Starring: Margo Winchester, Janet Wood, Raven De La Croix, Linda Sue Ragsdale, Robert McLane, Candy Samples,Su Ling, Edward Schaaf, Elaine Collins, Kitten Natividad. Sexploitation/DriveIn/Grindhouse.Directed by Russ Meyer.
Synopsis: A rich man with a lot of secrets, and who bears an uncanny resemblance to one Adolph Hitler, is murdered in his bathtub by use of piranhas and, with plenty of suspects, the race is on to find the murderer.
Anyone who has seen a Russ Meyer film knows that they are hard to describe, which is a good thing if you like this genre and his style of filmmaking.
And Up! is, in my opinion, the quintessential Russ Meyer film, heavily satirirical, frenetically paced, with the story unfolding amid a bevy of buxom beauties.
The thing to understand about Meyer films, for those of you who are uninitiated, is that it's not only scantily clad, large busted women looking for an excuse to get naked. Sure, there is plenty of that, but there is something else going in Meyer movies and Up! is no different. There is a strong undercurrent of female empowerment going on, albeit from the standpoint of our female protagonists using their natural assets and womanly wiles to foil the (unfailingly) dense and or corrupt male characters.
In Up!, the action begins in frenetic and intense sensual fashion, with one Adolph Schwartz (Edward Schaaf) who has his head between the ample bosom of a nude, hooded woman (Candy Samples) while he is being whipped by a man in a Pilgrim outfit, our male protagonist, Paul (Robert McLane). Soon, there will be a visit from two more nude, busy beauties and Schwartz also doesn't limit his desire solely to the female gender.
Okay.
And, from there, things really start to pick up. Schwartz, a dead ringer for Aldoph Hitler, is soon murdered by a faceless killer who puts killer piranhas in his hot tub. Well, the pace only quickens from there and we meet some other interesting characters in town, like Sweet Li'l Alice (Janet Wood Slumber Party '57) , who is Paul's significant other and partner in the diner...and also finds time to have a little lesbian love on the side, Homer Johnson (Monty Bane) the salacious deputy, and also Margo Winchester (Raven De La Croix) a visitor to town who seems more than determined to get to know all of the interesting characters in town.
The film unfolds mainly in the present tense with continual cutaways to our ensemble cast. I've been somewhat remiss, as they say, by not telling you the most unique aspect of this flick: you have an "on screen narrartor", called The Greek Chorus (Kitten Natividad Sugar Boxx) who, I should mention, gives us her (dubbed in English accent) narration completely in the buff.
Look, this is schlock and sexploitation, no doubt about it, but that doesn't mean it isn't good. Meyer obviously had a unique view of the world and the latent power of sex, perhaps even more than that, sexual tension. His use of actresses with exceptionally sized breasts and putting prosethic organs on his male actors, to me, is his expression of how important a factor in life the sexual tension usually is and he is satirizing our pretension and denial about the potency of that reality. Just my thought.
This isn't Schindler's List or Traffic and we know that going in...in fact,let's be honest, we don't want it to be. When you look at this box cover or decide to see a Meyer movie, you pretty much have an idea of what you want-to entertained and titillated-and this delivers.
The uninitiated as to Meyer films also need to understand this is not porn. At the time of it's release, the flick was rated X, but the rating had not been totally coopted by porno movies then. As some of you surely know, flicks like Midnight Cowboy and A Clockwork Orange carried the X rating, too. Those movies would be R if released today as would Up!
Being a Meyer fan means joining a niche fraternity, something I happily did years ago. His films are not for everyone, but those who do enjoy will have the type of flicks that literally are not, and could not, be made again. Mr. Meyer was one of a kind, some will argue that Up! was not his best film.
But it is definitely my favorite of his unique body of work.
Starring: Patton Oswalt, Kevin Corrigan, Michael Rapaport, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Matt Servitto, Gino Cafarelli, Serafina Fiore.Directed by Robert Siegel. Comedy/Drama. Synopsis: A man who is single and living at home with his mother as he nears middle age is sustained by his passion for the New York Giants, even at the expense of his own well being and pressure from his family.
