where Dr. Scholl (Dan White) informs Kelly that Harris can look forward to life as a paraplegic. Realizing that Harris is her true love, Kelly devotes herself to his care. Touched by Casey's plight, Roxanne arranges an abortion. Ronnie invites Lance, Roxanne, and Casey to a private party, at which costumes are distributed. Dressed as Superwoman, Ronnie attempts to seduce Lance, who is attired in a loin cloth. Rejected, Ronnie binds the gigolo. After revealing that he is, in fact, a woman, Ronnie bears her breasts, brandishes a sword, and chops off Lance's head. She then plunges a gun into the sleeping Roxanne's mouth and fires. Terrified, Casey phones her friends, who rush to her rescue but arrive too late. As Emerson and Kelly attempt to subdue Ronnie, the gun discharges, killing the transvestite. During the fray, however, the crippled Harris is miraculously cured. In a triple wedding ceremony, Kelly and Harris, Pet and Emerson, and Aunt Susan and an old love are united."
From the soundtrack —
The Carrie Nations sing
Sweet talkin' Candyman:
Deadly Women: Brides of Blood
(2013, dir. James Knox)
This, the last epsiode of the sixth season of this rather sensationalistic American true crime "documentary" series about bad girls on their way to hell instead of Amsterdam, aired 25 Jan 2013. The series is still going strong on one of the Discovery channels. And while Samantha Scott was not on the show personally, one of the three cases looked at that day was about her: "Andrea Claire was a 39-year-old former aspiring actress and a call girl. She meets a wealthy older suitor, Robert Sand, in 1981, and the couple marries shortly after meeting. But Claire does not like her fifth husband's penchant for rough sex. One night in 1981, Claire stabs Sand 27 times to death at their Rancho Mirage, California home. In 1982, she attempts to kill her sixth husband. She is serving 26 years to life in prison for her crimes. [Wikipedia]" (By now, one should say "was serving" – not only was she eventually parolled, she has also died of cancer.)
The other two cases covered were that of Frankie Stewart Silver, a North Carolinian "black widow" from 1831, and Danielle Stewart, from Sydney Australia.