Scum of the Earth

"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.

"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.

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!

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.

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.