TEMPLE OF SCHLOCK: RAPE VICTIMS (1975)

Thursday, May 21, 2009

RAPE VICTIMS (1975)

Just a couple of days after Erich Nuechman at Acidemic very nicely described our blog as "both 'Adults Only' and mega-watt trash-art yet tasteful," here we are posting about a hardcore porno flick, and a pretty foul one to boot. Newlywed Bonnie (Pamela Brown a.k.a. Ursula Austin) can’t make love to her husband without seeing the taunting, stocking-covered face of the maniac who sexually assaulted her as a college student. So she joins a therapy group for rape victims, which provides the classic “You’ll never believe what happened to me last week…” porno story structure. When male rape victim Phillip (David Chase a.k.a. David Williams) drops in at the 20 minute mark to tell the group how he was tied up and molested at knifepoint by two tough gang chicks (one of them played by a young Vanessa Del Rio under the pseudonym "Violet Reason"), the average porn hound will have to be milking it with his eyes closed not to predict the Roald Dahl-style denouement. I suppose the big attraction for the 8th Avenue crowd would be the setpiece in which two men drag a terrified woman into an abandoned building, strip her, cover her with car grease, double-team her, and then clean her off with a golden shower, while selected cuts from Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s Tarkus blare on the soundtrack.

We’d normally give something like this a wide berth, but RAPE VICTIMS caught our attention a few years ago when Critical Condition ‘zine editor Fred Adelman revealed the true identity of the film's director, "Mr. Mustard," on the AV Maniacs message board. A nom de porn usually employed by producer Richard Mailer, the "Mr. Mustard" who called the shots on RAPE VICTIMS was actually the late character actor John Alderman (pictured below in CANNONBALL).

Because he was born in Syracuse, NY -- the original home of Temple of Schlock -- and frequently turned up in movies directed by Jack Starrett, Lee Frost, Gary Graver and Andy Sidaris, Mr. Alderman holds a special place in our hearts. We were aware that he had directed the softcore LISA'S FOLLY in 1970 and appeared under the pseudonym "Frank Hollowell" (sometimes hiding under wigs and fake beards!) in a number of the hardcore flicks Graver made as "Robert McCallum," but his involvement in something called RAPE VICTIMS was news to us and we wrote to Fred for details. Here's his response:

"RAPE VICTIMS was filmed in the Spring of 1975 partly at William Paterson University in New Jersey. John [Alderman] was a pretty nice guy and made no excuses for himself for making this. He considered it a job, just like his many appearances in B movies during the 70's. I helped with the lighting and camera setups while this was being filmed in a dorm room (most of the students were away on Spring Break at the time) and it was being filmed without the University's knowledge. I did see RAPE VICTIMS at some porn theater about a year later, but haven't seen it since. It's not a particularly good porn film, but it was a hoot seeing some of my work on screen. I even appeared in one of the crowd scenes."

Thanks for the inside information, Fred! We knew DEBBIE DOES DALLAS was partially filmed at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn (Po-Man's alma mater), but now we're wondering how many other colleges and universities have unknowingly had hardcore porno flicks shot on their premises!