Oh Mimsy Farmer. I have watched you by menaced by the camera of Lucio Fulci in The Black Catand Ruggero Deodato in Body Count, saw you deal with supersonic air travel in The Concorde Affair, wowed by racecar drivers in Hot Rods to Hell and The Wild Racers, ride with bikers in Devil’s Angels and get involved in giallo intrigue in Four Flies on Grey Velvet, The Perfume of the Lady in Black and Autopsy. So when some folks watch this and wonder, how could the hero have gotten into heroin because he was so in love with a girl, I just say, “Well, she was Mimsy Farmer. I’ve done much dumber things for much less breathtaking women.”
That protagonist is Stefan (Klaus Grünberg, The Grand Duel), a German college student who is taking a break and hitchhiking to Paris, where he gambles, robs a bank and meets the free-spirited Estelle (Farmer), following her to Ibiza and down the path of drug addiction.
The villain who provides the heroin to Estelle isn’t just any bad guy. He’s a former Nazi named Dr. Ernesto Wolf. Stefan thinks that he’s saved Estelle from him, but he’s only doomed himself to addiction when he believes that by doing the same drugs as her, he can hold on to her love.
Honestly, I feel like I’ve lived enough of this movie, trying to save unsavable women when really I should have worked on myself. This is not an easy admission to make. It’s none of their fault and all of mine, thinking that being a better person and making lives better really means love when all it means is misplaced devotion.
Roger Ebert had a great review of this movie, summed up best by this last line: “The message seems to be: Sure, speed kills, but what a way to go.”
More was the debut feature of Barbet Schroeder, who would go on to make Single White Female and another film that somewhat romanticizes self-destruction, Barfly. Here’s an interesting fact: those are all real drugs in the scenes showing Stefan and Estelle using marijuana, heroin and LSD.
This film also has a soundtrack by Pink Floyd, which was released as More and includes “The Nile Song,” “Cirrus Minor” and “Cymbaline.” The music only shows up in natural moments, overheard when cars have on their radios or when Estelle puts on a record. The band would work with Schroeder again — who is also the leader of France in Mars Attacks! — on his movie The Valley (Obscured by Clouds).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Robert Freese contributes to many different magazines, zines and websites such as Videoscope, Rue Morgue, Drive-in Asylum, Grindhouse Purgatory, Horror and Sons and Lunchmeat VHS. (His most recent piece, about the 80’s video distributor Super Video, can be found here). He also co-hosts the Two Librarians Walk into a Shelf podcast so he has an excuse to expose library patrons to ninja and slasher films.
Our story begins at a posh Hollywood soiree where head of Paragon International Pictures Max Black announces the start of a new movie starring hot young talents, Tony Deen and Marie Morgan, as well as their engagement.
After the party, on his way home, a shadowy figure assaults Deen and injects him with a concoction that puts him in a state of suspended animation. We are then whisked to the Movieland Wax Museum, where tour guide Nick walks patrons from one famous display to another.
Detectives Haskell and Carver arrive to ask curator Vincent Renard about the recent disappearances of other Paragon stars. Renard doesn’t have any information that can help their investigation, but he agrees it is weird that each one of them disappeared shortly before the unveiling of his newest display dedicated to those same Paragon stars.
We learn in a flashback that at another Paragon party, Marie Morgan told Max Black she was quitting the business to marry Renard, who, at the time, was Paragon’s top make-up artist. Enraged, Black throws a drink into Renard’s face just as he lights a cigarette. Renard’s head bursts into flames. He staggers blindly outside and jumps into the pool. Authorities write it off as an accident. The “accident” leaves Renard disfigured and missing an eye.
Renard reconnects with Marie, regardless that Max does not want her associating with him any longer, and eventually convinces her to “pose” for him.
You don’t have to be the savviest horror film fan to connect all the dots here, but Nightmare in Wax is still a total delight. If you were a kid when you first saw it, it no doubt scared the snot out of you. The premise of a madman injecting his victims with an agent that renders them motionless, then keeps them docile with hypnotism, is potent nightmare fuel. But just like quicksand, another terrifying concern that blossomed in many of us in our adolescence, the premise of such an outlandish plan disintegrates into itself when adult logic is applied. (I mean, certainly some sounds would be coming from their bodies, escaping gases, stuff like that, right? Possibly, tears running out of their never blinking eyes and maybe some kind of skin discoloration as they go longer without actual food and water, but I’m being a killjoy now.)
In and of itself, Nightmare in Wax succeeds because it was produced only to creep out drive-ins patrons looking for some cheap thrills, and then later the same viewers surfing for late night TV chills. It’s a fine example of exploitation that runs with its absurd premise and delivers the required thrills fans of such an entertainment desire. It is not really gratuitous in any way as its most gruesome moments are suggested, keeping the proceedings in PG rated territory but not dulling their impact to shock and disgust. It exists and delivers on the same level as the Creepy and Eerie horror comic magazines that were popular at the time. Never really scary, but blackly fun and offering simple morality tales for a young audience. It offers just the right amount of gruesome entertainment for a fun night at the drive-in with friends.
Cameron Mitchell stars as Renard and he is absolutely wonderful. This is the Cameron Mitchell fans most love: the crazy, cackling, carrying around a dead body and talking insanely to it during a high-speed police chase to the pier in Santa Monica Cameron Mitchell. (For myself, I love this Mitchell performance more than his similar psycho role in The Toolbox Murders.)
Anne Helm is great as Marie, but she fails to make Marie completely sympathetic, especially since she only agrees to pose for Renard if he gives her a bust of Tony Deen, who she is still madly in love with. (When he finally has her trapped, there is a bit of joy on the part of the audience when Renard cackles, “If I can’t have you the right way, I will have you another way.”) Berry Kroeger had been making pictures since the early forties and is perfect as the slimy little toad Max Black. (You do feel joy when Renard is torturing the creep.)
There is a slew of familiar faces in the cast, among them Al Adamson regulars Scott Brady as Detective Haskell and John “Bud” Cardos, looking an awful lot like Sam Rockwell, as Detective Carver. Hollis Morrison is a hoot as Nick, especially when he thinks he is hallucinating. Morrison worked throughout the sixties but tapped-out soon after this film with a final appearance on the TV show McCloud. This was one of character actor Virgil Frye’s earlier films and Ken Osborne appears briefly as a bartender, following up with appearances in Blood of Dracula’s Castle, Five Bloody Graves, and Hell’s Bloody Devils before directing the outstanding western Cain’s Cutthroats in 1970.
Written by a true master of exploitation, Rex Carlton delivered a gruesomely good ride that exploits the premise for all it is worth. Carlton also wrote the film that was released on a double bill with Nightmare in Wax, Blood of Dracula’s Castle, a film as equally fun. The two films ran together as an amazingly successful double feature for years. Carlton, unfortunately, did not live to enjoy the success of the films he wrote. He took his own life soon after Sam Sherman and Al Adamson lost the rights to Blood of Dracula’s Castle, some speculating that he owed the wrong people money for a loan to get the films made. (Posthumously, the two films raked in an amazing pile of dough for distributor Crown International Pictures, and they played multiple double bills, triple features and dusk to dawn shows well into the seventies. Another Sherman/Adamson film he scripted, The Fakers, went on to theatrical success as Hell’s Bloody Devils. Earlier in his career, Carlton wrote the absolutely bonkers exploitation classic The Brain that Wouldn’t Die.)
Director Bud Townsend began his career in TV and then moved into features. He continued making films released by Crown International Pictures well into the eighties. From a historical perspective, the film offers a glimpse of the long lamented Movieland Wax Museum as it existed just prior to being sold to Six Flags. It depicts a moment in time that will forever exist in this film. Quaint as wax museums may seem to some, when they are gone there is definitely a sense of loss by those of us who enjoy such activities as posing for pictures with wax effigies of stars and characters from the past. More than living up to its title, Nightmare in Wax is a darn fine spook-show. It’s cheap and clunky, but it just might creep you out a bit. If anything, Cameron Mitchell’s over the top performance makes it more than worth a watch. The Gorehouse Greats Collection presents the film in a widescreen format and is by far the best copy I’ve seen available, between other budget releases and streaming.
Animal collector Ron Shanin, the writer/director/cinematographer/producer of this movie, wanders the world to show the world what it’s like to search for the world’s biggest and most dangerous animals.
Filmed in 1962, but unreleased until 1969 or so, it is narrated by Michael Rye, who is just pretending to be Shanin. He was also the voice of the narrator for the video game Dragon’s Lair, Green Lantern on the Super Friends and Super Powers cartoons and Magneto for several of the 1980’s Marvel cartoons.
Of course, no mondo would be complete without interacting with the natives and it coming off as very cringe worthy. This is by no means a Goodbye Uncle Tom moment, but just be warned if this is your first time into these type of movies (it’s actually a fine start, but go slow and don’t jump right into the Italian side of mondo right after this unless you want to be truly shocked and awed, OK?).
Why this is on a Mill Creek collection is beyond me, other than Crown International Pictures was like, if you buy one of our movies, you get all of these other ones. It had a pretty cool title and you’d be forgiven if you thought that it was a peblum movie.
You just never know when it comes to Mill Creek sets. We first reviewed this bike-racing flick on March 7, 2020, because we just enjoy digging up ’70s drive-in junk. Then we revisited it August 4, 2020, when the film popped up as part of Mill Creek’s Savage Cinema set, a box set which we reviewed in full.
Yep. Mill Creek “goes green” once again, as they also include the film on their B-Movie Blast 50-Film pack. Ah, but those scamps at Mill Creek changed it up: now they’ve included the film under its alternate title of Five the Hard Way . . . and we, at first, though they included, but mistitled, Gordon Parks’s blaxploitation actioner Three the Hard Way. But this isn’t a blaxplotation picture. So, while there’s no Fred Williamson, we do get a Ross Hagen and Micheal Pataki fix in the bargain.
But, after watching, we still don’t know what a “sidehacker” is.
Well, we do, actually, as Sidehackers is part of the late ’60s fascination with bikers, a genre that got its start — to an extent — with Motorpsycho (1965) and featured the likes of The Wild Angels (1966) and hit its peak with Easy Rider (1969). However, that didn’t stop low-budget studios from pumpin’ out more biker flicks into the mid-’70s,with the blaxploitation genre offering their takes on the genre with The Black Six and Darktown Strutters (both 1974).
Sidehackers, however, isn’t mention within the biker genre, as we are not dealing with any Hell’s Angels or Satan’s Sadist or Born Losers, here, but legit motorcycle racers — sidecar motocross racing, in particular. Yes. If you ever wondered if there was a movie made about the obscure sport of sidecar motocross, well, the fine folks at Crown International gave you one. And much like Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer indulging Tom Cruise’s love of stock car racing into a movie with Days of Thunder (1990), Crown indulged Ross Hagen’s love of the sport.
As with most racing movies — a trend that carried out to the likes of the sort-of-apoc “death sport” rip Ground Rules (1997) — we have a mechanic — who is also a “sidehacker,” as well — who wants to be a racer behind-the-handlebars, in this case, Rommel, played by producer Ross Hagen.
Now, every race flick must have a villain; Tom Cruise had Michael Rooker, right? Here, our villain, J.C, played by the always welcomed Michael Pataki, who excels at dickdom when he needs to, is abusive to his girlfriend, his crew, and his gang. And as in every Fabian or Frankie Avalon stock car flick (1966’s Fireball 500, for one; 1967’s Thunder Alley, for two), the bad driver’s girl goes “femme fatale” and pines for the good racer.
So, how do you get even when your “woman” makes you look bad: beat the hell out of her and blame her crush; so J.C’s gang comes after our man Rommel and his woman, Rita (Diane McBain, who we reviewed in Wicked Wicked, but she did the racing flick thing with Elvis in Spinout; yep, she’s in Thunder Alley, too).
That’s pretty much the movie. But what raises Sidehackers above all of those Elvis, Fabian, and Frankie Avalon racing flicks is that there’s no stock footage, here: all the racing was shot specifically for the film.
So, yeah. What we have here is a stock car racing flick, just with sidecar motocross racing. But even with the original-to-the-film racing footage, we’d still — as in the somewhat similar Rollerball (without the ball, natch) — we’d wish there was more sport and less romantic drama.
And what’s this all have to do with Goldie Hawn?
Goldie’s husband, former Broadway dancer Gus Trikonis — who appeared as one of the “Sharks” in West Side Story (1961) — made his directing debut with the film. He’d go onto direct the always great Richard Crenna in The Evil (1978), as well as giving us the hicksploitation romp Moonshine County Express (1977), the nasty-scuzzy country fallen star romp Nashville Girl (1976), and one of the more successful movies-based on songs, Take This Job and Shove It (1981). He and Hagen would also go against the grain and break the mold with the only film — ever — dedicated to the illegal “sport” of cockfighting: Supercock (1975). Okay, well, two: we can’t forget Monte Hellman of Two-Lane Blacktop fame (1971) made one: Cockfighter (1974) for Roger Corman.
So, there. Now you know about the two films made about cockfighting — by way of the only movie made about motocross sidecar racing.
As we dig through the credits, we notice that Robert Tessler — a stuntman who formed Stunts Unlimited with Hal Needham, and made his acting debut in Tom Laughlin’s own biker flick, The Born Losers (1967), and appeared in Burt Reynolds’s football flick, The Longest Yard (1974) — appears. Also keep your eyes open for B-movie warhorse Hoke Howell (Humanoids from the Deep, 1980). Screenwriter Tony Huston went “biker” again with Outlaw Riders (1971), but previously gave us the female-centric biker flick, Hellcats (1968).
Danger…! Women in Action is all about René Cardona Jr. trying whatever it takes to entertain you and take your money. Starting with 1964’s Las Hijas de Elena, the son of the director of movies* like Santa Claus, Survive! and Zindy the Swamp Boy would direct 99 films of his own — someday, I’ll write a song called “44 Lines About 99 René Cardona Jr. Films” — that are some of the most berserk movies I’ve seen, such as Guyana: Cult of the Damned, Tintorera: Killer Shark and Night of 1000 Cats.
The sequel to 1967’s SOS Conspiracion Bikini, this adventure finds Alex Dinamo (Julio Alemán, who also played the superhero Rocambole) and the mostly female agents of Secret Organizational Service (S.O.S.) — which is pretty woke for a Eurospy movie, as even the top brass of this spy group seem to be women — stop terrorists from destroying oil fields, damaging manufacturing and even poisoning Miami’s drinking water.
Alma Delia Fuentes (Dr. Satan), Elsa Cárdenas (who was in The Mummies of Guanajuato as well as The Wild Bunch and Giant), Amadee Chabot (a former Ms. California 1964 who was in the Matt Helm movies Murderer’s Row and The Silencers, as well as Agente 00 Sexy, the Santo as a spy movie El Tesoro de Moctezuma, the Capulina and Chespirito as spies caper Operación Carambola, the Nick Adams as fake Bond flick Los Asesinos and the strange and wonderful Las Sicodélicas; she has all the qualifications to be a Bond girl yet sadly only appeared in the movies inspired by 007**), Barbara Angely (Chanoc and Click, Fotógrafo de Modelos), Nadia Milton (Santo vs. the Head Hunters) and Jessica Munguía (who was in 1966’s Santo movie Profanadores de Tumbas, which is also called Grave Robbers and has nothing to do with Ladrones de Tumbas, which is also known as Grave Robbers in the U.S.) all appear in this film.
One of the few other male agents is S.O.S. Agent Jack (César del Campo, who can boast of being in a magical art film like Luis Buñuel’s The Exterminating Angel and several Santo films), who is known as El Hombre de la Mano Dorada (The Man with the Golden Hand), which is genius, as it combines one Bond book title (The Man with the Golden Gun) and does Goldfinger three fingers and a thumb better.
Also, because this is one of René Jr.’s movies, look for an extended scene of SCUBA diving with a gorgeous woman coming up against a shark. The dude knew what his audience wanted, you know?
*The Cardona bloodline continued with René Cardona III, who has kept up the maniac zeal of his forebearers with stalwart entries such as Vacaciones de Terrorand Pesadilla Fatale. He also acts in several movies, including playing the aforementioned Zindy for his grandfather, in Cyclone and Bermuda Trianglefor his father and Cementerio de Terror for another second-generation director, Rubén Galindo Jr.
**She no longer plays a secret agent, but is a Century 21 agent.
One of Rialto Film’s long-running series of Edgar Wallace films — one of the fathers of the giallo — this Alfred Vohrer (Dead Eyes of London, Creature with the Blue Hand) film predates Argento reimagining the form and instead feels very visually like Bava’s Blood and Black Lace without Bava’s camera gymnastics.
In the English dubbed version, the film starts with Wallace’s name appearing on the screen and a voice saying, “Good evening. This is Edgar Wallace speaking.” That’s a real scary moment, because at this point, Wallace had been dead for 37 years.
There’s a poisoned cat mask — I know, right!?! — and a pool hall turning into a battle royal, as well as a woman menaced by a blowtorch — yeah, that kind of stuff didn’t just start in the 1980’s, Siskel and Ebert — and a maniacal dummy named Snookie. Plus, it’s all set to some bouncy jazz!
I wouldn’t trust any single person in this movie. It’s literally all a pit of vipers. Well, maybe you can trust Scotland Yard. But every actor, carnie, gangster and moll in this — I thought you knew what a wretched hive of scum and villany was, but then I watched this movie!
In my quest to watch giallo that not many have and bring them to you, dear reader, I’ve been looking into the pre-Argento years and I’ve discovered this one, known in America as Without Knowing Anything About Her.
An old woman dies before the expiration of her life insurance policy and a lawyer (Philippe Leroy) investigates, but ends up falling in love with her daughter, played by Paola Pitagora. His intentions aren’t good, but neither are hers.
This is less in the shadows, light on the murder and has plenty of Milan scenery and a Morricone score to liven things up, plus an ambiguous ending that comes out of nowhere and is pretty awesome. It’s not perfect, but if you’re seeking something different, here it is.
The third and final Yokai Monsters movie, this time directed by Yoshiyuki Kuroda and Kimiyoshi Yasuda, takes us back to feudal Japan, where Miyo has discovered evidence that could stop the corruption in her town, but when her grandfather is murdered on sacred grounds, she needs the help of the Yokai.
Unlike the second movie — which is everything you want, as it is literally packed with monsters — this is more of a horror film, using the yokai in a more frightening way as they move into becoming the guardians of youth, which seems to be the fate of nearly every Japanese monster once the sequels start adding up.
It’s nice to see all of the monsters when they do show, but after the delirious Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare, this felt like a step backward. Not a bad step, but still not in the direction I wanted.
That said, the moment Arrow releases these as a boxset, I’m all over it.
There’s no pit stop in this movie, which is based on figure 8 racing, which features a track that purposely intersects itself, increasing the risk of collisions. That inspired Jack Hill, who originally wanted to call this The Winner.
Rick is an amateur drag racer who is in a racing feud with Hawk Sidney (an impossibly young Sid Haig, who didn’t know how to drive a car!) over a sponsorship from Grant Willard. They’re also battling over the affections of the gorgeous Jolene (Beverly Washburn, who was Elizabeth in Spider Baby), but finally come to an understanding, even after Hawk destroys Rick’s car.
Rick’s next feud is with the champion, Ed McCleod, and his real conquest is that man’s neglected wife Ellen (Ellen Burstyn!). As they have a climactic race, there’s a big crash and old Ed walks away instead of being put on a stretcher. This manly act has broken his neck and cost him his life, but as Rick attempts to take his place in the spotlight, he loses the respect of everyone, ending the film as its villain instead of the hero.
Man, you can’t go wrong with Jack Hill. Whether you pick this movie, the aforementioned Spider Baby or grab Coffy, Switchblade Sisters, Foxy Brown or even Sorceress, you’re going to get something way better than you expect, which to me is the hallmark of a great talent.
I’m not saying that all movies should have William Smith in them, but I kind of am. This was the 17th highest grossing film in 1969, which sounds like hyperbole but I’d like it to be true. It also has a Tammy Wynette soundtrack, which is another way into my heart.
Smith plays Angel, a motorcycle gang member who sells the real story of what it’s like on the inside to a magazine for ten grand — about $70,000 today — and earns the anger of every biker in the world. The word gets out — Angel is to be killed.
Unlike most biker films where the hero gets worse and worse, Angel actually finds a sheep farmer who gives him a brief moment to live a normal life off the road. Unfortunately, the gangs are never far behind.
Director Jack Starrett does some amazing things in this, like some incredibly dangerous shots of the gang on the road, shooting them with a camera that moves from biker to biker in the days before when a drone would make such a shot simple. He’s also gone wild with multiple split screens and dropped out audio and made this a living, breathing comic book.
Starrett’s wife Valerie plays Angel’s old lady, while Dan Kemp plays the kind rancher and Margaret Markov is his probably doomed daughter. Markov lights up the screen in plenty of Corman-era movies like The Arena, Black Mama White Mama and The Hot Box.
I had a blast with this movie. It’s filled with drama and shot in a way that you totally won’t expect. Watch it and let me know what you think.
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