Happy Birthday Angie Dickinson ! - PRETTY MAIDS ALL IN A ROW 1971

     One of the more odd major studio movies to be released during the 70's, as it makes one wonder what MGM's thought process was during its production gestation as far as what they were making and how it was to be marketed and probably most importantly what those thoughts were when they saw what they ended up with. PRETTY MAIDS is a combination black comedy/exploitation/social drama & murder mystery that in addition looks ahead a bit to both the slasher and horny teen comedies of the next decade (even working in the "will they win the big game !?" scenario).
    What as first on paper would seem to be an unmitigated disaster waiting to happen somehow/someway manages to work in its own bizarre way with a eclectic cast of both veterans and newcomers along with a witty multi layered script written by Gene Roddenberry (complete with a plot point that could never pass muster today outside of a porn movie).
    Directed by Roger Vadim, which combined with a script from STAR TREK scribe Roddenberry makes you wonder if perhaps this was figured by MGM to be a hip "counter - culture" comedy that would appeal to the post 60's crowd. Vadim was a pretty hot commodity at the time most famous for directing movies such as AND GOD CREATED WOMAN (1956), BLOOD AND ROSES (1960) and of course BARBARELLA in 1968.
    The PRETTY MAIDS poster in itself is a marvel of pre-PC marketing with the tagline "Roger Vadim, the director who uncovered Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve and Jane Fonda, now brings you the American high school girl". Despite heavy promotion (including 5 pages in Playboy) it was a massive flop upon release, but not surprisingly would gather a cult following in the coming decades with sporadic showings on late night cable and a 1999 VHS release. After it turned up in one of their polls as a "most requested title" Warner issued a DVD through their MOD program a few years ago.

     Admittedly I find most of Vadim's work a yawn inducing endurance test (BLOOD AND ROSES has some great imagery going for it - but I've never been able to make it through BARBARELLA), however whether it being the Roddenberry script or the cast this is an amusing and interesting little film. It's still somewhat of a schizophrenic jumbled mess, but to it's credit it's a fascinating schizophrenic jumbled mess. In addition Vadim seemingly freed of the visual excesses of BARBARELLA uses the camera to focus on the multitude of attractive actresses at every available opportunity, sometimes almost using it as a "peeping tom" type character within the movie as it peers up skirts and down the front of blouses, focuses in on girls calestatics classes or zooms in on legs & bottoms in shorts.

    Taking place at a fictional Southern California high school, it was filmed at University High in West Los Angeles (you wonder what school administrates thought of the finished movie) and was the French born Vadim's first American film. The film nominally centers around student Ponce De Leon (!) Harper played by John David Carson (almost Keith Partridge on THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY), who feeling shy and uncomfortable around the opposite sex is taken under his wing by football coach and "guidance counselor" Michael "Tiger" McDrew (Rock Hudson). Seeking to help out Ponce, Coach McDrew enlists the help of new substitute teacher Mrs. Smith (Angie Dickinson) to teach Ponce the ways of the world.

     In a parallel plot point the coach is also giving special closed door "guidance" tests to various female students (the "Pretty Maids"- with some startling amounts of nudity for a major studio release in 1971) and in addition someone begins killing off the said "Maids" leaving their bodies laying around various places about the school. The principle (Roddy McDowall) seems only to care about the schools image, as the killings bring in a state police investigation in the form of Capt. Sam Surcher (Telly Salavas - seeming to be here in practice for KOJAK) along with his underlings William Peterson (DEMENTIA 13) and James Doohan from STAR TREK.
     As if all this weren't quite enough you also have Keenan Wynn as the dim witted local chief of police and Susan Tolsky as a ditsy and frazzled school secretary who are both on hand for some broad comedy relief. Lalo Schifrin contributes an alternately bouncy & moody score (complete with The Osmonds over the opening and closing credits). 

    As in my previous post the cast includes an intriguing bunch of soon to be cult actresses including Joy Bang (MESSIAH OF EVIL), June Fairchild (THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT) and Margaret Markov (BLACK MAMA WHITE MAMA). In addition a breathtakingly beautiful Barbara Leigh (who was to be Vampirella in Hammer's aborted film) plays Hudson's very understanding wife. Still a few years ahead of her big breakout roles in BIG BAD MAMA for Roger Corman and TV's POLICE WOMAN, Angie appears to be having a great deal of fun with her role (a role for which she was perfectly cast) and the entire cast plays it as if their all in on one huge joke (Next to SECONDS this is one of Hudson's best performances). Having just turned 40 years old here Angie more then holds her own against the bevy of younger starlets.

Sneak Preview of Coming Attractions - The "Pretty Maids" of PRETTY MAIDS ALL IN A ROW 1971

    Next week on Tue. the 30th there's a post going up here on Roger Vadim's PRETTY MAIDS ALL IN A ROW from 1971 in honor of Angie Dickinson's birthday on that day. PRETTY MAIDS (in which Angie co-stars as one heck of a substitute teacher) was one more weirdly quirky movies to come out of a major studio during the 70's (which is really saying something) - but more on that tomorrow. For me, one of the more fascinating things about it is it's supporting cast of young actresses that reads almost like a whose who of female cult actresses in regards to the coming decade. Here ya go !

   Brenda Sykes - Born in 1949 she was married to musician Gil Scott Heron and appeared in BLACK GUNN (1972), CLEOPATRA JONES (1973) and the major studio exploitation classic MANDINGO (1975), along with it's followup DRUM from 1976 (which is due on blu-ray from Kino later this year).

   Margret Markov - Best known for the Filipino New World exploitation/women in prison favorites THE HOT BOX (1972) and BLACK MAMA WHITE MAMA (1973), she also appeared in the biker flick RUN ANGEL RUN (1969) and the New World woman-in-prison thing transplanted to ancient Rome THE ARENA from 1974.  Born in 1948 she's been married to producer Mark Damon (HOUSE OF USHER and THE DEVIL'S WEDDING NIGHT ) since 1976.

   Joy Bang - Born Joy Wener in 1945 (Bang was her married name), this cute as heck actress is one of the quintessential late 60's & 70's actresses (both in looks and personality). She appeared in the cult hippiesploitation EVENTS (1970), one of my favorite 70's horror movies MESSIAH OF EVIL (1973), was one of Woody Allen's girlfriends in PLAY IT AGAIN SAM (1972), showed up in the Filipino horror NIGHT OF THE COBRA WOMEN (1972 - which was released earlier this year on DVD from Scorpion) and CISCO PIKE (1972).

   June Fairchild - A very pretty & talented actress who kept fairly busy in the 70's, she also had led a very interesting life prior to her acting career as being a fringe member of the 1960's L.A. music scene. Her personal life took a rather tragic turn in recent years when she ended up homeless on the streets of L.A., but happily she's seemed to have turned herself around. She had a small but memorable role in HEAD (1968) as "the jumper", plus was in DRIVE HE SAID (1971), DETROIT 9000 (1973) and DIRTY O'NEIL (1974). Along with Catherine Bach she was picked up by Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges in a both short and amusing scene from THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT (1974). In addition she was the "Ajax lady" in UP IN SMOKE (1978) and appeared in Mae West's SEXTETTE (1978). As her birthday is coming up in Nov., I'll be doing a little more in depth post on on her (besides her being one of my favorite 70's actresses).

   JoAnne Cameron - She was the Paramount's original choice for the lead in LOVE STORY before it went to Paramount production head Robert Evan's girlfriend Ali MacGraw and later was in HOW TO COMMIT MARRIAGE (1969) along with playing the title role in the TV series ISIS (1975-76)

   Although not one of the "Pretty Maids", you've also got Barbara Leigh who was cast as Vampierlla in the never made Hammer Film of the same name, plus was in STUDENT NURSES (1970) and TERMINAL ISLAND (1973). She also appeared with then boyfriend Steve McQueen in the wonderful JUNIOR BONNER from 1972 and was a longtime employee of Playboy Enterprises before retiring.

And not to leave anyone out here are the remaining "Pretty Maids"

   Gretchen Burrell - Although PRETTY MAIDS is her only acting credit she was married to musician Gram Parsons from 1971 until his death in 1973.

   Amy Eccles - Born in Hong Kong in 1949, she's now a real estate agent in So. Calif. and is probably best known as Dustin Hoffman's young bride in LITTLE BIG MAN (1970). She also appeared in Stephanie Rothman's GROUP MARRIAGE with blog favorite Claudia Jennings.

  Diane Sherry- She appeared in SUPERMAN (1978) as Lana Lang and is now a short story author.

Luck guy Director Roger Vadim surrounded with clockwise Joy Bang, Gretchen Burrell, Margaret Markov, June Fairchild and Brenda Sykes. 

Messiah of Evil 1973

The best H.P. Lovecraft movie ever without even being based on one of his stories.

 "The visions are coming from areas of my mind that I don't understand...these grotesque images keep crowding in on me...At night I find myself wandering through the town...catching glimpses of horrid animals I know can't be real...Women with pale faces and shadowy figures, staring out at the black water....."

     Messiah of Evil (AKA Dead People) from 1973 is one of the creepiest horror movies to come out of the 70's, mixing surreal art-house images,hinted at H.P Lovecraft horrors & a dash of George Romero. Directed by Willard Huyck and written by Huyck and his wife Gloria Katz , who had were also working on George Lucas's American Graffiti screenplay at the same time and later would be behind Howard the Duck.
   After a prologue showing a young man (future director & screenwriter Walter Hill) getting his throat slashed by a girl, we then move to a woman Arletty (Marianna Hill) who is in an asylum recounting her recent experiences. The woman relates in flashback her visit to the small Calif. coastal town of Pointe Dune to see her father, an artist who has been living there. Upon arriving in the town , she stops at a gas station where a tall albino man with a couple of bodies in the back of his pick-up and the attendent whispering at her "just leave now" wonderfully sets the atomphere of rest of the movie. In the town she vists an art gallery run by a blind woman (in one of the film's many off-kilter moments) and then finds her fathers studio - a weird cavernous building with creepy paintings covering the walls, a suspended bed and the constant sound of waves booming on the shore. She finds her fathers diary and discovers him missing. Royal Dano (who deep voice is instantly recognizable to movie buffs) supplies the voice over to the daughters readings of his diary that recount a strange physical change coming over him and things he believes he's begun to see and hear. He remains unseen to the very end (with a very memorable appearance) but its his voice & narration that add to film's feeling of dread.

   Meeting  up with a strange threesome consisting of a man named Thom (Michael Greer) and two woman Laura (Anitra Ford) and Toni (Joy Bang) who are also there to see her father, Arletty begins to slowly realize the horror that is infecting Point Dune. An old wino played by Elisha Cook Jr. relates the legend of the blood moon to the group (and naturally dies soon after) that infects the inhabitants of the town with a strange madness. Many of the plot points are left intentionally unexplained and although zombies do appear, we're never sure exactly of their genesis. Is it the moon ?... plus there's a flashback that tells of a mysterious stranger showing up in the town 100 years earlier who survived the Donner Party and now has a taste for human flesh that he wants pass along.

  Many of the films most memorable moments that Huyck & Katz weave into the narrative are of the slightly unsettling places that we've all been in. A 24 hour grocery store where your the only customer late at night and a quiet empty movie theater that you take a seat in with only a couple of silent people to share it with you. Any fan of H.P. Lovecraft who watches this movie can really begin to feel the presence in the movie of the unknown/unseen horrors that he referred to in his works. Dano's spoken narration (see the quote above) and  lonely shots of the ocean with the  townspeople silently staring out into it, bring to mind Innsmouth and the "deep ones" of the Cthulhu Mythos. Not a perfect movie by any means , but a very rewarding cinematic horror experience that you'll be thinking about after you climb into bed for the evening.

   Ignored when first released and then later dumped into the public domain hell of bargain video it's appeared on countless budget releases (that all but destroyed Stephen Katz's widescreen cinematography and the film's atmosphere) , plus at some point a song was inserted into the beginning. Thankfully in 2009 Bill Olsen of Code Red  released a beautiful DVD with a newly struck anamorphic transfer and a batch of interesting extras. Best of all is a commentary from Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz where they relate the film's troubled production (the ending was never adequately finished). Sadly this is now OOP, but a blu-ray release is rumored. Also included is an audio interview with the somewhat reclusive Joy Bang (her married name at the time).