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| Cover art by Twins of Evil. |
HE CAME FROM THE SWAMP - THE WILLIAM GREFÉ COLLECTION
(1965-2020; Arrow Video)
This handsomely packaged box set proclaims "This Is Horror!" but it's actually a little bit of everything exploitative: it's got monsters, it's got swamp adventures, it's got cautionary tales about drugs and alcohol, it's got rock and country, it's got Rooney Kerwin, it's even got Rita Hayworth on her way down - and I would wager from the looks of it that at least some of it was 16mm blown up to 35. It's all presided over by the dean of Florida movie exploitation, William "Wild Bill" Grefé, whom Herschell Gordon called "a titan" and David F. Friedman (rarely a humble man) called "the best of us." Included here are such drive-in confections as STING OF DEATH (1965) and its original co-feature DEATH CURSE OF TARTU (1966), THE HOOKED GENERATION (1968), THE NAKED ZOO (1970, with Rita Hayworth), THE PSYCHEDELIC PRIEST aka ELECTRIC SHADES OF GREY (made 1971, unreleased until 2001), MAKO: JAWS OF DEATH (1976) and WHISKEY MOUNTAIN (1977), along with a newly "expanded" (now two hours plus) edition of Daniel Griffith's 2016 documentary, THEY CAME FROM THE SWAMP: THE FILMS OF WILLIAM GREFÉ (2020).
A writer-director who got his start with Florida-made racing films like THE CHECKERED FLAG (1963) and RACING FEVER (1964), Grefé was one of the first filmmakers - if not THE first - from the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area to make a grab for the brass ring of national distribution, and the one most likely to be assimilated into the mainstream. While his fellow locals Herschell Gordon Lewis, Doris Wishman, and Brad F. Grinter were dabbling in the outlaw cinemas of gore, nudism, and WTF, Grefé's bottom line was always action, though he wrapped it in many different kinds of genre wrapping paper. His movies aren't always well-acted, but they are all at least competent within their framework and manage to leave most every viewer with one or two scenes worth savoring. As regional exploitation filmmaking goes, in terms of quality and consistency, he's up there with the best of them, short of George A. Romero. He's probably best-known for the second unit shark/stunt work he brought to the James Bond film LIVE AND LET DIE (1973), which was filmed in his general area, but the movies he made himself are humble but winning mixtures of ingredients that shouldn't mix - STING OF DEATH is an old-fashioned monster movie about a Jellyfish man with a Neil Sedaka musical number in it; STANLEY (1972, not included here) is about a Native American who trains rattlesnakes to do his bidding; WHISKEY MOUNTAIN (with Christopher and Lynda Day George) is a dirt-bike adventure inspired by DELIVERANCE.
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| STING OF DEATH. |
Kim Newman reviewed DEATH CURSE OF TARTU and STING OF DEATH in detail back in VW 158. STING OF DEATH was made first, with DEATH CURSE necessitated by having to fill out a drive-in double bill for a guaranteed opening, and it plays the better of two. There are certainly later examples of men-in-suit monster pictures like OCTAMAN (1971) and SLITHIS (1978), but STING OF DEATH feels like the last-gasp of a certain kind of innocence in such a picture, replete with a silly monster, corny mock-science dialogue, and a pool party sequence with lots of attention paid to shaking bottoms in tight Capri pants and bikinis. It's also shot with a lot of bold primary colors and imagination. DEATH CURSE OF TARTU - "a transposition of the 'mummy's curse' formula to the Everglades," as Kim noted - was written at white heat by Grefé himself in a single night, but that urgency doesn't quite come through in its mostly humdrum execution. On the other hand, it does have a pretty great drive-in monster in Tartu, once again played by Hobart, and a brief cameo appearance by future BLOOD FREAK director/narrator Brad F. Grinter.
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| DEATH CURSE OF TARTU. |
Over the weekend, I took a deeper dip into the set. THE HOOKED GENERATION and THE PSYCHEDELIC PRIEST were previously released on DVD by Something Weird Video/Image Entertainment in 2012, with audio commentaries by Grefé conducted by Frank Henenlotter; these are also included here. Regardless of the title, this is not at all a generational story, but rather a tale of three surprisingly amiable drug dealers - Daisy (Jeremy Slate), Acid (John Davis Chandler), and Dum Dum (boxer Willie Pastrano) who turn murderous while negotiating a deal with Cuban smugglers, killing not only them but several Coast Guard officers before abducting a couple of witnesses (Steve Alaimo and Traci Lords-lookalike Cece Stone). It's a nesting doll: the drug movie becomes a kidnapping movie becomes a flight into Florida swamp lands not unlike GUN CRAZY. The movie as a whole is not so much, but it is absolutely worth seeing to enjoy Chandler's audacious and outrageous performance as the stupid smack-head so needful of a shot - maybe ten minutes after he last had one - that he actually shoots up while crawling on the deck of a bot dodging a hail of bullets! Slate is memorable in his own way and its the oddball charisma of these two GUNSMOKE veterans and the suddenly-wide-awake feel of its action sequences that carries an otherwise flimsy picture. Fun note: briefly featured in this 1968 picture is a rock band calling themselves The Bangles.
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| Jeremy Slate, Willie Pestrano and John Davis Chandler in THE HOOKED GENERATION. |
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| Acid looking at acid. |
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| John Darrell turns on and drops out in THE PSYCHEDELIC PRIEST. |
THE PSYCHEDELIC PRIEST (made during a period when Grefé held an executive position at Ivan Tors Productions) doesn't carry Grefé's name other than his sole Director of Photography credit. The direction is credited to producer Stewart Miller, who directed one day before a nervous breakdown forced him to concede responsibility to his cameraman and technical advisor. Grefé introduces the film by explaining that he was tricked into making without a script, so it had to be almost entirely improvised - but he took the responsibility seriously and didn't throw the opportunity away. It starts with a simple premise: a holier-than-thou young priest, Father John (John Darrell), lectures a group of hooky-playing high schoolers, who thank him with paper cup of Coca-Cola laced with LSD. (Surprisingly, no one taunts him with "Are you sleeping, Father John?" as his shattered mind is rudely awakened.) He trips out, drops out of his church, and hits the road to "get his head together." Another Russian doll: Sanctimonious religious instruction becomes drug movie becomes road movie becomes EASY RIDER rip-off! Our humbled protagonist (wearing a bad wig and scruffy beard) sets out in his square sedan toward hippie mecca California, meets and shares and parts ways with various fellow young people along the way, and is given good reason to realize that it's America itself that's screwed-up rather than our Father John Quixote. It's crude, it doesn't make its points with much restraint or taste, and it's technically not very well made (the sound is on the raspy side), yet I've found myself haunted by it. Grefé won my respect for having turned a fool's errand into something that I believe might have offered a helping hand to certain confused members of his audience back in the day, had this film seen the light of day in its time. In 1971, there were lots of people in the midwest and southern drive-in crowds who wouldn't have been caught dead seeing EASY RIDER, and if they were tricked into seeing this by going to see THE HOOKED GENERATION, they might have seen reflections of their own parents, their own country, their own despair here. So, while I can't really say I admire the filmmaking here, I got caught up in it despite myself and am still thinking about it a couple of days later. Worth checking out, and both HOOKED GENERATION and PSYCHEDELIC PRIEST are the subjects of two on-camera interviews with film historian Chris Poggiali.
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| Rita Hayworth and Stephen Oliver in THE NAKED ZOO. |
The Daniel Griffith documentary shares the WHISKEY MOUNTAIN disc in this set, and includes talking head commentary from a number of his better-known colleagues and cast/crew people, including H.G. Lewis, Dave Friedman, actor/singer Steve Alaimo, and Florida-based monster maker Doug Hobart. For those who might be disappointed that HE CAME FROM THE SWAMP falls short of definitive by not including some of Grefé's most popular titles - STANLEY (1972) and IMPULSE (1974) - the documentary covers these in detail, as well as the once-lost THE DEVIL SISTERS (1966), his WILD ANGELS riff THE WILD REBELS (1967), the appallingly racist and unfunny Mickey Rooney-produced "comedy" THE GODMOTHERS (1973), and a good deal more. Highlights of the program include footage from Grefé's first (unfinished) film project, clips from industrial films, and some outstanding behind-the-scenes footage - especially a near-death experience for Harold "Oddjob" Sakata during the production of IMPULSE. To be found among the extras are five interesting outtakes from the final assemblage. The only thing I found at all lacking about the docu is a fuller accounting of the 1965 Del Tenney film ZOMBIES, for which Grefé served as second-unit director, which went unreleased until it was retitled I EAT YOUR SKIN for Cinemation's 1971 double-bill with David Durston's I DRINK YOUR BLOOD.
I haven't yet seen THE NAKED ZOO, but it is presented in the original director's cut and also a "not-director-approved" Barry Mahon recut, which reportedly features nude inserts. Fay Spain also appears, as do HOOKED GENERATION vets Steve Alaimo, Willie Pestrano, and an actual name band: Canned Heat.
The box copy informs us that all seven films have been newly restored from the best surviving elements, with original uncompressed mono audio. This is not always an endorsement; the sight and sound of these films are not their strongest calling cards. I'm not sure if any of these films was shot in 16mm and blown up to 35mm, but it wouldn't surprise me as they are frequently grainy or diffuse-looking, and the audio is sometimes harsh with not all dialogue quite coming across. (The optional subtitles on all films is a help for those who need the extra help.) WHISKEY MOUNTAIN is particularly surprising in this regard; it looks like a movie from the 1970s in every way, it's attractively lensed - the set demonstrates the solid learning curve of Grefé's frequent cameraman Julio C. Chavez - but the presentation here doesn't appear to have come anywhere near its camera negative or an interpositive. This also leads to projector wear on some of the sources, but apparently it can't be helped.
If a set as generous as this - laden with commentaries, trailers, alternate cuts, industrial films, stills galleries, and director introductions - can leave us wanting more, it's really quite a commendation. Arrow's packaging of these seven films (and variants) covers four BD discs, and there's also a hardcover booklet containing an illustrated text interview with Grefé and a two-sided reversible poster.
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