FOLLOW US ON:
GET THE NEWSLETTER
CONTACT US
‘The Rusty James Show’: The idiot bastard son of Woody Allen and Firesign Theatre, starring Elvis?

efklsxjgyes
 
Fifty years ago—in the perfect pop culture year of 1966—Woody Allen did his first film project for American International Pictures, home to Roger Corman, monsters, bikers, acid heads and futuristic Death Races looking way forward to the year 2000. I say film project as he didn’t make his first film, he sort of stole it! Legally.

Basically Allen took the Japanese action film International Secret Police: Key of Keys and re-dubbed the dialogue, changing the plot to make it revolve around a secret egg salad recipe being fought over by rival James Bond-type spy characters. The film became What’s Up Tiger Lily? and was quite well received. The idea had been done before of course, on a smaller scale by Rocky and Bullwinkle creator Jay Ward for his Fractured Flickers TV series in 1963, and surely others had toyed with the concept, but not in a feature length film. The opportunities for juvenile, MAD Magazine humor were endless and very funny.

What’s Up Tiger Lily? created a model that has been followed by some of the funniest people in history. Here is the trailer in which Allen explains to an unsuspecting public what it is that he has done. (The entire film can also be found on YouTube.)
 

 

 
The next one of these dubbed comedies that comes to mind was in fact done by two of the funniest people to ever grace this planet, Phillip Proctor and the late Peter Bergman of Firesign Theatre fame. In 1979 Proctor and Bergman took clips from 1940s Republic Serials and overdubbed and rewrote an extremely stoned cliffhanger entitled J-Men Forever, starring themselves in newly filmed black and white bits that were inserted into the insane mess of rearranged reality. To top this off they used modern loud rock n roll music for the soundtrack.

To quote the blurb under the YouTube clip:

J-Men Forever became the signature for Night Flight’s stoned comedy audience in the 1980’s. This ultimate late night chronic high comedy was the most demanded rerun for the entire 8 years Night Flight was on the USA Network.

After the jump, experience the inspired insanity of ‘The Rusty James Show’...

READ ON
Posted by Howie Pyro
|
01.30.2016
03:18 pm
|
Troma classics ‘Surf Nazis Must Die’ and ‘Street Trash’ soundtracks released on vinyl
10.22.2014
01:53 pm
Topics:
Tags:

Surf Nazis Must Die album cover
 
Troma fans, B movie freaks and 80’s kids rejoice! The first physical release for the soundtracks of two 1987 cult films, Surf Nazis Must Die and Street Trash are now available to spin on your very own turntable. Neither synthed-out soundtrack has ever been available before, unless of course you’re the proud owner of a beat-up bootlegged cassette you’ve been holding onto since high school.

The first pressing for Surf Nazis (composed by Jon McCallum who also did the soundtrack for the equally excellent Miami Connection), was limited to 1000 copies. 800 were pressed on standard black 180 gram vinyl and another 200 blue and red “Blood in the Water” colored variations were distributed at random by Strange Disc Records, in a gorgeous old-school gatefold for which McCallum also did the stunning cover art for. If you are a lover of movie soundtracks and vinyl, this one can still be had for the low price of $20 over at Strange Disc’s online store. 400 copies of a cassette version of the soundtrack were also released exclusively on Cassette Store Day this year (September 27th), and are available now for seven bucks over at one of my favorite record labels, Light in the Attic.
 
Street Trash album cover
 
The movie soundtrack for the greatest movie Troma ever made, the gloriously gross Street Trash also saw the light of day for the first time last month, and the pressing will not disappoint the movies die-hard fans. Composed by Rick Ulfik, the album is being distributed by Lunaris Records for a mere $20 bucks and is available in standard black, opaque yellow, and a color called “Toilet Blue” in honor of the infamous Street Trash toilet melt-down scene. The release includes liner notes from Ulfik, the single “We Do Things My Way” written by producer Tony Camillo (who’s worked with everyone from Stevie Wonder to Parliament) and is performed by actor Tony Darrow (who Martin Scorsese cast in Goodfellas after seeing his performance in Street Trash). It’s also available on cassette for eight bucks. Squeee! If you are a vinyl addict like me, you may want to sit down while viewing the following images and the video trailer heralding the Surf Nazis release.
 
Surf Nazis Must Die Blood in the Water colored vinyl
 
Surf Nazis Must Die cassette
 
Street Trash
Street Trash “toilet blue” vinyl
 

Posted by Cherrybomb
|
10.22.2014
01:53 pm
|
‘Combat Shock’: The Troma film inspired by Suicide’s ‘Frankie Teardrop’
10.10.2014
11:03 am
Topics:
Tags:


 
Frankie’s having a terrible day. His wife and infant son are starving. He’s run out of money and food. Now he’s going to be evicted. He’s got a gun. Let’s hear it for Frankie…

If this sounds familiar, it’s because the story of the 1984 Troma movie Combat Shock bears a striking resemblance to that of Suicide’s harrowing song “Frankie Teardrop.” The movie concerns the struggle of a young man named Frankie to feed his wife and child in blighted Staten Island, and if you’ve heard the song, I don’t have to tell you that it ends pretty badly for Frankie, his family, you, me, and the entire human race.

Frankie isn’t a factory worker in this version of the story, but an unemployed Vietnam vet whose days and nights are continually interrupted by flashbacks of ‘Nam and the torture he suffered at the hands of the VC. These, in turn, lead to flashbacks within flashbacks where, for purposes of exposition, Frankie relives arguments with his father, now estranged because a) Frankie has refused to carry on the family legacy of race hate and b) Dad disapproves of Mrs. Frankie. Suffering through the exposition of any movie is itself a form of torture.

However, these gestures toward the conventions of plot are mercifully few and brief, and Combat Shock soon makes with the laffs and gasps you crave from late-night horror fare. Much of the pleasure of watching Combat Shock comes from the genre detail writer, director, producer and editor Buddy Giovinazzo adds to extend Suicide’s story to feature length. For instance, because of Frankie’s exposure to Agent Orange, and because this is a Troma movie, the child looks like a cross between the Eraserhead baby and Edvard Munch’s screamer.

Until the awful climax, the movie takes its time presenting a loser’s-eye view of urban anomie. If you’ve ever lived in a place that had a TV set, you already know all these characters: Frankie’s slow descent into madness involves demoralizing encounters with small-time hoods (Frankie’s creditors), child prostitutes, junkie thieves and social workers (one of whom is missing a Ronco Veg-O-Matic). There are also one or two thrilling surprises, even for the very jaded.
 

 
And in case you somehow feel cheated of your full share of human misery after watching Combat Shock, here’s a kind of sequel to “Frankie Teardrop,” Alan Vega’s 12-minute bum-out “Viet Vet.”

 
Thanks to Greg Bummer of Azusa, CA!

Posted by Oliver Hall
|
10.10.2014
11:03 am
|
‘Sugar Cookies’: The Discreet Charm of the Swinging, Decadent Bourgeoisie
07.21.2014
10:15 am
Topics:
Tags:

Vintage Poster for Sugar Cookies
 
There are few things more dangerous than someone who is rich, gorgeous and bored. New kicks get harder and harder to find, especially when you are someone like art/sex film director Max Pavell (George Shannon) in Theodore Gershuny’s underground-meets-overground psychosexual drama, 1973’s Sugar Cookies.

Opening with Max talking to an unseen reporter about the tragic demise of his superstar actress, Alta (Lynn Lowry), the film switches to a flashback revealing some of the truth behind the young (and damaged) beauty’s death. Waking her out of a more than likely drug induced nap, he starts to seduce her, which quickly turns into a head trip involving a loaded revolver, strange perfume and the handsome but soul-eroded Max pulling the trigger in such a way to make it look like a suicide. The film cuts back to Max talking on the news, his handsome and reptilian image now on multiple screens.
 
Max Pavell on the TV News
 
After the TV sleaze interlude, the film cuts to Camilla (Mary Woronov), bathing in one of the best fedoras ever. She saunters into Max’s living room and starts doing some topless stretching and leg exercises. He walks in and the best part is the near-bored look on her face. She knows she’s majestic and is the true alpha in the room. They do end up having sex, all set to the very sensual audio and inter-cut scenes of Alta’s autopsy report. Are we having fun yet?

There’s a weird subplot involving Max’s estranged wife, the fabulous Teutonic bitch-goddess Helene (Monique van Vooren) and her chubby, supremely awkward negligee enthusiast brother Gus (Daniel Sador). The way she hisses such bon mots like, “I will slit your throat!” at Max is heart-warming.
 
Julie is groomed by Camille
 
Meanwhile, Camille confers with her charismatically acerbic friend Roderick (the inimitable Ondine) about conducting auditions to find Max’s next big actress. (Something Roderick refers to as a “cunt hunt.” Did I mention he was acerbic?) After a genuinely funny audition montage, the last girl walks in. Julie (also Lynn Lowry) is an elfin looking beauty whose eagerness for an acting role is matched only by her lack of experience. Which is summed up with her sole credit of playing Anya in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, which Julie honestly describes her work in as perfectly terrible. Camille takes a liking to Julie and begins to groom her. The two women bond, first over seemingly benign activities, like shopping, tennis and swimming. But things soon grow more and more co-dependent, with Julie becoming increasingly more submissive to the innately domineering Camille. Is the moody Amazonian grooming Julie to be the next Alta or to be Alta, complete with the tragic ending?
 
Things get weird in Sugar Cookies
 
Sugar Cookies is from a very rarefied period of time where the underground and overground were cross-pollinating. With Warhol Factory stars like Woronov and Ondine, not to mention future Flesh for Frankenstein co-star Monique van Vooren, it has instant art cred. But that said, this is really more than just a cult film curio. Underneath its polished, arty veneer are some mighty strong cynical threads about not just the bourgeoisie but also the dangers of making stars of out of people who are damaged goods right from the starting gate.

Cast-wise, Woronov and Lynn Lowry, two wholly unique and wonderful actresses who would go on to be deigned cult film queens, truly run the show. Woronov is all slinky, sinister grace as Camille, making an interesting mix with the ethereal and fragile Alta/Julie. It’s a bit mind-blowing to realize that Sugar Cookies was Lowry’s first major role. (She had previously appeared as a mute cult member in the incredible horror film, I Drink Your Blood in 1971.) She manages to pull off the two similar but different personalities of her dual roles with conviction, leaving you truly worried for poor, possibly ill-fated Julie.
 
Camille in Max's Pad
 
The rest of the cast, especially Shannon, Vooren and Ondine, are wonderful but are not given enough to do. Shannon, who would go on to shine in Fernando Arrabal’s heart-building and heart-breaking I Will Walk Like a Crazy Horse later that year, is good as the handsome but morally sooted director. Monique von Vooren, who was also a cabaret singer that could boast of having a pre-fame Christopher Walken as one of her backup dancers, is all icy hot anger and blonde glamor as Helene. Her fabulous bitchiness is only matched by the brilliant Ondine, one of my personal favorites from the Factory years. These three are all charismatics and while the film is really terrific, it would have been sweet to have more of them within it. On top of that, you also get to see early sexploitation and adult film legend Jennifer Welles as Max’s aggressive, honey-haired secretary. 

The casting credits are not the only weirdly impressive ones for the film. In addition to a young Oliver Stone (!) as the associate producer, there’s also Mr. Troma Films himself, Lloyd Kaufman sharing both writing credits with director Gershuny, as well as an executive producer credit. Before Vinegar Syndrome spiffed this film up with a lovely Blu-Ray release, Troma had actually released it years before. Other than the fact that there is nudity and Lloyd Kaufman attached to it, Sugar Cookies does not play out at all like a Troma film. If anything, it’s right next to films like Rufus Butler Seder’s criminally underrated Screamplay (which co-starred underground film titan George Kuchar) and Dario Argento’s last truly great film, The Stendhal Syndrome, which are both brilliant and are about as Troma-like as Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”

One of the coolest coups that Gershuny and Kaufman pulled was landing electronic music great Gershon Kingsley for the appropriately trippy soundtrack. Kingsley, best known for the composition “Popcorn,” was a Moog pioneer and one of those composers, like fellow genius-peers Mort Garson, Wendy Carlos and his musical partner, Jean-Jacques Perrey, whose body of work is just begging for more examination.

Sugar Cookies is a dark, strange gem that is as compelling as its mighty cast. If you love any and/or all of the main actresses and actors or just want to see something different from a point in time where the cinematic lines were thinner and ultimately, more interesting, definitely give this one a go.
 

Posted by Heather Drain
|
07.21.2014
10:15 am
|
Troma Films godfather Lloyd Kaufman, talks ‘real’ indie movies and the beauty of piracy
11.12.2012
09:50 am
Topics:
Tags:

image
Lloyd Kaufman and the Toxic Avenger
 
Actor, director, producer, and damn near everything else, Lloyd Kaufman is the godfather of Troma Entertainment. Troma has given us such films as The Toxic Avenger, Class of Nuke ‘Em High, Surf Nazis Must Die, and Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.

The man has been exploiting the genre of exploitation for nearly 40 years, and he’s been instrumental in the facilitation of a grass-roots independent film community. He’s taught classes and seminars, and his books and DVD sets (Make Your Own Damn Movie!, Direct Your Own Damn Movie!, Produce Your Own Damn Movie!, and Sell Your Own Damn Movie!) are the bibles of DIY film-making.

Despite a jam-packed schedule, he set aside time to talk with me, as candid as any Troma film.

AF: First of all, I find it fairly easy to track the growth and evolution of Troma after The Toxic Avenger, but before that it’s hard to find that much backstory, so how did you get started making these crazy, canonical films?

LK: I made the mistake of going to Yale University. It was the 60’s. I was going to be a teacher or a social worker. I was going to make the world a better place. Teach people with hooks for hands to finger-paint. Teach bums to paint happy faces on beads, string the beads together. Stuff like that. Then they put me in a room freshman year with a movie nut—our beds were head to toe, it was a very small bedroom.  At night I would inhale my roommate’s stinkin’ feet. And the aroma de Troma was born.

My roommate ran the Yale Film Society, so I would drift in to see the movies they were showing, and I kept getting blown away by Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Stan Brakage—those guys.

AF: You’ve been incredibly accessible to your fans, and you’ve worked hard to really foster the community that’s built up around Troma fans and up and coming independent filmmakers; do you see that as part of your job?

LK: Oliver Wendell Holmes stated famously that in order to truly exist, you must take part in the actions and passions of the times. So, Michael Herz and I believe that very much. We have seen the flame of independent art and commerce nearly extinguished by the fact that the world of art has come so much under the thumb of a small number of giant international media conglomerates who have used legalized bribery, which is called “lobbying”, they’ve gotten the anti-monopoly laws done away with.

You have these gargantuan conglomerates who are vertically integrated who basically own the industry and the art world. And the same companies that own the movies studios own the TV stations, own the newspapers own the video companies and own or control the movies theaters, which used to be against the law, but that’s all gone now.

So we have seen this during our 40 years of Troma, we’ve seen this terrible turn of events. And really Troma’s the last of the genuine independent movies studios that has any kind of longevity, so we want to try to keep the flame of independent art and commerce alive. We don’t want Rupert Murdoch to extinguish it. We don’t everyone to have to be a vassal of Time Warner of Rupert Murdoch or Sony or Viacom or Comcast. We don’t want everyone to be a vassal of those behemoths.

We want people to be able to express their art independently and get their work to the public. So we’re doing everything we can, such as establishing- 14 years ago we established the Tromadance Film Festival, which has cost us a lot of money over the years, because we have no money. For us it’s a huge drain, but we’ve done that to try and encourage independent spirit and independent, creative juices, and independent movies

And my books basically, are a lot of work for no money, and an attempt to try to show people that we have to continue the fight for truly independent cinema- not Fox Searchlight independent cinema. Not independent cinema made by Tom Hanks or Juno or whatever, but independent cinema that’s truly independent.

And there used to be many, many Tromas back in the 70’s, and there were lots of little companies like Troma that had longevity, that were existing for a long time, and now there are none . There are no independent companies out there that have have a long life—there’s Troma and Roger Corman and I don’t know of any others.

AF: And for up and coming young filmmakers…

LK: Well there are lots of little companies, but they don’t last because they can’t make a living—they can’t make a living, they can’t get their movies to the public—nobody knows about them.

Our movie, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead, did you see that?

AF: Yes, I did.

LK: Oh, thank you! When that opened in New York City, the theater that it played in was the highest grossing theater in America that weekend. And yet, the movie was yanked, because “Raiders of the Lost Arc Part 4- The Skullfucker” or whatever that was.

AF: That terrible thing?

LK: Yeah, what was it called?

AF: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It was terrible, it was absolutely terrible.

LK: Well it had to have every screen! So they kicked us out, even though we did well. So that’s the problem. If Troma who have a big fan base, and are pretty established and got good reviews in the New York Times and had a movie in the highest grossing theater in the country—if we can’t make it can that, how is some newcomer gonna make it without becoming a vassal of Mr. Rupert Murdoch?

AF: Right, right. So you definitely have these die-hard followers, I’m one of them. For me I got into it through punk rock friends who were really attracted to the DIY aspect of it, as much as the humor, and do you find that’s sort of the appeal? The Troma cult is large and large and very loyal. Do you have any sort of insight as to why Troma has become this sort of searchlight?

LK: Well, I believe the films we have made and distributed have even visionary, personal movies, produced by ourselves, with the our soul in the movies. Things like Cannibal! The Musical, which nobody wanted, we distributed the first movie of the South Park guys, and we believe that our movies are good! They’re great! And that has a lot to do with why have a brand—we are beloved, even though nobody knows about us except you and maybe six other people.

AF: There’re more than six of us!

LK: But Troma movies are good, they’re interesting. At the very least it expresses the heart and soul of the filmmaker. It is not made by a committee, it’s not made to sell Burger King action figures—every Troma movies comes from the heart. And I think that has a major influence on many people. And we believe, at least, I believe, that the most valuable thing you have is not your money, it’s your time.

So, we have always shared our movies with our fans. We’ve given a lot of them away [Troma has released many of its films on YouTube], we’re content that our fans… File-sharing is okay. We encourage our fans to pirate our movies. We want our movies seen, and we know that our fans’ time is the most valuable thing that they have—more valuable than their money.

And if our fans are willing to spend an hour and a half on The Return to Class of Nuke ‘Em High, which we’re shooting now, if the fans are willing to spend time on watching that film, they’ll take care of us.

So many of these filmmakers who are so upset about piracy, what they call “piracy”, which is not piracy at all—that’s just a bad word. That’s just a word that the establishment has made up—the big conglomerates who have overpriced their wares—they look upon the consumer revolt (and that’s what it is, it’s a consumer revolt, not piracy), they want to public to be brainwashed into thinking this is piracy, and that copyright is violated. Copyright laws in this country are garbage. They’re totally perverted.

AF: I agree completely!

LK: Good!

AF: It really seems like your highest priority is getting the movies out there—you have so many available for cheap or free. I think people gravitate towards that as well, but how do you feel about terms like “B movies” or “exploitation films” or even “cult cinema”?

LK: Well, it’s an art form. The only purpose in being involved is to do what you believe in. Most of the so-called genre films are garbage. They’re made by formula, copying, or idiots. Most of its crap and nobody watches it. I love these people that come out with the crappy imitation of The Toxic Avenger, and then they’re so worried about piracy? They don’t have to worry. Not only are people not going to pirate their movie- nobody wants to see their movie, because it’s garbage! So unless you have some heart and should and make art you believe in, you may as well sell shoes. Go into the bread business!

My brother made Eli Roth’s favorite horror movie of all time, which is Mother’s Day. My brother made three or four movies which we distributed. They were all terrific, and they all made money—people loved them. But he couldn’t move up the food chain, so he went into the bread business.

Because of the unfair grip that the conglomerates have on the industry, they won’t let an independent artist move up, unless they, the conglomerates, own the work. That’s why it’s very refreshing that Amanda Palmer [musician and artist who kickstartered her last album] has gone on Kickstarter to make sure that she can be an independent musician and artist.

AF: Yeah, lots of people are doing that now.

LK: Yeah, that’s why it’s bullshit that the MPAA and the RIAA are putting out that revenue for music and movies are down. The revenue is way up, because there are new artists going directly to the public. They don’t need Sony or Rupert Murdoch. There are more artists producing now than ever, and it’s thanks to the internet, it’s thanks to file-sharing, it’s thanks to respecting the fans, rather than suing the fans like Hurtlocker did.

AF: Yeah, lawsuits have become completely crazy right now.

LK: Yes, it’s ridiculous, to be suing some fat, sweaty kid who’s blogging about Steven Spielberg’s movie in the basement, getting a “cease and desist” letter from Paramount—and Paramount isn’t gaining any friends by doing that. The Avengers I’m sure was pirated all over the world…

AF: I, er, know people who pirated it.

LK: But it was one of the most successful movies of all time, and a lot of people who pirated it went and bought a ticket or bought a DVD because they saw it was good. My book Sell Your Own Damn Movie! articulates this theory and sort of explains how you can make money by sharing, and by literally giving your art away.

AF: So you’ve always had political and social themes in your movies, even when they aren’t as explicit as say Troma’s War [Kaufman’s satire of Reagan’s romanticization of war] which is one of my favorites, would you say the comedy and the gore makes it easier to talk about those subjects?

LK: I think they can ease you into the subjects. Movies should be entertaining. Fast Food Nation, which is a boring, pretentious movie, aimed at yuppies, and nobody went to see it. It has a very good point to it. And then there’s Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead where a lot of young people had a good time, but also realized that maybe factory farming may not be such a good thing. And exterminating millions and millions of chickens that way may not be that great.

But people can have a good time at the movies, and maybe see something they’ve never seen before…. Like maybe somebody’s breasts being pulled out by chicken zombies.

AF: Troma certainly never preaches.

LK: And it’s a good point. All the artificial ingredients they put in the food. I’m a vegetarian, but you know, we got all these fat kids—I hope you’re not too fat. But they eat this crap and they’re eating all this crap and they eat the hormones and they smell like beef.

Where are you calling from? If I may be so bold?

AF: I’m calling from Brooklyn.

LK: Oh not too far! Where in Brooklyn?

AF: Bedstuy.

LK: Wow, that used to be a tough neighborhood.

AF: Yeah, now it’s block to block.

LK: Yeah, now it’s nice. I worked on Saturday Night Fever and I remember mistakenly driving into Bedstuy and it was a warzone. But all these places, we filmed Terror Firmer in Greenpoint and it was bad, and now it’s yuppified.

AF: Yeah, hopefully it won’t get too nice in Bedstuy, otherwise I won’t be able to afford it anymore.

LK: Yeah, that’s the biggest problem, the rich guys move in, the yuppies, the lawyers, and all they do is watch Tom Hanks!

AF: Yeah! So to wrap it up, what’s on the horizon for Troma?

LK: Well, we’re working on Return to Class of Nuke ‘Em High and it should be our best movie. It deals with the theme of bad food again. It deals with bullying and a number of contemporary themes and it deals with the underdog. It’s got some onscreen song-singing. It’s a revisiting of the first Class of Nuke ‘Em High, but instead of Chrissy and Warren, the romantic couple is Chrissy and Lauren—might be the first romantic teenage movie that’s same-sex that isn’t a third party.

AF: Troma, groundbreaking as always.

LK: Hopefully it will get people to be a little more understanding. AIDS was discussed in Troma’s War [The MPAA initially rejected the movie, and refused to include any mention of AIDS. It was eventually butchered nearly to nothing]. At the time Reagan and his gang was either sweeping it under the table or kind of suggesting that this was the “reward” homos get for being perverts.

We get good word-of-mouth. That’s the one weapon we have that these mainstream movies don’t have. Over the years, movies like Terror Firmer and Troma’s War which aren’t terribly successful in movie theaters, but over time, the fans spread the word themselves, and eventually they do become profitable. And that’s something you can’t buy, thanks to the Internet. For our anniversary we’re giving away a lot of movies, and hopefully we’ll be able to increase the number of fans of Troma out there.

AF: Well thank you so much of talking to me, and thanks for doing what you do.

Thanks Lloyd, you’re a class act!

Posted by Amber Frost
|
11.12.2012
09:50 am
|