Operation Screenshot (Films of the Eighties) Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

Ruggero Deodato's The Concorde Affair (1979)

Shot just before his brutal masterpiece Cannibal Holocaust (1980), 1979's The Concorde Affair is one of Italian director Ruggero Deodato's strangest and most disjointed productions; a deliberate and mostly unsuccessful take off on the American disaster films that were nearing the end of their heyday as this film appeared and quickly disappeared in the Spring of 79.
While the film itself never fully comes together, one can't blame the team in front of and behind the cameras that Deodato assembled for the production. Fans of both Italian and American cinema of this period will find much to savor in the opening credits as the names of famed screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi and wonderful composer Stelvio Cipriani appear, as do the listings of several legendary actors ranging from Joseph Cotten to Mimsy Farmer.
The Concorde Affair's biggest problem lies in its convoluted plot (scripted by Gastaldi and Renzo Genta from an idea by Alberto Fioretti) that simply attempts to squeeze too much story into just over 90 minutes. The film, centering on a Concorde that has gone down in the ocean and a surviving stewardess being held hostage by members of the mob, seems to bury itself almost immediately and, even worse, it fails to ever generate a real sense of the fun that was inherent in so many of the films it is attempting to ape, with David Lowell Rich's infectiously silly Concorde: Airport 79 being chief among them.
The cast and Cipriani's propulsive score are the film's best attributes. Farmer gives a suitably hysterical and neurotic performance while leading man James Franciscus seems to be greatly enjoying himself. Other members, such as Cotton and Van Johnson, give professional if un-noteworthy performances but it is great to see them here none the less. Look out for cult-figure and future Cannibal Holocaust star Robert Kerman in a small uncredited role as an air traffic controller.
My copy of the film comes from an old Greek VHS and it looks fairly dreadful so I am unable to really comment on Federico Zanni's cinematography. I can only imagine that a crisp widescreen print of the film would help immensely. Deodato's direction is fine if slightly uninvolved, and one gets the idea that he knew the film was not destined to be one of the key works in his important filmography.

Released in Italy under the title Affare Concorde and in other parts of the world as Concorde Inferno '79 and S.O.S. Concorde, The Concorde Affair crash landed fairly quickly and remains one of Deodato's hardest to see productions in a good quality print, as apparently the DVD that has been released is a full screen version transferred directly from an old VHS copy.

I Wanna Be An Atlantis Interceptor!

Ranging from a few to several times a year I get what I like to refer to as ‘completely burned out’. It’s a particularly daunting feeling that hits me hard and when it does I don’t want to read, listen to music, watch movies, communicate with friends, work or honestly even get out of bed. To snap myself out of these particularly dreadful moods I have several things I do, most of which I am not going to go into here, including watching a certain number of films that for whatever reason help to bring me back to normalcy.
There isn’t any rhyme or reason to the films that help me out…what exactly the common ground is between Clive Donner’s What’s New Pussycat, Stuart Rosenberg’s The April Fools, Francois Truffaut’s The Man Who Loved Women and George P. Cosmatos’ Cobra is I just couldn’t say but it doesn’t matter as there is something in each that brings a feeling of relief to my dragging spirit.
I love nothing more than stumbling onto a film that promises to be one I can turn to in these dark moments and they typically turn up in the most unlikely places at the most unlikely times. Recently I discovered a new one for me that I can safely add to my list of films that will no doubt bring a little sunshine to my darkest and dreariest of days.

Now I am not going to sit here and write that Ruggero Deodato’s 1983 film L’Predatori di Atlantide (The Raiders of Atlantis or, as I prefer, The Atlantis Interceptors) is what you might call a ‘good’ film but Deodato’s delightfully goofy follow up to the grueling one-two knockout punch Cannibal Holocaust and House on the Edge of the Park goes way beyond the definition of ‘good’ into a whole other realm of greatness. This is the kind of gloriously off the wall movie that people simply don’t make anymore…it’s the kind of film the recent Doomsday wanted to be but you simply can’t recapture this kind of magic with a lot of money, a big cast and CGI effects.
The Atlantis Interceptors (currently wearing a solid 2.9 rating at IMDB proudly on its sleeve) concerns the lost city of Atlantis suddenly re-appearing off the coast of Miami after some goofball scientists go and spill some nuclear waste into the ocean waters surrounding it. Arriving with the legendary lost city is a group of crazed motorcycle riding tattooed Road Warrior rejects (the kind that populated so many of these early eighties spectacles) who are fought off by our ready for action heroes struggling to save the world from total disaster. It is awesome.

Our heroes are led by Christopher Connelly, the late and beloved genre favorite who brought so much to many Italian horror and action films in the eighties. Joining Connelly is everyone from Cannibal Apocalypse’s Tony King to future directorial giant Michele Soavi to the badass team to beat of Ivan Rassimov and George Hilton. In other words, The Atlantis Interceptors is an Italian film fanatic’s wet dream.
Scored by the mighty Guido and Maurizio De Angelis (under the great pseudonym of Oliver Onions!!!) and directed with the kind of ‘go for broke even though I have no budget’ inspired mania that Ruggero Deodato thrived at, The Atlantis Interceptors is just an absolute blast and more than any other ‘great’ film I have watched recently reminded me of why I love cinema so much. Add on one of the most simultaneously irritating and catchy theme songs in cinema history and some truly insane stunt work (I was struck watching this film just how boring and safe modern action films typically are) and you’ve got all the ingredients for a real camp classic…forget The Rocky Horror Picture Show, let me dress up for a midnight showing of The Atlantis Interceptors and I’m online!

By the end of its 89 minute running time (my copy was cut which made me feel like I had rented it back in the day) I was totally refreshed and ready to take on the world again (in an albeit illogical and badly dubbed kind of way).
The Atlantis Interceptors can be seen on the budget box set The Grindhouse Experience Volume Two in a decent enough print ported over from an old British VHS tape that is missing 3-4 minutes of gore including an unforgettable decapitation that can be seen in the trailer I have attached. I would sell a couple of pints of blood in a New York minute to buy a special edition re-mastered copy of this monster as it’s that amazing.

Even the most narcotic coated and hazy mind couldn’t even begin to dream The Atlantis Interceptors and if I ever get to the point where I don’t enjoy a movie like this then I will hang it all up for good and surrender myself to a cinematic world obsessed with logic and ‘good’ taste…what a horrifyingly dull place that must be.

Screenshot 101: Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust

Robert Kerman wonders who the real cannibals are...frankly, I have been wondering the same thing lately.

Return To The Green Inferno

Sylvester Stallone’s RAMBO is the most entertaining, brutal, vicious, nihilistic and savagely bad-ass action film in almost 25 years. You would have to go back to the Italian cinema of the early eighties to find a more exhilarating and primal film than the one Stallone has delivered here.
RAMBO is the absolute opposite to pretty much any other film out right now which is one thing that makes it so incredibly refreshing. It’s a grueling, ugly, rain and mud soaked work that feels more like an authentic Grindhouse film from a few decades ago than any other modern film I could possibly imagine.
Stallone, directing as if he is channeling Ruggero Deodato, thankfully pulls the series out of the macho cheesiness that hampered Parts Two and Three and returns his iconic character to the downtrodden outsider that marked the masterful FIRST BLOOD twenty five years ago. If ROCKY BALBOA was a heartfelt haunting elegiac finale to his key series, then his RAMBO is a angry go for the throat attempt at reclaiming the action genre from the Michael Bay slick hell than it has found itself in the past two decades.
Beginning with some chilling real life news footage of modern day Burma, Stallone’s film centers on a group of Christian missionaries who seek out an American boatman named John Rambo to take them up the river where they can deliver medicine and supplies. After doing so, the missionaries are kidnapped and Rambo returns with a group of mercenaries to rescue them. That’s the plot of this lean and savage film in a nutshell. Like the best of Stallone’s work, the screenplay for RAMBO is a jewel of minimalism and simplicity. Stallone has always been a genius at taking the simplest of stories and transcending them into something unexpected and surprisingly complex, and RAMBO does just that.
RAMBO fits very nicely into the classic Hollywood mold that Stallone has always delighted into playing into. Here we have all of the stock characters of the genre…evil villains, a few key supporting characters and even a damsel in distress surrounding a lone isolated title figure. The genius of Stallone is that he values these standard conventions…he embraces them, and in his best work he finally transcends them.
Stallone’s new film is a triumph on nearly every front. Easily the best of the series since FIRST BLOOD, RAMBO works mostly as a tribute to just how powerful a figure Sylvester Stallone can be. Gone is the slender and musical vision that populated Parts Two and Three and in its place is a brooding beast of a man who casually tosses off lines like, “Fuck the world” and “Live for something or die for nothing” like a practiced mantra that he whispers to himself each morning upon waking up. Stallone’s Rambo is quite unlike any other character in film history…half hero and half horrific killing machine, John Rambo remains a terrifying and yet totally enduring creation.
Stallone's RAMBO might be the most violent film ever released with an R Rating in Hollywood history. It’s the kind of film SAVING PRIVATE RYAN would have been if Steven Spielberg had any real kind of film making balls, which he doesn’t. By the way, if someone like Spielberg’s name was attached to this film exactly as it is, it would be greeted as a revisionist classic by the same critics who are currently trashing Stallone. RAMBO is the kind of film that will invite disdain from the critical establishment, intellectuals and film snobs, but trust me, this film will last much longer than most of the ‘great’ film that will appear throughout the upcoming year.

I mentioned at the outset the Italian films of the early eighties and it is productions CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, THE NEW BARBARIANS and CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE that Stallone is clearly paying tribute to here. Fans of those films would be advised to check out RAMBO as soon as possible even if they have never admired the work of Sylvester Stallone. Even more than the works of more celebrated genre enthusiasts like Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, Sylvester Stallone hits on an authentically brilliant and grimy feel with RAMBO that is incredibly seductive and hard to shake. With its many be-headings, severed limbs, stakings and stabbings, the carnage in RAMBO achieves an almost surreal and dizzying quality that is rarely seen in even the harshest of American or World cinema.
The difference between RAMBO and the Italian pictures that preceded it is a marked one though. Whereas Deodato had his cannibals, and Fulci had his zombies, Stallone has Stallone. Sylvester Stallone is his own greatest creation and as he did with ROCKY BALBOA, he return his second greatest character to an absolute grace with RAMBO.
I suppose it's not a perfect film and I am sure re-viewings will make its problems clearer but for now I just want to bask in the excitement of it. As the late Jerry Goldsmith's theme kicked in yesterday and RAMBO came to a close, I felt a real satisfaction that I rarely feel anymore in a theater. RAMBO will be a punching bag for critics and many film goers but I highly doubt I will enjoy or be more enthralled by another American film this year.

Hostel Part Two: The DVD

I will be posting another look at Eli Roth's HOSTEL 2 to go along with this one soon. I did want to say though that the few problems I had with the film on my first viewing have pretty much disappeared. The film, as it plays in its striking uncut form on disc, gets better and better with each viewing, and it has quickly become one of my favorite horror films of the decade.
The DVD contains some solid special features that are entertaining as well as informative. Italian horror fans will absolutely want to check the disc out for a brief but beguiling interview with Edwige Fenech (and some shots of an awe struck Roth directing her), as well as an interesting short talk with Ruggero Deodato.
Even better is the producer's commentary with Roth and Tarantino that plays like a love letter to the Italian horror genre in general. After watching the film again and viewing the extras, I must say that it is indeed Sergio Martino's masterful TORSO that seems to be the film that HOSTEL TWO is most indebted to. Readers here will know that Martino's underrated Giallo is among my favorite films, and frankly seeing this much love thrown at it was refreshing to say the least.

Here are two shots of Eli and Edwige from his MySpace page. Be on the lookout for a long review for this woefully underrated and unjustly maligned film here soon.

Eli Roth and Edwige Fenech Interviewed

Here is a great clip that has been posted at Eli's MySpace from Italian television. Roth is the only one really being interviewed but Edwige's presence is definitely felt and God she is still extraordinary looking.
There has been so much bad blood between people about Roth this year that I don't want to beat the issue into the ground. I'll just say the guy still comes across as incredibly intelligent to me and his reverence towards the names he mentions in the first two minutes of this interview (Argento, Fulci, Martino, Deodato etc) is quite inspiring to see as a long time Italian film fan. He even makes special mention that it was Antonioni and Fellini that originally got him into Italian cinema. Whether you like his films or not, this guy isn't the 'poseur' that some inept reviewer recently called him.
Here's the video for those that would like to see it. I will continue throwing my support Roth's way and am greatly anticipating seeing HOSTEL 2 again when it arrives on dvd later this year.

Some Thoughts On Hostel Part Two

NOTE: This post was written after I first saw Roth's film in the theaters. Since then I have seen it several times and I wanted to point out that my initial problems with the film have faded. HOSTEL PART TWO is a tremendous film that improves with each viewing. I will eventually take a longer look at it, but I wanted to point out that the couple of problems I have listed below don't apply for me anymore. Actually I love HOSTEL PART TWO so much at this point that it made me revisit Roth's first two films, and I must say that my admiration for them as grown as well.


***SOME SPOILERS FOLLOW***

I am going to wait until I can watch HOSTEL 2 on disc before I post a full fledged review of it but I did want to post my initial thoughts and reactions to it. First I would like to ask why in the world was this film was released in the Summer movie season opening against OCEAN'S THIRTEEN and SURF'S UP? I went Sunday afternoon and the theater was empty. I don't mean a relatively small crowd for a weekend, I mean totally empty. I typically like being in a theater alone but for horror and comedy, the audiences reactions are always a highlight. Just before the lights went down for Disney's UNDERDOG trailer (No, I'm not joking) one guy came in and that was it. I totally believe had LionsGate opened Roth's film up back in the early part of the year or in the fall it would have made triple the money it did this past weekend. But it didn't and, after all the discussion and debate this film has caused, it ended up performing very poorly at the box office and will no doubt be gone in a few weeks. I suspect the DVD will perform big but still I am disappointed in its take not just for Roth but for hard R horror films in general.

My feelings towards HOSTEL 2 are for the most part very positive. Roth continues for me to be improving with each film. He has yet to make a great film but I came out of HOSTEL 2 with the feeling that he will someday soon.
My biggest problem with the first HOSTEL was it's opening section. While I appreciated all the abundant nudity, much of the frat boy humor really grated on my nerves and I found myself really disliking the lead characters. Roth has solved this problem for me in casting three very talented young actresses this time as his leads and making them not only likable but very human. One of the aspects of HOSTEL 2 that works incredibly well is that I do indeed come to really like these three young women and I don't want anything to happen to them. By doing this Roth has made the second half of his film much stronger, the horror feels more heartfelt and real.
I was surprised that overall HOSTEL 2 is a bit toned down from the first one. Outside of two magnificent gory set pieces the new film concentrates much more on the characters and dialogue than the first. I felt this worked mostly to its advantage, again I missed some of the originals over the top extremities but overall I preferred the new film to the first.
Much has been made of Edwige Fenech returning to the screen for this film and her involvement was the thing that really made me want to see it in the first place. I have to admit that seeing "and Edwige Fenech" at the end of the opening cast credits gave me chills. Unfortunately her scene is very short. She looks ravishing and it was incredible seeing her again but I wish Roth would have given her a bigger part. There were two roles specifically in the film that I thought she would have been suited for that were considerably larger.
Two more small but very welcome roles were the great Luc Merenda as an Italian detective and a chilling cameo by director Ruggero Deodato that tips its hat to CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST and turns out to be a highlight of the film.
Roth's love of the genre really comes through in this picture. Referencing everything from BLOOD SPATTERED BRIDE to FRIDAY THE 13 PART TWO to Jean Rollin's FASCINATION, HOSTEL 2 works splendidly as a nod to the films Roth cut his teeth on as a youth.
The cast is exceptional, I was particularly taken with Lauren German. She is a splendid young actress and she invests the role of Beth with a lot of depth and emotion. Also good are Bijou Phillips, Heather Matarazzo and the statuesque Vera Jordanova. In the role of the two main auction winners, Roger Bart and Richard Burgi both are chilling at portraying the very worst aspects of male aggression, cynicism and hostility.
The two goriest scenes are startling and quite brilliant. Specifically the Mrs. Bathory moment is one of the wildest and most effective horror scenes I have seen in a long time. Shot beautifully and played out with wild abandon by both Monika Malacova and Matarazzo, this is a go for broke sequence that proved as haunting as wince inducing. A scene like this would have been unthinkable in an American horror film a few years ago. Less effective but still pretty jaw dropping is the castration sequence. If the Bathory sequence recalled BLOOD SPATTERED BRIDE then this is Roth tipping his hat to both CANNIBAL FEROX as well as CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. I was frankly amazed by what the MPAA let Roth get away with in this scene and the final payoff with the dog was brilliant.
Okay now the problems. HOSTEL 2 is nowhere near a perfect film and one feels that it could have been a lot more than what it is. Roth gets a little rushed sometimes. The spa sequence starts off as really hypnotic and dreamlike but it soon collapses into just another chase scene. The Prague children aren't used as well in this one as they were the first and I feel he should have thought there scenes out a bit more or just left them out all together.
The film's biggest problem is its very last scene. I don't have any problems with how the film ends but I just wish Roth would have given it a little more thought and life. In what could have been a chilling moment that would have recalled Brigitte Lahaie's scythe wielding peer walk in FASCINATION, the scene instead plays out too quickly. The scene isn't the disaster some fans have made it out to be but it is a let down. The major thing it has going for is German's intensity but man I would have liked to have seen her walking towards the camera in a long tracking shot like Lahaie in Rollin's film. I also again think the kids could have been left completely out although the last few moments in the film reminded me of the gleeful children in Bava's TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE which isn't a bad thought to end the film on.

So overall I am very happy with HOSTEL 2. Roth still hasn't made a film that is as good as his idols but give him time, this guy is very young. Does he occasionally stick his foot in his mouth, sure he does but don't we all? What it really comes down to is that at the end of this film he took the time to thank Sergio Martino, Lucio Fulci, Edwige Fenech, Ruggero Deodato and many other names that I never thought I would see mentioned during the closing credits of a modern American horror film. Great film or not...Eli Roth is okay in my book.

Hard And R

I have really been enjoying all of the online discussion and disagreements on Eli Roth's upcoming HOSTEL 2 and the state of horror in general as of late. I have been amazed to see the wide ranging and strong opinions film fans seem to have on Roth and this so called 'Torture Porn' phrase that is being thrown around so much in the media these days.
I would be seeing HOSTEL 2 no matter what just because of the casting of the legendary Edwige Fenech. I would like to throw my two cents in on the subject though and say that I would be seeing, and looking forward to, the film even without the iconic Fenech's presence.
I was more than a bit cold on Roth's debut film CABIN FEVER. I just didn't understand the hype but I admired the first HOSTEL very much and felt that his THANKSGIVING trailer was among the best thing I have seen this year. Roth seems to be very consciously following the lead of a handful of directors, such as Fulci, Deodato, Craven, Martino and others, who believed the horror film has the capability to truly shock and disturb. It is this very primal, and at times almost oppressively dark, feeling that horror films lost in the nineties and that a handful of young directors have been trying to reclaim this decade.
I have always found it ironic that it was Wes Craven, who at his prime delivered some of the most truly unsettling and visceral horror films ever, would have been the guy who helmed the film that more than any other would turn the genre into a self referential, humorous and ultimately extremely sanitized form. I liked, and still like, SCREAM and SCREAM 2 but they created a winking and back patting breed that would give birth to a seemingly endless succession of safe and typically very bland films. I saw many of these films throughout the mid to late 90's...some were okay, most were very bad. I noticed that each one seemed to be a little safer and a little more meaningless than the last. These weren't films about anything other than pushing a lousy soundtrack of trendy songs and giving roles to forgettable teen tv actors. These seemed to be films designed for the PG13 rating, show us as little as possible and suggest something perhaps even less.
Obviously there have always films that combine humor and horror and I'm not suggesting that horror films always need to be graphic. What I am saying is that a key element to the horror film is to take us, and yes show us, places that are typically unseen and locked away. The so called horror films of the late 90s stopped doing that, they just began showing us television versions of things we had seen in countless other better films.

I really began to miss the extreme horror films of my childhood in this period. Films like DAWN OF THE DEAD and the original HILLS HAVE EYES became something more than just films that I loved from my youth. They became prime examples of everything that I loved in cinema that modern culture, and specifically the opening weekend gross watchers, had taken away. It's no coincidence that it was in the mid 90s that I started to obsessively hunt down and collect Italian horror films. Here were films that I hadn't known as a child that I could discover as new. The importance and greatness of a film as extreme as CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST seemed overwhelming to me, and it felt like we would never be allowed to see anything quite so graphic and disturbing as that powerhouse again.

One of the most exciting experiences I have had in a theater this decade was seeing Alexandre Aja's 2003 French film HAUTE TENSION (HIGH TENSION). There had been rumblings of a change in the horror landscape in the early part of the decade but here was a film so unrelenting, so bleak and so truly disturbing, that it felt to me like it was at times literally shaking the screen. HIGH TENSION seemed to open a floodgate of angry, and at times nihilistic, films that have given us some of the most extreme violence cinema has seen since the late seventies.

Not many of the films have been great, but for all their failings I admire pictures like WOLF CREEK, HOSTEL, SAW and Aja's HILLS HAVE EYES remake more than most 'great' horror films of the last 15 years. These films and filmmakers are trying to make horror dangerous again...to take the darker aspects of society that are continually thrown at us in the media and turn them into something we can properly internalize and hopefully understand.

"Torture Porn" is the most ridiculous media created term since "Punk" became "New Wave". It feels like a term made up and jumped on by people who not only don't know anything of the history of horror films, but plain just don't like them. A film like Rob Zombie's THE DEVIL'S REJECTS, which I loved, has been grouped in with this so called genre but the themes and images from it are decades old. I doubt very seriously the critics who use phrases like "Torture Porn" even know who Lucio Fulci or Ruggero Deodato are...sometimes I wonder if they even know who Sam Peckinpah is.

So I will be at HOSTEL 2 opening weekend and I hope it is as twisted and graphic as possible. Horror films should cause a reaction...they should make us feel and see things that hopefully we don't have to in our everyday life. A lot of people do not like these extreme images these films are promising and that is perfectly fine. Don't buy a ticket...it is a as simple as that. I fear though that 2008 will bring a landslide against the return of the extreme horror film and that the studios will once again start playing it safe. As a rule I try not to get political on this blog at all but I find the idea that both presidential parties might again try to deflect attention from the real issues with a battle against artistic expression to be the most horrifying thought of all.

David Hess in Writing For The King

The music of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT was one of the first things that struck me about Wes Craven's brutal shocker when I first saw it in my teens. The film for all of its darkness and intensity featured a score that at times matched its nihilism and other times played against it. The most memorable piece of music was the haunting THE ROAD LEADS TO NOWHERE, a song which played a big part of Eli Roth's CABIN FEVER decades later.
The music to LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT was composed by none other than David Hess, the intense and imposing psychopath Krug in the film. Pretty early on I noticed in certain articles about David Hess often mentioned that he had been David Hill in the early sixties and had written a number of famous songs including the great DADDY ROLLING STONE and most intriguingly I GOT STUNG recorded by none other than Elvis Presley.
It was hard to me for a long time to picture the star of Craven's film as well as similar roles in HITCH-HIKE and THE HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK as the writer of such sublimely well crafted songs. It seemed like two totally different worlds and David Hess was so good in these films that it was hard for me to come to terms with seeing him in another light.

Released last year was the mammoth book WRITING FOR THE KING. The book is an important one in that it is entirely centered on the amazing songwriters who contributed songs not just for Elvis but a number of popular music's greatest song stylists of the twentieth century. The format of the book is simple. Each chapter is dedicated to a songwriter, or songwriting team. Many are interviewed and for those that have passed. solid biographies are given. They all talk specifically and honestly about the songs that Elvis recorded and also about their lives, careers, disappointments and highpoints. It is a really unique book that gives voice to many who haven't been heard from before. The book also includes an entire cd of original demos by the songwriters that Elvis would have heard, as well as an unreleased live recording collection by Elvis himself. The demos cd is great because we can clearly hear these songs in their early stages, some fully formed and others almost just sketches. Also interesting to hear is how much Elvis would change and mutate them to his own voice and style. It is especially fascinating to listen to some of the demos attempting to sound like Elvis, it's a window into a fascinating world that most of us as music listeners aren't usually able to hear.
David Hess is one of the songwriters featured and his chapter is one of the best. He recalls his time as a singer in New York's Greenwich Village folk scene in the late fifties and getting hired early on by Shalimar music where he met the great Otis Blackwell. He talks of recording Blackwell's ALL SHOOK UP as David Hill before Elvis and finally landing a job at the influential Hill and Range company.
It was with fellow songwriter Aaron Schroeder that Hess wrote his most famous song, the delightfully catchy I GOT STUNG. Hess admits that for a long time he thought his demo was superior to Elvis' version but admits that, "Elvis' version has really stood up, I love it."
Hess goes on to talk honestly about Colonel Parker's business dealings and other trappings of the songwriting world. He mentions how much he admired Elvis' ability to phrase his singing, "from internal strife" and talks about the excitement of Paul McCartney's 'back to his roots' recording of I GOT STUNG.
Hess concludes with talking about some later movie songs he wrote for Elvis as well as some other non-Elvis tracks. He says, "I just love Elvis. I love what he did...we stopped at Graceland and I cried seeing what had happened to this incredibly talented genius. What makes Elvis great is his honesty. The only way he could sing was honestly."
Included in the Hess chapter is a great photo of Hess performing in New York in the fifties and a studio shot from the sixties. No mention is made of his later career as this book is just about their lives as songwriters and it is great to see attention given to this side of the talented Hess.
WRITING FOR THE KING is huge 400 page coffee table book that is essential reading for Elvis fans as well as people interested in the craft of songwriting. It contains interviews with many people you might not have heard of as well as many you have but guaranteed you will recognize most of these songs.
Below are two links. One is information on ordering this book and cd collection. The price might seem steep but it is more than worth it. The other link is David Hess' fine official site. Here you can read up on the man, his films and music. Several cds are available including THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT soundtrack as well as a demos and live collection. Hess continues to be a major force in front of the camera and is rumored to have recently been cast in Deodato's long awaited CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST sequel.
Hess' most memorable films including LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, HITCH-HIKE, HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK and SWAMP THING are all currently on dvd from various companies. The special editions of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and HITCH-HIKE are highly recommended.

http://www.shopelvis.com/nshop/product.php?navgroup=0&view=detail&productid=EP-130-7060&dept=keyword+search&category=&page=&groupName=

www.davidhess.com

The Great Ones Vol.2 (Side A Track One) Mimsy Farmer

Among my favorite moments in any Dario Argento film is the climax of FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET where we see the intense Mimsy Farmer blow her top and then literally lose it. It's a moment that could have easily been made ridiculous in the hands of a lesser actor but Farmer handles it beautifully, giving us one of the great freak out moments in all of Italian horror and one of her most iconic moments in a pretty remarkable career.
Farmer was born in Chicago in February of 45 and made her debut as an actress in an episode of THE DONNA REED SHOW. Her first major role came at the age of sixteen Earl Hamner's SPENCER'S MOUNTAIN opposite Henry Fonda among others. The young Farmer already felt unique and delivered a very assured debut feature film performance as Claris.

Several years of tv work followed, as well as a part in the Ann-Margret vehicle BUS RILEY'S BACK IN TOWN, before Farmer appeared in a handful of biker and hot rod films. HOT RODS TO HELL, RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP, DEVIL'S ANGELS and THE WILD RACERS are all fun late sixties American exploitation flicks but it was Barbet Schroeder's powerful MORE that would really put Farmer on the map.

MORE is an uncommonly good 'drug' film that still feels unique and fresh today. Backed by an early Pink Floyd soundtrack MORE manages to be to pull off the tricky feat of being honest but not judgemental or condemning of its drug addicted main characters. Farmer's Estelle is a fascinating role and it is with a mixture of revulsion and sympathy as we watch her disintegrate through the film's intense two hour running time. Farmer mentioned in the Palmerini and Mistretta book SPAGHETTI NIGHTMARES that she was so good as the junkie Estelle that many people figured she was one in real life.
Farmer was credited as co-dialogue writer on MORE and the film signaled a new chapter in her career as she stayed on in Europe for much of the Seventies and Eighties. A role in STROGOFF opposite the always great John Phillip Law followed as did a role opposite Rita Hayworth in ROAD TO SALINA.
Dario Argento had remembered Farmer's intense work in MORE and in 1971 cast her as Nina in his final 'Animal trilogy Giallo' FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET. This hardest to see of all Argento's films features much of his trademark camera work and an incredible Morricone score but is Farmer who steals it. The aforementioned freak out and her death scene remain incredibly vivid in Argento's canon. Farmer fondly remembers Argento and the film in SPAGHETTI NIGHTMARES and it is a shame that the two didn't work together again, although apparently he did offer her a role in a later film that she turned down.
Farmer would continue working in Italy, often in International co-productions like the Alain Delon crime flick TWO MEN IN TOWN and 1974's THE SUSPECTS.
1974 would give Farmer possibly her greatest role in Francesco Barilli's strange and completely compelling PERFUME OF A LADY IN BLACK. This overwhelming and frankly brilliant Italian thriller is among the best of the seventies with Farmer delivering a vulnerable, moving and finally unhinged performance. It is among the great performances in genre cinema and this still unreleased, in the United States, film deserves a much wider audience. Highly recommended is Raro's imported special edition dvd of the film that can be purchased from the great Xploited cinema site.
After her extraordinary work in PERFUME OF A LADY IN BLACK, Farmer's career should have really taken off which makes it all the more unfortunate that it was her last truly great role. Some would argue that her work in Armando Crispino's AUTOPSY is among her finest, but it seems to me to be a let down after PERFUME.
The rest of Farmer's career is mostly made up of smaller supporting roles in some fine films, Ferreri's BYE BYE MONKEY and Campanile's GIRL FROM TRIESTE, and some poor ones.
She had larger roles in Deodato's CONCORDE AFFAIR 79 and Fulci's BLACK CAT but she didn't seem fully engaged anymore. One has to wonder if she simply recognized that the roles she was being offered didn't measure up to her talent, so she just didn't give as much as she had in the past. She said of her role in THE BLACK CAT that she, "was a little lazy and lacked motivation" but admitted to liking Fulci.
Farmer made her final acting appearance in an Italian tv movie in 1991. She currently resides in France. She would say of her career in SPAGHETTI NIGHTMARES, "I wish I were offered more intelligent and complex parts; on other hand, I don't exactly feel frustrated because, after all, what I have achieved isn't so bad." In a career featuring work as powerful as her performances in MORE, FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET, and PERFUME OF A LADY IN BLACK, I couldn't agree more. Not bad at all Mimsy.