Hey, weirdos!

Don’t forget that there is still two DVDs of Doris Wishman’s 1960 nudist camp classic Hideout in the Sun (from Pop Cinema’s RetroSeduction Cinema Studio) up for grabs. Can’t live another moment without one? Send yer name and address to sleazegrinder@gmail.com and put “Hideout Contest” in the subject line. Contest ends next week.

PICKS TO CLICK:

I wasn’t sure if there was an actual Pick To Click this week until Ban 1 Productions' Grindhouse Universe dropped into my mailbox. This newcomer outfit has been my favorite source of outrageous exploitation trailers (second only to Something Weird, natch) since their initial release, Horror on 42^nd Street, in 2004. They clearly haven’t lost their touch for assembling top-notch trailer comps, as Grindhouse Universe clearly shows; among the rare and raunchy previews featured in its two-and-a-half hour running time are the rancid ‘60s mondo movies Slave Trade in the World Today, Macabro, and Taboos of the World; ultra-grimy biker trash like Devil Rider and The Road to Hell (with XXX stars Carol Connors and Jack Birch); sick sexploitation like Night After Night After Night and Sexcapade in Mexico (which combines bikers, runaways, underage sex, and violent revenge) and plain old weirdies like The Pack (Joe Don Baker vs. killer dogs), American Fever (Italo-exploitation rip-off of Saturday Night Fever!), and Evil in the Deep (sharks vs. Rosey Grier), as well as dependable staples like Dr. Butcher M.D., Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals, Survive!, and Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster. The commentary track with writer David Hayes, which provides more lame jokes than actual information about the movies, is a throwaway, but for sheer sleaze overload, you can’t beat Grindhouse Universe.

Also worth your ducats this week: the massive Hot Fuzz 3-Disc Collector’s Edition (Universal), which includes just about everything you’d want on Edgar Wright’s poke at American action movie excess – you get four commentaries from various cast members and one from Wright, outtakes, an entire disc of making-of documentaries, and an extended version of “The Fuzzball Rally,” Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s video record of their U.S. promotional tour for the film. If that’s not enough for you, reconsider your priorities.

Bonus pick, if you are fucking crazy:
Aliens Vs. Predator Ultimate Showdown Collector's Set (Fox). Just in time to hype up AVP: Requiem, the new Earth-bound monster mash-up due this Xmas, comes this frankly ridiculous boxset, combining all the Alien and Predator movies (in 2 disc sets, natch), plus the first AVP (unrated, vs. the pussy PG-13 version that played theaters), an exclusive comic book, exclusive Alien and Predator action figures, "locked in combat", with bonus "Alien blood"! and two tickets to AVP Requiem. 15 discs in all. Retails for $169.99. I wish I had $169.00. I mean, I wouldn't spend it on this, but it would be cool to have that kinda scratch at my disposal. - Sleaze

TALES FROM THE VAULTS

Warner Bros. offers up four of their most enjoyable (if not their best) science fiction titles from the ‘70s and early ‘80s – not only do you get the psychedelic-colored dystopia of Logan’s Run (with Michael York, Farrah Fawcett and naked Jenny Agutter), but there’s also Charlton Heston gritting his teeth in a future New York gone berserk for Soylent Green, and Sean Connery playing High Noon on the moons of Jupiter in Peter Hyams’ underrated Outland. Oh, and if you have an HD or blu-ray DVD player, you can dig mo’ Heston in The Omega Man, which was based on the same source material as the upcoming I Am Legend.

Budget outfit Alpha Video has a pair of three-fer discs that offer up classic Saturday afternoon sci-fi; you can choose from Gammera The Invincible (the American version of the giant turtle’s first adventure), Night of the Blood Beast (blood-drinking alien impregnates a male astronaut!) and Attack of the Giant Leeches (Roger Corman swamp thriller with super-hot Yvette Vickers), or Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (low-budget ‘60s yucks), Assignment: Outer Space (Italian space opera) and Warning from Space (giant starfish aliens from Japan). Not a deadbeat in the bunch, if you ask me.

BAD IDEAS:

Horndogs, take note: Lindsay Lohan’s strip routines in I Know Who Killed Me (Sony) are both remarkably free of nudity or sexiness*, so if that’s your sole reason for renting, you might as well put down the disc and head straight for the porn section. Actually, the promise of nudity from La Lohan is about the ONLY reason to check out this miserable and confusing slice of “extreme horror,” because the movie itself is a turd from start to finish. And since there ain’t any, well… And the same goes for Skinwalkers (Lionsgate), which attempts to hop on the Underworld bandwagon by offering up good and bad werewolves. Let’s get something straight – werewolves are all bad, all the time, so you can pretty much pass this one off as post-Buffy teen stuff. There’s a smattering of blood and model Natassia Malthe shows a lot of cleavage, if that helps.

Oh, and Richard Burton looks both sauced and shamefaced in Edward Dmytryk’s Bluebeard, an updated version of the fairytale about the murderous serial monogamist; clearly, this was one of those pay-the-rent gigs. However, it’s definitely worth checking out, especially if you’re into Eurotrash or Eurostarlets, ‘cause both are on display in abundance here; Agostina Belli, Joey Heatherton, Raquel Welch (in a nun’s outfit, no less), Sybil Danning, Karin Schubert, and Nathalie Delon play Bluebeard’s wives and conquests, and Ennio Morricone contributes a typically great soundtrack.

*Whatchoo talkin' bout, Paul Gaita? - Sleaze

HORROR BUSINESS:

Whisper (Universal) is a killer-kid thriller with Josh Holloway of Lost as a kidnapper who bites off more than he can chew when he snatches a young boy with psychic powers. Day X (Image) is an action-thriller with zombie and conspiracy theory elements – it’s reportedly light on the gore, but well-directed. This Hollow Sacrament (Unearthed) is serial killer splatter about a nutcase who preys on sexually abused women. Don’t expect any laughs (or much relief) here, but you’ll find some from Media Blasters'  Midnight Movie Collection 2, which packages together four of Ray Dennis Steckler’s non-hardcore ‘70s and ‘80s efforts – Body Fever, The Blood Shack, The Las Vegas Serial Killer, and The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher. Fever is fun fake noir, while the others are hilariously threadbare attempts to cash in on the stalk-and-slash craze. Fear the Chooper!

ODDS AND SODS

Playboy’s 2008 Video Playmate Calendar is exactly like the old VHS video calendar – you get the year’s Playmates posing in various states of undress in weird surroundings (a night club, the middle of the desert, etc.). Blonde Sara Jean Underwood gets the nod for Playmate of the Year, but I woulda given it to Miss January, Jayde Nicole. Just saying. And from  Metal Blade Records  comes the Metal Blade 25^th Anniversary Live DVD, shot in glorious downtown Woostah, M-A (that’s Worcester, Mass, to non-natives)! Among the bands featured are vets Cannibal Corpse and Lizzy Borden, plus Goatwhore, Shai Hulud, Unearth, God Dethroned, The Black Dahlia Murder, and Hallows Eve. Backstage footage, which is unquestionably Satanic to its very core, is also featured.

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CONTEST ALERT!

We’ve got two, count ‘em, two copies of Doris Wishman’s jaw-dropping nudist camp classic Hideout in the Sun for readers this week. The dee-luxe double disc edition (from Pop Cinema’s Retro-Seduction Cinema.Studio) includes not one but two versions of the movie (full frame and anamorphic) as well as interviews with Ms Wishman and exploitation pioneer David (Blood Feast) Friedman, commentary by Michael J. Bowen, vintage postcards from a real nudist camp, a full color collectable liner notes booklet, and more retro-sexy trailers than you can shake a pair of panties at. For your chance to win, send yer name and address to sleazegrinder@gmail.com and put “Hideout Contest” in the subject line. You have ten days to claim these sex-o-riffic prizes, so don’t get caught with your pants, er, down.

PICKS TO CLICK

Classic Media has been making fans of giant Japanese monster movies very happy for the last few years with their remastered DVDs of Toho’s Godzilla series. If you missed out on any of their previous releases, you can get ‘em all in The Godzilla Collection, which offers Godzilla, Godzilla Raids Again (aka Gigantis the Fire Monster), Godzilla vs. The Thing, Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster, and Invasion of Astro-Monster (aka Godzilla vs. Monster Zero), as well as two brand new titles available in this set – All Monsters Attack (aka Godzilla’s Revenge – it’s the one where the kid dreams he’s Minya’s best friend) and Terror of Mechagodzilla (Godzilla vs. his robot double and a noisy dinosaur). Both the Japanese and American version of each film is included, as well as loads of commentary tracks, featurettes on the movies, and original trailers. But what if you’ve already bought all the movies and only want the new releases (like, um, me?) Well, that’s what Christmas is for, my friends.

Meanwhile, over at Dark Sky Films, they’ve just unleashed The Killing Kind, Curtis (Night Tide) Harrington’s sick, sick ‘70s psycho-thriller about a paroled sex maniac (John Savage from The Deer Hunter) who comes home to his overly affectionate mom and begins terrorizing everyone who put him behind bars (including Sue Bernard from Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!) A pre-Laverne and Shirley Cindy Williams and hot Luana Anders from Dementia-13 are neighbors with very different ideas on how to rehabilitate Savage; suffice it to say that no one ends up happy by the time the end credits roll. I caught The Killing Kind about ten years ago and was amazed that it could still shock and repulse a crowd of jaded Hollywood hipsters; if it sounds like yer cup of poison, you should know that Dark Sky’s DVD includes an interview with the late Mr. Harrington, who also directed Ruby, Queen of Blood, Who Slew Auntie Roo?, and the amazing Devil Dog: Hound from Hell.

Most sleaze beasts are familiar with Filipino horror movies like Mad Doctor of Blood Island and Beast of the Yellow Night, but only the most obsessive have eyeballed the country’s sexploitation entries from the 1980s, when the Marcos government eased censorship laws. Mondo Macabro rights that terrible wrong with their eye-popping Silip: Daughters of Eve, a berserk mini-epic (clocking in at over two hours) about a small town that goes completely sex-crazy, which sets off a spree of murder, incest, and lots and lots of sweaty softcore (and near-hardcore) bouts. The double-disc DVD includes an essay on the history of Filipino sex films, as well as interviews with director Elwood Perez and star Sarsi Emmanuelle.

As celebrity documentaries go, they don’t get more out there than I’m From Hollywood, Lynne Marguiles’ 1989 documentary about her then-significant other Andy Kaufman’s head-spinning foray into the world of professional wrestling. His pursuit of regional champ Jerry “The King” Lawler resulted in the demise of his career in Hollywood, but you can’t deny his quest for sheer spectacle (as well as its re-definition of “committing to a gag”). The DVD, from Marguiles’ new label Legend House with brother Johnny Legend, includes her commentary, for which she’s joined by Kaufman’s partner in crime, Bob Zmuda.

I missed covering the Severin 's DVD release of Lucio Fulci’s sex comedy The Eroticist last week, but don’t let that stop you from checking out this truly offbeat movie about an Italian politician (comedian Lando Buzzanca) who is compelled to grab women’s asses. Sounds like your kind of laugh fest, right? Nice thing is, it’s actually very funny (a lot of Italian comedies from the ‘70s aren’t), and takes a few well-deserved pokes at the Catholic Church and politics in general. Interviews with Buzzanco and special effects designer Giannetto De Rossi (Zombie), who created a hilarious fantasy sequence which can only be described as Ass Heaven, round out the disc.

I couldn’t tell you the first thing about custom cars or hot rod culture, but I like the fact that people are still interested in the way-out designs of classic gearheads like Big Daddy Roth and George Barris. And I was pleased to discover the Mad Fabricators Society has a series of DVDs that explore the past and present of low brow and car culture. Volume 3 and Volume 4 are the latest Mad-Fab discs, and you’ll find coverage on Coop, vintage auto races, and lots of music by surf, rockabilly and instro bands like the Invisible Surfers and the Hypnomen.

MUSICK

I don’t really need to go into detail about The Song Remains the Same, do I? All you need to know is that the movie is available for the first time on legal DVD from Warner Bros., and includes all 16 songs from the theatrical release, plus four new previously unreleased tunes (“Celebration Day,” “Over the Hills and Far Away, “The Ocean,” and “Misty Mountain Hop”), a BBC interview with Plant and Page, and a vintage TV footage of the hotel robbery that took place during their three nights at Madison Square Garden. Standard issue Zep fiends will want the double-disc Special Edition, but the real ZOSO legion should pony up for the Collector’s Edition, which throws in a t-shirt, reproductions of reviews and promotional material, and John Paul Jones’ left index finger.

No, of course it doesn’t. Please don’t sue us.

Sleazegrinder fave Meat Loaf gets the DVD treatment with Meat Loaf: 3 Bats Live (Hip-O), which covers a 2007 stand at the John Labatt Centre in Ontario and includes songs from all three “Bat Out of Hell” albums. Judging from early responses on the internet, Marvin isn’t sounding too good on the vocal front, but the production is something to see. Your call.

The documentary KISS Loves You (MVD) is less of a look at Gene and Paul Inc. than their diehard fans, including an entire family which claims membership in the KISS Army and members of various tribute bands, whose competitive sides are among the most alarming and hilarious parts of the film. Included is Super-8 footage of the band in Stockholm circa ’76 and a press conference about the USS Intrepid in ’96. Get your hands on it before the lawsuits hit!

Also on the DVD rock front: Guns N’ Roses: Rock Case Studies (Classic Rock Legends); Jetboy: The Glam Years (Cleopatra), which includes a live performance at the Whisky (natch) from ’86, as well as current interviews and an audio CD with 21 tracks; Vader: And Blood Was Shed in Warsaw (Metal Mind Poland), with the Polish juggernauts at the final date for their 2007 tour behind Impressions in Blood – extras include two videos, an interview with frontman Peter, and a finale with Behemoth singer Orion. And lastly, does anyone still care about the Genitorturers? If so, there’s Live in Sin (MVD), which features 10 “live music videos” (including three new songs) and behind-the-scenes shenanigans.

HORROR BUSINESS

Children of the night and other lipstick bloodsuckers should check out Kino’s Nosferatu: The Ultimate Edition, which apparently improves on their previous DVD release of F.W. Murnau’s influential silent vampire film thanks to a new transfer; extras include excerpts from other Murnau films, a making-of documentary (as well as a shorter look at the restoration process), the original 1922 score, and newly-translated subtitles.

A much sexier vampire than Max Schreck’s bat-eared, bald-headed Count in Nosferatu can be found in Celeste Yarnell, better known as The Velvet Vampire, which turns up on DVD courtesy Cheezy Flicks. Velvet’s worth a look-see for its dreamy tone and unusual setting – the middle of the California desert. Oh, and Celeste takes her clothes off a few times, too. Also on deck from Cheezy: It Happened At Nightmare Inn (1973 Spanish horror about psycho sisters with a taste for cannibalism), Drive-In Massacre (1976 regional slasher with the late, great George “Buck” Flower) and Dr. Jekyll’s Dungeon of Death (1982 freakout about the doctor’s grandson creating kung-fu killers!)

Also on the retro-horror front: Blood Flood (Retromedia), a triple bill of ‘60s and ‘70s grindhouse faves including Andy Milligan’s mind-warping Guru, The Mad Monk, 1968’s House of Evil, with a very old Boris Karloff in Mexico, and Grave of the Vampire, a fascinatingly weird chiller with William Smith as a young man who discovers that his daddy was a bloodsucker. Vampire is the best of the bunch, tho Guru has its moments, especially if you dig the no-budget stuff; Kimberly Ray, the better half of Retromedia owner Fred Olen Ray, hosts as Morella. This one was pulled a few months back for audio problems – here’s hoping the issues were fixed. And from grey market dealer Jef Films comes an under-the-table release of Jose Larraz’s The House that Vanished under its alternate American title, Scream and Die.

Also on deck from the Monster Dept.: Zombie Town (MTI) – it’s living dead action in Vermont (!); The Bloody School Girls Triple Feature (Media-blasters) boxes together 1980’s Girls Night Out (Canadian slasher film), 1982’s One Dark Night (zombies vs. Adam West and Meg Tilly!) and either Bloody Sisters or Duck! The Carbine High Massacre, depending on what image or site you’re looking at; and Tales of Tomorrow, Collection 3 (Image), a double disc of episodes from the early ‘50s TV sci-fi anthology, with guest stars Boris Karloff, Leslie Nielsen, and a rare appearance by James Dean.

SLEAZY DOES IT

Paramount’s DVD of Walking Tall is the original 1973 film that set drive-ins across America ablaze with the image of big Joe Don Baker cleaning house in a corrupt Southern town with the help of a four-foot stick; it’s still rousing and rowdy and full of good-ole-boy action, and Joe Don puts The Rock (who starred in the remake) to shame in the badass department. Nuff said. Also providing the beatdown this week is Sonny Chiba in The Sonny Chiba Collection (BCI Eclipsei), a five-pack of his modern day shoot-em-ups, including the American and Japanese version of Bullet Train, Golgo 13, and Dragon Princess, Sister Street Fighter, Karate Warriors, and The Bodyguard, all of which have been previously released by BCI under their Welcome To The Grindhouse umbrella.

And about as far from those films as one could possibly imagine is The Gay Deceivers (Dark Sky), a 1969 comedy from that most sensitive of producers, Joe Solomon (Hell’s Angels on Wheels, Evel Knievel), about two straight pals who pretend to be gay in order to avoid the Vietnam draft. Extras include an interview with director Bruce Kessler. But if all the lavender humor makes you feel sorta funny, there’s always Rack ‘Em (Peach Media), which is not the Kira Kerner porn pic from a few years back, but a boob-centric softcore title with hardcore starlets Devon Lee, Anita Dark, Tyler Faith and others showing, well, their racks. Meanwhile, Grandpa might enjoy Early Girlies 4 (Jef), a collection of nudie clips from the ‘30s and ‘40s.

And for the real nitty-gritty, you can’t beat Charlie (Wild Style) Ahearn’s 40-minute documentary Doin’ Time in Times Square (Brink DVD), which documents the street scene on 43^rd Street from the vantage point of Charlie’s apartment window. Expect lots of rip-offs, police action, and more street fights than an all-night Sonny Chiba fest; the DVD includes a short interview with Charlie in 2007 and “Jane in Peepland,” which sends Charlie’s wife, painter Jane Dickson, into the neon swamp of 42^nd Street.

Oh, and lastly, Love, American Style, Volume One is available from Paramount. I don’t know how many readers remember this painfully square anthology series from the late ‘60s and early ‘70s; it was frequently used to fill dead spots between more popular reruns in the days before cable. Essentially, it was like The Twilight Zone, but instead of discovering that “To Serve Man” was really a cookbook, the payoff was that a pair of dating teenagers really weren’t having sex, or that a nervous husband-to-be figured out a way to ask a grumpy dad for his daughter’s hand. I’m not sure how one can make it through an entire episode (I never could, and I watched a LOT of crap), much less three discs worth, but for those up for the challenge (or just curious as to what the hell people were watching while cities burned to the ground in 1969), you’ll get an eyeful of a young Harrison Ford, as well as TV staples like Bill Bixby, Dwayne Hickman, Red Buttons, Ozzie and Harriet, and Sleazegrinder faves Tina Louise and Larry Storch. Oh, and that perky theme song by the Cowsills (“LOVE! AMERICAN STYLE! TRUER THAN THE RED-WHITE-AND-BLUUUEEE…”).  No extras, but really, do you need them?

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WINNERS AND SINNERS DEPT:

The winners of our Grindhouse Double Feature contest are Danny Hohlt and Mickey T (yeah, no last name – you got a problem with that?). Those two lucky bastards are taking home naked Cathy Lee Crosby in Coach and naked Penthouse Pets in The Beach Girls, plus a whole mess of sleazy trailers and God knows what else from Deimos Entertainment. Don’t worry – there are more trashy treats in store, so stay tuned, weirdos.

PICKS TO CLICK:

Speaking of Deimos, remember when I said that they were releasing Horror Rises from the Tomb and The Loreley’s Grasp as part of their incredible ‘70s Spanish horror series? Yeah, well, that’s actually coming out this week. Apparently, I lied. Or they did. Not sure, but it doesn’t matter, because both of these discs are worth grabbing up if you’re a fan of Paul Naschy (he stars in Horror as a medieval Satanist who gets bloody revenge on his ancestors, and provides commentary on the disc) or Tombs of the Blind Dead director Amando De Ossorio (he directed Loreley, which is about a monster that eats ladies’ hearts). You should also pick them up if you’re cool, or hoping to be cool, because that’s what real cool people would do.

Bonafide hipsters and flipsters would also pick up Black Emanuelle’s Box, Volume 2 (Severin-Films). Like its super-rare predecessor, Volume 2 packages a trio of globe-trotting, adults-only Eurotrash from the sick, sick Seventies and bundles the whole thing together with cast and crew interviews and even a disc of sex-o-phonic soundtrack cues. Indonesian lust goddess Laura Gemser is Black Em in two of the pics, Black Emanuelle/White Emanuelle (White Em is played by Annie Belle) and the ultra-greasy Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade, with direction by Joe D’Amato. Chesty Sharon Lesley takes over in Black Emanuelle 2, directed by producer Bitto Albertini. And the CD features music by Nico Fidenco from Emanuelle in America, Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (aka Trap Them and Kill Them) and White Slave Trade. You’re gonna get your velour vibe on but good with this sultry set.

There is absolutely nothing to not love about Synapse and Panik House’s new Legends of the Poisonous Seductress series – you get three films (Female Demon Ohyaku, Quick-Draw Okatsu and Okatsu The Fugitive), all starring sexy Junko Miyazono as Ohyaku, a sword-slinging hellcat who lays waste to anyone who’s done wrong by her. Since both films are filled with murder, twisted sex and torture, it’s safe to say that just about every ends up on the business end of Ohyaku’s blade, which is, of course, exactly what you want from crazy Japanese pinky violence like this. All three titles feature the original trailers, liner notes and/or commentary by ex-Flesh Eater turned film historian Chris D., and remastered transfers. Excellent

And while we’re not big on Christmas movies here at Sleazegrinder.com (unless it’s Christmas Evil or Don’t Open Till Christmas), every home should have copies of The Johnny Cash Christmas Specials (Shout! Factory). Two separate discs cover Christmas Cash-style in music-filled TV specials from 1976 and 1977; the former is for hardcore Cash acolytes, with the Man in Black sharing the stage with country legends Merle Travis, Roy Clark, the Carter Family, and wife June Carter (as well as Tony Orlando and Dawn…), but Christmas ’77 sees Johnny reunite with Sun Records cohorts Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and Carl Perkins! A year’s worth of coal in your stocking (and elsewhere) for those who don’t pick this up.

TALES FROM THE VAULT:

Blue-Underground is unleashing Jess Franco’s Cannibals on unsuspecting viewers this week. For those who haven’t seen it on bootleg VHS under any number of titles (White Cannibal Queen, Mondo Cannibale), it’s an amazingly retarded gore pic with Al Cliver (Zombie) traveling into a man-eater filled jungle to rescue his daughters from a cannibal tribe. Expect atrocious effects, multi-ethnic cannibals and lots of laughs; an interview with dear ole Jess rounds out the set. And for more anthropophagic kicks, BU has reissued Mountain of the Cannibal God (naked Ursula Andress vs. cannibals and director Sergio Martino) and Eloy de Iglesias’ great political commentary-disguised-as-splatter movie Cannibal Man.

Meanwhile, Redemption USA has special editions of Jean Rollin’s The Nude Vampire – and I suppose it’s worth mentioning that Redemption’s side project, Satanic Sluts (it’s like Suicide Girls with a heavier emphasis on kink and horror) has its own debut DVD on deck; The Black Order Cometh, which features lots of English girls having their way with each other on various torture devices (and there’s also a “live” DVD from Redemption called Black Mass which has the Sluts on stage), is timed to coincide with a book by FAB Press (Harvey Fenton put out a book about a gimmicky nudie outfit? Ya don’t say…), so if you dig that lipstick sado shit, you’ve got three holes in which to pour your money. Oh, and there’s a 30^th anniversary edition of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Sony), which offers both the original and the re-issued versions of the movie.

SMUT:

Pop Cinema has filth for young and old this week – for the kids, there’s Chantal (Seduction Cinema), a cautionary tale about a young innocent (Misty Mundae) who gets swallowed up whole by the creeps and flakes in the movie biz. It’s a remake of a 1969 grinder by Nick Phillips, and the two-disc set includes both versions, as well as commentary Misty and Phillips on their respective pics, loads of trailers, and even a short with the incredible title of These Girls Are Fools from 1956. And if you dig the older stuff, Retro Seduction Cinema has The Sexploiters, a black-and-white potboiler about a modeling agency that serves as a front for uptight urbanites seeking some carnal release. The DVD includes commentary by cinematographer C. Davis Smith (Doris Wishman’s regular DP) and liner notes from the always-savvy Michael J. Bowen.

Meanwhile, Deimos has two new entries in their great Welcome to the Grindhouse collection. Double bill #1 is Superchick, a sexy secret agent flick with actress-turned-astrologer Joyce Jillson (with whom I once had Thanksgiving dinner*) and Hustler Squad (the Army sends hot girls to seduce and kill Japanese troops during WWII). And double bill # 2 offers Las Vegas Lady, with Stella Stevens ripping off a casino and attempting to keep her rack in her outfits, and Policewomen, a softcore action pic from Lee Frost and Wes Bishop (Race with the Devil) with Sondra Currie and Jeannie Bell as undercover cops tangling with female gangsters. The usual barrage of trailers accompanies both two-fers.

Also on deck: Revenge of the Teenage Vixens from Outer Space (Sovereign) – you can figure that one out, right? Las Sobrinas Del Diablo (Grupo Nuevo) is a 1983 Mexican revenge pic with sisters invoking the Prince of Darkness to avenge their murdered family; and Cougar Club (Universal) is a tits-and-ass comedy about horny older broads, with Carrie Fisher, Faye Dunaway, and Chyna among its cast (according to one meathead on imdb, it portrays “the pure aspect of what a cougar is”). And if you don’t feel like messing around with all that softcore crap, there’s always Female Masturbation – Girls Night Out (XDM), with Rita Faltoyano. Nothing like truth in advertising, I always say.

HORROR BUSINESS:

Pretty slim pickings this week: Driftwood (Image) is a teen horror pic about a morbid kid (Raviv Ullman) who’s shipped off to a scared-straight camp run by wrestler Diamond Dallas Page who, I assume, is very bad. Tim Sullivan, who directed the wretched 2001 Maniacs, is responsible for this, so buyer beware. Welcome to the Jungle (Dimension Extreme) is a jungle-cannibal horror told in faux documentary style; I’m assuming the director did not see Cannibal Holocaust, but I do give a nod for basing the film’s expedition on the real-life case of Michael Rockefeller, who apparently did go to his grave courtesy of a New Guinea tribe in the early ‘60s. Somebody Help Me (Code Black Entertainment) is an “urban” teen slasher pic with popsters Omarion and Marques Houston; I spent a very long and cold evening in Big Bear, CA on the set of the movie, and I can’t say I’m dying to see how the scene I watched turned out. Creature from the Hillbilly Lagoon (Shock-O-Rama.) is, I guess, low-budget blue collar horror-comedy about radioactive mutations in a redneck swamp. And Dream Cruise brings Japanese ghosts to Masters of Horrors’ second season (this isn’t one of the best episodes, tho). Your best bet is probably The Addams Family – The Complete Series (MGM), which has more sex, weirdness, black humor, and entertainment value per episode than any of the titles I’ve mentioned in this block.

LASTLY:

This is England (IFC) is a bleak but gripping drama from Shane Meadows (Dead Man’s Shoes) about a troubled boy who falls into the skinhead movement of the early ‘80s. Unlike most movie takes on underground societies of this type, England takes the time to show all sides of the story (the violent and the non-violent) and is highly recommended. And speaking of ‘80s England, The Young Ones – Extra Stoopid Edition (BBC Warner) is a three-disc set featuring much of the UK comedy’s run, as well as a bonus disc with previously unreleased footage, commentaries, and the like. And Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream (Anchor Bay) is an enjoyable documentary about the ‘70s midnight movie scene, featuring plenty of interviews with its main figures (John Waters, David Lynch, George Romero, Perry Henzell, Alejandro Jodorowsky).

* What? - Sleaze

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Hey, weirdos! Don’t forget that our Grindhouse Double Feature contest is still alive and kicking – two lucky sleaze beasts will bring home Coach (with a naked Cathy Lee Crosby) and The Beach Girls (naked Penthouse Pets), the latest double bill from Deimos Entertainment's Welcome to the Grindhouse series. Want one? Send your name and address to sleazegrinder@gmail.com – and do it, like quick, cause this contest is gonna end any minute now…

PICKS TO CLICK

High-class outfit Kino International has a quartet of Pink-Film Classics – that means softcore with a touch of S&M from Japan in the ‘70s – on deck this week. Unlike the American sexploitation of the period, the pink films mixed heavy drama with heavy breathing – yeah, they couldn’t show genitalia or pubic hair, but they made up for it with intense performances and even more intense bondage and bedroom misbehavior. All four of the pics in the Pink-Film Classics series were directed by veteran kinkster Masaru Konuma, and include his classic torture riot Wife To Be Sacrified (1974), Erotic Diary of an Office Lady (1977), Cloistered Nun: Runa’s Confession (1976, with plenty of anti-Catholic jibes and nuns gone amuck), and Tattooed Flower Vase (1976), starring pink film queen Naomi Tani. Each of the discs is digitally remastered and includes the original theatrical trailer; Wife also features Sadistic and Masochistic, a 90-minute documentary about Konuma by Hideo Nakata (Ringu), who served as his assistant director.

Also from Asia: Election (Tartan), Johnnie To’s hotwired Hong Kong gangster pic about an ancient mob family that tears itself apart while attempting to elect a new chairman. If you’re not familiar with To’s work, here’s what to expect: lots of screaming, sweating intense types shooting each other or hitting each other with cars, machetes, rocks, and logs, some well-drawn characters, and then more mayhem. The DVD includes a making-of featurette, interviews with To and stars Tony Leung, Simon Yam, and Wong Tin Lam, as well as the original trailer.

And I wanna mention that Something Weird has a brand new batch of smutty, salacious DVD-Rs for retro-minded creeps and freaks of all stripes. The folks at SWV just parted ways with Image, so there’s no more Special Edition DVDs on deck – but you can still get quality DVD-Rs of just about everything in the colossal Something Weird library (and for the nice price of $10 a pop). They also have a few new titles on deck, including The Bushwhacker (backwoodsman kidnaps, molests and kills plane crash victims), Love Goddesses of the Amazon (island girls with a penchant for human sacrifice tangle with a marooned astronaut) and Like Wow! (nudie from Astounding She-Monster director Ronnie Ashcroft about a pair of glasses that lets ya see girls naked), as well as new editions of their Bucky Beaver XXX series, Twisted Sex, Dusk-to-Dawn Drive-In Trashorama, and lots more. Support America’s greatest smut peddlers and check out Something Weird today.

TALES FROM THE VAULT

Warner Bros.’ Four Film Favorites: Draculas is a quartet of Hammer horrors starring Christopher Lee as the Count – included is Horror of Dracula, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, Taste the Blood of Dracula, and the grr-oovy Dracula AD 1972, co-starring Caroline Munro (yowza). And Animeigo  continues to unearth quality Japanese titles – their latest is Battle of Okinawa, a grim WWII drama about a staggeringly violent struggle between American forces and the combined efforts of Japan’s 32^nd Division and the citizens of the island of Okinawa. Director Kihachi Okamoto blends extreme violence with strong statements about bravery, patriotism, and the futility of war (the Yanks don’t come out looking so good here); the DVD includes Animeigo’s usual top-notch production notes.

Meanwhile, MGM has a 40^th anniversary edition of Casino Royale – not the Daniel Craig Bond movie, but the 1967 spoof with Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, Orson Welles, and lots of hot starlets from both sides of the Atlantic, including Ursula Andress, Jacqueline Bisset, Barbara Bouchet, Joanna Pettet and – hey! Caroline Munro! The DVD includes lotsa making-of featurettes. The Deadly Breaking Sword (Image) is a 1979 Shaw Bros. title starring Ti Lung as the Deadly Breaking Sword, an arrogant jerk who takes on all comers (and carries his own coffin, Django-style, for the losers); Alexander Fu Sheng is the thief who takes him on. Oh, and BBC Warner has the 1981 UK TV version of Day of the Triffids, the classic sci-fi story of alien planets rendering the world’s population blind – all the better to eat them… the special effects are typically bad for British TV of the period, but the six-episode story breakdown allows for more suspense.

Over at Cinema Epoch, they’re offering up Prostitution Pornography USA, a 1971 faux documentary from notorious schlock producer Harry Novak that pretends to explore the hooker and smut trade via hidden cameras. And BCI/Eclipse has the complete Iron King series – it’s a 1972 Japanese superhero TV show along the lines of Ultraman, with another hero who transforms into a skyscraper-sized supergiant to battle aliens and two evil clans and their horde of monster robots. The hero also has a badass belt that turns into a whip and a sword, which alone is worth the price of admission, I think. Oh, and Passport has Weird Cinema – 15 Freaky Flicks, which is a five-disc bootleg comp featuring old-school trash like Glen or Glenda, Chained for Life, Child Bride, and The Killer Shrews, as well as public domain titles like Night Tide, Carnival of Souls, Wild Guitar, and Spider Baby (all of which are available elsewhere in better, if more expensive presentations). Lastly, Echo Bridge has She-Wolves of the Wasteland, which you might have caught on VHS back in the ‘80s as Phoenix Warrior – it has Kathleen Kinmont and other nubiles in various states of post-apocalyptic undress, which is never a bad thing.

MUSIC

The Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who (Universal) covers the venerable band’s history in detail through interviews with Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend (neither of whom are afraid to revisit the downward turns in their relationship and within the band) and loads of rare footage, including Chris Stamp’s long-lost footage of the band as the High Numbers at the Railway Hotel in 1964, profiles of each of the founding members, and D.A. Pennebaker’s Who’s Back, a 2003 documentary about Daltrey and Townshend recording “Real Good Looking Boy.” It’s an excellent companion piece to The Kids Are Alright and a must-have for Who fans. Also on the vintage Brit-rock tip: Help! (Capitol), the Beatles’ 1965 feature (which the band has admitted to barely remembering thanks to copious amount of marijuana); it’s still loopy and amusing, and the restored DVD includes a 30-minute documentary about the film, as well as interviews with director Richard Lester and the crew.

What Poor Gods We Do Make (Riot Fest) is a DVD/CD combo from the newly reunited Naked Raygun that covers the band’s history and place within the Chicago punk scene; footage from their 2006 live shows and a CD’s worth of their best material. To Hell and Back Again (Steamhammer US) is a two-disc collection of live footage from 2004 and onward, as well as video clips for “Witchfinder General,” “Beyond the Grave” and a new one, “I’ve Got To Rock (To Stay Alive),” which features Lemmy, Andi Denis and Angry Anderson, as well as duets with Sleazegrinder fave Doro Pesch (on “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming,” no less). And Candlemass: 20 Year Anniversary Party (Peaceville) is a 2007 live performance in Stockholm with seven different vocalists, including Johan Landquist, Robert Lowe, Tomas Vikrom, and Tony Martin of Black Sabbath. Interviews with the band and vocalists round out the disc.

HORROR BUSINESS:

Blood Car (TLA) is an amusing and taste-free comedy-horror cut from the Little Shop of Horrors cloth about a young man who discovers that his car can run on human blood. Lotsa nice pokes at the current state of affairs (especially with the gas crunch), and plenty of sex and violence to boot. On the flipside is Amateur Porn Star Killer (Cinema Epoch), a depressing attempt at a faux snuff film courtesy a lunatic who kidnaps and abuses a sex model. Grim.

A Feast of Flesh (Bloody Earth) features a whole lotta foxy horror actresses (including Amy Lynn Best, and Debbie Rochon) in a gory low-budget feature about a war between vampire hookers and vampire hunters, with the expected results. Also from Bloody Earth is Killing Spree, a 1987 gorefest from Tim Ritter, who was front and center at the shot-on-video horror wave in the ‘80s with pics like Twisted Illusions and Truth or Dare; Tim’s lunatic vision, about a completely insane husband who butchers anyone he believes might be having an affair with his wife, has lost none of its shock therapy value in the ensuing decades. God bless ya, Tim.

Also on deck: In the Spider’s Web and Blood Monkey (love that title), both part of the “Man-Eater Series” from Genius Products; Spider is a low-budget (no, really?) horror with Lance Henriksen as a sinister scientist messing around with spider-worshipping tribesmen and the worst spider-human monster since Horrors of Spider Island, while Monkey pits F. Murray Abraham against flesh-eating chimps. Werewolf in a Woman’s Prison (Under the Bed) combines two great exploitation plotlines in one, as a young woman bitten by a werewolf gets locked up in a women’s prison hellhole. Talk about genius products… The Slaughter (Lionsgate) is the more of the “demons vs. college students” sorta thing, while Manticore (Image) pits Robert Beltran and Jeff Fahey against a really sad-looking CGI monster in a Middle Eastern desert. Glum. Oh, and there’s Blood Dancers (Under the Bed), about a waitress at a topless cocktail bar who becomes a stripper at a joint filled with vampires! Vampire strippers, you say? Yep, pretty much.