Two Classic Film Trailers from the King of Exploitation Jack Hill: Spider Baby and Pit Stop
Sunday, 29. April 2007, 16:47:54
THE SEDUCTIVE INNOCENCE OF LOLITA AND THE SAVAGE HUNGER OF A BLACK WIDOW
I once owned an autographed copy of Spider Baby by Jack Hill and gave it to my buddy Matt Gehringer when I left for China. He seemed more addicted to the film than I ever was so I hope he still has that priceless video tape. Also billed as Cannibal Orgy and The Maddest Story Ever Told and The Liver Eaters, Spider Baby is a superbly shot b/w film by Hill that was held up for four years after it was completed (in 1964) as an asset in a bankruptcy case. I have not seen the DVD version but have read on the net that the quality is much better than the video. Stars Lon Chaney Jr as the caregiver of a household of afflicted youngsters who have no qualms about murder due to a heredity disorder. I believe this was Sid Haig’s first role and he spends much of time in the dumbwaiter looking creepy. He would go on to do other Jack Hill films including Pit Stop and The Big Doll House, a women in a Filipino prison movie, where he pretends to be the weirdest gay guy ever in one scene. If you were gay would you fall for Sid Haig in any situation? If you weren't gay would you?
THE FANTASTIC STORY OF THE MEN WHO PIT THEIR FLESH AGAINST THE SHREEKING OF TIRES AND THE GRINDING OF STEEL
This is a really good and gritty movie about demolition derby drivers, the kind that do the figure 8 style races. It was released in 1969 and like Spider Baby is shot in effective b/w. Unlike some other hotrod movies of the time this film is really rather despairing and well done and has little of the shlocky teenage angst the other films of this short lived genre tried to convey. These are all older guys and this is their life. They are not “rebelling” they just trying to survive by making a living at the only thing they know how to do. The acting is all pretty good with handsome Dick Davalos as the brooding, silent but determined new guy to the track. Sid Haig returns to a Jack Hill production as a really edgy driver who has had his brains jostled around one too many times. There is also a fine early role by Ellen McRae. If the name does not ring a bell she would soon change her name to Ellen Burnstyn and she would become famous for her roles in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and The Exorcist. A really moody movie and one of Hill’s best.
WIDGETIZE
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