Summer of Blood: A Look Back at Summer 1963, Part 3

More items from the BoxOffice archive during the summer of Blood Feast:


July 22, 1963:

(CHARLOTTE) Ron Ormand (sic) of Ormand Enterprises, Hollywood, Calif., and his wife June and their 12-year-old son Timmy are in Charlotte visiting friends. At the same time they are setting up distribution in the southeastern section for their company's picture, "Please Don't Touch Me." The Ormands also are working out plans for the production of a new picture.

From August, 5:

(SAN ANTONIO) ... "The Dungeons of Horror," a hair-raising film produced in Pat Boyette's local studios, will be distributed all over the world, starting next month, by Herts-Lion International.

There were also plenty of ads that summer for William Grefe's The Checkered Flag (see above).

And from the August 22, 1963 issue:

(MIAMI) Flamingo Productions, a local motion picture company which recently completed its first full-length color feature, "Miami Rendezvous," now is deep into production plans for its next film, "Deadly Circle," a psycho-murder mystery. The screen play was authored by Alexander Panas, Miami playwright. Producers Irwin and Herb Meyer plan to begin shooting in early September. Gloria Izzo, production coordinator for Flamingo, said that readings already have been held for some of the leading roles, but numerous parts remain to cast.

NOTE: Deadly Circle appears to have morphed into Honeymoon of Horror (a.k.a., Orgy of the Golden Nudes, 1964), which featured screenwriter Panas in a featured role, alongside Robert Parsons and Abbey Heller.

Running With the Devil's Sisters

We were pleased as punch to see that a previously "lost" regional oddity, William Grefe's The Devil's Sisters, had been rescued from obscurity. The fine folks at Ballyhoo Motion Pictures worked with Grefe to release the film on DVD using an incomplete print found in Germany, with the film's final eight minutes recreated using stills.

I've posted a few advertising images below. You can see a very nice collection of stills over at Cinema Arcana as well, along with some other pics over Temple of Schlock.

Trailer of the Week: Impulse (1974)

I've never seen the real trailer for this fabulous William Shatner/William Grefe collaboration, so here's a fan-made trailer.

Trailer of the Week: Death Curse of Tartu (1966)

Early horror flick from William Grefe, featuring Florida film legend Doug Hobart as Tartu.

Trailer of the Week: Mako: Jaws of Death (1976)

Another classic from Florida legend William Grefe, this one reuniting Impulse stars Jenifer Bishop and Harold Sakata, along with one of our favorite actors, Richard Jaeckel.

Trailer of the Week: Stanley (1972)

Cult star Chris Robinson co-stars with a snake in William Grefe's Florida classic, Stanley.

BoxOffice Covers: The 1970s, Part 2

We wrap up our look at 1970s BoxOffice magazine covers with two of my favorites -- Horror High and Creature From Black Lake -- as well as non-horror offerings from Alaska's Chuck Keen (Timber Tramps), North Carolina's Earl Owensby (Seabo), Arkansas legend Charles B. Pierce (The Norseman), and Florida fave William Grefe (The Godmothers, complete with a staged shot of Grefe and producer Socrates Ballis with the cast in gangster drag).

BoxOffice Covers: The 1970s, Part 1

A selection of BoxOffice magazine covers featuring regional horror releases. Tomorrow, I'll post a few more goodies, in addition to covers featuring some more esoteric, non-horror releases from regional directors/producers.

Shatneresque! IMPULSE at the Alamo Drafthouse

Impulse (1974)
Miami, Florida

For those of you lucky enough to live near Austin, Texas, the fabled Alamo Drafthouse is presenting the William Shatner film Impulse, with a live appearance by director William Grefe, tonight at Midnight.

In the film, Shatner portrays a whimpering, mother-obsessed, polyester-clad killer gigolo who murders his wealthy girlfriends for their money. Written by Tony Crechales (who penned the excellent The Killing Kind), Impulse also features Ruth Roman, Jenifer Bishop (an Al Adamson regular who was engaged to producer Socrates Ballis at the time), Shatner's wife Marcy Lafferty, Blood Feast veteran William Kerwin (in a flashback), and wrestler/actor Harold "Odd Job" Sakata, who nearly perished during his on-screen death scene when a rigging failed and he was left hanging by the neck until Shatner and several crew members came to his rescue. (The photo below shows Sakata and Shatner with Bloodstalkers director Robert W. Morgan in the aftermath of this incident.)


From the Oxnard Press-Courier, March 28, 1972:


Note that this article indicates the film was made some time in 1972 under the original title of Want a Ride, Little Girl?




A few choice quotes:

William Shatner: "I've forgotten why I was in it. I probably needed the money. It was a very bad time for me. I hope they burn it."

Tony Crechales: "[Socrates Ballis] was at an airport. I don't know if it was here or in Florida, and Shatner was coming by. And he handed him the script, and said I would love for you to read it and star in it. Shatner took it! I went to his house not too far from where I live. By the time I re-wrote the script with his suggestions, I had one page of the original. It was all William Shatner."

Jenifer Bishop: "The one that I fell madly in love with was Harold Sakata. We became very good friends. He took me dancing at the Roosevelt when he came out to California. Sweet man, dear man. Wonderful dancer."

Robert Morgan: "If you look at that one shot, you take a look at Harold Sakata's tongue coming out of his mouth. We're all down below and we suddenly realize that that harness had slipped. He was literally strangling. Shatner grabbed him down below and tried to pick him up a little bit. A couple of us scrambled to the top and cut him down. He was in serious trouble."

William Grefe: "Shatner came down that rope and broke his finger, and to this day his finger is still crooked. He never got it set properly."

William Grefe Returns to Horror

Fangoria has reported that Florida filmmaker William Grefe and screenwriter Gary Crutcher are trying to revive an old script they put together in the 1970s called Why Won't Valerie Die?

Even better, Crutcher and Grefe, who previously collaborated on Stanley, asked writer, historian and Temple of Schlock curator Chris Poggiali to update and finish the script. Chris has been a huge help to me during the research and writing of The Dead Next Door, so it's great to see him involved in a project with one of the 13 filmmakers I interviewed for the book.

Chris explained to me in a recent email that he wrote 30 new pages of material based on Grefe's original six-page outline and the existing 90 pages of script material, and restructured some of the original script.

"Gary and Bill are both thrilled with the result, which is a whodunit mystery/ghost story that -- to me, anyway -- is reminiscent in structure to THE NAME OF THE GAME IS KILL but also calls to mind THE NAKED ZOO," Poggiali says. "Despite my recent input, it's very much still a 1971 script. In fact, because they wanted it finished in the style that it was originally written, I had to teach myself how to write a shooting script, which was a totally new experience for me. It was very difficult at first, because it's like directing a movie at the same time the movie is being written, but once I got the hang of it I actually enjoyed it. Gary is especially impressed with the way I mimicked his style, because he has no idea who wrote what anymore!"

Crutcher, as Chris mentions above, wrote The Name of the Game is Kill (1968), a crazy thriller featuring Jack Lord that at one point was supposed to be released by Code Red, but now appears to be in limbo.

Here's an excerpt of my Grefe interview, in which he describes his first meeting with Crutcher in the 1960s:

"[He] didn't look like a typical Hollywood guy. He had short hair and a suit and tie. I said, 'I'd like to read a couple of your scripts.' He opens up his briefcase. He's got a .45 automatic, he's got a dagger, and it's lined with pills ... I never hired him, but when I made the Stanley deal, I called him."