THE DEGENERATE: THE LIFE & FILMS OF ANDY MILLIGAN
****
Directed by Josh Johnson and Grayson Tyler Johnson.
Starring Gerry Jaccuzo, Hope Stansbury, Stephen Thrower, Jimmy McDonough.
Documentary, USA, 2025, 101 mins.
Reviewed as part of FrightFest 2025 - UK PREMIERE
Encountering the works of Andy Milligan, no matter how much you think you have prepared yourself, can be an overwhelming experience. Even by B-movie standards his over the top melodramas are an often cacophonous experience with the swirling camera work, shrieking, shouting, blood and guts making for an overwhelming and sometimes claustrophobic experience. For those who think they may have been prepared for diving into this 42nd Street auteur's body of work after reading Jimmy McDonough’s classic and harrowing biography THE GHASTLY ONE, the results can still batter the senses. But that is perhaps what marked out Milligan from the rest of the hustling filmmakers who were only in the business of making a quick buck. Like them, or him, or not, Milligan’s film stood out from the crowd.
Grayson Tyler Johnson and Josh Johnson (no relation to each other) have crafted an involving look at this writer, director, actor that serves as an ideal introduction to Milligan and his chaotic body of work and even for fans of McDonough’s seminal biography. McDonough is on hand here to recount his opinions and experiences of being Miligan’s biographer and later close friend, turning down the opportunity to work with established Hollywood names in favour of helping out Milligan instead. Johnson and Johnson examine not only Milligan’s cinematic output, but his contributions to New York theatre in the 1950’s and 60’s, making important contributions and establishing the off-Broadway scene with his own productions. Interviews and recollections from collaborators, friends and sometimes lovers, as well as Milligan himself in an recently unearthed audio interview from the 70’s, help flesh out a portrait of an irascible personality who made no attempt to hide his sexuality, instead eagerly sharing his experiences and feelings in a series of plays that lead onto a filmmaking career where despite having to deal with several ripoff merchants and hucksters, Milligan crafts a singular filmography that takes him from New York to London and back to California before his sad and tragic death in 1991.
The film serves as an excellent companion piece to THE GHASTLY ONE. As anyone who has read any of his other works, covering the likes of Russ Meyer, The Ormond Family and Tammy Wynette, will be aware, McDonough makes for a highly entertaining and opinionated raconteur. What is surprising here however, is McDonough’s regrets about his criticism of Milligan’s work, reflecting on a much missed friend, who despite his limitations managed to stamp his personality on every frame of his work.
Fans of b-movie and transgressive figures of cinema will no doubt be delighted with this in-depth work while the curious and clueless will also find much to enjoy in this exploration of one of genre cinema's most divisive figures.
Iain MacLeod