Frank Henenlotter’s Sexy Shockers (September 1 – 7) We all know Frank Hennenlotter as the director of the Basket Case films, Bad Biology, Brain Damage, and Frankenhooker, but he’s also a cinematic curator of the crass! An academic of the pathetic! A steward of sleaze! A sexton of the sexual and the Sexy Shocker series is his curio cabinet of crudity. Skin and sin are mixed together in these homegrown oddities, South American rediscoveries, and Eurohorror almost-classics. Your mind may recoil with erotic revulsion at the sights contained within these films, so choose wisely!

Edward Earle Marsh started acting as a young kid, potentially playing of the Three Little Pigs in the Laurel and Hardy movie Babes in Toyland, with Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood and as a slave in The End Commandments. In the 60s, he recorded the album I’ll Sing for You with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This was the first time he’d use the name Zebedy Colt and the record was probably shocking for its time, singing songs to men that were usually sung by women to men.

He would come back to that name when he was looking for a way to make money while struggling on Broadway (he was Anthony Newley’s understudy in The Roar of the Greasepaint, The Smell of the Crowd and was also in Dark at the Top of the Stairs, The Royal Family and Travesties). He was recognized by his fellow actors several times, include Sandy Dennis, who saw him in an adult film that she took her mother to see.

After appearing in movies like Sex Wish, The Story of Joanna and Barbara Broadcast, he started to direct — something he continued to do in New Jersey and Pennsylvania regional theater — from his Lambertville, New Jersey farm. His movies include Farmer’s Daughters (starring Spalding Gray), White Fire, Terri’s Revenge and Unwilling Lovers.

Strangest of those movies is The Devil Inside Her, a movie set in 1826, somewhere in New England. Two sisters, Faith (Terri Hall, Rollerbabies, which fortells that in the not too distant future, sex will be illegal. But there will be Rollerbabies) and Hope (Jody Maxwell, Neon Nights) are both in love with a farmhand named Joseph (Dean Tait). Their father, Ezekiel (Colt), hates this and flogs Faith for having lust in her heart.

Instead of waiting for the punishment from her father, Hope prays to the devil (Rod DuMont), who begins to possess each of the members of the family. You can tell because they have face paint on, just like he does. Satan ends up looking more like Moloch from CHiPs than KISS or King Diamond, but when you see what a few demons do to Annie Sprinkle later, you’ll know that he’s the real cloven hoofed deal. That’s what you get when you meet a witch in the woods and milk a young boy, unleashing “the human snake that grows to fill the void.”

Someone had to prove how smart they are and write this on IMDB: “The opening scene states that this film is set in 1826, however several actors are wearing modern denim overalls and blue jeans. Denim jeans were not patented and produced until 1873, by Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis.”

You’re expecting perfect costumes from an adult movie made in the 70s.

Anyways, this all ends with Joseph and father trying to save Hope — never mind that every family member has co-mingled more than every character in every V.C. Andrews book put together — and laying crosses on her. She responds by saying, “Go fuck yourself in Heaven! You have ruined it all with your cocks of impurity!” As she dies, it seems like this is an unhappy ending, until Satan is revealed, holding her under his cape.

If it all seems like Faith would like to live deliciously, well, this may not have influenced The Witch but damn it all if it isn’t really similar. Except, you know, one of them is a movie with a budget and this is an adult film shot in a few days on a farm. Somehow, this one ends with only one person dead, a father recognizing his daughter’s marriage and new husband, and the dead daughter achieving the true love she never had in life within the arms of Lucifer. “Love of God cannot be so oppressive that one forgets pure love and honest desire,” is spoken and somehow, a movie that is absolute filth — seriously, this goes below and beyond what even your internet connected dirty mind can look up — has a moral even in the midst of absolute immorality.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the journey through Cannon continues, this week we’re exploring the films of 21st Century Film Corporation, which would be the company that Menahem Golan would take over after Cannon. Formed by Tom Ward and Art Schweitzer in 1971 (or 1976, there are some disputed expert opinions), 21st Century had a great logo and released some wild stuff.

Whether you see this as The 36 Crazy Fists, Bloodpact, Secrets of the Young Master or The Master and the Boxer, if you’re here for Jackie Chan, he only shows up in the opening credits. Directed by Charlie Chen Chi-Hwa, this had Jackie directing the fights with his stunt team. Producers took the behind the scenes footage for the opening of the film and released it as an actual Jackie Chan movie.

The story is about a young man who goes by Wong Ti-Kwang (Siu-Hung Leung). He wants revenge for the death of his father and ends up learning kung fu, after being refused by many schools, through the same way that Jackie did in The Drunken Master. He gets his ass beat day after day until he learns the windmill strikes of the 36 crazy fists.

If you were buying Jackie movies in dollar bins at any point, you probably bought this.

You can watch this on YouTube.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the journey through Cannon continues, this week we’re exploring the films of 21st Century Film Corporation, which would be the company that Menahem Golan would take over after Cannon. Formed by Tom Ward and Art Schweitzer in 1971 (or 1976, there are some disputed expert opinions), 21st Century had a great logo and released some wild stuff.

Cheung Da Gong (Henry Yu Young) is a journeyman martial artist, sometimes fighting on stage, other times as a bodyguard or someone who protects shopkeepers. The death of his father brings him back home to work on the farm. He refuses to sell it to criminal Mr. Wong (Tien Fang), who gets his men to burn it down, killing his mother and sister. As you can imagine, the grief makes him get revenge. Then he gets arrested and the police say, “You should have left retribution to the law.”

This is a downer.

Also released as Fury of the Black Belt, this was directed by Lung-Hsiang Fang. Woo-Ping Yuen coordinated the action and a young Jackie Chan even shows up, but you may not spot him. He has a mustache!

It’s a very serviceable revenge film, even if I dislike that it ends with an arrest. I think if the mob burns down your family, legally you should be able to destroy everyone.

You can watch this on Tubi.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the journey through Cannon continues, this week we’re exploring the films of 21st Century Film Corporation, which would be the company that Menahem Golan would take over after Cannon. Formed by Tom Ward and Art Schweitzer in 1971 (or 1976, there are some disputed expert opinions), 21st Century had a great logo and released some wild stuff.

This movie answers two questions.

How do you have a sequel to a movie where the main character, Chen Zhen, is executed?

How do you make a sequel to a Bruce Lee movie with no Bruce Lee?

Filling in for the gone before his time actor is Bruce Li, playing Chen Zhen’s brother Chen Shan. The Japanese who killed his sibling are worried that the martial arts schools will unite to fight back against them in Shanghai, so they send Miyamoto (Lo Lieh) to close down the schools. When Chen Zhen’s Ching Wu School refuses to close, it is forcibly shut down. But now Chen Shan is in the country and after visiting his brother’s grave, he is ready for revenge.

Also known as Chinese Connection 2, this is the second attempt to make a sequel to the original. Lo Wei’s New Fist of Fury starred Jackie Chan and was not as well regarded. This would be followed by another sequel, also starring Bruce Li. Li Kun and Tien Feng would return for this film, but Nora Miao is in New Fist of Fury, which was considered an official sequel. Oddly enough, Chris Hilton dubbed the hero in the English dubbed soundtracks for both movies.

21st Century released this and man, they gave a disco record to the first fifty people at each show. I can only dream that it was a Bruce Li-themed record.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the journey through Cannon continues, this week we’re exploring the films of 21st Century Film Corporation, which would be the company that Menahem Golan would take over after Cannon. Formed by Tom Ward and Art Schweitzer in 1971 (or 1976, there are some disputed expert opinions), 21st Century had a great logo and released some wild stuff.

Aloysius “Quackser” Fortune (Gene Wilder) takes road apples and sells them to people who have gardens. His family keeps telling him that horses are going to be banned for cars soon, but he loves his work. And he’s in love with an American, Zazel Pierce (Margot Kidder) who is studying abroad. I mean, this movie has to be science fiction. 1970 Margot Kidder in love with a guy who scoops manure?

Director Waris Hussein would eventually make TV movies like The Henderson Monster and Copacabana. This film strains my credibility meter as there’s no reason for these characters to be in love and the end, where — spoiler — Fortune inherits a fortune from that cousin in the Bronx and becomes a tour bus driver, seems just plain too easy.

Nonetheless, 21st Century re-released this as Fun Loving after Wilder’s successful films with Richard Pryor as a new movie, not one that had years of dust on it.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the journey through Cannon continues, this week we’re exploring the films of 21st Century Film Corporation, which would be the company that Menahem Golan would take over after Cannon. Formed by Tom Ward and Art Schweitzer in 1971 (or 1976, there are some disputed expert opinions), 21st Century had a great logo and released some wild stuff. Also, this is Manhattan Baby. 

Reviews call this film one of Fulci’s worst films, using phrases like “an impenetrable mess” and “uninspired.” Even the liner notes on the Anchor Bay release say that the film “doesn’t add up.” Woah boy — that would put off anyone else. But me? I’m excited to dig in. Get it? Dig in.

Susie Hacker is in Egypt with her archaeologist father, George (Christopher Connelly, The Norseman, 1990: The Bronx Warriors, the Peyton Place TV series), and journalist mother, Emily (Martha Taylor, better known as Laura Lenzi, who was in The Adventures of Hercules) when a blind woman gives her an amulet. Just as she takes it, her father is blinded while he enters a previously unexplored tomb (but not before he shoots the shit out of a snake).

They return to New York City, where we meet Susie’s younger brother, Tommy (oh fuck, it’s Giovanni Frezza, Bob from The House by the Cemetery), who didn’t go on the trip, and au pair Jamie Lee (boy, naming a babysitter Jamie Lee is in no way a coincidence, right? She’s played by Cinzia de Ponti from The New York Ripper). Susie and Tommy have somehow gained supernatural powers from the amulet (Susie could speak telepathically to her mother before she left Egypt). And laser beams blast George’s eyes, giving him back his vision.

Check out this brother and sister interaction, Tommy’s introduction to the film. Also, if you’re wondering why a little boy is dubbed with the voice of a small girl, then you’ve never watched a Fulci film before.

Susie also has a scorpion — referred to in the beginning as a symbol of death as George captures it to give it to his daughter as a gift — and is playing with it. Wiler, a colleague, talks to George about what he saw in the tumb.

Meanwhile, Emily is working with her wacky colleague Luke (Carlo de Mejo, City of the Living Dead, The Other Hell, The House by the Cemetery) at Time and Life on a story when Jamie Lee calls in a panic. She can’t unlock the kids’ bedroom door and when she tries to enter the room, she sees snakes. Also, we know Luke is wacky because he has on Groucho Marx glasses when we first see him, then he has on googly eyes later. Oh, Luke.

Meanwhile, a security guard is stuck in an elevator. He bloodies his fingers trying to open the doors — thanks, Fulci! — before the floor drops away.

Luke offers to enter the locked door, acting like a goofy magician, when he screams. Jamie Lee runs upstairs but he’s nowhere to be found. That’s because he’s been sucked into a dimensional gateway and is now in the deserts of Egypt, a place where that madcap ponce will eventually die from exposure and dehydration. The funniest thing? Everyone thinks it’s a practical joke. No one ever discusses it again! I mean, Jamie Lee finds a handful of sand in the room and sees scorpions walking all over the place, but all the kids care about is eating dinner. Cue the Fabio Frizzi (who also composed music for Zombi 2, City of the Living Dead, The Beyond and more) music! Obviously, this was all some kind of practical joke, right? Why should anyone call the police?

Speaking of that Frizzi music, it plays as we see Susie’s hand begin to smoke and burn her bed. Then, she levitates. Nothing at all strange, please move along!

Jamie Lee then takes the kids to Central Park, where they all take Polaroids — note to millennials, selfies used to take three minutes to develop. A woman finds one of the photos, which ends up being the amulet instead of the kids. She shows the photo to Adrian Marcato (Cosimo Cinieri, Murder Rock and The New York Ripper), who puts his name and number on the Polaroid and ensures that the woman gives it to Mrs. Hacker. He’s a mysterious man with a mysterious study filled with mysterious books.

Susie and Tommy have now learned how to go on voyages, trips that allow them to appear and reappear at will. Not everyone is able to do this — Jamie Lee goes on a voyage and never returns. And more weirdness starts happening — George’s colleague Wiler looks at the Polaroid of the amulet and then a snake appears and bites him. We even get an awesome snake POV camera in this scene, which I reacted to with pure, ebullient joy. That same photo teleports into Susie’s hand as she has a fit and collapses. Also — how did Fulci, in a film filled with eyeball symbolism, resist the urge to have the snake bite the old man in the eyeball? What a show of restraint!

Groege and Emily decide to go to Macato’s antique shop, which is filled with stuffed birds. And he’s stuffing another one while talking to them. He explains the evil inside the amulet and how it has now infected their daughter and son.

They find the amulet — and a live scorpion that everyone just kind of ignores — in Susie’s bedroom door. She knocks out all of the lights in her room and appears covered in a blue glow before she faints. Marcato appears and tries to link minds with Susie, but he can’t handle the strain. He falls to the ground, bleeding and foaming at the mouth. He’s able to link minds with George, though, showing him the Egypt that his children have been visiting and tells him that Susie is trapped by the stone.

Susie goes into a coma, where she is examined by Dr. Forrester (Dr. Clayton Forrester? No, but he is played by director Lucio Fulci, listed as anonymous in the credits), who finds a cobra mark in her x-rays.

Tommy is left alone in the apartment, his eyes intercut with Marcato’s, who is concentrating on the amulet (there’s some nice Bava-esque blue to red lighting here, with tight shots of the psychic’s eyeballs). Suddenly, blood pours through a wall and Jamie Lee comes busting through, covered in gore (again, Fulci is really restraining himself here). Susie’s machines start to flatline before she awakens, choking and spitting up blood. Blue light links Tommy, Susie and Marcato’s home as he recites an Egyptian spell.

Marcato tells George that his children are safe. He’s removed the curse and taken it upon himself, so that it will not harm anyone else. He asks that George throw the amulet into the deepest part of the river.

After an entire film of holding back on the geysers of fluid and exploding eyeballs that we know and love him for, Fulci goes insane with the ending. We see shadows of the dead birds come to life before they fly at Mercato, slashing at his face. He mixes in some pecking POV shots and then goes completely over the top with repeated shots and a slowly lifting zoom, mixed with more interwoven POV shots, leaving the antique store owner a bloody corpse. The camera pulls back on a slow jazz song as we see the dead man bleed out and lift high above the store, before zooming to one of the stuffed birds. If I’ve learned anything from a Fulci movie, it’s to never work in a library or antique bookshop, because animals are going to eat your face.

Seriously, this jazz song, it’s like the kind of interlude Billy Joel would play before starting “New York State of Mind.”

George throws away the amulet, but now we’re back in Egypt, repeating the cycle as another young girl is given another amulet.

Whew. Manhattan Baby was written by longtime Fulci collaborators and husband and wife duo Dardano Sacchetti and Elisa Briganti. Originally called The Evil Eye and The Possession (it was also released as Eye of the Evil Dead), they settled on the changed title to evoke Rosemary’s Baby. Even the name Adrian Mercato comes from that film. He’s one of the witches mentioned in the book Rosemary reads, All of Them Witches, as he practiced black magic in the Bramford building and is the father of Roman Castevet. The budget would get cut throughout the film — as much as 75% — so that may be why the gore feels so restrained.

This is the final film that producer Fabrizio De Angelis and Fulci would work on together. Fulci disliked the film and felt that he had no choice but to make it; De Angelis was obsessed by it.

Manhattan Baby doesn’t seem like a failure to me. It makes good use of locations like the faux Egyptian pyramids and market, as well as New York City. And the restraint leads to a great climax. That said — it’s a mishmash of The Omen, The Exorcist and The Awakening, with a dash of The Birds. Sure, it’s not a great film or even a good one, but it’s an interesting one. And that’s what I want to watch!

You can watch this on Tubi.

You can listen to the podcast episode here.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the journey through Cannon continues, this week we’re exploring the films of 21st Century Film Corporation, which would be the company that Menahem Golan would take over after Cannon. Formed by Tom Ward and Art Schweitzer in 1971 (or 1976, there are some disputed expert opinions), 21st Century had a great logo and released some wild stuff.

Before Cannon popularized ninjas, they were still showing up in movies like this one, also known as Powerforce and directed by Michael Mak, brother of Johnny and also the director of Sex and Zen.

It stars Bruce Baron (The Atlantis Interceptors, several Godfrey Ho movies like Ninja Champion) as Jack Sargeant, who eventually becomes a member of Dragon Force after facing off with two men dressed as a Chinese dragon, a flute-playing girl and a kabuki fighter, which makes me wonder if this wants to have every Asian stereotype in one breath. He’s protecting Princess Rawleen (Mandy Moore, no not the singer of “Candy”) from a criminal empire who has been killing all the members of the Mongrovian royal family (which is right next to Moldavia). In fact, when she’s hiding out at a friend’s house and trying to take a bath, ninjas show up and kidnap her.

Tan Lung (Bruce Li) is in charge of the Dragon Force and no, Herman Li, Sam Totman, Marc Hudson, Gee Anzalone and Alicia Vigil aren’t in this. Instead, they are a G.I. Joe karate force of extraordinary magnitude. It turns out that in order to win the space race, Russia is going to use acupuncture to take over the mind of the Princess. Russia has ninjas? How will we ever win the Cold War?

Dragon Force even has uniforms and an arms maker, Ah Chu — yes, that joke gets lobbed — who makes them bulletproof t-shirts. Yet this movie is all about the ninjas. Someone says, “Blood will flow from the body’s five holes!” but it’s more like “Ninjas will show up non-stop for the last ten minutes.” A giant tower of ninjas. Ninjas on wires. Ninjas getting their arms ripped clean off. Ninjas blowing up real good. Ninjas having their guts spray all over the screen. All different colored ninjas, all dying in the most incredible ways.

This was distributed not only by 21st Century, but also Bedford Entertainment, who seemed driven to distribute movies that I am crazy about, like Slashers, House On the Edge of the Park, Anaza hevun and even Messiah of Evil as Dead People.

This movie is amazing. You know how they put Criterion blu rays out that are always really stuffy movies that people have long discussions about and we’re supposed to just believe that those are all cinema is? Do any of them have ninjas or good guys who hide in a bakery called the Good Fu King Bakery Co? There are also two attractive women all over Jack at one point and one says, “We don’t have sergeants here, we’re only interested in privates.”

21st Century licensed this to Planet Video.

You can watch this on Tubi.