Sidewinders and Trousersnakes! The Cinema of William Grefé.

Posted by Richard Harland Smith on August 12, 2008

I’ll be attending a double feature tonight at West Hollywood’s New Beverly Cinema, a wonderful revival theater with a long and colorful history. The venue is home to Quentin Tarantino’s annual Grindhouse Film Festival but also runs its own programming, double and triple bills of movies big and small, important and obscure, from Hollywood and around the world – and has been doing this continuously since 1978. Up tonight is a two-fer of gnarly exploitation films from the gut of William Grefé, the Florida-based filmmaker responsible for the mindblowing likes of STING OF DEATH (1965), DEATH CURSE OF TARTU (1966), THE HOOKED GENERATION (1968), MAKO: THE JAWS OF DEATH (1976) and WHISKEY MOUNTAIN (1977).

“This should be one of the greatest Grindhouse nights ever.” Brian J. Quinn, Grindhouse Film Festival Coordinator

Tonight’s bill of fare is STANLEY (1972), a WILLARD-like tale of an angry Everglades loner (in this case, a Seminole Vietnam veteran played by Chris Robinson) who is wronged by a cadre of seedy fashionistas (led by THE GODFATHER‘s Alex Rocco) and has his revenge by sending out a legion of lethal snakes. And in IMPULSE (1974), William Shatner plays a Lonely Hearts conman/killer working the Florida backwater who must contend with a conninving little girl and Harold “OddJob” Sakata as a fellow trickster who goes by the name of Karate Pete. The one and only time I saw IMPULSE, it struck me as having been made from a long-lost Jim Thompson novel, chockablock as it is with venal and thoroughly dispicable characters. Of STANLEY, I remember a scene in which a guy dives into a swimming pool filled – he realizes only on the downward arc of his high dive – with squirming snakes.

It is my job to go to movies and write about them. If the movie is a work of art, I must try to rise to the occasion. If it’s just an entertainment, then my job is to suggest how well you might be entertained. But how should I approach STANLEY? Roger Ebert, June 1, 1972

As if this gnarly double feature weren’t enough of an enticement in and of itself, William Grefé will be in attendance himself, signing autographs and submitting to an audience Q&A. Joining the director will be his STANLEY screenwriter Gary Crutcher, star Chris Robinson and producer John Burrows, MAKO: THE JAWS OF DEATH/WHISKEY MOUNTAIN actor John Davis Chandler (also great in various Sam Peckinpah movies and the under-appreciated ONCE A THIEF), STING OF DEATH star Joe Morrison and, schedule permitting, an as-yet-unannounced Extra Special Guest from the cast of IMPULSE. Now given that Ruth Roman and Harold Sakata have long since passed away, you just might be able to figure out the identity of this Mystery Man… but you won’t know for sure unless you show up tonight.

Click here to read Roger Ebert’s review of STANLEY.

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11 Responses Sidewinders and Trousersnakes! The Cinema of William Grefé.

Posted By JoseM : August 12, 2008 1:52 pm

Sounds like a fun time. I miss double features so much.

Posted By rhsmith : August 12, 2008 2:36 pm

As the disappointing box office for Grindhouse suggests, America has lost its taste for the double-feature. And that’s too bad. It does take a certain amount of focus and stamina to hang in there, especially at the New Beverly, where the evening sometimes doesn’t end until well after midnight… but there’s also something quintessentially American about back-to-back horror, sci-fi and/or exploitation films. C’mon kids, drop your Wii-Wiis and go see some flicks!

Posted By 42nd Street Memories : August 13, 2008 8:56 am

I miss double features terribly, especially terrible double features. I just netflixed a double feature from one of way-too-many visits to 42nd Street…..Astro Zombies and The Undertaker and His Pals. Great fun, great memories. The grindhouse theaters of The Deuce added so much to the fun. 42nd Street was the original audience participation venue. Banter between audience and cast, attempts to wake up the snorers and assorted threats, the movie going experience was an adventure to say the least. Those were the days….daze?

Posted By Medusa : August 13, 2008 9:29 am

I haven’t seen “Outcast” but wish I were there to see it at the theater. It was made in Shatner’s post-TV Trek, pre-movie Trek career lull, and it sounds suitably desperate and completely fascinating. Lucky you!

Posted By rhsmith : August 13, 2008 12:05 pm

Medusa, did you mean to say Impulse rather than Outcast? (Shatner has a few of these short titles in his CV: The Intruder, The Outrage, Incubus, Impulse and it’s hard to keep them all straight.) This one is worth tracking down. It’s an often risibly funny movie about a completely deranged mind but beyond the unintentional (and intentional) laughs there’s something deeply sad and pathetic about the characterization. And that patina of 70s sleaze really brings back a lot of unpleasant memories. A must-see!

Posted By Fred : August 13, 2008 3:18 pm

The only Grefe film I can recall seeing was Death Curse of Tartu, which was a go-to feature on Channel 5 in New York. I saw it so many times as a kid. I heard about most of his other films, but they never made it out to the Burbs and I was too young to go to the Deuce to see them. I’d love to see this double feature, but I don’t think I can afford the airfare!

Posted By Medusa : August 13, 2008 4:09 pm

Yes, I think I meant to say “Impulse” — definitely a plethora of short, snappy titles in Shatner’s oeuvre!

Posted By rhsmith : August 13, 2008 6:43 pm

I remember a TNT broadcast of Death Curse of Tartu many years ago that was one of the most beautifully chromatic experiences I’ve ever seen – the subsequent SomethingWeird DVD (however welcome) doesn’t come close to recapturing how vivid those primary colors were. I need to see this again, bad.

Posted By keelsetter : August 14, 2008 12:49 pm

Boy, I wish Boulder audiences would support such fare – I’d program it in a heartbeat. Very jealous. Were they able to show 35mm prints? (And, regardless of how people may feel of GRINDHOUSE, it’s inspired use of faded colors, missing frames, emulsion scratches, etc., does something miraculous: it makes you appreciate celluloid on many interesting levels.)

Posted By RHS : August 14, 2008 2:37 pm

Yes, The New Beverly is a 35mm house… 35mm only! And that’s great in most ways but too bad in at least one way because behind-the-scenes footage from Impulse has been discovered of William Shatner saving costar Harold Sakara from a hanging stunt gone wrong… but said footage is in 16mm. Look for it as a bonus featurette on the forthcoming Stanley DVD.

Posted By TCM's Classic Movie Blog : September 12, 2010 2:10 pm

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