THE SINGLE GIRLS (1974) **

Before Claudia Jennings cemented her title as Queen of the Drive-In in Ferd and Beverly Sebastian’s immortal classic, Gator Bait, she starred in the decidedly less than classic The Single Girls for the couple. 

Claudia and some friends go to a “liberated” resort where a groovy doctor helps vacationers lose their inhibitions and partake in some “group” therapy, if you know what I mean.  (Or, SEX, if you don’t know what I mean.)  Too bad Claudia’s stuffed shirt ex has followed her along to ruin the fun.  Speaking of ruining the fun, there’s also a killer lurking about the grounds who is slowly (huge emphasis on the word “slowly”) picking off the hedonistic vacationers one by one. 

The Single Girls is an uneven mix of hippie dippy sexploitation and prototypical slasher movie.  The fact that it was retitled Bloody Friday and rereleased years later on video as a Friday the 13th knockoff is telling.  Don’t worry though, because there’s still a decent amount of skin on display.  It’s just that the film has a tendency to swap genres as much as the couples swap partners.

This could have worked if the script was tight, but ultimately The Single Girls just never quite gets its affairs in order.  It doesn’t work as sexploitation because there’s too much stalling and not enough balling, and it fails as a slasher flick as there’s too much gabbing and not enough stabbing.  The finale is pretty weak too. 

Claudia is the reason to watch it.  She gives a fine performance, even if she doesn’t have quite as many nude scenes as I was expecting.  We also get fine support from Albert (the Dirty Harry series) Popwell as the “soul brother” of the group and Robyn (Blazing Saddles) Hilton as one of the tourists. 

AKA:  Private School.  AKA:  Bloody Friday.

LET’S GET PHYSICAL: STRANGLER OF THE SWAMP (1946) ** ½

FORMAT:  DVD

Years ago, angry villagers formed a lynch mob and hung an innocent man who worked as the ferryman in the swamp.  Before he died, he placed a curse on the men and their descendants.  Now, his ghost roams the swamps strangling the relatives of those responsible for his death.  Meanwhile, a pretty young gal takes up the job of ferrywoman and begins a romance with a strapping young man.  Naturally, thanks to long-buried family secrets, it doesn’t take long for the ghost to ruin their newfound bliss. 

Strangler of the Swamp is well regarded in some circles.  It was released by PRC, who were known for their “poverty row” horror cheapies.  While it certainly looks more polished and is more atmospheric than your typical PRC horror quickie, it’s still far from perfect. 

The biggest problem is with the landslide of exposition that kicks off the film.  It would’ve worked much better if we actually saw the hanging that initiated the curse of the strangler instead of hearing everyone in town talk about it on and on.  The love story scenes are strictly standard fare too, and the religious-tinged “love conquers all” ending is quite hokey. 

That said, Strangler of the Swamp is certainly one cool looking flick.  The swamp locations are atmospheric (it often looks like a Universal horror flick) and give the film a personality that most PRC flicks lacked.  The effects of the ghost (played by Charles Middleton, best known for playing Ming the Merciless in the Flash Gordon serials) are surprisingly well done too, and the shots of him lurking in the fog are surprisingly effective.  The running time clocks in at just under an hour and the pacing is relatively brisk, which certainly helps.  It all results in a mixed bag, but a moderately entertaining one. 

GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE (2024) ***

The Spenglers (Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, and Mckenna Grace), the latest generation of Ghostbusters, try to dodge the vindictive Mayor (William Atherton) and keep the business afloat.  Meanwhile, legacy Ghostbuster Ray (Dan Aykroyd) discovers a brass ball containing an ancient evil.  Naturally, the thing cracks open, the ghost escapes, and it sets out to freeze New York and eventually the world. 

Ghostbusters:  Frozen Empire does a slightly better job at balancing the fan service nostalgia of the ‘84 original with the Spengler family plotline than Afterlife did.  Paul Rudd is once again the MVP of the movie, as his “Aw, shucks” demeanor and fanboy geek-outs offer up plenty of laughs.  Grace is also engaging, as her friendship with a (seemingly) harmless ghost girl (Emily Alyn Lind) presents an interesting wrinkle to the Ghostbuster canon.  Wolfhard gets noticeably less to do this time around as most of his screen time is spent trying to wrangle Slimer. 

Of the OG cast, Aykroyd has the most screentime and gets a satisfying character arc.  While he doesn’t have any big laughs, it’s still a lot of fun hearing him rattle off a lot of pseudoscientific gobbledygook.  Ernie Hudson is around for a bit too, although like in the other movies, he’s just sort of there.  Bill Murray is conspicuously absent for the most part, but he does at least deliver some laughs during his brief onscreen moments.  Although I certainly wish he was in it more, I’m still glad they were able to convince him to strap on a proton pack once again. 

As for the ghostbusting scenes, they’re mostly entertaining.  The stuff with Slimer is cute and the scenes with the mini-marshmallow men are once again amusing.  Surprisingly, the most fun comes from the “possessor” ghost who inhabits everyday objects (from a bag of trash to a pizza). 

Of course, none of this is a patch on the original, but I liked it just as much as (if not more than) Ghostbusters:  Afterlife. 

LET’S GET PHYSICAL: HIGH SCHOOL BIG SHOT (1959) **

FORMAT:  DVD

ORIGINAL REVIEW:  

(As posted on July 17th, 2007)

A nerdy kid named Marv is flat broke but the prettiest girl in school wants to go out with him. Of course, she just wants him to do her term paper for her and when they are caught cheating, Marv loses his scholarship and only chance to make some money. When Marv gets wind of a million-dollar heist, he wants in, but predictably it ends with a double cross and murder. This low budget teenie bopper caper movie suffers greatly from a claustrophobic setting and bad acting. When the heist finally does happen, I can’t guarantee you’ll give a shit, but it’s kinda worth it when the bitchy slut gets hers.

LET’S GET PHYSICAL: WOMEN IN CAGES (1971) ** ½

FORMAT:  DVD

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

(As posted on July 14th, 2011)

Women in Cages is pretty much like The Big Doll House and The Big Bird Cage, except its missing director Jack Hill’s trademark black humor.  Because another director, Gerald (The Mad Doctor of Blood Island) de Leon was at the helm, it plays more or less like a straightforward Made in the Philippines Women in Prison Movie.  Another difference is that Pam Grier plays a lesbian GUARD and not a lesbian inmate.  Big difference.

 

And Grier runs the place with an iron fist.  She plays favorites and gives the prisoners privileges in exchange for some kinky bedroom antics.  Whenever they cross her, she puts them in “The Playpen” where they are tortured.  Jennifer Gan is the latest hunk of meat to get thrown in the prison and it doesn’t take long for her to scheme up an escape plan.

 

Women in Cages was filmed on the same sets as The Big Doll House and features many of the same actresses (in addition to Grier, Judy Brown and Roberta Collins are also on hand to bare some skin).  It’s not as much fun as that flick but it does deliver on the Women in Prison goods.  There are strip searches, shower scenes, and catfights to keep you entertained.  For the first hour, Women in Cages is pretty sweet, but the flick goes right into the shitter once the girls escape the prison.  The ending pretty much sucks too, which further detracts from the overall Fun Factor.

 

Grier delivers a down and dirty performance and it’s cool seeing her playing a villain for a change.  Gan on the other hand is pretty annoying and makes for a shitty heroine.  To make matters worse, she resembles Gwyneth Paltrow after a six day drunk.  She and Grier do get the best dialogue exchange in the movie though:

 

Gan:  “What Hell did you crawl out of?”

 

Grier:  “It was called Harlem, baby!”

 

AKA:  The Bamboo Doll House.  AKA:  Women’s Penitentiary 3.

LET’S GET PHYSICAL: SWAMP WOMEN (1956) **

FORMAT:  DVD

ORIGINAL REVIEW:  

(As posted on July 17th, 2007 under the title Swamp Diamonds)

This was one of director Roger Corman’s first films. While it’s not one of his best, this female filled crime melodrama is worth a look if only for a great hateful performance by Beverly Garland. A policewoman (Carol Matthews) infiltrates an all-girl gang serving time in prison. She gains their trust and organizes an escape in exchange for a cut on some diamonds that are stashed in a swamp. Mike “Touch” Connors plays a hapless guy that gets kidnapped by the gang and provides the meager sexual tension. The beginning is hopelessly filled with stock footage of Mardi Gras to pad the already brisk running time, and the ending is wrapped up way too conveniently, but Garland is a hoot at chewing up the scenery. She starred the next year in Corman’s The Gunslinger. Marie (Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy) Windsor and Jonathan (The Little Shop of Horrors) Haze co-star.

AKA: Cruel Swamp.

LET’S GET PHYSICAL: THE HOT BOX (1972) ** ½

FORMAT:  DVD

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

(As posted on June 19th, 2012)

Before taking the directorial reigns for the first time with Caged Heat, Jonathan Demme co-wrote and produced this somewhere-a-bit-up-the-road-from-middle-of-the-road exploitation picture for Roger Corman. It sorta plays like an amalgamation of a Corman Nurse movie and a Cirio H. Santiago Jungle Action flick. The results are admittedly mixed, yet mostly entertaining.

A bunch of nurses go deep into the jungle to do some relief work in a third world nation. They get kidnapped by some revolutionaries who force them to teach the guerillas first aid. (Yes, there is a mouth to mouth scene.) Whenever the girls get out of line they’re sent to the titular box where they’re locked in a cage and scalded with steam. Despite that, the girls still manage to sympathize with their captors and even wind up fighting for the cause!

The Hot Box is not a good movie really, but it has all the elements you’d want from a good movie. That is to say there’s lots of action and lots of T &A and… well… not much else. Because of that, I can give The Hot Box a more than passable recommendation.

BUT… everything else about the picture is lacking. The pacing is lethargic, and the flick feels a lot longer than it is due to the indifferent story structure. Plus, The Hot Box itself doesn’t even come into play until the movie’s about 2/3 of the way over! What’s up with that? And I would’ve liked a bit more nursing scenes at the start of the flick too before the action switched over to the jungle. That just might be a matter of preference though. Then again, what movie couldn’t benefit from a bunch of hot nurses getting in and out of uniform?