Satan in High Heels

Rating:
Summary: A cut above even Something Weird's standards!
Review: Often with Something Weird's releases, the extras easily overpower and overshadow the featured film. There is nothing wrong with this, of course; I think it adds to the fun. But Satan in High Heels offers a great feature alnog with some dandy extras.

The feature is a dandy little film noir, made in 1962. In terms of sheer content it is strictly PG-rated stuff, but that doesn't mean it's not an exploitation delight. A woman, Stacy, rips off her creepy ex-junky husband and escapes her life as a carny burlesque dancer. She moves to New York and gets a job as a singer in a high-class but oddly seedy club run by Pepe, a dominatrix-style woman with a stare that can shatter windows. Stacy wastes no time in seducing both the club's owner and his shiftless son. Much witty banter follows, as does the club's "star" Sabrina (playing herself in a performance of such high camp it may be harmful to small animals), and the piano player (played by Del Tenney, director of "I Eat Your Skin", also on SW dvd). It all ends with a blow-out, leather-clad performance of "Deadlier Than the Male", a song you'll take to your grave, and maybe... MURDER!!! The film is quite good, the direction and the genuinely funny writing well above average for an exploitation picture of the era. The low budget does shine through (an awful lot of the film takes place in the club), but it's very well made and almost effortlessly entertaining for lovers of witty sleaze and evil (though not beyond sympathetic) women.

The extras are the usual greatness. First, we have the jaw-dropping "The Wild and the Naked", which is very similar to "The Girl and the Geek", also on SW dvd. A woman walks around a lot, gets naked for photos, dances, and is chased around in the buff a LOT by an assortment of characters. The film appears to be a string of almost totally random silent footage spliced together with a hysterically bad narration tacked on to make sense of it all. The narration fails, of course, but the film is a riot. A classic adults-only film, only an hour long, from the early 60's (so no frontal nudity you dirty dirty persons).

Other extras include two shorts. One is a film of a carny act involving a woman and a full-sized marionette doing a routine. It's oddly unsettling. The other ("Latex She-Devils") is astounding: an honest-to-god early 70's S&M reel!!! Watch as a cat burglar is abused by two latex-clad cuties! Wow. There are also trailers, and the usual gallery of art. Overall, it's a great package for Something Weird fans!!!

Rating:
Summary: THE BEST OF SOMETHING WEIRD....
Review: This is the best of Something Weird's rather disreputable DVD offerings of 60's sleaze. A surprisingly well made and acted low budget trash gem starring respectable actress (and former cheesecake model) Meg Myles as voluptuous carnival dancer Stacy Kane. Stacy's had it with low rent living so she rips off her junkie husband and goes to New York to seek fame and fortune. Well, fortune anyway. She lands a job at Pepe's cabaret as a singer (yes, she CAN sing) run by "Pepe" ("Dark Shadows"' Grayson Hall!) a wily lesbian with the eye for Stacy. But Stacy can't keep her hands off men and/or their money. She gets a sugar daddy but soon finds herself dallying with his skinny young son causing the inevitable snowball to start rolling downhill. Myles performs a torchy ballad in the audition for Pepe's and later a leather clad dominatrix number that will knock your socks off called "Deadlier than the Male" . This routine alone is worth buying the DVD for. But wait! There's more...a British blonde bombshell named Sabrina appears as a former "protege" of Pepe's to do a couple of numbers at the club. She must have been a pin-up model in England or something because she's an absolute eyeful. Her song numbers and costumes must be seen to be believed...period. Anyway, this is a true cult film on any level and thankfully has survived to be enjoyed today. The ladies' performances are catty and arch and the storyline and script just trashy enough to be great fun. The DVD picture and sound are great. Enjoy this one. It's a real collector's item.