sixties

The other DVD double-feature released by Midnite Movies this month is the camp exploitation classic The Mini-Skirt Mob (1968) paired with the biker flick Chrome and Hot Leather (1971) starring tough guy William Smith and Peter Brown of Ride the Wild Surf.

Described as “hog straddling female animals on the prowl,” The Mini-Skirts included Fantasy Femme Diane McBain as their vicious leader, Bad Seed Patty McCormack and Sandra Marshall with Jeremy Slate, Harry Dean Stanton, and Ronnie Rondell as their boyfriends.

Spurned by her former lover Ross Hagen, McBain seeks revenge against him and his new bride played by Sherry Jackson star of the beach movie Wild on the Beach. McBain enlists her fellow cyclists to make life hell for the newlyweds. Their idyllic honeymoon is turned into a wild, beer-swilling melee after The Mini-Skirts crash it. The brawl ends with a wild motorcycle chase with one of the gang memebers swerving off a cliff. Later the gang causes the death of Patty McCormack who, tiring of McBain’s sadistic ruthlessness tries to help the newlyweds escape. The film climaxes with McBain and Slate catching up with the fleeing couple. You’ll have to buy the DVD to watch the controversial ending for that time. But just to see McBain and the other actresses trying to act tough wearing mini-skirts is worth the price of the DVD alone. Real biker chicks didn’t wear skirts! What was the producer thinking!?!

“What attracted me to do this film was the role of Shayne,” says Diane McBain in Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema. “I thought it would be fun to play such a sadistic killer because women don’t usually get to play these sort of roles. After I agreed to do this movie I went out and learned how to ride a motorcycle. A big motorcycle. When I arrived on the set they gave us these tiny scooters. It was the silliest bike you ever saw. I thought it was ridiculous to have this Mini-Skirt Mob on these small bikes. I knew then I was in trouble!”

Some great new DVDs were released last month by MGM as part of their Midnite Movie series. I recommend you immediately rush out and buy them!

The first double bill is Fireball 500/Thunder Alley. Fireball 500 (1966) stars Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello in their last film together until they re-teamed for Back to the Beach in the 80s. The sand and surf are no where to be found as Frankie and Fabian play rival stock car racers on the track and off as both pursue the buxom Annette. This film is the last to feature most of the Beach Party gang including Harvey Lembeck, Ed Garner, Salli Sachse, Mary Hughes, Patti Chandler, and Sue Hamilton. Dark-haired Julie Parrish went blonde to play a vixen who uses the pre-occupied boys to run moonshine for her without their knowing.

Remarking why the hair color change, Julie said in Fantasty Femmes, “I was a blonde because Annette Funicello did not want to work with another brunette. Maybe she thought the picture would look better with two contrasting women, I don’t know. But they told us that at the last minute. They tried to bleach my hair but the hairdresser said, ‘It’s not going to work because her hair is going to fall out of her head.’ They then dyed it red. So I reported to the set the next day and they went crazy—‘No! No! No! We said make it blonde!’ So they had to get a wig at the last minute—not a great wig. I hated how I looked in this film.”

In Thunder Alley (1967) Fabian and Annette are re-united in another fun stock car racing drama, which featured sexy Fantasy Femme Salli Sachse on the movie’s poster art. Diane McBain is the bad girl in this one playing Fabian‘s ex who uses his rival (pudgy and totally miscast Warren Berlinger ) to get back at him. When asked to recall anything about making this movie Fantasy Femme Diane McBain laughed and quipped, “I don’t remember much because most of my off screen time was spent watching them film In the Heat of the Night with Sidney Poitier being filmed next door.”

Though I am loath to recommend watching anything on American Movie Classics since they added commercials and stopped broadcasting movies in widescreen, they are showing an great quadruple bill chock full of starlets beginning Wed. morning July 27 at 6:00AM EST. First travel with Ann-Margret, Carol Lynley and Pamela Tiffin as they set Madrid on fire as single gals far from home in The Pleasure Seekers (1964). Then spiral down into the Valley of the Dolls (1967) with those gorgeous pill-poppers Barbara Parkins and Sharon Tate, and the not so gorgeous Patty Duke who thankfully never sang again on the big screen.

At 10AM, Diane Varsi is good girl Alison MacKenzie, Lana Turner is her secretive mom Connie, and Hope Lange is rape victim Selena Cross in the dreary Peyton Place (1957). Better is the trashy 1961 sequel Return to Peyton Place at 1PM. Carol Lynley in her Sandra Dee period takes over as Alison, Eleanor Parker is Connie, and Tuesday Weld is the new Selena. The town throws a hissy fit when Alison writes an expose about her beloved Peyton Place and includes “the whole dirty story of Selena Cross.” Lynley and Weld strive to outdo each other and both come off wooden. Mary Astor steals the movie as a bigoted mother who calls Alison’s novel “a piece of trash” before dumping it in the waste basket. You may want to do the same with your TV after watching all four of these camp classics.