Las Vegas Serial Killer, The (1986)

... aka: Hollywood Strangler in Las Vegas, The

Directed by:

"Wolfgang Schmidt" (Ray Dennis Steckler)

Alright out there, a show of hands: Who asked for a sequel to THE HOLLYWOOD STRANGLER MEETS THE SKID ROW SLASHER?

Instead of being financed entirely by Steckler, this follow-up was bankrolled by John Golff and Salvatore Richichi of Camp Video, who had some minor success on the home video market in the mid to late 80s. Not content with just releasing other people's films, Camp also made some of their own in-house productions to expand their catalogue of titles. Those included the shot-on-video Death Row Diner (1988), VIDEO VIOLENCE (1987) and VIDEO VIOLENCE PART 2 (1988), ZOMBIE DEATH HOUSE (1988; the first and only directorial effort for actor John Saxon and easily CV's largest budgeted production) and, their most famous project by far, Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988). However, Camp ceased production on new films after only a few years and the company itself petered out soon after. It may or may not have had something to do with the fact Richichi was the son of Natale "Big Chris" Richichi; a reputed "capo" in New York's Gambino crime family and a one-time confidant of John Gotti. Richichi Sr. ended up in prison for extortion and racketeering charges and died behind bars in 2001. As for whether any mob money was funneled into this company or not, well, let's just say, stranger things have happened.

Steckler's association with Camp Video began the same year the company was formed. It was the first distributor to release his earlier films The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (1963), The Thrill Killers (1964) and Rat Pfink a Boo Boo (1965; re-titled The Adventures of Rat Pfink and Boo-Boo) on home video. There may have been some kind of contract between Steckler and the company; say he gave them release rights to a few of his films in exchange for the funds to make another movie, but that's all conjecture on my part.

After killing seven young women in the previous film (it was actually ten, but who's counting?), the Nevada parole board and two court appointed psychiatrists have decided to release Johnathon Klick (Pierre Agostino) from prison after serving just six years. What could possibly go wrong there? As for their reasoning, well, since only one corpse was ever found, the shrinks came to the conclusion he was just making up the other murders to increase his notoriety (??) This also, of course, completely discounts the finale of Hollywood Strangler where the Skid Row Slasher repeatedly stabbed him with her switchblade and he fell over dead in front of a Deep Throat poster. But, ya know, unnecessary sequels and incongruity go together like peanut butter and jelly.

Apparently Nevada correctional facilities in the 80s just bounced prisoners with zero money, help or even transportation after they're set free because Johnathon is next seen simply heading down the road by foot outside the jail. He finally makes it to Vegas, and just in time to see Miss World Burlesque 1980 Toni Alessandrini perform a slow motion strip routine covered in glitter and showing ample T&A. Alessandrini became somewhat known in the 80s and early 90s for her appearance in the Tom Hanks comedy Bachelor Party and roles in some Rick Sloane B movies that were on cable all the time but, before all that, she'd appeared in a number of Steckler's Vegas-shot hardcore films, usually using the alias "Toni Reenee."

Arriving on the Vegas strip at around the same time as Johnathon are a couple of low grade hoods named Clarence (Ron Jason) and Jack (Chris Cave), who are there simply to rob people and scope out "broads." When they aren't snatching purses and such, they're critiquing the bodies of female passersby. Seeing how Steckler clearly just filmed random people walking around without their knowledge, the fact many of the voice-overs insult some of these people is in hilariously terrible taste. Women who are short ("Bad legs, bad legs"), slightly pudgy ("They waddle like a duck... Quack! Quack!") or old are all immediately dismissed. Apparently these two idiots only like to steal from chicks they find hot.

Johnathon crashes a "highly publicized" nighttime pool / birthday party for "Las Vegas film star Cash Flagg" (!!!), pulls one of the girls (Glenda Savage) into the bushes, rips off her bikini top and then uses it to strangle her to death. His next victim is a hooker, who he kills in an alley after she tells him her going rate. To make ends meet, he gets a job as a delivery man at a pizza parlor, which has a framed poster for the "Cash Flagg" movie Incredibly Strange Creatures on the wall. The two thieves frequent the joint and end up crossing paths with the strangler numerous other times.

While making a pizza delivery, Jonathan is greeted at the door by a large-breasted blonde in a bikini, who coerces him to her back patio, takes off her top, hops in the Jacuzzi and propositions him (yeah right), but she's saved when her friends arrive to eat. After the thieves knock an old man out and lock his much-younger secretary / mistress in the trunk of their Mercedes so they can steal a briefcase full of cash, Johnathan happens upon the scene, opens the trunk, strangles the woman to death and then just re-shuts the lid and walks off (!) Because the old man only saw the thieves at the scene and has provided a description to the police, Clarence and Jack are blamed for the murder.

We're next off to a mansion for a swimsuit / lingerie photo session with models Suzee (CHOPPING MALL's Suzee Slater), Joanie (Joan Ruedelstein aka adult actress Jeannie Pepper), Maria and Deborah. Johnathon sneaks in, manages to get Suzee and Deborah alone long enough to strangle them and then steals a camera. This scene really stands out from the rest. No, not because it's any good, but because it's photographed better (for some reason they used 35mm just for this one scene), was actually shot with sync sound and was filmed in the Hollywood Hills instead of Vegas. Johnathan then kills another hooker, uses his whole photographer shtick to murder another lady and then sets his sights on "stripper" Kat Carson (Kathryn Downey), who he's been stalking around town. He becomes a frequent visitor to the club where she (horribly!) dances in a one piece blue swimsuit that never comes off and may or may not eventually strangle her to death next to a stuffed Papa Smurf doll. I'll never tell!

With the exception of the modeling scene, this was shot on 16mm without sound, so nearly all of the dialogue, which is poorly recorded and incredibly insipid ("Die garbage!") was dubbed in later. Just like the original, this has the laughable premise that lots of young twenty-somethings are going to be throwing themselves at the near-elderly Johnathon. Just like the original, this has next to no plot to speak of (co-star Jason said there wasn't even a script). Furthermore, replacing the female serial killer character with two petty thieves just isn't as interesting. Some footage has been recycled from the first film and it also re-uses a lot of the same music.

The real deal breaker here, and what turns this all into an incredibly boring viewing experience, is the relentless time padding. We get endless shots of people walking around (many of whom look directly at the camera and are probably thinking, "Why in the hell is this man filming me?"), shots of various buildings, cars driving, the famous Vegas lights and whatever else happened to catch RDS's eye when he was making this. We get several minutes of footage from the "El Dorado Parade" where the camera focuses on clowns, Indians, an old car and a flag while a female voice-over goes "Oh look at the clowns!" "Oh look at the Indians!" "Oh look at the old car!" "Oh there's the flag. Salute the flag!" We also get footage from an airplane show, a rodeo, casinos and plenty of other useless filler. At this point in the game it appeared that Steckler would do, and shoot, just about ANYTHING to keep from having to actually write a script!

After the Camp video release, this was given several DVD releases. It was distributed by both Media Blasters and Guilty Pleasures; the latter including it on their 4 film "Midnight Movies II" set along with Steckler's Body Fever, Blood Shack and Hollywood Strangler. Later this year, it will be re-released by Severin as part of a massive RDS box set including 19 other films of his.

★

Amazing Colossal Man, The (1957)

... aka: Amazing Nth Man, The
... aka: Der Koloss (The Colossus)
... aka: El asombroso hombre creciente (The Amazing Growing Man)
... aka: El gigante ataca (The Giant Attacks)
... aka: I giganti invadono la Terra (Giants Invade the Earth)
... aka: Monstret från Nevada (Monster from Nevada)

Directed by:
Bert I. Gordon

In Desert Rock, Nevada, a plutonium bomb is about to be detonated to see the effects on a small group of soldiers under simulated combat conditions. The soldiers are placed in a shallow bunker and given protective eye wear i.e sunglasses (what great protections!) but, after the countdown finishes, the bomb doesn't go off right away as the chain reaction hasn't completed its cycle as previously calculated. While the soldiers wait, a civilian airplane goes down in the test area. No one can figure out whether the pilot and crew have survived the impact or not. Despite being warned not to leave their position and to keep their glasses on, Col. Glenn Manning (Glenn Langan) both leaves the bunker and removes his glasses. As he's running toward the plane, the bomb finally detonates. Glenn is covered with radiation, suffers third degree burns on nearly 100 percent of his body and falls into a coma.

At the hospital, doctors do what they can with penicillin, cortisone and bandages, but they predict he won't make it through the night due to infection and shock. Dr. Paul Linstrom (William Hudson) must then break the news to Glenn's devastated fiancee, Carol Forrest (Cathy Downs). However, the following morning Glenn seems to have made a miraculous recovery. He has somehow grown new tissue that shows no scarring at all. In fact, there's no sign whatsoever that he was even burned to begin with. Dr. Linstrom immediately calls in key members of the military to see if there could possibility be some kind of regenerative, healing quality to plutonium (ha!) that he's unaware of.

Next thing Carol knows, an officer is showing up at her home and telling her she's forbidden from seeing Glenn by military order. She sneaks over to the hospital only to learn that he's been moved somewhere else and no one at the hospital seems to know where. Snooping through papers on the receptionist's desk, she gets a clue that she should go to the Army Rehabilitation and Research Center. The guard there tells her the center no longer houses patients and hasn't since the last war. Still, a sergeant agrees to talk with her, which gets her inside the facility. She snoops around some more and finally finds Glenn. Only he's now about 20 feet tall! Carol learns that he's now growing at the rate of 8 to 10 feet per day. Why? Well, it has something to do with rapid cellular growth. Or something. You're best off not thinking about it too much.

Glenn eventually snaps out of his coma (after having a Korean War flashback where he shoots an enemy soldier in the face) and outgrows his room, so they have to bring a circus tent in from Florida and move him outside. As for food, they bring in 25 sides of beef at a time and serve up whole turkeys as a snack. Linstrom and his colleague, Dr. Eric Coulter (Larry Thor), hope to come up with a cure to halt the growing. Actually, they have to, and quickly, or else Glenn will die. His heart isn't keeping pace with the rest of the growth and will explode if nothing is done. The heart issue and the resulting chest pains, labored breathing and lack of circulation to the brain that come along with it, are also taking a psychological toll as Glenn becomes increasingly more angry, bitter and insane as the minutes tick by.

After experiments work on miniaturizing an elephant and a camel, an antidote is created but by that point the moody Glenn has taken off. And if you thought spotting a 60-foot-tall, 18,000 pound giant would be easy... well, you're right, it probably should be... you haven't met these bozos yet. Somehow it takes a long time to track Glenn down and, by that point, he's already visited / terrorized Las Vegas and is on his way toward the Boulder (Hoover) Dam. Our heroes hop aboard a helicopter and try to hunt down the giant so they can administer the antidote via giant syringe.

While certainly good for some undemanding fun and the occasional chuckle, Colossal Man is one of those movies where you go in pretty much knowing what to expect and get precisely that... but nothing more. There are plenty of cheap fx and some fun props but it's mostly just stilted actors delivering leaden dialogue on cheap sets. The shoddy science is never an issue for me as I don't really care (it was the 50s after all!), but my biggest issue was them not giving the giant enough to do. Most disappointingly, he only spends a couple of minutes in Las Vegas, where his "rampage" involves peaking in a window, destroying a couple of signs and picking up and throwing a car and a palm tree before he's on his not-so-merry way. He does eventually get to impale someone with the giant needle and snatch up the leading lady King Kong-style, so at least that was kind of fun.

The best thing here is probably Langan's animated acting and his (sometimes hilariously) moody / anguished facial expressions, which really stand out in comparison to his mostly wooden co-stars. A miscast Russ Bender shows up briefly as the genius who created the plutonium bomb yet thinks there's nothing out of the ordinary about a man with a full body burn completely healing in less than 24 hours. The woman surprised in the bubble bath is Jean Moorhead, a 1955 Playboy Playmate, who had starred in the (very funny) Ed Wood-scripted juvenile delinquent film The Violent Years (1956). The cast also includes James Seay as a colonel and Scott Peters. Interestingly, Hudson would also star in the gender switch alternate ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN (1958) the following year.

This AIP release, "presented by" uncredited executive producers James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff, was made to cash in on the success of The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) and was released on a double bill with Cat Girl (1957). Gordon also co-wrote the screenplay (with Mark Hanna), produced and did the fx (assisted by his wife, Flora M. Gordon). The basis for the movie was a 1928 novel called The Nth Man by Homer Eon Flint, who receives no screen credit. This became a minor hit and was followed by the sequel WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST (1958).

★★