Scum of the Earth!

Last updated
Scum of the Earth!
Scum of earth poster 01.jpg
Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
Written byHerschell Gordon Lewis
Produced by David F. Friedman
Starring William Kerwin
Allison Louise Downe
Lawrence J. Aberwood
CinematographyHerschell Gordon Lewis
Edited byPatrick Murphy
Music byManuel Ortiz
Distributed byBox Office Spectaculars
Release date
  • October 8, 1963 (1963-10-08)
Running time
73 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$75,000

Scum of the Earth! (also known as Sam Flynn) is a 1963 American exploitation film written and directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis and produced by David F. Friedman. It is credited as being the first film in the "roughie" genre. [1]

Contents

Synopsis

Harmon Johnson is the photographer for a small pornography ring that uses deception and blackmail to coerce its models into performing. Although Harmon is complicit in the crime and takes a cynical attitude to the proceedings, he treats the models more kindly than the rest of the gang.

His current model, Sandy, is nearing the end of her career and begs to be released from her service. Lang, the leader of the operation, agrees on condition that she will procure and help manage new models to continue the cycle. Sandy agrees and her first victim is a naive young girl named Kim, who wishes to save money to go to college. Harmon gets her hooked on modeling by overpaying for some relatively tame "shoe" ads that show off Kim's legs. When she comes looking for more work, Harmon entices her with doing more explicit photos. During this activity a helper, Larry, snaps even more explicit photos and the group blackmails her into doing further work.

Meanwhile, Marie, another model, grows tired of the threats and actual violence against her and talks about going to the police with Sandy. Larry and Ajax, a thug and pornographic performer employed by the gang, overhear this and Ajax kidnaps Marie off the street, takes her to a motel room and rapes and beats her severely. When he leaves, Marie calls the police.

Kim is distraught at her situation, but Larry and the gang convince her that it will all be behind her if she agrees to one more day of shooting. However, during the shoot, Ajax continues to menace the girls and threatens to rape Kim. Finally having enough, Harmon intervenes on the girls' behalf, killing Ajax with a baseball bat. Realizing that this will cause the police to investigate, Harmon gives Kim all her negatives and other material and tells her to run away.

During a police interrogation, Harmon is then unexpectedly saved by Sandy, and they decide to get married.

Hearing of the encroaching police, Lang makes a run for it, but is pursued until he runs into the ocean and, cornered, shoots himself. In the dénouement, Sandy counsels Kim to pretend it was all a dream.

Cast

Production

In his autobiography, David F. Friedman wrote that Scum of the Earth was shot in six days, just two weeks after filming on Blood Feast had ended and was filmed in most of the same Miami and Miami Beach locations as in the previous film. It was filmed in black-and-white not to save money, but to intentionally give it a dirty look, "like an old, scratched 16 mm stag film." [2] Friedman had the idea of promoting the film a week before its showing by giving theater audiences comic books of the story. [2]

Critical reception

Allmovie wrote, "Unintentionally funny and poorly photographed, this film certainly has its moments for connoisseurs of bad cinema, but others will find it tawdry and dull." [3]

Availability

Something Weird Video released Scum of the Earth on DVD with The Defilers (1964) on 20 February 2001. [1] It is also available on the Arrow Video Blu-ray release of Blood Feast (1963) as a special feature.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valerie Solanas</span> American radical feminist (1936–1988)

Valerie Jean Solanas was an American radical feminist known for the SCUM Manifesto, which she self-published in 1967, and her attempt to murder artist Andy Warhol in 1968.

<i>Blood Feast</i> 1963 American splatter film by Herschell Gordon Lewis

Blood Feast is a 1963 American splatter film. It was composed, shot, and directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis, written by Allison Louise Downe from an idea by Lewis and David F. Freidman, and stars Mal Arnold, William Kerwin, Connie Mason, and Lyn Bolton. The plot focuses on a psychopathic food caterer named Fuad Ramses (Arnold) who kills women so that he can include their body parts in his meals and perform sacrifices to his "Egyptian goddess" Ishtar.

<i>The Warriors</i> (film) 1979 American action thriller film by Walter Hill

The Warriors is a 1979 American action thriller film directed by Walter Hill. Based on Sol Yurick's 1965 novel of the same name, the film centers on a fictitious New York City street gang who must travel 30 miles (48 km), from the north end of the Bronx to their home turf on Coney Island in southern Brooklyn, after they are framed for the murder of a respected gang leader. The film was theatrically released in the United States on February 9, 1979, by Paramount Pictures.

<i>Eye of the Beholder</i> (film) 1999 mystery thriller film

Eye of the Beholder is a 1999 mystery thriller film that employs magical realism. The film, based on Marc Behm's novel of the same name and a remake of Claude Miller's 1983 French thriller Deadly Circuit, is directed and adapted by Stephan Elliott.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexploitation film</span> Genre of independently produced, low-budget feature films

A sexploitation film is a class of independently produced, low-budget feature film that is generally associated with the 1960s and early 1970s, and that serves largely as a vehicle for the exhibition of non-explicit sexual situations and gratuitous nudity. The genre is a subgenre of exploitation films. The term "sexploitation" has been used since the 1940s.

<i>Original Gangstas</i> 1996 film directed by Larry Cohen

Original Gangstas is a 1996 action-gangster film filmed and set in urban Gary, Indiana starring Blaxploitation film stars such as Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, Jim Brown, Richard Roundtree, and Ron O'Neal. It is the final film directed by Larry Cohen before his death in 2019, though he continued to write screenplays through 2010.

<i>Innocent Blood</i> (film) 1992 film by John Landis

Innocent Blood is a 1992 American black comedy horror film directed by John Landis and written by Michael Wolk. The film stars Anne Parillaud as a beautiful French vampire who finds herself pitted against a gang of mobsters led by Salvatore Macelli who eventually becomes a vampire and schemes to build a criminal syndicate of vampires.

<i>Experiment in Terror</i> 1962 film by Blake Edwards

Experiment in Terror is a 1962 American neo-noir thriller film released by Columbia Pictures. It was directed by Blake Edwards and written by Mildred Gordon and Gordon Gordon based on their 1961 novel Operation Terror. The film stars Glenn Ford, Lee Remick, Stefanie Powers and Ross Martin. The musical score was composed by Henry Mancini.

<i>Color Me Blood Red</i> 1965 American film

Color Me Blood Red is a 1965 American splatter film written and directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis about a psychotic painter who murders people and uses their blood as paint. It is the third part of what the director's fans have dubbed "The Blood Trilogy," including Blood Feast (1963) and Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964).

<i>Barocco</i> 1976 French film

Barocco is a 1976 French romantic thriller film, directed by André Téchiné. The film stars Isabelle Adjani, Gérard Depardieu and Marie-France Pisier. Identity, redemption and resurrection are the themes of the film. The plot follows a young woman who convinces her boxer boyfriend to accept a bribe to tell a lie that discredits a local politician. When the boyfriend is murdered, she is racked with guilt until she meets the killer and plans to remake him into the image of her slain lover. The film won three César Awards: Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Cinematography and Best Music. The film had a total of 678,734 admissions in France.

<i>The Drifter</i> (1988 film) 1988 film

The Drifter is a 1988 thriller movie starring Kim Delaney, Timothy Bottoms, Al Shannon, Miles O'Keeffe and Anna Garduno. The film is about a successful single woman who picks up a mysterious hitchhiker on a deserted road.

<i>Daughter of Shanghai</i> 1937 film by Robert Florey

Daughter of Shanghai is a 1937 American crime film directed by Robert Florey and starring Anna May Wong, Charles Bickford and Buster Crabbe. Unusually for the time, East Asian American actors played the lead roles. It was also one of the first films in which Anthony Quinn appeared. In 2006, Daughter of Shanghai was included in the annual selection of 25 motion pictures to be added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

<i>Plain Clothes</i> (1988 film) 1988 film by Martha Coolidge

Plain Clothes is a 1988 American comedy film directed by Martha Coolidge and starring Arliss Howard. The film was a box-office bomb, panned by critics and pulled from theatres after a very short and limited release.

<i>Judex</i> (1963 film) 1963 film

Judex is a 1963 French-language crime film remake of the 1916 French film serial of the same name concerning the adventures of pulp hero Judex. Directed by French filmmaker Georges Franju, the film stars Channing Pollock as Judex/Vallieres, Édith Scob as Jacqueline and Francine Bergé as Diana.

<i>Non-Stop New York</i> 1937 film by Robert Stevenson

Non-Stop New York is a 1937 British science fiction crime film directed by Robert Stevenson and starring John Loder, Anna Lee and Francis L. Sullivan. It is based on the 1936 novel Sky Steward by Ken Attiwill. A woman who can clear an innocent man of the charge of murder is pursued by gangsters onto a luxurious transatlantic flying boat.

<i>Liliom</i> (1934 film) 1934 French film

Liliom is a 1934 French fantasy film directed by Fritz Lang based on the 1909 Hungarian stage play of the same title by Ferenc Molnár. The film stars Charles Boyer as Liliom, a carousel barker who is fired from his job after defending the chambermaid Julie from the jealousy of Mme. Muscat, the carousel owner who is infatuated with Liliom. He moves in with Julie and they begin an affair. When Liliom discovers he's about to become a father, he finds he needs money and participates in a robbery which goes awry. Rather than allow himself to be arrested, Liliom kills himself and his soul is transported to a waiting room of Heaven. A heavenly commissioner determines that Liliom will not be admitted into Heaven, only Purgatory, until he returns to Earth to do one good deed.

Jeanne Marie Basone, better known by her ring name Hollywood, is an American professional wrestler, actress, model and stuntwoman. She was selected for women's wrestling promotion, Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW) in 1986 by its founder, David McLane. Basone won the United States Championship in a match against Tulsa on the 1993 pay-per-view. She is the only contestant to star in both the pilot and all four seasons of the promotion.

<i>Sweet Bird of Youth</i> (1962 film) 1962 film by Richard Brooks

Sweet Bird of Youth is a 1962 American drama film starring Paul Newman and Geraldine Page, with Shirley Knight, Madeleine Sherwood, Ed Begley, Rip Torn and Mildred Dunnock in support. Based on the 1959 play of the same name by Tennessee Williams, the film was adapted and directed by Richard Brooks.

<i>Cross Channel</i> (film) 1955 film by R. G. Springsteen

Cross Channel is a 1955 drama film, directed by R. G. Springsteen, and written by Rex Rienits. The film stars Wayne Morris, Yvonne Furneaux, Patrick Allen, June Ashley, Carl Jaffe and Peter Sinclair.

<i>The Happytime Murders</i> 2018 film by Brian Henson

The Happytime Murders is a 2018 American adult puppet buddy cop crime comedy film directed by Brian Henson and written by Todd Berger from a story by Berger and Dee Austin Robertson. The film stars Melissa McCarthy, Bill Barretta, Joel McHale, Maya Rudolph, Leslie David Baker, and Elizabeth Banks. Set in a world where humans and living puppets co-exist, the film follows a puppet private investigator and a human police detective who must solve a murder spree of retired sitcom stars.

References

  1. 1 2 "The Defilers/Scum of the Earth (1965/1963)". digitallyobsessed.com. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  2. 1 2 David F. Friedman; Don De Nevi (1990). A Youth in Babylon: Confessions of a Trash-Film King . Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books. p.  26. ISBN   0-87975-608-X.
  3. Robert Firsching. "Scum of the Earth (1963)". Allmovie . Retrieved 2 July 2012.