SOMETIMES AUNT MARTHA DOES DREADFUL THINGS 1971
Abe Zwick (Paul Sutton), Wayne Crawford (Stanley; as Scott Lawrence), Don Craig (Hubert), Robin Hughes (Vickie), Yanka Mann (Mrs. Adams), Marty Cordova (Alma)
Directed by Thomas Casey
The Short Version: Little seen Hippies, drugs, and psycho cross-dresser shocker about jewel thieves, Paul and Stanley (not to be confused with the KISS frontman), who share more than just their loot. Less a horror movie than a psychological thriller with a touch of black comedy, Casey's flick is a fascinating nosedive into the lives of two criminals with serious mental issues. A truly bizarre film, its mixture of genre styles strikes a wildly erratic tone, but this only adds to the quirkiness of the storyline. Serious Drive-in and exploitation buffs should see this one at least once; those seeking blood and gore might want to pass it by. Despite budgetary shortcomings, Sometimes Filmmakers Make Memorable Things.
Two mentally disturbed jewel thieves hide out in Florida after committing a murder in Baltimore, Maryland. Disguised as "Aunt Martha", Paul Sutton keeps house with Stanley, his drug-addicted, mental midget of a partner. To protect their cover from prying eyes, a junkie strung out on Astrology, and Stanley from the lascivious allure of sex, drugs and rock and roll hippies, Paul kills anyone who comes in the house. As bodies continue to pile up, Paul and Stanley can't keep their twisted actions hidden for long.
Nearly unclassifiable, director Casey (who directed nothing else) wrote the unconventional script to this minor gem that, up to now, was mired in perpetual obscurity; its VHS availability in the 1980s possibly got the film more exposure than its theatrical run ever did back in the 70s. Marketed as horror, the picture is crowded with other genre styles and some fascinating characterizations.
At times Casey's celluloid conundrum feels like a comedy; at others it takes on the guise of a crime thriller; then it segues into a horror film before starting the whole cycle over again. Aside from the omnipresent hippie and drug culture, one theme is constant, though: the mania of its primary antagonists. Casey doesn't go to great lengths to divulge the backgrounds of either of them, but drops just enough information for the viewer to draw their own conclusions. It's the kooky relationship, the exposition between the two main characters that keeps AUNT MARTHA from being a dreadful movie.
We learn early on that cross-dressing Paul (Abe Zwick, who acted in nothing else) is only wearing women's clothes as a cover after an incident in Baltimore that ended in an old woman's death. He's not a very convincing woman, either, yet effortlessly fools nosy neighbors and anyone else who happens by. As screen time passes, it becomes apparent that Paul is very comfortable emulating the female form. At times Paul seems to get lost in his "Aunt Martha" guise--posing and admiring his legs in pantyhose, or addressing and castigating Stanley like a mother would a child.
The implication of a sexual relationship between the two is obvious in a few scenes. This is hinted at in the first ten minutes when Paul becomes highly irritated Stanley isn't where he's supposed to be; another example occurs a short time later when Stanley latches onto Paul's arm proclaiming he "needs him" after spurning the forceful sexual advances of the blonde waitress Alma.
Wayne Crawford (GOD'S BLOODY ACRE, BARRACUDA) plays the drug-addicted Stanley as an easily manipulated, yet irresponsible teenager who, at times shows interest in girls--but once their pants come off (or try to remove his), he turns into a preadolescent who's fearful (maybe even disgusted) of a woman's advances. That he's heavy into drugs only reinforces the ease with which Paul controls his partner in crime. The few times Paul feels he's losing his grasp on his petulant paramour, his demeanor is overtaken by a jealous rage that leads to murder.
Aside from that, the most intriguing facet of Paul and Stanley are their dual personalities. Both men are seemingly conflicted as to who they really are--the demented Paul to his dominant role as both male and female. Interestingly, we only see him murder when he's dressed as Aunt Martha (save for one crucial moment). As Paul states at the beginning, the disguise is supposed to allay suspicion yet it's the "skin" he wears when he kills people. It recalls the disturbing mother fixation of Norman Bates.
Stanley is the bigger societal outcast of the two. One sequence of a bare-chested Paul wearing a bra, admiring himself is juxtaposed with a girl disrobing in front of Stanley. He couldn't be less interested. He's not even looking at her. Towards the end, though, Stanley seems to detach from Paul, if momentarily, by becoming interested in Vickie, the shy, innocent daughter to the nosy Mrs. Adams who lives across the street. It would appear Stanley might actually be drawn to Vickie, a woman of purity who is the polar opposite of the drug-loving hippies he normally hangs with; but then Paul uses his power of persuasion to reel Stanley back in--leading to the film's sole gruesome moment involving the removal of a baby from a dying pregnant woman. There's also a big reveal during the finale you'll probably already guess well before then.
With all of AUNT MARTHA's substance out of the way, Thomas Casey's movie is a monetarily bare bones affair. The music score is made up of library tracks, some of which will be
recognizable to fans of Shaw Brothers kung fu movies. Just the same,
director Casey does wonders with limited resources. Shot in Florida, it has that unique Floridian pallor of other films shot there by directors like William Grefe and Herschell Gordon Lewis-- but lacks the sleazy punch found in Lewis's BLOOD FEAST (1964) and Grefe's STANLEY (1972), to name two examples. Aside from its strengths in its subtext and performances of its main participants, AUNT MARTHA is weak in the horror and gore department.
The kill scenes themselves aren't that bloody, and the editing of them reveals some graphic material may have been scissored out at some point; this is unfortunate as had the brutality been more pronounced, Casey's film would be palatable for a wider contingent of the trash film spectrum. Even without splatter, SOMETIMES AUNT MARTHA DOES DREADFUL THINGS is worth checking out for its bizarre, blackly comedic qualities. A shame Christopher Casey didn't direct more features; his sole directorial excursion into celluloid weirdness is an overlooked anomaly in the field of 70s exploitation cinema.
This review is representative of the Vinegar Syndrome DVD. Extras and Specs: 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen; audio commentary by filmmaker David DeCoteau and film historian Nathaniel Thompson.
THE NIGHT OF THE STRANGLER 1972 aka ACE OF SPADES aka IS THE FATHER BLACK ENOUGH? aka DIRTY DAN aka DIRTY DAN'S WOMEN
Mickey Dolenz (Vance Robear), Michael Anthony (Lieutenant De Vivo), James Ralston (Dan Robear), Chuck Patterson (Father Jesse), Susan McCullough (Denise), Katie Tilley (Ann Novak), Ann Barrett (Carol), Warren J. Kenner (Willie)
Directed by Joy N. Houck, Jr.
The Short Version: Everyone's a suspect in Joy Houck, Jr's well-crafted, racially charged murder mystery starring Monkees front man, Mickey Dolenz. After an inter-racial family squabble turns deadly, an unseen killer turns members of the Robear family against one another in between knocking them off in this fairly elaborate thriller from the guy who gave you the Sasquatch classic, CREATURE FROM BLACK LAKE (1976). Shot in New Orleans and consistently cited as a Southern Gothic, Houck's movie never feels like one, lacking down-home accents and any identifiable atmosphere indigenous to Southern Fried cinema. It does run the gamut of nearly every other Drive-in and exploitation genre trope, though. Capped with a cold-blooded coda, Passion Pit lovers are in for an intriguing 90 minutes, but trash film fans should take heed this is diet exploitation soda at best.
Two brothers, Vance and Dan Robear, are at odds over their sister, Denise, being pregnant with a black man's baby. Upon learning this, Dan disowns her after a tense confrontation. Soon after, Denise returns to New York only for her lover to be murdered by a hitman, and she, too, is killed by an unseen assailant soon after. Both brothers become suspicious of one another, as well as become suspects in the wake of a mysterious string of bizarre murders.
Wedged between his more descriptively titled fare like NIGHT OF BLOODY HORROR (1969) and CREATURE FROM BLACK LAKE (1976), is Joy Houck, Jr's quaint thriller--a film that bears overtones of the giallo, the crazed Nam vet sub-genre, and black action style of cinema. Essentially a revenge movie built around sibling rivalry, the script juggles a lot of themes and ideas and rarely, if ever, drops a single one of them. Surprisingly engaging, it only stumbles occasionally--like a scene where a man is shot, and instead of falling backwards on cue, turns and moves himself to assure he's landing in the right place. Were hippies ever hitmen? And who has a picnic when there's snow on the ground?
Minor quibbles aside, this is possibly Houck's best directed effort. It's not a movie that gets much discussion, nor does it owe allegiance to any one genre style. Arguably the most frustrating aspect of the film is its title. There's no strangling, but you will see lots of familial struggles, racial tension, a black gloved killer who favors quasi-slasher death scenes, and a surprise ending that reveals its killer to be even more cruel than the motives necessitating the revenge.
Shot in New Orleans, this production is from the New Orleans based
Howco International--the
same company that brought you such antiquated celluloid anxiety relief
as THE BRAIN FROM
PLANET AROUS (1957) and TEENAGE MONSTER (1958). If you're familiar with
those movies, and those directed by Houck, Jr., than STRANGLER is
something of a surprise in comparison.
Often described in ways to suggest it's a selection of a more tasteless vintage, the use of incendiary language is about as sleazy as NIGHT OF THE STRANGLER gets. That in no way means it's a bad bet; only that, if you're looking for the sort of sanguinary thrills promised in Vinegar Syndrome's DVD synopsis, you may want to fold your hand on this one. There's very little blood, but some creatively nasty methods of dispatch are on display such as an Elapid snake hidden in a bouquet of flowers and a spring-loaded metal arrow laced with Curare poison.
What makes STRANGLER engaging is its subject matter and Houck's handling of it. Prejudice is color blind in his movie--where a villain isn't necessarily defined by his use of the word 'nigger'. Father Jesse sums up his personal experiences with hate, a human emotion that doesn't recognize the shade of one's skin, thusly, "... I get it from both sides. For some whites, I'm a... a good nigger.
The only difference between a good nigger and a nigger is the word good.
For some blacks, I'm an uncle tom nigger. Believe me, it's all the same
thing. Nigger's an ugly word, but it is after all only a word." There's quite a bit more that's worth discussing regarding the script's treatment of race, but to do so might spoil some things.
All you really need to know is that James Ralston is very good as mega-bigot, Dan Robear, the film's central antagonist. He has a seething disdain for blacks that really sinks in during the scene where the kindly Father Jesse pays a visit to Dan to discuss an earlier, tense exchange. Father Jesse apologizes for striking him and Dan apologizes for calling him a nigger, stating, "You're not one of those... well, you're a black man". For a moment, the character of Dan appears to display a tiny glimmer of hope that he can evolve beyond his prejudice. However, barely 20 seconds later, all that is thrown away after his wife discreetly asks him to be nice to Father Jesse; to which Dan responds, "No nigger is a man, much less a man of God!" From that point onward, the audience eagerly awaits his fate, and that it will be satisfactorily meted out. This is a Drive-in movie, after all.
Aside from Ralston, performances are uniformly strong even if the bulk of the material requires lines to be shouted or uttered through gritted teeth.
Mickey Dolenz is arguably the major drawing card, and, for an actor primarily in television, it is a bit awkward to see the Monkees singer in a movie like this. Ralston dominates the picture, although Dolenz's hairstyle and fashion sense are distracting when he's onscreen.
As for its promotion, THE NIGHT OF THE STRANGLER is a classic example of deceptive marketing strategies (somewhat reflective of the varying genre elements found therein) that rarely accurately summarized what the actual film was about. The original title was ACE OF SPADES--a title that suits the picture, and makes the most sense in the context of the movie. Considering the topical theme of race relations, the picture was promoted elsewhere as a blaxploitation effort with the IS THE FATHER BLACK ENOUGH?
moniker. In other markets it was advertised as something of a more salacious nature with titles like DIRTY DAN and DIRTY DAN'S WOMEN. Despite garnering theatrical play in 1972, the movie wasn't submitted for an MPAA rating till 1973 when it was christened as NIGHT OF THE STRANGLER, its final appellation. Houck and his Howco company also paired STRANGLER with two of their earlier flicks, WOMEN AND BLOODY TERROR (1969) and NIGHT OF BLOODY HORROR (1969). From '73 onward, the NIGHT OF THE STRANGLER title remained while the others seemingly never surfaced again.
Lost in a sea of obscurity for years, NIGHT OF THE STRANGLER (the onscreen title adds the article 'the') certainly doesn't deserve to remain there. Likely a hard sell, it's not trashy enough to satiate the harder exploitation crowd, nor is it slick enough to appeal to a broader audience. Houck's elaborate tale of familial strife, bigotry and revenge will likely remain a minor footnote in Drive-in history. Still, it's surprisingly good for what it is, successfully melding a number of genre styles not known for subtleties nor for being tame. What it lacks in budgetary resources it makes up for in its storytelling and craftiness.
***Thanks to Temple of Schlock's Chris Poggiali for information on this films theatrical release history. You can visit their website HERE and their Facebook page HERE.***
This review is representative of the Vinegar Syndrome DVD. Specs and Extras: 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. There are no extras.
copyright 2013. All text is the property of coolasscinema.com and should not be reproduced in whole, or in part, without permission from the author. All images, unless otherwise noted, are the property of their respective copyright owners.
Two mentally disturbed jewel thieves hide out in Florida after committing a murder in Baltimore, Maryland. Disguised as "Aunt Martha", Paul Sutton keeps house with Stanley, his drug-addicted, mental midget of a partner. To protect their cover from prying eyes, a junkie strung out on Astrology, and Stanley from the lascivious allure of sex, drugs and rock and roll hippies, Paul kills anyone who comes in the house. As bodies continue to pile up, Paul and Stanley can't keep their twisted actions hidden for long.
At times Casey's celluloid conundrum feels like a comedy; at others it takes on the guise of a crime thriller; then it segues into a horror film before starting the whole cycle over again. Aside from the omnipresent hippie and drug culture, one theme is constant, though: the mania of its primary antagonists. Casey doesn't go to great lengths to divulge the backgrounds of either of them, but drops just enough information for the viewer to draw their own conclusions. It's the kooky relationship, the exposition between the two main characters that keeps AUNT MARTHA from being a dreadful movie.
We learn early on that cross-dressing Paul (Abe Zwick, who acted in nothing else) is only wearing women's clothes as a cover after an incident in Baltimore that ended in an old woman's death. He's not a very convincing woman, either, yet effortlessly fools nosy neighbors and anyone else who happens by. As screen time passes, it becomes apparent that Paul is very comfortable emulating the female form. At times Paul seems to get lost in his "Aunt Martha" guise--posing and admiring his legs in pantyhose, or addressing and castigating Stanley like a mother would a child.
Wayne Crawford (GOD'S BLOODY ACRE, BARRACUDA) plays the drug-addicted Stanley as an easily manipulated, yet irresponsible teenager who, at times shows interest in girls--but once their pants come off (or try to remove his), he turns into a preadolescent who's fearful (maybe even disgusted) of a woman's advances. That he's heavy into drugs only reinforces the ease with which Paul controls his partner in crime. The few times Paul feels he's losing his grasp on his petulant paramour, his demeanor is overtaken by a jealous rage that leads to murder.
Aside from that, the most intriguing facet of Paul and Stanley are their dual personalities. Both men are seemingly conflicted as to who they really are--the demented Paul to his dominant role as both male and female. Interestingly, we only see him murder when he's dressed as Aunt Martha (save for one crucial moment). As Paul states at the beginning, the disguise is supposed to allay suspicion yet it's the "skin" he wears when he kills people. It recalls the disturbing mother fixation of Norman Bates.
Stanley is the bigger societal outcast of the two. One sequence of a bare-chested Paul wearing a bra, admiring himself is juxtaposed with a girl disrobing in front of Stanley. He couldn't be less interested. He's not even looking at her. Towards the end, though, Stanley seems to detach from Paul, if momentarily, by becoming interested in Vickie, the shy, innocent daughter to the nosy Mrs. Adams who lives across the street. It would appear Stanley might actually be drawn to Vickie, a woman of purity who is the polar opposite of the drug-loving hippies he normally hangs with; but then Paul uses his power of persuasion to reel Stanley back in--leading to the film's sole gruesome moment involving the removal of a baby from a dying pregnant woman. There's also a big reveal during the finale you'll probably already guess well before then.
With all of AUNT MARTHA's substance out of the way, Thomas Casey's movie is a monetarily bare bones affair. The music score is made up of library tracks, some of which will be
recognizable to fans of Shaw Brothers kung fu movies. Just the same,
director Casey does wonders with limited resources. Shot in Florida, it has that unique Floridian pallor of other films shot there by directors like William Grefe and Herschell Gordon Lewis-- but lacks the sleazy punch found in Lewis's BLOOD FEAST (1964) and Grefe's STANLEY (1972), to name two examples. Aside from its strengths in its subtext and performances of its main participants, AUNT MARTHA is weak in the horror and gore department. 
The kill scenes themselves aren't that bloody, and the editing of them reveals some graphic material may have been scissored out at some point; this is unfortunate as had the brutality been more pronounced, Casey's film would be palatable for a wider contingent of the trash film spectrum. Even without splatter, SOMETIMES AUNT MARTHA DOES DREADFUL THINGS is worth checking out for its bizarre, blackly comedic qualities. A shame Christopher Casey didn't direct more features; his sole directorial excursion into celluloid weirdness is an overlooked anomaly in the field of 70s exploitation cinema.
