SOMETIMES AUNT MARTHA DOES
DREADFUL THINGS (1971)
Directed by Thomas Casey
Video Treasures VHS
THE FILM
Stanley and Paul. Paul and Stanley.
Paul Stanley. Back in the day, he
played guitar in KISS. He sang about
"Room Service." Sometimes,
he looked like a woman. Do you see
what I'm getting at?
In Sometimes Aunt Martha Does
Dreadful Things, Paul (Joseph
Bracci) dresses up as Aunt Martha.
Stanley (Wayne Crawford, God's
Bloody Acre) is his man-child
lover. Since fleeing Baltimore,
they've left a trail of blood, sex,
and death, but room service is nowhere
in sight. Unless, of course, you
count a butter-knife Cesarean in
a cruddy shack. Now we're talking!
Harry Kerwin, Brad Grinter, William
Kerwin, Thomas Casey; this is the
Miami Exploitation Club reunion
we've been waiting for. Best of
all, Paul Stanley is positively
not invited. He'd hog all of the
cocaine.
Ode to the suburbs. Brawny, bitchy
Paul/Aunt Martha and sniveling Stanley
have recently rented a house in
a 'burb of Miami. They robbed and
murdered in Maryland, so it's time
to lay low. Stanley doesn't get
it. He keeps partying with girls
(pot, brewskis, cocaine), driving
around in his painted VW, and collapsing
at any hint of straight sex. Aunt
Martha is on it. Auntie Paul disposes
of the women that Stanley brings
home with a swift slice of the butcher's
knife. Sadly, the guys' heavenly
bliss can't last forever. When Stan
brings home a slobbering male junkie,
the world begins to unravel. Brad
Grinter (Blood
Freak) and William Kerwin
show up as cops. Pregnant women,
beware. Homosexual men, take care.
This is gonna get ugly.
Aunt Martha is one of the
most bizarre concepts ever presented
by a narrative exploitation picture.
It feels like Glen Or Glenda
under the guise of Andy Milligan
(on a good day). Sure, this all
seems very humorous and outrageous
to us...but what about THEM? The
coin flips. Hateful spirits, go-for-broke
performances, and the constant disruption
of innocent expectations all push
the film into startling, confined
madness. As presented, this exaggerated
slice of life becomes the norm for
95 minutes. That's how it grabs
you. So along with the mismatched
60s sitcom sets and music cues,
hilarious dialogue ("That...BASTARD!"),
and frequent beer drinking scenes,
you're left with a rattled set of
nerves and the smirk to match.
Towards the hour mark, Paul and
Stanley's constant arguing wore
thin for a few minutes. Then I remembered.
Paul Stanley once sang, "I
was made for lovin' you." Back
in the game!
AUDIO AND VIDEO
LP speed blues. Aside from the continual
static running at the bottom of
the screen, we're in safe hands.
Aunt Martha glows good
like all Miami trash should. Doris
Wishman would give her feet-stamp
of approval.
EXTRAS
Video Treasures attempts to educate
their customers on the foreign notion
of VCR tracking. Again.
FINAL THOUGHTS
All sorts of people do dreadful
things, but Aunt Martha takes the
cake. Sometimes Aunt Martha
Does Dreadful Things is a little-known
cog in the interesting 1960s/70s
Florida exploitation clique, but
you only need to see it once. It'll
stick.
— Joseph A. Ziemba, 08.31.06 |
Dame Martha
So snipped
Tenderness
On the clock with B. Grinter
|
