JACKSON COUNTY JAIL & CAGED HEAT

For this weekend's entertainment, I watched the Shout Factory's Roger Corman's Cult Classics Double Feature DVD of 1976's Jackson County Jail and 1974's Caged Heat.

This DVD has a cool feature called "The Grindhouse Experience" that allows you to watch both films back to back with period bumpers and trailers of other exploitation films.

JACKSON COUNTY JAIL

Advertising executive Dinah Hunter(Yvette Mimieux) leaves a promising career in Los Angeles to start a new life in New York City.  She heads east on a long cross-country drive that becomes a nightmare after she picks up some hitchhikers and finds herself beaten up and stranded in a small town, then is thrown in the jailhouse on vagrancy charges.  Dinah finds herself at the mercy of some bad cops, but she finds a way to escape with another prisoner, Coley Blake (Tommy Lee Jones).  Now the two embark on a wild car chase with the police . . . Also starring Robert Carradine, Howard Hesseman and Mary Woronov.

Everything that can go wrong does go wrong for poor Dinah.  She is the victim of male chauvinism at her job, then comes home and finds that her boyfriend, played by WKRP's Howard Hesseman is running around on her.  She quits her job and calls up and old friend in New York who's happy to hire her.  She never makes it.  Dinah makes the mistake of driving across the country in her yellow AMC Pacer (remember those!).  Dinah should have dumped the crappy car in L.A. and taken the airplane but she wants to see the country.  She sees a lot more of it than she intends to.  

Feeling sorry for a young couple she picks up a couple of hitchhikers who steal her car and her purse. Unfortunately for Dinah, she's now lost in Deliverance country.  The owner of the roadside bar she goes into expects to get more than a handshake to let Dinah use the phone.  When Dinah isn't willing, his buddy the Deputy Sheriff locks Dinah up because she doesn't have I.D.   

I don't know what kind of jail this is, but they've got men and women in cells side by side with open bars.  Dinah is in a cell next to a young Tommy Lee Jones who puts in a stellar performance.  The night jailer decides that he might as well take advantage of a locked up woman and proceeds to help himself.  Yvette Mimieux does a great job of acting the part of a rape victim.  After being raped, Dinah picks up a stool and beats the jailer to death.  (What kind of jail is this, where they have a wooden stool that can be easily turned into a deadly weapon sitting around in jail cells?)

Tommy Lee Jones gets the keys and lets them out and the chase is on.  All of this leads to the climactic final shoot out with the cops where Tommy Lee is killed and Dinah is returned to jail to, presumably, face murder charges.  (There was a made for TV sequel to this called Outside Chance that picked up where this movie left off and was the Women In Prison movie after Dinah's conviction.).

The DVD features an audio commentary by Director Michael Miller, Producer Jeff Begun and Director of Photography Bruce Logan.

CAGED HEAT

Thrown into the penal hell of Connorville, petty criminal Jacqueline (Erica Gavin) must fight against the ruthless inmates, a cruel warden (Barbara Steele) and her depraved staff.  Eventually she forms an uneasy friendship with two hardened inmates.  When these three unite, they find themselves on a sexy and violent adventure seeking escape, money and revenge.  Also starring Roberta Collins and Rainbeaux Smith.  Written and directed by Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs).

Connerville Prison for Women is apparently run by the same people who run all those women's prison's in the Phillipines that Pam Grier served so much time in.  There's the sadistic crippled and sexually frustrated warden and her very butch second in command and girlfriend.  There's the prison doctor who likes to give electric shock therapy to the girls and to give the good looking one's a lobotomy so they will just lie there while he takes what he wants.

The inmates at Connorville are very clean.  They take lots and lots of showers.  In order to save money, the inmates don't wear uniforms they are allowed to wear their street clothes (halter tops, hot pants and mini-skirts!).  And the female guards wear skirts above the knee and high heels.  This must be scientific penology!  

Three of the girls manage to get away and score big when they rob a group of bank robbers!  But they're not finished - they want revenge on Connorville!  They break back into prison and shoot it out with the guards.  It's so exciting the crowds at the drive in probably took a break from making out to actually watch the movie!

The DVD features an audio commentary with Writer/Director Jonathan Demme who later directed Silence of the Lambs, Director of Photography Tak Fujimoto and Actress Erica Gavin.

There is also a Leonard Maltin interview with Roger Corman about both films. This was a great DVD for a lazy weekend.  Five Stars. 

TWINS OF EVIL (1971)

I have gotten very behind on my blogging lately.  In celebration of Halloween, I watched this Hammer  Horror classic.

Twins of Evil starred as the main attraction former Playboy centerfolds and twin sisters Mary and Madeline Collinson.  Like any good Hammer Production it also starred Peter Cushing.

This film is the third movie in the Karnstein Trilogy, a series of Hammer movies based on the vampire story Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu.  The Maltese born Collinson twins spoke English with a heavy Maltese accent and had their voices dubbed on the soundtrack by other actresses.  Of course, the Collinson twins were just in the movie to be eye candy to begin with so nobody minded too much that it wasn't them speaking.

Witch Finder In Chief, Uncle Gustav (Peter Cushing)

The Collison twins play twin sisters Maria and Frieda who have recently been orphaned and are shipped off to live with their aunt and uncle in a remote German village.  Unfortunately for them, their uncle Gustav (Peter Cushing) is the local whacked out fundamentalist witch hunter.  (Exactly why a bunch of English Puritans are running around in a Catholic region of Germany is never explained).    Uncle Gustav and his homies like to grab up local women who are rumored to be witches and then burn them at the stake in the middle of the night.  (Well, everybody needs a hobby).

Count Karnstein seduces Frieda

The local hedonistic Satan worshiper is Count Karnstein (Damien Thomas) who lives in the appropriate creepy castle that sits on the mountain overlooking the town.  Count Karnstein gets bored with the usual boring Black Mass and goes all the way and performs a human sacrifice on a peasant girl.  The dripping blood from the altar falls on the grave of Countess Mircalla Karnstein and brings at least her spirit back from the grave.  The Countess (Katya Wyeth) appears and turns her great great great great grandson Count Karnstein into a vampire (which is apparently the family business).

Danien Thomas and Mary and Madeline Collinson share a lighter moment on the set.

Maria (Mary Collinson) is the goody two shoes sister and Frieda (Madeline Collinson) is the wild child.  Maria want to stay home, mind Uncle Gustav, say her prayers and to bed early.   Frieda on the other hand has had enough of Uncle and wants to go party with Count Karnstein.  Frieda sneaks out of the house and goes up to Karnstein castle, where, surprise, surprise, the Count puts the bite on her and turns her into his vampire girlfriend.

Meanwhile, Maria has fallen for the freethinking schoolteacher, Anton.  Uncle Gustav has already threatened Anton that he better keep his atheist opinions to himself and stay away from his nieces. After his own sister gets attacked by a vampire, however, Anton becomes a believer.  Frieda is captured by Uncle Gustav and the Brotherhood.  While they talk about how they are going to put her death (there's a lot of interesting discussion here about how to kill vampires - burning don't work, you got to either cut off their heads or stake 'em through the heart), the Count kidnaps Maria and replaces Frieda in jail.  Just in the nick of time Anton is able to convince Gustav and the Brotherhood that they got the wrong twin.  Now everybody grabs a pitchfork and runs off to storm Karnstein Castle.   Uncle Gustav catches Frieda and beheads her.  In the final confrontation, Count Gustav is killed by the Count but Anton comes to the rescue and gets the Count in the heart with a spear.  Now Anton and Maria can live happily ever after together.

This is a fun classic Hammer Horror movie with a lot of pretty girls running around not wearing much.  With sex, Puritan religious fanatics and vampires how can you go wrong?  Five out of Five Vampire Bats.

HITLER! (1962)

It was a guilty pleasure to watch this hammy old movie about the personal life of Der Fuhrer.  It was a lot of fun watching Richard Basehart walk around chewing the scenery playing old Adolf.  Watching John Banner, famous for his role as Sgt. Shultz in Hogan's Heroes, seriously play a Nazi was also fun.  (John Banner was an Austrian Jew who's family was killed in the Holocaust and escaped from Europe just in time).

The film presents gossip about Hitler's sex life as fact.  It depicts Hitler as having had an incestuous relationship with his mother and being impotent.  He is fascinated by his niece, Geli Rabaul, because of her resemblance to his mother, but is unable to consummate the relationship due to his impotence.  When Geli tries to leave him, Hitler has her killed.  Hitler's sex life is saved by the sexy young photographer, Eva Braun, who helps Der Fuhrer to overcome his problems.  Fortunately, after Eva turns out the light and gets naked, Der Fuhrer is able to rise to the occasion.  Poor Eva, finds out too late, after she has agreed to commit suicide with Hitler, that even though Hitler married her, there can only ever be one Mrs. Hitler, and that was Mama.

This enjoyable exploitation movie is worth watching at least once.  It's got its moments.  The film's depiction of the so-called "Night of the Long Knives" when Hitler got rid of Ernst Rohm and the Brown Shirts, is actually fairly accurately portrayed and is worth the price of admission.

The Bad Catholic gives this old sleazy exploitation movie Three and a half out of Five Swastikas.

Richard Basehart taking a break on the set.

For his crimes he was sentenced to a long "Voyage To the Bottom of the Sea"

Vivien Leigh: A Biography

What can I say: I'm a fan.  I'm a big enough fan of Vivien Leigh to read a 36 year old biography of her.  Vivien Leigh: A Biography (1979) by Anne Edwards was an enjoyable read about the actress.

Vivian Mary Hartley was a troubled soul.  Born in 1913 to a British businessman in India and his staunchly Catholic wife, Vivian was packed off to a Catholic boarding school in England at a young age while her parents continued to live in India.  In 1932 she married Leigh Holman, a barrister.  The next year, in 1933, Vivian gave birth to a daughter, Suzanne.

Enjoying a smoke on the set of "Gone With the Wind"

Although her husband largely disapproved, Vivian began pursuing a career as an actress.  On the advice of an agent she changed her name to "Vivien Leigh," I guess because it read and sounded more sexy than "Vivian Holman."

Vivien Leigh in "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" (1961)

The author, Ms. Edwards gives us a lot of facts, but she also gives us a lot of gossip.  And there's a lot to gossip about.  Vivien abandoned her husband and small daughter to pursue an affair with Laurence Olivier, who was also a married man with a wife and small child.  Vivien suffered from bi-polar disorder which became progressively worse as she got older.  Now days she could easily be treated with medication, but back then there was nothing but electric shock treatments.  Vivien also developed tuberculosis which eventually killed her in 1967.

She was a great beauty and a great actress.  I greatly enjoyed reading this old gossipy book about her.  Five out of Five stars.

  

Nothing is Written: A Film Blog: Kapo

Nothing is Written: A Film Blog: Kapo

Two Classic Japanese Films

Last night I watched two classic Japanese films which I had rented from Netflix on DVD.

NO REGRETS FOR OUR YOUTH

No Regrets for Our Youth (Waga seishun ni kuinashi) (1946) was written and directed by the great Japanese director Akira Kirosawa.  It was totally remarkable to me that a film of this quality could be made and produced in 1946 in the immediate aftermath of World War II.

The film is based upon a real life incident involving a left wing activist who passed secrets to the Soviet Union and was executed for treason.  

Professor Yagihara, his daughter Yukie, and student Noge

As the film opens in 1933, Professor Yagihara has been fired from his position by the government for opposing the fascist militarist government of Japan.  The professor's students at Kyoto University protest his firing until they are suppressed by the police.  The professor's daughter Yukie (Setsuko Hara) falls in love with Noge, her father's best student.  Noge (Susumu Fujita) refuses to back down and continues to protest for academic freedom.  Noge is arrested by the police and serves time in prison.

Another of Yagihara's students, Itokawa (Akitake Kono), is also attracted to Yukie.  Itokawa abandons his anti-fascist activism and becomes a prosecuting attorney for the fascist government.  Itokawa secures Noge's release from prison and brings Noge to Professor Yagihara's house to show Yukie that Noge is a beaten man who is now conforming to what is expected of him by the government.  Yukie is extremely disillusioned and leaves home and moves to Tokyo on her own to find herself.

In Tokyo, Yukie takes a series of menial jobs to support herself.  One day, she runs into Itokawa who tells her that Noge is working in a government office in Tokyo.  Yukie goes to Noge's office but runs out before seeing Noge.  Day after day, Yukie goes and stands in front of Noge's office building.  One day, Noge comes out of the building while Yukie is standing in front of the doors.

Yukie and Noge enjoy what little time for happiness they have as a couple

and pledge that they have "No regrets."

Noge tells Yukie that he is secretly working against the government and that it is probably only a matter of time before he will be arrested.  Yukie marries Noge and is determined to be as happy as they can in whatever time they have left.  One day, Noge is arrested.  Yukie has just prepared a romantic dinner for Noge.  Instead of Noge, however, Itokawa and the police raid the apartment and arrest Yukie.

Yukie serves time in prison as the wife a traitor

Yukie is heavily interrogated and mistreated in prison but tells the authorities nothing.  Eventually, Itokawa arranges to have Yukie released to the custody of her parents.  Professor Yagihara volunteers to defend Noge in court but is told that Noge has "accidentally" died in prison.  

Yukie meets Noge's parents

Noge had shown Yukie a photograph of his parents, two poor farmers in a small village.  Noge tells Yukie that he has brought much shame upon his parents by quitting the university and being arrested and serving time in prison.

Yukie (Setsuko Hara) suffers for the sins of the Japanese nation.

After Noge's death, Yukie carries Noge's ashes home to his parents.  Noge's parents are being persecuted by the other villagers because their son is viewed as a spy and a traitor.  Thinking that she is just there to mock them, Noge's parents reject Yukie.   In order to redeem the memory of her husband, Yukie helps Noge's mother do the back breaking work to plant their rice crop.  The other villagers, however, destroy the rice crop during the night.  

The Noge family's rice crop is destroyed by angry villagers

After the war, Professor Yagahara is reinstated, and Noge is revered by the Japanese people for his anti-war activism.  Yukie's mother begs her to stay in Kyoto, but Yukie determines to return to the rice fields and live with the peasants.  She hopes to be a social activist among the farmers and to help the lot of peasant women.  At the end of the film, Yukie is hitch hiking home to Noge's village and is picked up by a farm truck.  As the widow of the now revered Noge, the other villagers on the back of the truck are seen bowing to Yukie.

Akira Kurosawa

I have never seen a bad film which was directed by Kurosawa.  No Regrets for Our Youth is a beautiful film.  Although it is somewhat melodramatic at times, it is, nevertheless powerful and emotionally hard hitting.  The film is well shot and edited and stands head and shoulders right along with his later masterpieces like The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Red Beard and High and Low.  Five out of Five chrysanthemums.

WHEN A WOMAN ASCENDS THE STAIRS

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Onna ga kaidan o noboru toki) (1960) is a drama directed by Mikio Naruse.

Keiko (Hideko Takamine), a young widow, works as a bar girl, entertaining men in the Ginza district of Tokyo.   The other bar girls and the men who patronize the bar refer to Keiko as "Mama."  As Mama is getting older, she dreams of being able to break out of the bar girl lifestyle.  

Mama discovers that there are only two ways out of the bar girl life.  Either find a husband or become the mistress of a wealthy patron who will supply the money to buy her own bar.  Mama has kept herself pure and not gone to bed with any of the bar patrons for the five years that she has been working as a bar girl.  It turns out that when Mama's husband died, she put a letter in the box with his ashes and pledged to never love another man.

Keiko (Hideko Takamine) and Yuri

Keiko's mother and brother are living off of her and constantly demanding money.  Keiko's brother has embezzled money from his former employer and is about to be sent to prison unless he pays it back.  He also has a sick child who needs medical treatment.  Keiko is unable to save any money to break out of the bar girl life because of the financial demands put upon her by her family.  Another bar girl, Yuri, has opened up her own bar and taken away most of Mama's customers.  It turns out that Yuri is mortgaged to the hilt and cannot pay her bills. Yuri tries to fake a suicide attempt to get her creditors to give her more time, but mixes sleeping pills with too much alcohol and it kills her.  Mama is devastated.

Entertaining the Gentlemen

A wealthy married businessman offers to buy Mama her own bar if she will agree to become his mistress.  Mama rejects this offer, which is eventually taken up by a young bar girl whom Keiko has taken under her wing.  Mama is smitten by another man who tells her that he is a factory owner, and proposes marriage to her.  After Keiko accepts, she is called by his real wife who tells her that the man is not only married, but he does not own a factory and is not wealthy.

Keiko mourns the death of her husband

Becoming drunk, Keiko goes out with a wealthy banker who takes advantage of her and forces himself on her at her apartment.  The next morning, he tells Mama that he has been transferred from Tokyo to Osaka and gives her 100,000 yen worth of stock to pay her.  Feeling betrayed, and not wanting to take money for sex, Keiko meets the banker, Fujisaki, at the train station and returns the stock to Fujisaki's wife.  

Keiko and Kamastsu

Keiko's bar manager, Komatsu reveals that he has been in love with Mama for years but never approached her after he found out from the Shinto priest that she had pledged never to love another man.  Devastated that she has broken her pledge and slept with Fujisaki, Komatsu slaps Keiko before proposing marriage and promising to help Keiko run her own bar.  Keiko says that a marriage like that would never last.  After being rejected by Mama, Komatsu quits his job.  The last scene of the movie shows Mama going up the stairs to the bar, pretending to be happy to entertain the men.

This is a well made and well acted drama.  Hideko Takmine has the sort of subdued beauty of an Audrey Hepburn and her acting is natural and convincing.  The Criterion Collection DVD that I watched has an interview with Tatsuya Nakadai, who played Komatsu, and a commentary by film scholar Donald Richie.  Five out of Five bottles of saki.   

Director Mikio Naruse