Cultpix Radio

Cultpix Radio Ep.28 - Cultmas (b)advent 1: Cat-Women, Clones, Aliens and West Side Hippies

December 11, 2021 Django Nudo & the Smut Peddler Season 2 Episode 28
Cultpix Radio
Cultpix Radio Ep.28 - Cultmas (b)advent 1: Cat-Women, Clones, Aliens and West Side Hippies
Show Notes

Django Nudo (Secret Santa) and Smut Pedler (Check under your bed!) start celebrating Xmas early with the first eight (b)advent calendar films. But not before some self-congratulatory remarks about the recently concluded Cult Tuesday season with Everyman Cinemas and Bio Aspen. More to come in 2022, including a big screen release of the Nikkatsu Six Sueden Porunu  films, which have never been screened in Sweden before.

Start microdosing on a Very Cult Christmas with a new cult film each day of December:

#1 "AWOL" (1972) is the first of four 'Mastered from Glorious VHS' releases this week, as this film of a US Vietnam war army deserter who escapes to Sweden was almost lost to history, having received just one cinema outing in Sweden. It starts as a dark comedy with porn shoots and CIA skullduggery before getting surreal. Definitely a time-capsule; 

#2 "Cat-Women of the Moon" (1953) is a surprisingly influential independent sci-fi, as it set the template for all-female alien planet tribes subsequently used in many other films. It also has a strong musical pedigree, with a score by Elmer Bernstein and it influenced artists ranging from Pat Benatar to Shakespeares Sister, of which we play a couple of tracks;

#3 "The Clones" (1973) was so ahead of its time in using 'cloning' as a plot device for this early 70s thriller that the producers had to spend the start of the film explaining just exactly what cloning is, before launching into murder, kidnappings and cloning of a scientist (and his clone) on the run; 

#4 "Spaced Out" (1979) is a British sci-fi nudie cutie that Harvey "Scissor Hands" Weinstein though to improve by changing the title, ending, adding more nudity and swapping the space ships A.I. computer voice from camp British to the dulcet tones of Bob Saget. Four British sexually uptight people get abducted by a space ship and learn to loosen up (though no Cartman-style butt probes);

#5 "The People of Hemsö" (1953) is one of four feature adaptations ever made of the famous Strindberg novels. And like all good Swedish films, there's both nudity, drinking and archipelago;

#6 "Christina's Mushroom School" (1993) was an unusual comeback film for the Swedish pinup and exploitation actress, where she takes the audience into the woods and teaches them which mushrooms to eat (nothing magic tho);

#7 "Cocaine Wars" (1985) was one of 10 films Roger Corman made in Argentina in the 1980s. No, we didn't know either that Corman went to Argentin to make films. Add it to the Philippines and Ireland list of his cine-travelogue. Drugs, sex, violence, bad acting and worse dubbing, a car chase with a twist and a Rambo-style poster - everything you want from an 80s VHS film; 

#8 "Scream Free!" (1969) brings together 2.5 stars from "West Side Story" (Natalie Wood's sister Lana is the 0.5), a fact shamelessly promoted on the poster of this hippie-druggie "Easy Rider" rip-off. Reissued in 1989 with nude shots added, scenes slowed down and disco music added, though not by Harvey Weinstein.

Lots more films next, not all of whom will be VHS quality, we promise.