Tara Diabólica

Always have your mechanic check the fuel pump before taking in an afternoon of baseball. But if you don't--be prepared to shake your head. Wince. Now run for your life! All good advice when dealing with "The Sadist." Arch Hall Jr. carves out one of the most demented portrayals in screen history. There is not a sliver of goodness in his contorted face or stooped walk. He drinks soda pop and wolfs down apple pie with ghoulish glee. He also kills people. Often. He hates cops and teachers. The movie has both present: three egg heads and two swine. A meal only a true psycho can savor. And does he ever. Along for the ride is his mute, sycophant lady friend--a Miss Manners reject. Together they torture the living daylights out of anyone who crosses their path. The director pulls no punches in realizing this stark land of visual terror. Surprisingly, the cameraman, Zsigmond, has gone on to win an Oscar and a raft of prime Hollywood assignments. Everyone else--in this 92 minute movie--only wishes to escape and catch a few innings of a good ball game. Instead, they all suffer from heat stroke and a terminal case of hooky from the rest of the world. Amen.

Three teachers are driving to Los Angeles for a Dodgers game when they're sidelined with car trouble. They pull into an automobile junkyard for assistance, but the place appears to be deserted. If only they were so lucky. It isn't long before they're set upon by the unhinged Charlie Tibbs and his silent girlfriend, Judy. Held at gunpoint and subjected to almost nonstop psychological torment by the murderous couple, the teachers may find this auto graveyard to be their final resting place as well.

Having been curious about it via a reference book, I made a point of catching The Sadist on TCM a few years back. I found myself ordering the Collector's Edition DVD the very next day. As far as 60's horror goes, I'd say it's close behind Rosemary's Baby. It's a tight little affair that doesn't take long to get going. Once the three teachers meet Charlie and his gal, it's wall-to-wall tension for the remainder of the film. Charlie is as unpredictable as he is sadistic, and these people are completely at his mercy. We're kept on the edge of our seat by never knowing what sick game he'll come up with next, or how long it'll be before he tires of his captives. I was impressed with the film's relentless, nary a hope nature. Some scenes are genuinely shocking, particularly for 1963. Who figured a soda pop could bring about such dread? The Sadist is really rather groundbreaking when you look at it. It can be seen as sort of a blueprint for some of the torture films that would follow in years to come. It's also worth noting that it's subdued shocks are more effective than the graphic shocks seen in the majority of those later films.

The acting is fine all around, but the film belongs to Arch Hall Jr. Long considered a camp king, he is chilling as the Starkweather-inspired sadist. He plays Charlie as a real oddball with some bizarre quirks and mannerisms. This could have come off as cheesy, but it doesn't. His performance feels authentic, and he is believably threatening... as long as he has a gun to hide behind, anyway.

It's also a wonderfully shot picture. Vilmos Zsigmond, who went on to award wins, delivers some stunning cinematography his first time out. With his keen eye and Landis' direction, a sense of desolation really shines through.

The Sadist is one that's not to be missed.

At the centre of The Sadist is Arch Hall Jr, the cult B-movie star with an appearance that, in one uneasy package, combined that of an Elvis and Michael J. Pollard. Hall Jr's film career was instigated by his producer-father Hall Sr, (himself the inspiration of a cult comedy, Jack Webb's The Last Time I Saw Archie, 1961), who saw his son appear in a succession of films in the early 1960s. They range from a favourite escaped-caveman-on the-loose film (Eegah, 1962), to z-grade rock 'n' roll flicks (Wild Guitar, 1962) and a surreally bad thriller (The Nasty Rabbits, 1964). All retain a loyal following, principally because how truly awful they are. Arch Hall's podgy screen incompetence, together with the risible screen scenarios he perpetually struggled through, virtually created a genre all of its own. By all accounts a reluctant participant in his father's cinematic aspirations on his behalf, Hall Jr happily disappeared from the screen after the dismal western Deadwood '76 (1965), and made a career as a pilot thereafter. The director of Hall's swansong, as well as several others of his films, was James Landis (not to be confused with the director of The Blues Brothers). Landis' career was a similar tale of pot-boiling exploitation work, tailing off into obscurity. Astonishingly, Landis also directed The Sadist. Inspired by the commercial success of Psycho, as well as the real life murder spree of teenage killer Charles Starkweather and girlfriend - the exploits of whom also inspired the better known Badlands (1973), The Sadist comes as a revelation to those used to the inept dross Landis and Hall Jr were responsible for elsewhere. It is as if, for once in their otherwise unremarkable careers, true inspiration finally took fire and they both found a vehicle they were born to make. Whereas Landis' direction can be listless and slack, here it is involved and with a sure sense of dramatic pacing. Where Hall's poverty-row rock 'n' roll persona had previously been laughably ineffectual, here his piggy eyes, intimidating pompadour, and lack of emotional sensitivity seem exactly right in a role that demands icy menace. In retrospect, his Charlie Tibbs is a part one might have wished on the young Elvis, before Colonel Parker shunted the singer off into dull family entertainment.

As others have pointed out, The Sadist's storyline seems amazingly prescient of those increasingly popular amongst modern film makers, such as Kalifornia (1993) for instance, or Breakdown (1997). More interestingly, its suspenseful structure, sweaty claustrophobia, peculiarly menacing protagonists and final chase scenes anticipate The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). Landis' film begins with the arrival of a sputtering car carrying three sweating teachers en route to a baseball game, whose mechanical failure strands them at an apparently deserted breakdown yard. Aboard the car are middle-aged Carl (Don Russell), an early thirties Ed (Richard Alden) and the beautiful Doris (Helen Hovey). While they are searching for spare parts, and the owners of the yard, the trio's initial apprehensions turn into real fear when confronted by gun-toting killer Charlie, and his silent girlfriend Judy (Marilyn Manning). Over the next 90 minutes the victims are subjected to a callous game of threats and violence as the tearaway threatens to kill them all before escaping.

Set almost entirely amidst the rusting clutter of a desert junkyard, The Sadist has a peculiarly intense atmosphere. A lot of this can be attributed to writer-director Landis' hand; a lot more is due to the crisp black and white cinematography of Vilmos Zsigmond, his first film. He went on to be an Oscar winner, responsible for the glories of McCabe And Mrs Miller (1971) and The Deer Hunter (1978). Much of The Sadist's effect is gained through the skillful filming of powerplay in carefully controlled cinematic space, creating virtues out of necessity in a found set, as Zsigmond's camera prowls menacingly along the ground and amongst wrecked cars, placing the tortured protagonists precisely in their dirt arena. Both at the beginning of the film (a chilling introductory voice over by Arch Hall, Sr) and at the film's climax, the audience is given a close up of Charlie's crazed, beady eyes peering out of the shadows - a striking effect, recalling Bela Lugosi's famous glare in White Zombie of 30 years earlier.

Zsigmond and Landis are here adept at creating powerful moments without a word hardly being said, such as the remarkable well scene when the prowling Charlie, naked blade in hand, contemplates the vulnerable and near hysterical Doris. Elsewhere they are equally adept at introducing suspense by an absence of action, using off-screen space in ways that reminds one of John Carpenter's finest moments. For instance in the opening scenes, during Carl's increasingly anxious exploration of the deserted yard shack, and the almost casual, short, pan down to where the phone line has been only too recently cut.

Hall's moronically sneering Charlie is the most unsettling character in the film and the only role where the actor put in any kind of effort, although even here his performance would have benefited from a little more little more light and shade. Having said that, the malevolent charisma he successfully exudes is still light years away from his regular cheerful mugging and, although he treads the thin line between drama and camp, to the viewer's relief, he never crosses it. Amongst the supporting cast both Don Russell as Carl (also the film's production manager) and Helen Hovey as Doris make their only screen appearances. The only real professional is Richard Alden, a talent later to appear in Tashlin's The Glass Bottomed Boat (1966) before sinking into similar obscurity. His cowardly character Ed, doomed to prevarication and indecision, is a surprising one, who eventually runs rather than fights, almost deserving Charlie's taunting. Well built, he could easily outwrestle and outmuscle his opponent. Early on it is clear that Ed is barely on first name terms with his female colleague - a state of affairs in stark contrast to the abrupt, sadistic insinuations practised by her tormentor who assaults her and pushes her face into the ground. Interestingly, Judy (Marilyn Manning, who also appeared much less impressively in Eegah) barely says a word through the piece but remains an ominous, mute chorus to Charlie's predations. It is her death which triggers the only show of emotion in the killer and which precipitates the final climax.

With its particularly effective use of chronology (the film occurs in 'real time' over 90 minutes, the passage of events punctuated by radio references to the missed sporting event) The Sadist maintains a tight grip over its running time and, given its trash origins, remains a substantial achievement well worth discovering. It's one of those films that restores one's faith in the B-move genre...

Forget everything else that Arch Hall jr. appeared in. This is one unforgettable, independently produced gem. I remember first seeing it in the wee hours of the morning many years ago and it left a horrifying impression.

SADIST doesn't impact through gore, but sheer psychological torment and absolute fear. No cute gimmicks, just a candid depiction of an excruciating incident. Struggling independent film makers should check this out as brutal proof of what an innovative artist can truly achieve with practically no money.

Three school teachers (two men and a young prim and proper woman) arrive at a deserted rural service station after having car trouble. From the word-go you have that apprehensive feeling that something is not right. Misfit Charlie Starkweather (Hall), along with his girlfriend, Judy, make their sudden appearance, holding them under the gun. Hall brilliantly portrays one of the most dangerous pychopaths in the history of cult cinema. He simply loves to intimidate, threaten and murder. Period.

He boasts to his next victims that he murdered the station owners and orders them to fix their car so he and his female partner-in-homicide can make their getaway. They've acquired an infamous reputation as road killers and are being hunted by the law.

What makes this film so powerfully suspenseful is that it follows real time from start to finish, imprisoning the viewer (like the victims) within every second by second development. YOU are definitely there and you have enough time to fearfully wonder what you would be feeling and doing if you were in the their unfortunate place. The photography is very impressive, utilising many unique angles, giving you a clear sense of the entrapping, isolating surroundings.

I won't be a clot and tell you what happens but I am confident enough to bet that you will be extremely freaked by a totally unexpected surprise/shock that haunted me for a long while after seeing it.

This film has so much integrity that it couldn't be camp no matter how hard it tried, but it does have the ironic humor in the respect that the joke ends up being on you. You won't be relieved by even the slightest ha ha, and I challenge the boys at MST3000 to try to lampoon this. I bet they can't. That's how effective this obscure, disturbing slice of cinema actually is. The kind of picture that no one has the courage to make in todays' commercially cowardly "Oh no! We'd better not offend anyone", movie scene. Pity.

If you don't believe anything I've said, then challenge me by checking it out.

Believed to be the first film production inspired by real-life killers Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate, the low budget effort "The Sadist" is a fine example of its kind: tense, affecting, sweat-inducing, and very well acted. Writer & director James Landis creates palpable suspense, and with the assistance of a capable crew (including cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond), gets a lot of use out of their desolate settings. This is one film that looks very good in black & white. One genuinely gets involved with these characters; our protagonists are all sympathetic and our antagonist is one hell of a dangerous psycho.

Three schoolteachers - Ed Stiles (Richard Alden), Carl Oliver (Don Russell), and Doris Page (Helen Hovey) - are on their way to a ball game when car troubles force them to pull into an isolated service station. Nobody seems to be around - that is, until Charlie Tibbs (Arch Hall Jr.) shows up, with his girlfriend Judy Bradshaw (Marilyn Manning) in tow. Charlie, feeling empowered by the gun he wields, enjoys dominating and intimidating the helpless trio. With little hope of any Cavalry riding to their rescue, they must rely on their wits to survive this situation.

Hall Jr. doesn't just dominate his victims, he dominates the whole movie, in an endlessly amusing and disconcerting performance, as he mugs, sneers, and hisses his dialogue, while also giggling in a manner inspired by Richard Widmark in "Kiss of Death". You wonder how Ed, Carl, and Doris are ever going to get out of this, and you do feel for them. Russell has one particularly distressing scene where he begs for his life, as Charlie has imposed a time limit on him. Ed is clearly the one person who stands the best chance of taking Charlie on should he drop his guard, or the gun, but he doesn't see an opening. Lovely Hovey (Hall Jr.'s real life cousin, in her only movie appearance) is good, but the slinky Manning is just as watchable, not having very much in the way of spoken dialogue but often whispering ideas to Hall Jr., encouraging him with childlike glee.

Directed with great efficiency by Landis, "The Sadist" has an incredible atmosphere and you can really see the sweat on peoples' foreheads here. You keep waiting and waiting for Charlie to get his comeuppance, resulting in a rather unexpected denouement.

Eight out of 10.