ARROW 4K UHD AND BLU RAY RELEASE: When Titans Ruled The Earth: Clash Of The Titans & Wrath Of The Titans (2010, 2012)

Clash of the Titans was one of my favorite movies as a kid. When the remake came out, I avoided it for the longest time. With Arrow’s new box set release, I finally watched it. Was it worth the wait?

Clash of the Titans (2010): When they started making this movie, producer Adam Schroeder and writers John Glenn and Travis Wright wanted to drop the “cheesy chessboard manipulation of characters” by the gods. Or, you know, the whole story of Perseus that this is based on and the story that Beverly Cross wrote for the 1981 movie this is also based on. As they dropped out and other creatives joined, the phrase “darker and more realistic” kept getting used and that’s where this ended up.

Director Louis Leterrier (The TransporterThe Incredible Hulk) was a big fan of the original film — his ending of the Hulk movie is inspired by it — and also took in elements of the Saint Seiya anime for this remake. There’s even a fun moment where Bubo the owl shows up to remind you of the first movie.

When the gods battle the Titans who made them, Hades (Ralph Fiennes) turned the tide with his monster the Kraken. As the gods split up the world, Zeus (Liam Neeson) screwed over Hades and gave him the underworld while he took the Earth and Poseidon the sky. Zeus also made humans, who disappoint him as they no longer worship him. Maybe it’s because he keeps messing with them, like how King Acrisius (Jason Flemyng) tried to take over Mount Olympus, which led to Zeus cucking him and knocking up the royal wife Danae (Tine Stapelfeldt) before throwing a lighting bolt and turning the king into the demonic Calibos — which isn’t in any myth — and then — run-on sentence much? — the king throws his wife and baby into the ocean. An immortal cursed by the gods named Io (Gemma Arterton) saves the child and has fisherman Spyro (Pete Postlethwaite) and his wife Marmara (Elizabeth McGovern) raise Perseus (Sam Worthington) as their own.

As he grows to be a man, King Kepheus (Vincent Regan) and Queen Cassiopeia (Polly Walker) rule the country he lives in, Argos. They go to war with the gods, which cause the Furies to sink his parent’s boat. Only he survives and is brought to the royal throne room. There, he meets Princess Andromeda (Alexa Davalos), who thinks her parents are morons for doing this. Well, they are, because Hades soon shows up, gets insulted when Cassiopeia says her daughter is as beautiful as the gods. He ages the queen until she dies and says that he will unleash the Kraken in ten days unless Andromeda is killed. Hades also says, “Oh by the way, Perseus is Zeus’ son.”

Perseus agrees to save Andromeda by defeating the Kraken. His plan is meet the Stygian witches (Ross Mullan, Robin Berry and Graham Hughes) who will tell him how to win and the answer is to get the head of the Medusa (Natalia Vodianova). Working with the royal guard, led by Draco (Mads Mikkelsen), Perseus battles giant scorpions and his father Calibos. Zeus also gives him a god sword that he refuses to lose until Calibos kills Io, so as he strikes his father, it transforms him back to reason. He asks his son not to become a god while Io, as she dies, begs him to save Argos.

While asked, Ray Harryhausen had no involvement in this as he felt his films had didn’t need to be remade. And yes, the ending is overly CGI, but it’s thrilling watching Perseus ride Pegasus and battle the gigantic Kraken (actually Leterrier in a green screen suit) to save Andromeda. All of my cynicism went away at the close of this, as I was happy with the action and how fast this moved.

But what of the sequel?

Wrath of the Gods (2012): Ten years after the first movie, humans have stopped praying to the gods, so the Titans have escaped and Zeus (Liam Neeson) is in trouble. Can he call on his son Perseus (Sam Worthington) to save the gods that he despises?

Despite being saved at the end of the first movie, Io has died — never mind that she’s Perseus’ great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother in actual mythology — and Perseus is raising their son Heleus (John Bell). Also, he should be the son of Perseus and Andromeda, but we’re already not following any of the source material. Perseus is now a fisherman when Zeus visits him, telling him that the prison that holds Kronos is failing. Our hero turns him down and soon, Zeus is attached by his son Ares (Edgar Ramirez) and Hades (Ralph Fiennes), who also murder Poseidon (Danny Huston). They make a deal with Kronos for power if they free him.

After fighting a Chimera that has attacked his hometown, Perseus looks for his father but only finds the dying Poseidon, who tells him that his son Agenor (Toby Kebbell), who can lead him to Hephaestus (Bill Nighy) and the prison of the Titans. Along with Andromeda (Rosamund Pike), Perseus goes on a quest that sees him battling a minotaur, cyclops and demons. How can he defeat Ares and the creator of the gods? By combining Zeus’s thunderbolt, Hades’ pitchfork and Poseidon’s trident into the Spear of Trium.

There are some fun moments, but this sequel, directed by Jonathan Liebesman (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning), feels like effects and monsters thrown at you instead of the story of the first, which was a step down from its classic inspiration. This did much worse at the box office, which led to the third movie, Revenge of the Gods, being cancelled.

The Arrow Video When Titans Ruled the Earth set is available in both 4K UHD and blu ray. Extras include an illustrated collector’s book containing new writing by author and critic Guy Adams and film scholar Josh Nelson, a double-sided fold-out posters for each film featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Joe Wilson, six postcard sized artcards and reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Joe Wilson.

Clash of the Titans has an interview with producer Basil Iwanyk, an alternate ending, deleted scenes, a trailer, an image gallery and several features. Wrath of the Titans also has an interview with Iwanyk, deleted scenes, a trailer, an image gallery and several features.

You can get the 4K UHD and blu ray sets from MVD.

EUREKA 4K UHD RELEASE: The Valiant Ones (1975)

Corrupt officials have taken bribes and allowed a band of Japanese pirates — which includes Han Yingjie (Han Ying-chieh), Hakatatsu (Sammo Hung) and Simon Yuen as a bald pirate with a bo staff — to terrorize the South China coast. A small band of fighters, led by husband and wife Wu Ji-Yuan (Pai Ying) and Wu Ruo-Shi (Hsu Feng), have come together to stop them.

Made at the same time as The Fate of Lee Khan, director and writer King Hu has made a world where one big fight still solves things, but to get there our heroes must endure corruption at nearly every turn.

Yet what an ending, as Sammo makes for a wonderfully brutal final boss after a film filled with not just amazing action, but plenty of gorgeous coastal scenes. Hu also realizes that the music is not just wallpaper, but instead makes the fights more dramatic and impactful.

The Eureka 4K UHD of The Valiant Ones is packed with extras, including a limited edition O-card slipcase featuring new artwork by Grégory Sacré, new audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng, an interview with critic and Asian film expert Tony Rayns, a video essay by David Cairns, interviews with stuntman Billy Chan, Ng Ming-choi, Hsu Feng by Frédéric Ambroisine and Roger Garcia. Plus, you get a limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Jonathan Clements.

You can get this from MVD.

The Sizzlin’ Something Weird Summer Challenge 2024: Disco Lady (1978)

Rene Bond week (August 11 – 17) Rene Bond could brighten up even the most dreary productions, and she was in plenty of them. In the early adult scene she was one of the better actors, particularly when it came to comedy, though she could squeeze into some leather and throw the whips around when the role called for it. Bond appeared in somewhere near 100 films, thanks to her affable professionalism she worked with many filmmakers multiple times and regularly performed with her boyfriend Ric Lutze. Her career received an enhancement when she became one of the first stars to get a boobjob. She retired from film in the late-70s just as the porno chic era was dying down, but before the video era. You can find her in a ton of SWV titles, so take yer pick!

Directed by Bob Chinn (who directed John Holmes in several of the Johnny Wadd movies and Rick Fuente and Lee Stone in the Nick Grande films) and written by Jeffrey Eastman and Darrel Cash, this is not about a person but a place, a club called the Disco Lady. It’s New Year’s Eve and Scorpio Sound (Ken Scudder) is playing the records while everyone gets together to dance. Little of it sounds like the disco of 1978 and instead sounds very AM radio of 1978.

We have an hour to get into what happens.

It’s all rather unconnected, as a hitchhiker named Carla (Rhonda Jo Petty in her first film; she looks a lot like Farrah Fawcett and as you can imagine, this was very important in 1978) meets a drug dealer named the Candyman (Alan Colberg) and gets pimped out. Then, there’s a couple — Rick (Ric Lutze) and Rick’s wife (Robin Savage) and yes, the movie gives her no name, so that should tell you how much it is concerned with relationships — celebrating an anniversary before he dirty talks her in a way that seems like he’s a bit too into it. And ah, there’s Sherry (Ming Jade) and Angie (Angel Ducharme) arriving just as Johnny (Rob Rose) and Tony (Mike Ranger) walk in.

New year’s is a time for people to remember why they love one another, plan for the next trip around the sun and kiss at midnight. But here, in a movie shot in the back of a bowling alley that doubled on the weekend as a club, this take on Saturday Night Fever — well, outside of the fact that all disco to some people was that movie — has couples falling to pieces. Rick gets to the club and in seconds is making out with a waitress (Tiffany Ladd) and comically — and perhaps unintentionally — getting his medallion all over her body. What do you expect when you’re having sex in a squalid back room, on a pallet covered by a sleeping bag in a room full of Coca-Cola?

Rick didn’t even want to be here! Just listen to — or read — this dialogue.

Rick’s Wife: Will you take me dancing tonight?

Rick: What? Not tonight, homey! The Sugar Bowl’s on TV tonight!

Rick’s Wife: Come on honey, it’s New Year’s Eve and we haven’t been out in a long time…

Rick: Oh I know that, but honey I gotta see Alabama.

Rick’s Wife: Come on Rick, it’ll be fun.

Rick: Oh I don’t want to honey. It’s Bear Bryant’s last season and everything else. Aww, then tomorrow the games…

The end of this movie broke my brain, however. Another angry husband, upset that his wife is intending to cheat just like he did, is coming to the club and he’s angry. We see all of the many couples and people we’ve met throughout, including a guy who everyone calls Peter Frampton who triumphantly gets into the Disco Lady. And then, that husband bursts in and the screen slows to slow motion and then even slower, grinding, as we hear him fire his gun. People scream, the folks we’d just witnessed copulating are either killed or maimed or scarred for life by a night that was just supposed to be spent gyrating under the reflective ball or, at best, doing blow in the bathroom and having furtive sex in a storage closet. And now, they’re gone. The screaming keeps overloading the soundtrack, the grainy freeze frame starting to bend and twist and turn and the yelling and terror is still here, as the slow motion keeps ticking by, slower than it ever has before. There’s blood on the dance floor, even if the budget didn’t allow for it.

This absolute void of an ending redeems everything we’ve seen before except for the too short appearance of Rene Bond dancing the night away in potentially her last filmed appearance. She doesn’t have sex, she doesn’t get naked, she’s hotter than everything around her, the law of the invisible proving itself as it always does.

As Marlena Shaw sang, “Well, I can say goodbye in the cold morning light. But I can’t watch love die in the warmth of the night.” Man, I love when adult films fully forget that they’re created to get people aroused and instead seek to utterly destroy them.

The Sizzlin’ Something Weird Summer Challenge 2024: Flesh Gordon (1974)

Rene Bond week (August 11 – 17) Rene Bond could brighten up even the most dreary productions, and she was in plenty of them. In the early adult scene she was one of the better actors, particularly when it came to comedy, though she could squeeze into some leather and throw the whips around when the role called for it. Bond appeared in somewhere near 100 films, thanks to her affable professionalism she worked with many filmmakers multiple times and regularly performed with her boyfriend Ric Lutze. Her career received an enhancement when she became one of the first stars to get a boobjob. She retired from film in the late-70s just as the porno chic era was dying down, but before the video era. You can find her in a ton of SWV titles, so take yer pick!

Shot in 1971 for around $470,000, producers Bill Osco (who produced one of the films that brought about the Golden Age of adult films, Mona, as well as three Jackie Kong movies, The BeingNight Patrol and The Underachievers), Walter R. Cichy and Howard Ziehm (who directed this movie) held out in the hopes that a big studio would release this movie. Maybe they should have waited until Star Wars came out and really got people into science fiction!

The film was made with a mix of adult industry people, special effects talent like Mike Minor (the first two Star Trek movies, as well as The Man Who Saw Tomorrow. The Beastmaster and Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins), Greg Jein (1941), Jim Danforth (whose name is backward in the credits; he worked with Harryhausen on a number of films), Dave Allen (Equinox, pretty much all of Full Moon’s effects for their early films) and Rick Baker (do you need to know what he’s worked on?) and science fiction fans like Bjo Trimble, Tom Reamy, George Barr and Cornelius Cole III.

Originally featuring both straight and gay hardcore penetration, this footage was surrendered to the L.A. vice squad to avoid a charge of pandering. There was also a legal challenge from Universal Studios, who claimed — and was pretty much correct — that the movie completely copied the first chapter of the Flash Gordon serial. The filmmakers added a text scroll claiming that the movie was a parody and included “not to be confused with the original Flash Gordon” in all of the advertising for the film.

The FX guys hated the porn producers so much by the end of the shoot that they held film of the effects until they were paid (Dave Allen insisted on being paid in cash every day) and they were not listed in the credits of the film.

Professor Gordon (John Hoyt, When Worlds Collide) learns that sex rays are being fired at our planet and one of them hits the aircraft that his son, Flesh Gordon (Jason Williams, who would go on to make Time Walker) and Dale Ardor (Suzanne Fields, the daughter of a Mormon bishop who appeared in more than sixty adult films before this), are inside. They end up having sex and parachuting into the lab of Flexi Jerkoff (Joseph Hudgins) who takes them to the planet Porno to stop the sex rays.

They are soon attacked by Emperor Wang (William Dennis Hunt, who would be the only person to reprise their role in the sequel) and his Penisauruses. After a lengthy orgy, they are all sentenced to die, except for Dale, who will be married to Wang. Flash is saved by Queen Amora (Nora Wieternik), but their ship is shot down.

Flash and Jerkoff both survive, however, and almost stop Dale and Wang’s wedding when it is invaded by the lesbian armies of Chief Nellie (Candy Samples!), who tries to keep the Earthwoman for her sapphic soldier squad. Help arrives in the form of Prince Precious (Mycle Brandy) of the Forest Kingdom before a living idol kidnaps Dale, but luckily, the good guys win in the end. Oh yeah — that’s Craig T. Nelson as the voice of the Great God Porno, who was called Nesuahyrrah by the animators (Harryhausen backward).

This movie is pretty dumb and I say that in the most affectionate way possible. It’s like a Mad Magazine parody except, you know, people are naked for most of it. It’s the kind of film that’s made for 16 year olds who totally shouldn’t be seeing it (and obviously will find a way to see it).

Oh yeah! Rene Bond shows up as a sex slave alongside Tricia Opal, using the name Patricia Burns here. You can also spot Bill Margold, Duane Paulson, Dee Dee Dailes, Linda Marie, Jill Sweete, Dalana Bissonnette and Shannon West (Cleopatra from A Clock Work Blue) and Annette Michael.

SHAWGUST: Shaolin Handlock (1976)

Shi Zi So Hou Shou is the Shaolin Handlock, a fighting skill created by Li Bai (Dick Wei) and given to his children Cheng Ying (David Chiang) and Meng Ping (Chen Ping). He’s killed by Fang Yun Biao (Chan Shen), a man who he thought was a friend, and then two of his students — who Fang Yun Biao thought were Cheng Ying and Meng Ping — are also murdered, as the evil martial artist knows the only weakness in this style.

The Shaolin Handlock is pretty much a headlock. A front chancery, if you will, except you flip over someone’s head to do it.

Directed by Ho Meng-Hua, this has Cheng Ying learn that his father’s killer was hired by Lin Hao (Lo Lieh), so he becomes that man’s bodyguard, despite others in his employ suspecting him. His goal is to get closer and get back for his dead dad.  I really liked Fang Yun Biao’s hidden blades and the fact that after he kills people, he blows off steam in brothels. He’s a guy that causes death yet knows how to live life.

How long can the hero stay hidden and not show off his family’s well-known martial arts move? And when the bad guys take his sister, how can he save her? These are the questions that this answers and you’ll be pleased by what happens next. At least I think you will. I don’t presume to know if everyone will be happy. I hope so.

SHAWGUST: Journey of the Doomed (1985)

Shui Erh (Fu Yin-yu) is the illegitimate daughter of a prince, yet she was raised in a brothel by Kao Lao-ta (Tan Hui-wei) and has become a courtesan. The royal prince (Tony Ka Fai Leung) learns that she is his sister and wants to use her to gain power. Yet before that can happen, another prince sends assassins to kill her. She runs from the destruction of her brothel home and finds safety in the woods, where she’s saved by a young fisherman (Tung Wei).

Directed by Cha Chuan-yi, this is the last theatrical Shaw Brothers martial arts movie for decades. It’s pretty sleazy and filled with sex, nudity and outright exploitation, as there’s a lot of sexual slavery in the plot. It also has a moment that completely rips off Romancing the Stone.

It starts with two teams of killers chasing our heroes and then settles into a shack for most of the movie and becomes a soap opera and then has an ending that blows up a lot of the Shaw sets. The male protagonist can’t fight and it ends up that his sister is one of the assassins coming to kill Shui Erh and when those two female fighters kill one another, he feels guilty and even hates Shui Erh, but soon, they fall for one another. There’s also kung fu mental powers and a downbeat ending, if you like that kind of thing. I do.

The Sizzlin’ Something Weird Summer Challenge 2024: Betrayal (1974)

Rene Bond week (August 11 – 17) Rene Bond could brighten up even the most dreary productions, and she was in plenty of them. In the early adult scene she was one of the better actors, particularly when it came to comedy, though she could squeeze into some leather and throw the whips around when the role called for it. Bond appeared in somewhere near 100 films, thanks to her affable professionalism she worked with many filmmakers multiple times and regularly performed with her boyfriend Ric Lutze. Her career received an enhancement when she became one of the first stars to get a boobjob. She retired from film in the late-70s just as the porno chic era was dying down, but before the video era. You can find her in a ton of SWV titles, so take yer pick!

Helen Mercer (Amanda Blake, Miss Kitty from Gunsmoke) is a wealthy widow who had to kill a handyman who menaced her last year. Now, the rest of town calls her “Deadeye” and she doesn’t leave her home. She’s looking for a younger secretary, but really a companion, and finds one in Gretchen Addison (Tisha Sterling, the daughter of Robert Sterling and Ann Sothern). The problem? Gretchen is actually Adele Murphy and she’s on the run with her evil boyfriend Jay (Sam Groom) who keeps killing the elderly women who she works for.

Gretchen ends up finding a mother figure in Helen and doesn’t want to treat her like the rest of their victims. And to tell the truth, Helen isn’t all that easy to kill.

Based on the book Only Couples Need Apply by Doris Miles Disney (who also wrote the book that Do Not Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate was inspired by), Gretchen soon finds that she likes Helen’s world, with friends like Judge Harold Porter (Dick Haymes) and the opportunity to do more than just be a criminal constantly going from town to town with her abusive lover. Helen also learns that she can live from the younger girl and doesn’t have to stay inside her large house.

This was directed by Gordon Hessler, who made Scream and Scream AgainKiss Meets the Phantom of the ParkPrey for Death, The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver, Cry of the Banshee and more. It was written by James Mitchell Miller, who also was the writer for The Dark Secret of Harvest Home.

I have to share this IMDB review from dedmond509 because, wow:

“I guess that may be a bit of a spoiler. I always thought Tisha Sterling was really pretty. And in this movie, the scene that stands out to me was when her boyfriend viciously punches her in the stomach! I had never seen such a thing – such a pretty girl get so brutally hit in the stomach like that. She goes down immediately, holding her stomach and in pain, unable to breath. The guy grabs her hair and berates her and then leaves her suffering from the stomach punch.

You hardly ever see the attractive girls in movies get hit in the stomach. I was rather young when I saw this and it was so realistic. Tisha’s acting was superb. It made me wonder if this had ever happened to her in real life. In the movie, I could hardly tell it was acting.

Good movie all around, but I’ll never forget the part where Tisha gets punched so hard in the stomach and doubles over onto a ottoman holding her stomach in pain – at length. I had never seen such a thing in real life or on screen before or since then.”

Me, I was noticing Rene Bond playing a waitress as a bit part. Yes, she was in a TV movie the very same year that she was in The DicktatorThe French Love SecretCountry HookerInside AmyAngel Above – The Devil BelowFlesh GordonFive Loose Women, High School Fantasies, The Danish ConnectionPanorama Blue, and Teaser.

You can watch this on YouTube.

Despiser coming from Visual Vengeance!

After losing his job and his wife, Gordon crashes his car and lands in purgatory, where he’s attacked by fanatics and enslaved souls. He’s soon saved by a quirky band of freedom fighters from different historical eras, all of whom died in noble sacrifice. Reluctantly joining their cause, Gordon embarks on a wild adventure through surreal, hellish landscapes to battle the Despiser, the malevolent ruler of the realm. Facing shifting realities, monstrous creatures, and intense car chases over lava oceans, their journey leads to the ultimate showdown to save all of humanity.

Phillips Cook’s quirky, non-stop menagerie of machine gun battles, early CGI masterwork and endless array of monsters make it one of the most unique direct to video features of the VHS and early DVD era. Cook painstakingly crafts a green screen netherworld steeped in brutal violence, religious mythology and action movie tropes, all filtered through a dream-like, hallucinogenic lens that never once takes its foot off the gas.

Bonus features for Despiser include:

  • Producer-supervised SD master from original tape source
  • Commentary with director Philip J. Cook and stars Mark Redfield and Gage Sheridan
  • New 2023 Interview with director Philip J. Cook and star Mark Hyde
  • Commentary with Sam Panico of B&S About Movies — Hey! That’s me! — and Bill Van Ryn of Drive-In Asylum
  • The Making of Despiser
  • Deleted Scenes
  • Blooper Reel
  • Outtakes Reel
  • Despiser: Storyboard To Animation
  • Original DVD Menu Animated Intro
  • Behind The Scenes Gallery
  • Image and Art Gallery
  • Despiser Trailers
  • Visual Vengeance Trailer
  • Outerworld Trailer
  • Invader Trailer
  • Optional French audio soundtrack
  • Optional English Subtitles
  • Folded mini-poster
  • “Stick your own” VHS sticker sheet
  • 2-Sided Insert
  • Reversible Sleeve With Original VHS Art
  • Limited Edition Slipcase – FIRST PRESSING ONLY

You can preorder this now from Diabolik DVD!

Kung-Fu Rascals coming from Visual Vengeance!

When their village is threatened by an ancient dark lord known as The Bamboo Man, a master thief and his two sidekicks steal a map and set off on a quest to find the only superpower in the land big enough to save their home and rid the world of evil. But these Rascals will have to kick, punch and fart their way through every ninja, monster and mutant in sight before they can restore peace.

A frantic, eccentric and loving homage to Asian cinema in all its forms, Kung Fu Rascals is part old school chop socky movie, Kaiju flick and Power Rangers episode rolled into one. The directorial debut from legendary Hollywood special effects artist Steve Wang (The Monster Squad, Predator, The Guyver, Drive), this Super 8 epic showcases both his monster make-up mastery and sharp action movie sensibilities. The first time ever on Blu-ray, Kung Fu Rascals features hours of bonus features, including commentaries, rare BTS footage and a brand new feature-length documentary on the making of the film.

Bonus materials include:

  • Director-supervised SD master from original tape elements
  • The Making of Kung Fu Rascals: Brand New Feature Length Documentary
  • The Reunion of the Three Rascals
  • Commentary with director Steve Wang, Actor Johnnie Saiko, Actor Troy Firman, Composer & Actor Les Claypool III and Actor Ted Smith
  • Commentary with Kung Fu Rascals superfans Justin Decloux and Dylan Cheung
  • Steve Wang & Les Claypool III Meet Again
  • Chris Gore Interview: Distributing Kung Fu Rascals on VHS
  • Behind The Scenes Video Diaries
  • Original Kung Fu Rascals Super 8 Short Film
  • Steve Wang Short Film: Code 9
  • Complete Film Threat Video #6 BTS Article
  • Stills Gallery
  • Behind The Scenes Image Gallery
  • Visual Vengeance Trailer
  • “Stick Your Own: VHS Sticker Set
  • Reversible Sleeve Featuring Original VHS Art
  • Folded mini-poster
  • 2-sided insert with alternate art
  • Optional English subtitles
  • 12 page mini comic book – FIRST PRESSING ONLY
  • Limited Edition Slipcase by The Dude – FIRST PRESSING ONLY

You can preorder it now from Diabolik DVD!

The Sizzlin’ Something Weird Summer Challenge 2024: The Mislayed Genie (1973)

Rene Bond week (August 11 – 17) Rene Bond could brighten up even the most dreary productions, and she was in plenty of them. In the early adult scene she was one of the better actors, particularly when it came to comedy, though she could squeeze into some leather and throw the whips around when the role called for it. Bond appeared in somewhere near 100 films, thanks to her affable professionalism she worked with many filmmakers multiple times and regularly performed with her boyfriend Ric Lutze. Her career received an enhancement when she became one of the first stars to get a boobjob. She retired from film in the late-70s just as the porno chic era was dying down, but before the video era. You can find her in a ton of SWV titles, so take yer pick!

Directed by Eric Jeffrey Haims (A Clock Work Blue, The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio) and Shelley Haims, who co-wrote it with Tom Reamy, The Mislayed Genie (or The Miss Laid Genii) has David Bates (Franklin Anthony) — get it, Master Bates — finding out that when he rubs his penis, a genie (Tobar Mayo, who was also Abar) comes out and grants his wishes. At one point, gangsters tie up our hero and one of his friends has to, well, get the genie to emerge from his wang.

“See David’s magic…lamp??? If you rub it LONG enough… If you rub it HARD enough… You’ll COME out smiling…” is the tagline, but let’s be honest, I watched this because Rene Bond plays Miss Gooch, the school’s sexual education teacher. This is a magical world where young boys are taught all the basics of lovemaking by perhaps one of the most perfect beings to ever break hearts.

This has appearances by Ana Ali (A Scream In the Streets), Margot Devletian (Evil Come, Evil Go), Diana Hardy (The Goddaughter) and Tricia Opal (Sex In the Comics). I am amused that just a year into porno chic that movies like this went all the way into fantasy and couldn’t decide if they wanted to be softcore or full adult, as this has numerous erections. There’s a fun idea here but the movie can barely care to explore it.