The Defilers

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.

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.

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.

David friedman wrote this and it's no surprise. The acting is actually pretty good for this kind of film which makes it more realistic. Two young thrill seekers kidnap a girl and make her their slave. It is "purely for kicks" states one of the kidnappers but the other begins questioning his partner and wants to let her go sooner rather then later. Their life seems to consist of driving around town or making out on the beach with babes. This film has a reputation for being rough to watch for its subject matter but I think most will find it pretty tame. There is however a scene or two where they spank the girl and hit her with a belt but not much is shown. I found this film fairly entertaining but it is certainly not for everyone.

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.