In the 1970s many a young director got his bones by getting Pam Grier to don a skimpy wife beater and some panties, prance around all sweaty, and occasionally get into a brawl with some dykes at your standard issue women’s prison. Journeyman exploitioneer Jack Hill got in on the craze with The Big Doll House. Pam Grier goes to jail for killing her husband, meets all kinds of degenerate women, and breaks out in a hail of boobs and bullets. Come for the tits, stay for the violence.
3/5
A simultaneous celebration of the women in prison idiom, as well as a lampoon on it, Reform School Girls with the incomparable Wendy O. Williams will rock your socks, provided that you are wearing any. Lots of group shower scenes and cat fights, as well as corrupt prison establishment. But more to the point, Wendy O. Williams walking around half naked being a total bitch for an hour and a half. What more do you really need to know other than that? Deacon Blues doesn’t really think much other knowledge is necessary.
4.5/5
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The first two Lone Wolf and Cub (or, as it is known in Nippon, “Wolf With Baby In Tow”) films recut for American audiences and distributed by New World Pictures, Shogun Assassin is also beloved of Wu-Tang Clan’s GZA / Genius who used the film for his samples on Liquid Swords. I wouldn’t think more of a recommendation would be needed, but here we go. The story, for those of you unfamiliar, is about the Shogun’s disgraced executioner who becomes a ronin, wandering the country side until such time as he can take revenge for the murder of his wife. He also carts his small child around in a pram, hence the title “Lone Wolf and Cub.” This movie is probably better than the two movies that it condenses for a casual audience, though hardcore samurai fans amy want to stick to the original source material. Very bloody, very violent, and with no small amount of angsty depictions of the Tokugawa Shogunate. No history lessons here, just bad ass swordplay, revenge, and one angry ronin.
6/5
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0wQhiptQBE]
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What can be said about this Roger Corman-produced Depression epic that hasn’t already been said? A mainstay of the Late Late Late Late Movie on your favorite local non-network station, Big Bad Mama broke the mold of both the short-lived “Mama movie” craze and Depression crime spree flicks. Starring Angie Dickinson looking her best and being courted by a one-two punch of manliness, Tom Skerritt and William “Big Shat” Shatner. This is, as Mr. Corman would probably put it, a “real swell picture.” Lots of tits, gun violence, and backwoods white trash. See Shat act for the first and last time in his life. The ending is ballsy, existential, completely shocking, and totally fitting. One of the masterworks of Corman’s New World Pictures company, even if the Shat / Dickinson love scene is rather terrifying.
5/5
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaLuskJD5ac
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One of New World Pictures’ so-called “Mama movies,” Bloody Mama doesn’t quite measure up to the gold standard of the niche genre, Big Bad Mama, but it’s not too bad either. Shelly Winters is the matriarch of a family of none-too-bright boys in this film loosely based on the life and times of Ma Barker. Look for an early Robert De Niro who frankly isn’t much of a stand out, and Bruce Dern in one of the last credited Roger Corman-directed pictures. Great as a complement to Big Bad Mama. Have yourself a Mama night!
3.5/5
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SZxomFbAD0]
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