Tag: russ meyer

Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens (1979)

Published on by Geoff ArbuckleLeave a comment

Welcome to the grand conclusion of Russ Meyer Month II here at B-Movie Enema!

We finish with Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens. This 1979 sexploitation satire not only brings our journey through another month of Russ Meyer movies to an end, but it, more or less, also signals the end of Meyer’s career itself. This is the final non-documentary film the King of Sexploitation Films ever made. He would end up doing some additional tongue-in-cheek documentaries like Mondo Topless, Too, Melissa Mounds, and Pandora Peaks but he never did do another narrative film after this movie’s release.

The reason for that is rather simple. While Meyer’s films were still popular, and he was a likable figure in the realm of softcore films, the hardcore porn industry became, for a lack of a better term, mainstream by the 70s with hits like Behind the Green Door, Deep Throat, and Debbi Does Dallas becoming as close to household titles as porn films could get. Meyer did still mostly retire from film a very wealthy fella. He personally oversaw the management and licensing of his own library of films. It’s likely why so many of his movies do not still have HD restorations or Blu-Ray releases. The exact state of the rights to his movies isn’t clearly defined from what I could find after a cursory search. If you go to the right places and the right conventions, you can usually score a 22-film box set for not too expensive at all, but the films’ looks and transfers are not consistent. It’s why some of the pics I used during the course of this month have been a bit rough.

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Black Snake (1973)

Published on by Geoff ArbuckleLeave a comment

Welcome to the penultimate week of Russ Meyer Month II here at B-Movie Enema! We move from the 60s Russ Meyer sex comedies and romps to his 70s bigger budgeted and slightly more interesting films. This week, I’m reviewing 1973’s flop Black Snake.

This one is an interesting entry in Meyer’s filmography. I labeled it a flop. It was. Meyer was not unaccustomed to making a movie that wouldn’t perform well. Sure, maybe not all of his 60s films scored well with critics, but almost none of them were outright flops. As the 70s dawned, though, Meyer’s films would change. This would mostly be due to 20th Century Fox calling on Meyer to make actual studio-backed films. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls was the first and it was a hit – despite critics not really appreciating it. The next film for Fox was assigned to him after the original director had to back out. That film would be an adaptation of the book The Seven Minutes. Meyer’s friend, Roger Ebert, would write that the latter was not well-suited to Meyer’s affection toward eroticism. After all, it was a drama about law and freedom of speech. While the central thing in the movie did evolve around an erotic novel a teenager bought, it’s not really Meyer’s realm, even if the studio felt it was right for him based on the movies he made in the past and how he championed the abolishment of censorship.

The Seven Minutes was, by far, Meyer’s most expensive movie and it didn’t do well. In the end, it just didn’t work out. He would only complete one of the three films he was contracted to make for Fox after Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. The end was maybe on the horizon anyway. Black Snake would be his next movie and the first of the final five films he would ever make. While his next three would recoup some of his past magic, this film would prove to be a massive disappointment and bomb.

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Finders Keepers, Lovers Weepers! (1968)

Published on by Geoff ArbuckleLeave a comment

Welcome back to B-Movie Enema and Russ Meyer Month II.

We got things started on a rough path this month with Common Law Cabin. This is widely known as a lesser Russ Meyer entry which was likely a pretty rough snapback from his mid-60s black and white masterpieces like Mudhoney, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, and Motorpsycho. That’s not even discussing the major splash he made with the controversial Lorna. That last one we need to get to sooner than later.

Despite 1967 being a bit of a drop for Meyer in terms of critical appeal (Good Morning and… Goodbye! also didn’t win over many critics), he was still the king of mainstream adult entertainment. 1968 would prove to be a huge success for him as this is the year that Vixen was unleashed on the world and became known for being an actual date night type of films for young, and rather randy, couples to go see together.

But there was another movie released that same year with Vixen, and that’s going to be our focus for this week’s review – Finders Keepers, Lovers Weepers!

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Motorpsycho (1965)

Published on by Geoff Arbuckle2 Comments

Welcome to B-Movie Enema. This week, we enter week #2 of Russ Meyer Month II. Admittedly, last week was a rough one, and not a very good way to get things started. It wasn’t very good. It was hardly sexy. It was 70 minutes of exceptionally loose structure and too much plot for what we need from Meyer.

I have a great deal more faith in this week’s selection. The year is 1965. I would argue this was maybe the most important year in Meyer’s career. In the first half of the year, his 1964 German co-production Fanny Hill made its way stateside. The movie’s success was likely boosted by 1964’s Lorna which proved to be so controversial that it grossed roughly a million bucks on a $37,000 budget. Shortly after Fanny Hill was released, Mudhoney made it to theaters. That is a great little flick.

Later, in the late summer of 1965, Meyer’s most influential film, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! was unleashed to the world. It would inspire movies featuring bad ass women. It would act as a muse to the music industry for decades. Released one week later, but just before making Faster, Pussycat!, Meyer made another movie that would feature a roving gang of nogoodniks. That’s what we’re focusing on this week. This week’s movie, and the best title of all the films getting the review treatment this month by a wide margin, is Motorpsycho!

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Common Law Cabin (1967)

Published on by Geoff ArbuckleLeave a comment

As we pass out of the dog days of summer, and transition into the colorful days of autumn, I think it’s time we checked in with an old friend – Russ Meyer! We begin with this week’s new B-Movie Enema review with 1967’s Common Law Cabin.

I might as well go ahead and call this month Russ Meyer Month II. I’ve visited the works of the great Mr. Meyer in two different ways. First, if you go back to May 2020, COVID was raging like a bad case of hemorrhoids and the first Russ Meyer Month was rocking and rolling with some of the nudie film master’s most recognizable films. The second time I came to something Russ Meyer, it was to warm things up last December with the pretty great (and fairly sexy) Supervixens. It was very clearly time to return.

This month, I’ve got five more classics to discuss. I very specifically chose four films for their titles. The fifth, well, it’s another time Meyer worked with my all-time favorite critic, Roger Ebert. This first movie is, on the surface, maybe, the oddest of this month’s collection.

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Supervixens (1975)

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Ah, yeah… Russ Meyer.

It’s been a long time coming to bring ol’ uncle Russ back to the blog. I know next year we need to do a lot more, but for this week, I’m going to take a look at 1975’s Supervixens. The star of this film is the boobtacular Shari Eubank. She appeared in two films in her career. This one and Chesty Anderson, USN. I… I just looked at the poster for that Chesty Anderson flick. I need to see it. Also, it saddens me that she was only in two movies because she is beautiful and incredibly likable in this movie.

Anyway, the origin of this movie came from Meyer’s previous two films, the much more serious The Seven Minutes and the blaxploitation Blacksnake (look for that come to the blog, say, oh, September 2023), were box office failures. It was at this point in time that you had to go back to 1970’s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls for Meyer’s last hit. On top of that, he wanted to make a movie with his then wife, Edy Williams, but that fell apart. Yet another thing that came along was a Supreme Court decision coming down about pornography that was confusing and created a little chaos at the time.

The point is Meyer was having a hard time of it in the first half of the 70s.

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Up! (1976)

Published on by Geoff Arbuckle2 Comments

We’ve come to the end of Russ Meyer Month here at B-Movie Enema.

Over the last several weeks, we’ve gone from Depression-era Missouri farms to a sexually liberated Canadian girl to go-go dancers with an axe to grind to wild Hollywood hippie parties.  So naturally there is only one place left to go…  Nazisploitation.  This week, it’s the 1976 soft-core sex comedy Up!

This is another of the Meyer-Ebert collaborations, much like with last week’s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.   After that film and its success with audiences and some critics, Meyer tried his hand a couple more times with mainstream films, but both flopped.  He decided he needed to get back to boobs… er basics.  Back to basics.  He swore he’d never stray away from his formula again. Continue reading “Up! (1976)” →

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)

Published on by Geoff Arbuckle1 Comment

“This is my happening, and it freaks me out!”

Welcome back to B-Movie Enema’s Russ Meyer Month.  We’ve finally gotten to the back end of the month and his 70s features.  It also brings us to two features Meyer did with famous Chicago movie critic Roger Ebert.  First up, it’s the one the duo is most famous for – Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.

Meyer and Ebert cranked out a treatment that came to 127 pages in about a week and a half.  Ebert completed the screenplay in three weeks.  It was intended to be a straight sequel to the 1967 film Valley of the Dolls.  Now, here’s where we start in on the rabbit hole that leads to Meyer and Ebert coming in. Continue reading “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)” →