Screenhead

While I am looking forward to the upcoming Grindhouse, I also am looking back to the time when I saw movies at the so-called grindhouses of New York City’s 42nd Street back in the Seventies. For less than the cost of a single first run film, you could see a double feature. Sometimes 42nd Street was the only place you could see some of these films in Manhattan. I did see some very respectable films there like Murder on the Orient Express and Bingo Long and the Traveling All Stars. But more often what I saw were low budget productions from Roger Corman or classic sex comedies from Russ Meyer. Sometimes the best part of 42nd Street was seeing previews to movies you would never want to see in full like Ilsa, She-wolf of the SS or The Incredible Torture Show. The following list are some favorite films seen in the grindhouses of yesterday -

1. They Came from Within. Officially known as Shivers, this was David Cronenberg’s first feature. I had read about his experimental films and made a point of seeing this. I’m not sure if anyone in the audience was prepared for this combination of science fiction, sex and horror. I sure wasn’t, but I’ve been watching Cronenberg ever since. Admittedly, those parasites in the bathtub freaked me out.

2. Bury Me an Angel. Biker films continued to get made a few years after the success of Easy Rider, a film with grindhouse roots. Written and directed by Barbara Peters, Bury Me an Angel is about a lone woman biker out to revenge her brother’s murder. The film stars the imposingly tall Dixie Peabody, and future Grizzly Adams, Dan Haggerty.

3. Cherry, Harry & Raquel. This is vintage Russ Meyer, and his last indie film before signing up with Fox to make Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Charles Napier plays a crooked sherrif who smuggles marijuana, and nearly gets blown up with sticks of dynamite placed between his legs. While Napier made more movies with Meyer, the two starring nudie cuties, Larissa Ely and Linda Ashton, have only this single credit to their careers.

4. Black Caesar. Larry Cohen’s blacksploitation film might be a reworking of the classic Little Caesar, but Edward G. Robinson never made a film with songs by James Brown. Fred Williamson made up in charisma whatever he lacked in acting skills. While the Sixties belonged to Sidney Poitier, Fred Williamson introduced in the Seventies a different kind of African-American hero with an influence still felt in hip hop culture.

5. Coffy. Once upon a time in the Seventies, Barbra Streisand was the top female star. In second place was Pam Grier. Coffy’s little sister is drugged with contaminated heroin, and Coffy takes on the mob. The film features badass baldy Sid Haig. The two would be seen together again in Foxy Brown.

6. I Escaped from Devil’s Island. While millions were spent to produce Papillon with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman, Roger Corman made his version for chump change with Jim Brown and Christopher George. Papillon was directed by Oscar winner Franklin Shaffner. Corman gave the directorial assignment to William Witney, a filmmaker beloved by Quentin Tarantino.

7. Boxcar Bertha. Martin Scorsese made this film for Roger Corman before his breakthrough, Mean Streets. The film didn’t get much of a theatrical run, and has probably been seen by more people on DVD. You can see Scorsese’s nascent visual style. Considering Corman’s tight budgets and schedules, Scorsese must have felt he had something to prove after being fired for being to slow filming The Honeymoon Killers. This is one of several films Corman produced about Depression era women gangsters, though with more serious intent than Big Bad Mama. Corman’s offered to produce Mean Streets . . . as a blackspoitation film. Fortunately, Scorsese listened to the advice of John Cassavetes.

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