Meyer's vision was a period piece about colonial slavery in which a cruel slave-owner and plantation mistress dominates both the black and white men of the island. However, just before filming was to begin the original lead actress fell ill, so Anouska Hempel, a New Zealand-born actress based in the UK, was cast at the last minute. This decision haunted Meyer for years, complaining that the role was unsuitable for Hempel.
Plot
In 1835, Charles Walker travels to Saint Kitts in the British West Indies to look for his missing brother Jonathan. Charles pretends to be a bookkeeper when arrives at Blackmoor Plantation, run by Jonathan's vicious ex-wife, Lady Susan Walker.
Black Snake was originally released theatrically in the UK as Slaves on 23 March 1973. Internationally it has also been released under the title Sweet Suzy.[2][3]
Production
Development
After making two films for 20th Century Fox Meyer wanted to return to independent filmmaking. He did not want to go back to the sorts of films he had done in the past though as he felt there would no longer be a market for it due to the growth in pornographic movies and increasing permissiveness of studio films.[1]
Meyer got the idea for the film after reading "some legend material from the Caribbean". He wanted "to dabble a little bit in a black film. The successful films that I've made have always been in the parody genre, so I figured I would try to come up with something that was kind of irreverent, like All in the Family, maybe."[1]
"The story is very soapy in one way," said Meyer.[1] "This is not a sex film", he said. "It's mainly sex and violence. It's hellishly entertining."[4]
"This is a very liberal film, extremely so, and it's told in a manner that is forthright, and with my rambunctious style," said Meyer. "I think there are a lot of places in the film where the blacks will get up and start cheering, particularly when they start whipping the white overseer who's been whipping them for a long time."[1]
Meyer described the characters as "a lot bigger than life. They're right out of an Al Capp cartoon. There are only two really sympathetic people in the picture, but for the most part, they're all terribly bad people."[1]
Casting
Meyer said finding the female lead was "a problem, because she's not the typical girl that I've had- the great cantilevered structured girl. First of all, I had to have a very good actress, which was more important than the physical characteristics. Also, I had to have someone who, like the rest of the cast could speak with a British accent, in order to make this thing work."[1]
Meyer cast Anouska Hempel who he said had "a great ass on her, she's attractive in the same way as Brigitte Bardot. And she's a good actress. She even came up with a cockney accent."[1]
Filming
The film was shot on location in Barbados in 1972.[5] Meyer says he managed to get co-operation from the Barbadian government when he told them "the blacks win". The film was shot over seven weeks with three weeks of pre-production, plus another week of second unit.[1]
Meyer found shooting difficult. "Every day there was a new staggering problem that was presented to us," he said. "It was a very arduous thing, working in the cane fields, the humidity and the heat, the uncomfortableness of it, and I didn't provide all the niceties that an awful lot of these English actors expected, tea and umbrellas and folding chairs and so on." Meyer was unhappy with two performances although he refused to say who they were.[1]
Meyer said he spent "an enormously long period of time cutting" the film even though he wanted "to get away from the editing because it can be a real timeconsuming thing. I've got to spend more time in story development and casting, things of that nature. But I know that if I do not cut it myself, it will not have that same moxie that all the other Russ Meyer films have."[1]
Meyer said the budget was a little over $200,000, but if he had made it for a studio it would have cost at least a million dollars.[1]
Reception
Theatrical poster for Black Snake re-released as Sweet Suzy.
The film flopped and in 1978 had still yet to cover its money.[6] In 1980 Meyer claimed he had "just" recouped his money.[7]
Meyer later said it "had a lot of things wrong with it. It had a skinny leading lady and she was British. All the actors were British. It was a costume movie. Like everything you could possibly do wrong, I did. It was a weak Mandingo. It's been called Sweet Susie and now it's called Duchess of Doom ... We thought we were making a picture that the blacks would really love. Now if we had made it about four years before it might have been a blockbuster. But we ended up with a film that blacks and whites both hated. The only place it did good business was in Little Rock."[7] "I was totally out of my element", Meyer said.[8]
Filmink argued the film failed because it had a white hero not a black one.[9]
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Berkowitz, Stan (Jan–Feb 1973). "Sex, Violence and Drugs All in Good Fun!". Film Comment. Vol.9, no.1. New York. pp.47–51.
↑ "SLAVES". Monthly Film Bulletin. Vol.45, no.528. London. January 1, 1978. p.54.
↑ Haber, Joyce (5 Sep 1972). "101st Movie for Edward G. Robinson". Los Angeles Times. p.11.
↑ Haber, Joyce (4 July 1972). "Shedding a Light on New Album Cover". Los Angeles Times. p.13.
↑ Lees, David; Berkowitz, Stan (24 September 1978). "The Big Lure: Movies As an Investment: Taking a Flyer at Films Movies Movies". Los Angeles Times. p.L 1.
Russell Albion Meyer was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, and editor. He is known primarily for writing and directing a series of successful sexploitation films that featured campy humor, sly satire and large-breasted women, such as Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970), the latter of which he considered his definitive work.
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is a 1965 American exploitation film directed by Russ Meyer and co-written by Meyer and Jack Moran. It follows three go-go dancers who embark on a spree of kidnapping and murder in the California desert.
The Immoral Mr. Teas is the first commercially successful film of director Russ Meyer, released in 1959. The film was described as a nudist comedy, and was noted for exhibiting extensive female nudity. The film cost $24,000 to produce, and eventually grossed more than $1.5 million on the independent/exploitation circuit.
Freebie and the Bean is a 1974 American buddy cop black comedy action film starring James Caan and Alan Arkin, and directed by Richard Rush. The film follows two police detectives who wreak havoc in San Francisco attempting to bring down an organized crime boss. The film, which had been originally scripted as a serious crime drama, morphed into what is now known as the "buddy-cop" genre due to the bantering, improvisational nature of the acting by Caan and Arkin. Reportedly, by the end of filming, both actors were confused by the purpose of the movie, not knowing that they had stumbled into a successful character formula. The film was popular enough to spawn various other successful film franchises such as, Lethal Weapon, 48 Hours and Beverly Hills Cop. Loretta Swit and Valerie Harper appeared in supporting roles.
Supervixens is a 1975 American film directed by American filmmaker Russ Meyer. The cast features Meyer regulars Charles Napier, Uschi Digard, and Haji. The film also features Shari Eubank in one of her only two film roles and Christy Hartburg in her only film role.
Good Morning and... Goodbye! is a 1967 American exploitation film directed by Russ Meyer. It features Alaina Capri, Karen Ciral, as well as Meyer regular Jack Moran, who co-wrote the script.
Up! is a 1976 softcore sex comedy film directed by Russ Meyer and starring Raven De La Croix, Robert McLane, Kitten Natividad, and Monty Bane.
Cherry, Harry & Raquel! is a 1969 American action comedy and exploitation film, produced and directed by American film director Russ Meyer. The plot involves the smuggling of marijuana, and the attraction between a female writer and an English nurse.
Who Killed Bambi? was to be the first film featuring the punk rock band the Sex Pistols, and was due to be released in 1978. Russ Meyer and then Jonathan Kaplan were due to direct from a script by Roger Ebert and Pistols' manager Malcolm McLaren.
Anouska Hempel, Lady Weinberg is a New Zealand-born film and television actress turned hotelier and interior designer. She is sometimes credited as Anoushka Hempel.
Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens is a 1979 satirical sexploitation film directed by American film-maker Russ Meyer and written by Roger Ebert and Meyer. It stars Kitten Natividad and Ann Marie with a cameo by Uschi Digard.
David Warbeck was a New Zealand actor and model best known for his roles in European exploitation and horror films.
Mudhoney is a 1965 Southern Gothic film directed by Russ Meyer. It is based on the novel Streets Paved With Gold by Raymond Friday Locke. The film is a period drama set during the Great Depression. "I got in a little bit over my head," Meyer said about the film. "That's when I thought I was Erskine Caldwell, John Steinbeck and George Stevens all in one."
Vixen! is a 1968 American drama film and satiric softcore sexploitation film directed by Russ Meyer and starring Erica Gavin. It was the first film to be given an X rating for its sex scenes, and was a breakthrough success for Meyer. The film was developed from a script by Meyer and Anthony James Ryan.
Mondo Topless is a 1966 pseudo-documentary directed by Russ Meyer, featuring Babette Bardot and Lorna Maitland among others. It was Meyer's first color film following a string of black and white "roughie nudies", including Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! While a straightforward sexploitation film, the film owes some debt to the French New Wave and cinéma vérité traditions, and is known to some under the titles Mondo Girls and Mondo Top.
Lorna is a 1964 independent film starring Lorna Maitland, produced and directed by Russ Meyer. It was written in four days by James Griffith, who played the preacher in the film.
Motorpsycho or Motor Psycho is a 1965 film by Russ Meyer. Produced just before Meyer's better-known Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965), the film explores similar themes of sex and violence but focuses on a male motorcycle gang rather than the female gang of go-go dancers featured in the later film. Motorpsycho also contains one of the first portrayals of a disturbed Vietnam veteran character in film.
The Seven Minutes is a 1971 American drama movie directed and produced by Russ Meyer. The movie was based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Irving Wallace.
The Breaking of Bumbo is a 1970 British comedy film directed by Andrew Sinclair and starring Richard Warwick, Joanna Lumley, Jeremy Child and Edward Fox. The screenplay was by Sinclair, a former Coldstream Guards National service officer, adapted from his 1959 novel of the same name.
Wild Gals of the Naked West is a 1962 nudie-cutie Western film written and directed by Russ Meyer and starring Sammy Gilbert, Anthony-James Ryan, Jackie Moran, Terri Taylor, Frank Bolger, and Werner Kirsch. The film is one of the few porn flicks in the American Western movie genre.
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