William Girdler Movies
Low-budget horror director William Girdler's last film stars Susan Strasberg as Karen Tandy, a San Francisco woman who develops a strange growth on her neck. After an operation fails because the doctor is forced to cut his own hand, Karen seeks out an Indian shaman (Michael Ansara), who tells her that the thing on her neck is the fetus of a reincarnated witch doctor. Eventually, Karen goes to the hospital and gives "birth" to a silly-looking creature played by Cousin Itt himself, Felix Silla. It runs amok in the building until boyfriend Tony Curtis figures out that his love for Karen can boost the hospital's electrical supply to zap the pesky beast. Generally acknowledged as one of the silliest horror films ever made, The Manitou should please camp buffs more than serious fans. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Curtis, Michael Ansara, (more)
This low-budget action film stars Leslie Nielsen as Jonathan Trevor, a spy who defects and is chased by drugged-out hitmen in the Philippines. Trevor ends up hooked on drugs himself and suffers painful withdrawals while attended to by girlfriend Nancy Kwan. Gary Lockwood co-stars with Vic Diaz, who must have some sort of deal allowing him to appear in every crummy Filipino co-production ever made. For high-camp buffs curious to see Naked Gun star Nielsen go through D.T.'s and perform some unconvincing martial arts, this may be a good bet. Director William Girdler went on to make The Manitou. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
An interesting low-budget entry in the post-Jaws animals-run-amok genre (which also owes more than a little to Hitchcock's The Birds), this noisy, violent thriller features the prophetic premise of a widening gap in the ozone layer (thanks to human indulgences in hairspray and other aerosol products) which unleashes brain-frying radiation and causes assorted woodland creatures to go for the throats of unsuspecting Sierra backpackers. As if that weren't horrific enough, the poor kids are also placed in the position of defending themselves against a rampaging Leslie Nielsen -- whose hammy performance will probably have fans of the Naked Gun series and their ilk waiting for a punch line that never arrives. Perennial B-movie couple Christopher George and Lynda Day George round out the cast. Day of the Animals is also known as Something Is out There. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher George, Leslie Nielsen, (more)
This ecology-themed horror movie took its inspiration from the success of Jaws and moved that film's man-versus-nature conflict from the seaside to the forest. The plot of Grizzly focuses on Mike Kelly (Christopher George), a forest ranger whose peaceful tenure over a forest housing a busy nature lodge is interrupted by the arrival of a very deadly and hungry 15-foot grizzly bear. As the bear starts killing rangers and campers, Park Supervisor Charley Kittridge (Joe Dorsey) tries to cover up the problem and tries to keep Kelly from acting in a way that will cause public suspicion. Finally, Kelly decides to do what is right and teams up with macho pilot Don Stober (Andrew Prine) and eccentric naturalist Arthur Scott (Richard Jaeckel) to hunt the grizzly down on its own turf. Grizzly was roundly panned by critics for its slavish, blow-by-blow imitation of its more sophisticated model, Jaws, but its gruesome shock power made it a major hit with audiences around the world. Director William Girdler followed this success up with another ecology-themed shocker in Day of the Animals, and the film's producers made a still-unreleased sequel, Grizzly II, which provided early roles for Charlie Sheen and George Clooney. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher George, Andrew Prine, (more)
After a series of violent, sexy blaxploitation films like Coffy and Foxy Brown, Pam Grier returned in this more sedate PG-rated actioner. Grier plays Chicago P.I. Sheba Shayne, who returns to her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky to save her father's loan business from vicious gangsters. Austin Stoker co-stars with D'Urville Martin (Dolemite) and Charles Kissinger, who appeared in all of director William Girdler's films. Highlights include a chase through a carnival funhouse, but without the usual exploitation elements, there's little to recommend this film except for Grier completists. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pam Grier, Austin Stoker, (more)
- 1974
An intriguing blend of 70's "blaxploitation" and Exorcist clone, William Girdler's Abby is an effective and chilling film that incorporates elements of ancient African spiritualism into the conventions of the demon-possession genre. The story begins in Nigeria, where Professor Williams (Blacula's William Marshall) discovers a suggestive-looking fetish artifact in a cave once used by members of the sinister cult of "Eshu." When the relic is opened, it releases a foul-tempered Eshu demon which quickly kills several people and pursues Williams all the way back to America, where it soon enters the home of the professor's son Reverend Emmett (Terry Carter) and takes possession of the Reverend's proper and lovely wife Abby (Carol Speed). Emmett first begins to suspect something is amiss when Abby attempts suicide during a church picnic, but only after she begins vomiting in church and tormenting his congregation does he realize that her condition may not be mere insanity, and he consults his father for help. By the time the two men finally corner Abby in a sleazy bar, she has already seduced and killed several men. The exorcism is performed right in the bar, as dashiki-clad Williams incorporates both Western and African religious rituals to purge the foul spirit from Abby's body. Although Warner Brothers sought legal action against this film for its similarities to The Exorcist, this is no more of a rip-off than countless Italian variations on the formula, and its strong use of African religious traditions gives it a strength lacking in many low-budget blaxploitation films of the era. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Marshall, Carol Speed, (more)
When a prominent plastic surgeon loses his lovely wife in a particularly grisly manner, his grief is such that he soon undergoes a series of insane experiments designed to repair and reassemble her on the operating table and make her live again -- provided he can procure an assortment of substitute parts from unwilling female donors. With the aid of his slavering hunchbacked assistant, the deranged doc hypnotizes young women and lures them back to his lab, where they soon go under the knife. A cheap and lurid gorefest in the mode of Herschel Gordon Lewis (who actually appears in a guest wraparound on the long-defunct United Video release), the premise is played for sick laughs, which only seem to accentuate the film's overall sleaziness. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1972
This silly, cardboard production -- the first of many awful horror oddities from director William Girdler -- stars Carla Borelli as an attractive musician who becomes a literal prisoner in the Pleasant Hill Mental Hospital, a chamber of horrors overseen by the evil Dr. Jason Spector (Charles Kissinger). The devil-worshipping doc's rather unorthodox methods include the regular torture and murder of his patients (with the aid of dime-store rubber spiders and snakes), but he intends to save Borelli for last as the centerpiece in one of the hokiest-looking human-sacrifice rituals on record. Even Ol' Scratch himself puts in a cameo appearance -- or maybe that's just an extra in a rubber ape mask with glued-on rubber ram's horns. The filmmakers undoubtedly undertook this project after stumbling across a post-Halloween clearance sale. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1972
Billy (James Pickett) is a lonely country boy who lives on a remote farm with his overprotective patriarch. Seems that Billy can't be left alone with other people, especially women. He's convinced that he murders them in blind rages that he can't remember. That's exactly what happens when four pretty girls have engine trouble and stay at the farmhouse; they're each messily dispatched by an unseen killer. Billy is horrified, and his father (Charles Kissinger) chastises him, sending him off to town for supplies while he cleans up the violence. Billy spends a long, soul-searching day trying to come to grips with what he's become, and ends up drowning his sorrows in a nightclub where a terrible psychedelic white soul band plays the same song over and over again. A kindly waitress brings him home after he passes out, and over the course of the next day they fall in love. Her inevitable visit to the farm brings out old hostilities and recriminations from Billy's father, whose drunken belligerence is as threatening as the truth behind Billy's secret. The ridiculous "twist" ending won't come as too big a shock to anyone, but it accompanies enough gory overkill and stomach-turning innuendo to please those who wade through the film's sluggish second act. A weird mood pervades Three on a Meathook, courtesy of Kentucky's maverick exploitationeer William Girdler, who directed and wrote the screenplay. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
Vittorio De Sica plays the middle-aged marshal of carabiniers in a remote Italian mountain village. He's anxious to marry, and selects young Gina Lollobrigida as his bride; but she is already in love with De Sica's shy subordinate Roberto Risso. Mistaking her headstrong behavior as promiscuity, De Sica makes advances towards her, but she spurns him. Forsaking the girl to the arms of Risso, De Sica decides to settle for village midwife Marisa Merlini. Originally titled Pane, Amore, e Fantasia when released in Italy, Bread, Love and Dreams contains what some regard as Gina Lollobrigida's best and most naturalistic performance. The film's popularity resulted in two sequels, both with Lollobrigida: Pane, Amore e Gelosia (US title: Frisky) and the open-ended Pane, Amore e... (released in the states as Scandal in Sorrento). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vittorio De Sica, Gina Lollobrigida, (more)
