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Released by: Raunchy Tonk
Released on: 2/24/2009
Director: James Landis
Cast: Arch Hall Jr., Helen Hovey, Richard Alden, Marilyn Manning, Don Russell
Year: 1963
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The Movie:
Three co-workers - Ed Stiles (Richard Alden), Carl Oliver (Don Russell) and Doris Page (Helen Hovey) - are driving through rural California towards Los Angeles to attend a Dodgers baseball game together. When they run into some car trouble, they consider themselves lucky that it happened near a gas station with a scrap yard behind it as they figure they can get the car fixed easily enough and be on their way. The mechanically inclined Ed takes a look at the car with some help from Doris while Carl wanders around the premises to see who is around to help out. Carl comes back to the others to tell them that no one is around, so they set to work on their own.
Things go from bad to worse when a hulking mono-browed guy with a gun and a pompadour shows up, a quite young brunette hanging off his arm. He holds the three up at gun point, takes their wallets, and bonks poor Carl on the head with his pistol. This beast of a man tells Ed that he'd better fix his car so that he and his lady can make a getaway. The three captives hold out hope that the cops are going to show up, particularly when they hear a police report on the radio about 'Charlie Tibbs and Judy Bradshaw' who have crossed into California after murdering some folks in Arizona. With this pair on the run from the law, it's only a matter of time before the fuzz show up to save the day, right?
Incredibly well paced and completely effective in its use of the scrap yard locations, The Sadist, loosely based on the exploits of real life criminal Charles Starkweather, could very well have gone on to influence better known and more commercially successful pictures like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with which it shares a similarly seedy tone. Writer/director James Landis really makes the most out of this very straight forward and deceptively simple story. By placing the film out in the middle of nowhere we realize almost instantly that our trio of good guys is in for some trouble and when it finally arrives, even if we know where it's going, the film becomes immediately suspenseful. Thanks to some stunning camerawork courtesy of Vilmos Zsigmond (who would go on to shoot The Deer Hunter and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind among many other notable films) the film drips with atmosphere and looks far more sophisticated than its meager budget ever should have allowed for.
As nice as the movie looks, however, it would be nowhere near as memorable as it is if not for the manic performance of Arch Hall Jr.. Having previously appeared in teen films like The Choppers, Eegah and The Wild Guitar, a trio of films written and producer by his father, The Sadist gave Arch Hall Jr. a seriously meaty role to bite into, and boy did he ever go for it! Snarling and scowling his way through the film, he's 110% menace from start to finish and he somehow manages to play the character completely straight will at the same time going so completely over the top that the picture borders on the surreal.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Raunchy Tonk presents The Sadist in a decent anamorphic widescreen progressive scan transfer that looks to preserve the film's original aspect ratio. There's minor print damage present throughout but this version is definitely in better shape than many of the supposed public domain releases that have appeared over the years from the likes of Diamond, Alpha and Brentwood. Contrast is usually pretty stable though there are some scenes that look a little bit on the hot side. Detail levels are generally decent enough for an older low budget film meaning that they're not reference quality but they're alright. The packaging states that this is a 'high definition transfer' and a Blu-ray release has been talked about online.
The English language Dolby Digital Mono, which appears here without any alternate language dubs or subtitle options of any kind, has a few audible pops here and there and a drop out or two but for the most part is quite serviceable. The dialogue is generally pretty easy to understand and follow and the levels are properly balanced. There is some minor background hiss present in some spots but it isn't overpowering.
The extras start off with a segment in which an off camera Ray Dennis Steckler, who worked with Arch Hall Jr. on films like Wild Guitar (which he directed and appears in) and Eegah (which he has a small role in), interviews the man himself about his career. While this sounds great in principal, the interview is fairly superficial with Steckler asking only the most basic of questions and getting fairly uninspired and bland answers from his subject. On top of that, the camera work in this interview, which was shot on a VHS grade camcorder (no production date is given), is pretty horrible. Interestingly enough, it looks like the interview was shot in the late Mr. Steckler's video store in Las Vegas (a guess on the part of this reviewer) as there are a bunch of Steckler VHS tapes evident in the background. Mixed into this interview are trailers for The Sadist, Eegah, The Wild Guitar and The Choppers.
Also included is the Arch Hall Jr. Video Songbook, which is simply a montage of all the musical numbers that have appeared in the man's films. There's nothing here that fans haven't seen before, but it's an amusing collection of clips. Rounding things out is a Reflections On The Film segment with Johnny Legend who talks about getting this and other Arch Hall films released by Rhino on home video in the eighties and who provides some welcome background information on the film an the filmmakers.
The Final Word:
A classic piece of low budget drive-in style filmmaking, The Sadist holds up really well almost half a century since it was made thanks to some great photography and an incredible performance from Arch Hall Jr..