42nd Street Forever! Vol. 1: Horror On 42nd Street Ban 1 Productions Edition

U.S.A. / 2004 Featuring Donald Pleasence, Tom Baker Timothy Leary, Sammy Davis Jr. Henry Silva, Keenan Wynn Christina Lindberg, Jan-Michael Vincent Kris Kristofferson, Warren Oates Peter Fonda, Lynn Lowry, Sebastian Gregory, Marjoe Gortner William Shatner, Margot Kidder Klaus Kinski, Reggie Nalder, etc. Color, B&W / 95 Minutes / Not Rated Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC) Ban 1 Productions

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As with everything in the realm of pop culture, the economic models governing the promotion of motion pictures have changed drastically over the past quarter-century. The impact of home video, cable TV and the death of the drive-in were, of course, significant developments; the advent of the internet has given filmmakers and distributors an entirely new method of plugging their product. But whether it's part of a theater's Coming Attractions reel or a multimedia Flash clip on a website, the trailer remains the essential vehicle for promotion.     In comparison to their forebears, modern trailers are far slicker and certainly less verbose — you won't see one in which the narrator keeps talking the whole time, as was customary back in the day. The penchant for outrageous exaggeration and bald-faced lying (usually in the most ominous, stentorian or salacious of tones) has been greatly muted. And that's too bad, really. Trailers from the olden days weren't exactly MTV hip but by golly, they could sure be a lot of fun! In the case of low budget horror/exploitation pictures they were often more entertaining than the films themselves, sometimes giving away most or all of the good stuff just to get butts in theater seats. For flicks that played the drive-in or grindhouse circuit, trailers could be packed with nudity, gore and all sorts of sleaze, something that doesn't happen today outside of previews made especially for home video.     Ban 1 Productions has just released a nifty DVD compilation of exploitation trailers called 42nd Street Forever! Volume 1: Horror On 42nd Street, a celebration of the wacky low budget pics shown in the grindhouse theaters that once proliferated along that (in)famous New York City thoroughfare. Though the collection's title may be a tad misleading — the majority of the trailers included here are not for horror films — it offers some prime examples of the bygone 'art' of B-movie Ballyhoo. Almost all of the featured trailers are from the 1960s and '70s, the high water mark of over-the-top sensationalism in film promotion. The narrators say practically anything to plug these pics, hyping them all out of proportion to their actual contents and often using rather off-the-wall phrases in the process. For me, this is a big part of the fun to be had.     The trailers included in 42nd Street Forever! Volume 1 are loosely grouped into basic categories: horror, sexploitation, and action. Since a conventional review really isn't appropriate in this case, I'm listing the trailers in the order they appear on the disc and following up with some brief notes on the ones that really struck my fancy. Most of these films aren't currently available on VHS or DVD, by the way (except via the "gray" market, if at all), so these trailers are the only way to get a taste of 'em. They make for quite a cheese sampler.     They are: a reissue trailer for Tod Browning's classic Freaks; The Crippled Masters (see notes below); The Mutations (mad scientist Donald Pleasence creates killer plant/human hybrids in a movie most known for its exploitation of actual circus freaks); Aroused (New York-lensed black and white "Roughie" about a necrophiliac killer); Skidoo (disastrous 1968 all-star comedy in which the likes of Jackie Gleason, Mickey Rooney, Carol Channing, Grouch Marx and a host of others tried to appeal to the Vietnam-era youth market; in the preview Sammy Davis Jr. calls it "the gassiest, grooviest, swingingest, trippiest movie you've ever seen"); Invitation To Ruin (see below); The Wild Scene (hippies and sex); The Wild Eye (Italian flick about a fictional, globetrotting "mondo" movie director); The Animals (Keenan Wynn slumming big time as the leader of a gang of raping cutthroats in the Old West); Hooker's Revenge/Photographer's Model double feature (see below); Vigilante Force (redneck action pic, the only film in history to feature Kris Kristofferson firing a bazooka while dressed in a marching band uniform); Dixie Dynamite (the great Warren Oates is wasted in this PG-rated "cars and ho's" movie; Morgan "The Man With No Eyes" Woodward narrates the trailer); Fighting Mad (Peter Fonda eco-warrior/revenge vehicle directed by Jonathan Demme; both teaser and full trailer are included); Welcome Home, Brother Charles (aka Soul Vengeance, the notorious blaxploitation film about a black man who can strangle people with his monster snake-like schlong); Shantytown Honeymoon (see below); The House Of Missing Girls (European sexploitation thriller, apparently more tease than titillation); Sins Of The Daughter (see below); School Girl Bride (Eurotrash sex film with some barely legal-looking actresses); Josie's Castle ('60s Free Love, exploitation style; blink and you'll miss George "Sulu" Takei as a hippy); Chatterbox (the painfully dumb 'talking vagina' movie); Blood Spattered Bride/I Dismember Mama double feature (the famous trailer consisting of fake, supposedly funny TV news interviews with patrons exiting the theater); Carnivorous (one of Ruggero Deodato's cannibal flicks, better known as Jungle Holocaust); The Food Of The Gods (giant monster movie auteur Bert I. Gordon has H.G. Wells spinning in his grave); Bizarre (aka Secrets Of Sex, a strange-looking hodgepodge of sex and mummies); The Devil's Rain (I'm melting! I'm melting!); Black Christmas (Bob Clark's giallo-like thriller); The Legend Of Boggy Creek (a surprise hit, I actually saw this Arkansas-filmed version of Bigfoot in the theater when I was 10); The Creature With The Blue Hand (sounds like a sci-fi title, but is really a Klaus Kinski krimi; out on DVD as The Bloody Dead); Mark Of The Witch (apparently a well-regarded low budget indie whose trailer makes it look naughtier than the GP rating would permit); Mark Of The Devil Part 2 (cadaverous Reggie Nalder torturing people again in this sequel to the popular original); Virgin Witch (see below); Women And Bloody Terror/Night Of Bloody Horror double feature (a pair of wretched, Z-grade '60s serial killer flicks); Revenge Of The Blood Beast (aka The She-Beast, with Barbara Steele and Ian Ogilvy); Wonder Women (see below); Savage Sisters (a made-in-the-Phillipines Women In Prison pic); and finally, Pier Paolo Passolini's deservedly infamous Salo (aka 120 Days Of Sodom). Now for those notes...     The Crippled Masters (1982): A weird Hong Kong martial arts flick featuring two handicapped heroes — one with no arms (he's got a deformed, claw-like appendage protruding from a shoulder, however), the other with useless, withered legs. In the movie Armless Guy has his limbs chopped off with a sword while Legless Guy's are destroyed with acid, both by the same sadistic villain. Naturally they team up to kill the bastard, but to take him on they must first learn a unique, cooperative kung fu fighting style. Not exactly politically correct, it's the freak show appeal that's undeniably the main draw here... Real handicapped actors were cast in the title roles (and they do some pretty amazing things despite their disabilities). I still can't believe this was run on the TNT basic cable channel some 7 or 8 years ago. A cheap DVD version is available but reportedly uses a beat up Pan & Scan print; definitely needs a widescreen release.     Invitation To Ruin (1968): Talk about sleazy... This flick looks scuzzier than a grindhouse theater floor! Something about a gangster who kidnaps women for his white slavery ring. The captives are chained in a medieval dungeon made out of cardboard, where they're injected with heroin and tortured by Momma Lupa, a fat-assed battleaxe in a multi-colored muu muu. You'll either gasp in horror or bust a gut laughing when Momma Lupa begins to undress. (She's a sadistic lesbian, of course.) Some of the other ladies are bodaciously hot, though.     Hooker's Revenge/Photographer's Model: The first film on this double bill is much better known as Thriller: A Cruel Picture or They Call Her One Eye, the notorious 1974 Swedish rape/revenge/action flick that inspired elements of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill saga. I'm really looking forward to the upcoming uncut Region 1 DVD release of this by Synapse in September. The second feature is an edited version of the British shocker House Of Whipcord (also 1974); the trailer excises any mention of its 'women held captive' plot.     Shantytown Honeymoon (aka Honey Britches, 1971): Backwoods sexploitation concerned with horny Southern harlots, moonshine, and murder. I don't know if I'd actually want to see the movie itself (doubtful), but the preview is a real jawdropper — it's got to be one of the most disjointed, spoiler-laden trailers I've ever seen. The rather prolix narrator continues to plow forward even though what he's saying no longer matches the on-screen clips; his pitch consists of hilariously over-inflated BS. ("A film of such sensuous magnitude... with dialog of such candor... that it has been purposefully deleted from this Previews of Coming Attractions announcement.")     Sins Of The Daughter (aka Like Mother Like Daughter, 1968): This one looks deliriously awful. Boozy rich broad loses a "bought and paid for" kept man (Sebastian Gregory) to her bohemian college-age daughter and doesn't take the rejection lightly. ("She'll wash my feet the rest of her life," Tony the Gigolo unwisely boasts of daughter Kim, at which point Mom reaches for a .45 automatic.) If the wildly overwrought acting weren't funny enough, you should see homely, middle-aged Gregory being passed off as a studmuffin. ("You don't have a monopoly on my services!") The narration is simply ludicrous; it even tries to compare the film to the works of Hitchcock! Had Mystery Science Theater 3000 ever riffed on sex flicks this one would've made a prime candidate.     Virgin Witch: A British satanic cult thriller from 1972, when such fare was a staple of the exploitation scene. Doesn't appear to be anything special but the presence of sexy brunette sisters Ann and Vicki Michelle — who get naked a lot, apparently — puts this one on my Must See List. Where's the DVD, damn it?     Wonder Women (1973): Nancy Kwan is a Dr.No-like supervillain bent on world domination with her army of foxy female commandos. B-movie vet Ross Hagen (who also narrates the trailer) stars as the swingin' insurance investigator who penetrates an island fortress to thwart her evil plan. This goofy action pic, shot in the Philippines (yes, Vic Diaz is in it), would seem to offer a cheesy good time. Would love to see it!

The most impressive thing about this compilation DVD is just how good some of the trailers look and sound. Of course some are in better shape than others — there's no escaping dirt, print damage, missing frames, etc. — but in general one doesn't often see 30 and 40-year old previews in such condition. All are English language except for Salo (in German with no subtitles), while Crippled Masters has burned-in French and German subs (which reveal the film's title in those countries to be Kung Fu Monsters). Each individual trailer can be selected from the contents menu or you can simply hit Play All. Extras in the form of press book excerpts, lobby cards, and other promotional paraphernalia are included, as well as a preview of Ban 1's upcoming Worldwide Trash DVD. An Easter Egg on the main menu screen can be opened by clicking on the eye of the giant rat.     Limited to a pressing of only 1500 copies, 42nd Street Forever! Volume 1 is available exclusively from the Ban 1 Productions website. If you dig grindhouse/drive-in trailers as much as I do you may find it worth checking out. 8/02/04

UPDATE This disc went OOP in late 2004; it is only available via Amazon Third Party sellers and on eBay, currently fetching $100 and up. Another edition, featuring mostly different trailers, was issued by Synapse in November 2005. Some of the films discussed above have subsequently been released on DVD. (Synapse has since continued the series, releasing Vols. 2 and 3.)

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