THIS
STUFF’LL KILL YA! (1971)
THE YEAR OF THE YAHOO (1972)
Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
Something Weird DVD
Reviewed 12.15.04
Review by Joseph A. Ziemba
THE FILMS
There’s a sign up on the clubhouse
door today. It’s right above
the homemade moonshine still, just
a little to the left. The runny,
white wash paint reads, “Meeting
Tooday Fer Lewis Freeks Only. Eve’ry
Body Else Git Home.” Catch
my drift?
Listen, I’m not here to waste
your time. Before you get too hung
up on this double dose of Hershell
Gordon Lewis rarities, there’s
something you should know. Are you
a great believer in the sublime
genius of Mr. Lewis? If your answer
is “absolutely, my friend,”
then welcome to the club and stick
around. The door is always open.
No? Then stop in your tracks. You
won’t be converted -- I guarantee
it.
Here’s the spread: This
Stuff’ll Kill Ya!,
a slice-of-life backwoods romp with
the Reverend Boone and his moonshine
cult, and Year Of The Yahoo,
a ransacked political musical that
never makes much sense. These aren’t
the most, er, expedient films you’ve
ever seen. In fact, I imagine most
people will have a hard time spending
every minute of these downbeat exploito-dramas
with both eyes wide open. Neither
film is what you’d expect
from Hershell’s sensationalized
roots, but both remain fascinating
snapshots of strange netherworlds
that are impossible to pigeonhole.
Yes, you’ll be a little bored
at times, but these kinds of cultural
artifacts don’t come around
very often. Now then...
Welcome to the backwoods of Oklahoma,
where moonshine is cheap and This
Stuff’ll Kill Ya! Why
is Reverend Boone (Jeffrey Allen,
familiar Lewis stock player) so
high strung? It’s those durn
FBI men, wanting to shut down his
illegal moonshinin’ business!
He spends his days bellowing forth
a blabber of religious spit-up...pauses
to remember his lines...then goes
at it again, straight into the camera.
Rev. Boone leads his congregation
through Isaiah weddings (every guy
gets a turn), hillbilly hoe-downs,
and liquor store damnation. He’s
a stinky shyster who knows the value
of a buck when he sees it. When
the fuzz really start cracking down
and one of the ladies in the Church
Of The Sill gets stoned to death
(that’s with rocks, hippie!),
things really get...well, they don’t
really do anything. The film continues
along with a hilarious car chase/crash,
complete with airplane sound effects,
a weirdo funeral scene, and a double
female crucifixion. Eventually,
things wrap up with a dirty deal
and Boone’s right hand man
(Ray Sager aka Montag The Magician)
meeting the biz end of a shotgun.
Very dreary.
Incredibly straight forward, the
overlong (99 minutes) This
Stuff’ll Kill Ya! lacks
many things. Most importantly, the
trajectory of the picture is nil;
almost as if half a script was written,
duplicated, then repeated twice
in a row. The insane cackling of
Allen’s Reverend Boone becomes,
not surprisingly, completely annoying
after the first twenty minutes.
There’s quite a bit of padding
too, whether it be with Boone’s
never-ending diatribes or the full
band musical numbers. Not too exciting.
On the other hand, This Stuff achieves a real sense of dirt and
unpleasantness through the nonchalance
of the congregation towards their
deeds, which include a couple instances
of gang rape (never shown) and the
crucifixion scene. The brief bits
of gore are minor, but strangely
unsettling, as the hillbilly-dominated
score cuts out for total silence.
Then there’s the 20 second,
sped-up Keystone Cops scene around
the hour mark. Pardon me?
On that note, we take a sweeping
dive into dirty politicians, country
music, and insane suburban living
rooms. Over and over. It’s
Year Of The Yahoo,
so let’s get out to those
voting booths. Hank Jackson is a
Johnny Cash-meets-Ringo’s
“Act Naturally” pop
singer, played by real life country
and western star Claude King. He
offers up nuggets of wisdom like
“You wouldn’t know music
from fartin’ in a rain barrel”
and wears pit-stained green shirts
with frills. For some reason, Hank
is picked to run for senator by
a bunch of crooked yes-men. They
gain control of the polls through
TV show lies, disposable country
songs, and an endlessly repeating
commercial of Mr. Jackson riding
on a horse while the word “hope”
flies across the screen. Ray Sager
returns as the always-pissed main
yes-man, constantly yelling and
sharing a gross, unexpected sex
scene with a girl who has weird
feet. A couple of very fake riot
scenes go down, Hank’s fiancee
is beaten and raped (offscreen,
but returns two days later for some
love making with her beau), and
it all caps with some defeat, as
Hanky decides to go with his true
feelings and speak out about what
he believes in. Aw, shucks.
Year Of The Yahoo features some of H.G.’s highest
production values and remains his
sole bid into the realm of “real”
films, at least story-wise. A political
satire is not something you’d
expect from Mr. Lewis. Or is it?
Yes, attempting such an involved
film with pretty meager resources
is commendable. Yes, the film is
a notch above Herschell’s
other work in terms of technical
quality. However, it just doesn’t
work as a whole. The subpar acting,
endless padding, static shots, and
inhumanly slow pace do nothing to
enhance the positives. Even more
so than This Stuff,
the film lacks a consistent voice,
further hampered by actors who clearly
can’t handle the strong intentions
of the script. I’m sure you’re
getting a mental image in your head
by now. Basically, Yahoo is a peculiar and well conceived
rarity that is unable to rise above
its low-budget limitations.
AUDIO AND VIDEO
Keep in mind, these films are extremely
rare. Yahoo was even
lost for years until Something Weird
discovered a sole print. Given the
circumstances, print quality is
pretty irrelevant. But if you must
know, both full frame prints are
very rough, with constant green
emulsion lines, lots of noise, and
frequent color inconsistencies.
Yahoo has a slight
advantage with deeper colors and
a crisper picture. The mono sound
for both was muffled and hissy,
sometimes slightly un-syncing with
the picture during both films. The
picture quality was never distracting,
but the audio on both films made
it hard to decipher certain bouts
of dialogue.
EXTRAS
First the minor supplements. There’s
a boring four minute clip from Lewis’s
Moonshine Mountain (yep, a hillbilly song with Jeffrey
Allen again), a ten minute Barry
Mahon short called “Naked
Moonshine,” which is actually
pretty funny, as three girls with
super thick New Yawk accents get
topless and swill up some moonshine
for a party, a repeated gallery
of H.G. Lewis exploitation art with
drive-in radio spots, and a nice
trailer collection for most of the
Godfather’s films (including
trailers for both features).
Now here’s why you may want
the disc after all. In keeping with
their always-interesting track record,
Something Weird offers up two commentary
tracks with Daniel Krogh -- Lewis
friend, co-filmmaker, and biographer.
I actually enjoyed listening to
Krogh reminiscence a bit more than
watching the films themselves. Every
aspect is covered in full, from
the shooting locations (Oklahoma
City, Chicago, Texas) to Herschell’s
impromptu nightclub performance
while shooting This Stuff.
Didja know that the actors in Yahoo provided their own Mr. Ferley-esque
wardrobe? Youch. Krogh is likable,
filled with information, and looks
back fondly, discussing not just
these films, but going in depth
on other Herschell productions that
he was a part of. I wanted some
more talk on The Psychic though...Steam seems to run out
towards the end of both films, but
that makes perfect sense to me.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Naturally, the H.G. Lewis completist
will want this DVD...I resisted
for awhile, but finally gave in.
Am I sorry? Nah. Think of it as
a little slice of history; two oddball
films that really aren’t too
hot, but remain fascinating, especially
due to the excellent commentary
tracks. Not in the know? Don’t
even bother. |
HEY-OOOOOO!!!
The White Pants Four
What it's all about
Blood Fe (eas) et
Steady hands, steadier wardrobe
Dig that crazy fish
Nothing else matters
The couch might eat them
|
