Severin Films accomplished the impossible in 2024, striking a deal with the legendarily aloof RM Films to begin releasing (a limited number of) titles from the Russ Meyer library. Meyer is most famous for FASTER, PUSSYCAT…KILL! KILL! (1965), John Waters’ favorite film, and the X-rated big studio picture BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS (1970), one of MY favorite films. These are two of the first movies that should come to mind when you think of the words “cult classic,” but his catalog as a whole – the Criterion Collection’s BEYOND excepted – has been elusive on home video for the last couple of decades. Now Severin has released, in short order, the so-called “Vixen” trilogy of VIXEN (1968), SUPERVIXENS (1975), and BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRA-VIXENS (1979), along with MOTORPSYCHO (1965) and UP! (1976). On 4K, no less – quite something when most of these films have only ever been released in cropped format on (at best) DVD. It’s an exploitation miracle.
For those new to the bountiful (or at least busty) films of Meyer, the 70’s films are diving straight into the deep end. A better starting place with these new releases is VIXEN, a frenetically-edited softcore fever dream starring Erica Gavin which became a drive-in sleeper hit. Or, since Severin doesn’t yet have the rights to PUSSYCAT (that we know of), you may want to sample that film’s B-side, MOTORPSYCHO.
Made the same year as PUSSYCAT, and also shot in black-and-white and shunning nudity for better drive-in distribution, MOTORPSYCHO is technically a rape-revenge movie, an early example of a genre that would flourish, disreputably, in the 70’s. The protagonist is male, however, a veterinarian setting out into the desert to avenge his young wife when she’s assaulted by a trio of bikers. Properly speaking, this is vet vs. vet, as the leader of the bikers is a Vietnam veteran (Stephen Oliver, who appeared in another over-the-top B-movie worth checking out, William Grefé’s THE NAKED ZOO). He’s been driven psychotic by his experiences overseas: Meyer was ahead of the curve here, too. The other two bikers are sleazy Neanderthals, though one constantly plays generic rock ‘n’ roll on a portable radio that he holds eternally to his ear. As such, the approaching rock music is the warning that violence is about to ensue.
What makes this film so unusual is its choice of leads. As the veterinarian, Meyer cast Alex Rocco in his cinema debut. Rocco would go on to become a ubiquitous character actor, his best known role being Moe Greene in THE GODFATHER (1972), though I was first introduced to him by the sitcom THE FAMOUS TEDDY Z. Romantic leading man material? Well, to be fair, he’s not entirely that here either; the bonkers dialogue (co-written by Meyer) and Rocco’s performance of pure hysteria – including a prolonged scene in which he goes delirious from snake poison – prevents him from being terribly appealing. He teams up with a young “Cajun” (her character actually seems to be from Mexico) whose older husband is gunned down by the bikers. She’s played, bursting out of her embattled shirt, by PUSSYCAT’s Haji, my favorite actress in Meyer’s repertory company, a former go-go dancer so immediately iconic that in SUPERVIXENS her bartender character is just “Super Haji.” Rocco barks his lines at her, and she barks right back at him. There’s a lot of shouting in this movie. Along with the guitar soundtrack, you may need earplugs.
The two share their most legendary scene when Rocco is bitten by a rattlesnake and he demands, at peak volume, that she “Suck it! Suck it!” – suck out the poison, holding her head down before she spits the venom-tainted blood into the camera, obscenely. There is no subtext in a Russ Meyer movie. This scene is recreated faithfully, parodically, in Meyer’s SUPERVIXENS, and that film also nods to MOTORPSYCHO’s spectacular Looney Tunes climax, involving dynamite.
This is 1965 at its most berserk. Highly recommended.
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