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One of the earliest of "roughie" films of the 60s, this cheap Florida film about how nudie photographers lure innocent cuties to shed their clothes and morals is pretty dull with only brief flashes of H.G. Lewis' brand of low-grade brilliance. Acting that ranges from overwrought to amateurish plus static direction keeps this from being a good film but a vicious belt-whipping scene keeps it from being too timid with its seedy subject matter. Look for much of the cast of Lewis' classic film BLOOD FEAST in this.

A naive and innocent teenage girl (Allison Louise Downe) is blackmailed into modeling in the nude for a photographer who is in league with a teenage gang whose boss illegally sells photos of teenage girls being abused and degraded.

First of all, let's get it out of the way: the father (Edward Mann) is possibly the worst actor who ever lived. Downe, on the other hand, does a great job, and it is interesting that she transitioned from nude victim to one of Lewis' longest collaborators.

Allmovie wrote, "Unintentionally funny and poorly photographed, this film certainly has its moments for connoisseurs of bad cinema, but others will find it tawdry and dull." This may be true, but to put it in the context of H. G. Lewis, it is actually one of his better-made movies and the film quality has held up well. Most of his films have awful prints, but not this one. Even the score seems pretty decent.

Directed by, according to the opening credits, a one Lewis H.Gordon. No fooling any student of horror or exploitation cinema, this of course was actually the legendary Herschell Gordon Lewis, famous for his gore movies. His former wife, Allison Louise Downe, stars as a naïve young woman who earns some much needed cash posing for photographs but eventually finds herself posing nude, with the threat of blackmail hanging over her. And indeed there is some nudity here, breasts and bottoms. Which is probably the purose behind this film, rather than the moral message. Acting is bad, as to be expected with a HG Lewis. One character, Larry, is meant to be a minor but was actually 30 years old when this was filmed. One nice touch is that although filmed in black and white there is a split second red blood splat on screen. I only watched this film because it was an extra on a blu ray of another Lewis film but I'm glad that I did. Turned out to be reasonably entertaining.

"Sandy Sinclair" (Sandra Sinclair) is a pretty blonde who, for unspecified reasons, feels forced to model in the nude for a photographer named "Harmon Johnson" (William Kerwin). Likewise, Harmon also feels somewhat trapped into photographing her because another man by the name of "Ajax" (Craig Maudslay Jr.) has threatened to destroy his studio if he doesn't cooperate. However, since both Sandy and Harmon are getting paid for their efforts, they reluctantly continue. Then one day, Sandy is told by the overall boss, "Mr. Lang" (Lawrence J. Aberwood), that she can essentially retire provided that she finds her replacement. She then recommends an attractive teenager by the name of "Kim Sherwood" (Allison Louise Downe) who is currently in high school but needs money for college in the fall. At first, she is told that the pictures will be relatively modest. However, as she continues, each session becomes more and more risqué to the point that she soon finds herself being blackmailed by another accomplice named "Larry" (Mal Arnold) to pose entirely nude. Fearing that her father might find out, she does as she is told, which then results in even further degradation from both Larry and Ajax. Now, rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that this was a relatively mild "exploitation" picture which leaves much to the imagination. Of course, the fact that this was produced in the early '60s probably has much to do with that. The acting was okay, but in any case, this was a very basic type of film which certainly won't appeal to all viewers. That said, I recommend it for mature audiences only.

Scum of the Earth (1963)

** (out of 4)

Early sexploitation film from director Herschell Gordon Lewis about a young girl named Kim (Allison Louise Downe) who starts posing for pictures for Harmon (William Kerwin) but soon she finds out that he's actually a creep and has naughty plans for her. While the first pictures were tasteful, he eventually gets her into bikini shots and then (gasp!) nude shots. SCUM OF THE EARTH is a fairly decent sexploitation picture but people should be warned that it's an early one and there's actually not any nudity outside of a clever nipple slip. I think this film is mainly going to appeal to fans of the director who must see everything that the drive-in maverick has made. For the most part this is a fairly entertaining movie, although it feels more like those exploitation pictures from the 1930's instead of something from the swinging 60's. There are a couple nice moments scattered throughout the film but for the most part it's just another morality tale warning young girls from taking their clothes off no matter how "simple" they think the pictures are going to be. As the film says, you might start off with your clothes on but there are perverts out there who want to see you naked. The film manages to have a couple fun performances from the two leads. I thought Kerwin was actually pretty good and believable in the role of the photographer. Downe isn't "good" by any stretch of the imagination but she brings a rather sweet and naive quality to the character that makes her work. At just 73-minutes the film seems a tad bit long at times but the director never slows the picture down too much.

An innocent girl Kim (Allison Louise Downe) is forced to pose topless to pay for her college tuition.

The script is actually pretty good (except for a few clunky lines) and the direction is VERY good--for Herschell Gordon Lewis. The man made a lot of infamous blood and gore films of the 1960s--they were badly acted, directed and scripted but the plentiful gore kept you watching. But with this film something happened--he photographed in B&W and he actually wrote a fairly good script. Also there are a few competently directed sequences. Still it's really a bad film because of one thing--the acting. It's just AWFUL!!!!! It's just beyond belief how bad everybody is in the film (especially Downe). Also, despite the subject matter, there is no nudity. They come close but this would probably get by with a PG-13 rating today. So, a pretty good script and direction ruined by lousy acting. I'm sure some people are reading this and thinking I've lost my mind but seriously--HG Lewis made a fairly serious, good film!

One hilarious mistake--at one point Kim gets a letter addressed to her in Detroit MI--yet all the exterior shots show palm trees that only grow in CA!!!!

Scum Of The Earth, is about a young girl named Kim, who is asked to do portraits for a photographer named Harmon. Kim, finds out how much she will be making and it will be enough to send her to college so she agrees to model for Harmon. Soon Harmon tells her that he wants her to pose topless for the photos and that she will be paid more than double what she was making before. Kim, is scared but agrees to do it. Kim, then releases she doesn't like what she has gotten into and the boss of these photo shoots named Lang, won't let her leave and soon Kim, finds out she is in for a lot of trouble. Scum Of The Earth, is written and directed by cult filmmaker Herschell Gordon Lewis, who is best known for his gory horror films such as Blood Feast (and this film stars a lot of the cast of Blood Feast) but this film is not a horror. It instead is a drama about an illegal pornography ring. I'am a big fan of Herschell Gordon Lewis's low budget B horror films and I like his non horror movies as well. They aren't the best looking or acted films but they are always guaranteed to entertain and Scum Of The Earth does that. The film is compelling and I wanted to see how the story would turn out and the film got more intriguing as it went along. I would've preferred if the film were perhaps a little longer but I did like what I saw and was entertained. Another entertaining B film from the master of gore Herschell Gordon Lewis.

While this was the, as yet, uncrowned Godfather of Gore's final film shot in B/W it was later said to have been one of the first 'Roughies' and proved so financially successful that many similarly deranged films would muckily follow in its wonderfully mucky footsteps! While probably a tad naive and quaint when seen today, 'Scum of The Earth' nonetheless maintains a strange fascination outside of it merely being a crusty ol' museum piece of celluloid history. Fans of fearless filmmaker, H. G Lewis will be only too aware of the inordinately likable, more than robust character actor, Bill Kerwin's place in the triumphantly bloody pantheon of proto-splatter history by his memorable performance in the iconic cannibal opus 'Blood Feast' (1967), so it is doubly thrilling to see future Ishtar idolator, Fuad Ramses (Mal Arnold) in his earlier guise as, Larry, the blithely abusive lackey to odious Lang (Lawrence J. Aberwood), the porcine head of this sordid, photographically reprehensible flesh-pot factory.

Ostensibly a cheaply made, moderately lurid morality tale, or to be pedantic, an 'immorality tale', this grubby-fingered monochrome 'expose' of crass female exploitation highlights the desperate plight of a guileless,Sherilyn Fenn lookie-likie, Kim Sherwood (Louise Downe) as she is crudely coerced into the unwilling role of 'glamour model' by arch manipulator, serial groomer of young women, Harmon Johnson (William Kerwin), erstwhile photographer, and full-time Heel! The grimily unsophisticated narrative very rapidly plunges ever deeper into the darkling mire of smut, since the fourth abject member of these insidious flesh wranglers is the vicious, over-muscled thug, Ajax (Craig Maudsley Jr.) who takes enormous pleasure in psychologically and physically assaulting these poor women into tearful submission in order to momentarily sate his openly sadistic lusts, perhaps, the estimable Mr. Lewis might have had some additionally powerful effects on future creators of extreme Japanese Pinku as well as single-handedly inventing the splatter movie genre! 'Scum of the Earth' simmers stagnantly to a marvellously melodramatic, all hellz' a poppin' climax, being tritely bookended with a pleasingly earnest voice-over from the mercurial mondo mastermind himself!

Appearing somewhat rudimentary in style and content, 'Scum of The Earth' is most certainly not without dramatic interest, since one can't help but readily sympathize with our ingenious protagonist's increasingly desperate plight, and there's an amusingly broad, almost pantomime-esque quality to her abusers nastiness! These sleazy smut-rakers and their outrageous machinations remain consistently fun to watch, perhaps a few years earlier these dastardly sinister archetypes of cartoonish despotism would have no less callously tied shrieking damsels to the train tracks whilst repeatedly swirling oily moustaches with hubristic aplomb!

Initially released on VHS by psychotronic curators 'Something Weird Video' many loons ago, it is certainly no small joy to view this formative example of H. G Lewis's trope-inventing filmmaking in much improved HD quality, perhaps not one of the more essential works from his inimitable cannon of kaleidoscopic, crimson-soaked lunacy, and while not the best place to begin investigating H. G Lewis's exhilaratingly orgiastic oeuvre but undoubtedly an important, hugely influential trashy B-Picture in its own right. Without belabouring the point, one can plainly see how utterly essential the charismatic, Bill Kerwin's myriad acting contributions have been to the continued relevance of H. G Lewis's extraordinary, convention-baiting, sin-suppurating, epoch-defining, heroically hyperbolic, celluloid freight train of midnight movie madness!

If anything of "SOTE" is to survive, it is the monolouge and direction of Lawrence J Aberwood's speech as Lang, where he dresses down a young model and the fury of the earth's mysogony pours fourth from his repulsive gob, as Lewis cuts closer and closer into this strange piehole of hell. I think it's probably the best sequence Lewis ever directed. If it appeared in a less rediculous film it might be more recalled, but I guess "Blood Feast" stole it's thunder. I like that when Lang knows the jig is up, he is pretty philosophical about ditching his business. I mean, how much money can you make selling cheap cheesecake in the High School underground? Aberwood's excellent work is matched by William Kerwin, who is quite believeable as the morally conflicted photographer. The rest of the cast stubbles along. As this may have been the first "roughie", there is only one rough scene and it's not that rough.

I was looking for another film called SOTE, but accidently ordered this one which I had seen years ago. The "You're dirty!" speech makes it more than worth seeing again.

Ridiculous, made for the drive-in, nonsense, though representative of the '60s B-movies atmosphere. Definitely a must see in order to understand what a bad movie is all about (although the 71 minutes will seem like forever). If the nude photo sessions were really nude, only then could the interest of the film rise... Instead, we have a PG rated movie trying to be daring and shocking, by showing the legs of its untalented starlet. Surely, a cult movie for our time, but not because of its quality. The only reason for "Scum of the Earth" to remain in our memory is the lesson it offers to the film makers as to what they should NOT do.

This early "roughie" directed H.G. Lewis is average, but has some interesting dialogue. The main actress is SO TERRIBLE she actually seems to be this naive girl! Otherwise, well-cast and shot. A 4 out of 10. A great final shot! It's a bit long but the second half tension improves the conglomerate of bad taste. A definite morality tale. Herman Hesse would be tickled!

This must have been fascinating to see on it's release in 1963. The photographer with the strange-colored hair seems pretty realistic and I can't imagine where they found the lead girl. It's almost as if she was coached to be the complete amateur with bad timing and unbelievable pauses between lines of dialogue, but somehow she makes it work. Worth seeing.

I watched "Blood Feast" last weekend - also included on the same blu ray is the film "Scum of the Earth!" - another Hershall Gordon Lewis, which I decided to watch this weekend. It's a tawdy affair, and quite slow moving.

Having reached the end of her rope, Sandy (Sandy Sinclaire) begs pornograhpher Lang (Lawrence Wood) to let her go. He decides that he will stop shooting with her, provided she brings in her replacement, the naïve Kim (Vickie Miles). Harmon (Thomas Sweetwood) who takes the photographs slowly convinces Kim to reveal more, until they have enough to blackmail her to continuing. Then they introduce Ajax (Craig Maudsley Jr) a brutal thug who has no concerns about the girl's willingness to perform with him, in front of the camera.

Much like "Blood Feast" were in the realm of low budget exploitation films here. As a result of that, the actors, some of whom are using pseudonyms for the film, are again not particularly strong. The film does, somewhat, try to have its cake and eat it too by having the pornographers as the villains, but also by showing you it's female leads topless. That said, I didn't find any of those moments sexy as, we know that the characters have been tricked, blackmailed or threatened into it. Not since "Three Billboards" have a seen a character so underserving of his heroes turn at the end of the film

My main flaw though was that it was slow.

Tough to recommend for anyone but the Lewis completists.

Ah, yes, a roughie from master of gore, Herschell Gordan Lewis. I thought the acting of this film was actually fairly decent for a film like this. A naive and innocent teenage girl slowly gets blackmailed by a photographer to do photo shoots in the nude. Yes, there is some bad acting from a few people but the two leads do a decent job. One actor who doesn't come off well is the scummy boss who sells pictures of naked women. However, he is so bad that he's actually pretty memorable with his campy dialog. The way the scene is shot makes it seem like it's a really important scene which makes it even more amusing. I did, however expect this film to get more down and dirty with it's subject matter. Lewis has pushed boundaries with his gore films and should have tried to do the same here. It's not a terrible film but it does feel like the director pulled a few punches.

"Scum of the Earth" is a thoroughly entertaining sleazy-B from one of the masters of exploitation filmmaking, Herschell Gordon Lewis (credited here as "Lewis H. Gordon"). It stars his then-wife, Allison Louise Downe, as Kim Sherwood, an innocent young woman who agrees to start posing for shady photographer Harmon Johnson (William Kerwin, a familiar face in HGL movies). Unfortunately for Kim, the pics are intended to get more and more trashy and brutal, in order to make them sell. When she tries to back out, she's harangued by smut peddler Mr. Lang (Lawrence J. Aberwood), and agrees to some nude shots in the hopes that she will soon be free and clear.

HGL considered this a "transitional" picture in his filmmaking career, as it was his last feature to be shot in black & white, and it's credited with starting a new sub genre of exploitation known as the "roughie": a low budget film that would combine sex and violence in a gritty manner.

While some viewers may feel that "Scum of the Earth" doesn't quite go far enough, it's still zippy and trashy enough to hum along nicely. It does feature an appropriate amount of nudity, and if people are still feeling squeamish regarding the story's treatment of women, much of its nastier stuff is left to the imagination rather than explicitly played out on screen. It's an entertaining, amusing tale, scripted by Lewis himself, and does feature some genuinely scummy characters like Lang, under age cretin Larry (Mal Arnold, the villain in "Blood Feast") and especially the sadistic monster Ajax (Craig Maudslay Jr.).

The performances range from perfectly acceptable (Kerwin, Downe, Arnold, Maudslay, Aberwood, Sandra Sinclair as the weary Sandy) to completely amateurish (Edward Mann, playing Kims' dad, is just reciting lines instead of actually giving a performance). The show is completely stolen by Aberwood, whose brief rant at Kim is the unqualified highlight of the tale. Familiar to anybody who's seen the promo sequence on all Something Weird DVD's, it includes such choice lines as "You're damaged merchandise, and this is a fire sale!".

Overall, a worthy viewing for people eager to delve into HGL's filmography.

Eight out of 10.