Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson (2019)

 Before going to bed I found a Severin Films documentary on Shudder regarding the life and death of schlock director, Al Adamson. God, it's just such a tragedy, an absolute shame, that some thieving construction worker smashes Al's head with a hammer and buries his body in a comforter bought by his beloved maid near where his jacuzzi was, concrete cement and tile laid over his dirt grave. What a terrible end to a man who lost his wife not long before to cancer. The part about aliens was a strange detour, with long time colleague in the low budget film business, Samuel Sherman, and an actress, Stevee Ashlock, seemingly indicating he learned of information quite dangerous. I love everything horror and genre of the 60s and 70s so it was inevitable I'd catch some of his films. Blood of Dracula's Castle, Dracula vs Frankenstein, Nurse Sherri, and, I believe, Blood of Ghastly Horror are films I have seen. Look, I'm not about to lie and proclaim his films are a highlight reel of great cinema. They're often hard to watch. Even those interviewed couldn't cop to that with a straight face. But the documentary talked about some fun history I was especially interested in such as casting the likes of aging out Lon Chaney, Jr, J Carrol Naish, and John Carradine, all of whom Hollywood retired. Chaney with throat cancer and boozing constantly, Naish in a wheelchair, unable to remember his lines, parts of his teeth clicking a noise as he talked, and only one eye to read cue cards with his dialogue, and Carradine nailing his lines as a pro only to zone back out once the camera cut; these details are precious to a horror nerd like me. The really neat portion of the documentary bring up Russ Tamblyn, interviewed at home about the notorious biker exploitation flick, Satan's Sadists and The Female Bunch, infamous for featuring scenes at Spahn Ranch when Manson and family were there. What makes that latter film noteworthy is Bud Cardos mentioning that Al wanted Manson away from him while working on scenes, so he made sure to get rid of him! The westerns, back story on Al's cowboy film father with footage of his epic rope skills, clever con game where he would retitle the same films for multiple releases, a trip to Italy for a western that fell apart and left Al broke, and Al following whatever trends that might keep him working give this documentary quite an insight into quite a rollercoaster life and career. Vicki Volante was an actress Al hoped to win, although she just wasn't interested, making a few films with him until Regina Carrol came along. Just the visit into Sherman's "film vault" where moviolas, cans of film, projectors, and posters exist had me marking out to the sheer volume of history I imagine many scholars and archivists might consider a holy grail of shlock and independent, low budget content worth investigating and studying. The end of Al's life, with good insight from his maid who remains shaken from Fred's behavior before and after killing her employer, and the interviewees who comment on the time approaching Al's death, give us information about the director that otherwise remains heresay and store aisle gossip rag speculation. Getting information, very valuable and cogent, about Al from those still with us and archival footage from those we've lost (cinematographer, Gary Graver, stuntman and actor, Bud Cardos), along with trailers, excerpts, and posters from films by the director does provide a well-rounded document of quite a character. I didn't realize how much nudity his films had. I haven't seen his more salacious, naughty films. He sure did leave behind quite a resume of content, with a cult following he was quite proud of.