Come Deadly (1973)

... aka: Cum Deadly
... aka: Harder They Fall, The

Directed by:
Gil Kenston

In a small theater, some (awful!) actors are rehearsing for an upcoming performance of "The Taming of the Shrew." Little do they know, but their lead actress Ann Johnson ("June Medusa" / Maggie Williams) has just been raped and strangled to death right upstairs. A similar fate befell another actress at another theater just two weeks earlier. Hoping to crack the case, and having already had some prior acting training in college, mustachioed detective Winston Rains (Kirt Jones) comes up with a plan to join the theater troupe in hopes of trapping the grunting, heavy-breathing psycho. He almost immediately finds himself in a sexual relationship with actress Julie (Cindy Johnson) but when she discovers his gun belt hidden behind a pillow she's a little upset ("You're a lying pig, you fucking bastard!") and politely asks him to leave ("Get the fuck outta my house!") The psycho then stops by, bends her over, rapes her in front of the fireplace and then strangles her.

Julie somehow manages to survive the attack. Instead of going to the police like any other human being with an IQ above 70 would, she shows up at the theater the next day looking to tell Winston what happened. However, she doesn't get the opportunity and, once she gets back to her apartment, the psycho's there waiting on her. After forcing her to perform oral sex on him, he strangles her again... and makes sure he finishes the job this time! By the way, all of the women in this movie do absolutely nothing to stave off the sexual attacks of the psycho other than squirm and look mildly uncomfortable and seem to go down on any male anywhere at any time who's within spitting (or swallowing) distance. That leads the detective to getting involved with yet another actress named Marie ("Sharon Sharalik" / Nina Fause), who becomes the next target.

It's clear that the killer is someone who's working on the Shakespeare production and the suspect roster includes theater director Andy (Peter Puluva) and bitter, washed up former Broadway star Cliff ("Mel Vickson" / Keith Erickson). It's also clear that the director had seen Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace as the psycho here wears a nearly identical get-up that includes an all-black outfit, a wide-rimmed hat and a tight, expressionless mask. Yet it's not an unmasking that uncovers the identity of the killer but comparison of another body part that the psycho constantly has dangling out of his pants.

This is more or less a terrible regional theater production of The Phantom of the Opera as a hardcore porn. Thankfully, it's awful in a pretty entertaining way, at least as far as the terrible acting, laughably bad dialogue and pitiful attempts at action and horror are concerned. Of course to get to the funnier moments first requires you to sit through (or if you're me, fast-forwarding through) lots of boring, unflatteringly photographed 70s sex that's shoehorned in at every given opportunity. And even that's presented in a rather bizarre fashion. You can tell that some of the actors were willing to do the sex while others were not. As a result, most of the sex seems to have been shot as softcore but with hardcore close-ups (possibly using doubles) added later on. About half of the sex is technically rape, though these scenes aren't the least bit believable or disturbing due to the lack of resistance and emotion from the actresses.

This has been released numerous times by numerous labels in recent years. It was part of a 2005 box set released by Alpha Blue Archives called "The Roughies: Cum Crimes," was part of a "Rapist Rampage" double feature (along with the slightly better-known Wet Wilderness) by After Hours Cinema released in 2008 and was one of twelve films included in Vinegar Syndrome's "All Night at the Bizarre Art Theatre Collection" set released in 2016. I skimmed through several of these releases and none of them had opening or closing credits or even as much as a title card!

★1/2

Intrusion, The (1975)

... aka: Intrusion
... aka: Intrusions

Directed by:
Arthur Nouveau

A businessman (Levi Richards) is about to leave town for work, leaving his reserved and emotionally fragile wife Ellen (Kim Pope) alone for a number of days. Ellen arranges for her more outgoing friend Gail (Lynn Bishop) to come over and keep her company while he's away. What she doesn't realize is that a psycho sex predator (Michael Gaunt, using his real name Michael Dattorre) is prowling around her upper class suburban neighborhood and he's there just in time to see her husband driving away. He goes around to the back of the house to snip the phone wire before ringing the doorbell. Well-dressed and carrying a briefcase, he announces himself as an insurance agent. After she tells him she's not interested and refuses to let him come inside, he barges in and pushes her to the floor. I've heard of high pressure sales techniques before, but this is ridiculous!

The intruder promises Ellen that as long as she doesn't move a muscle or scream he won't hurt her. He opens up his briefcase and pulls out some rope, ties her hands behind her back, takes her upstairs to her bedroom, strips off all over her clothes, gags her and sticks her in the bathroom. With her finally secured, he raids her drawers, cabinets and purse, sticking cash, jewelry, watches and her fine silver in his briefcase. But if Ellen thinks the worst is already over, she's in for an unpleasant surprise.

As compensation for what he's put her through, the nutjob tells Ellen he's "gonna make you feel good" and proceeds to tie her up to the bed, force oral sex on her and violate her with a switchblade handle while she sobs. When Gail finally shows up, she's lured upstairs into the bedroom where she's forced to watch Ellen being raped before being raped herself. The psycho then forces the ladies to have lesbian sex, joins in and lets down his guard just long enough to, well, I'm sure you can figure it out. And that's all she wrote plot-wise in this hardcore roughie that barely clocks in at over an hour.

Clearly filmed in a couple of days, this fantasy for rape fetishists has very basic and unimaginative direction and photography, very few setting changes (75% of it takes place in a bedroom), a tiny cast, minimal dialogue and four long sex scenes (three of which involve rape and / or torture) that take up most of the 67-minute run time. While I didn't find it anywhere near as disturbing as advertised, it does manage to be pretty unpleasant and is made all the more so by how banal and "everyday" the whole thing feels. This is a case where being a cheap, flat, no frills production actually benefits the realism. Pope also deserves some credit for making the assault scenes more harrowing than they otherwise would have been with a weaker actress in the role. Once her female co-star shows up, you'll see just what I mean.

While I appreciate the whole 70s feel and how the actors look like actual people (if this were made today, they'd probably cast a blonde Franken-Barbie with 20 piercings, a tattoo sleeve and silicone duck lips as the meek, shy housewife), I ended up feeling the same way about this as I do most R-rated "torture porn." Films that do little more than string together prolonged torture scenes have a tendency to bore me and this was no exception. I mostly just sat in my seat wondering how appalled the yuppies living in the affluent suburb where this was shot would be if they knew something like this was being filmed right next door.

Alpha Blue Archives first offered this title as part of their "Sexual Assault Box Set" in 2005. In 2013, they included it as part of the three-film set called "The Intrusion and the Lost Films of Kim Pope," which also includes the Pope films Summer of Laura (1976) and Schoolgirl's Reunion (1977). In 2017, Vinegar Syndrome released a better-quality version, which comes with an interview with star Gaunt. IMDb and other sites claim the pseudonymous director is Zebedy Colt but that doesn't appear to be the case (something Gaunt pretty much verifies in his interview).

★★

La rossa dalla pelle che scotta (1972)

... aka: El cadaver asesino (The Murderous Corpse)
... aka: La peau qui brûle (The Burning Skin)
... aka: Red Headed Corpse, The
... aka: Redhead with Hot Skin, The
... aka: Sensuous Doll, The
... aka: Sexy Spirits, The
... aka: Sweet Spirits

Directed by:
Renzo Russo

Someone on a motorcycle is lurking around the home of John Ward (Farley Granger); a lonely, mentally unstable, alcoholic American artist currently living in Istanbul. That same person later breaks into John's house, steals a photo and goes to a bar, where he inquires about the beautiful redhead in the picture. A woman merely tells him she's "the bosses girlfriend" but doesn't seem to want to elaborate beyond that. While walking through the woods the following day, John stumbles across a bunch of hippies lying around in a field. After refusing their offer to "turn on," one of the men drags a mannequin over to him and leaves it lying by his feet. He says he can have it if he promises to take care of it. "She's better than the real thing," he adds, "She never talks back and she's always waiting." John takes the raggedy, faceless mannequin home, talks to it and then promises it he'll fix it up.

After having an unsuccessful encounter with a very persistent but insecure prostitute (Ivana Novak), John returns home to continue repairing the mannequin. After scraping something off its back, the mannequin starts bleeding and next thing he knows it has transformed into an actual woman (Krista Nell). And the woman, whom he refers to as Patty ("Lady of the House" in Turkish), is just how the hippie described. She doesn't talk back (because she's mute), never asks for anything, is always eagerly waiting at home for him to return with a big smile on her face and endures his mood swings because she's completely subservient. When John decides to make love to his "doll," all of that changes. The mannequin morphs yet again into another beautiful woman (Erika Blanc), only this new incarnation isn't anything like the last. Patty 2.0 is an intelligent, seductive, manipulative woman who has needs and wants, her own voice and opinion (that she doesn't hesitate to make known) and something of a cruel streak when she doesn't get her way. She's also not going to be controlled nor just allow the insecure John to lock her away in his home.

John has been struggling to get by and has only been able to sell his paintings for a few hundred lira apiece. The art dealers all want nude women because that's what sells, but John wants to paint what he wants when he wants. The problem is, examples of what he wants are still hanging up in galleries all over town, unsold. Sick of living in poverty, Patty offers to pose nude for him so they can make a little money and stop living like paupers. Though resistant at first, John finally relents. He takes the painting into the gallery and is offered 1000 lira. More paintings soon follow. Art collector Omar Bay (Aydin Terzel) starts commissioning specific paintings of Patty and becomes infatuated with her in the process. And he's not the only one.

John soon discovers he's got some real competition and must start catering to the increasingly needy Patty's every wish or risk losing her. She takes on macho local hunter Steve (Venantino Venantini) as a lover, as well as the wealthy Omar, who promises to shower her with gifts if she'll leave John to be with him. John starts finding clues around the home (a shotgun shell, a cigarette in the ashtray) that other men have been sneaking over while he's away and the already mentally-unsound artist finds himself growing more and more paranoid. Pretty soon, Patty is all but rubbing his face in her various infidelities, including seducing a 16-year-old boy on a beach. She eventually decides to run off with Steve to Barcelona, but first offers John one more night... in exchange for his soul. Just what is she? A ghost? A demon? Some other kind of supernatural being? Just a figment of John's imagination?

Even though this has been written off as lesser than by some giallo devotees who've specifically sought it out and then been disappointed there's not a gloved killer running amok, this is actually a pretty interesting little psycho-drama / eerie mystery with supernatural overtones that has some interesting things to say about love, insecurity and the power play that occurs in most romantic relationships. Helping to carry this oddity along are very good performances from its two stars, with Granger effective as the intense, controlling, imbalanced artist and a perfectly cast Blanc sinking her teeth into the role of an enigmatic, scheming seductress.

First released to U.S. theaters as The Sensuous Doll in 1976, this made its way to video under the title Sweet Spirits in 1988, courtesy of Private Screenings. The box for that video (falsely) claims it runs 87 minutes but most other prints run anywhere from 70 to 78. I'm not even sure how long the uncut version is supposed to be but I've seen it listed as anywhere from 82 to 90 minutes, which means the 78 minute Retromedia DVD release that I viewed is missing some footage. Another DVD being sold by Asian Cult Cinema (under the title The Sexy Spirits) claims to run 84 minutes and shows stills not seen in the version I viewed.

Certain releases have reels out of order and others have re-edited the film or even reassembled certain scenes in a different order. Some cuts have removed most of the nudity while, on the other end of the spectrum, there's a French-language version with added XXX sex inserts. Would be nice if we could at least get a regular uncut version of this one.

★★1/2