Russ Meyer: homage to a master
• Amorous Pop Culture
All honor to Russ Meyer. Self-confessed pansexual sodomite I am but along with the artist once again known as Prince I can think of few people who made a more compelling case for the joys of heterosexuality. Incompetently I wish to do honor to one of America's masters of erotica. To hell with philosophers, economists, editorial writers: isn't enlivening the erotic life nobler and more valuable than the vaporizings of the classes that think themselves thoughtful and useful?
Russ Meyer is dead. Along with Frank Tashlin, Busby Berkeley, Frank Capra, Edward D. Wood, Jr. and Herschell Gordon Lewis he is part of my private pantheon of the happiest that American movies have had to offer.
Like many I discovered him through Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! And like many who might not confess it I wanted to grovel in the dust and lick Tura Satana's Varla's boots. Not that I didn't appreciate the economy of his cinematography.
Soundtracks
Myself I enjoyed Meyer's backwoods black and white soap operas best: Lorna and Mudhoney.
And the world would've been a poorer place if we hadn't met the sexdoll come to life Kitten Natividad in Beneath The Valley Of The Ultravixens. A charming amalgam of Thornton Wilder, addiction to anal sex and evangelical radio preachers.
Good Morning And Goodbye was my personal favorite. Mostly I think because of Stuart Lancaster. Of all Meyer's regular cast I most strongly wished Lancaster had been blessed with more fame than guest appearances in The Invaders. He was a wonderful voice for an idealized, highly individualized everyman. Not that the average man can ever be so compelling.
Not to short Hal Hopper's cantankerous characters their stint of appreciation.
I often felt that Meyer wanted to do more with Hadji but he never discerned a starring role for her. I'd much rather have been with her than Alaina Capri in Good Morning And Goodbye. Capri I think was best left as an object cuckold fantasies.
I watched them all Wild Gals of the Naked West, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Blacksnake, Mondo Topless, Supervixens.
I think Russ Meyer's mix of technician's mastery, gusto and humor was singularly American. When those work together well American popular culture isn't anything to despise. You understand why in this limited sphere it isn't any wonder that Europeans willingly surrender to a bit of American cultural imperialism. We can be knowingly naïve, innocently manipulative.
Russ Meyer made me smile, made me laugh. To anyone who can do that consistently I'm happy to offer my homage. I'll pretend he's passed on to a paradise of wasp-waisted, hugely bosomed, intelligent and passionate women.
Russ Meyer
Something of a one-man studio, Meyer produced, directed, financed, wrote, edited and shot 23 tantalizing but teasing films that pioneered a genre of skinflicks with much violence and large-busted women but little sex. The titles of the X-rated fare that made him millions are descriptive — "The Immoral Mr. Teas," "Erotica," "Wild Gals of the Naked West," "Heavenly Bodies," "Mudhoney," "Mondo Topless," "Common Law Cabin," "Supervixens" and "Europe in the Raw."
Russ Meyer, 82; Iconic Sexploitation Filmmaker
Born in Oakland, California in March 1922, Russell Albion Meyer got his start in film when his mother, a nurse, gave him an 8mm camera.
During World War II he made training films with the Army Signal Corps and shot newsreels in France and Germany.
He then turned his hand to photography, shooting some of the earliest Playboy centrefolds.
He made his film debut in 1959 with The Immoral Mr Teas, one of the first 'nudies' - soft-core sex films - to turn a profit.
Cult film-maker Russ Meyer dies
Los Angeles Times critic Kevin Thomas once wrote: "No one projects heterosexual male fantasies with greater gusto and resolute dedication than Meyer, who at heart is a Puritan and who has always been a bigger tease than any burlesque queen."
Soft-Core Porn Film Maker Russ Meyer Dies in L.A.
Meyer was the ultimate auteur. He not only directed his films, but could and often did write, photograph, edit and distribute them, and carried his own camera. In a genre known for sleazy sets and murky photography, Meyer’s films were often shot outdoors in scenic desert and mountain locations, and his images were bright and crisp. He said his inspiration was Al Capp’s “L’il Abner” comic strip, and his films were not erotic so much as funny, combining slapstick and parody. He once told me there was no such thing as a sex scene that couldn’t be improved by cutaways to Demolition Derby or rocket launches.
Do you have a fondly remembered Russ Meyer movie or memory?
Comments
Posted by: Joe Bob | September 23, 2004 12:31 PM
Posted by: Tight Sweater Boy | September 23, 2004 04:55 PM