The Defilers

The Defilers (1965)

** (out of 4)

Friends Carl (Byron Mabe) and Jameison (Jerome Eden) have a lot of great things going for themselves and especially when it comes to women. They've slept with most of the ones in town but when they meet Jane (Mai Jansson) they have different plans for her. Those plans include kidnapping her and forcing her into a warehouse where they're going to hold her as a sex slave. THE DEFILERS often gets called one of the best "roughies" from this period and I will admit that it's a notch or two above most but it's still far from a "good" film. I've always found these roughies to be a rather strange genre but what's even stranger is how popular they were back in the day. The female abuse here is all over the map but there's an early scene where a woman doesn't behave so the guy pulls her panties down right there and spanks her very violently. There are a few other scenes of women being slapped around but there's nothing overly graphic here. The rape sequences all take place off camera so there's nothing like that either. There is plenty of female nudity all around as every woman in the cast takes her clothes off at some point. The performances aren't all that bad and there are a few good touches from the director. THE DEFILERS isn't the greatest film in the world but it's certainly not the worse either. Fans of the genre should enjoy it.

Shown usually in a double feature DVD, Scum of the Earth was definitely more entertaining than The Defilers but I found them both equally tragic in how horrible films like this were made.

Something Weird doesn't do much with fixing the print which is jumpy and bad but it's still well worth a look if you love sleazy drive in fare. The film captures an awkward age between the sexual revolution and the early century moral values. "We need a CAPER!" & "I said KICKS! KICKS! not chicks, sheesh, next you'll be suggesting BEER!" Good movie for those who like this sort of thing.

Terrible acting but yet still interesting to watch.

Although quite tame by todays standards, this early roughie produced by the king of Exploitation David F. Friedman, and Directed by Lee Frost (Director of such drive-in classics like Love Camp Seven, and Chain-gang Women) is still enjoyable to watch if your a fan of Exploitation films. The story goes The Defilers are two hedonistic young men who, just for kicks, abduct a sexy blonde (Mai Jansson) as their own personal sex toy. They keep her in a litter, graffiti infested basement room, and when she does not go along with their plan, they beat her unmercifully until she submits. There is not much nudity this film (or Defiling as the title suggests), too risky for those innocent times when nudity on the screen was a big deal. Even the violence in the film is just downright cheesy in this day in age. But fun nonetheless to watch. The Opening sequence with a cool Jazz score is so cool!! They do not make films like this anymore. A lost art.

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.