The Defilers

This is a great DVD package from Something Wierd with two early sixties exploitation classics ("the Defilers" and "Scum of the Earth"), two great short subjects, three drive-in intermission promos(if you don't believe this world is gone forever, check out the butter-and-red-meat saturated 'refreshments' offered by the friendly drive-in snack bar!) , a great commentary track by David Friedman tracing the history of West Coast poverty-row movie production, and a dozen cool trailers for such masterpieces of cinema as "Banned" and "Sex Killer"! The folks at Something Wierd should be commended for a great job of packaging which captures the time period better than a thousand pretentious documentaries! For fans of the genre, I would give the DVD an eleven!

Of the two features, "the Defilers" is the'better' of the two, almost artistic in some sections, and although it's very tame by today's standards, I personally think it is a thousand times more sensual and interesting than the pro-forma 'erotic thrillers' the industry turns out today.

Saw this on DVD (along with SCUM OF THE EARTH) and was actually expecting it to be even sleazier after reading about it. The main character is a complete sociopath but this was fairly well-made. Good music some of the time and the acting was decent, especially Byron Mabe (who directed some films). The lead girl looked perfect and was completely believable (not from acting; just being the type). A 5 out of 10. Best performance = Byron Mabe.

This would have been completely unwatchable in color, but B/W lends itself to this kind of material. The barbarous freedom of the two young men is pretty frightening (especially in '65). I've seen a number of 60's "exploitation" flicks and this one scores some points (acting, mood, cinematography) and slightly better than most. THE AGONY OF LOVE is one of the better ones with Pat Barrington.

Amazing Friedman production, generally considered to be the first 'roughie', so it's black and white soft-core sex. Plus because there were restrictions as to how much sex action could be seen, we get violence instead. Great irony as others have noted that you couldn't show too much loving but you could show hitting. This is a bit slow in places and the cars, the girls and the guys all look more 50s than 60s but the flesh, the fashions and talk of 'kicks' brings us more into the period. The extent of slapping and spanking is astonishing and the sleaziness of the kidnapped girl's basement surprising. Friedman reckons this would get an 'R' rating today - he's living on another planet if he thinks it would even get made. Excellent key trash movie.

When the "nudie-cutie" and nudist camp films began to lose popularity, filmmakers like Russ Meyer, Doris Wishman and Dave Friedman began to add a little violence to the mix and shoot in black & white to get the look of old stag films. A simple tale of the abduction and abuse of a girl from Minnesota by two thugs looking for "kicks." Sure it's distasteful but Byron Mabe is very good as the more twisted of the pair of abductors, which is all the more remarkable when you consider that he was hired as part of the crew but stepped into the lead role immediately after the original actor froze in front of the camera. The DVD commentary by Friedman is a very informative and entertaining talk about the making and distributing of exploitation films like this and the hilarious array of characters he worked with in those days.

Two sociopaths, Carl (Byron Mabe) and Jamieson (Jerome Eden), kidnap, torture, rape and beat up young innocent Jane Collins (Mae Johnson). Why? For kicks.

Badly done and boring when not downright sickening. Most of the beatings are staged (badly) and heard but not seen, but Johnson's screams and crying sound way too realistic. The scene where she submits to Eden sexually is haunting--the look on her face will never leave me. She's not the only one tortured--many other woman are bitten (!!), slapped, beaten and in one truly disgusting sequence, a woman has her bare bottom hit again and again and again...To make the scene worse, she likes it and willingly has sex with the man who beat her!

Mabe is just dreadful as the lead psycho. His laughing and overacting quickly got annoying. Eden was actually quite good as the other one. He showed some good acting ability and actually gave credibility to some lousy dialogue. Johnson wasn't that good acting but, as I said, she was very realistic while being tortured. There's also tons of gratuitous female nudity (mostly topless) and a blaring score which gave me a headache.

Sick, pointless and dull--a truly terrible film.