Return To Milligan's Island, Part 2

Richard Romanus of MEAN STREETS in THE GHASTLY ONES, an early role.

Continuing my coverage of various attractions included in Severin Films' new DUNGEON OF ANDY MILLIGAN COLLECTION box set...

THE GHASTLY ONES (1968, 71m 52s) is probably Milligan's best-known feature. Its familiar spend-the-night-in-the-house-of-horrors-to-win-your-inheritance plot bears a close resemblance to Del Tenney's earlier film THE CURSE OF THE LIVING CORPSE (1965), and Milligan would later remake this material as LEGEND OF BLOOD (1973), included in this set along with its better-circulated TV version, LEGEND OF HORROR. It's not noted in any of the commentaries but there exists a genuine connection between Del Tenney and Andy Milligan, one which became evident a few years ago when Vinegar Syndrome brought the formerly elusive film THE ORGY AT LIL’S PLACE (1963) Milligan's producer during this period, distributor William Mishkin, was long known to have both produced and distributed ORGY, but not until the film resurfaced could its male lead "Bob Lyon" be properly identified as that film's assistant director, Del Tenney. Considering that CURSE OF THE LIVING CORPSE was in release by April 1964, Tenney would have had a ready script during ORGY's production and would in all likelihood pitched it to Mishkin, at least as a co-investment opportunity. Mishkin isn't known to have come aboard that project, and if he didn't it would surely have incensed him when Tenney succeeded in producing the film independently in Connecticut and selling it to 20th Century Fox as half of a pre-made double bill (with Tenney's HORRO OF PARTY BEACH). If Mishkin was in possession of that script, which seems to me not only possible but likely, he could have shown it to Milligan as an example of the kind of exploitation film he should be making, something cheaply made that was picked up by a major. Something changed the direction of Milligan's career and the evidence suggests the smoking gun may have been Tenney's surprise hit.

Tenney's handling of the same basic idea is best, but THE GHASTLY ONES has an outré appeal all its own. It has all the eccentricities of Milligan's work - a cast of loathsome self-obsessed characters, limited and familiar locations, preening performances, absurd wardrobe courtesy of Raffiné (Andy's costumier alter ego), the prop severed hand and pitchfork with the missing prong - and it was notably his first film shot in color. A few of Milligan's early superstars are here in key roles: Maggie Rogers as the hatchet-faced caretaker, Hal Borske as a hunchbacked idiot servant who serves as red herring, Neil Flanagan as the psoriatic family lawyer (who wears a woolen scarf like a babushka, fingerless gloves, has a riot of untamed nostril hair and looks at least 100 years old), and Anne Linden as the greediest of the family scum ("I want MORE than I deserve!"). It's modestly stylized within its very low means, and the more you know about Milligan's work and the places where he filmed, the more fun it is.

Severin's presentation is a 2K restoration from a surviving 35mm release print which has some intermittent scratching (which adds authenticity, if you ask me) but looks sharper than ever. The accompanying interviews with Sam Sherman (who designed the best and wildest of the Mishkin film campaigns) and Natalie Rogers (a cast member from KISS ME! KISS ME! KISS ME!) are interesting and informative side visits that never veer off topic or overstay their welcome, though Sherman seizes every opportunity to poke unkindly fun at Milligan's work ("I called it THE GHASTLY ONES because there were ones and they were ghastly!" The disc also preserves the British title sequence from BLOOD RITES, the UK "Video Nasty" release of THE GHASTLY ONES. 

The set as a whole obviously made a point of pursuing every extant audio commentary previously out there, while including a modicum of new material, so that the buyer could comfortably dispose of the earlier releases without losing anything. THE GHASTLY ONES is accompanied by three optional commentaries: the Something Weird Video commentary with actor Hal Borske (RIP) and director-fan Frank Henenlotter, a new commentary by CineFear.com's Keith Crocker, and Fred Olen Ray's 20m commentary from Retro Media Entertainment's THE ANDY MILLIGAN GRINDHOUSE EXPERIENCE TRIPLE FEATURE DVD.

The three commentaries cover a variety of experience, with Borske viewing them as an active participant and dogsbody, Crocker as an early Milligan historian for his publication THE EXPLOITATION JOURNAL (in 1987, he authored "Andy Milligan: Staten Island's King of Crap"), and Ray offering not only an account of seeing this film at the drive-in but some valuable insight as a filmmaker into what it's like to handle and operate an Auricon 16mm newsreel camera. Ray himself used an Auricon to make his first feature, THE BRAIN LEECHES (1978), and explains how the camera offered no direct view through its lens thus making it impossible to compose with any accuracy; he also mentions how heavy they are. Taken together, these two facts help explain why Milligan's films look the way they do compositionally and why he might have become impatient with his cast and why so many barely acceptable shots made it into the final release prints. Ray is the most skilled speaker of the three but, as with Sam Sherman, he can't resist denigrating the work while he's talking about it and comes off as somewhat mean about it. Alternately, the Borske interview is hilariously profane and candid, as well as honestly informative. Keith Crocker's presentation is very down-to-earth, also very emphatic, very bombastic and packed with a brash, unpretentious personality that you may or may not find engaging; however, if you stick with it, you’ll find that he genuinely appreciates the films and is pretty knowledgeable about them, the exploitation film business in general, as well as the various people involved. He laughs at the wardrobe and the wallpaper, but he also makes the valid point that Milligan's color choices were vibrant, complementary, and interesting, and that when a character is wearing tasteless clothes it usually says something about that character. Speaking as a fellow low budget filmmaker, he also speculates that Milligan likely pocketed half of every budget. 

Also included on the GHASTLY ONES disc is an enjoyably sleazy trailer for the lost DEPRAVED! (reportedly 1967, 1m 54s), which shows a number of characters supposedly losing their inhibitions at an LSD party and revealing their basest selves to one another. It features some actors in common with THE GHASTLY ONES (notably Ann Linden and Carol Vogel), playing earlier incarnations of the same archetypes at a wild, dangerous party that probably performed the same dramatic blow-out function as the murders in the later film.

 

Frederick Forrest and Jacque Lynn Colton.

The most exciting bonus on this disc is a recovered 35mm reel from the otherwise lost THE FILTHY FIVE, made in 1968. The reel, which has some intermittent jitter early on, reveals the film as a "dark side of show business" roughie, well-acted and suggesting the sort of Michael Findlay sickie Andy Warhol might have made. In fact Warhol, as well as playwright Tom O'Horgan (HAIR, FUTZ), praised THE FILTHY FIVE at the time as one of the best films of 1968. This excerpt runs 20m 28s, which is a substantial chunk of the film. The original press book lists a running time of 96m, possibly somewhat inflated, but we can assume this recovered footage represents at least one-fifth of the film's overall length. 

The opening scene shows rising boxer and would-be actor Johnny Longo (Frederick Forrest, originally credited on the film as "Matt Garth") and Rose (Jacque Lynn Colton) having a tryst in the same bedroom with garish black-and-white wallpaper used by Anne Linden and her husband in THE GHASTLY ONES. After they make love, Johnny struts around in his BVDs, humiliating Rose, but she keeps coming back for more. The ringing of the telephone interrupts their volatile interplay; the call is for Johnny, who Rose initially says is not there. Johnny takes the call and dresses to walk out on Rose, who tries to prevent his going. "Are you threatening me?" he says. "Now listen, baby! You may be able to blackmail Walter and wrap Sidney around your finger as you please. But you don't have me under your thumb! Don't forget that!" Forrest has surprising presence and authority in this scene, and with the bellowing of the two characters enhanced here by German dubbing, the scene bears a curious and surprising resemblance to Fassbinder's earliest work - made just a year or so before.

The reel then cuts to Anne Linden's actress character Rita Roman taking a bath, having a heart-to-heart with her personal assistant Allison (Maha), who's been soaping her. Rita is excited about a new role she's been offered, but the two of them are surprised by the uninvited arrival of a sleazy drug connection known as Freak-Out (Larry Rae), whose face is obscured by sunglasses and a sporty straw hat. Allison instructs Freak-Out to slip a drug into the drink of a girl guest whom Rita is expecting to arrive shortly. Freak-Out is game: "You know, I haven't had this much fun since I was raped by two sailors in a taxi!" The younger girl who arrives is probably the one identified as "Teeny Bopper" in the IMDb credits, played by dark-featured, zaftig actress working under the name Magie Dominic; here she is identified as Laura. When the two are left alone, Laura expresses dazzlement at being alone with an actress and, after a brief conversation about Laura's prior sexual experience, the two start making out. Laura suddenly pleads nausea and passes out, at which point Allison and Freak-Out enter the room, supposedly to "kill" her though they first strip down and produce a hypodermic syringe before the scene fades to black. Freak-Out's constant neurotic giggling, given extra emphasis on the dub track, immediately makes him a classic among Milligan's known characters. 

Larry Rae and Maha as Freak-Out and Allison.

Anne Linden and Magie Dominic.

The characters are next shown seated around a dinner table in fancy dress as a plate of chicken is being passed around. As always with Milligan films, the centerpiece on the dinner table is absurdly oversized, making it impossible for the guests to see one another. Johnny, who apparently rooms on the uppermost floor of Rita's home, and his manager Barney (Nick Orzel) are looking forward to the party Rita will be hosting the next evening. (Wait - this fancy dress affair isn't it?) Barney is also confident that Johnny will win his upcoming fight with Tiger. The whispering between Allison and Rita annoys Johnny, who correctly assumes they are gossiping about him. He insults Allison, who storms out of the room, then he calls Rita a lesbian and throws a drink down the front of her dress. As Johnny marches upstairs, Barney pursues him to the floor with the crosshatched wallpaper seen in other Milligan films. Johnny resolves to return to New York soon and heads off to bed, as does Rita after Allison wipes her down. As soon as she's alone, Allison dials Johnny's agent Sidney Hart and tells him that Rita and Johnny are at each other's throats as planned. 

The next scene finds Johnny knocking at the door of Brenda Case (Mary Carter), Sidney Hart's receptionist, with whom he was previously involved in a failed relationship.  Johnny lets his defenses down and confides in Brenda that he's thinking about dropping out of his pending movie contract. Brenda advises against it and Johnny explains that, whatever happens, he needs her by his side. He asks for a hug and Brenda pleads with him to, this time, be tender. As they embrace and kiss, the scene fades to black. Faintly audible on a radio in the background throughout this scene is Cream's song "Badge," recorded in October 1968 and not released until February-March 1969, which would disqualify the IMDb's description of the film as a 1968 release.

Frederick Forrest and Mary Carter.

Fade in on an office where Brenda works, now seen in a trendy sleeveless dress and dark-rimmed glasses. She announces Billy Delavanti (Mark Jenkins) and Miss White (who turns out to be Rose) to her boss, Sidney White (frequent Milligan actor Gerald Jacuzzo). Sidney expresses enthusiasm over Billy's screen test and invites the two of them to sit down. End of reel.

Mark Jenkins shakes hands with Gerald Jacuzzo.

Even in incomplete form, THE FILTHY FIVE is a fairly clear indication that Milligan was aspiring to make a name for himself as a more exploitation-minded alternative to Warhol, playing up his personal discoveries in a way that gave vent to his own flamboyant tastes and imagination while attempting to depict (and therefore create) an alternative New York scene.  What's here is sleazy though not explicit in any way; as with the content of the DEPRAVED trailer, this work seems to stand outside the established sex and horror genres, to have no set genre but nevertheless a very gay point of view - flamboyant, effusive, and dishy. A case could be made that, had Milligan continued making films along these lines, he would have laid claim to the cult niche that the Midnight Movies of John Waters later made their own. Unfortunately the reel offers no glimpse of Hal Borske's or Hope Stansbury's work in the film, but what is here definitely makes the film now seem a more sorrowful loss. 

(c) 2021 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.

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