Don Edmonds dead

[bushwick]

Don't know if this will concern any of you, but I've just found out Don Edmonds, director of the notorious 'Ilsa' sleaze-fests, passed away a few weeks ago:

craneshot.blogspot.com/2009/06/director-don-edmonds-is-gone.html


He didn't direct that much, but will go down in history for the rough and OTT Ilsa movies. 'Harem Keeper of The Oil Sheiks' and 'She-Wolf of the SS' are classics. Look for the unrated versions as the BBFC still wouldn't like a lot of the content.

(There's a Jess Franco semi-addition to the series, 'Ilsa The Wicked Warden' which is a bit dull, and one by another director called 'Ilsa The Tigress Of Siberia', which is good. But the Edmonds ones are the best)

These movies are the epitome of pulp on screen. It's all there - beautiful, statuesque, evil women, harems, torture, square-jawed tough guys, exploding dildoes, racial stereotypes, Nazis, you name it... Some very near-the-knuckle stuff, but handled with a 'Boy's Own', swashbuckling sense of fun that makes it (sort of) palatable. Must be seen to be believed!

[vaughan]

Yeah - the Ilsa films are truly great examples of exploitation cinema. To know them is to love them, and it's sad to hear that another great has left us.

These were Un-PC before there ever was PC, and were all the better for it.

[daemonia]

I was very sad to learn of Don's passing. We kept in touch via email and he was a tremendous fella, full of wit and energy. He had been working on starting a new Ilsa cycle, called Ilana - who was to have been the daughter of Ilsa. It sounded very promising. Cancer is a very cruel and unforgiving disease.

Sad news indeed, he'll be greatly missed and the world is poorer for his passing.

[bushwick]

Cancer is an absolute fucker. Has affected people close to me recently (plus Steven Wells, controversial music journo/novelist of some note, died of it last week).

Didn't know about the Ilana stuff, very interesting. This is all the more tragic as the planets seem to be aligned for old exploitation directors at the mo, thanks to Tarantino partly I guess, and I bet he would have got decent backing to make these films. Do you think anyone will take the reins and carry on with the project?

[vaughan]

You know, I watch a lot of exploitation cinema, and have followed it for many years (if my book collection was anywhere near the size of my DVD collection I'd be a VERY happy man).

Anyway, to be perfectly honest I don't think these films could be made today. They were simply of their time. They also benefited from being shot on film. Today they'd likely be shot digitally, and really the shock of the Ilsa films would be submerged. These films have a reputation, but could that be duplicated in the mass media world we have today? There was something dark, hidden, secret about the films - you had to go out of your way to see them.... now you just go to Amazon.

Most of the exploitation being made at the moment is different. In the Ilsa films (and those like it) there was a campness, and ineptness that gave them humour, even if unintentional much of the time. It's a valve to release the morbid fascination. In modern films this is missing, and the filmmakers tend to take things far too seriously. In other words they tend to simply be mean, nasty, and without entertainment.

In other words, I don't think they could truly revive these films. Maybe they could have gone in another direction, I don't know. In recent years (last 5 years or so) there have been efforts to re-establish the old Cannibal genre, for instance. But it's not working.....

Still - the original films are important to me, and I'm glad to have seen them.

[marksamuels]

Perhaps the last successful attempt at an exploitation film holding to the old values was the late Bruno Mattei's ZOMBIES: THE BEGINNING (2007?). Though not quite up there with his 80s classics ZOMBIE CREEPING FLESH (aka VIRUS/HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD/etc), STRIKE COMMANDO and RATS:NIGHT OF TERROR.

On the other hand I watched Mattei's SS GIRLS and found it woefully dull. Not a patch on ILSA SHE-WOLF.

Mark S.

[bushwick]

Jun 28, 2009 9:24:45 GMT marksamuels said:

Perhaps the last successful attempt at an exploitation film holding to the old values was the late Bruno Mattei's ZOMBIES: THE BEGINNING (2007?). Though not quite up there with his 80s classics ZOMBIE CREEPING FLESH (aka VIRUS/HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD/etc), STRIKE COMMANDO and RATS:NIGHT OF TERROR.

On the other hand I watched Mattei's SS GIRLS and found it woefully dull. Not a patch on ILSA SHE-WOLF.

Mark S.

haha, a man after my own heart! was fascinated when I discovered a few years ago that Mattei was still directing, mainly in the Phillipines in the years before he died. I've seen most of his later films, some of which are OK (Snuff Trap), some of which aren't (Land Of Death...cross between Predator and Cannibal Holocaust!). But Zombies: The Beginning, like you say, is great! Stupid dialogue, gooey effects, good zombies, plot is stolen from Aliens, and I'm sure some of the score is half-inched too? Mattei was a don, true unashamed hack. The amount of stock footage in Zombie Creeping Flesh is shocking. And Strike Commando contains some hilarious scenes courtesy of good ol' Reb Brown!

loads of exploitation guys no longer around...Fulci, Mattei, D'Amato, Don Edmonds, Don Dohler...Lenzi and Deodato haven't made owt for years (although the Can Holocaust remake is still rumoured).

As for the Nazisploitation...it's a hit-and-miss subject! The Beast In Heat is priceless, some of them are a bit dull. I've seen most of the Italian ones but I forget which ones were really good. Deported Women of the SS Special Section? think that one was. Or for a more Japanese flavour on the same subject, the Man Behind The Sun films (which are meant to be very disturbing, they are a bit but I found 'em campy).

Vaughan: very much agreed re: modern exploitation. It's either far too tongue in cheek and 'knowing', like an attempt to CREATE a cult film (which aren't created...they just happen), or it's blacker-than-black unrelenting sadism with no charm. Or sometimes a cross between the two. Sometimes it works ('enjoyed' Gutterballs by Ryan Nicholson, modern take on dumb 80s slasher, ridiculously violent and sick. And for 'bleak', the British movie 'Broken' is great) but a lot of the time it doesn't (August Underground and its ilk can piss off).

I was very impressed by Gator Bait, which I saw the other day. Early 70s swampsploitation, hard-edged and mean but with bits of incongruous humour. You just couldn't make a film like that nowadays without putting ironic inverted commas round everything, if you follow me.

Probably one of the overall best recent exploiters I've seen (and British) is Eden Lake. Well acted and directed, deals with topical 'social problem' but is really pretty prurient, very bleak but it works.

(Sorry, massive derailment, I love these kinda chats though!)

[vaughan]

I just adore Beast in Heat, it transcends exploitation really, doesn't it? It's just a terrific lesson for film students in how NOT to do things. Yet it's so delicious anyway.

Did you see the recent (2007) documentary on Don Dohler?

Blood, Boobs & Beast
www.imdb.com/title/tt1010379/

I have it here somewhere, decent documentary made during the latter part of his life. Nightbeast (Dohler) is a fine piece of work (again for all the wrong reasons). Triple bill it with Night of the Moonbeast and Night of the Demon and you've got a real party going.

I also recently bought a pirate disc of Octoman (it's never had an official release). Good times indeed.

Of course there are various strands of exploitation films - American and Italian being prevalent. Nothing truly beats the Italian strain I suppose, following all the way through giallo's. You can't go wrong really. One of the strengths of these films is that if you spend a lot of time with them, it's actually a jarring shock to go back to mainstream cinema. You watch a few months of these films and then go and watch the latest blockbuster, and it feels shocking to see the polish, the glamour, and the money splashing about on-screen.

And will ANY film ever reach the giddy heights of Fulci's The Beyond?!?

Naziploitation can indeed be dull, but there's something in that boredom. Somehow they managed to take a very simple formula, that requires very little of ill-equipped writers, actors, and filmmakers, yet they fumble it. Which - perversely - I still find worth watching.

Nunploitation is a genre I haven't really got much of, but it also suffers from the boredom thing after a while )based on what I have seen).

Oh well, maybe tonight I'll find time for a dose of Porno Holocaust? ;D

[andydecker]

Most of the exploitation being made at the moment is different. In the Ilsa films (and those like it) there was a campness, and ineptness that gave them humour, even if unintentional much of the time. It's a valve to release the morbid fascination. In modern films this is missing, and the filmmakers tend to take things far too seriously. In other words they tend to simply be mean, nasty, and without entertainment

Beautifully summed up. Couldn´t agree more.

[marksamuels]

Oh no! The Beast in Heat... I had that one but it was just too, well, (1) boring, lots of Italian partisans running around the countryside and (2) just too plain perverse: I mean the rape freak locked up in the cage. When he got it on, something inside me started dying

Oh, another one I should mention (not horror, but pulp) is the laugh riot that is Undefeatable. It's 90s but seems more 80s. Priceless dialogue, woeful acting to die for, and some serious martial arts slo-mo in the final fight scene.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GDNK9803y8

Mark S.

[vaughan]

Mark: I'm not sure what you know about the history of Beast in Heat, but all the partisan footage was stolen from another movie and grafted on to fill out the time - and give us the pretense of a story. So you're getting two films in one. Which is just one more reason to love what it does - all of it badly.

The guy in the cage... yes it's perverse, but that kind of goes with exploitation like Cheese and Onion really. Perversity and exploitation is Mother and Father.

You know, I downloaded (not available on DVD) the movie "Deadly Eyes" the other day. It's purportedly based on Herbert's 'The Rats' - though he apparently hated it. For good reason I guess, there is lots wrong with it. But I had a blast, it's daft, silly, and certainly not frightening, but it held my interest. I guess I just love bad cinema. I have a copy of Dogs here somewhere, not watched it yet though.....

[Craig Herbertson]

but all the partisan footage was stolen from another movie and grafted on to fill out the time - and give us the pretense of a story. So you're getting two films in one. Which is just one more reason to love what it does - all of it badly

Sweet description of all that's best in a movie.

Just watched Corman's Buckets of Blood starring Dick Miller.
It had those touches of Corman's class completely helped by no budget and indifferent actors

[marksamuels]

The guy in the cage... yes it's perverse, but that kind of goes with exploitation like Cheese and Onion really. Perversity and exploitation is Mother and Father.

Whereas this, on the other hand, is pure streaky bacon.



Yor's world, he's the Man
Yor's world, he's the Man

Mark S.

[vaughan]

I have the Yor movie, man that's such a treat! It starts as a caveman epic, complete with ridiculous plastic dinosaur heads, and ends on a spaceship with aliens from another world (whose vast technology is no match for Yor's club.)

[Craig Herbertson]

A superb review of the Yor debacle is here

www.somethingawful.com/d/movie-reviews/movie-review-yor.php?page=3

I normally don't like American reviews but it's a goody.