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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: January 7th, 2014.
Director: David W. Hansen/Bobby O'Donald
Cast: David Haller, Sandy O'Hara, George Mead, China Valles, Joe Varo
Year: 1969/1968
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The Movies:
Vinegar Syndrome's Drive-In Collection once again offers up a double feature, this time in the form of two 'regional rarities' from the sixties courtesy of directors David W. Hanson and Bobby O'Donald. Never heard of them? That doesn't matter. This pairing delivers regardless!
Judy:
The first feature, from 1969, begins with a scene in which a black woman and a white woman discover the joys that only the interracial love between two foxy women can provide. With twelve percent of the movie's running time over and done with by the time their softcore shenanigans are over and done with, we head to the innocuous suburbs of a nameless town where a pretty young woman named Regina Fairchild (Lee Sherry) heads out for a stroll in a seemingly harmless forest. But surprise Regina, it's not harmless - there's a bad guy here and he's gonna rip off some of your clothes, smack you around and just generally mess you up.
Regina's old man is understandably pissed about this and so he makes a phone call to Mr. Gunner Sloan (David Haller), a former officer of the law who now specializes in helping out those that the law cannot. Regina didn't get much of a look at her attacker but she's able to give Gunner enough to go on and soon enough he's on the hunt… for poon. See, he has to nail his foxy secretary before he can get to work. But while this is going on, the psycho is still on the loose, tying women up and fondling them in fairly uncomfortable looking ways. As things start to get worse, Gunner enlists the aid of a hot stripper named Velvet Harris (Sandy O'Hara), a curvy cutie with the hots for our hero. She seems to be in the know for reasons never properly explained… but that psycho? He's still out there, and Sloan won't rest until he's put him either behind bars or six feet under.
A really goofy tale of tough guys and naked ladies, this one breezes by at a lean seventy-five minutes. We don't even get the opening title card until after the lengthy and completely unnecessary (but very welcome) lesbian love scene that kicks all of this off. The pacing is odd, cramming random screw sessions in between bits and pieces of dialogue that attempt to push the plot forward.
It's all fairly amateur in many ways but at the same time, it's got lots of charm. The cast do what they can here, though it would seem very few of them had much experience. They get points for trying though. Haller is fun to watch as the tough guy in charge and the cast of ladies that Hanson (who also helmed Night Of The Bloody Transplant according to the IMDB) populates his movie with are fun to watch. Lots of quirky sixties styles are on display in the furnishings and wardrobe while the screwy lounge music soundtrack blares away at completely inappropriate fashion. It's like a weird pseudo film noir with sexy naked ladies, horrible dialogue, a ridiculous finale and lots and lots of groping. What's not to love?
The Night Hustlers:
Next up is Bobby O'Donald's 1968 picture, The Night Hustlers, which clocks in at only three minutes shy of a full hour in length! This picture tells the sordid tale of a pair of cops that are called of a wealthy author with a bad French accent where he may or may not have a live-in secretary.
From here, they tell dirty jokes about elephants and their orifices and swap stories about their time working vice. Mostly this involves talking about ladies of loose moral standing. As the night roles on, a woman with no shirt on calls them and then flops about in her boudoir. We learn about how the cops put a stop to some dirty hippies who were indulging in group sex and how a foxy blonde takes off her top to send two punch-drunk dudes into a frenzy. More naked ladies make more random phone calls and to finish things off a weird lounge singer Dean Martin type guy belts out a little number that makes ladies in strange Mardi Gras masks dance like their lives depend on it.
What exactly is going on here is anyone's guess. None of this really makes a whole lot of sense at all, but damn if it isn't overripe with unintentional hilarity and head scratching moments of somewhat inspired lunacy. There's a lot of emphasis on music here for whatever reason, the obvious highlight being the lounge number performed on camera at the end of the movie, but even before then we get a catchy and horribly repetitive number about a cool chick to enjoy.
Why the random topless women keep calling the French guy's house is a mystery, as is the use of strange foreign accents throughout the picture, but hey, you've got to give the esteemed Mr. O'Donald credit for trying, even if it appears that he really had no idea what sort of picture he was trying to make. Is it a cop drama? Nope, it's definitely not that. An expose on the seedy side of city life? Maybe, but probably not. Is it crass sexploitation? Sort of, but it's not that crass even if it's got a lot of naked ladies in it. No, what The Night Hustler's is… it's some sort of low budget boob movie mystery, the kind of film that seemingly exists in its own screwy bubble for no apparent reason but which, at the same time, makes all of our lives richer for it being there.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Judy is presented in 1.33.1 fullframe transferred from 16mm A-B rolls while The Night Hustlers is presented in 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transferred from the 35mm blow up negative. Generally speaking, both movies look pretty good here. Some small splices and scratches pop up here and there as well as some minor specks, the second feature showing more of this than the first, but detail is good and colors look excellent. What we wind up with here are some nice, film-like transfers taken from materials that were culled from less than perfect sources but which still look very nice. Texture is strong throughout and there are no issues with compression artifacts, noise reduction or edge enhancement - just some age related wear and tear.
Both films get Dolby Digital Mono soundtracks, in English and without any optional language options or subtitles provided. Clarity of each mix is fine. There are some scenes that sound a bit flat but that's obviously to do with the original recording. The scores sound good here and the levels are properly balanced. Any hiss or distortion that does creep into the mix is minor and not particularly distracting while the dialogue is consistently easy to understand and follow.
Aside from a static menu offering chapter selection, there are no extras on this DVD.
The Final Word:
Vinegar Syndrome keeps their excellent Drive-In Collection going with this latest entry that pairs up two late sixties sexploitation rarities in about as nice a condition as you can realistically expect. Both of these movies are pretty entertaining, the sleaze quotients are high enough to ensure that, and fans of sixties skin flicks will no doubt appreciate all that Judy! and The Night Hustlers have to offer.
