A rainy night in NYC, Joan Severance, a fashion designer, is offered a ride in a taxi cab by fellow occupant, Stephen Bauer, who flirts with her, even providing his coat to "keep her warm" since her dress was damp and the night cold. Eventually the cab stops at Bauer's apartment complex, and he convinces Severance to come up to his flat. Eventually Bauer is seducing Severance, unable to resist her innermost desires and ready to just take him up on Tuesday and Thursday hookups, agreeing to nothing serious. But can these "meetups and fuck" with no relationship talks continue or will real feelings and want for something more develop? When Severance's brother dies and she happens to spend the night, Bauer reiterates his displeasure in breaking the arrangement set up by them both. Zalman King's Red Shoe Diaries was, to me, a rather corny exercise in why so serious? softer-than-softcore Showtime Channel "entertainment". Rarely was I ever actuall
lol. Steckler was great, even when his movies weren't.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I'm so glad his movies exist.
ReplyDeleteHe wasn't a bad filmmaker at his best, either. INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES is his best known flick, but by no means his best. My favorite is probably WILD GUITAR. Arch Hall Jr. and his hair in a "Hollywood story" picture about the rise of the sensational Bud Eagle (and his hair)! I like THE THRILL KILLERS, too. One of Steckler's oddest items is RAT PFINK A BOO BOO, which starts as a sort of straight horror thriller. In the midst of filming, he suddenly thought it would be funny if his two leads went into the closet and emerged as Batman and Robin, so he changed the movie in that direction right there on the spot. The shift in tone is as abrupt as a light-switch being flipped. From the moment Rat Pfink and Boo Boo appear, the movie becomes an over-the-top, silly homage to old serial adventures, and that's what it remains to the end. Kogar the Gorilla even appears. It was originally to be called RAT PFINK AND BOO BOO, but the printer screwed up the "and" and just had an "a." It would cost extra to fix the error, and since everything, at the time, was This-A-Go-Go and That-A-Go-Go, Steckler just told them to leave it as is. The more recent releases have restored the original name, which sort of sucks--I prefer A BOO BOO.
ReplyDeleteSteckler was always generous in giving interviews, and when his films were released on DVD, he always provided a ton of fun extras. A guy who loved making movies.
I watched his really strange Sinthia not too long ago. What a wild one that was! That was kind of in the middle of the Manson era of late 60s/early 70s exploitation. The Thrill Killers is my favorite of his movies. I love all those factoids on Steckler. I went into a Steckler phase not too long ago, ending with Hollywood Strangler. Joe Bob loves him. I think you sense that he loved making films, too. The fact his movies make the rounds with the cult crowd keeps him alive, I think.
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