Herschell Gordon Lewis, Godfather of Gore: The Films

Rating:
Summary: One of two essential guides to the Great H. G. Lewis
Review: Godfather of Gore is an absolute must read for fans of H.G. Lewis and his crazy, crazy world of eploitaion films. Author Randy Palmer lovingly accounts, in great detail, the behind-the-scenes-on-goings of Lewis' 3 dozen (plus) films.

Palmer pens his cinematic guide from an iron-clad film scholars' angle. However, the author, cleverly allows his subject, H.G. Lewis, to soften the subject matter and provide the books' many pages of good humor. The book is entertaining, informative, comprehensive and most of all essential.

My only complaint is that Randy and I just met. We should've met years ago and collaborated on what would've been the ultimate guide/book to the films of our beloved Herschell Gordon Lewis. Sadly, my book, A Taste of Blood: The Films of Herschell Gordon Lewis remains incomplete without the input of Randy's Godfather of Gore. Cheers, Randy.

Rating:
Summary: A must have for HGL fans
Review: Herschell Gordon Lewis's 1963 film "Blood Feast" introduced the world to the gore film. This statement alone should provide reason enough for horror film aficionados to sit up and take notice of this director's work. The release of this movie turned out to be an extremely profitable revelation for H.G. Lewis as he quickly realized audiences hungered for movies containing scenes of stomach churning violence. Over the next nine years Lewis repeatedly returned to the gore film, releasing cathedrals of schlock like "2000 Maniacs," "Color Me Blood Red," "The Gruesome Twosome," "A Taste of Blood," "The Wizard of Gore," and "The Gore-Gore Girls;" an impressive array of increasingly sick pictures that continued to shock the masses. By 1972, the year he made "The Gore-Gore Girls," Lewis tired of the low budget film business and went into advertising. Fans had to wait thirty years before the man returned to give us 2002's "Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat." If you have never had the pleasure of watching one of Lewis's films, I insist that you go out and rent one immediately. Don't worry about finding them on DVD because all of these titles are readily available, usually stocked with many extras. You might want to watch the films before you dive into Randy Palmer's comprehensive study of Lewis's film career because the book contains MAJOR spoilers.

The reader quickly learns that the director earned a master's degree in journalism and a doctorate in psychology before stepping into stints in radio and television in the early 1950s. Lewis moved from these fields into the exciting world of industrial films, eventually forming his own small film company in Chicago and thereby gaining the rudimentary skills necessary for his later career as a schlock filmmaker. The big jump into feature films came when a friend asked Lewis why he wasn't making films for the cinema houses. Fortuitous events soon arose that brought Lewis into the world of the "nudie" films, or short features that showed nubile young women prancing around nudist colonies in Florida. The director's first and second films, "The Prime Time" and "Living Venus" were box office bombs, but from these mistakes he learned how to squeeze product out of small budgets. The road to "Blood Feast" began when Lewis teamed up with David Friedman, a fellow independent filmmaker, and the two embarked on a successful career making "nudie" films. When problems arose with some of these movies, the two sat down and tried to think of a sure fire way to rake in big bucks. According to Lewis, in the early 1960s there were two ways for a low budget filmmaker to make money: make movies loaded with sex or violence. Choosing violence as their raison d'etre, the result was "Blood Feast," shot in a matter of days with a mere twenty five thousand dollar budget. The film was a huge hit and Lewis's notoriety was born.

Author Randy Palmer outlines Lewis's entire career, from the heady days of his association with David Friedman, the lawsuits against partners and production companies, and the numerous headaches that arose when shooting films. The book contains some great anecdotes about such diverse topics as the difficulties of working with Connie Mason to finding people willing to squeeze an animal's eyeball for effect. Each gore film receives a scene by scene breakdown from Palmer, followed by plenty of commentary from Lewis. Who knew that the sheep's tongue used in "Blood Feast" stunk so badly that even dousing the thing in Pine Sol wouldn't kill the odor? Lewis eventually had to jettison the idea of putting the tongue in the actress's mouth, relying instead on a more restrained shot for the scene. Not only do we learn how Lewis constructed many of the effects for his films, we also learn about some of his great disappointments. For example, in "The Wizard of Gore" Lewis wanted to use a goat carcass in the final scene to simulate a human body being pulled apart. Regrettably, the owner of the apartment where they shot that scene worried about the effects such a gory stunt would have on his carpet so Lewis opted for what we see in the movie. The book has a decidedly DVD commentary feel to it, but often goes above and beyond anything you would hear on a movie disc.

One problem with Palmer's book concerns a lack of information from Lewis associates. Where are the interviews with David Friedman, Connie Mason (!), Mal Arnold, Bill Kerwin, Ray Sager, or other people he worked with frequently? Comments from others would definitely provide even greater insights into this filmmaker's career. Despite these omissions, the book works due in large part to the huge input from Lewis himself. Anyone who has listened to a commentary for one of his films knows this guy is not only articulate but hilarious as well. You get a lot more of that type of talk here, with Lewis waxing philosophic on every aspect of his career. It is sort of sad that the world Herschell Gordon Lewis moved in is long gone because there are no more drive-ins clamoring for cheap and cheesy product. Lewis claims he is no longer a filmmaker, but the emergence of his "Blood Feast" sequel last year along with the impression he gives here about his moviemaking days gives me hope that we can get this guy behind the camera again. Wouldn't a sequel to "The Wizard of Gore" be divine?