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Released by: Pathfinder Films
Released on: 12/2/2003
Director: Ray Greene
Cast: Forrest J. Ackerman, Samuel Z. Arkoff, David Freidman, Roger Corman, Peter Bogdonavic, Doris Wishman, Harry Novak, Vampira, Dick Miller
Year: 2001
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The Movie:
Even the least seasoned among cult movie fans has heard of exploitation films and most are at least reasonably familiar with various sub genres such as nudie cuties, roughies, nudist camp films, gore films, and the low budget horror and science fiction films that came before, during, and after them. Schlock! The Secret History Of American Movies puts the camera in front of those who made these movies and gives the godparents of American exploitation a chance to tell their stories.
Obviously a film that attempted to cover the entire genre would have to run hours and hours in length, if not days or even weeks as there are so many great stories and lurid histories to thousands of low budget, independently produced movies and the handle of 'exploitation film' is so loosely defined that one could probably easily argue that any film is in fact exploiting something. What writer/director Ray Greene attempts with this movie isn't to give you a concise history of the history of these films, but let those who made the movies, or at least some of the better known ones, tell the stories themselves.
Legendary 'exploiteers' (as the film refers to them as) such as Roger Corman, David F. Friedman, and the late Doris Wishman and A.I.P. honcho Samuel Arkoff are interviewed as well film historians and genre spokespeople such as Forrest J. Ackerman of Famous Monsters Of Filmland fame, and Maila Nurmi, better known to movie buffs as Vampira, star of the Movie Macabre TV show and of course, Plan 9 From Outer Space.
Greene's camera affords ample opportunity for the tried and true pioneers to talk about how they came into the business, what kind of movies they made, why they made them, and what the end results were. A lot of the focus of the film is on personal anecdotes relating to the production of movies such as Nude On The Moon and Blood Feast but an equal if not larger portion of the film is spent discussing the marketing strategies that made these movies so successful in the first place.
Plenty of clips from the movies discussed are interspersed liberally throughout the interview footage and the end result is a very well put together film that is quite interesting even to those well versed in the material at hand. True, many of us already know much about the history of those involved, some of us may even know more than what's divulged in the films all too short 89 minute running time, but few of us have had the chance to sit down and listen to these characters give us their own personal spin on their lives and careers and this is what Schlock does well. In fact, I remember meeting David Friedman at one of his Chiller Theater appearances a few years back and after having him sign my Blood Trilogy box set, just standing around listening to the extremely amicable man tell some stories and thinking how interesting he was to listen to. With Schlock, not only do we get to listen to Friedman tell his story, but we get the eccentric Ms. Wishman, thrown into the mix as well as Novak, Corman, Arkoff, Dick Miller, Vampira, Ackerman, and Bogdonavich, thrown in for good measure. All of the subjects interviewed are fascinating to listen to and Schlock! The Secret History Of American Movies serves very nicely as a nice time capsule of an era where budgets were low and the drive-in was king and should serve nicely as an addition to the library of any fan of American cult movies.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The documentary is presented in a 1.33.1 fullframe presentation, which is how the film was composed. Colors are nice and strong and despite the presence of some slight edge enhancement in a few scenes, this is a pretty solid transfer. Even the archival footage, of which there is a lot, looks pretty decent save for a few clips that are a bit worse for wear.
An English Dolby Digital 2.0 track adorns the disc and considering that the film is almost entirely dialogue driven, it gets the job done just fine. Are sound effects going to wiz past your head out of the rear speakers? No. Is a thundering bass going to erupt from your subwoofer? Nope. But will you be able to easily comprehend everything that is said during the interviews and archive clips? Yep. And that's all you really need for this type of film, and this disc does a nice job of it.
Pathfinder has slapped together a pretty pleasing assortment of bonus features for this release. First up is a full-length audio commentary with writer/director/editor Ray Greene who is joined by co-producer Wade Major. These guys seem to have a lot of love for the material covered and it's nice to hear them give their thoughts on the film they made and the interviewees as they do on this track. In addition, we've got a behind the scenes snippet a piece for Harry Novak, Doris Wishman, and David Friedman. These are interesting little looks at these folks doing their thing and talking it up for the camera. Friedman in particular does a nice job simulating a carnival style sales pitch, which effectively demonstrates his sales strategies in regards to the films he made/wrote/produced/etc. as well. Moving right along we find a moderately interesting radio interview from KPCC that was done around the time that the film was released theatrically to some arthouse and festival theaters. Text bios for the cast members and director are also supplied and are nice to have on the disc as a reference. A brief but interesting gallery of exploitation art is provided in a still gallery on the disc, and each piece displayed does related back to the documentary so this ties into the feature quite nicely. And finally, my favorite of the extras is a short film made by Connecticut Yankee Power to promote nuclear power entitled The Atom And Eve which features a buxom housewife dancing amidst all her house hold electronic gadgets, all of which are of course powered by nuclear energy in the safest and most efficient manner possible.
The Final Word:
Schlock! The Secret History Of American Movies may not provide tons of new information but it does provide the opportunity to listen to some of the legends of the genre, a few of whom are no longer with us, tell their stories in their own words and for that reason alone it gets a solid recommendation. The plentiful extras are a very nice icing on the cake.