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Month: January 2017

Fritz the Cat (1972)

Fritz the Cat (1972)

Comments 4 comments

“All the stuff to see — and all the kicks, and all the girls — are out there!”

Synopsis:
A swinging hep-cat (Skip Hinnant) beds chicks while seeking the meaning of life through drugs, a road trip, and violent revolutionary action.

Genres:

  • Adult Films
  • Animated Features
  • Counterculture
  • Revolutionaries
  • Road Trip

Response to Peary’s Review:
Peary notes that this “X-rated cartoon by Ralph Bakshi” — “based on Robert Crumb’s underground comic-book character” — “hit a responsive chord with hip counterculture audiences of the early seventies”. He writes that while it is “ambitious and cleverly animated”, he also finds it “extremely dull” and argues “it’s annoying that the characters whom Fritz meets… are stupid, hypocritical, cruel, sex-obsessed, [and] politically naive” — thus making this film “a downer for those who romanticize about that era”. I’m essentially in agreement with Peary’s review: I applaud its innovation and clever visuals, but dislike nearly everything else about it (including the characters). Be forewarned that the film is filled with “much sexual and violent imagery”, and many scenes (while animated) are quite explicit; watching the trailer may suffice to familiarize yourself with what this one is all about.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

  • Colorful animation


Must See?
Yes, once, simply for its historical notoriety (but if you’d rather not subject yourself to it, just watch the trailer).

Categories

  • Historically Relevant

Links:

Slave of the Cannibal God (1978)

Slave of the Cannibal God (1978)

Comments 2 comments

“You don’t forget the taste of human flesh!”

Synopsis:
A woman (Ursula Andress) searching for her missing husband travels deep into the New Guinean jungles, accompanied by her brother (Antonio Marsina) and an anthropologist (Stacy Keach). Once there, she encounters a sexy explorer (Claudio Cassinelli), many predatory animals, and a tribe of cannibalistic natives.

Genres:

  • Cannibalism
  • Jungles
  • Native Peoples
  • Search
  • Stacy Keach Films
  • Ursula Andress Films

Review:
Within the sub-genre of “cannibal horror flicks” — which “has a well-deserved reputation as the genre that was prepared to go to the most graphically nasty extremes of any exploitation genre” — this Italian adventure flick holds some limited fame, given that it had a generous budget, starred a couple of big-name actors (Andress and Keach), and wasn’t banned by any country. Does that make it worth viewing? Most decidedly not — unless your idea of fun is watching one-dimensional protagonists slogging their way through dense jungles, camera shots zooming in on menacing wildlife, native tribesmen (and women) enacting bestial rituals, and Andress heaving her glistening bosom while making heated proclamations:

“Why can’t you realize — I want to find my husband, that’s all!”
“My husband is missing — and I’m prepared to do ANYTHING to find him!”

Be forewarned that there’s a particularly nasty, infamous scene in which an enormous python devours a monkey in real-time. In an interview on the DVD, the director (Sergio Martino) claims it was all accidental and they just happened to film the moment, given that they “couldn’t do anything at that point to help” — but a freeze-frame analysis shows that the monkey was shoved into the snake’s mouth. Classy.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

  • Effective use of authentic jungle settings

Must See?
No — unless you’re a film fanatic determined to familiarize yourself with every sub-genre out there. Listed as a Camp Classic in the back of Peary’s book.

Links: