Cultpix Radio Ep.22 - We Venture Deeper Into Something Weird's Video Collection

Cultpix Radio

Django Nudo and the Smut Peddler adopt their most outrageous French accents in honour of attending the Festival Lumiere and MIFC (International market for classic films) in Lyon, France, where cinema was born 125 years ago. We have had meetings with film libraries and rights holders from all over the world, who first try to sell us their beautifully restored 4K masters of the classics of cinema. We tell them, 'no, give us your dirtiest horror and exploitations films, the bottom of the barrel.'
In the end it was amazingly productive and we have leads with a dozen or so title holders, so expect east European science fiction and south European thrillers in the months to come. We also made many new friends and saw a lot of interest for the 'Do You Believe In Swedish Sin' book, that will be appearing in film book shops all over Europe soon.
There is a quick plug for this coming Cult Tuesday screening with Everyman Cinemas in the UK of "She Freak" (1967) with a special introduction by Karen Krizanovich.
The main focus this week is a big haul of vintage exploitation films from the darkest recesses of the Something Weird Video archive.
Thematically it is first 'Girls from the City'. In "All of Me" (1963) is yet another sexploitation variation on the old Good-Girl-who-comes-to-the-big-Bad-City-to-be-a-model story which unexpectedly detours into Nudist-Camp territory. "Babette" (1968) is a surprisingly subversive gem that aggressively celebrates sexual anarchy. "Copenhagen Call Girls" (1964) exudes a bizarre, almost exotic, mixture of grimy black & white sexploitation and Benny Hill-style humour. But the highlight of Copenhagen Call Girls is without a doubt the groovy, inspired surf-guitar score provided by an obscure group of Beatles-wannabes calling themselves THE SHARKS.
The second theme is 'Girls from the country', with "The Night of the Cat" (1973) is a shot-in-Charlotte, North Carolina, celluloid catastrophe about a woman who becomes an avenging "catwoman" and takes on the mob. "Garden of Eden" (1954) is the "Gone With the Wind" of nudist movies! Sadly New York censors held up the release so long that when it was finally released it was overrun by less quality nudist films. "Love Goddesses of Blood Island" (1966) sees an astronaut wash ashore and become the sex slave of the Love Goddesses of Blood Island, where previous male guests have been reduced to severed heads on poles.
Last and without an obvious theme, "The Girl from S.I.N." (1966) is a silly sci-fi spoof with an invisible woman who keeps reappearing in the nude. The lead character is called Poontang Plenty, which has to be the ultimate James Bond knock-off name. The discover that the problem with taking an invisibility pill is that you never know when you might become visible while stark naked.
Finally "Twisted Sex, Vol. 17" (1960) is a cavalcade of vintage trailers and loos, with D.N. and S.P. having fun taking turns reading out the titles featured, including "The Smut Peddler" (1965) and "The Ultimate Degenerate" (1969), which seems like an appropriate pairing.
As always we play plenty of music, dialogue and clips from all the films for your enjoyment.