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| Two from MONDO FREUDO (1966) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| ULTRA MONDO-CRESSE...THE WILD YEARS | ||||||||||||||||||||
| By this time, a person from New York named Byron Mabe was looking for work in LA, and Cresse reffered him to his friend Dave Friedman, who was just starting to work on his Roughie with Lee frost, THE DEFILERS. THE DEFILERS was one of the best-made Roughies of that era, and with the help of Frost and Mabe, the later just parted from Nudie Quickie legend Barry Mahon (Who was possibly inspired by this trend enough to make some HIS own Roughs that were best suited to his anti-style that resulted in his best work...more later!), DEFILERS was a hit (Oct. 1965) and established the Friedman-Mabe team's arrival as Frost went back to Olympic. The company's next two films were the apex of their sleaze and sin mastery. MONDO FREUDO and MONDO BIZARRO are what defines Olympic International's image as an Exploitation legend complete with made up scenes created at Dave Friedman's studios and "scratches" on the film over the eyes and some "Naughty Bits", although they were still releasing European Sinfestslike Max Pecas' HEAT OF MIDNIGHT (Dec. 8, 1966), THE SLAVE (A Kinky Kidnap tale-Apr. 7, 1967), and TORMENT (Blackmail Drama-Oct. 5, 1967; Gilbert Wolmark's LITTLE GIRLS which was seen as a Euro-FASTER PUSSYCAT (1966); Jean Loup Grasdard's narcotics and sadism tale MASSACRE OF PLEASURE (1966); and Claude Lerouche' s NIGHT WOMEN (Feb. 16, 1967-Banned in France for a while I think!). Together with the joint production with the just as perverted people at American Film Distributing called FORBIDDEN (1966) that was a "Women Around the World" type expose that had a touch of ReichFetish and Karate lessons for women , this duo of madness was as legendary as their Japanese Kink-Fests that were said to be seen by very few, but still had their following anyways. FREUDO (Apr. 24, 1966) had an array of scenes ranging from a Japanese S/M club (At some kind of restarant in LA), a Satanic Ritual in the Times Square area (my best guess here that it's more like Jerry Denby's studio, or even Dave Friedman's in LA),a "Slave Auction" filmed with a 1700 mm lens camera, female mud wrestleing (Shot possibly as Dave Friedman's studio), Cresse asking a masochist to let him whip her, and cruses down Hollywood, all possibly inspired by the success of ECCO. BIZARRO (Aug. 25, 1966), made after winning a case in court for FREUDO ("Best veiwed by wearing black robes "-Frank Henenlotter) has "Claude Emmand" (Possibly R. Lee Frost) talking about what is happening on the screen which ranges from Nassau voodoo rituals (on some beach near the Olympic offices), war protests and some counterpoint marches ("We Bathe!" reads one of the cards), more Reichsploitation theatre madness (Predating LOVE CAMP 7 possibly at Friedman's studios), more made-up "Slave Market" scenes with their "Hidden Camera" which was actually Cresse, Frost, and crew in Bronson Canyon filming not-too-convincingly along with commentary by possibly Cresse in a not to convincing British accent, and more Japanese Kink. When it was all played out by the Summer of 1966, Cresse concentrated more on his pick-ups including a costume period Nudie called THE GIRLS ON F STREET (F for FETISH) based in the Prohibition era, and not as innocent as Friedman's hit Costume Cutie, THE NOTORIOUS DAUGHTER OF FANNY HILL, which leads up to the next chapter of the story sparked by Mabe's hits with Friedman's empire and Olympic's desire to compete with FPS (Later EVI) and to out-shock the public as well, including the one film several parts of the MONDO legacy hinted at (LOVE CAMP 7) and the now-legendary Crime Nudie Noir called THE PICK UP, both with Friedman. |
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| By Mid-1965, after picking up a British Mondo from the slightly infamous Searchlight Films, LONDON IN THE RAW (AFI playdate: Apr. 23, 1965), Cresse and Frost were on their Mondo-influenced spree starting with a couple made with the TEENAGE GANG DEBS crew led by SN Johnson and Jerry Denby. THE SEXPLOITERS (Jul. 2, 1965) may not have been a Mondo Film, but it did have the classic Olympic Perv-A-Rama style as it was a look into the life of a housewife who gets involved with the Call Girl scene and later meets up with a man who sleeps in a coffin pretending to be dead. THE SECRET SOCIETY was noted as a film that looked into a club that practiced S/M, male swapping, lesbianism, and other things that make an Olympic International film from this era. Knowing that it starred July Alder was proof that this was all just another film disguised as a "documentary" only to ward off the censorship hounds, but I don't think that anyone watching it would complain on that...it is, after all from Bob Cresse and Jode Productions. Next was a brilliant job in translating A followup to MONDO DI NOTTE, the 1960 film which was actually distributed through Warner Brothers, and titleing it ECCO. Picked up by AIP, ECCO (Oct. 27, 1965) was a major hit in the Exploitation field (as well as the only Cresa-Roma film) presented by Dick Randall, who picked up NIGHT OF LUST for Olympic as well (Feb. 19, 1965), with George Sanders reading Cresse's translation with the now-famous blase attitude. Featured in this was a look into the last performance of the Grand Guignol, a couple of Swedish scens involving reindeer castration and the wild teenage nightlife (This was a film originally from November, 1963!), a Fakir named Evon Eveh poking long needles through himself, a Black Mass in England, female Roller Derby action, a mass of Japanese men trying to retrieve a stick, and other scenes of madness. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| MONDO FREUDO was supposed to have something about Freud, but I guess Cresse knew that there are more important things to discover like Ladies Mud Wrestleing and ads for Call Girls. Priorities, priorities... | ||||||||||||||||||||