Scum of the Earth

If anything of "SOTE" is to survive, it is the monolouge and direction of Lawrence J Aberwood's speech as Lang, where he dresses down a young model and the fury of the earth's mysogony pours fourth from his repulsive gob, as Lewis cuts closer and closer into this strange piehole of hell. I think it's probably the best sequence Lewis ever directed. If it appeared in a less rediculous film it might be more recalled, but I guess "Blood Feast" stole it's thunder. I like that when Lang knows the jig is up, he is pretty philosophical about ditching his business. I mean, how much money can you make selling cheap cheesecake in the High School underground? Aberwood's excellent work is matched by William Kerwin, who is quite believeable as the morally conflicted photographer. The rest of the cast stubbles along. As this may have been the first "roughie", there is only one rough scene and it's not that rough.

I was looking for another film called SOTE, but accidently ordered this one which I had seen years ago. The "You're dirty!" speech makes it more than worth seeing again.

"Scum of the Earth" is a thoroughly entertaining sleazy-B from one of the masters of exploitation filmmaking, Herschell Gordon Lewis (credited here as "Lewis H. Gordon"). It stars his then-wife, Allison Louise Downe, as Kim Sherwood, an innocent young woman who agrees to start posing for shady photographer Harmon Johnson (William Kerwin, a familiar face in HGL movies). Unfortunately for Kim, the pics are intended to get more and more trashy and brutal, in order to make them sell. When she tries to back out, she's harangued by smut peddler Mr. Lang (Lawrence J. Aberwood), and agrees to some nude shots in the hopes that she will soon be free and clear.

HGL considered this a "transitional" picture in his filmmaking career, as it was his last feature to be shot in black & white, and it's credited with starting a new sub genre of exploitation known as the "roughie": a low budget film that would combine sex and violence in a gritty manner.

While some viewers may feel that "Scum of the Earth" doesn't quite go far enough, it's still zippy and trashy enough to hum along nicely. It does feature an appropriate amount of nudity, and if people are still feeling squeamish regarding the story's treatment of women, much of its nastier stuff is left to the imagination rather than explicitly played out on screen. It's an entertaining, amusing tale, scripted by Lewis himself, and does feature some genuinely scummy characters like Lang, under age cretin Larry (Mal Arnold, the villain in "Blood Feast") and especially the sadistic monster Ajax (Craig Maudslay Jr.).

The performances range from perfectly acceptable (Kerwin, Downe, Arnold, Maudslay, Aberwood, Sandra Sinclair as the weary Sandy) to completely amateurish (Edward Mann, playing Kims' dad, is just reciting lines instead of actually giving a performance). The show is completely stolen by Aberwood, whose brief rant at Kim is the unqualified highlight of the tale. Familiar to anybody who's seen the promo sequence on all Something Weird DVD's, it includes such choice lines as "You're damaged merchandise, and this is a fire sale!".

Overall, a worthy viewing for people eager to delve into HGL's filmography.

Eight out of 10.

Scum of the Earth (1963)

** (out of 4)

Early sexploitation film from director Herschell Gordon Lewis about a young girl named Kim (Allison Louise Downe) who starts posing for pictures for Harmon (William Kerwin) but soon she finds out that he's actually a creep and has naughty plans for her. While the first pictures were tasteful, he eventually gets her into bikini shots and then (gasp!) nude shots. SCUM OF THE EARTH is a fairly decent sexploitation picture but people should be warned that it's an early one and there's actually not any nudity outside of a clever nipple slip. I think this film is mainly going to appeal to fans of the director who must see everything that the drive-in maverick has made. For the most part this is a fairly entertaining movie, although it feels more like those exploitation pictures from the 1930's instead of something from the swinging 60's. There are a couple nice moments scattered throughout the film but for the most part it's just another morality tale warning young girls from taking their clothes off no matter how "simple" they think the pictures are going to be. As the film says, you might start off with your clothes on but there are perverts out there who want to see you naked. The film manages to have a couple fun performances from the two leads. I thought Kerwin was actually pretty good and believable in the role of the photographer. Downe isn't "good" by any stretch of the imagination but she brings a rather sweet and naive quality to the character that makes her work. At just 73-minutes the film seems a tad bit long at times but the director never slows the picture down too much.

A naive and innocent teenage girl (Allison Louise Downe) is blackmailed into modeling in the nude for a photographer who is in league with a teenage gang whose boss illegally sells photos of teenage girls being abused and degraded.

First of all, let's get it out of the way: the father (Edward Mann) is possibly the worst actor who ever lived. Downe, on the other hand, does a great job, and it is interesting that she transitioned from nude victim to one of Lewis' longest collaborators.

Allmovie wrote, "Unintentionally funny and poorly photographed, this film certainly has its moments for connoisseurs of bad cinema, but others will find it tawdry and dull." This may be true, but to put it in the context of H. G. Lewis, it is actually one of his better-made movies and the film quality has held up well. Most of his films have awful prints, but not this one. Even the score seems pretty decent.

An innocent girl Kim (Allison Louise Downe) is forced to pose topless to pay for her college tuition.

The script is actually pretty good (except for a few clunky lines) and the direction is VERY good--for Herschell Gordon Lewis. The man made a lot of infamous blood and gore films of the 1960s--they were badly acted, directed and scripted but the plentiful gore kept you watching. But with this film something happened--he photographed in B&W and he actually wrote a fairly good script. Also there are a few competently directed sequences. Still it's really a bad film because of one thing--the acting. It's just AWFUL!!!!! It's just beyond belief how bad everybody is in the film (especially Downe). Also, despite the subject matter, there is no nudity. They come close but this would probably get by with a PG-13 rating today. So, a pretty good script and direction ruined by lousy acting. I'm sure some people are reading this and thinking I've lost my mind but seriously--HG Lewis made a fairly serious, good film!

One hilarious mistake--at one point Kim gets a letter addressed to her in Detroit MI--yet all the exterior shots show palm trees that only grow in CA!!!!