Movie review - "Deathstalker" (1983) **

The first (I think) in a series of films Roger Corman made in Argentina, mostly sword and sorcery type things to cash in on Conan the Barbarian (he had made Sorceress but that was in Mexico).

It's cheap but not cheapy-cheap - it was shot on film, was clearly intended to be seen in theatres, and some scenes have quite a lot of extras such as the finale at the markets and in the stadium. Corman would go on to make a lot cheaper product.

These films had a rape-y vibe and there's plenty of rape in Deathstalker. There's also an unexciting lead in Rick Hill who has the body but a sort of odd face and isn't that much fun to be around. It doesn't help that he does things like save women from rape and then have sex with them or have sex with a woman who is asleep or have sex with a woman he's just met (not knowing she was converted into a woman by magic just recently).

The film did have a sense of adventure - the quest and all that - and it moved along; there was always something happening. But Deathstalker himself wasn't much fun to hang out with and there wasn't anyone else to hook into. Actually, that's not fair - the guy who plays his buddy (who turns treacherous) is pretty good. Lana Clarkson is in it as a female warrior who is constantly topless - I mean, she fights topless. I wish her character had stuck around more.

The effects, costumes, etc are hokey but not bad - part of the film's charm. The sword fighting and some of the action was pretty good. I just Deathstalker himself had been more likeable.

Movie review – “The Marihuana Menace” (1931) *

A lesser known example of 30s exploitation: a news reporter goes under cover to expose marijuana smokers. As usual, mull makes people laugh, skinny dip and crash cars, and have the requisite parties with kids laughing and attempted stabbings. But apart from a great opening scene where an old lady crashes her scooter and all these kids laugh this movie is too sensible and non-stupid to be really fun. The finale in a courtroom is even a bit reminiscent of a Judge Hardy film – the actor who played gramps was reminiscent of Lionel Barrymore. The blonde with a screwed up face reminded me of Hatchet Face in John Waters’ Cry Baby.

Movie review – “Marihuana” (1936) **

Anti-drug drama from Dwain Esper, the auteur of Maniac, Sex Madness and Reefer Madness. So there are lots of scenes where young people puff on cigarettes at parties, causing them to laugh wildly, kiss passionately, roll around on the floor and jitterbug, quote Shakespeare and go skinny dipping. You know, people laugh at these films – but I’ve seen marijuana actually make people do this stuff. The skinny dipping scene is quite raunchy – all the girls do it and you see their bare arses and everything.

All this fun must inevitably be punished and it is. One of the girls drowned, another gets pregnant then turns to crime. This film is a bit easier to follow than Reefer Madness as it focuses more on one character – Burma, who gets knocked up, gives up the baby and becomes a drug dealer. Burma’s a decent character with an understandable motivation (mum preferred her sister). Indeed, after the great skinny dipping scene it turns into a kind of standard tough woman melodrama with Burma running around with a bad crowd but discovering a mother’s love at the end. There is a fun scene where Burma shakes down a druggie client (a middle aged woman) but the rest of the second half is fairly conventional. And correct me if I’m wrong, but does she die at the end of the film of a marijuana overdose?

Movie review – “Cocaine Fiends” (1935) *

Part of the 30s genre of exploitation films that dealt with a social problem eg Reefer Madness, Sex Madness, Child Bride. This one’s about a girl who becomes involved with a gangster and gets involved with cocaine (“the grandest headache medicine in the world”. There’s a great scene where the girl takes cocaine for the first time (we don’t see her snort it but we see her wipe her nose afterwards and say “that was great”) and an obligatory party scene with everyone having a good old time on cocaine in the same way they have a party in Reefer Madness. But that said this feels closer to a B gangster movie about innocents getting caught up with the mob, complete with lots of scenes in night clubs and a hero copper detective who goes undercover to save a girl. So in other words too sensible to be a classic or of much interest to watch. Mediocre acting, directing, etc.

Movie review – “Sex Madness” (1938)* / ***

Everyone’s thinking about sex. A couple of girls start talking about a burlesque show, get excited by the thought of strippers and go see it. (One of the girls is a predatory lesbian who feels up the other one during a show). One of dancers says bed “isn’t for relaxing - that’s for action”. Then the story kicks in: one of the burlesque dancers has syphilis. She was an innocent who moved to the big smoke to find fame and soon wound up with the clap. She can’t get married til she’s cured (“we’re dealing with a ruthless foe”) – but then it turns out the doctor who cured her is a quack, and she ends up killing her baby and husband with the disease. There’s also a plot about the son of the anti-syphilis campaigner who (irony!) winds up with syphilis, also from a burlesque dancer. Most of the fun from this is had in the early scenes which are quite sexually explicit and you wish there was more of them. There’s hand held camera work of backstage at the burlesque but a tour of syphilis victims at hospital. Lots of pious platitudes and knuckle-gnashing and not very good acting.

Movie review – “Child Bride” (1938) *

If ever some old codger goes on about movies these days being full of sordid sex and violence you should tell them “well at least they don’t have 12 year old nude scenes any more, like they did in 1938.” That was the big selling point of this hillbilly-sploitation film which deals with the topic of child brides.
A female school teacher, who was born and raised in the mountains, is determined to make marrying children illegal (her fiancée is an assistant DA but she won’t marry him til the job is done). Local men oppose her to the extent she is tarred and feathered.
The other plot concerns a 12 year old girl who is lusted after a nasty hillbilly who has a feud with her father. The nasty hillbilly develops his yen after watching said 12 year old go for a swim – so the famous nude sequence isn’t gratuitous in terms of plot, but it is in terms of what is being show: it’s fairly obvious the shots of her bare breasts and arse and the sheer length of it is to appeal to the pedophiles in the audience. (Of course there was no doubt a financial imperative behind this, so you could argue the gratuitousness isn’t really gratuitous).
Judged on exploitation grounds, it’s not a bad story though the two narratives run a bit too parallel – they could have been more incorporated to have the school teacher involved in trying to rescue the girl before a Fate Worse Than Death. (The school teacher is set up as this important character then sort of drops out).
To ensure the film’s got something for everyone there is also a sympathetic dwarf character (who actually saves the day – by killing the baddie in cold blood), a 12 year old male love interest (they even have a romantic kiss at the end – they’re 12!!! – he says she can be his wife later… when, 14??). Shelley Mills (the 12 year child star) is quite professional in the lead role and she went on to have a decent career; so too did the dwarf (he often co-starred as Bela Lugosi’s sidekick). The other acting is pretty bad.

Movie review – “Reefer Madness” (1936) */***1/2

Famous exploitation film which became a cult classic among pot heads in the 1970s. Maybe you like it more when you’re stoned. It is fun with some over the top acting and a very melodramatic plot (an awful lot happens – the strong story makes it more enjoyable). Smoking marijuana seems like a lot of fun – you go to parties where you jitterbug, play piano and have sex (real sex, it’s almost spelt out) with loose women.
On the other hand, it does turn you into a rapist, make you drive over pedestrians and jump out windows, and sends you insane. Some classic moments – the sex scene, the piano playing scene with two people getting high, a girl jumping out the window (fantastic moment).
The story is quite engrossing; like a lot of these films there is a split narratives with a number of leading characters; there is no one "hero", it's an ensemble piece - which adds to the excitement since you never know who's going to live. (Pretty much all the main characters wind up dead, insane or in prison).
NB I would add though that of all the soft drugs which have done damage to my friend’s lives during their twenties, marijuana would be number one (alcohol is shaping up to be number one during the thirties and forties). I believe it should be decriminalised and all that stuff, but it turned one person into a full blown schizo and sapped any ambition or intelligence from a bunch of them. So marijuana can be harmful – but since these films are so obviously silly maybe they’ve helped blind people to the actual damage the drug can do.