Our pals at Severin have unleashed a duo of wicked westerns from exploitation maestro Lee Frost (Love Camp 7, The Black Gestapo) and today we are fixin’ to set our sights on them both!
First up is 1968’s Hot Spur…
A group of cowpokes get it in there sleazy heads to poke something else, which leads to them sexually assaulting a local saloon girl (while the sounds of the Martian ships from George Pal’s War of the Worlds adaptation plays in the background exactly as one would expect… and that shit comes back too).
The assault sets off the woman’s meek brother, Carlo (James Arena)… who has witnessed these same events play out years earlier, and he begins to journey down Revenge Road… but the travelling is hornier than one would reckon.
Anyway, Carlo goes and gets himself a job as a stable hand at the nearby ranch owned by Jason O’Hara (soap opera mainstay Joseph Mascolo), where those sex-addicted sidewinders what did his sister wrong work and play (and by “play” I mean grope naked women who at times ride them with saddles).
Soon his plan kicks into high gear and he kidnaps Jason’s hoot to trot wife Susan (Virginia Gordon), whom he in turn assaults multiple times… because in the Old West two wrongs apparently will make things a-okay… before the bullets start blazin’ and the blood gets to flowin’!
Set among sprawling ranch sets and their natural surroundings, one could easily think this was any number of mainstream Hollywood westerns, but once the clothes drop (again and again) you realize you are well and truly entrenched in sexploitation country through and through!
While the general theme of the material seems like it’s going to be a real depressing slog to get through, things are incredibly ridiculous throughout, with some of the raunchier sequences akin to people just flopping on each other and assing around rather than being titillating or shocking.
Adding to the experience is the rousing score courtesy of Denny Martin mixes both traditional western score tropes while branching out a bit into almost Spaghetti western bombast.
All of the above looks absolutely fantastic here with vivid colors and plenty of clarity (keep your eyes open for telephone poles and car tire tracks) that makes the material look stunning as it is sordid (and it runs cattle trains around the old Something Weird transfer).
As for special features, things kick off with an audio commentary courtesy of Vinegar Syndrome’s Joe Rubin, Severin’s Andrew Furtado, (and eventually former Something Weird General Manager Tim Lewis that takes us through both the production and the exploitation biz in those days in fascinating detail.
Following that comes a recently unearthed conversation between the late filmmaker David F. Friedman and Something Weird founder Mike Vraney (also deceased) discussing the wild times working with Frost and Producer/Writer Bob Cresse that is vastly entertaining and anecdote packed.
Also included are an early mondo-style doc from Frost/Creese about L.A.’s free-wheelin’ sex work in the early ‘60s titled Hollywood’s World of Flesh, a raunchy short film called The Casting Director (starring Creese and directed by Friedman), the film’s lengthy (and ludicrously hyped) trailer, and a teaser.
Next comes 1969’s The Scavengers…
The Civil War is over, but someone forgot to tell Confederate Captain Steve Harris (John Bliss, who would later star in Frost’s Drive-In classic, The Thing with Two Heads) so his troops just ass-off in the woods, slowly starving.
To that end, they stroll into a town occupied by freed slaves whom they of course begin lording it over while they wait for a rumored Yankee stagecoach rumored to be rollin’ by soon which they plan to rob.
The good citizens however have other ideas…
With an eye on solid drama and action, and a healthy dose of ‘60s racial tensions The Scavengers seems loftier on the surface, but depending on which of the included versions you choose to watch, that good ol’ sexploitation magic comes a-rocketin’ back (though even in the uncut version of the film, it never reaches the horny heights of Hot Spur).
The Scavangers also happens to seem to move at a better pace than Hot Spur, has a fun (and satisfying) twist, and an appearance from Swedish Russ Meyer muse Uschi Digard… also the theme song (sung by actor Bruce Kimball, whom you may remember from Stu Segall’s 1976 Drive-In Massacre) has to be heard to be believed.
As with Hot Spur, The Scavengers looks fantastic here, with the same vibrancy and clarity… and as before, it sure beats the transfer utilized previously by Something Weird.
Special features here include: another commentary courtesy of Rubin and Furtado (this time joined by Temple of Schlock‘s Chris Poggiali) that is every bit as great a listen as the one featured on Hot Spur, with tons of information and anecdotes to bring the story of the film’s production to life, trailers for each version of the film, and a really cool reproduction of the film’s promotional program.
Sleazy, gritty, and at times downright mean as all hell, Hot Spur and The Scavengers are solid choices for the collection of those that can’t get enough exploitation flick sex and violence!
