Sweet Savior

As you may have read, it is indeed a very cheesy drama based on the Manson Killings. Actually, it's a "statement" film that doesn't "cop out". The film introduces our pseudo-Manson character,"Moon",who arranges sex parties for rich people and in his spare time introduces his friends to the last chapter of the bible while tripping. In the meantime the music is quite pleasing, and the whole film rolls by like an old record. If you enjoy Manson films, I think you'll be let down. The story is non-existent, but some swingers getting ready for an orgy nonchalantly as if going to a luncheon might be worth examining again. The characters are reduced to idiot strippers and goons. I loved that wild background score, so I can't say I didn't think it was a good movie, despite the desperate attempt to imitate what happened to Sharon Tate and others in August of '69.

A sleaze classic that was still haunting the VHS shops around Times Square when I visited NYC in the late 1990s, but has never made the jump to DVD or Blu-Ray. Former teen idol Troy Donahue does a remarkably against type turn as Moon, a bearded cult leader who leads his freaky followers to a sex and drugs party hosted by a heavily pregnant redhead actress whose famous film director husband is away abroad (subtle it ain't). Naturally things quickly get out of hand, with the actress and her decadent bourgeoisie friends finding themselves at the mercy of their hippie guests, who have bloodlust on their minds. It's a take on the Manson story, filmed with a Hollywood Babylon level of tabloid luridness, complete with cross dressing, lots of undressing, lesbianism, often side splitingly funny dialogue ("I was young, just a slip of a girl, and I loved cock, I loved it so much, I wanted one of my own") and a catchy, top drawer soundtrack by brill building legend Jeff Barry. Any resemblance to real-life figures is purely intensional. "I have a feeling it's going to be bigger than Love Story" -Troy Donahue.

Sweet Savior was made around the time of the Charles Manson murders and the main charcter (played by a shaggy haired Troy Donahue) is basically, a Charles Manson-like guru who brings his flock to the home of a wealthy couple where a party is going on. The film has a lot of scenes that are pretty sick. The X rating is not unwarranted. Still, one can't help but notice an important sub-theme: the magnetic allure and influence a charismatic figure may have on a simple minded person especially when that charismatic figure supplies drugs to the person. The film also shows the potentially fatal dangers of blindly following a leader, thus it has some significance. However, it's unlikely that the film makers had any social conscience in mind when they made this due to the film's exploitational nature and the mean spirit which pervades throughout.

Perhaps the initial draw of 'The Love Thrill Murders' is the novelty of seeing late-'50s teen heartthrob Troy Donahue play a Manson-like cult leader, but the movie holds up beyond this bit of stunt casting. With shoulder-length blond hair, a full beard and wearing a leather jacket, it's hard to believe is the same Troy Donahue who starred in "A Summer Place." In this New York re-telling of the "Manson family" murders of Sharon Tate and her house guests, Donahue is Moon, leader of a commune where sex, drugs, religious/flower child psychobabble and overwrought acoustic guitar songs are the order of the day (and pretty much in that order). In the movie's second act, Moon and a select few of his followers attend a party thrown by an actress who's supposed to be so famous she has to dodge tabloid reporters, yet she lives in a middle class suburban house and serves a spread that looks like church potluck. The actress' friends include a middle-aged playwright and his vapid girlfriend, a predatory lesbian and Fritzi, a gay man so effeminate he makes RuPaul seem butch. It's here that the movie becomes a cheesy soft core sex film (it's been diluted slightly from its initial release to get an R rating). After snacking on cheese puffs and smoking pot, the guests pair up. Oddly, to be members of a cult that espouses freedom from hang-ups, a couple of Moon's followers sure are whiny when assigned partners of the same sex. (Then again I wouldn't want to be paired with Fritzi, even if we are on the same team.) While the lesbian has her way with her pet hippie (who plays dead for the experience) and Fritzi dresses up in drag (the ploy wins over his jittery stud, even if Fritzi's get-up makes him look like Betty Thomas impersonating Tammy Wynette), the incomparable Talie Cochrane does a sexy dance for Moon. Then, after a subliminal flash of some orgy action, the killing starts.

'The Love Thrill Murders' is a sleazy, exploitive exercise (more so when it was first released, as 'Sweet Savior,' a mere two years following the Manson murders), but it's a fascinating movie nonetheless. Donahue gives an effective, understated performance, and Cochrane evokes a rough-trade sexiness that enables her to easily steal scenes from her more demure co-stars. Aside from the laughably unconvincing portrayal of upscale living, the production values are above average for this sort of film. This movie even has a fairly decent soundtrack, a cult-member's heavy-handed folk song notwithstanding. Director Robert L. Roberts was not one to let taste get in the way of his 'artistic vision.' After exploiting the Manson murders, Roberts sunk even lower in 1976 by writing and directing 'Patty,' a retelling of the Patty Hearst kidnapping laced with hardcore sex scenes. Both the movie and Roberts appeared to have faded into obscurity since.

I love most Troma movies and most Charles Manson based movies, so this was a real treat for me. Most of the movie is sort of a softcore porn, but twist to a massacre. Troy Donahue made a pretty good Charles Manson based character. Lyoyd Kauffman even makes a brief appearence as squeegee, but is very brief and he looks much different. I recommend this movie for sick people like me.