Note: This review first appeared in Drive-In Asylum's 1981 Yearbook Special in 2023. It is now sold out, but the zine is currently working on a 1980 Yearbook Special, and I wrote a review of Battle Beyond the Stars for it. Look for it soon!
Despite being thoroughly trashed by critics in 1981, the
Herb Freed-directed Graduation Day is a mostly appealing -- and often funny --
slasher enlivened by a cool cast, quirkiness, and sleaze.
The adults are all self-absorbed and clueless and are
either dismissing, ignoring, scolding, harassing, or banging the students. This
is all filtered through the busyness/craziness of a high school graduation week
but also one that is in the aftermath of a student-athlete’s death on the track
field.
Principal Guglione
(Michael Pataki) actively despises the students and tells his secretary Blondie
(E.J. Peaker), with whom he’s having an affair, to come in his office quickly –
“like a bunny.” Pataki and Peaker are hilarious as an office/sex duo who fight
over having to deal with those damn, worried parents who want to know why their
kids haven’t come home yet from last night.
Coach
George Michaels (Christopher George) is an intense, black-haired SOB
track/gymnastics coach who says things like “move your little ass, Sally” to
students and sees himself as a misunderstood, Great Molder of Young People,
shitcanned because of a blood clot.
Anne Ramstead (Patch Mackenzie), on leave from
the Navy, comes to town after her younger sister’s death and is met with disdain
by certain portions of the local population who call her a “lesbo,” “bitch,”
and “weird” – all within the first 20 minutes of the movie. Mackenize is quite effective
as a tough, tormented sibling who wants answers and isn’t afraid to use a
little Kung Fu -- or squeeze the balls of taxpayers/sexual predators -- in the
process.
The movie’s title sequence almost seems like a TV
drama or Afterschool Special with footage of a high school track event, propelled
by a sports-appropriate disco song, a crowd that can’t get enough track, and
athletes in action, on the track and off. But it ends with the victory of Laura
Ramstead (the late Ruth Ann Llorens) in the 200-meter race – and her subsequent
collapse and death.
After that opening, we see members of the track team
being picked off, one by one, in various bizarre and bloody ways by an unseen,
black-gloved killer, followed by a close-up of their stopwatch.
We come to know various students like Doris (holy
shit, that is Vanna White), and Laura’s boyfriend, Kevin (E. Danny Murray),
whose home can best be described as an art assault; and also friendly Dolores
(Linnea Quigley), who romances her boyfriend by telling him, “I am going to
nail your ass tonight,” and passes music class by the skin of her, er, by her
naked skin. We also meet music teacher/playboy Mr. Roberts (Richard Balin) who
after introducing his “snake” to an underage student and is pranked, knows who
the real “scumbag” is.
One of Freed’s most exciting scenes takes place at an outside roller rink, conveniently adjacent to the wooded area near the school where some murders have already taken place, while a glam band, Felony, rocks out and a delirious layer of lights swirls.
On the trail of the killer, incapably, are Officer
MacGregor (Virgil Frye),
who keeps a joint in his gun and can’t find his badge, and Detective Halliday (Carmen Argenziano), who describes the students as “about to fly out of
their nest and shit on the rest of us.”
Graduation Day was scripted by Freed and his wife Anna
Marisse, who died in 1984, from a story by co-producer David Baughn, who
previously worked with Freed on 1976’s Haunts and 1980’s Beyond Evil, and earlier
had been a sales agent for Russ Meyer.
Notably, Freed points out in an accompanying interview
on Vinegar Syndrome’s Blu-Ray that he “never came close to horror again” and indicates
it was due to a “self-reckoning” over the violence depicted in the movie and
the “contamination” of the slasher scene.
Last time
I “officially” talked
to Derek Davidson in 2020 (we talk unofficially, mostly about movies, like all
the damn time!), it was amid a frenzy of creative activity for the New York
City musician with his long-running band The Electric Mess. But that
group sadly broke up in 2022, and Derek has started anew with MOVIE MOVIE, a cinematically
charged garage pop supergroup featuring members of The Above (Frank Caira,
vocals and guitar) and Twin Guns (Andrea Sicco, lead vocals and guitar), as
well as Davidson (bass and keyboards) and his Electric Mess bandmate Alan J.
Camlet (drums and percussion). MOVIE MOVIE’s second full-length, the fantastic and
varied In 4-D! is out digitally and on CD through Bandcamp. Topsy-Turvy will release it on vinyl in late September or early October.
I recently
chatted with Derek about his new group, new album, and more:
When I
last interviewed you, you were still with The Electric Mess. Can you tell me
about the end of that band and how MOVIE MOVIE came together? I wouldn’t go so far as to say we
were a Covid casualty, because after about 15 years, we might have hit the
point where it was time to start doing other things, but right when the
pandemic started our fifth record had come out and a Spain/France tour booked in
May of 2020 canceled, and no local shows for a while, and we just never
regained momentum after that. It was probably the catalyst we needed to
officially make the split. But by the same turn, with all that down time I was
able to write new songs and make demos and didn't want to wait around to see if
the Mess would ever regroup. I wanted to hit the studio to record our debut EP,
so the bands did overlap for a bit. In fact, MOVIE MOVIE's debut show was the
Electric Mess’s second to last show.
Coming
from the Electric Mess, what did you have in mind for MOVIE MOVIE? In a pretty
short time, you guys have put out two albums and an EP. Can you keep up this
pace? Ha! Well, as
I said, with so much downtime in 2020, I was having a creative burst, writing
new songs, but also I had a bunch of songs on tap that were slated to be
Electric Mess songs once we came back. Some we actually worked on once or
twice, others we never got to try. A couple of them turned up on the Now
Playing EP, and about four of them are on the new record, In 4-D!
Our first LP Storyboards was all new songs since I was so inspired how
the EP went. I thought those fit the best. When we recorded them, The Electric
Mess still hadn’t called it a day, so for the new one I had a small backlog I
was able to tap into. Andrea contributed two songs to Storyboards, some
unused Twin Gun ideas he gave me to choose from.
So many
good songs on the new album (“You Can’t Hide from the Lies,” “Damaged Goods,” “Anywhere
But Here” “I Want You Back (Again)” and others are early favorites). How does
the songwriting process work for MOVIE MOVIE? Creatively, all the songs for this band I make very
detailed demos going in before I present them to the band. Andrea studies them,
comes up with his ideas, guitar-wise and vocally what he feels comfortable with, Alan gets his drums parts, and Frank
runs some background vocal suggestions by me, which are usually right on the
money. I consider him our not-so-secret weapon, since the vocals and harmonies
in this band are the most important part to me. We
rehearse a couple times and then just hit the studio to record. There’s no
weeks of rehearsals or arrangement meetings or playing songs endlessly live
when you're sick and tired of them when you'll finally do record. This keeps
everything fresh. “You Can't Hide From the Lies” was definitely one that
developed after we recorded the basic tracks, initially I thought it would be
like a ‘70s Gordon Lightfoot type song, but turned into a 1980s prom song!
Andrea added multiple guitar parts, and I added lots of keys and strings, so
that one really needed to develop and be fleshed out, though the basics were
all there. That one vocally is my favorite on the record, Frank and Alan on
backups and harmonies really shine. “Damaged Goods,” on the other hand, the
basic track was done in literally one take, with overdubs later. But what you
hear is us just banging it out. That was an Electric Mess leftover.
What
movie references have you cleverly hidden from me in the songs? Haha, I have to admit, I can’t
think of any direct movie references or inspirations. “Lone Warrior,” from our
last album, was inspired by Paris, Texas, and “Born
to Win,” obviously the title inspired by a classic, but
at the moment I can’t think of any Easter eggs or anything cryptic. If it comes
to me, I'll let you know! However, the structure is supposed to be a flashback,
from the 1960s through modern day, covering garage, psychedelic rock, glam,
into New Romantic, post-punk, ending on arena rock. The original title was Flashbacks,
but I thought too much like Storyboards in the one-word title, so In
4-D! It keeps it in the movie realm and especially the cover by Darren Merinuk.
Have
you had any opportunities to play the songs live? We played one show recently, our
first of the year, and we played all new songs, 7 of 10 from In-4D! It
was a bit of a challenge, since as I said all the songs are basically studio
creations to start, and then we need to actually learn how to play them live.
This record has a lot of bells and whistles, not literally, but playing some of
them live takes some adjustment, particularly “You Can’t Hide from the Lies,”
which is rather lush.
You’ve
maintained your relationship with Soundflat
beginning with the Electric Mess and are one of the few American bands on the Cologne,
Germany-based label. What is that relationship like? Soundflat is great, and Marco
Traxel, the head of the label, is my rock ‘n’ roll guardian angel! He put out four Electric Mess
records, and our last LP and now this one. Of course, MOVIE MOVIE is on their
subsidiary called Tospy-Turvy, which are bands and records he likes that aren’t
the typical 1960s garage style Soundflat favors. It’s nice being out in Europe,
since we have toured in Spain already in November 2023, and plan to go back in
spring 2025. Our EP came out on Ghost Highway/KOTJ, so it’s great having a
base there. Record labels aren’t a charity, so it’s good to know our record
sold well enough for Topsy-Turvy to do our new one.
I watch way too many movies. Each month for the last year or so, I've shared my favorite new watches in list form with a few friends. This month I turned it into a "movie notes" thing. Next thing you know, I decide it's a new monthly column for Paperback Zero. Why not? Let's go:
Hitmen and Hitgirls (revisited) -- Somehow watched
four movies this month about hitmen: (ranked) LaRoy, Texas (2023); Looper
(2012); The Outside Man (1972); and Hit Man (2023). Loved the hell out of
LaRoy, Texas, which I wish I had caught in a theater. It reminded me of ‘90s
neo-noir movies like Red Rock West (1993, also about a person accidentally stealing a
hitman gig and the real hitman being an unhappy camper), Clay Pigeons (1998),and
U-Turn (1997). Steve Zahn adds high hoot. As usual, the French are noir hip: LaRoy,
Texas was the Grand Special Prize winner at the 2023 Deauville Film Festival. Oui,
oui. The Outside Man, in fact, is directed by a Frenchman, Jacques Deray, but
set delightfully in early ‘70s LA. I could probably switch my ranking order
between any of the top 3, but Linklater’s Hit Man was definitely last. It was a
light romantic comedy that I found mostly un-charming and sitcom-like. Honestly,
I would also place the crazy, sleazy high school hitgirl movie I saw in May,
Malibu High (1979), above it.
The American Nightmare -- I had a very special double
feature over the July 4 holiday from 1975: Day of the Locust (first time
watching) and Nashville. I got the idea because the two movies played together
in drive-ins when they were released, which I know first-hand now had to make
for a long, odd bummer of a night (but in a good way!). The two movies include
politics, country music, assassination attempts, riots, and the late Donald
Sutherland stomping a bratty child to death. I followed these tender takes at
America a few weeks later with another look at the good ol’ USA and our
capitalistic life plans: Seconds (1966). Former Miss Bay View (Milwaukee) at the South
Shore Frolics (which croaked a few years back, iced by high prices and
hipsters), Salome Jens gets buck nekkid during an unforgettable hippie wine
festival ceremony that was a real event filmed for the movie that involved
cinematographer James Wong Howe supposedly using seven handheld cameras (and
winning an Academy Award in the process). Jens, a Bay View High graduate,
offers this lovely quote about l-i-v-i-n’ in Milwaukee: "the only time I
can imagine contemplating suicide would be if I was told that I had to go back
and live in Milwaukee forever."
Black(and white)out: After the real-life
assassination attempt on a populist creep, combined with another birthday, and
general country shittery, I decided to watch mostly black-and-white movies
from mid-month on. Some of my favorites: The Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948),
The Chase (1946), Street Scene (1931), Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) and
fuck yeah, Sam Fuller’s Underworld, U.S.A. (1961).
My favorite was probably Out
of the Fog (1941), which also features the camerawork of Howe, who gives us all
sorts of foggy fun. It’s an early noir that features two immigrant friends who
just want to fish and buy a better boat but fucking John Garfield, a true prick
in this, wants to bully them, steal their money, and nail the one’s guy
daughter, played nail-rifically (see top photo) by Ida Lupino. Excellent
dialogue in this, including, “In America, any man can be a king on the installment
plan.”
And this bit of “g” dropping, American
Dreaminess delivered by good guy Eddie Albert to Ida Lupino, after she starts
itchin’ for John Garfield: “Just doin’ the simple things – takin’ a walk on the
boardwalk on a Sunday afternoon, watchin’ the people and the ocean. I could get
a real kick outta just watchin’ you put on a new dress. It’s inside of you,
Stella, with your heart spillin’ over with love for the things you’ve got, that
you can hold on to forever; that’s where you’ll find what you’re lookin’ for.”
At the Movies: During the pandemic, as movie theaters
began to close, I made it a goal to go to theaters more frequently. Around
2020, I also read a New York Times article that predicted technology in 2040
(which I now can’t find) that portrayed a theater-less future. Including July,
I’ve gone to 63 movies in theaters since I began tagging them on Letterboxd in
2022. To further encourage my theatergoing, but also to watch more newer
movies, I purchased an AMC A-List membership in July, which lets me watch up to
three movies a week for $20 a month. I made it to six movies in July, and I
enjoyed them all honestly, but my favorites were probably Kill (2023) and
Oddity (2024). Kill was bloody as hell, but poetically so (especially the title
sequence, which comes about 30 minutes into the movie!) in a way that Sam
Peckinpah would have probably loved or cursed at. Oddity was much more subtle
but was creepy and fun and reminded me a little (but on a much lower budget) of
The Lair of the White Worm (1988), which Roger Ebert compared to Roger Corman
Poe's movies, which probably explains why I liked Oddity so much!
Yesterday's Newspaper is Dead: From an 1975 interview with director John Schlesinger by Tom Shales of the Washington Post upon the release of The Day of the Locust: "Schlesinger talked about putting 'the reality of the place' on film and then admits that the phrase is a contradiction in terms. The
reality of Hollywood? Throughout the film the characters turn their backs on
reality. They walk out of the movie theater when the newsreel comes on. 'But
that’s true of everyone, today as well,' says Schlesinger. 'The quicker the
means of communication, the quicker the news is forgotten. People watch
television, they hear about the horrors of Vietnam, then a baby cries or
whatever and they leave the room or look away and it is forgotten. Yesterday’s newspaper
is dead, no matter how real and appalling its news was. That’s always the way.'"
Note: This review I wrote originally appeared in the Shepherd Express in 2019. The soul legend just celebrated his 85th birthday on July 16.
Walking casually toward the front of the stage as the song was ending, William Bell pulled his microphone up and down from his mouth slowly and purposefully as he sang “Everybody Loves a Winner,” sending out solid soul shivers to an enthusiastic audience at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino’s Northern Lights Theatre Friday night. Bell, who will turn 80 in July, introduced the song—which he wrote in 1967 after returning from a stint in the military to find his star had dimmed some—as one about “life.”
Despite his dramatic mic moves, Bell is famously not flashy or full-throated like his one-time labelmate and friend, the great Otis Redding. Bell was Stax Record’s first star, and the label billed him as a pipe-smoking intellectual, according to Peter Guralnick’s Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom, where you’ll also learn that Bell once performed as Stanley Kowalski in an Atlanta production of A Streetcar Named Desire (!).
Indeed, Bell connects through his introspection and a softness that is still deeply soulful on songs like “Everybody Loves a Winner” and the oft-coved “You Don’t Miss Your Water,” which he also delivered with simmering intensity. Backed by a 10-piece band, Bell delighted the crowd while celebrating the Stax legacy by performing Eddie Floyd’s “Knock on Wood,” The Big O’s “Hard to Handle” (which he also encored) and “Born Under a Bad Sign,” a song made famous by Albert King that Bell co-wrote with Booker T. Jones. He also paid tribute to soul music history at large by including song snippets and references to artists such as his hero, Sam Cooke, Ben E. King and others throughout the show.
Bell took a brief break while backup singer Phyllis Smiley, wearing a wonderful flapper dress, saluted Stax legend Carla Thomas with a heart-tugging take on “Gee Whiz” followed by a spin through “B-A-B-Y.” Bell joined Smiley for an enjoyable update (Instagram, Facebook, etc. referenced in the intro) of “Private Number,” which Bell originally performed with the late Judy Clay. An incredible, extended jam of “I Forgot To Be Your Lover” was a definite highlight, as was “The Three of Me,” which leads off Bell’s Grammy Award-winning 2016 album, This is Where I Live, on Stax.
Bell, who has written and performed several of the all-time greatest soul songs, is not necessarily speeding up as he enters his eighth decade, but, as evidenced by his performance at Potawatomi, he’s certainly not slowing down, either, and he deserves every bit of attention and affection he gets.
NOTE:I wrote this interview with Bret McCormick for Klon Joseph Waldrip's New Horizine: A Zine About Roger Corman in 2023. Under the pseudonym "Bando Glutz," McCormick penned 2023's Cocaine Shark, which, like, happened in real life or something, McCormick told TMZ recently. McCormick also reports he's reteaming with Repligator actor (and the author of the never-to-be Circus of the Sexes) Randy Clower for Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Shark. The movie will be out "sometime in the next year or so" through Wild Eye Releasing. Sadly, Roger Corman passed away at 98 in May. Photos courtesy of Bret McCormick.
In Texas Schlock: B-Movie, Sci-Fi and Horror from the Lone Star State, author/filmmaker Bret McCormick describes how he came to work with Roger Corman when in late 1995 he wrote a letter to the legendary director and producer with an idea to remake Corman’s 1955 sci-fi cheapie Beast with a Million Eyes on the same budget as the original.
That did not happen. But McCormick, whose “schlockmeister” oeuvre includes The Abomination (1986), Tabloid! (1989) and Highway to Hell (1990), impressed Corman enough that he asked McCormick to direct a remake of Streets, a 1990 film written and directed by Katt Shea and starring Christina Applegate.
McCormick’s version, the first of two movies he would make for Corman, was called Rumble in the Streets (any guesses where the idea for that title might have come from?) and was set in Dallas instead of Venice, California. He followed Rumble with The Protector (1998) for New Horizons and Corman; it would mark the end of a perhaps not glorious, but certainly creative and prolific period for McCormick.
I interviewed McCormick recently through email about his experiences working with Corman and life in the B-movie business, which continues to this day for the 63-year-old.
In his letter to Corman, McCormick shared his desire to match Corman’s total of making five movies in one year. He had also included a demo reel and news article that dubbed him “The Roger Corman of Dallas.” With Corman’s help, the Texan, then in his late thirties, hit the number in 1995.
“That year, I started off by producing Takedown, an action film written by and starring Chris Heldman. Next, we made Time Tracers (aka Time Trap) with Jeffrey Combs. Then Bio-Tech Warriors, followed by Repligator. When Roger agreed to let me do Rumble in the Streets, that made film number five – all shot in 1995.”
Having been in the exploitation game since the mid-80s, McCormick was ready to break out into a higher level of production. And he figured Corman could be his ticket to boosting his movies from super cheap to just somewhat cheap.
“Most directors start out with Roger Corman and complain about having to deal with the low budgets,” McCormick says. “After making a lot of movies for under $30,000 – the sort of budgets Roger had worked with back in the 1950s – making a movie for Roger for $150,000 was a breeze.”
McCormick figures he saw Beast with a Million Eyes, which a 1956 Variety article estimated to have cost $20,000 and grossed $100,000, when he was about five years old. It left a lasting impression on him, mainly that he thought he could do it better. Proposing to Corman to remake it was McCormick’s way of showing he was serious, he says. To this day, McCormick wishes he could remake the movie.
He describes his idea for the remake as “something Lovecraftian.” “I thought I’d create a really cool little hand puppet for the alien and a nice little spaceship model. I’d done the effects for The Abomination in 1985, so I was thinking in terms of a glistening, slimy sort of alien with lots of eyes all over its body.”
McCormick, who received a reply from New Horizons a mere week after sending his letter to Corman, was thrilled at the opportunity to work with Corman even if it wasn’t Beast.
“When I was 12, I began telling people I was going to direct films for Roger Corman, so this was a long-term dream come true,” he says. “Most young filmmakers only used Corman’s company as a brief stop on the way to much bigger projects. Maybe I should’ve set my sights higher, but I was truly excited to be working with the king of low-budget exploitation flicks.”
Filmed on the streets of Fort Worth, Rumble in the Streets stars Kimberly Rowe, who would also appear in New Horizon’s Black Scorpion sequel in 1997, as Tori and David Courtemarche as Sy. It’s a gritty little tale of street kids, drug addiction, and a killer cop played by Patrick De Fazio, who also appeared in McCormick’s Bio-Tech Warriors.
Corman visited Dallas for a few days during production of the film to meet with McCormick, who says he found Corman to be polite and straightforward.
“He took me and the two leads and our DP out to dinner at a nice restaurant,” McCormick remembers. “It was great. I never had any head-butting with Roger like some other filmmakers report. Probably because I’d emulated his approach and understood what he was about. The bottom line: Roger wanted a cheap movie with no overages. That’s what I delivered.”
Pleased with McCormick’s work on Rumble, Corman enlisted McCormick for a second movie, but the Texan was disappointed when his first choice, Circus of the Sexes, fell through. He describes the script, written by Randy Clower, as “truly special” and a “great, sexy comedy.” Clower had co-hosted a horror movie show on Dallas television in the mid-1980s.
“Corman signed off on the thing, then came back and said he needed an action film instead,” McCormick says. “He sent me an atrocious screenplay for a Don ‘the Dragon’ Wilson movie he wanted me to remake. I said no and countered with The Protector, which Chris Heldman had written already. Corman agreed, and I had to let Chris Heldman produce in order to use his script. But I was eager to get back into production.”
Heldman, who played a sheriff’s deputy attacked by aliens while having shower sex in in Glen Coburn’s Blood Suckers From Outer Space, again is caught with his pants down as Bob in The Protector.
The movie stars Ed Marinaro, fresh off the cancelled ABC sitcom Champs, as Gabriel, a military trained assassin who uses virtual reality to help protect women in danger – and to “dance” with his murdered wife. Dallas-area actress Kate Rodger plays his love interest, and Lee Majors shows up as a hitman named Austin. Cyril O’Reilly (Dance of the Damned, Porky’s, Black Dog) is also memorable as the shit-talking bad guy.
McCormick says The Protector was like many other action movies from the period, but the computer-generated effects were somewhat new at the time, making the project a bit more contemporary.
“I felt it was a cut above just a martial arts flick (like the Don “The Dragon” remake),” he says.
Before his work for Corman, McCormick had done several other action movies, which he says was out of necessity, not out of a love for the genre.
“I wanted to do nothing but horror and sci-fi flicks,” he says. “Distributors were resistant. It was easier to sell an action flick – even a bad one – than to market a horror or sci-fi movie. A lot of the foreign territories had very strict censorship laws but would accept action flicks.”
By the time The Protector came around, McCormick’s personal life was in shambles.
“To be 100% honest, I was having trouble keeping my demons down at the time,” he says. “Way too much booze and drugs. I was on a path toward self-destruction and feel lucky I completed the film and delivered it to Corman.”
After directing 10 movies in the early ‘90s, McCormick didn’t direct another movie after The Protector until a 2012 documentary.
“In the course of two and a half years, my father committed suicide, my grandmother committed suicide, my marriage of 18 years ended, I attempted suicide, my oldest son died in an accident and a distributor filed bankruptcy owing me a lot of money,” he explains. “I was at my wits end and just fell off the planet for a good long while. On the upside, I’ve been clean and sober since March of 2014. It's like being reborn.”
Had his personal life at the time been different, McCormick thinks he certainly would have made more films for Corman and other Hollywood companies.
Like many New Horizons straight-to-video titles, The Protector and Rumble in the Streets are only available on VHS, stuck in the 20th century. Those certainly aren’t the movies fans ask McCormick about.
“I am often approached by fans,” he says. “They want to talk about The Abomination or Repligator. Not one of them has ever said a word to me about The Protector or Rumble in the Streets. Even though I’m pretty sure Rumble is the best film I ever directed. Different strokes, you know.”
McCormick fans will be happy to know that in the near future The Abomination, Tabloid!, Repligator and Ozone will be reissued. He also sells limited-edition DVDs of Bio-Tech Warrior and Time Trap at horror conventions like the Texas Frightmare Weekend and online. But there’s also new film work from McCormick, who in addition to Texas Schlock, has also written short stories and edited horror fiction anthologies in recent years.
“I’ve sold three screenplays in the last year, and I just made a no-budget feature-length horror/comedy spoof called Christmas Craft Fair Massacre,” he says. “It was a test project so I could learn to shoot and edit digital media. I had a lot of fun and will be screening it at a Fort Worth venue soon. It is absolutely no budget but has its moments.
“I’m sure I’ll do another indie flick soon. Maybe something a little more serious. I’m amazed at how accessible everything is now. You can literally shoot a film for less than a $1,000. Even a really cheap film like The Abomination cost me $10,000 to do back in the ‘80s. I think anyone who wants to make a movie these days can. No more excuses. It’s available to anyone brave enough to try.”
NOTE: This review originally appeared in print in the August 2020 edition of Drive-In Asylum.
In The Devil's Hand (1961, though filmed in 1959), Rick Turner (Robert Alda) thinks he has met the woman of his dreams in Bianca Milan (Linda Christian). She appears from the clouds proposing breathlessly, “let’s enjoy each other.” She offers to sing and dance the forbidden dance for him: “Should I dance for you as your blood races through your veins?”
But more quickly than he can grab a moist towelette from Bianca’s mute Tibetan man servant, Rick’s under the control of a satanic cult headed by high executioner Francis Lamont, played with stink-eyed intensity by Neil Hamilton, who had hundreds of acting credits going back to 1918 but who has been best known for the past 50-plus years as Batman's Commissioner Gordon. Lamont uses voodoo dolls and precise enunciation equally to keep members and others in line. Rick’s girlfriend, Donna Trent (Ariadne Welter), pays the price, landing in Belmont Hospital with a coronary condition after Lamont sticks a pin in her doll’s heart. An undercover reporter gets it even worse for trying to expose the cult, whose meetings seem largely to revolve around brief interpretive dances while Chaino (aka Leon Johnson) beats his bongo and members who sit on big pillows yell out, “Gamba!” occasionally and watch Lamont force people to prove their loyalty through encounters with a ceiling fan from hell.
Director William J. Hole Jr. (Hellbound, Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow) keeps things stylish and slightly spooky but with a definite light touch that lets 70 minutes or so of satanic shenanigans slip by devilishly fast. The enticing Christian (Slaves of Babylon, Murder in Amsterdam) is a lot of fun, saying things like “I saw you. I wanted you. That’s what made you special.” Music from Chaino and legendary session guitarist Rene Hall as well as a killer and magnificently sleazy opening dance theme from Baker Knight add mightily to the movie’s appeal.
NOTE: This Q&A originally appeared on the defunct Quixotronic site in June 2020.
Since forming in 2007, New York City garage rockers The Electric Mess have stood out in the genre through a combination of effortless cool, clever, playful songwriting, wild-eyed openness to other pop, rock, and punk sounds, and a marvelous and mighty lineup. Another thing that has made the band distinct: deliciously fun, often star-studded, music videos that have helped boost the group’s fanbase and open new opportunities.
Bassist Derek Davidson, a film school graduate, movie photo archivist, and all-around film fanatic, is responsible for bringing the videos – including most recently a 17-minute video EP (“Beneath the Yellow Moon”) – to life.
We talked to Derek recently about his movie background, favorite music videos, creative process, and much more: I know a few things about your background, but can you explain how some of your creative and work experiences and your love of movies played into your being the band’s “video director?”
Well, one of the main things that helped lead me to take the role and gave me the edge was that I graduated from film school and had production experience. Once we started making music videos, I was more than happy to be able to put those skills to use again. In my college years, and then all through the 90s, I worked in a couple of excellent video stores, one for about 10 years. It was still all VHS then; DVD was just getting popular when we closed. Between the free rentals and watching movies basically all day in the store, I got to see all kinds of films. The owner was French and a cinephile and took pride in the store, so we had a great collection. I learned a lot working there, memorizing director names and filmographies, and genres. Being it was New York City, on the Upper West Side, we had many regular celebrity customers, like Joel Coen, Paul Schrader, Nora Ephron, Bob Balaban, Eli Wallach, Stiller and Meara... Alan Arkin, I could go on! It was a great place to work, as the video store was quite the popular and sociable place back in the day. I still have recurring dreams working there, and it’s been over twenty years, so it must have had some effect on me. I also met my wife working there.
After that I started working in a movie photo archive, called Photofest, which has also been a fun and inspiring place to work. We also have lots of music photos, TV, and general performing arts. We’ve contributed to thousands of film books over the years, like Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, comes to mind. Many, many more. Also documentaries, film calendars for revival houses, like Film Forum in NYC, TCM channel, some late night TV shows, Criterion Collection, Hollywood Reporter, things like that. I’ve only been there twenty years! It can be helpful to turn to the stills for reference sometimes. For “The Girl With the Exploding Dress” video, for example, which has girls sort of posing in colorful dresses and has a mod feel, I looked at photos from Antonioni’s Blow-Up to see how they posed the models and brought copies to the set as storyboards. For the “Mystery Girl” video I looked at film noir stills. Our video for “Better To Be Lucky Than Good” was even shot there.
These days I consider myself the band’s “technical director,” because unless I also wrote the song, it has generally been a collaborative effort with other members of the band, depending on whose song it is. This is especially true with “Beneath the Yellow Moon,” our 4 song video EP, where each songwriter had a strong vision for their particular song’s video going in. Very early on we worked with some outside people, like "You've Become a Witch" was made by David Horowitz of The Above, and "She Has a Funny Walk" and "He Looks Like a Psycho," where Jeff Lewonczyk had the concepts and designs, and I shot and edited them. But since then, I have also handled all the technical stuff, including shooting it and editing, lighting, knowing where to point the camera, now green screen wrangling, etc. So I’m physically directing it, but the songwriter has the final say and the answers to the big questions, and tells the actors what they want. It can be a lot of responsibility dealing with all of the technical issues, and editing a ton of work, especially four videos at once, but I still enjoy it. Also, the band saves a ton of money by not having to hire and pay outside people to produce our videos, or rely on others. And another reason I think we’ve been able to be so productive over the years.
From your viewpoint, what makes a music video worth watching? What are some of your favorite music videos or influences?
I probably tend to favor videos with either a story or loose plot, rather than just purely visual. And humor always helps! I like the Beastie Boys videos a lot, Van Halen, Duran Duran, “Subdivisions” by Rush is a classic to me. I love The Rolling Stones “Waiting on a Friend.” I do prefer to incorporate some story elements into our videos, as it gives me a chance to shoot coverage and edit it like I’m making short narrative film, which is what interests me as a frustrated filmmaker, ha, and I feel more comfortable. Though with “City Sun,” which had more thematic elements than actual story, I feel I got to stretch out a bit more visually, with Esther’s encouragement. She had her own clear video references for it, like 80s Simple Minds and Bow Wow Wow videos, which helped.
Obviously, there are people whose first experience with the Electric Mess is through finding your video on YouTube or somewhere else online. What reaction have you gotten from fans and non-fans? How do you think the videos work to frame what the band is about?
I don’t think it’s an understatement to say our videos put the band on the map, starting with “You’ve Become a Witch” in 2010, which set the template. From that video, a UK label called Rowed Out Records released a 7” of “Witch,” and Groovie Records out of Portugal released our 2nd record, “Falling Off the Face of the Earth” (2012). It’s not like we ever played there up to that point, though we did get to play Portugal after the record came out, but that video is what got their attention, far away from NYC. And our videos are definitely what got us on our current label, Soundflat Records. One day, end of 2013, I received a random email from Marco Traxel, who runs Soundlfat, just to say how much he enjoyed our videos, particularly “She Has a Funny Walk,” I believe. The timing was right as we were just about to start recording our 3rd record and he said he’d be interested in putting it out. And now it’s four records later with them, including the vinyl reissue of our debut record. Without YouTube and the videos we would never have been able to extend our reach like we have, especially with a European fan base. I think the videos do a good job of showing that we have a sense of humor and don’t take ourselves too seriously, and hopefully they have been showing some growth, from the quality of songs themselves, to more ambitious visuals. It’s definitely gratifying to see our videos pop up or get shared and liked by random people, people not our friends. Sometimes someone will tweet one of our videos and say they’re digging it or something. It’s a simple gesture, but of course good to see.
Many members of the New York City music scene (Suke from the Candy Snatchers and Born Loose, Andrea Sicco from Twin Guns, Eric Davidson, Jonny Couch, Lisa Lush, and others) have appeared in your videos, and it’s fun to spot them as you view the videos. Are you hoping to document the scene in some way by using them? Has it been difficult to bring them in to participate or to explain the concept of your video?
Again, it started with “Witch” which had many of our friends in it. It’s definitely easier and more fun to cast amongst our pool of friends, many of whom are all naturals anyway. And yes, to me it has become a way to document the scene and our friends, some, as you said, over multiple videos. I think they will be something special to have one day to look back on when we’re all old and gray! Most of them are into it when we ask, and it helps we have a good track record. Most aren’t professional enough to be method actors or divas on the set, or ask too many questions, and just go with the flow. Often they just need to look cool, and that isn’t hard for most of them! We try to turn it into a fun experience. For example, with “Speed of Light,” which was all green screen, we had a small party at Esther and Dan’s one Saturday night and shot a few scenes for it. One part of the apartment was party central, while in the living room I set up the green screen and lights and took people one or two at a time to shoot their stuff, including the pool scene on the spaceship, and people were mostly cool enough with it to change from their party clothes into their bathing suits and cabana wear. It was a really fun way to work.
What was your most difficult video to shoot? Conversely, have you had any specific ideas you had to scrap because they proved too hard to pull off?
The EP no question, both from a technical standpoint, lots of green screen stuff, which I was basically still learning as we went along, and also scheduling wise, as we decided to shoot five videos at the same time. It was a lot to bang out, but we mostly succeeded. There was a bit of a time issue as we had outdoor shooting to do along with the indoor green screen scenes, and it would have been really unpleasant to shoot outside in colder winter weather, so we did need to set some dates to get it done. We shot them all basically over two long weekends in Oct. and early Nov. The EP was originally going to be five videos, including a video for “Laserbrain,” but as we did bite off a little more than we could chew, we decided to cut it as it was not going to be up to snuff with the other four. It was for the best anyway, as the EP would have topped twenty minutes, I think too long for even our most dedicated fan.
What prompted you to release a series of videos before releasing your most recent album, The Electric Mess V?
Early on in the songwriting process we considered just releasing a video EP, and a 10” EP to go along with it, but then the new songs started coming rather quickly, so we abandoned that idea and decided to just do another full record, and again Soundflat was interested in releasing it. But we still liked the video EP concept and had enough ideas for it to move ahead, and we also wanted it to be a bigger statement than just individual videos. Originally the plan was to have a big video release party ahead of the record release. We were actually scheduled to pick up the LPs in Germany while on tour in Europe a week later, but with the pandemic the tour of course was cancelled, and also our video party. So we just had a premiere on YouTube for it, which wasn’t nearly as much fun as a party would have been, but couldn’t be helped. Finally, how does it feel to have completed 14 videos and a video EP? That’s impressive! Do you have a favorite one?
Thanks, it’s very satisfying. Both as a member of a band with a body of work now, with songs and videos from five records, and also personally, with work I can be proud of. Of course I did have ambitions at one point to do feature films, and I’ve done some shorts, also with our friends, but the videos have been a nice way to still be creative and do production work, and learn new skills. One of my favorite videos, that’s not my own song, is “Better to Be Lucky Than Good,” since it gave me a chance to tell a whole story, no band shots in it, and just make it like a little film noir. Dan, whose song it is, pretty much gave me free rein, and it also had lots of friends in it, still maybe the most. There are some things I would do differently now, but I’m happy with the scope of it. Of my own songs, I’d say “Speed of Light” is my favorite now, since I feel I pulled off all the technical challenges with the green screen and was upbeat and fun. It serves the song well, has lots of humor, and really feels like we’re all on a spaceship. And the band looks cool rocking out! I’m proud of the whole EP, actually.
