6/24/10

When Women Had Giant Mutant Sheep Embryos

While preparing for a move across the County I've been trying get through some of these randoms I've accumulated. Just to filter out a few impulse buys and watch a few of the movies I have on loan from friends so they can be enjoyed and returned. Yesterday I watched an incredible piece of Italian schlock, the 1972 film When Women Lost Their Tails. I found it as a budget release of two Senta Berger movies (the other being Blitz which I haven't gotten around to yet) at a local used dvd shop and thought the title sounded sufficiently wonderful.

It ended up exceeding my expectations. It turned out to be a tongue in cheek sex comedy set in the stone age. Senta Berger plays a sexy cave girl who's the belonging of a group of five cave stooges. One of which is played by Italian cult actor Frank Wolff. I didn't expect this movie to be as funny as it turned out to be. A new, smarter cave man moves into the area and tricks the dim witted neanderthals into using a money systems with rocks, he swindles them out of work, food and of course sex kitten, Senta Berger. The dialogue was surprisingly witty, it's fun seeing these characters fumble around to build themselves a little society. The gay cave man was especially charming. The punchline at the end of the movie is that Berger is liberated through prostitution! Not a movie for those sensitive to misogyny but worth a look to anyone with a sense of humor. My favorite thing about this movie were the sets and music. It was like a Flintstone cartoon come to life. Completely over the top! It reminded of how the sets looked in Robinson Crusoe on Mars. The score was done by none other than one of my all time favorite composers Bruno Nicolai, although it was basically the same theme and incidental music through out the whole film it's still fun and catchy!


After I watched the movie I of course looked it up the internet, the poster I came across struck a nerve. I suddenly had this crazy deja vu from seeing this poster as a kid and being completely intrigued by it. I'm not positive where I saw it but my best bet would be this book of 1970's film posters my Mom got for me when I was in the 6th grade. I remember seeing her looking all savage and ravishing bound by chains, I remember the title being very odd to me and the text seeming out of place but in a good way. I remember think she had a lot of hair and wondering what the hell this movie could be about. I assumed it was some weird western. I couldn't imagine a time women ever had tails so none of it made any sense to me! This memory has made me feel a bit sentimental over finally seeing this movie. I'm so happy it found me!




The other movie has been bouncing around my mind all week. The reviled and ignored creature feature, Godmonster of Indian Flats. Reading some other reviews online was a bit disappointing for me. A lot of people seem to really hate this movie. I don't get it, what did they expect? I went into this with extremely low expectations and immediately noticed it wasn't just any run of the mill Something Weird movie. After a few flicks like Bowanga Bowanga and Sinderella and the Golden Bra you learn that they can't all be winners. The style of film making reminded me of Russ Meyer. The cuts were clever and funny. The acting was the kind of "good-bad" acting you want from a movie like this - intentional almost. It also had Meyers alumni, Stuart Lancaster as the racist town Mayor. At one point I wondered if Russ Meyer might have directed this under a pseudonym. He didn't of course, but if he made a movie with no boobs, mutant sheep and an even more limited budget and time frame, I could see this being apart of his filmography. The "no boobs" should have been the give away, ha!


The story revolves around a historic old west town in Nevada. After being drunk and beaten, a sheep farmers has a psychedelic experience in his barn with floating yellow sheep. When he comes-to he sees that a giant bloody embryo has been born. He tells a scientist who's doing experiments on the strange phosphorescent gasses in the area and they begin to study it. It grows up to be a giant 8 foot mutant sheep. Isn't that wonderful?!

The Godmonster isn't even my favorite thing about this movie. It's the over all feel and production quality. Not to say that the production quality is high, but it's nice and grainy which works beautifully with the gorgeous location and the director's artistic vision. On the dvd you can expect Something Weird's usual awesome special features, including an AMAZING music video for a song called "Don't Fart Around with Love" from another movie by the same director. It reminded me of something from Forbidden Zone! I did some research and discovered the director, Fredric Hobbs was an artist and experimental filmmaker. He made three other movies, Troika (1969), Roseland (1971) and Alabama's Ghost (1973). I haven't been able to find out much about the first but Roseland (the movie that feature's "Don't Fart Around with Love") and Alabama's Ghost both have a small cult following. I plan on getting them both very soon. You can order Roseland from Something Weird's website click HERE, you can also view the trailer on that page. Alabama's Ghost is a little more difficult to track down. . In the meantime there are a few wacky clips from that crazed blaxploitation horror movie on Youtube if you care to check it out.

Until next time!!


2 comments:

  1. I hated Godmonster because it was boring as hell. I was even going through a lot of SWV's catalog at the time and this one hurt my feelings. I'm interested in Alabama's Ghost after your review of that at I've heard that Roseland is pretty amazing.

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  2. the general census seems to be that Godmonster sucks. I really loved it though! I actually watched it twice before I returned it to the person who loaned it to me. The monster element wasn't really the clencher, I just liked the characters and the general feel of of the movie.

    Alabama's Ghost has it's slow moments too. It's conceptually weird but I still say it's totally worth a view. can't wait for Roseland!

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