Possession and repossession; new this week at the buffet…

Bunny finds herself possessed by the spirit of a decidedly different take on an oft told tale of demonic possession, Abby.

While The Kommandant faces off against the occasionally erotic evil forces of Paul Naschy's version of The Exorcist, Exorcism.

Who's got what and what's got who; new this week at the buffet...

This week Bunny takes a seat in Giallo Biafra's Trattoria Of Terror and rhetorically wonders What Have You Done To Solange?

While The Kommandant travels to an island of the damned to seek the answer to a most un-PC question, Who Can Kill A Child?

A double dose of De Ossorio; new this week at the buffet...

This week we are pleased to present two films from the fertile imagination of Spain's master of slow moving menaces, Amando De Ossorio.

First join Bunny and be spellbound by the vampire vixens and vulgar voodoo of The Night Of The Sorcerers.

Then saddle up alongside the Kommandant and return to the tombs of the blind dead for it's aptly named sequel, Return Of The Blind Dead.

Riot On North Seventh Street

One other thing I was super excited to learn about from our vacation email was The Secret Cinema's upcoming showing of Riot On Sunset Strip. And by upcoming, I mean it's this Friday night. (Sorry, I swear I meant to mention this last week; on the bright side, I did manage to mention it 48 hours before the event took place - which is better than I've done with these types of things in the past.)

Anywhoo, since SC's founding father Jay Schwartz always takes the time to write up informative press releases about his events, and is no doubt more capable of detailing all of the important points about said events than I, I decided to just reprint the contents of it here. Sans the portions that are not for publication, of course.

RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP: Super Screening And Author Event, Rare Photos And Films, Plus After-Party! Exciting New Venue!

Friday, August 10th
8:00 pm
Admission: $8.00 (includes talk, film & after-party)

Philadelphia Society of Free Letts (Latvian Society)
531 N. 7th Street, Philadelphia

Earlier this year, the Secret Cinema presented a sold-out evening of music and rock history, when Lenny Kaye co-hosted a garage-rock themed event called NUGGETS. We're happy to continue that tradition on Friday, August 10, when the Secret Cinema presents another very special program called RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP, celebrating an old movie and a brand new book of the same name.

The subject of each is Hollywood's famed Sunset Strip itself, the winding road that for a brief but memorable time became the epicenter of a whole new world of youth based excitement, especially including a new wave of home-grown rock music. From the moment the Byrds debuted at Ciro's on March 26th 1965 -- with Bob Dylan joining them on stage -- through the demonstrations of November 1966, Sunset Strip nightclubs introduced Love, Buffalo Springfield, the Mothers of Invention, the Doors, and so many more.

Our special guest will be rock historian Domenic Priore. His just published book, RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP: ROCK 'N' ROLL'S LAST STAND IN HOLLYWOOD (published by Jawbone Press, with foreword by the late Arthur Lee), shows how this legendary scene came together, burned briefly but brilliantly, and then fell apart after the Summer of Love.

Our August 10 event takes place in an exciting new venue for the Secret Cinema: The roomy upstairs ballroom of the venerable Philadelphia Society of Free Letts (Latvian Society), at 7th and Spring Garden. The night starts with an illustrated talk by Domenic about this fascinating moment in pop culture, accompanied by rare slides from original scene photographers like Henry Diltz, Yoram Kahana and Marc Wanamaker, as well as some relevant film clips from the Secret Cinema archives.

After some Q&A with our guest author, there will be a screening of the classic, garage rock-filled exploitation feature film RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP, which obviously provided the inspiration for the book's title (as well as the scorching Standells' theme song). The film will be presented, as usual, in glorious 16mm film on a giant screen.

Then, we provide a built-in after-party, in the funky (and reasonably priced!) downstairs bar of the Latvian hall with music provided by Domenic Priore and D.J. Silvia. Domenic will bring a choice selection of Sunset Strip sounds, including records by L.A. locals (Byrds, Standells, Bobby Fuller Four) and touring bands that made the Strip scene (Them, Velvet Underground), plus some valuable vinyl rarities. D.J. Silvia will add some international flavor, to show how the new sixties teen scene reverberated around the globe.

The approximate schedule is as follows:

8:00 pm - Illustrated talk by Domenic Priore: "Rock 'n' Roll's Last Stand in Hollywood"

9:00 pm - Film screening: RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP

10:30 pm until ? - After party with Domenic Priore and D.J. Silvia, book signing, etc.

Admission to all of the above is $8.00

More info follows about both the guest speaker and feature film...

Domenic Priore is a writer and television producer specializing in pop culture and music. He is the author of BEATSVILLE (with Martin McIntosh) and SMILE: THE STORY OF BRIAN WILSON'S LOST MASTERPIECE (with forewords by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks), and was the main writer on the AMC documentaries HOLLYWOOD ROCKS THE MOVIES. His great and long running, if infrequently published (four issues spanning three decades!) zine, THE DUMB ANGEL GAZETTE, explores his various obsessions; its 1989 book-sized special edition LOOK! LISTEN! VIBRATE! SMILE! kick-started a revival of interest in Brian Wilson's unreleased SMILE project that ultimately led to Wilson
recording a new album of this music. A native of Los Angeles, Priore met Secret Cinema programmer Jay Schwartz when both served as contributing editors to Marshall Crenshaw's book HOLLYWOOD ROCK: A GUIDE TO ROCK 'N' ROLL IN THE MOVIES (1994, Harper Collins).

Riot on Sunset Strip (1967) Dir: Arthur Dreifuss

One of the best loved of American International's late-60s drive-in fodder movies, "the most shocking film of our generation" purported to blow the lid off the wild goings on in the Hollywood discotheques of the day. Producer Sam Katzman, ever watchful of trends, based the film on the real-life violent riots that erupted on the Sunset Strip after police harassment of the mobs of teenagers there.

Mimsy Farmer (who also starred in HOT RODS TO HELL before moving to Europe) plays a troubled girl who gets in with a bad crowd at the local rock club. She then goes off to a wild party where she is slipped LSD in her diet coke and is taken advantage of by five boys. Her absent father happens to be the chief of police, and the previously-tolerant man's violent reaction triggers a massive demonstration (the father is played by the late Aldo Ray, who began his career in mainstream movies and by the '70s had fallen to accepting a non-sexual role in a hardcore porno film).

As fun as all of this acid-crazed wild youth business is, the best reason to see RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP is the great footage of the garage rock heroes who appear in the nightclub scenes. The Standells (of "Dirty Water" near-fame) play the great title track and "Get Away From Here." The amazing Chocolate Watch Band, featuring genius Mick Jagger-imitator Dave Aguilar (now an astronomy professor) dish up two scorching punk anthems. Aguilar's snarling performance of "Don't Need Your Lovin" (a canny rewrite of "Milkcow Blues") stands as the cinematic definition of punk rock, past, present and future. The underrated Enemies (who left behind a few 45s on MGM before singer Cory Wells reunited with founding member Danny Hutton to form Three Dog Night) also perform.

Need a second opinion? Visit the BMB's own The B Hive to read Rob Smentek's astute summation of the film's finer points.

More information on this event and all other things Secret Cinema can be found at www.thesecretcinema.com

A quadrangle of quirky movie madness; new this week at the buffet…

The Kommandant gets a Winnebago seat education from a promiscuous pair of '70s sleaze flicks, Pick Up & The Teacher.

While Bunny commits to a double dose of '60s sexploitation sinema, Unholy Matrimony & My Third Wife George.

B Movies invade Indiana

One other thing I learned about from our post vacation email is The B Movie Celebration. Here's a description of the event copied from said email:

What do you get when you show over 60 classics B movies, then add seminars by the greatest practitioners of the B Cinema artform working today: Well, you get The B Movie Celebration. A celebration of all cinematic B things being held August 17th thru 19th in Franklin, Indiana, the garden spot of the Mid West.

The B Movie Celebration is an event unlike any other. Part film festival, part educational symposium and part circus. Over sixty classic B feature film films will be shown, including 'Forbidden Planet", "Night of The Living Dead" and "Death Race 2000". Appearing at The Celebration, will be Troma Studio founder Lloyd Kaufman, B Film Legend Jim Wynorski, Effects Guru Tom Savini and numerous other practitioners of the B movie art form.

Now, I can't vouch for the garden spot-y-ness of Franklin, Indiana - or, really the event itself, as I'd never heard of it prior to reading the email - but I did look at their schedule and we have reviewed at least three out of the sixty classic B feature films that will be shown on the Buffet (namely The Devil Rides Out, The Fall Of The House Of Usher & Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!) which seems like a good enough reason to mention it here. Plus, they actually emailed me via my official c14 editrix address but by the time the next issue comes out, in October, it won't be news anymore.

Anywhoo, more info. on the event can be found at www.bmoviecelebration.com.