The Unrepentant Cinephile

by Jason Coffman

  Killer Dames: Two Gothic Chillers by Emilio P. Miraglia: The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave (1971) and The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (1972)

  Originally published 27 May 2016

  Arrow Video has been one of premiere home video imprints for genre cinema for some time now, and since their launch in the States they have been maintaining that reputation with a fantastic slate of releases. One of the recent highlights for horror and Giallo fans was their Blu-ray/DVD set of Luciano Ercoli’s “Death Walks” films, previously released years ago in America by defunct (and sadly missed) DVD company NoShame in a long out-of-print DVD set. As a follow-up, they have now given another one of NoShame’s best releases a massive upgrade: Emilio P. Miraglia’s The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave and The Red Queen Kills Seven Times. And once again, Arrow has given these much sought-after films the royal treatment.

  In The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, reclusive Lord Alan Cunningham (Anthony Steffen) lives in his family’s ancestral castle. He spends his spare time trawling local bars looking for redheads to take home and torture, obsessed with the memory of his late wife Evelyn. Red-haired Evelyn was cruel and unfaithful to Alan and the humiliation has left him unhinged. His doctor recommends Alan remarry, and he does after meeting Gladys (Marina Malfatti) at a party. Things seem to be getting better until bodies start piling up unrelated to Alan’s hobbies. Has Evelyn returned from the dead, or is someone else trying to destroy Alan for good? The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave leans more on gothic atmosphere and supernatural themes than most prototypical Giallo films, although it obviously shares stylistic and tonal qualities with the genre at large. It also features a typically great score by Bruno Nicolai, whose work is always a highlight of any film. It drags a little due to the repetitive nature of the action, but it’s still well worth a look for any fan of Italian gothic horror and Giallo. While the film has been previously available in a number of different versions in the States–including some heavily edited and poorly transferred “public domain” DVDs–the version presented here was transferred in 2K from the original camera negative, representing a huge improvement over even NoShame’s fine presentation.

  The Red Queen Kills Seven Times is much more in line with typical Giallo. Sisters Kitty and Franziska (Barbara Bouchet and Marina Malfatti) have always had a complicated relationship–they basically detest each other–and when their grandfather dies they are in line to inherit the family castle. When they were children, he told them the strange story of the “Red Queen,” a specter that haunts their family and rises every 100 years to claim seven victims. Fashion photographer Kitty’s co-workers start turning up dead, and it seems the story is true. But has the Red Queen really returned, or has Kitty and Franziska’s sibling rivalry finally boiled over into murder? There are clear parallels with The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, but The Red Queen Kills Seven Times was a much bigger production and it shows. Bouchet is one of Giallo cinema’s biggest stars, and as usual she’s great here. Bruno Nicolai contributes another excellent score, and a very early career Sybil Danning appears in a small role. The focus in this film is more on bloody thrills than atmosphere, making it a little more lively than Evelyn. They’re a fascinating pair of takes on some similar concepts, although anyone looking for a good introduction to Giallo would be better served with The Red Queen than Evelyn. Again, the film is presented in a new 2K transfer from the original camera negative, and it looks considerably better than it ever has on home video.

  In addition to the new transfers and gorgeous packaging (complete with reversible covers for each disc!), Arrow has packed out this double feature set with bonus content. The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave has a new commentary track with author Troy Howarth (author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films), an introduction by actress Erika Blanc, a new interview with critic Stephen Thrower (author of Nightmare USA), a new interview with Blanc titled “The Night Erika Came Out of the Grave,” an archival interview with Blanc titled “The Whip and the Body,” an archival interview with production designer Lorenzo Baraldi, and original Italian and US theatrical trailers. The Red Queen Kills Seven Times has a new audio commentary by Alan Jones (author of Dario Argento: The Man, the Myths, the Magic) and Kim Newman (author of Nightmare Movies: Critical History of the Horror Film, 1968-88), an archival introduction by production/costume designer Lorenzo Baraldi, new interviews with Sybil Danning and Stephen Thrower, archival interviews with Lorenzo Baraldi, Barbara Bouchet and actor Marino Masé, an archival featurette titled “If I Met Emilio Miraglia Today” featuring Blanc, Baraldi, and Masé, an alternate opening sequence and the film’s original Italian theatrical trailer. The set also includes a 60-page booklet with new writing by James Blackford, Kat Ellinger, Leonard Jacobs and Rachael Nisbet. About the only thing that would have made this upgrade to the NoShame set even better would have been a new “Red Queen” figurine like the one included in that set, but at this point that’s just being greedy. This is an essential set for Giallo fans, even if they already have the NoShame set.

  Little Miss Innocence (1972) and Teenage Seductress (1975)

  Originally published on Daily Grindhouse 26 April 2015

  Chris Warfield started his career in show business as an actor in television and film in the 1950s and 1960s, making appearances in programs like Perry Mason, The Outer Limits, and Lassie. In the 1970s and 1980s, Warfield worked behind the camera as a director of several feature films, most of which were adult films he directed under the pseudonym Billy Thornberg. Vinegar Syndrome previously released two of Warfield’s films (Purely Physical and Cathouse Fever) on a Peekarama disc and gave a standalone DVD release to his 1980 film Champagne for Breakfast. Their latest release of films by Chris Warfield is a Drive-In Collection double-feature of two of his non-hardcore features, Little Miss Innocence (1972) and Teenage Seductress (1975).

  Little Miss Innocence stars John Alderman as Rick Engels, a music arranger who picks up a pair of attractive young hitchhikers who follow him home. The girls come on strong, and before long Rick finds himself in bed with virginal Judy (Terri Johnson) and aggressively seduced by Carol (Sandy Dempsey). At first it seems Rick has stumbled upon every man’s dream, with two young, insatiable women willing to fulfill his every sexual fantasy. But it soon becomes clear that the situation is the other way around: Carol and Judy are using Rick for some unknown purpose that happens to include constant rounds of sex with the increasingly exhausted (and angry) Rick. When he tries to get the girls to leave, he becomes a prisoner in his own home under Carol’s threat of blackmail. What are the girls doing, and will Rick live through it?

  Alderman, Dempsey and Johnson are nearly the only actors seen throughout Little Miss Innocence, which starts off as a pretty typical sexploitation drama and evolves into a near-horror story. Dempsey is particularly great as Carol, whose take-charge sexuality starts off as a big turn-on for Rick, but which becomes increasingly dangerous and violent. Her unhinged breakdown near the end of the film is effective and unsettling. The film is a revenge story in a way, but it almost also plays out as a revenge visited upon male sexuality in contemporary exploitation films—the scenes of Carol raping Rick and viciously beating him with a belt pointedly turn the tables on the expectations of male sexual domination over women in many exploitation films of the 70s. Little Miss Innocence is definitely a departure from standard drive-in fare in that respect, even if much of the time it plays out much like other sexploitation films of the time.

  The second film on the disc is Teenage Seductress, which is a very inaccurate title. Sondra Currie stars as Terry Nelson, a woman (young, but absolutely not a teenager) who travels to Taos, New Mexico in search of author Preston King (played by Warfield himself). She has some run-ins with a few locals who won’t tell her where King lives before meeting art gallery owner Reggie (John Trujillo). Reggie immediately falls for Terry, but she’s fixated on finding King. Her obsession is soon explained in a series of flashbacks to Terry’s sad li
fe with her bitter, divorced mother: King is Terry’s father, and he left the family when she was only two years old. Terry’s plan (like that of the girls in Little Miss Innocence) is to use her sexuality for revenge. She will ingratiate herself into her father’s life, seduce him, and reveal the truth after having sex with him.

  Teenage Seductress plays out mostly like a bleak soap opera. There’s not much sex or nudity in the film, just a general feeling of unease as the obviously disturbed Terry interacts with the people she needs to use to implement her plan. Terry seems drawn to Reggie, but her dedication to revenge leads her to repeatedly reject his advances. She actively alienates King’s housekeeper Elena (Sonny Cooper) and appears to drive off his longtime girlfriend Victoria (Elizabeth Saxon) just by being an attractive young woman hanging around. Currie and Warfield are fine in the lead roles, but aside from a major confrontation near the end of the film, there’s just not that much going on to keep the interest of 70s exploitation fans.

  Both Little Miss Innocence and Teenage Seductress have a lot of familiar names on both sides of the camera, including Ray Dennis Steckler (who did cinematography for Little Miss Innocence) and George “Buck” Flower (who co-wrote Teenage Seductress). Vinegar Syndrome presents the films restored in 2k from 35mm negatives, and aside from some small instances of film noise, both films look great. The disc includes trailers for both films and an alternate Teenage Seductress title card for Little Miss Innocence. ’70s exploitation cinema completists will certainly be excited to have such nice-looking versions of these films, and anyone curious about this type of drive-in softcore sexploitation may find this a good jumping-off point.

  Little Sisters (1972) and Powder Burns (1971)

  Originally published on Daily Grindhouse 22 April 2015

  Alex de Renzy was one of the most highly-regarded auteurs in adult film history, and Vinegar Syndrome has helped to introduce new audiences to some of his best-known work with their release of the Pretty Peaches films. The first release in their “Films of Alex de Renzy” line was a double-feature of Pretty Peaches 2 & 3, and now the latest double-feature disc has been released with two early de Renzy films: Little Sisters (1972) and Powder Burns (1971). These two films point toward the defining characteristics of de Renzy’s later work and what makes his films so popular among fans of adult cinema.

  Vinegar Syndrome referred to Little Sisters as “what may be the weirdest film de Renzy ever made,” and they are not exaggerating. A mother and her two young daughters live in a trailer deep in the woods where Mother keeps her girls shielded from the dangers of the world. One day while Mother is out running an errand, a group of pirates stumble upon the girls and kidnap them, leaving behind a rude note for Mother claiming the kidnapping was the work of “The Dykes.”

  While the pirates have their way with the daughters, Mother has a series of bizarre encounters in the woods while she searches for them, including a stop at a monastery that turns into a full-on gay orgy. Finally, she is assisted by a forest elf named Derek who brings everyone together for a proper scolding and a surprise sing-along.

  Little Sisters crams a wide variety of sexual encounters into its brief 65-minute running time; there’s something here for just about everyone. And something to offend nearly everyone, as well. When the daughters are being kidnapped, the older sister states that the younger is 12, and while neither of the women look anywhere near 12 years old, it makes an already squirm-inducing gang-rape scene even more uncomfortable. The tone of most of the film is fairly light and the comedy is goofy, but this scene stands out as being unpleasant and mean-spirited (not unlike the lesbian gang-rape scene in Pretty Peaches).

  Other than this scene, Little Sisters is pitched at a broad comic tone, with de Renzy’s game performers up for all sorts of sexual antics. Anyone who is easily offended—or hell, anyone who is even reasonably offended—might want to give this film a wide berth, but anyone interested in de Renzy’s early work and what kind of stuff filmmakers could get away with in adult cinema of the early 1970s will find this required viewing.

  The second film on the disc is Powder Burns, a strange Western/comedy/porn hybrid that takes place entirely in and around what looks like a saloon set up in a huge barn in the middle of nowhere. A narrator explains what is happening at irregular intervals, sometimes even speaking over characters speaking dialogue in the scenes. The sheriff/bartender in the town of Sewerpipe Creek chases the McNasty brothers out of town and hires a go-go dancer named Lolita (who drives up to the saloon in a ’60s car). She helps him recruit a bunch of other girls, turning the saloon into an all-purpose entertainment center for the town: saloon, strip club, dance hall, and brothel. When the McNasty brothers return, they have a good ol’ time all night before engaging the Sheriff and in a final gunfight in the morning.

  Powder Burns is a pretty tough watch. None of the actors seem to have any idea what they’re supposed to do in front of the camera when they’re not having sex, which is the majority of the film. The movie runs a little over 70 minutes, but there’s no sex until well over halfway through. Once it starts, the back half of the film is pretty much just a long series of scenes panning around the different parts of the barn where the girls and the McNasty brothers are having sex, occasionally punctuated with some mugging for the camera. Both Little Sisters and Powder Burns feel like someone learning how to put a movie together, for better and for worse. There are moments of inspired weirdness in both films, but they’re also both very unpolished. They are much more interesting in historical importance than as entertainment.

  Vinegar Syndrome presents Little Sisters and Powder Burns restored from 16mm vault elements. Little Sisters looks nice for such a small production transferred from an old print, and most of Powder Burns looks fine. However, there is some damage to the image in some outdoor scenes. The film is still more than watchable, and the issue only pops up a few times, but anyone expecting the typically pristine image quality of most Vinegar Syndrome presentations should be aware of it. Given how obscure the film is, though, it’s better to have it transferred complete and uncut from an imperfect source than to not have it at all. There are no extras on the disc to accompany the features, but again having nice transfers of the complete, uncut versions of these films is a big deal.

  Long Jeanne Silver (1977) and Flying Acquaintances (1973)

  Originally published on Daily Grindhouse 7 December 2015

  Throughout 2015,Vinegar Syndrome has maintained an ambitious and impressive release schedule. With 40 individual releases between January and November (44 counting the two Indiegogo exclusive backer discs and the first two Etiquette Pictures releases) and over half of those including two or three feature films, the company has released over 60 films on DVD and Blu-ray this year. Taking into account all of those and the films released through their Exploitation.tv service that have not been made available on physical media, it’s easy for some individual titles to get lost in the shuffle. Since the company is taking a well-deserved break until January, now is a good time to get caught up on a couple of interesting releases that have fallen through the cracks.

  In May, Vinegar Syndrome released the latest in their line of Films of Alex de Renzy: 1977’s Long Jeanne Silver. This highly unique film is a sort of hybrid of documentary and porn introducing the viewer to Jeanne Silver. Silver began appearing in adult films in the late 1970s, including Shaun Costello’s infamous Water Power (1977) and William Lustig’s debut feature (under the pseudonym Billy Bagg) The Violation of Claudia (1977). She is a congenital amputee, born with a partial leg that ends below the knee in a stump. While this did not figure into her early film appearances, de Renzy saw an opportunity to try something very different from the standard porn film. Silver’s stump bore more than a passing resemblance to a phallus, and de Renzy approached her with the idea of performing in a film in which she used it as such.

  Silver agreed, and the rest is adult cinema history. Between sex scenes, de Renzy shows Silver discussing her sex life before t
ransitioning into the next encounter. These include a variety of sex acts, from straightforward male/female sex and lesbian scenes to one of the most notorious moments in de Renzy’s oeuvre: a scene in which Silver anally penetrates a man with her leg stump. All of this would probably feel uncomfortably exploitative if it wasn’t for Silver’s warm personality and the fact that she seems genuinely happy in her own body. The Vinegar Syndrome DVD includes a commentary track by Silver and VS’s Joe Rubin, recorded during Silver’s first viewing of the film well over three decades after she made it. This is a great listen, with Silver explaining how she came to be involved with de Renzy and making bemused observations about the on-screen action.