The Defilers (1965) is about two friends, Carl and Jamie, a couple of assholes who are always out for kicks, which means trying to sex up the ladies and successfully smoking doobies. Thanks to his father being a hotshot wheeler and dealer about town, Carl has secured himself a party space/sex dungeon in a nasty basement in the warehouse district. While he and his flunky Jamie are high as hell, Carl gets an awful idea. He reasons that coercing women into sex is too much work and plans to kidnap a random woman named Jane that he thinks no one will miss in order to make her his sex slave. Because Jamie is slime, he agrees to go along with shit, and it all ends badly. Very badly.
The Defilers starts off like a fun romp, but then shifts gears almost immediately to an early example of a portrait of a serial killer. Carl, played by Byron Mabe, is like The Grinch… of kidnapping and rape. He’s all sneers. To the film’s credit, the situation that Jane finds herself is utterly terrifying and the way the psychology of Carl and Jamie is portrayed feels eerily similar to real life serial killer cases. I really enjoyed seeing the snapshot of 1960s Hollywood sights, and the music score has a lot of jazzy, spy movie-type stuff in it. So, that’s something.
My biggest beef with this sleazy nonsense is that prior to Carl’s behavior escalating to kidnapping, he takes a date to his sex dungeon and violently assaults her. In the middle of this terrible scene, his victim decides that she is into his advances, she gets turned on, and then they have sex. Even in a film like this that is almost impossible to take seriously, the whole “deep down all girls want it” is still the worst fucking message you can convey to the viewer. At best, it’s just gross and at worst, it’s dangerous. Yes, I watch some seriously irresponsible films all the time, but that trope in old movies has always rubbed me the wrong way and always will.
Next up is A Smell of Honey, a Swallow of Brine (1966), which is the story of Sharon, a naughty bad girl (read as: complete and utter dickhead). In the first scene, we see her nearly raped by her boyfriend. A cop interrupts them, and we cut to the court case where the guy is given two years in juvie for the crime. Sharon smirks during the sentencing and you might think for a second that she’s glad that justice has been served. Nope! Sharon now has a taste for crying rape whenever she starts to get intimate with someone. As best as I can tell, this is how she gets off or whatever. Uh… what?!
Much like The Defilers, I am just confused about what infamous writer/producer David F. Friedman thinks about the act of rape. Was he actually trying to teach something with this plot? Probably not, but I’m just confused. Is it “Don’t keep crying rape, ladies, or you’ll be punished?” or “Look out for this type of gal, fellas!” Sure. Whatever. After splitting with Blood Feast (1963) director Herschell Gordon Lewis, Friedman went on to make several roughies, underground films from the mid-1960s that specialized in sometimes kinky and nearly always violent skin flicks. They are… not for me. Strangely enough, Byron Mabe, who stars in The Defilers directs A Smell of Honey, etc.
The only good thing about this film (other than a randy little S&M dream sequence) is that I finally got to see Sharon’s best line of dialogue in context. After strongly refusing the advances of her lesbian roommate (which Sharon herself pretty much initiates), Sharon coldly says to her, “I may be a bitch, but I’ll never be a butch.” That line made it into Something Weird Video’s show reel that appeared before all of their films for many years. It’s great, but seeing the film finally, it’s just so outrageously stupid. Sharon’s poor roommate is just baffled and hurt by what just happened. It’s just the kind of madness that counts as plot in this bullshit film. I liked the cool rock and roll music all over the soundtrack and some neato club scenes as Sharon goes around town being an ass.
AGFA has done what they can with two very beat up black and white films. The Defilers is the better looking of the two wish surprisingly little damage in the form of scratches and specks. It is a fine presentation. A Smell of Honey, A Swallow of Brine on the other hand, has much more damage and there are several choppy bits where frames have been lost. It is definitely watchable and (I’m guessing) looks better than any previous versions (that I haven’t seen because ew, this movie).
Both of the films have commentary tracks. The Defilers has Something Weird founder Mike Vraney and Friedman bringing a massive amount of info about how the film was made and the roughie scene of the 1960s. A Smell of Honey, etc. also has Vraney and Friedman but with the added bonus of director Frank Henenlotter(!) on hand to discuss the film. There’s a bonus nudie short called But Charlie I Never Played Volleyball. It’s full of lovely ladies in full color. And no rape! Yay! There are trailers of other Friedman productions, extensive photo galleries, and a booklet with writing by Something Weird Video’s Lisa Petrucci.