Roadshow Rarities (June 30 – July 6) In the old days of theatrical releases some of the more lavish movies would be promoted by holding limited screenings in large cities. These roadshow releases would generate hype before the nationwide release and allow producers to tweak the film to the audience’s reaction. This model also worked for low budget productions that may have had no intention of a wide release. These explo roadshows traveled an informal circuit of theaters, churches, revival tents, high school auditoriums and anywhere else they could run a projector. They frequently promised more than they delivered and left town before the angry audience could catch up to them. Through the restoration efforts of SWV many of these movies have survived to piss audiences off to this very day!

Phil Tucker followed up Robot Monster with this, a movie written by and starring Lenny Bruce. It’s also yet another film featuring Timothy Farrell as Umberto Scalli, scumbag nightclub owner. It also has his wife, Honey Bruce Friedman, who knows all about criminal businesses, as her mother Mabel married a strict Catholic stepfather who also ran an illegal business from their attic. She also used to have a dance routine based on Bride of Frankenstein. Not only that but Bruce’s mother Sally Marr also shows up to dance. She was also in The Seven Minutes, Mansion of the Doomed and Dracula’s Dog.

Lenny is Vincent, the henchman for Scalli, who kills a sailor over some diamonds. Jess Franco would love that. The cops get involved and look into Scalli’s club where women charge a dime a dance.

Producer George Weiss was the producer of this and so many other movies that damaged the morality of our country. They include Olga’s House of Shame, Glen or Glenda, White Slaves of Chinatown, Racket Girls, Test Tube Babies and The Devil’s Sleep. We owe him so much.

This was all shot on one set and it looks as beaten down as the characters. Speaking of characters, the other henchman is “Killer” Joe Piro, who also choreographed Mad Monster Party. He was a retired computer programmer who was the top dance teacher on the New York City disco scene at the Peppermint Lounge. He taught Jacqueline Kennedy how to dance and remained a disco regular until his death in 1983, but not before an album was released with his name on it, Killer Joe’s International Discotheque.e.

Also: That’s Buster Keaton’s brother Harry in this. He was also in The Sinister Urge, The Violent Years, King Kong and The Art of Burlesqu

You can watch this on Tubi.