GRINDHOUSE TRAILER CLASSICS: Satin’s Sadists

What do Jack Nicholson, Ed Wood Jr and Charles Manson have in common?

At some moment they’ve all crossed swords with the hardest-working shitkicker in drive-in movies, actor/stuntman/you-name-it extraordinaire GARY KENT.

Now in semi-retirement on his horse ranch in Texas, in 2010 Gary released his sensational autobiography “Shadows And Light/Journeys With Outlaws In Revolutionary Hollywood”, available through Amazon.com.

Gary talked to Andrew Leavold about his long and illustrious B-roll, and spilled the beans dodging death on wheels and UFOs, on cavorting with Monte Hellman, Ray Dennis Steckler and the Manson girls, watching the Psychedelic Sixties turn into the Summer of Hate, and the tragic death of his frequent director Al (Satan’s Sadists) Adamson.

The following is the interview transcript from Andrew and Gary’s discussion.

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IF MUSIC BE THE SPICE OF LIFE, THEN PUT IT IN THE CURRY DEPARTMENT: Teesri Manzil (1966)

Delirious musical number from Bollywood surfadelic murder-mystery Teesri Manzil (1966), starring the demure Asha Parekh as a country girl looking for her sister’s killer, and Shammi Kapoor as her prime suspect, the Elvis-in-waiting ‘Rocky’. In this clip, drummer Rocky attempts to pass himself off as the band’s singer, unleashing at least three costume changes, a Salvador Dali eye complete with dancing goils for eyelashes, and the erotic on-stage gyrations of veteran Bollywood bad girl Helen.

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HOORAY FOR NOLLYWOOD DEPARTMENT: “Fire In The Word”

If this all looks and feels like a home movie or student film, do not be deceived: Nigeria is one of the largest film industries in the world, generating billions from its staggering output of 1000 to 2000 features per year, mostly shot on digital cameras and edited on home computers. Nollywood has its own pantheon of stars, its own international distribution networks, and its own mutant genres (of which the “juju” or religious horror of FIRE IN THE WORD is just one), all of which operate as if Hollywood doesn’t even exist; in Africa they pirate their own movies, and snub the cultural hegemony of Angelina Jolie and co. It’s a brazen revolutionary stance, a “DIY Or Die” to the Western Monolith of Media Mediocrity, which we at Trash Video salute. After overdosing on these cut-down clips I’m starting to suspect the Nollywood Trailer is a brand new pulp artform with its own rules of Chaos, and over the coming months we’ll be bringing you our favourites. I assure you it will take a while to adjust your filmic sensibilities to the Nigerian aesthetic – the accent for one, the shouting of improvised lines, the primitive video production, the garish computer-generated effects, graphics and soundtracks – but like evangelical Christianity, once hooked you’re snared forever.

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BEYOND THE FRINGE DEPARTMENT: Drugs Are Like That (c.1970)

Back in the Seventies, Anita Bryant was a popular if milktoast chanteuse who doubled as a poster girl for Florida’s orange juice industry. Her fall from grace happened after Florida passed its anti-discrimination laws against homosexuals; being violently and fundamentally Baptist, she launched a hate campaign called “Save Our Children”, declaring in a hysterical tone that all homosexuals are potential pedophiles. Naturally she lost much of her liberal audience and the backing of the Florida Citrus Commission. But that same hysterical tone can be found in an earlier scare film aimed at Florida’s primary school population: in Drugs Are Like That (c.1970), we could almost believe drugs are a greater threat to the nation’s children than homosexuals. The film opens with a pair of pre-teens making a working windmill out of Lego; take one piece out of place, and the whole edifice collapses in a plume of smoke. “Drugs are like that,” frowns Anita’s voiceover. In a series of infantile analogies, Anita hammers the point home with the subtlety of a Swedish wrestler: a toddler with a pacifier, a crying girl with her hand in the biscuit jar (“She’s not supposed to go after the cookies!”).

It’s often been said this film encouraged an entire decade of Florida kids to take up drugs. Let’s look at the facts: the film opens with a shower of Lego blocks that turn into a pharmacopeia of multicoloured pills. Mmmm…psychemedelic! The jaunty singalong theme song “Drugs Are Like That” is pure sugary candy, sticky and infectious – and shall we say addictive? And the inane dialogue between the two kids actually sounds like the rot that passes for most drug-laced conversations. Not content hooking a lost generation on Vitamin C, Anita, YOU are the pusher. J’ACCUSE!

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SCHLOCK TREATMENT CLINIC: D’Wild Wild Weng (1982)

Our favourite two-foot-nine James Bond of the Philippines would have turned 54 in September, so we’re celebrating by dusting off our old Schlock Treatment intro to D’Wild Wild Weng (1982), Weng Weng’s third and rarest English-dubbed role as “Mr Weng”, a government agent sent to the troubled Santa Monica to rescue the townsfolk from the corrupt new Mayor. It’s a modern-day midget Filipino kung fu spy western, with everyone in Mexican mustaches and sombreros! Fans of Weng Weng will recognize most of the cast from For Your Height Only and The Impossible Kid, and will spill their cereal over two-foot-nine Weng’s insane gravity-defying antics. (“Schlock Treatment” is Trash Video’s on-again, off-again B movie show on Brisbane’s 31 community TV channel, introduced by Andrew Leavold)

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Trash Video

Australia’s largest cult video store is now online!

For 15 years Trash Video has been an iconic business in the heart of Brisbane’s West End. Whilst formally closing it’s physical doors to the public on the 29th August 2010, Andrew ‘Stumpy’ Leavold is now screening much of his eclectic, bizarre and often challenging library here at VideoZoo.tv

Follow Andrew’s blog Trash Confidential and be sure to explore his channel for some for the best cult videos from around the world.

SAVAGE SHORTS DEPARTMENT: Family Bizness (Dick Dale, 2009)

“Dad wants his son Michael to take over the Family Bizness, but Michael’s more interested in singing and playing with his pet freak, Bubbles. Dad’s latest plan will see all hell break loose, Mum get mad and an awful bloody mess! Re-animator and Michael Jackson collide in what is without a doubt Dick’s slickest effort yet. Singing, dancing, twisted freaks and extreme gore – Family Bizness has got it all!”

About the filmmaker: Adelaide punk singer and DIY schlockmeister Dick Dale has been terrorizing the previously respectable state of South Australia for close to two decades with his “Cheesy Knob Nasties”. He currently sings in punk terrorist combo KAMIKAZE and tours Australia with his “Trasharama-A-Go-Go” bad taste film festival. Someone, please give this man the money to make his first feature!

Selected Filmography: The Beast From Bomb Beach (1997), Flies (1998), Yowie! (1999), Busted (2000), Creamy Love (2001), Pelican Boy (2003)

Dick Dale on the making of Family Bizness:

Ideally I would like to have had Chopper Reid play the Dad but it seemed too hard to even look into it. Money etc.

The actors name is Ben Gel, he was a complete pro and had never been in a movie before. Hes a real Aussie beer drinking type so I thought he’d work.  Ben’s been an Adelaide rock n’ roller for years in bands like The Gels, The Dead Popes of the Vatican and (currently) The Meatbeaters. Not a professional actor but he worked like a pro. Curbed his weekend drinking orgies to turn up on set on time and a do fucking sterling job. He got asked to be in another film after someone saw him in Fam Biz. As a gay character!? What the?

I can imagine some seedy weirdo lurking at the back of Trasharama back seats in his raincoat trying to lure me old mate round there with promises of stardom. Gabbling to Ben, “Heath Ledger did it!! Made him a star!” With Ben to arrive on time and sober to some kind of animal farm porno set (it is Adelaide). He politely told them he only works for Cheesy Knob productions.

He also got into his role so much that when he was getting strangled by Bubbles. (A puppet creation) He was screaming and holding his breath so much he passed out and dropped to cement like a sack of shit. Was scary, I thought he’d had a brain explosion and someone had finally died on one of my films. In true Ozploitation style we picked him up, asked him how many fingers sound recordist Todd was holding up. He said the right amount. He had a drink of water. Then showtime. Back into it. But I told him that he had to remember to breathe AND do his lines. It’s all in rage in Hollywood, breathing AND doing lines you know…

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