Flesh Feast

In the 1940s, Veronica Lake made a meteoric rise to film stardom, thanks to her sultry beauty and, her highly exploited "peekaboo" hairstyle. She starred opposite big names like Alan Ladd and Fredric March, scoring screen successes in films like "This Gun For Hire" and "I Married A Witch". She held her own with female stars as well, and she surprised even her detractors with her performance as a bitter navy nurse in "So Proudly We Hail". But changing times and her own failings caught up with her, and by the end of the decade, her heyday was over. With two unsuccessful marriages behind her (and two more in her future) Veronica headed for New York City, where she made occasional television and summer stock appearances before dropping completely out of sight. It was briefly big news when she was found working as a barmaid in a second rate hotel in the early sixties. But by now, her longtime alcoholism and years of hard living had robbed her of her looks. Without them, public interest in her soon faded again. She did return to the stage in assorted vehicles, but her success was minimal. Eventually, she relocated to Miami, Florida, where she lived in relative obscurity. In 1966 she went to Canada for a part in an obscure movie called "Footsteps In The Snow" which had no U.S. release. The following year, she was discovered by some industrial filmmakers who had long wanted to produce a commercial feature. They approached her to star in their film "Time Is Terror" and convinced her to invest in the project. As one author put it, "If ever a movie queen suffered a terminal comedown, this was it". Surrounded by amateur performers and pathetic production values, she failed even to rise to a minimal level in this Miami, Florida shot quickie. Looking utterly ordinary in long shots, and luridly aged in close-ups, poor Veronica didn't act so much as walk through her part. As a deranged doctor, who has hit upon a successful youth restoration formula, using flesh-eating maggots!, she looks both bored and confused, her best moment coming when she is forced to ad-lib while she struggles desperately to don a pair of rubber gloves. The supporting cast is no help at all,merely advancing the plot by talking it to death, (when they aren't wandering aimlessly around the set, that is). Director Brad Grinter apparently only required the actors to move while the camera was pointed at them,so the fault isn't entirely theirs. As for the ''twist ending'' involving an attempt to put a supposedly long dead Dictator back in power- forget it. Just like the script does. There is, admittedly, one unintentionally hilarious scene involving a Private Detective/Nurse and a corpse in a wheelchair that predates ''Weekend At Bernie's'' by almost 20 years.)But there's a whole lot of nothing before you get there. According to Veronica herself, the film was shelved for three years because no master shots were filmed. Then, in 1970, the opportunistic production company scraped it together, changed the title to "Flesh Feast", and released it to cash in on Lake's just published biography. Because former leading ladies such as Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Olivia De Havilland had unexpectedly revived their careers in horror movies, this travesty was promoted as Veronica's "comeback film". This was a strange course of action for the filmmakers to pursue, though, because it's unlikely that the audience for a horror movie of THIS quality either knew (or cared) who Veronica Lake was. As expected, it did nothing for her career, and she died in poverty, three years later. A previous reviewer cites a scene in which the female detective working undercover as a nurse in the doctor's laboratory (overseeing the theft of bodies from a nearby morgue) enlists the help of a multi-talented chauffeur to cut up the body parts. "Poor Mrs. Lustig," she sighs, "I hope she doesn't mind leaving her body to science." "Try not to think about it," advises the chauffeur, sawing away. "I guess you are right, Hans." concludes the detective/nurse, "What is done is done." Alas, the unintentional humor is the only remotely entertaining part of this tripe. What a sad end to the career of a still fondly remembered star.

Flesh Feast (1970)

BOMB (out of 4)

Yes, sadly Veronica Lake's final film is as bad as you've heard. In the film a newspaper editor starts to do some investigating after his star reporter phones him up on a hot story only to soon after be murdered. The story then turns to Dr. Elaine Frederick (Lake), a mad scientist who is doing work on dead tissue for a secret experiment. FLESH FEAST is without question one of the worst horror films out there and the only question it really leaves the viewer with is if it's actually worse than director Brad F. Grinter's next movie BLOOD FREAK. No matter how you slice it this is a really bad movie that has very little going for it. I read a lot of posts with people asking why Lake would appear in something like this but the biggest question is why she'd put her own money up for a project like this. However, if you really think about it it's rather clear that her career wasn't going anywhere and I'm sure many told her that appearing in a film like this would get her name back out there and that the genre was easy to make money in. I'm really not sure where to start on the badness of this film but lets just say that there's really nothing good to mention. The performances are all extremely bad, although Lake doesn't come off as bad as she could have. Just check out the one lady who witnesses some "meat" in a basement around the forty-eight minute mark. The woman goes into a hysterical scream but before she runs out of the basement she turns to check out what made her scream again. The direction really can't be found but I'm going to guess that the main job was to bring it in on budget. The story itself is all over the place as it seems to jump around whenever it wants and without any explanation. The only half-way decent thing going on is the big twist in the final minutes, which has sadly been ruined by most reviews (even Leonard Maltin) that give it away. It's certainly campy to the extreme and it's a shame the rest of the movie wasn't as campy so that it would have been more entertaining. The 72-minutes really drag along and there's really nothing more that can be said.

Flesh Feast is a film not worth viewing or seeing, it was sad to see Veronica Lake make this her last film. She was a pin-up girl for our G.I.'s during World War II and had great sex appeal with her sexy hair style covering her eye. Veronica was not appreciated by the film industry who placed her in B movies throughout her career. This film was her last effort to get back into the business after a long struggle with drinking problems. Flesh Feast and its maggots are all for the garbage can.

FLESH FEAST stars Veronica Lake as Dr. Elaine Frederick, who is working on reversing the aging process through maggots (!). It's obvious that more is going on. Dr. Frederick's experiments have attracted attention from various people, including agents from South America who represent someone known only as "The Commander".

After much absurdity and meandering, fake bodies are dumped into the maggot vat. If all goes well, this will help "The Commander" to bring about his plan for world domination. It becomes clear who "The Commander" is, though it doesn't become any more interesting, as the story plods along.

In spite of its promising title, this movie is mostly driven by idiotic, mind-searing dialogue, having little to do with whatever the "plot" is supposed to be. The tedium is only broken up sporadically by some giggle-inducing scene, like the discovery of a "mutilated body" that resembles a life-size sculpture made of Play-Doh!

A cinematic abomination that requires a soul of steel and several special beverages per viewing.

P. S.- Henceforth, I want to be known as "The Commander"...

I'm always game for low budget films of any genre because every now and again you run across a gem. "Detour" has popped up as a noir masterpiece and "Night of the Living Dead" has become a cult classic. So maybe "Flesh Feast" would be worth a look. That was my first mistake.

It appears that there is not much story line and what there is makes no sense...maggots that chomp on your face and reverse the aging process....huh?? And then Adolph Hitler pops up. But besides this weak premise, there is absolutely nothing to recommend about this film. It appears to be shot in somebody's basement with an old Bell and Howell home movie camera. The acting of all involved is atrocious which leads me to Veronica Lake.

I realize that Miss Lake was down on her luck and had alcohol and mental problems but was it so bad that she had to end her career with this horror? I don't have to review her career from the 1940s and her wonderful films with Alan Ladd. She was the pin-up girl with the hair to die for. Her descent into oblivion really started when she cut her peekaboo hair and it was suddenly revealed that she really wasn't quite as beautiful as she appeared. Since her stardom depended upon her looks rather than her talent, it was all down hill. Luckily, many of her fans don't even know that this film exists and it is just as well. To see her fall to these depths is so very sad. She was such a treasure of her time.

Avoid this film at all costs. It has no redeeming qualities and will only depress you to see Miss Lake hitting bottom.