Theres a good reason this cheezy ad hardly shows any of the movie behind it. Also known as The Thrill Killers (1964), this is about as competent as the movie-making of Ray Dennis Steckler (1938-2009) ever got. Its always painful watching a non-film-maker doggedly determined to make movies. The solution, really, was to surrender his talent to God, who would take it and give it back in the form it was really intended to be. But Steckler never did let go... A trio of nutcases escape from an asylum and, yes, there is an embarrassingly ludicrous beheading, like in the ad. Stecklers cinematography was always above par. Its too bad everything else, including, for the most part, Stecklers own performance as one of the psychos, Mort Mad Dog Click, is just sad. Still, of all the incompetents (Al Adamson, Jr., Jerry Warren, Ed Wood, etc.) whose work has achieved notoriety, Steckler is one of the very few who deserves our sympathy. He never could catch a break. Rounding out the pathos is the opening narration by another perennially-out-of-luck film-maker, Coleman Francis. It is almost surreal to hear Francis describe the misfortunes of the soon-to-be-dead character onscreen when Francis himself was found only a few years later in a Los Angeles parking lot with an exhaust tube leading into the drivers window. But thats just part of the general joylessness that surrounds all of Stecklers work. Even his comedies arent funny and just make you feel bad for everyone involved, including his wife, Carolyn Brandt, who got drafted into all these things and has thus achieved a kind of immortality. https://youtube/watch?v=Cv_D8pkxdiI
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 09:33:10 +0000
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