The Defilers

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.