"Exploitation" flicks, of course, go back to before this period. But as the 50's were coming to close and the 60's were emerging, someone got the bright idea to combine trashy exploitation flicks with cheap sci-fi and horror. The combination proved to be effective. On its own, the white trash exploitation genre would be perfected by Russ Meyer in the mid 60's. Mudhoney (see trailer) and Lorna stand out in my mind as his best efforts.
As for the new fusion fare, the 60's would see a string of trashy horror flicks that combined sex with horror, and eventually the combination would evolve into the "slasher" flick, epitomized by John Carpenter's Halloween.
Tonight's flicks are Attack of the Giant Leeches and The Brain that Would Not Die . They basically embody what I'm talking about. Something that ties Attack of the 50 Foot Woman with Attack of the Giant Leeches is the actress Yvette Vickers. In both flicks she plays the hot floozy --- in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman she's the conniving mistress of the philandering husband (see trailer below), while in Attack of the Giant Leeches she plays the cheating white trash nymph who can't keep her hands off the local hunky yokel. Vickers was a Playboy model at one time and she excelled at this particular role. She's certainly up there in the pantheon of sci-fi sirens.
Yvette VickersAttack of the Giant Leeches loosely falls within a sub-category of B-flicks that combine Southern Gothic/hillbilly-mayhem themes with the "swamp thing" idea, a synthesis perhaps best epitomized by Fox's Alligator People . B-flick genius Roger Corman helped produce Attack of the Giant Leeches for American International Pictures. It was directed by Bernard Kowalski, who also directed Night of the Blood Beast , another cheaply made movie but with an interesting premise not unlike that of The Quatermass Experiment or Alien .
I include Attack of the Giant Leeches more as a matter of interest, really. While it's premise is interesting as per our theme, you may find it a bit slow. The flick that I really like --- our featured feature, as it were --- is The Brain That Would Not Die . Among the truly trashy low budget sci-fi flicks, this is my all-time favorite. The basic premise of the movie --- which riffs upon the ancient Indian story of the Transposed Heads, later adapted by Thomas Mann --- as well as the lurid night club scenes and the sleazy saxophone sound track really make this movie. Oh ya, there's even a thing in the closet for good measure.
Both feature flicks were made in 1958-59, but The Brain That Would Not Die would not be released until 1962. From what I can tell, in the late 50's, the B-flick sci-fi producers were beginning to realize that the drive-in creature feature was about to run its course. We can see this in Invasion of the Saucer Men where the creatures are no longer treated seriously and are portrayed in a rather silly manner. What the genre needed, they opined, was a little spice, and so it was that an element of trashy sexuality was injected into the mix.
And sure enough, the drive-in sc-fi formula of the 50's virtually collapsed when Hammer Films started remaking Gothic classics like Frankenstein and Dracula, but with bigger budgets, striking sets, elaborate costumes, bold color, and most importantly, a degree of sensuality and eroticism not seen before in Gothic horror films.
Hammer's Kiss of the Vampire
Samuel Z Arkoff and American International Pictures --- makers of drive-in classics like Roger Corman's It Conquered the World (with Lee van Cleef) and Gene Fowler's I Was a Teenage Werewolf (with Michael Landon) --- responded to the British challenge by producing their own slick adaptations of the Gothic stories of Edgar Allen Poe, often with Vincent Price in the lead. But in any case, the older drive-in format of the 50's had run its course.
Enjoy:
Trailers
Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman (Trailer)
Mudhoney (Trailer)
Features
Attack of the Giant Leeches
The Brain That Would Not Die
