Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Drive-In Collection: Little Miss Innocence/Teenage Seductress

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Ian Jane
    Administrator

  • Drive-In Collection: Little Miss Innocence/Teenage Seductress



    Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
    Released on: April 21st, 2015.
    Director: Chris Warfield
    Cast: Sandy Dempsey, Judy Medford, Sondra Currie, John Alderman
    Year: 1972/1975
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Movies:

    The latest entry in Vinegar Syndrome's Drive-In Collection features two low budget exploitation pictures directed by Chris Warfield.

    Little Miss Innocence:

    First up is 1972's Little Miss Innocence (also known as Teenage Innocence), which begins when a music mogul named Rick Engels (John Alderman) stops his car on the side of the highway to pick up Carol (Sandy Dempsey) and Judy (Judy Medford), two foxy young ladies in need of a ride to Hollywood. He drops them off unaware that they found his address info while poking around in his stuff and later that night they show up at his door expecting to be put up. The night goes well for Rick as he winds up in bed with one and then the other but the next day, after returning from work, he finds that the girls have gotten too comfortable in his place and have turned it into a bit of a flophouse.

    Rick, understandably, objects to his but he's obviously very perceptible to their feminine charms and the girls seem to have a knack for making him see things their way. Eventually, however, Rick has had enough. He goes to give them the boot but then they let it slide that Judy is only sixteen and as Rick did the dirty deed with her, they'll rat him out and he'll wind up hauled in on rape charges! Not sure what else to do, Rick lets them continue to crash and he continues to provide for them in more way than one. Time passes and Judy starts to think they should soften up and take it easy on the old guy but Rick's starting to get fed up while Carol's mean streak is only now just starting to show how intense it really is.

    With none other than Ray Dennis Steckler attributed with the camera work on this one and George 'Buck' Flower the assistant director, this is a weird mix of sexploitation, comedy and quirky melodrama that throws in plenty of skin and goofy line readings. John Alderman is fun to watch as the male lead in the film and he suits the part well. He's a bit lecherous at first, as you'd expect given that he's an older guy picking up two young ladies, but as the tables start to turn on him his performance becomes more interesting than what it started as. He gets nervous, understandably, and he plays the part well.

    Of course, most will tune in not for him but for Judy Medford and probably more specifically for Sandy Dempsey. Both ladies are in fine form here and do decent work. Dempsey plays the bitch character well Medford the supposedly more innocent type just as well. It's not a fancy or flashy film but it's got some cool music and plenty of odd details throughout that keep your eyes darting about.

    Teenage Seductress:

    The second feature is 1975's Teenage Seductress follows Terry (Sondra Currie, and yes she is the sister of a certain Runaway), a serious case of damaged goods thanks to the strange manipulative ways of her mother (Gwen Van Dam). It seems that when her dad split, her mom sort of lost it and did a whole lot of trash talking but this hasn't stopped Terry from heading out on her own to track the guy down.

    To do this she poses as a journalist and eventually figures out her old man is an artist named Preston King (played by director Warfield) and that he lives out on a ranch in the middle of nowhere. She shows up at his door and quickly tries to con him into a roll in the hay, but he declines. Despite her odd behavior and warnings from his maid, Elena (Sonny Cooper), Preston winds up hiring Terry as his personal assistant much to the dismay of his lady friend, Victoria (Elizabeth Saxon). Will Terry's plan to get every female Preston knows so that she can have dear old daddy all to herself succeed?

    This is an odd one. The incest theme will obviously and understandably turn some heads but the movie does a kinda-sorta-okay-not-really good job of setting up the why behind Terry's yearnings for her dad. It gets an A for effort, even if it isn't entirely convincing in that regard. Some strange flashbacks and weird flourishes of bizarre camerawork help to keep things visually interesting even when the movie slows down - and at about the half way mark it really does just that. Yet there's some novelty here, not just in seeing the sister of a rock n roll legend playing the lead in a sleazy drive-in picture but in the ways that the film addresses and dissects the relationship that does/doesn't exist between father and daughter in the movie.

    This is a weird film.

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    Both features are presented in new 2k transfers taken from the original 35mm negatives framed at 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen. There are some minor instances of print damage but nothing so serious as to prove irritating, while the colors are reproduced quite nicely. Detail is about as good as you can really expect while both films retain an appropriately gritty, grainy look throughout. Generally speaking, these look quite good.

    It's English language Dolby Digital Mono across the board, no alternate languages or subtitles options provided. Both films feature clear, well balanced audio though some minor hiss pops up now and again if you're listening for it. Nothing really too problematic though, the movies sound fine.

    As far as the extras go, each film is represented by its original theatrical trailer while Little Miss Innocence is also accompanied by the Teenage Innocence alternate title card. Static menus and chapter selection are also included.

    The Final Word:

    Vinegar Syndrome's double feature release of Little Miss Innocence and Teenage Seductress is a good one, offering up both movies in very fine shape in uncut transfers taken from the negatives. The movies themselves are trashy little melodramas that worth as much for the female cast members as for the stories they tell!








































      Posting comments is disabled.

    Latest Articles

    Collapse

    • Hot Spur (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Severin Films
      Released on: April 30th, 2024.
      Director: Lee Frost
      Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
      Year: 1969
      Purchase From Amazon

      Hot Spur – Movie Review:

      Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:53 AM
    • Death Squad (Mondo Macabro) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Mondo Macabro
      Released on: April 9th, 2024.
      Director: Max Pecas
      Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
      Year: 1985
      Purchase From Amazon

      Death Squad – Movie Review:

      Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:46 AM
    • Roommates (Quality X) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Quality X
      Released on: February 28th, 2024.
      Director: Chuck Vincent
      Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
      Year: 1982
      Purchase From Amazon

      Roommates – Movie Review:

      Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:10 PM
    • Night Of The Blood Monster (Blue Underground) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Blue Underground
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Jess Franco
      Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
      Year: 1970
      Purchase From Amazon

      Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:

      Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:07 PM
    • Phase IV (Vinegar Syndrome) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Saul Bass
      Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
      Year: 1974
      Purchase From Amazon

      Phase IV – Movie Review:

      Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:02 PM
    • The Bounty Hunter Trilogy (Radiance Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Radiance Films
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
      Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
      Year: 1969-1972
      Purchase From Amazon

      The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:

      Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this
      ...
      03-13-2024, 11:30 AM
    Working...
    X