Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
1965 · USA · 83m
Obscurity: knownMeyer's best. Tura Satana is a genuine screen presence and the dialogue snaps.
Roughie
1963–1970 · 11 films catalogued
Mid-60s American sexploitation that stopped being fun on purpose.
A short and unpleasant American cycle sitting between the nudie-cutie and the hardcore era.
The nudie-cutie (roughly 1959 to 1963, invented by Russ Meyer's The Immoral Mr. Teas) was harmless: nudity plus comedy, no threat. The roughie kept the nudity, replaced the comedy with violence and coercion, and shot the result in grimy black and white on New York and Los Angeles streets for almost no money.
The people
Michael and Roberta Findlay, Joseph W. Sarno, Doris Wishman.
What they are worth
Very little as entertainment. Something as record: they preserve a lot of mid-60s urban America that no other camera was pointed at.
The cycle ended around 1970, when hardcore became legally viable and there was no longer any reason to imply what could now be shown.
Roughie films on file
All 11 Roughie films →
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
1970 · USA · 104m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyMeyer and Roger Ebert, at a major studio, on drugs. Somehow released.
Lorna
1964 · USA · 78m
Obscurity: knownMeyer stops joking. The one where the sun goes behind a cloud.
Supervixens
1975 · USA · 105m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallyMeyer's biggest hit of the decade, and his cartoon violence at its most cartoonish.
Vixen!
1968 · USA · 71m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallyThe one that made the money and triggered the obscenity fight.
The House on the Edge of the Park
1980 · Italy · 94m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legally. banned somewhereDeodato points Last House at a dinner party. Grubby, mean, effective.
The Immoral Mr. Teas
1959 · USA · 63m
Obscurity: cultHistorically pivotal, formally inert. Watch ten minutes and read about the rest.
The Curious Dr. Humpp
1969 · Argentina · 100m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallyArgentine, insane, and re-cut by its US distributor into something stranger.
Scum of the Earth
1963 · USA · 73m
Obscurity: obscure. watchable legallyHerschell Gordon Lewis invents the roughie the same year he invents gore. Busy man.
Bad Girls Go to Hell
1965 · USA · 65m
Obscurity: obscure. watchable legallyThe definitive Doris Wishman roughie: grimy, deranged, and edited by someone allergic to faces.
Alvin Purple
1973 · Australia · 97m
Obscurity: obscure. watchable legallyThe sex comedy that funded the entire boom. Historically important, hard going.