Mondo Cresse!!!
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| THE OLYMPIC STORY (Part 3) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| NOTE-SOME ADS WERE FROM SHOCK CINEMA'S INTERVEW WITH R. LEE FROST | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The string of hits from FPS, which would later be turn fully into the "Mighty Monarch of the Exploitation Field," Entertainment Ventures, Inc., was a possible reason why Cresse decided to finally create the films which made Olympic the legend it is today. While films like HEAD MISTRESS and SPACE THING had a bouncy and likeable charm, those who liked something more and harder found Cresse and Frost's films something more to their liking. While HOT SPUR cooled off quickly in The West, the New York scene made it a good hit with the grindhouse crowd, and it played on a double with the film that actually defined this final chapter of the Olympic story, the Reichsploitation wonder, LOVE CAMP 7 (I call it Reichsploitation as these films focus on the Third Reich and that the word sounds perfect with the S/M world of these films). THE PICK UP was another wonder from this era, and although it took the discovery of a copy in Denmark to finally offer proof of it's notoriety after years of no luck in finding a copy in The US, the wait for it's re-issue was seriously worth it. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| THE ANIMAL (5-3-68) was something that could be considered the first of the "Twilight Roughies" of the Californian scene, or those which were released from 1968 to about 1972, when Hardcore X fils were taking center stage in the Adult Film world. While the trend peaked around 1969 and 1970, an era highlighted by the Manson murders and the Altamount festival which gave the films world one of the darkest and best films in GIMMIE SHELTER, several interesting films like EVI's own THE BIG SNATCH in 1972 by Danny Martin had their noteriety in '71 and '72, all offering a darker side to the Adult scene highly influenced by the films of Olympic, as well as a couple by William Rotsler and one by Byron Mabe (The lost legend THE BUSHWACKER). The story is quite simple, a man obsessed with a woman and drugs threatens her with obscene phone calls and even a warning that her son will be killed if she does not submit to his demands, including performing for him while he watches from home through a telescope, but it was the intensity and acting by notable characters in the Exploit scene like John Alderman, David Holmes, Capri (in one of her few real films and not in cheap-o flicks by Mitam), Jay Fineberg, and Viginia Gordon which made it a hit. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Next, after offering another Import named TOUCH OF LEATHER, (D: Olaf Erickson, 5-68 US), came the infamous HOT SPUR. This, a film in competition with Friedman's BRAND OF SHAME, was a serious story of a woman who's raped by a ranchhand in revenge for her brothers raping the Mexican's sister, with some some scenes that would make it to an HG Lewis film and even a suicide. Virgina Gordon plays the lady while Wes Bishop and John Alderman get to be in the action as well. Although it was promoted through a major campaign, and a trailer featuring Cresse acting all serious about the film's polish and style mixed with the grit of a Stag film, the film was only a modest hit which possibly lost a good amount of money after much was spent on ads and, I think, billboards. In The AFI, the film is listed between Barry Mahon's HOT SKIN AND COLD CASH and Gaston Hakim's A HOT SUMMER GAME (!!!). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Spence Crilly, later to be known as Zoltan G. Spencer of the Early 70's Hardcore world, had his start in a film called THE SATANIST, a tale that blended the Black Sabbath with extra nude action not seen in a Barbara Steele film. While it may have been a hit in it's day, this is not all that known today despite the appearance of one-sheets in Something Weird's DVD and website  galleries (is there a video?). The August release was perfect for a Californian scene starting to be interested in San Fransisco's own Anton LaVey, who's Church of Satan would be featured in WITHCRAFT '70 partially by Lee Frost and Sherpix's SATANIS THE DEVIL'S MASS. Spencer would be also known for SISTER'S IN LEATHER with Pat Barrington and DANISH AND BLUE, usually for Al Sack's company. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| LOVE CAMP 7 (1968) was Cresse's big S/M fetish driven moment in uniform playing a SS commander with the wild attitude he was known for, leaving those not so into the film at least noting this standout performance. Friedman appears in a cameo in this whip-a-thon about three women sent to the camp in order to save a captive woman scientist who has secret aircraft secrets. It's best not to expect a serious history-filled thing and just let the costume play go on in it's crazed manner while knowning that it is one of the first films of Reichsploitation. With Maria Lease and Kathy Williams. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| With the EVI empire about to start after some good years producing films through FPS, Dave Friedman would co-star in Olympic's remaining wonders after YOU (11-6-68) marked a low-budget return to the Mondo world with a series of scenes usually shot through Cresse's two-way mirror and featuring the camerawork of Paul Hunt and Ron Garcia in "Feel-a-Rama," where "You" are the star of the film (sure....). THE PICK UP and LOVE CAMP 7 were definitive moments in the Olympic history, especially the Gangster story of THE PICK UP about two men losing their pick up of a million dollars to two women they met along the way toward their drop off point with Cresse and Friedman playing the lead gangsters in charge of the operation which threatens to kill off the "bagmen" if they do not get their money, leading up to several very Rough torture scenes involving the bagmen trying to get the information out of the women as to the whereabouts of the stolen cash. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hunt and Cresse had one other film before closing up the Olympic Reich...I mean original film history for good in HOUSE OF A THOUSAND DREAMS (3-69) with Friedman playing under his Davis Freeman alias one more time. Then it was off to film THE SCAVENGERS with Frost, a more serious kind of HOT SPUR made for Republic Amusments (not to be confused with the better known Republic Pictures, by the way...) as well as THE HAREM BUNCH, sort of a LUSTFUL TURK. Both played well in 1969, with the Western Roughie having a 5-13-69 playdate noted, making these the last of the films credited with Cresse until the 1970's. Back in November, 1968, there was a wicked film called INVITATION TO RUIN by the Weissbar No. 9 company that may have had some involvement by Cresse when it was reissued and remodeled in 1973, but with a long line of fake names in the original line of credits, we may never know the full story of this odd Rough film. | Before being shot by a Los Angelis cop while trying to stop a beating of a woman who he thought was a civilian (it turned out to be a hooker being busted by an undercover cop), Cresse did help out Dave Friedman by appearing in a couple of his films including THE EROTIC ADVENTURES OF ZORRO and even trying to buy the American rights to a great Euro-Horror film in THE BLOOD SPATTERED BRIDE before losing it at the last second. There was possibly even some more help in getting distribution connetions for his friend's films in Japan, thanks to the connections Olympic made with the Japanese film scene in 1965-6. Still, by his final days, after much rumour and half-truth, Cresse was back in Florida living not so well in an apartment building he inherited, but there was still some life in the man as he gave interviews to those seriously interested in his films. Several of the films from the Olympic history were thought to be lost, and it seems like that many of the 1968 films had quite a low print run, but recent events found THE PICK UP in Denmark, of all places, in 1999, offering some hope to the finding of some other lost legends (If YEAR OF THE YAHOO could be found after all of these years...there is still hope!) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cresse may have had many enimies, but those who were with him stayed strong friends and the fans of the Cresse-Frost legacy will forever love the films that broke taboos and provided the Nudie audience with plenty of fetish-driven stories and faked Mondos that will be considered the most out-there of the 60's exploit scene. While it is true that not every film was a classic, at least Olympic International always aimed to break the rules and wound up being a studio which created the films that ushered in all of what came after in The 70's in terms of Wild entertainment. Mondo Cresse!!! |
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