A "classic" of its kind, I suppose--- the first bona fide "splatter" movie ever. I remember seeing it for the first time at a drunken party when I was in my early 20's, and being astounded by how much blood and gore there was in this Herschell Gordon Lewis production from 1963. I still don't quite believe that any movie from 1963 could be this graphic. I enjoyed the film for its idiocy when I was young; re-watching it recently, I enjoyed it much less and realized that it really is badly and ineptly made, but there were still moments that caused me to cringe in revulsion or laugh out loud. From what I understand, this film played at a lot of Southern drive-ins during its initial release.
In some ways, Herschell Gordon Lewis was like Ed Wood, only gorier. His actors were awful, his cinematic "technique" bludgeon like, and the never ending blood and sadism could appeal only to incipient serial killers. There's no way to sugar-coat that fact; HGL movies were...and are...a form of torture porn, and the only thing that makes them watchable is the hilarious incompetence of the actors.
The plot...such as it is...concerns a homicidal Egyptian caterer known as "Fuad Ramses", played by Mal Arnold, who looks like a Jewish accountant with talcum powder sprinkled in his hair. Arnold has all the subtlety of Theda Bara; when attempting to convey menace, he raises his heavily painted eyebrows and bugs his eyes out of his head like Eddie Cantor on acid. And he's probably the best actor in the movie (which should give you an idea of what you're in store for...). Ramses worships the Goddess Ishtar...a department store mannequin painted gold...and kills various women for their body parts, as part of some ancient ritual designed to "worship" the Goddess. At least that's how I understood it.
William Kerwin and Scott Hall are the lead investigators, and they make Mike the Cop from the old "Abbott and Costello" TV show look like Sherlock Holmes. When told of still another brutal homicide, Kerwin burps up some Bourbon and slurs, "Well, Frank...looks like this is going to be one of those long, hard ones..." He's dating a beautiful young blonde, played by Playmate Connie Mason (I remember reading in an interview that Lewis couldn't stand her). In common with the rest of the cast, Mason can't act her way out of a paper bag, but at least she's pretty. Her mother knows of her interest in Egyptian culture, and has hired Fuad Ramses to cater a special "Egyptian feast" for her daughter and friends....And...hopefully, you don't need to be Nostradamus or Kreskin to see where this is all leading.
As I've said, the actors are pretty hilarious in their incompetence, and that saves the picture. Of special note is Gene Courtier, who plays "Tony". Ramses kills his girlfriend while they're "making out" and "Tony" has a breakdown that is as magnificently awful and overblown as anything I've ever seen on the screen, and that includes Ed Wood. A bandage wrapped around his head, he shivers in the arms of Hall's Detective and bellows, "IT"S ALLLL MY FA-FA-FA-FA-AUUULLLTT!!!!" And the final scene, which takes place in the back portion of a garbage truck, is equally memorable, and "classic", in its own ridiculous way.
So, if you can take the blood and guts, it does have its moments of pure, unintentional comedy, which is often the funniest kind of comedy. And if this just isn't your idea of comedy or horror...and I can certainly understand that...it at least is mercifully short (clocking in at 67 minutes).
