Blast-Off Girls

Just for the Hell of It -- the sequel to She-Devils on Wheels -- is packaged on a double disk with another of Saint Hershell's masterpieces: Blast-Off Girls. I haven't watched JftHoI pending our next Exploitation Film Festival, but BOG charts unfamiliar territory for Saint Hershell: the rock 'n' roll flick. Unabashedly promoted as St. Hershell's "Hard Day's Night," Blast-Off Girls centers around a by-now familiar HGL archetype, the charmless blond man with inexplicable preternatural powers over all the babes in the vicinity, and his usage of these powers to direct a corps of three (3) geriatric but extremely tarted-up go-go chicks (actually, they're hens) to appear to be a screaming horde of teeny-boppers to beset what is likely the very rock-bottom jaw-dropping worst five-man combo in garage rock history, thus making them seem like the next Beatles. Zany antics ensue. Though the lead actor is good, he's no Tony McCabe; his presence is notable mainly for his ability to corrupt a straight-laced cop with reefer and his enviable collection of seasonal-colored jackets from Chadwick's of Boston. Best moments: chicken theme reaches zenith with extended and very special appearance of Mr. Rock & Roll HimSelf: Col. Sanders.

This movie is about a weasley looking, sheisty talent agent/promoter who thinks he's found pay-dirt when he comes across a funky looking band called the Big Blast.

Thinking there really dumb he goes about booking gigs for them, changing their image with tacky looking suits that would make you want to puke. Soon they get fed up with it and demand more money, so what does the greaseball do, he sets them up on a planned "dope" bust. He hires a goon to pretend to be a cop to snare them, and then blackmail them to work for the weasel promoter for free. Whats even more crazy is he hires young awesome looking lasses to disrupt the gigs to create hype for the band. What a con!!

This film is filled with great gigs of the band jamming, lots of cool pot parties with groupies. This movie is by far the best from the 60's about rock 'n roll bands trying to make it in the big black world.

True to Saint Herschell's form, Just for the Hell of It seems to have been filmed simultaneously with his uber-biker-chick flick, She Devils on Wheels. Much of the same cast, including two Teutonic tons of love, are on hand, but mostly to use up excesss film stock. Just for the hell of it, "teenage" hooligans with receding hairlines and middle-age spreads engage a reign of small-town terror that mostly involves wrecking a beatnik coffee house, if a beatnik coffee house was constructed of flattened refrigerator boxes stapled together and set-decorated by Carol Brady. In one scene they steal an inattentive mother's infant and stash it in a trash can. Yes, they terrorize cripples freshly emerging from the hospital.

Funny, predictable melodrama about a pop group and the manager who hijacks their career. An inferior pop band ("The Big Blast!") sells its collective soul to heartless, manipulative preppy Boojie Baker, who owns their name, their suits, their equipment -- and their girls! (The Blast-Off Girls are useful to the plot but too frequently offscreen.) Vocals and instrumentals are uniformly off-key and undistinguished, the band members have no distinct "look," and the record execs & promoters don't care, because "all bands sound the same anyway." Will The Big Blast submit to contractual enslavement and every indignity known to man? See the film to find out. For Lewis fans, there are small pleasures here -- the guy who played "Lang" in SCUM OF THE EARTH plays a similar, though more epicurean character here; Ray Sager from JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT and WIZARD OF GORE is Boojie's sidekick; Big Blast members had parts in THE ALLEY TRAMP (!), YEAR OF THE YAHOO, et. al. All in all, a fun film, but hampered by its cheapness and simplicity.

H. G. Lewis occupies a special place in film history; he's infamous because his blood-red gore films of the 60's and 70's were so shocking and audacious. I've enjoyed watching a few of his movies, but I have certainly not seen them all.

Nevertheless, I'd be willing to bet that "Blast-Off Girls" is one of his best-made films. I liked it a lot. Surprisingly, it features no graphic violence, and very little violence period. And surprisingly, it is driven by story and acting, both of which are fine considering the shoestring budget. I imagine there is a strong autobiographical side to this movie, because filmmaker Lewis really seems to loathe and despise the rotten, profit-grubbing main character:

Dan Conway plays "Boojie Baker," the all-too-believably sleazy band manager with big-time aspirations--he's working his way up the ladder (or so he thinks), chewing up and spitting out small rock bands; he entices his prospects with girls, and promises of "the good life," then books shows for them--but when the minimal profits roll in, he makes sure the band gets just enough of them to stick begrudgingly around. If they question his honesty, he lies and placates; if they accuse him of thievery and threaten to leave, he blackmails them. He's thoroughly detestable, and very enjoyably played by Conway.

Boojie's associates generally only tolerate him so they can go to his raucous parties (attended by the "Blast-Off" groupie girls of the title, who have basically nothing to do with the story). He doesn't really have any friends, and seems happy without them.

But Boojie's good luck runs out the day he takes on a musical group that is as naive as all the others, but possessing of a strong sense of justice. They object to his treatment of them, and plan an elaborate revenge, with the intent of screwing Boojie on a cosmic level. In classic morality-play fashion, Boojie gets his rightful desserts, although he does spin off at the end of the film (rather like Darth Vader at the end of "Star Wars"), minus one cheesy band but ready for new sleazy Boojie adventures. Don't kid yourself, the film seems to say; you might be lucky enough to send them off in some other direction, but Boojies don't go down easy!

In a twisted way, this is a charmingly optimistic film that suggests that decent people can exist in the entertainment world if they have the guts to stand their ground and oppose their oppressors. But "Blast-Off Girls" isn't really about the good guys at all; it is almost a study in Boojie-ness, a virtual diagram of the Boojies of the world, so that the viewer will be able to spot them should he or she have the misfortune to get into business relationships with them. The bands Boojie abuses wander in and out of the movie; but Boojie himself is ever-present--the sneering, evil star of this odd and fascinating picture. See it today!