UP!
***
Directed by Russ Meyer.
Starring Raven De La Croix, Kitten Natividad, Robert McLane, Janet Wood.
Comedy, US, 80 Minutes, Certificate 18.
Released in the UK on 4K UHD and Blu-ray on April 28th by Severin Films.
In the art of filmmaking there’s more than one way to start a film. You can take your time, setting up characters, place and premise. If that’s not your pace, then things could start with a bang, sometimes right in the middle of the narrative before we skip back to the beginning. Or if you’re Russ Meyer you could show Adolf Hitler getting murdered by a piranha in the bath after he’s been whipped and buggered senseless by a well endowed young man dressed up as an Austrian farmer. What this has to do with the rest of the film is pretty tenuous at best but at least we’ve got your attention now.
The latest in Severin Films long awaited re-releases of Meyer’s back catalogue continues with Up!, his penultimate film. Fans will no doubt be overjoyed at seeing this meticulous remaster of one of his most ridiculous films. Newcomers however may want to start elsewhere as this softcore romp is, well… it’s a bit much! What we are treated to here is an 80 minute blast of risque, cartoonish storytelling, the majority of which often lapses into what would be considered now as extremely poor taste. Made at a time when sexual assault in adult cinema could be seen as something funny, it is hard to imagine anyone in any genre today tackling half of the stuff Meyer gleefully throws on the screen here. And that’s before you get to the Nazi stuff of it all.
The plot, such as it is, sees Margo Winchester arrive in a sleepy town where she proves an immediate hit with the male population after she gets a job at Alice's Cafe. Margo also proves a hit with local sheriff Homer, Alice herself and Alice’s husband Paul who also works at the cafe and has a sideline in pleasuring a certain Nazi. The whodunnit aspect here is negligible, all Meyer is interested in is showing all manner of coupling in as many variations (be that in partners and positions) as possible, often in the great outdoors. All the while events are succinctly summarised in cod-Shakespearean dialogue by “The Greek Chorus of it All”, a nude Kitten Natividad romping her way through the woods.
Shocking revelations abound in the film's hysterical closing act, which also features a bloody chain saw attack in case you were nodding off, as well as a repeat of one of Meyer’s most famous lines of dialogue from BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS. This is mentioned here because that script was famously co-authored with eminent film critic Roger Ebert, who also co-wrote this weapons grade nonsense but for some reason felt the need to go under the pseudonym Reinhold Timme.
While softcore in nature this is still depraved bad taste of the highest (or lowest if you prefer) order that while easy to be outraged by is simultaneously impossible to take seriously. Extras wise the pickings may be considered slim but are still worthwhile and illuminating. Along with an audio commentary with film historian Elizabeth Winchell, there is a twenty minute interview with leading lady Raven De la Croix, filmed twenty years ago and used as part of the previous, and long out of print Arrow Video DVD. She fondly recalls Meyer, although half of her recollections of his demanding directing style would no doubt see him cancelled by an over zealous cancel mob.
Once more, Severin Films have gone above and beyond in presenting and remastering the film. Meyer’s cinematography, delivered through his hurricane speed editing, has never looked so pristine. Only one scene appears to have any grain whilst the rest of the film pops off the screen in such a clear and sharp fashion that fans of Meyer will be eager to see how the rest of his filmography will look when released again. Although newcomers of a sensitive nature should be warned of his no holds barred ribald storytelling that is fast, furious and filthy.
Iain MacLeod