Paul Morrissey Movies
Paul Morrissey began making underground short films in the early 1960s, and soon became a production assistant for Andy Warhol. He was the cameraman on several Warhol films, including Lonesome Cowboys; the two co-directed the transvestite comedy Women in Revolt and L'Amour (1973). With Warhol as producer, Morrissey made several outstanding films starring Joe Dallesandro, most notably his early comedies Flesh (1968), Trash (1970), and Heat (1972), and the stylish horror films Andy Warhol's Frankenstein (aka Flesh For Frankenstein [1974]) and Andy Warhol's Dracula (aka Blood For Dracula [1974]). Morrissey's major works on his own include his offbeat tales of teenage hustlers (Forty Deuce [1982]) and drug pushers (Mixed Blood [1984]), the historical drama Beethoven's Nephew (1985), and the comedy Spike of Bensonhurst (1988). ~ All Movie Guide
In 1963, Danny Williams dropped out of Harvard (over the strong objections of his family) and set out to make a career for himself in filmmaking. After editing several documentaries for Albert Maysles and David Maysles (including the award-winning Salesman), Williams met Andy Warhol, and soon became a member of the inner circle at Warhol's "Factory." Williams soon became both an advisor and a lover to the artist, and for a while lived with Warhol. When Warhol gave Williams a 16 mm movie camera, he began making films that displayed his sure and striking visual sense and sharp rhythms. Williams also was a key advisor to Warhol as they created "The Exploding Plastic Inevitable," the multimedia show which launched the career of the groundbreaking rock band the Velvet Underground. But Williams fell victim to the clashing egos that were a large part of Warhol's circle, and when he began receiving press attention that suggested the EPI was as much Williams' creation as Warhol's, Warhol broke off their relationship and a shattered Williams returned home to his family. After a few days, Williams went out for a drive and vanished, never to be seen again. Danny Williams' niece, Esther B. Robinson, offers an intimate look at the remarkable life and unexplained death of an important but little-known creative force in A Walk Into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory, which features interviews with a number of Factory associates (including John Cale, Billy Name, Gerard Malanga, Paul Morrissey, and Brigid Berlin), as well as highlights from several of Williams' long-lost experimental films. A Walk Into the Sea received its North American premiere at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brigid Berlin, Paul Morrissey, (more)
- 2006
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Documentary filmmaker Ric Burns explores the life and legacy of pop art's most beloved icon with this film that seeks to illuminate the public persona and creative complexity of painter, photographer, and filmmaker Andy Warhol. Host Laurie Anderson narrates as an erudite collection of curators, critics, and biographers dispel Warhol's own self-created image as a haute couture heavyweight to offer a more intellectually minded portrait of the man who forever changed the way the world views Campbell's Soup cans. From Warhol's boyhood experiences in a Czechoslovakian community in Pittsburgh to a disheartening stint at art school and initial work as a commercial illustrator in New York, Burns' film explores every aspect of Warhol's life to offer a detailed look at the artist whose short-circuited class-jumping gave him a most unique view on contemporary culture. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andy Warhol
- 2001
This is a documentary chronicling the life of Charles Henri Ford (now in his nineties and still as alert as ever), a pivotal figure in the European and American avant-garde scene from the late '20s through the present. Born to a Southern family that owned a hotel and included sister Ruth Ford, an actress who is best known for the U.S. debut of Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit, Charles moved to New York City in 1930, where his unmistakable male beauty sparked interest in the city's burgeoning gay scene. In the 1940s, he founded the literary journal Blues and the later View, which provided space for future notables such as Jean Genet and Vladimir Nabokov. The filmmakers made this motion picture over the course of ten years, lining up -- in the process -- a number of legendary avant-garde figures to discuss Ford, several of whom died by the time directors James Dowell and John Kolomvakis finished the picture. These include: William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Johnson, Paul Cadmus, Paul Morrissey, Ned Rorem, Paul Bowles and Gerard Malanga. Ford relates several anecdotes about them as well. The filmmakers spent over a decade creating this picture, tapping various historians, critics, and curators for additional details. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Dowell, Charles Henry Ford, (more)
- 2000
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Like Susanne Ofteringer's Nico-Icon (1995), Vincent Fremont's Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story chronicles the life of one of the more colorful and unforgettable women to emerge from Andy Warhol's menagerie of artists, actors, lost souls, and hangers-on. The daughter of wealthy, powerful, and conservative parents who were fixtures of Manhattan high society, Brigid Berlin rebelled at a young age, enduring a whirlwind marriage and a spell at a fasting clinic in Mexico before making her way to Warhol's Factory, where she earned fame for her Polaroid photos and her habit of recording phone conversations. Although her parents weren't enthusiastic about their daughter's work in such Warhol films as The Chelsea Girls and Bike Boy, Berlin remained a fixture on the Warhol scene, gaining further notoriety for her one-woman shows and the paintings she created using her breasts as brushes. Among the people director Vincent Fremont interviews is filmmaker John Waters, who cast Berlin in a small role in his 1994 Serial Mom. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brigid Berlin, John Waters, (more)
A documentary profile of filmmaker John Waters, Divine Trash focuses on the bad-taste pioneer's early years, especially his 1972 breakthrough Pink Flamingos, which turned the director of Mondo Trasho and Multiple Maniacs into the king of midnight movies thanks to word of mouth about the film's gleeful taboo-bashing -- and a distribution deal with the fledgling New Line Cinema. Interviews with filmmakers who both influenced Waters (Paul Morrissey, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Mike Kuchar, George Kuchar) and were influenced by him (Steve Buscemi, Jim Jarmusch, David O. Russell, Hal Hartley) are interspersed with copious behind-the-scenes footage from the making of Pink Flamingos, including the infamous doggy-doo scene. Through it all, the witty Waters provides commentary, recollections, and one-line quips. Pete Garey, owner of the film lab where Waters learned the technical side of moviemaking, recalls his first meetings with the youthful auteur. Mink Stole and other Dreamland Studios superstars reminisce about growing up in suburban Baltimore with Waters, who as a youngster loved car crashes, puppets, and clowns. The director's strait-laced parents reminisce about the financial support they provided for Pink Flamingos, which they have never seen. Neither has Frances Milstead, who looks back on the career of her late son, drag terrorist and Waters muse Divine. Divine and late "egg lady" Edith Massey crop up in various archival interviews and film clips. The man who played the "talking asshole" in Pink Flamingos also appears, albeit anonymously and disguised. Various film theorists and critics debate the merits and meaning of the Waters oeuvre, while Baltimore critic Don Walls and former Maryland film censor Mary Avara express their incredulity about the director's success. Divine Trash won the Filmmakers Trophy for Best Documentary at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. Director Steve Yeager, a longtime friend of Waters, would go on to direct In Bad Taste: The John Waters Story and help Milstead write a book about her son. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Waters, Jeanine Basinger, (more)
- 1995
This German documentary offers a tragic profile of the notorious "death angel," Nico. Long after her death in 1988, the German model and entertainer has remained a darkly mysterious cult figure. She was born Christa Paffgen in Cologne and took her professional name from photographer Nico Papatakis. She began modeling in the early '50s, and this led to a brief appearance in Fellini's classic La Dolce Vita. Though Nico was blessed with the rare combination of beauty and intelligence, she was depressive and utterly lacking in ambition; she spent much of her life simply drifting about through various film and commercial appearances until she met artist Andy Warhol. He introduced her to the band the Velvet Underground, which resulted in the tone-deaf beauty occasionally singing with them -- much to the discomfiture of the band members; she became addicted to heroin and eventually could no longer disguise its effects. Nico went on to become a solo act until her death as the result of a brain hemorrhage. Nico -- Icon includes film clips, commercial clips, archival photos, songs, and interviews with those who knew her, including members of the Velvet Underground, Paul Morrissey, ex-Factory members Viva and Billy Name, songwriter Jackson Browne, and avant-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christa Paffgen
- 1990
- NR
Fascinating documentary of artist and filmmaker Andy Warhol, combining rare footage with interviews with his friends and colleagues, including Dennis Hopper, David Hockney, Taylor Mead, and Sylvia Miles. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- 1988
- R
In this comedy drama, Spike Fumo (Sasha Mitchell) is a Brooklyn streetfighter with pugilistic aspirations. With Spike's mafioso father in Sing Sing, mobster and former fighter Baldo Cacetti (Ernest Borgnine) looks out for Spike by getting him some bouts and every once in a while convincing the fighter to throw a match. When Spike meets and falls for Baldo's daughter Angel (Maria Patillo), Baldo suddenly sours on Spike. The father wants Angel to marry the college-bound son of a cocaine-snorting congresswoman (Sylvia Miles), and Baldo only envisions Spikes' future as being a mob enforcer. Eventually, Spike moves away from his embittered lesbian mother (Geraldine Smith) and moves in with the Puerto Rican boxer Bandana (Rick Aviles). He soon has two women pregnant in two different neighborhoods as he contemplates his future. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sasha Mitchell, Ernest Borgnine, (more)
- 1985
Andy Warhol "graduate" Paul Morrissey surprised his followers with his sensitive direction of the 1985 costume drama Beethoven's Nephew (Le Neveu de Beethoven) The eponymous character, Karl Beethoven (Dietmar Prinz), is snatched from his mother's home by egomaniacal composer Ludwig Van Beethoven (Wolfgang Reichmann). It is Beethoven's contention that nephew Karl is in the clutches of a "demon" (his mother!), and that only by taking charge of Karl himself can the composer tap the boy's inherent musical genius. Ultimately Karl rebels against Beethoven's obsessiveness by developing a relationship with a beautiful actress (Nathalie Baye). As Karl's independence grows, Beethoven's health declines, possibly because of the psychological ramifications of watching his surrogate son grow away from him. Adapted by Morrissey and Mathieu Carriere from a novel by Luigi Magnani, Beethoven's Nephew was released in the US nearly two years after its French premiere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wolfgang Reichmann, Dietmar Prinz, (more)
- 1984
Consensus opinion is that Paul Morrissey directed L'Amour on his own, despite Andy Warhol's name on the credits. This film has much more of a story than the other Andy Warhol Factory productions, but it takes the same casual approach to nudity and sex. In the story, two female tourists (Donna Jordan and Jane Forth) seek out Michael (Michael Sklar) a wealthy American resident, who has been living with a handsome French boy (Max Delys). Everyone tries, with varying success, to seduce everyone else, though the two men have only an implied relationship. Eventually, Michael decides to marry one of the girls and return to the U.S. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1984
In this unusual documentary based on a series of identical questions addressed to world-famous directors such as Werner Herzog, Steven Spielberg, and Jean-Luc Godard, director Wim Wenders placed each of his colleagues one-by-one in a single room, gave them one reel (11 minutes) of time to look into the stationary camera if they chose, and answer set questions. The juxtaposition of so many individualistic, experienced, and innovative filmmakers commenting on topics like television's effect on cinema, the influence of ad techniques, the tendency toward miniseries, and other relevant subjects offers worthwhile moments that are unlikely to be found elsewhere. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Luc Godard, Steven Spielberg, (more)
Off-the-wall humor, casual or premeditated violence, and larger-than-life characters are featured in this Paul Morrisey film about drugs and two street gangs in "Alphabet City," the lower east side of New York (Avenues A, B, and C). When the flamboyant and often abrasive Rita (Marilia Pera) and her dim-witted but streetwise son Thiago (Richard Ulacia) arrive in New York from Brazil, she maternally "adopts" the teens who live in a run-down apartment as her own and then organizes them into a gang whose first job is to intercept a shipment of drugs intended for a rival Puerto Rican group. This act sets off a gang war when the Puerto Ricans retaliate by killing one of Rita's teens. As the fighting escalates, it becomes more difficult to decipher the real attitude of director Paul Morrissey: are these serious takes from real life or are they exaggerated to achieve a decidedly black humor? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marilia Pera, Richard Ulacia, (more)
The seamy underworld of Manhattan's 42nd street provides the background for this gritty drama that centers around a sleazy male prostitute, addicted to heroin, who tries to get drug money by selling a tender runaway boy to a homosexual. The kid soon over-doses on heroin and dies. The prostitute then begins framing the homosexual. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Orson Bean, Kevin Bacon, (more)
Two women find their friendship tested when one rises from obscurity to success in this glossy remake of Old Acquaintance. Liz Hamilton (Jacqueline Bisset) and Merry Noel (Candice Bergen) are close friends who met while they were freshmen at Smith College in the 1950s. Liz has become a highly respected novelist, while Merry wed Doug Blake (David Selby) and raised a family. While Merry is happy, she can't help but envy Liz for her glamorous career as an author. Merry decides to write a novel of her own, and with Liz's help, the book soon finds a publisher. While Merry's trashy potboiler earns few positive reviews, it's a massive best-seller, and Merry's fame and wealth soon outstrips that of Liz, leading to jealousy between the old friends and problems in Merry's marriage. Rich and Famous was the final picture directed by Hollywood legend George Cukor; the guest list at the party sequences include such literary and cinematic notables as Christopher Isherwood, Ray Bradbury, Paul Morrissey, and Roger Vadim. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacqueline Bisset, Candice Bergen, (more)
- 1981
Lutz (Patrick Schoene), is a self-proclaimed East German sailor-spy who has jumped ship while in Long Beach harbor so he can prepare the way for a planned Soviet invasion. Lutz is a handsome, musclebound type who attracts a following as diverse as a mixed salad: a rotund mother and son whose affection for hamburgers, fries, and ice-cream is self-evident, a gay pimp cum door-knob collector, an attractive call-girl from the Temple of Dance Arts, and other flotsam and jetsam of the human condition. The antics of this troupe enliven the film as they head to Madame Wang's punk show, where Lutz shows off an eccentricity of his own. Finally, Lutz has to return to his ship before his "spying" episode is discovered. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Edgar
The concept behind the 1977 Hound of the Baskervilles involved having "underground" director Paul Morrissey bring an irreverent slant to the original Sherlock Holmes mystery. The film thus casts Peter Cook and Dudley Moore as Holmes and Watson, with such reliable British performers as Terry-Thomas, Joan Greenwood, Denholm Elliott, Hugh Griffith, Spike Milligan, and Roy Kinnear in cameos. Producer Michael White took on the project; it mirrored his previous experience of combining spoofery and fidelity to source material with Monty Python's Jabberwocky. Examples of the film's zaniness include the casting of a lovable Irish wolfhound as the "deadly" Baskerville mastiff and having Holmes and Watson speak in thick provincial accents. For its American release, Hound of the Baskervilles was whittled down to 78 minutes, with several of its scenes out of sequence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, (more)
Incest, necrophilia, and Joe Dallesandro? It must be Andy Warhol. Warhol did indeed co-produce this 1973 schlock spectacular -- originally presented in 3D -- that was directed by Factory fave Paul Morrissey. Starring Udo Kier in the role of "Ze Baron," Flesh for Frankenstein is a horror story for a new 'n' lewd generation. This time around, the mad scientist has created the nymphomaniacally-inclined Adam and Eve, whose mission it is to spawn a new race. Along for the ride --somewhat literally -- is a lusty stable boy (Dallesandro) who main duty it is to entertain the Baron's equally lusty wife/sister. Sex, gore, unconvincing bat attacks, and the highest camp this side of the Appalachian Trail combine for a dizzyingly outrageous midnight movie. Flesh for Frankenstein got a second chance at life when it was screened at the 2002 Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Dallesandro, Udo Kier, (more)
The second of two horror films shot in a single production term and bearing the name of pop-art icon Andy Warhol (whose participation pretty much ended with the use of his name), this film is slightly superior to its higher-profile predecessor, Andy Warhol's Frankenstein. Direction is credited to Warhol factory filmmaker Paul Morrissey, though there still exists a very vocal camp who insist that the real credit should go to Italian director Antonio Margheriti. Euro-horror leading man Udo Kier assays the title role, playing the count as a pale, anemic-looking blood junkie with an overwrought accent. Finding the supply of "weer-gin" blood diminishing rapidly in Romania, Dracula is forced to seek a fix in a predominantly Catholic Italian province, where he is certain a few virgins still exist. He travels with his assistant (Arno Juerging) and his coffin-sealed sister to the decrepit, crumbling mansion of the financially-strapped Marquis DiFore (a tour-de-force performance from Bicycle Thief director Vittorio de Sica) who welcomes the affluent Count with open arms, hoping to marry off any one of his four daughters. Dracula clearly has other intentions for the girls... but his plans are rudely thwarted by beefy, socialist handyman Mario (Joe Dallesandro), who has been dutifully divesting the young maidens of their -- ahem -- virtue, thus tainting their blood and making it unsafe for vampiric consumption. Very unsafe, it turns out -- as we are treated to protracted scenes of the death-pale Count vomiting up gallons of blood. Rated "X" at the time of its release (and subsequently re-rated "R" ten years later), this outrageous catalogue of depravity features wildly campy performances, inane dialogue and an outrageous climax. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Dallesandro, Udo Kier, (more)
Heat is one of the more mainstream films produced by Andy Warhol's "Factory" and directed by Paul Morrissey. It is something of a send-up of Sunset Boulevard, with male beauty Joe Dallesandro in the William Holden part. In the film, Dallessandro seeks to advance his career by bedding anyone who is able to help him, from corpulent lady motel owners, to the gay boyfriend of a movie star's ex-husband. His career moves land him in bed with a fading but still-influential movie star (Sylvia Miles), and they enjoy a brief relationship. This ends, however, when Dallessandro decides that he wants to handle his career on his own. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvia Miles, Joe Dallesandro, (more)
- 1972
In Warhol/Morrissey collaborations, such as this spoof of porn films, it is often more useful to describe the personalities shown on the screen, than to try to describe the story. All the women in this film are desperately tired of men. All of them are transvestites. Some of them are very improbable transvestites, such as Jackie Curtis, who has a booming bass voice. Others are so decadent that their gender is immaterial. Holly Woodlawn is an example of this ilk. However, whatever story there is devolves around the ambitions of poor little rich "girl" Candy Darling, who wants to be a film star, but must spend most of her time fending off the unnatural attentions of women's libbers. The actors, whose material is improvised, are occasionally quite witty, and the sendups of sex scenes and Darling's experiences on the casting couch show a good satirical sensibility. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
Andy Warhol produced this mordant satire of the women's movement, directed by Paul Morrissey and staring a trio of female impersonators. Candy (Candy Darling) is an aloof heiress caught in an unhappy relationship with her brother. Jackie (Jackie Curtis) is a virginal intellectual who believes that women are oppressed in contemporary American society. And Holly (Holly Woodlawn) is a nymphomaniac who has come to loathe men, despite her attraction to them. Together, they join a militant feminist group, P.I.G. (Politically Involved Girls), but their newfound liberation doesn't make them any happier; Jackie gets mixed up with a male hustler and winds up as an unwed mother, Holly becomes a homeless alcoholic, and Candy tries to make a go of show business via the casting couch. Several other Warhol/Morrissey "superstars" appear in supporting roles, including Jane Forth, Geri Miller, and Maurice Braddell. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
This Andy Warhol production finds Joe Dallesandro as Joe, a lice-ridden impotent junkie who lives with Holly (Holly Woodlawn) in a Lower East Side slum in New York. Holly is a transvestite who spends time collecting trash, going to the Fillmore East, and cruising for sex. Joe is only interested in his next fix, and graphic displays of needles piercing flesh and degrading human situations deglamorize drug use better than any board of education film or public service messages. Jane (Jane Forth) is the acid casualty housewife who listens to Pink Floyd. Male and female nudity and masturbation are featured. The color process is not credited, but technical aspects are better overall than most previous Warhol productions. Woodlawn was the inspiration for the Lou Reed song "Take a Walk on the Wild Side." ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Dallesandro, Holly Woodlawn, (more)
Based on a James Leo Herlihy novel, British director John Schlesinger's first American film dramatized the small hopes, dashed dreams, and unlikely friendship of two late '60s lost souls. Dreaming of an easy life as a fantasy cowboy stud, cheerful Texas rube Joe Buck (Jon Voight) heads to New York City to be a gigolo, but he quickly discovers that hustling isn't what he thought it would be after he winds up paying his first trick (Sylvia Miles). He gets swindled by gimpy tubercular grifter Rico "Ratso" Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) but, when Joe falls in the direst of straits, Ratso takes Joe into his condemned apartment so that they can help each other survive. Things start to look up when Joe finally lands his first legit female customer (Brenda Vaccaro) at a Warhol-esque party; Ratso's health, however, fails. Joe turns a final trick to get the money for one selfless goal: taking Ratso out of New York to his dream life in Miami. One of the first major studio films given the newly minted X rating for its then-frank portrayal of New York decadence, Midnight Cowboy was critically praised for Schlesinger's insight into American lives, with the intercut mosaic of Joe's memories and Ratso's dreams lending their characters and actions greater psychological complexity. While they may have been drawn by the seamy content (tame by current standards), the young late '60s audience responded to Joe's and Ratso's confusion amidst turbulent times and to the connection they make with each other despite their alienation from the surrounding culture. Midnight Cowboy became one of the major financial and artistic hits of 1969, winning Oscars for Best Picture (the first for an X-rated film), Best Director, and former blacklistee Waldo Salt's screenplay. Though the one-two punch of Midnight Cowboy and The Graduate (1967) proved Hoffman's range and Voight's Joe Buck made him a star, both lost Best Actor to classical cowboy John Wayne for True Grit. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, (more)
