BOLD! BRUTAL! BARBARIC!

Here's another sleazy batch of posters that are prime examples of exploitation films. Included are a few from the major Hollywood studios who couldn't keep their minds out of the gutter for a few bucks. I've also dished up some blaxploitation pictures that you may not be familiar with. Then there's a couple of transgender films that were quite scandalous for their time: I LED TWO LIVES (1970) tells the fictionalized bio of Christine Jorgensen, a real "trans" person and LET ME DIE A WOMAN (1978) is by the infamous Queen of Exploitation, Doris Wishman. It still amazes me that movies like these ever got made.

THE TRAGIC LIFE OF COLIN CLIVE

Heralded in his day as a gifted performer, Colin Clive was nevertheless plagued with enough personal demons for several people. He was pathologically insecure and suffered from severe stage fright. As a result, he turned to alcohol to deal with his fears. He was also in mortal fear of losing a bad leg due to several injuries.

As the years went on, his alcoholism became worse. He would often be seen sleeping on the set between takes and more than once needed to be held up to deliver his lines. He finally succumbed to alcoholism and tuberculosis on June 25, 1937 at the age of 37.

Mae Clarke remembered him fondly:

Colin Clive was the dearest, kindest (in the real meaning of the word 'kind') man, who gave you importance. He was so wonderful, so clever. When he started acting in a scene, I wanted to stop and just watch... I'd think, 'Here I am, playing scenes with this marvelous actor!' (James) Whale would say, 'Colin's voice is like a pipe organ... I just pull out the stops, and he produces the music.' Colin was electric. I was mesmerized by him; so much so that I hoped it didn't show! When he looked at me, I'd flush. He had a wife back in England, and I had my young man . In fact, I was glad my fiancé was at the premiere that night, to be my good anchor against my stormy waves of fancy for Colin. He was the handsomest man I ever saw, and also the saddest. Colin's sadness was elusive; the sadness you see if you contemplate many of the master painters' and sculptors' conceptions of the face of Christ, the ultimate source in my view of all sadness."

From a book of United Artists actors bios.

Picture Play, July 1935.

BEWARE! THE DEVIL'S MEN ARE ON THEIR WAY!

Did you ever think there would be a movie that even the great Peter Cushing, the always-reliable Donald Pleasence and the busty Luan Peters couldn't save? Well, you'd be right. Despite their usual efforts THE DEVIL'S MEN (aka THE DEVIL'S PEOPLE) known as LAND OF THE MINOTAUR in the U.S. falls flat as so many 1970s horror films do. After THE EXORCIST, studios couldn't help themselves in flooding theater screens with devil-worshipping stories, and nearly every one of them a yawner. Even one of my favorites from early on in that Satanic-panic period, THE MEPHISTO WALTZ (1971) teetered on the brink of mediocrity and had the slightly tainted look of a TV movie.

U.S. theatrical release poster.

The only thing unique about this film is that it was shot in Greece, otherwise it's the familiar story of young people getting abducted and sacrificed to a cult of minotaur-worshipping crazies. Even the nudity was cut from the U.S. version. The same consideration should have been made for Paul Williams' end title song, "The Devil's Men". Hard to believe this is the same composer who gave us the marvelous movie soundtrack for PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE just a couple of years earlier. Rating: two out of five pitchforks.

UK theatrical release poster.

CONTINENTAL FILM REVIEW (January 1976):

LOBBY CARDS:

THE DEVIL'S MEN/LAND OF THE MINOTAUR TRAILER:

THE DEVIL'S MEN/LAND OF THE MINOTAUR FULL MOVIE:

PAUL WILLIAMS' END TITLE SONG:

EXTRA!

From the same issue of CONTINENTAL FILM REVIEW, this short piece on David Cronenberg's SHIVERS.