The Endangered List (Case File #114)

BABY VICKIE (1969)

Starring
Sharon Matt (Baby Vickie)
Sebastian Gregory [Tony Vorno](Tony)
Bonnie Clark (Lorne)
Bill Moore (Steve)
Barbara Kline (The Stripper)
Dana Raven (Vickie's Mother)
William Gary (Vickie's Father)

Directed by
Harold Perkins [John Hayes]

Produced by
William Dancer [Daniel B. Cady]

Written by
Harold Perkins [John Hayes]

Cinematography by
John Lyons

Running time: 75 minutes

MOTHER
You lay in a man’s bed, bear his child, raise it, clean it, teach it everything good, and then it disgraces you.

FATHER
Vickie is a good girl, everything will be all right, you wait and see.

MOTHER
Your daughter has been raped, don’t you realize that? Now we’ll have to move – to another town where nobody knows us.

FATHER
Everything will be all right.

The previous scene is the key to the meaning of the new Clover Film BABY VICKIE. Among the so-called “good things” that Baby Vickie was taught is that sex is dirty, and it is something we do not speak about in the home. Vickie believed in this, too.

Her only expression of sex is in dark, quiet places or in the back of the tailor shop owned by her father after everyone is gone and she can lock herself in. Vickie sets the expensive teacups and silverware on the table, sets the mood with music and lights, just before parting the curtains and admitting her lover, the store mannequin.

Vickie rejects the advances of Steve, the young man approved of by the parents. She runs from him through the dark streets and alleys finding herself lost in a remote section of the waterfront. She confides in a longshoreman buts gets beaten and raped.

One year later, Vickie and Steve are married. The feeling is one of gayety and young love as the two slip under the sheets on their wedding night. Vickie is unable to respond in this atmosphere of home and cleanliness. She sneaks out and returns to the scene of her rape. Vickie gets involved with all the lower forms of human life and finds satisfaction.

Innocent Vickie instinctively knows that love is beautiful, but her present involvement is not. She searches wide-eyed, opening herself to everyone regardless of sex.

At the climax of the film, Vickie is rejected and laughed at by all the people she has known. She surrenders completely and jumps up on the bar of a waterfront saloon.

Photo below courtesy of Bruce Holecheck

FRANCY'S FRIDAY (Endangered List Case File #98) has been found

Curt Ledger's FRANCY'S FRIDAY (a.k.a. PLEASURE WITH A TWIST), which we posted about here, is now available on DVD-R and for download from our friends at Something Weird Video under the title IT'S FRANCY'S FRIDAY. Look for it in their latest catalog supplement.

Movie Ads of the Week: 4 from Sig Shore

Before he made a name for himself as the producer of SUPER FLY, the late Sig Shore was a successful distributor of international films in the U.S. and responsible for bringing such diverse titles as THE 400 BLOWS, TAMANGO, THE ANGRY SILENCE, MY NAME IS IVAN, THE SWORD AND THE DRAGON and HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR to American shores. In this week's post we spotlight 4 movies released by Shore's short-lived company Plaza Pictures.

Romolo Guerrieri's UN DETECTIVE (1969), starring Franco Nero, opened in New York as DETECTIVE BELLI on December 16th, 1970.

Below is the ad from its Philadelphia theatrical run in March '71.

PIGEONS (1970), based on David Boyer's novel The Sidelong Glances of a Pigeon Kicker, premiered in New York on February 1st, 1971.

This second ad for PIGEONS stresses critical acclaim.

ONDATA DI CALORE / HEAT WAVE (1970), starring Jean Seberg, opened in New York as DEAD OF SUMMER -- the title of the source novel by Dana Moseley -- on March 9th, 1971.

SEDUTO ALLA SUA DESTRA / SEATED AT HIS RIGHT (1968), Italy's official entry in the 1968 Cannes Film Festival, made its U.S. debut in New York as BLACK JESUS on August 25th, 1971. The film's press junket included star Woody Strode's appearance at the Harlem rodeo later documented in Jeff Kanew's BLACK RODEO (1972).

Marvel spoofs FROGS and BLACULA

Our statistics went through the roof last week after we posted the Crazy magazine spoof of the SHAFT tv series (thanks in part to the referrals from our friends Marc Edward Heuck and Marty McKee on Facebook and Twitter, respectively), so we decided to dig one year deeper into the archives for this pair of parodies from an earlier Marvel Comics attempt to ride Mad's wave of success. The color comic book Spoof was only around for 5 issues, but it stood apart from its influences and competitors in that it seemed to eschew studio films in favor of ribbing the smaller but no less popular indy releases of the day, including 2 horror films from American International Pictures, FROGS and BLACULA. So without further ado, here's F-F-FROGS! from issue #3 (January 1973).

And heeeeeere's BLECHHULA! from issue #4 (March 1973). Enjoy!

Movie Ad of the Week: BIG BAD MAMA (1980)

Pre-release publicity for Brian De Palma’s DRESSED TO KILL admitted that a nude stand-in had been used for Angie Dickinson’s steamy shower scene opener. On July 11th, 1980 -- two weeks before the film reached theaters -- some bottom feeding southern sub-distributor re-released the 1974 drive-in hit BIG BAD MAMA with the promise that audiences would “see all of Angie.” Sleazy for sure, but no one could accuse him of false advertising! The co-feature, DING DONG, is the West German sex comedy DREI BAYERN IN BANGKOK (1976), released in the U.S. in 1977 by Pro International.

The Endangered List (Case File #113)

GAS CITY (1978)

Starring

Jeff Meyer

Gail Rosella

Barry Goren

Joyce Burdick

Stan Yale

Karl Krogstad

Written, produced, directed

by

Jeff Meyer

Photographed by

Joe Centenero

Sam Iaci

Music by

Eric Satie

Updating the IMDb: The Alternate Title Roundup

A handful of new alternate titles have recently come to our attention, but before we get to those, there's apparently still some confusion over whether or not Norman J. Warren's ALIEN-inspired birth-of-a-baby bloodbath INSEMINOID actually received stateside release under that handle. The answer is a very loud YES, and here's the proof: a May 1982 newspaper ad from Madison, Wisconsin. By the time the movie reached the New York City area six months later (on November 26th, 1982), the title had been changed to HORROR PLANET.

It's been almost a year and a half since we did a "Mystery Movies" entry on the Crown International obscurity KISS THE TEACHER GOODBYE, which was revealed by dedicated TOS reader and researcher John Black to be a re-release of HORROR HIGH. Lead actor Pat Cardi's name on the newspaper ad below should finally convince the IMDb to include this in their HORROR HIGH entry as a legitimate alternate title.

The sexy Tigon production ZETA ONE, produced in 1969 and co-starring Anna Gaël (THERESE AND ISABELLE) and Yutte Stensgaard (LUST FOR A VAMPIRE), was released stateside by Film Ventures International in 1974 under the title THE LOVE FACTOR. However, the newspaper ad below - from 1973 - indicates that Donn Davison, FVI's head of promotion, originally had another title and ad campaign in mind for the film.

Next we have another Donn Davison/Film Ventures campaign from 1973, for a British film titled A TOUCH OF THE OTHER (1970) but given its widest exposure in the U.S. as HOUSE OF HOOKERS. I love how Davison implies that it's based on a book, hoping viewers will confuse it with Xavier Hollander's memoir The Happy Hooker (which was still on the New York Times bestseller list at this point and had sold 4 million copies).

Back in March we did a "Movie Ads of the Week" post containing 5 ads for S.F. Brownrigg's DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT under 5 different titles (See them all here). Below is a recently found sixth alternate title, DON'T GO IN THE ASYLUM.

And just when you thought it was safe to close the file on Al Adamson's HORROR OF THE BLOOD MONSTERS, yet another alternate title has been discovered. Big thanks to our pal John Charles of Video Watchdog and the ByJohnCharles blog for sending along this ad for its October '71 run in San Antonio as PLANET OF THE BLOOD MONSTERS.

An Endangered List update

A few of the movies we've spotlighted in our ongoing and very popular series "The Endangered List" have recently become accessible to the public in one form or another. Win Chamberlain's counterculture spoof BRAND X will be screened at UCLA and Harvard in October and at the DOX Festival in Copenhagen in November. Check out the film's official website for details.

A 3/4 U-Matic film transfer of David Feldshuh's 1973 Minneapolis-shot indy JUST BE THERE (a.k.a. SWINGING TEACHER) was recently discovered by cinematographer Gene Borman, who will make a DVD-R for anyone interested. Write for details: geneborman@gmail.com

An English-language version of the long-sought-after Filipino kung fu/fantasy/horror pic BRUKA, QUEEN OF EVIL is now available from Video Screams.

The elusive jungle adventure BROTHER, CRY FOR ME (a.k.a. BOCA AFFAIR) has surfaced twice this year, but as a "top secret" title available for a limited time only from Shocking Videos. Keep your eyes peeled for it during their next advertised sale.

Leopoldo Pomés' outrageous ENSALADA BAUDELAIRE, which received a U.S. release under the titles ANDREA and SEX AND VIOLENCE, is now available from Cinema De Bizarre -- in Spanish, with no English subs.

And finally, the Temple of Schlock gang has acquired a nice 35mm print of Jerry London and Lloyd Schwartz's GOODNIGHT JACKIE (1973), under the title GAMES GUYS PLAY, and will be arranging a few screenings early next year.

Movie Ad of the Week: LADY TERMINATOR (1989)

This blood-soaked Indonesian knockoff of you-know-what blasted across 27 tri-state screens on June 9th, 1989 and sent out-of-town fanzine editors like yours truly scrambling to find Times Square correspondents to write it up (Roger Corman's water-logged cheapie LORDS OF THE DEEP opened the same day in many of the same venues, beating another James Cameron film to the punch by 2 months). SONNY BOY hit town a year later, but we consider Lady T. and her vagina serpens-dentata the last pure exploitation import to make a surprise appearance in the Big Apple.