Coming soon: The Master Of Gore Collection

If you're on the look out for an introduction to the work of low-budget exploitation director Herschell Gordon Lewis, The Master Of Gore Collection could be for you.

It's a collection of four infamous vintage titles - 2000 Maniacs, Wizard of Gore, Gruesome Twosome and Colour Me Blood Red - none of which are for the easily squeamish. If you want to get an idea of the kind of thing in the box, check out the trailer for The Gruesome Twosome below.

And if you like, the box is released on 1st September 2008 - Amazon is taking pre-orders right now for £14.99.

Find out more about the DVD at Amazon.co.uk

DVD Review: The Flesh and Blood Show (1972)

Hammer might have been in terminal decline in the 1970s, but the British horror movie was still going strong - and Pete Walker was behind a few notable entries. Criminally ignored in the BBC's recent B-movie retrospective, Walker produced horrors more in keeping with European flicks of the day rather than Hammer's period pieces, with The Flesh and Blood Show (very much an apt title) not being a million miles from the Italian gialli.

Eight young actors/actresses are invited to rehearse for a play on a deserted seaside pier (Cromer pier fact fans), with the show eventually heading to the West End. The cast is headed up by Mike (Ray Brooks) and featuring other 70s notables including Robin Askwith and Jenny Hanley. Except there's something not right - the pier really is deserted and the backers of the play seem conspicuously absent.

And that's not all - as this is the Flesh and Blood Show, we get plenty of female flesh being flashed (in a very restrained 70s style of course), but we also get blood, as members of the cast are attacked or bumped off. Is the killer one of the cast? Or perhaps one of the locals from the semi-deserted town? You'll have to watch it to find out, although you might well guess long before the credits roll.

Cult Clip: The Flesh and Blood Show (1972)

A top notch trailer for a typically low-rent exploitation flick from Pete Walker - The Flesh and Blood Show.

Packed with a typically 70s cast list (including Robin Askwith, Ray Brooks and Jenny Hanley), the film is a murder mystery with added blood - with a group of actors gathered together by  mysterious producer in an abandoned theatre on a pier...but each falls prey to crazed killer.

The film will be reissued on 21st July 2008, complete with its original 3D ending - you can pick it up for under £6. Note that the trailer below has a small amount of nudity (occasional flash of bosom) in case you're watching at work.

Find out more about the DVD at Amazon.co.uk

First must-buy Blu-ray release: The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (1970)

Last week, I considered writing a list of 10 must-buy Blu-ray releases for Cinedelica, but couldn't actually find 10. In fact, I couldn't find one. But that's not the case now, with the impending launch of The Bird With The Crystal Plumage on Blu-ray.

Not much I can add to our previous review of the DVD, except to say that Dario Argento's stylish debut gialli/giallo should look stunning in high-definition. It's released (initially) in the US by Blue Underground, promising full 1080p HD resolution, top-notch sound and a disc that's 'loaded with extras'.

No news on a price or shelf date as yet.

Blue Underground website

Coming to DVD: The Gore Gore Girls (1972)

Fans of grindhouse cinema should make a note of 18th August - the date of the first-ever DVD release (in the UK) of the Herschell Gordon Lewis exploitation gem The Gore Gore Girls.

What's it about? Well, I can't out it better than the publicity sheet:

'A lunatic with a grudge against g-strings, pasties, and pretty women is slaughtering the sexy strippers who work for strip club impresario Marzdone Mobilie (Henny Youngman). Not content with mere murder, the psycho enthusiastically mangles and mutilates the women, thus turning Marzdone's go go girls into The Gore Gore Girls.

Trying to solve the gruesome goings-on are private eye Abraham Gentry (Frank Kress) and a dizzy reporter Nancy Weston (Amy Farrell). Burrowing through the underbelly of the sleaze-and-tease business, Abraham eventually offers the killer the perfect bait by coercing a drunken Nancy to perform in an amateur strip contest...'

And best of all - Amazon are doing pre-orders for just £5.99.

Find out more about the DVD at Amazon.co.uk

Cool It Carol! gets a UK DVD launch

We got a lot of emails about Cool It Carol! after we reviewed the US DVD some months back - most of them asking why the movie wasn't available in the UK. Well, in August, it finally gets a launch.

This British exploitation flick from the hand of Pete Walker dates back to 1970s and stars Robin Askwith and Janet Lynn as Joe and Carol, a young couple looking to make it big in Swinging London, eventually falling into prostitution and stag films to make money before that big break arrives.

It's no classic, but it is well worth seeking out for fans of the era. We'll hopefully have a review online of the UK DVD, but in the meantime, check out our US DVD review and make a note of the 18th August, which is when the film will be available to buy.

Find out more about the DVD at Amazon.co.uk

Coming soon: Grindhouse Trailer Classics 2

Regular readers will know we loved the original Grindhouse Trailer Classics release, so we're more than a little excited to hear a second volume - Grindhouse Trailer Classics 2 - from Nucleus Films.

And as you might expect, this is more of the same, a disc packed with theatrical promos for some of the most weird and wonderful grindhouse flicks you'll ever encounter, chosen by cult movie expert Marc Morris and including the likes of The Black Gestapo, The Depraved, Bloody Pit Of Horror, The Pink Angels and Foxy Brown to name just five of the 55 movies featured.

Hopefully we'll have a review online well before the release date - which is 8th September 2008.

More from the Nucleus Films website

DVD Review: What Have They Done To Your Daughters? (1974)

Shameless returns to 1970s Rome for its latest DVD release - Massimo Dallamano's What Have They Done To Your Daughters?

A follow-up (of sorts) to What Have You Done to Solange?, it's a mix of giallo, police thriller and exploitation, with an uncomfortable subject matter, some gratuitous nudity and the odd bit of rather nasty blood-letting - although none of that gets in the way of a well-presented and at times, quite serious story.

It follows the well-trodden path of a body being found by the dashing police detective (Claudio Cassinelli as Inspector Silvestri), with a 15-year-old girl hanging from a ceiling. It looks like suicide, but it soon becomes evident that this is murder - and what becomes a lead to a far-reaching child prostitution ring.

DVD Review: My Dear Killer (1972)

It's all too easy to write off Shameless DVD releases as 90 minutes of blood, guts and general old school video nastiness. But those blood-filled sleeves can be deceptive, with some really cool vintage flicks getting a first release by the fledgling label - including My Dear KIller.

A 1972 movie, directed by Tonino Valerii (one of Sergio Leone's assistant on the 'Dollars' movies amongst other career highlights) and set in Rome, this is well above average giallo with the occasional nasty shock and an interesting script, not to mention the ubiquitous black-gloved killer. It's just a shame the ending's so cheesy really.

It's also got one of the strangest starts to a movie you'll ever encounter, as a private detective loses his head, courtesy of a digger driver hired to dredge a pond. Bad luck? Well, no - it kicks off a sequence of events that leads back to the kidnap and killing of a child from the affluent Moroni family some years before.

Cult Clip: The Frightened Woman (1969)

Also reviewed recently on Cinedelica is The Frightened Woman - and that too has a trailer on YouTube. So if our review doesn't quite convince you to buy it...maybe this will...

Note that it's not 100 per cent safe for work (but not strong enough for an 18 rating on YouTube).

DVD Review: The Frightened Woman (1969)

Visually stunning, achingly stylish, slightly disturbing and at times even confusing. One thing is for sure though - you'll not forget The Frightened Woman (aka Femina Ridens) in a hurry.

Classed unfairly as sexploitation upon its release, this pop art gem got a rough ride from the censors - and hasn't been seen in its entirety since its 1969 release. But Shameless, working with director Pierro Zchivazappa, have managed to piece together and restore the surviving versions, producing what the director has called 'THE version of my film to watch'.

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)

I'm sure we've all got films that we have always intended to watch, but for some reason or other, never got round to buying and viewing. Top of my list for far too long was Dario Argento's debut feature - The Bird with the Crystal Plumage.

Probably not the first gialli/giallo, but certainly one of the most influential, it's a stylish thriller with a plot that draws you in and should keep you guessing through to the final moments.

DVD Review: Flavia The Heretic (1974)

Pick up any Shameless DVD release and you're guaranteed an 80s-style video nasty sleeve and a bold claim or two about the content within. Flavia The Heretic is no exception, although it's not really blood and guts shocker you might expect.

Based (very loosely) on a true story, Flavia The Heretic is part arthouse, part feminist tale, but ultimately an above average slice of Euro exploitation. Set in 15th century Italy, Flavia Gaetani (played by Florinda Bolkan) is the daughter of a rich landowner, sent to a convent to cleanse her soul. But instead of living a humble life, Flavia grows ever-more angry with the world, especially with the way men treat women, especially after witnessing the torture of one of the other nuns and the rape of a local farm girl by the local duke. Indeed, she is whipped herself for running away from the convent with a male friend.

Sabrina Siani

If you're familiar with the innumerable sword & sorcery flicks Italian cinema churned out during the 1980s, chances are you've seen Sabrina Siani.  Either naked or in extremely skimpy outfits.  The beautiful, blonde starlet (real name: Sabrina Seggiani, but sometimes billed Sabrina Sellers) graced many a cut-price fantasy epic, typecast as an Amazonian princess or gutsy jungle girl.  Jess Franco wasn't a fan (calling her: "the stupidest person I've ever met"), but what does he know?  Siani may not have set the screen alight as a teen cannibal queen in Franco's dreadful Mondo Cannibale (1980), but at least she didn't direct it. 

Following a brief stint in sex comedies and Franco's calamitous gut-muncher, Siani soaked up the sun in Blue Lagoon rip-off Blue Island (1982) and played a feisty, female Tarzan in Umberto Lenzi's Incontro Nell'Ultimo Paradiso (1982), before making her mark as a sword-swinging maiden in Aristide Massaccesi's Ator the Fighting Eagle (1982).  Contrary to Franco's sentiments, Siani had a lot to offer: a winning athleticism, sex appeal, and a charismatic screen presence.  Whether slaying monsters, befriending bears (!), or smouldering seductively, she frequently upstaged bland beefcake, leading men like Peter McCoy (Pietro Torrisi) and Miles O'Keefe. 

DVD Review: Venus in Furs (1970)

"A woman nude in furs is somehow more erotic...inducing pleasure so great it becomes painful."  Quite.  Not to be confused with the Jess Franco movie lensed the same year, Venus in Furs is a more faithful adaptation of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's infamous novel.  It benefits from the seductive presence of the awesome Laura Antonelli, a sexploitation starlet who went on to a respectable art-house career.  Severin (Regis Valee), an obsessive voyeur, craves to be whipped and humiliated following a childhood trauma.  He spies on his beautiful neighbour Wander (Antonelli) masturbating nude in furs and discovers she's happily aware of being watched.  What follows is a twisted love story between voyeur and provocative exhibitionist.  After marriage, Severin moulds Wanda into the perfect vessel for his fantasies, goading her into sex with strangers while he watches.  Happy at first, Wanda comes to resent his games and rebels.  Reborn as an unstoppable love monster she beds a succession of mustachioed hunks and drives Severin away.  The peculiar conclusion has Severin discover his wife's identical double: a gum-chewing prostitute more compliant to his desires.  As music swells, she whips him silly - a happy ending, of sorts...

Cinematographer-turned director Massimo Dallamano is best known for his excellent, "schoolgirls in peril" gialli (including What Have You Done to Solange?  (1971)).  His languid camera glides across Antonelli's silky flesh, fetishising every inch of her body, yet somehow avoids outright misogyny.  The dreamy, romantic tone softens the sleazy subject matter, coming across like a skin flick antidote to Love Story (1970). 

DVD Review: The Black Cat (1981)

Probably the least heralded movie from Lucio Fulci's "gothic period", The Black Cat isn't a classic but will interest fans of Italian horror.  Edgar Allan Poe's much-adapted short story inspires only the climax, but the bulk of the film is impressively claustrophobic, played in twitchy close-ups between the frightful feline and its master, Professor Robert Miles (Patrick Magee).  Miles is a paranormal researcher, who uses his demonic familiar to gorily slaughter those he feels have wronged him.  Nosy American photographer, Jill Travers (Mimsy Farmer) stumbles onto these mysterious deaths in a quaint English village and teams up with Scotland Yard's Inspector Gorley (genre icon David Warbeck) to bring the culprit to justice.  But is Miles in control, or the cat? 

The film strives for ambiguity, but winds up just confusing.  After the cat lures Gorley into a horrific accident, Miles screams: "No!  I didn't want that!"  Then he looks disappointed when Gorley turns up alive.  Fulci allegedly cranked this one out with little passion involved.  It's a less inspired reworking of Poe than Dario Argento managed with Two Evil Eyes (1989), but there is plenty to savour.  Mimsy Farmer attacked by rubber bats; a foggy village with superstitious locals straight out of Hammer films; a mix of occult lore, super-science and metaphysical chatter; and a victim who cowers while the cat opens a locked door. 

Cult Clip: Aatank (1996)

A lot of popular Hollywood films have been remade in Bollywood and one of the most unusual Bollywood remakes has to be this knock-off of Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975) called Aatank, which was released in 1996. I don't know much about Aatank since I've only managed to see clips of it on YouTube and it doesn't seem to be easily available on DVD or VHS at the moment. I do know that the movie was directed by Prem Lalwani and stars Nafisa Ali, Dharmendra and Vinod Mehra. You can see a clip from Aatank below, but unfortunately it doesn't feature any of the film's entertaining musical numbers. It does feature a giant shark though!

Free Online Viewing!

The American Movie Classic television network is currently offering free online screenings of two great American thrillers from the sixties as part of their annual Halloween Monster Fest. You can watch Francis Ford Coppola's Dementia 13 (1963) and Jack Hill's Spider Baby (1968) on their site just by visiting the links posted below:

Watch: Dementia 13 (1963)

Watch: Spider Baby (1968)

- Kimberly Lindbergs

DVD Review: Phantom Of Death (1987)

Regular readers will know we have flagged up the launch of the Shameless DVD label, which intends to dig out and reissue lost shockers and exploitation gems, all packaged in lurid 80s-style 'video nasty' sleeves.

The first releases are already on the shelves - one of which is Phantom Of Death. Directed by Ruggero Deodato (best known for Cannibal Holocaust) and with the tagline 'let the symphony of slaughter begin', you would in all honesty expect something of a bloodbath. But that's not actually the case.

Shameless reissues Killer Nun (1978) and Torso (1973)

Two more sleazy shockers on the way from the newly-launched Shameless label - Killer Nun (1978) and Torso (1973).

Giulio Berruti's Killer Nun has a reputation that precedes it, with Anita Ekberg as said nun (Sister Gertrude), fresh out of brain surgery and at work in a hospital. But all is not well - and the reign of terror that the drug-fuelled Sister Gertrude initiates, not to mention her appetite for sex, means big problems for Mother Superior. Originally banned in the UK, and denounced by Mary Whitehouse, it's release here is uncut.

DVD Review: Grindhouse Trailer Classics

Want to check out some grindhouse titles, but not sure where to start? Grindhouse Trailer Classics should be your first port of call.

For those of you unsure of what grindhouse entails, let's just say it's another word for exploitation. Movies that come under the grindhouse banner today are likely to have been made in the 60s and 70s, mainly (but not exclusively) in the US and probably screened in downmarket cinemas in American cities.

These were low budget movies, made for cheap thrills and a fast buck, squeezing in sex, violence, gore or all three if possible. Not to mention the odd nazi, alien and Hell's Angel. Making the film was one thing, getting people in to see it was another. That required a catchy title, a hard-hitting poster and a trailer that could convince a prospective punter that this wasn't just another low-rent bloodbath.

Cult Clip: Disco Godfather (1979)

Here's the plot - a retired police officer becomes a celebrity DJ in the disco boom of the late 70s. But all is not well - a strange new drug is sweeping the streets, killing the Godfather's nephew.

Which sets things up for a kung-fu-filled revenge flick, as the Disco Godfather takes to the streets to deal with the dealers, nipping back behind the decks now and then to spin some tunes for the disco massive.

Enjoy...

Cult Clip: Switchblade Sisters (1975)

I'm currently enjoying (if that's the right word) Grindhouse Trailer Classics, with a review to follow very soon. But just to give you a taste, here's one of the less bloodthirsty shorts - Switchblade Sisters.

As you can imagine from the title, it's the girl gang from hell. In fact 'even the cops were afraid..' claims the voiceover. Never seen the full movie, but it's just made my wants list. Enjoy...

DVD review: Brain Damage (1988)

Ironic, that a film called Brain Damage should be smart and funny, and likely to give your brain a much better work out than LSD. Never mind the dry social subtext of Cronenberg. Frank Henenlotter makes his points just as well with a script that's as quotable as All About Eve. Gone is the rough dark and kit-gore of his earlier film Basket Case. Here, we get something a little more sophisticated. And just as much fun.

Things get underway damn fast.  It's not long before Brian, our hero, is host to a speaking parasite (part turd, part penis, part muppet) and some security guard is getting his skull drilled. From then, it's all you would expect from an 80s horror that's taking its cues from a culture of sex and drugs. A cheeky bit of bloody fellatio in a night club called Hell. A sequence that moves from seedy showers to toilet stalls with all the tension and tease of a Brian De Palma set piece. And of course, the cold turkey segment, which delivers some of the film's best lines in between twisting our melons with nightmare red stuff.

Tartan Grindhouse unveils new budget horror titles

Tartan's horror arm, Tartan Grindhouse, has a new range of titles set for an autumn launch and at a budget price - Basket Case, Society, Bride Of Re-Animator and Killer Barbys vs Dracula.

Basket Case needs no introduction, with one man and his basket seeking revenge on the doctor responsible for their plight. 25 years old and still with the ability to shock. This reissue tags on a trailer and image gallery, all for a £7.99 price tag from October.

November sees the reissue of Brian Yuzna's bizarre 80s debut Society, along with Yuzna's Bride of Re-Animator and a first-time UK release of Jess Franco's Killer Barbys vs Dracula - a mix of punk, vampires and the spaghetti western apparently, which sounds like a seriously tempting prospect. The latter titles all retail for £9.99. Hopefully we'll have reviews before the DVDs hit the shelves.

Find out more at the Tartan Video website

Shameless Screen Entertainment label launches

A new video label launches on 1st October - Shameless Screen Entertainment - offering to dig out those lost shocker and exploitation 'gems' of the past,  all with lurid 80s video-style sleeves and most released for the first time in the UK.

In fact, apart from The Black Cat none of the titles coming out in 2007 have been released on UK DVD and all are presented in their longest ever versions. Initial titles include New York Ripper, Phantom of Death, Torso, Killer Nun, Venus In Furs and the previously-mentioned Black Cat.

We'll have previews of each title (and possibly reviews) as and when they're released. All titles will retail for £12.99 or less.

Find out more at the Shameless Screen Entertainment MySpace site

Coming Soon: Grindhouse Trailer Classics

Grindhouse seems to be a word to  drop for just about everyone operating on the shock/horror genres thse days, but if you want to know the real meaning of the term, you might want to check out Grindhouse Trailer Classics.

Essentially, it's a two hour collection of promo, trailers and clips from movies operating outside the mainstream in the 60s 70s - so expect sex, drugs, violence, destruction, monsters and freaks, all compiled by an expert of the genre - Marc Morris (co-author of Shock! Horror! Astounding Artwork from the Video Nasty Era).

With titles like They Call Her One Eye, The Thing With Two Heads, Three On A Meathook, Ilsa: She Wolf Of The SS, Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, Blood Sucking Freaks, The Corpse Grinders and Wham Bam Thank You Spaceman, you should know what to expect. And if that's not enough, there's also a feature on the history of grindhouse, along with  sleeve by horror artist Graham Humphreys, the artist behind the theatrical poster campaigns for The Evil Dead and A Nightmare On Elm Street, and whose artwork has graced the album sleeves of bands such as The Cramps and The Lords Of The New Church.

Grindhouse Trailer Classics will be released on DVD by Nucleus Films on 24th September 2007. Expect to pay around £14.99.

More about the DVD at Amazon.co.uk

DVD Review: The Night of the Sorcerers (1973)

Voodoo! Zombies! Vampirism! Leopard Women! Amando de Ossorio’s Spanish horror film The Night of the Sorcerers (a.k.a. La Noche de los brujos, 1973) has all of this and more, but even with all those terrific elements the movie failed to keep me entertained.

The film revolves around a group of naive jungle explorers who find themselves camping near a sacrificial alter used by a group of mysterious “sorcerers.” These voodoo practicing natives enjoy capturing women and torturing them before cutting off their heads and drinking their blood. Afterward the women return from the dead as leopard skin clad she-demons who roam the jungle in slow-motion trying to find more unwilling victims for the ghostly sorcerers.

The movies basic premise is interesting, but it never really comes together. It often feels like Amando de Ossorio can’t decide if he wants to make a kinky sexploitation film or a horror movie. The film suffers from its uneven direction that never fully exploits the films basic horror elements or erotic themes. The special effects are occasionally worthwhile, but they’re often hampered by the films low-budget and half of the films great international cast seems to be sleepwalking through the film.

Cult Clip: Terrifying Girls' High School (1973)

Watch Japanese school girls destroy their high school in this exciting clip from Terrifying Girls' High School: Lynch Law Classroom (1972). The film is part of the Japanese Sukeban series which are pinky violence films from Japan featuring older actresses playing angry school girls who fight one another when they aren't taking over their classrooms. Like most Japanese exploitation films you'll find plenty of social commentary underneath all the violence and nudity if you go looking for it. Otherwise these films are just a whole lot of fun.

Terrifying Girls' High School: Lynch Law Classroom stars two of Japan's most popular exploitation stars from the early seventies, the lovely Miki Sugimoto and Reiko Ike. The film was directed by Norifumi Suzuki and it's currently available on Region-1 DVD from Amazon

- Kimberly Lindbergs

DVD Review: Buy It Now (2005)

Sex, as seaside postcards insist, is a funny thing. Where else would female-dominated sketch-shows get their material? As each generation passes, we seem to be getting more and more promiscuous, until one day you’ll wake up and Dermot Murnaghan will be giving Kate Silverton her breakfast oats while handing over to the weather. At least, that’s what the tabloids say.

Kids are rampant these days, especially in Britain, where by all accounts they seem to run around the back of the bike sheds in the nude instead of learning how much it rains in Kenya every year. Obviously, that’s a load of tosh, but it doesn’t stop social commentators, usually of a conservative hue, wondering when our morals stopped being morals and ended up being a bye-line in a history textbook.
   
It’s an age where anybody can be a celebrity, and they usually achieve it by showing of various parts of their anatomy, or letting it get close to somebody else’s anatomy. For better or for worse, the human race is obsessed by the notion of sex; getting it, watching it, moaning about it, or wishing they could find a way to get it. Remarkable, really, for something that Johnny Rotten once called ‘two minutes and fifty two seconds of squelching’.

Wild In The Streets (1968)

On the same record buying expedition that netted me The Touchables soundtrack, I managed to score a copy of Wild In The Streets. The LP sounded fantastic, garage punk and acid rock trippiness thanks to Mike Curb, Les Baxter, Jerry Howard and mythical band Max Frost And The Troopers aka The 13th Power….awesome.

Directed by Barry Shear and created under the auspices of ever-so-hip American International Pictures, this has Christopher Jones playing Max Frost, rebel cum self-made millionaire cum acid guru rock star who runs for election as the President of the USA and wins. He successfully gets the vote for 14 year olds, forces everyone over 30 into retirement camps and dispenses LSD as a form of control. He seems unstoppable…or is he?

I saw this film in America a few years ago and time hasn’t diminished my regard for this strongly acted classic of its genre. It really stands head and shoulders above the other late 60s teen exploitation, counter culture, anti-establishment flicks and even got an Oscar nomination. It features great over-the-top turns by a young Richard Pryor, Shelley Winters, Hal Holbrook and Diane Varsi and songs, Shape Of Things To Come, Free Loving and Wild In The Streets are uniformly excellent..

Again, Youtube come to our rescue with some great footage from another hard-to-get long lost gem...

Mark Ellis

DVD Review: Jess Franco Collection Volume 2 (1975 – 1994)

Remember that period between Steven Spielberg directing AI: Artificial Intelligence and Munich when the film fraternity thought he’d become a workaholic? “Wow, six films in four years,” they said in the press. “They don’t even involve a subtext about a family breaking up.” 

They probably didn’t, actually, but if you are surprised that in the world of the Hollywood blockbuster a director/producer can knock out films at speed, then can I turn your attention to Jess Franco? Since beginning his career writing music for films at the improbable age of six (when most of us had the musical talent to scrape a stick down the side of a wooden fish or bang blocks together), the Spanish director has clocked up over 180 directing and writing credits, and he doesn’t look like stopping in his dotage.

Born in Madrid in 1930, Jesus Franco was a jack of all trades, training to be a lawyer and then trying his hand at novels. After a few short films, he started directing properly in 1959, although the man who penned and directed both Swedish Nympho Slaves and Two Female Spies with Flowered Panties isn’t short of critics. Directing horror, sex, and horror sex, Franco has been a notable straight and hardcore porn director. It’s fair to say anything goes in Franco-world.

Girls Gone Bad - The Delinquent Dames Collection

If you like your dames dolled up and packing heat, you won't want to miss Passport Video's new NTSC Region-1 DVD set called Girls Gone Bad - The Delinquent Dames Collection. This 5 disc set contains 25 different films spanning a 35 year period from 1930-1965. The movies in the collection feature many beautiful bad girls in low-budget exploitation films centering around crime, gangs, sex, prostitution, drugs and teenage rebellion.

A few of the cult classics you'll find in the Girls Gone Bad - The Delinquent Dames Collection include Party Girl (1930), Cocaine Fiends (1936), Slaves In Bondage (1937), Mad Youth (1940), Lady Gangster (1942), Delinquent Daughters (1944), Blonde Ice (1948), She Shoulda Said No (1949), The Girl Gang (1954), Swamp Women (1955), The Flesh Merchant (1956) and Bad Girls Go To Hell (1965).

Many of the 25 films in this set have been available on DVD before, but this impressive new collection brings them all together for one low price. If you don't already own the movies presented in Girls Gone Bad - The Delinquent Dames Collection it's a great time to pick them up. Unfortunately the quality of the DVDs leaves a lot to be desired. Many of the prints show noticeable damage, but it's doubtful that audiences will ever get the chance to enjoy these entertaining B-movies any other way.

You can find more information about the new Girls Gone Bad - The Delinquent Dames Collection DVD set at Amazon.

Nightmare USA May 5th

On May 5th FAB Press will be presenting the Nightmare USA Film Festival with 10 Hours of Grindhouse Movie Mayhem! The Film Festival will be taking place at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, London from 12 noon till 11 p.m.

The films being featured at the festival include Don't Go In the House (Joseph Ellison, 1979), Pigs (aka Blood Pen, Marc Lawrence, 1972), Squish (Frederick Friedel, 2007), Bloody Brothers (Frederick Friedel, 2003), Victims (Daniel DiSomma, 1977) and Boardinghouse (John Wintergate, 1982). Many of the movies presented will be making their UK theatrical debuts.

There will also be many special guests such as Frederick Friedel (director of Bloody Brothers and Squish), Joseph Ellison (director of Don't Go in the House) and Oliver Wood (director of photography for Don't Go in the House and The Honeymoon Killers).