Dir: Lee Frost,
Cast: Byron Mabe, Jerome Eden, Mai Jansson,
Kathy Sharpe
Not Rated, Approx: 69 Minutes
Something Weird DVD
stained!"
purveyors of sleaze...
only is it a wild and entertaining film from one of the premier directors of the time (Lee Frost), but it's also one of the
best known roughies of the era (along with Ilsa's predesecor Olga). This one isn't a strikingly original entry, but it is
the in a way the culmination of all that had come before it. Everything you could want in a roughie (or a Friedman
movie for that matter) up to that point was here. The Defilers is a classic roughie all the way, shot in stark black and
white, the sex wasn't all that sexy, it was more violent. Sex was rarely ordinary in this one, just about every sort of
deviant behavior is running rampant throughout.
(lovingly referred to as squares!). The leader of the two, played by genre vet Byron Mabe, is one of the more
misogynistic guys I've ever seen. Everytime he's alone with a girl, you know it's going to be bad news! His
conscience laden partner in crime is played by HG Lewis regular Jerry Green. The movie opens with a comparatively
clumsy and uninteresting beach scene that establishes the character relations and gets a few of the necessary
exploitation themes out of the way early on. If viewers don't give up on the movie at this point, they're in for a real
treat. From here the two creeps prattle on about squares and how the meaning of life is all about kicks. This type of
dialogue is one of the highlights, pure 60s all the way, and to top it all off - it's actually delivered quite well!
Hollywood dreams. They're convinced that they won't get caught because kidnappers always run into problems with
ransom money. They have no interest in money, just kicks. So they go peeping into the house of naive young Jane,
who just got off the bus from Minnesota. After watching her pretty up and take a bubble bath they come in and invite
her to a party. Once they lure her in their little amateur dungeon, they repeatedly have their way with her.
Eventually one of the guys gets struck by conscience, which elevates the tension between the two kidnappers.
photography of the earlier nudie cuties. This isn't meant in a derogatory way towards either type of film. They are
even more enjoyable when viewed in context with one another to show a sort of evolution, just like watching the
burlesque movies evolve into The Immoral Mr. Teas. This stands alone as good movie too, though. Frost does an
excellent job of creating a violent atmosphere with the jarring music and stark black and white photography. Mabe
and Green have good chemistry as the two defilers, staining everything they touch. Pretty little Mai Jannson is
especially sympathetic as their unwilling love slave. She endures everything from peeping toms, to forced lovin', to
good ol' fashioned whipping! Not only is she really pretty, but she stands out in the exploitation realm of this era.
She has much smaller breasts than just about any woman I can think of from this area. She's like the anti-Russ
Meyer kind of girl! I have to say though, that I think she's absolutely beautiful. I'm so glad she never went the route
of implants. Unfortunately though, she never appeared in anything else. Friedman mentions on the commentary
that he never saw her again after this, and that she possibly went home to Sweden (note to self - go to Sweden
sometime). Now that I've spent entirely too much time rambling, I'll try to be brief. Jansson performed really well
(regardless of how attractive she was), and it's too bad that she's not in anymore of these movies.
looking almost flawless. There is almost no print damage and the black and white photography really shines. Almost
as important as the movie itself is the history lesson that comes with it. You get a feature length commentary with film
archivist Mike Vraney and producer Friedman. Like any commentary with Vraney as moderator, you learn so much
about the movie and the times surrounding it. Friedman is great too, he really takes you to Cordova street with him.
This was the first film he made in LA, and he shares a lot of great stories about the scene. I swear I could sit around
a campfire and listen to this guy talk for days on end! Just give me a bag of marshmallows and I'm set. He also talks
seriously about the industry too. Vraney prompts a very interesting comparison between directors Frost and HG
Lewis. Not only that but this disc also comes with the usual gaggle of SWV extras. We get a ton of roughie trailers,
some shorts about modeling (these go more with the other feature included), some intermission shorts that tie in the
whole drive-in theme, and best of all one of the earliest roughies - Scum of the Earth directed by HG Lewis! Scum
also features a full length Friedman commentary, but that deserves a review of its own, which I promise is on the way
soon. Also included is a feature that plays all 3 hours of material on this disc straight through. This would make a
great party feature if anyone is depraved enough to sit down for a night of roughies and subject their friends to it
(please click on the head below to invite me). All in all, this is a great and important film for exploitation fans. The
DVD extras made me appreciate it that much more too.
depraved sociopaths out of 5!
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