Vixen/Supervixens/Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens
Directed by Russ Meyer.
Starring Erica Gavin Harrison Page, Garth Pillsbury, Charles Pitts, Shari Eubank, Charles Napier, John Lazar, Kitten Natividad, Sharon Kelly, Ann Marie, Uschi Digard, Candy Samples, Stuart Lancaster, Russ Meyer.
SYNOPSIS:
The first three restored Russ Meyer movies in 4K UHD, released by Severin Films in partnership with The Russ Meyer Trust.
Unfortunately, not a box set featuring the works of infamous cult director Russ Meyer, but three individual releases with connective titles from the late filmmaker that signify a partnership between boutique specialists Severin Films and The Russ Meyer Trust, and the first time his movies have officially been available in a pristine HD format.
And what movies they are to watch in glorious 4K UHD! If you are not familiar with the works of Russ Meyer then be warned that his riotous sex comedies are not for everybody, especially if gratuitous nudity and bizarre sex offend you, but don’t worry because you are catered for elsewhere. For those looking for a good time with maybe a little bit of a message – albeit a snarky, two-fingered salute to the establishment-type of message – then these are the movies for you, but the movies themselves only tell part of the story, as the real glory here is how gorgeous these new transfers are.
Going in chronological order, 1968s Vixen is the first of the bunch, as well as being the shortest and the most political of the three, touching on the taboos of the time like racism, sexism, incest, homosexuality and pretty much anything else that Meyer could fit into his story of the titular Vixen Palmer (Erica Gavin), who is married to Tom (Garth Pillsbury), a bush pilot in the wilds of Canada. When Tom is out flying tourists around the countryside, Vixen is having a whale of a time with anyone she feels like, usually guests at the resort the Palmers’ own, sometimes her younger brother but not her brother’s friend Niles (Harrison Page), whom she taunts about his skin colour and the fact he dodged the Vietnam draft.
Enter an attractive husband and wife who wish to stay at the resort, as Vixen has her eyes all over the new male arrival, but his wife doesn’t seem to have the same effect on Tom when she tries to prove she is as sexy as Vixen – what is a woman to do?
There is more to Vixen, especially in the final act – which feels a little tacked on as it shifts the fun and carefree tone into siege movie territory – but as an introduction to Meyer’s work it is a solid one. Erica Gavin absolutely shines as the nymphomaniac Vixen, oozing 1960s counterculture sexuality and giving form to the director’s obvious ‘progressive’ worldview, but if you don’t really want the politics and just want the sex then there is plenty as Gavin spends most of the movie naked and straddling whomever she happens to be sharing screentime with. It also helps that the quality of acting is also pretty high, especially from Harrison Page (probably best known as Joshua in the Jean-Claude Van Damme movie A.W.O.L. /Lionheart), and Meyer’s camera never stops moving, adding a sense of energy to proceedings.
Next up is 1975s Supervixens and, much like Alien becoming Aliens, the stakes are bigger as there are more threats on the horizon, although these are facehuggers of a different kind. After a bust-up with his jealous wife SuperAngel (Shari Eubank), mechanic Clint (Charles Pitts) goes off to clear his head whilst she has a good time with corrupt local cop Harry Sledge (Charles Napier), which gets out of hand after things don’t seem to be happening in a certain department and Sledge ends up brutally murdering her.
Blamed for the crime, Clint goes on the run across the country, meeting up with several strange characters along the way, including German nymphomaniac SuperSoul (Uschi Digard), SuperCherry (Sharon Kelly) and strip club owner SuperVixen, who is also played by Shari Eubank so you can guess where this going. However, ol’ Harry is hot on Clint’s trail, and when he catches up with the runaway mechanic the scene is set for carnage as the enraged cop wants his revenge.
A little darker in tone than Vixen, Supervixens is still a hoot as Russ Meyer knows what you came here for and has no problem in giving it to you as every woman instantly throws their clothes off and runs about with body parts jiggling like they’re going to fall off. Charles Napier is probably the most familiar face here – was he ever young? – and does the angry, square-jawed tough guy schtick that he became known for in movies like The Blues Brothers and Rambo: First Blood Part II the following decade, and the final act where he catches up with Clint and goes on the warpath is nothing short of hilarious. For his part, Charles Pitts is the weakest link, having the looks but not the acting chops or charisma to pull off a fairly demanding role for a movie like this, although it is Shari Eubank pulling double-duty that wins the plaudits for putting in a performance.
At 105 minutes, Supervixens is easily 20 minutes too long and does begin to lag before Charles Napier goes off the deep end, but of the three movies it is probably the most straightforward and rewatchable.
Which leaves 1979s Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens to try and top the madness we have already seen, which it does but not in a good way. In Russ Meyer’s final theatrical movie, all bets are off as plot – or what has passed for plots already – and performance have gone out of the window in favour of gratuitous sex. Yes, we have already seen all manner of naked body parts being put up on the screen to gawp at in glorious UHD, but in this movie it doesn’t seem quite so fun or exciting, and even a little bit too sleazy.
This is mainly because Meyer’s camera goes in closer than it did in the other movies, lingering for far too long and at angles which wouldn’t seem out of place in an educational biology film. Again, we know why we’re here but there doesn’t seem to be anything beyond the sex, with no subtext, satirical message or digs at the establishment to keep you invested. Instead, we get several short stories about how uptight people should be having more sex, linked by narrator and Russ Meyer regular Stuart Lancaster, and lots of weird and wacky set pieces as various characters go about getting their ends away, but it all feels a bit desperate, not very funny and despite some daft sex scenes with lots of buxom women taking control of their respective situations, it feels only a slap-and-tickle-or-two away from hardcore porn in a few places, which loses it a little of the charm that Meyer’s earlier works had.
As previously stated, the movies themselves are only part of the appeal of these releases, as the real point-scoring element is how fantastic they all look in 4K UHD. To break it down, Vixen is probably the best looking, with its bright and cheerful 1960s colour scheme really popping out amidst the crystal-clear image, but given that this is a Russ Meyer movie then the colours aren’t the only thing popping out, and yes, all the bumps and blemishes are there to see, so much so that had these movies been in 3D you could probably bring a sexual harassment charge against Severin, such is the quality of the visuals.
Supervixens and Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens are equally as lush, although the latter does have one or two minor inconsistencies in picture quality, but this is nit-picking as it is a restoration of a cheap nudie cutie from over 40 years ago and probably shouldn’t look as good as it does.
Each disc comes with an archive commentary from Russ Meyer, ported over from previous DVD and Laserdisc releases, plus Vixen also comes with an added commentary by Erica Gavin. There are also cast interviews, trailers, a feature on Meyer’s battles with censorship, Russ Meyer TV appearances and, probably the best of the bunch, an episode of Jonathan Ross’s The Incredibly Strange Film Show featuring Russ Meyer, which may not mean a lot to anyone outside of the UK, but this was TV gold for cult film fans back in the day.
Overall, these are excellent presentations of films that aren’t the greatest in the world but do showcase a true auteur filmmaker making the movies that others dared not. Needless to say, they won’t appeal to everyone and will probably offend quite a few, but these releases aren’t for those people – these are for the fans, the collectors and the connoisseurs, those who can laugh at the silliness of the human body, embrace the carefree spirit of maverick filmmaking and appreciate art in all of its glorious forms. With the quality of these restorations being so high and there being many more softcore classics in his catalogue worthy of rediscovery, let us hope this is the beginning of a 4K UHD Russ Meyer renaissance. We deserve it.
Vixen – Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Supervixens – Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens – Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Chris Ward
