The title of this movie refers to the last two years of the turbulent life of Jayne Mansfield, as she careens through bad relationships, addictions, lowered career expectations and, perhaps, membership in the Church of Satan.
This movie somehow unites so many of my favorite people, including Kenneth Anger, John Waters, Mary Woronov, Mamie Van Doren, Tippi Hedren, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls star Dolly Read and 1980s pop star Marilyn, all uniting to tell the story of Jayne.
Writing/directing/producing team P. David Ebersole & Todd Hughes couldn’t get their movie The Devil Made Her Do It made, so they went back to the documentary format that they’d used to make Hit So Hard, Room 237 and Dear Mom, Love Cher.
It’s somewhat uneven and the music and dance numbers may get some cringe at times, but this is still a fun film. But get ready for some interpretive dance along the way.
Did Mansfield have a relationship with Lavey? Does it even matter? The legend is always better than the truth.
Over one tense afternoon in a car, Jimmy (Xavian Russell, Top Boy) comes back home and comes to terms with former drug buddy Che (Rebekah Brookes-Murrell). This film also features Aaron Thomas Ward, who was in Accident Man.
The beauty of this film is how it uses its limited setting to tell a much larger story. Credit for that goes not only to director Louis Chan, but to the talented actors who bring this story to life.
Next Saturday at 8 PM on the Groovy Doom Facebook, we’re watching two examples of the venerable Amicus anthology films!
Up first is the movie that promises — “Come to the asylum…to get killed!” That’s right, it’s the 1972 portmanteau Asylum!
As you may know by now, there’s a drink for every movie. Get ready to layer up the flavors in tribute to the multicolored suit made for Peter Cushing in this film’s strangest segment, “The Weird Tailor” with this drink recipe.
A Special Suit for Mr. Smith (based on this recipe)
1 oz. grenadine
1/2 oz. peach schnapps
1 oz. coconut vodka
1/2 oz. blue curaçao
1 1/2 oz. pineapple juice
Pour the grenadine into the bottom of your glass, then slowly spoon in ice cubes to create the bottom layer.
In your shaker, combine some ice, peach schnapps and pineapple juice. Shake well.
Slowly pour this over your grenadine to create the next layer.
Clean shaker. Now, combine ice, coconut vodka and blue curaçao. Shake it up and then make the final layer of this rainbow-hued drink and don’t let any mannequins drink it.
Genevieve is a spin-off of that last film. In this five-minute-long story, Ted Morris is attending his son’s funeral while two criminals are breaking into his home. Those criminals want one thing: the infamous — and potentially saleable — killer doll, Genevieve. Of course, things don’t go well.
Nicholas does a lot right — he has an IMDB page for the movie, he sends out numerous links for reviews and keeps pushing. Sooner or later, he’s going to make a movie that isn’t shot in POV and has people swearing to themselves for the entire running time. Again, this is not that time, but I also know that next year, I’ll have another film from him that will look better than this one.
For example, the credits look great on this one. So does the poster. It’s another step forward.
Lawrence Tierney plays Detective Sergeant Jack Stevens, a lawman so drunk that he doesn’t even remember killing a famous film star. Or maybe he didn’t. Life is imitating art here, as Tierney was a maniac on the order of a Kinski.
Quentin Tarantino referred to him as “a complete lunatic” and an opportunity to play Elaine’s father on Seinfeld ended with him stealing a knife from the set and threatening the life of the show’s creator and star. These are minor anecdotes in a life filled with brawls, battles with the law and brilliant acting.
For example, in June of 1975, Tierney was questioned by the NYPD in connection with the apparent suicide of a 24-year-old woman who had jumped from her high-rise window. He told the police, “I had just gotten there, and she just went out the window.” This would be strange enough, but Tierney also played a character in the movie The Hoodlum who is suspected of driving a woman into jumping to her death.
Jayne Mansfield shows up as Candy Price, an artist’s mistress, and John Carradine plays a tabloid reporter. Kathleen Crowley was the lead; she showed up late one day and claimed that she had been raped, which meant that many of her shots are a double and Mansfield — who was paid $150 for the role and went back to selling popcorn at a movie theater after this — had her part increased.
This noir was directed by character actor Bruno VeSota, who also made The Brain Eaters and Invasion of the Star Creatures.
This 1963 movie — released betweeb the end of the Hays Code and the start of the MPAA rating system — was the first Hollywood motion picture release in decades to feature a mainstream star nude. And that star was Jayne Mansfield, bearing Marilyn Monroe in the buff in 1962’s uncompleted Something’s Got to Give.
In case anyone asks you, the first mainstream star to go fully nude was Annette Kellerman in 1916’s A Daughter of the Gods.
The three nude scenes by Mansfield were scandalous. Even more so was the July 1963 issue of Playboy, which was the only obscenity charge every brought against Hugh Hefner. In that issue a pictorial entitled “The Nudest Jayne Mansfield” showed Mansfield topless alongside T.C. Jones, a hairstylist, actor and one of the most famous female impersonators under his stage name Babette.
All the press made the movie a big deal, despite the horrible reviews. Sadly, Mansfield only got offers for more sex comedies. While you could buy stag loops of her scenes in the 60’s, the same scenes would show up in the posthumous The Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield, which also has scenes from Too Hot to Handle, The Loves of Hercules and Primitive Love.
Mansfield was voted one of the top ten box office attractions that year, but Roger Ebert took her to task: “Finally, in Promises, Promises she did what no Hollywood actress ever does except in desperation: she made a nudie. By 1963, that kind of box office appeal was about all she had left.” Of course, this practice is commonplace today.
So what’s it all about? Jayne plays Sandy Brooks, a woman dying to get knocked up yet with a husband played by Tommy Noonan, who produced this and warred with his co-star. In the movie, he’s too stressed out to make love to her, which sounds like a problem no man ever had next to Ms. Mansfield. Meanwhile, after meeting another couple, Claire and King Banner. Claire is played by Marie “The Body” McDonald, who had perhaps an even crazier life than Mansfield, starting as winning the title of The Queen of Coney Island before adding up six marriages, an alleged kidnapping that was never proved to have taken place and a death from an “active drug intoxication due to multiple drugs.” In the aftermath, her husband and father would commit suicide and her children would be raised by third husband (they were married twice, too) Harry Karl and his wife, Debbie Reynolds, who knew something about infamous divorces. She took over the role from Mamie Van Doren. King is played by Mansfield’s husband at the time, Mickey Hargitay.
The couples end up swapping — this had to be scandalous for 1963 — ends up with both women pregnant and unsure who the daddy (or daddies, I guess) are. In between that, Mansfeld sings two songs, “Lullaby of Love” and “Promise Her Anything.”
This movie wasn’t an adult film. It was a major studio picture, directed by King Donovan (husband of Imogene Coca), who beyond acting in Invasion of the Body Snatchers also directed this movie and four episodes of Grind! and one of That Girl. Vidor shows up in plenty of things, with his last role in the 1984 cult movie Nothing Lasts Forever.
You can watch this on Amazon Prime. You won’t get arrested.
Jayne Mansfield possessed an IQ of 163, played violin and piano at a concert level, had a degree in science, spoke 5 languages fluently and yet was known as a dumb blond. Her career was as short as her life was turbulent, with three ex-husbands, five children, addictions to booze and pills, and a car crash in 1967 that ended her life. This film looks at the final years of her career.
Hailey Heisick, who was in Don’t Look, plays Jayne. That’s a tall order, to be perfectly frank. But this is pretty much the Lifetime version of Jayne’s life, minus the Lifetime budget, so it’s going to be all sleaze and drama. Which, come to think of it, that’s what so much of her life was.
It’s sensationalized. It’s exploitation. And then again, that’s also the type of press that Jayne played with to keep her name in the headlines, even after the roles got smaller.
Yeah, you know the drill . . . it’s all about those Mill Creek box sets and this Savage Cinema 12 Movie Collection pack served as the perfect fodder in supplying us with a nifty batch of obscure and off-beat, rubber-burning drive-in epics for our “Fast and Furious” tribute week to Universal Studios’ Fast and Furious franchise created Gary Scott Thompson.
So, with Universal’s March announcement that the ninth Fast & Furious movie in the “Fast Saga,” officially titled F9, would be pushed back from its May 22, 2020, North American premiere to April 2, 2021, which pushes Fast & Furious X beyond its planned April 2021 premiere, you can get fast and furious with these films. Well, just a little. Maybe.
Burnin’ rubber, hot asphalt, and smokin’ babes!
Here’s the links to the reviews on the Savage Cinema set:
Note: Sadly, along the way, some of the trailers we included for your enjoyment either were blocked, deleted, or age-restricted by their respective hosting platforms. Those embeds were removed. Please feel free to copy and paste any title into the video host of your choice to find trailers or clips to decide if you want to watch the full movie.
Back in early March, Universal Studios announced that the ninth Fast & Furious movie in the “Fast Saga,” officially titled F9, would be pushed back from its May 22, 2020, North American premiere to April 2, 2021. And where does that leave Fast & Furious X, which was originally slated for release in April 2021? Only the bat-born virus knows. . . .
Now, we can either curse the COVID-19 outbreak for delaying the double-F franchise . . . or we can embrace the furry-looking ball and dedicate our current home-bound status to explore the mockbuster universe of the Fast & Furious franchise.
And let’s face it: isn’t this all just Point Break . . . with cars instead of surf boards? And what I wanna know is: How is it that no producer ever approached Golden Earring to adapt their ’70s radio monument, “Radar Love,” the most epic car-driving song of all time — one that makes you floor it — into an F&F rip-off?
Hot Wheels image courtesy of Mattel/type by PicFont
Biker Boyz (2003) Laurence Fishburne and Kid Rock . . . in a movie . . . together? Terrence Howard and Lisa Bonet? While that is a cast only Mark L. Lester could dream up, the movie around it isn’t up to the Mark L. Lester seal-of-B&S About Movies approval.
To sum it up: Instead of illegal street racing of cars, this is all about life, love, and the pursuit of asphalt in the world of underground motorcycle street racing.
Speed Demon (2003) This F&F rip is a FUBAR’d movie-themed drink waiting to happen, one that Sam, the Drive Aslyum Movie Night head bartender couldn’t concoct . . . but our beloved David DeCoteau dared to mix. This one has it all: a soupçon of Nicolas Cage’s Drive Angry, a dash of Tarantino’s Death Proof. . . and a WHOLE BOTTLE of The Wraith . . . if Charlie Sheen kept caressing a pentagram and our beloved Sherilyn Fenn went full-on, sexy Goth-chick. Pour it over the ice from your Sergio Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy” themed-ice cube tray and shake. (And yes, if you know your DeCoteau: be ready for shirtless guys frolicking around a floor-etched pentagram in their underwear. And Matthew Jason Walsh is Decoteau nom de plumin’. )
To sum it up: A mysterious driver, i.e., a man with no name, in a muscle car (instead of a horse) — complete with a demonic hood ornament — shows up to extract vengeance in a small town.
Torque (2004) Okay, so before you think this Ice Cube-fronted two-wheeler is a rip on the Laurence Fishburne one . . . this one was dreamed up by the production team of the Fast & Furious franchise. So the first one, Biker Boyz, is actually the knock-off of this one, got it? Oh, and instead of Lisa Bonet . . . you get Dane “I’m tryin’ to act over here” Cook.
To sum it up: A member of an illegal street racing-cum-biker gang is on the run after he’s framed for the murder of the brother of the gang’s leader. Oh, and bonus points for ripping off George Romero’s Knightriderswith a sword-jousting scene that inspires us to watch Knightriders, again.
Redline (2007) Tim Matheson? You can’t be that hard up for work that you have to play second banana to the clone of Chris Rock’s clone Chris Rucker, aka Eddie Griffin? Yet, there’s Eric “Otter” Stratton in this controversial box-office bomb that served as a pet-project of mortgage-lending magnate Daniel Sadek (who wrote and produced). For once Sadek was smart with his money: instead of contracting Cinema Vehicles to supply the film’s cars, he used his own personal, high-powered car collection of Enzos, Ferraris and Lamborghinis. (And Eddie Griffin wrecked one of them during the film’s premiere-promotional event. Nice job, Ed.)
To sum it up: High-rolling gamblers — instead of betting on the mutilation of people, ala Hostel — hedge their bets over the illegal racing of high-powered luxury supercars. And as with Torque: Thanks for making us go back and watch, again, the movie you pinched: Cannonballstarring David Carradine.
Update, May 2023: To take advantage of the May 19, 2023, release of the long-awaited tenth installment of the Fast & Furious franchise, Fast X, this has been reissued as a MVD Blu-ray. Click through the hyperlink for more information.
Finish Line (2008) If you’re in the market for a faux-fast fix . . . with a Scott Baio chaser, then this Spike (now known as the upper-cable tiered Paramount Network) channel clone is the shot you need. Is it cool to see the TV-loved Baio in the lead of a film — and as a heavy? Yep. Does it make the movie good? Nope.
To sum it up: A down-and-out stock car racer with NASCAR dreams takes a desperate-for-cash gig as a private mechanic for a millionaire importer, aka an illegal arms smuggler, aka Baio.
Street Racer (2008) Okay, this one has no-named stars. And it’s produced by Asylum Studios. And it needs a shark-a-something. Or a tornado. Or a washed-up-’80s pop-princess thespin’. And, in an additional twist: this was made in the backwash of Warner Bros.’ abortive live-action take on the beloved ’60s cartoon, Speed Racer. So this is a double rip-off.
Can you imagine a kid asking their mom to pick up a copy of Speed Racer on her way home from work, and oblivious mom picks up “Street Racer,” and her kid is introduced to a world sans a Chim-Chim and plenty of hoochie mamas? Hey, that’s what Asylum counts on.
To sum it up: A street racer fresh out of prison for permanently crippling a kid during an illegal street racing accident . . . finds “redemption” by returning to the illegal street racing that put him in prison in the first place. For reals.
Death Racers (2008) Yeah, we know this is more of a Death Race (2008) rip than a F&F rip . . . but when you have both the Insane Clown Posse and the WWE’s Raven in a movie, you skew the “Exploring” featurette “Rules of Submittal.” And yes, with that casting, when this appeared on the video shelf on September 23rd, 2008, to capitalize on the August 22 release of Death Race, we rented it, because, well, it’s not about the speed . . . it’s about the blood. And we thank you, Asylum.
To sum it up: In a dystopian future, contestants compete in a cross-country road race in which killing-for-points is part of the game.
200 MPH (2011) All the Irish must go to hell for allowing parts of this Asylum Studios production to be shot in Donoughmore, County Cork — and with American actors, because, well, a cast with a heavy Irish brogue does not a mockbuster make. So blatant in its rip-offness, the film was released to VOD and DVD on April 26th, 2011, to capitalize on the release of Fast Five, which was released in the U.S. on April 29.
To sum it up: An amateur street racer goes “pro” after the death of his brother. Oh, and this one comes with very bad CGI-cars. A film that rips F&F — a movie about cars — that can’t afford real cars. For reals.
Drive (2011) This Nicolas Winding Refn-directed film (The Neon Demon, Only God Forgives), based on the 2005 James Sallis novel of the same name, concerns a film stunt driver who sidelines as a criminal-for-hire getaway driver. The best reviewed of the F&F clones, it received a “Best Directors Award,” along with a standing ovation, at the Cannes Film Festival. And thanks for reminding me about my dad and I going to the big city six-plex to see Walter Hill’s (The Warriors, Streets of Fire) somewhat similar stunt driver-cum-criminal romp with Ryan O’Neal, 1978’s The Driver. And the stylish-darkness of Michael Mann’s Thief. Yes, Driver is that good . . . and then some.
To sum it up: When “The Driver” (Ryan Gosling) meets his new neighbor and grows close to her and her young son, he becomes involved in a robbery scheme with her just-released husband from prison and the caper goes violently south — in an extensional, Vanishing Point kind-a-of-way because the stoic “Driver” is an amalgamate of “The Driver” and “The Mechanic” from Two-Lane Blacktop.
Getaway (2013) Selena Gomez is Anne Hathaway light: but inspires twice as much the hate. Perhaps if John Voight and Ethan Hawke’s costar was someone else? Or if Anne, instead of John, was the villain?
Nah.
The recipe for disaster: A custom Shelby Super Snake Mustang piloted by Hawke, a washed-up professional race car driver, is forced into committing a series of robberies to save his kidnapped wife. Oh, and Gomez is a sass-mouthed computer hacker (aren’t they all) with the goods on the guy forcing Hawke into a life of crime (I think). This tried to out-crash Gone in 60 Seconds — the old ’70s one, not the later Nic Cage one — by wrecking 130 cars, including 13 Shelby’s. (No way Shelby enthusiasts are allowing Shelbys to be destroyed for the sake of a movie — no more than lovers of the 1956 Porsche 356 Speedster would allow one to be trashed in Doc Hollywood (1991) — and no more than anyone would stand back and watch Stallone’s 1950 Mercury Monterey Coupe from Cobrago to the junkyard. They’re replicas. They had to be, right?)
Need for Speed (2014) I totally dig Aaron Paul. He was pure gold in AMC-TV’s Breaking Bad and beyond deserving to be bumped to a leading-man theatrical career — and be the next Woody Harrelson and not the next David Caruso. But, as with most unknown actors who score a role on a mega-hit TV series, Need for Speed is another case of another too-much-too-soon actor taking the lead role in the wrong movie at the wrong time — and when the movie tanks, the studio and producers walk away and the actor, who’s not to blame, takes the fall. This one has the budget and cast missing from all of the other films on this list to make it “work”: the always welcomed-quality of Dominic Cooper and Rami Malek, Imogen Poots and Dakota Johnson . . . and Michael Keaton.
To sum it up: Hey, wait a minute! Did this rip-off Street Racer? Nah, sounds more like Torque: Custom-car builder and underground racer Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul) is fresh out of prison for a murder he did not commit, natch. His redemption lies in stealing back his old shop’s most-prized ride and enter the infamous, high-stakes race known as The DeLeon. Hey, what the hell? That sounds like Redline. But we thank you for reminding us of Mark Hamill stealing back the ‘Vette he built in Corvette Summer.
Overdrive (2017) This time, instead of Ireland, the French are in cahoots with Belgium to Shanghai Scott Eastwood, yes, the son of Clint, in a rip-off of Gone in 60 Seconds — and not the Tarantino-loved ’70s original: the other one with the ‘Cage that had nothing-to-do with the original car-wreckin’ classic. Oh, and this is from the writers of 2 Fast 2 Furious and the director of Taken, so this is, while a “clone,” a high quality film — and meant more for the Euro-market than the U.S. market.
To sum it up: A crime lord blackmails two brothers to steal a cache of luxury rides and supercars from his crime lord rival. Hey, at least Scott got to trade thespin’ chops with Kurt Russell in The Fate of the Furious.
Fast & the Fierce (2017) Remember, in our opening salvo, we joked that all of this F&F tomfoolery is just Point Break with cars instead of surf boards? Well, the Asylum got tired of that formula and dipped into Keanu Reeves’s Speed this time . . . which is just Die Hard on a bus . . . but I digress. At least this F&F take-off is aware that, when it comes to enticing us into renting a mockbuster, it’s all about the casting: having our favorite champion of “The Quickening,” Adrian Paul, and Dominique Swain, helps. Well, not really. There’s no cars in this movie and way too much plane (damn you to hell, Asylum art department!). So this is more Turbulence — remember that one with Ray Liotta? — than Fast and Furious with Vin.
To sum it up: Terrorists plant a bomb on a commercial flight and the passengers must keep the plane in the air: for if it drops below 800 feet, the bomb goes off.
Fast & Fierce: Death Race (2020) We think it’s a sequel . . . sorry, no Adrian Paul and Dominique Swain this time. But you do get DMX supporting Michael DeVorzon, the acting-son of Grammy winning and Academy Award-nominated songwriter, composer Barry DeVorzon (The Warriors!). Hey, the director is Jared Cohn of the ’70s “Southern Rock” bio Street Survivors, and the latest shark romp, Swim, so I’m not hating.
Mike is Jack Tyson, another illegal Mexico-to-California street racer who rescues a woman from her abusive gangster boyfriend — the same gangster who’s financing the cross-country road race. Oh, and she has a USB drive with all of her ex-hubby’s business dealings. A woman scorned. . . .
So wraps our “Fast and Furious” tribute week. Save us the aisle seat on April 2, 2021 . . . provided we’re not fighting off apoc-punk warloads with spiked baseball bats, hopin’ for Mark Gregory and Michael Sopkiw to show up and save us from the Euracs, by then. And be sure to check out our “Savage Cinema (and “Fast and Furious Week”) Recap!” that features links to all of the films we reviewed during our “Fast and Furious” tribute week.
About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook. He also writes for B&S About Movies.
The man who gave ex-pornographic actress Marilyn Chambers a vampiric armpit. The man who made us lifelong fans of Micheal Ironside (John Saxon, Part Deux!) when he exploded his head via psychic brain waves. The man who knew we couldn’t pass up a film where Oliver Reed causes Samantha Eggar to “birth” an asexual dwarf-child. The man who turned James Woods into a human VCR. The man who dared adapt William S. Burroughs. The man who gave us “Brendel-Fly,” James Spader sexually aroused by car crashes, and made us lifelong Jeremy Irons fans by splitting him into twin gynecologists.
There wasn’t a body part, bodily function, brain wave, or hunk of technology Cronenberg didn’t like — and worked into his scripts. And when you take the mad Canadian’s “body horror” oeuvre into consideration, it’s not a wild stretch to realize that, in his spare time, he loved cars, racing bikes, and machinery. In fact, over the years, Cronenberg was — following in the burn marks of Steve McQueen and Paul Newman (and Tom Cruise) — a part time race car driver.
Directing a screenplay written by Phil Savath (Big Meat Eater and Terminal City Ricochet), Cronenberg quenches his love for the scent of well-weathered leather, hot metal and oil in this tale of veteran drag racer Lonnie “Lucky Man” Johnson (William Smith). Driving for the Fast Company Oil team, Lucky deals with Phil Adamson (John Saxon), the “corrupt” team owner who’s more concerned with sponsor dollars and could care less who drives the car — provided he’s winning.
The always divine Mr. Jennings is the screenwriting androgyny-troped “hot chick with a guy’s name” (e.g., Alexandra = Alex, Charlotte = Charlie, no, not another “Frankie,” please!, etc., here, it’s Samantha = Sammy) playing up the romantic angle. The always-welcomed Nicholas Campbell (who went onto appear in Cronenberg’s The Brood, The Dead Zone, and Naked Lunch) is the ubiquitous protégé, Billy “The Kid” Brooker, who ignites a new sense of competitive spirit in Lucky to take on Adamson’s new hotshot driver, Gary “The Blacksmith” Black (iconic Canadian actor and voice artist Cedric Smith).
While this was filmed a few years earlier — around the time Cronenberg made Shivers (1975) and before he gained notice outside of his native Canada for Rabid(1977) — courtesy of Burt Reynolds’s redneck rally Smokey and the Bandit (be sure to check out our “Top 70 Good Ol’ Boys Film List: 1972 to 1986“) creatin’ a need for that good ol’ southern speed, Fast Company, made its way to receptive Drive-In audiences in 1979. And while Roger Corman’s Deathsport (1978) served as her final casting, this Cronenberg race tale served as Claudia Jennings’s final film; she perished in a car accident a few months after the film’s release.
I was funny car crazy in ’79, with centerfold tear outs of Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and Tom “The Mongoose” McEwen on my walls, right alongside magazine rips of champion motorcrosser Roger De Coster. So I got my dad to take me to see Fast Company at the local-quad Drive-In. So — as with all of my reviews for these “classics” from the bygone days of UHF-TV and VHS-shelved dust bunnies — take my nostalgia into consideration when I say that, when compared against most of the ’60s “Fast and Furious” precursors we reviewed this week, this exhaust thrower is one the better racing flicks from the lost Drive-In era.
Ugh. Another trailer bites the dust. We give up. Search for one on You Tube or your favorite streaming platform.
We found a very clean, four-part upload for the film to enjoy on Daily Motion. You can also get this on a nicely packaged Blue Underground DVD. And be sure to join us for our “Phil Savath Night” as part of our weekly Drive-In Friday featurette.
By the way: When it comes to racing — on all types of tracks — no one does it finer than the folks over at Demaras Racing. Check ’em out and keep it on the redline!
About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook. He also writes for B&S About Movies.
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