198: Asylum of Girdler

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What's up and welcome to Movie Meltdown. I'm Brian. I'm Marlena. I'm Ben. I'm Fred.

I'm Dave. And we are coming to you live. Is it okay to use the term live here? I mean, we're surrounded by a lot of non-live. We're coming to you live from the graveyard, actually.

In this, our spooky Halloween episode, I thought it would be fitting to do it in the graveyard. So, specifically, we came out here not just to hang out in a graveyard. Not that that's not fun, and I have done that on many occasions, but. We thought while we were here, you know, we do have a specific movie-related person buried in our town in a graveyard not too far from most of us. So we're actually standing right next to the grave of director William Girdler.

Should we go into a little basics on him here? Can I just say one thing? Yes. Irma Girdler. I just thought that up, and I had to say it.

That was for Misty and Lisa. I was going to say, I did not understand that reference. I'm sure he does not appreciate it. That was for Lisa and Misty, and maybe Randy. No, that's the one down on the end.

The headstone there is Irma Girdler. That's his great-grandmother, I believe. William, we're sorry about this. If you listen to the show up there, this is how it always is. I hate to tell you.

I don't know. Do we want to give a little basics on him while we're here? Let's hear about him. William Brent Girdler, Bill Girdler, exploitation filmmaker from the 70s here in Louisville. Buried at Cave Hill Cemetery in the Johnson Settle plot, which I think Nona and William were his grandparents.

And I think that's why he wanted to be buried here as opposed to wherever the rest of the Girdlers are buried. Yeah, I wondered why his name was different. The Girdlers were a pretty wealthy... construction family here in town. And, uh, he never was interested in the family business. So he started to go off and make films when he was young, uh, much to their, uh, chagrin.

And, um, the first film he made, uh, was Asylum of Satan, uh, starring, uh, we'll be talking about that, starring a local, another local legend, which is, uh, Charles Kissinger, who was the local horror host back in the seventies, the fear monger on Freight Night on WDRB. So, um, I think Bill wanted to be Alfred Hitchcock. I think that's kind of obvious when you watch Asylum of Satan and Three on a Meat Hook. He really liked doing the twist endings with the bending of sexual roles. Interesting stuff.

Bill was really headed up. He had done a lot of interesting movies. A lot of really entertaining movies here in Lowell. And then moved up to Hollywood and was on the way up to doing some pretty big features when he was killed in a helicopter accident in the Philippines. in the late seventies while he was scouting locations. But, uh, I really, really enjoy the movies he made here.

They're not great, but they're extremely entertaining. I give him credit for, for just ambition for, for even something as simple as the one we'll be talking about today. It's like he, he still goes above and beyond most of those type of movies, even at that time, even stuff they were shooting in Hollywood, I think is, is a very, uh, A grand scale of what he was going for. It's arguable whether he got it. But, you know, I have to give him points for doing it.

Just some of the others. I mean, aside from, you know, something major like Grizzly. I mean, that was kind of huge. Grizzly was huge. I did Day of the Animals, you know, later for AIP.

And then the biggest film he did was The Manitou, which was the last film he did. I think my favorite film of his is Abby, which was his blaxploitation ripoff of The Exorcist, which is probably the film he's best known for. And I think it's an incredibly entertaining, great movie, which got him sued pretty quickly by Warner Brothers. As to how that actually worked out, it's a matter of opinion. Some people say Warner actually won the suit.

Some people say they didn't. In any case, AIP kind of caved and destroyed supposedly all the 35mm prints. There are 16mm prints floating around out there. We showed one here about 10 years ago as part of our little festival. And it has been out on DVD on sort of a semi-legitimate market a couple of times.

As has Asylum of Satan. I think Something Weird. Did they put that out? Yeah, Something Weird's got a split version, I think. And he did a film here which is hardly ever seen.

It's got a variety of titles. Panic City, a.k.a. Zebra Killer, which was kind of like Dirty Harry in Louisville. And it was a pretty impressive little movie. Also, of course, Sheba Baby with Pam Greer, which is another film, I guess.

It's a well-known movie, but it's not well-known that Bill did that. Zebra Killer was the star who I'm thinking it was in that one. That one, Leslie Nielsen. No, no, that's Project Kill. Project Kill.

I knew there was one he did. I've never seen Project Kill. That was shot in the Philippines. Okay. Zebra Killer, I think Austin Stoker is in that as well.

And a lot of his usual regulars. I mean, Charles Kissinger popped up in most movies, and he had some other folks that did. A lot of work. But yeah, he was. He was one of the ones that worked with Nielsen when he was still trying to be a straight actor, which he did for years and years and years, and nobody remembers him for that.

But those in particular, except the Louisville films, are the ones that have always appealed to me. Three on a Meat Hook is a really, even compared to A Silence of Satan, extremely low budget, because he made that when he was forced to retreat after A Silence of Satan. It was not well received. But then you had Three on a Meat Hook, which hit the drive-in circuit and did pretty well. And I haven't seen that in a long time.

Just literally the other day, like two days ago, I stumbled across it at a video. Store here locally on DVD. But as it was $ 25, I just couldn't fork it out. So I'll think about it. It's out there now.

We know. It's still out there. I think if you were going to do a blaxploitation ripoff of The Exorcist, it would be really hard to resist calling it The Blaxorcist. I think somebody did. I think there's another one.

That had to have been on a short list. I know Mad Magazine probably did something like that. I think there is a Black Surcist. That wouldn't surprise me. Yeah, Abby.

Pretty much, not shot for shot, but very close. Blaxploitation version of The Exorcist. Like I said, just a very entertaining movie. It was made money. That's why they kept making it.

It was made money. AIP made a ton of money for AIP. That was full swing at the time. A few years ago, when we had our little Girdler Festival here, we were able to get Carol Speed, the star, of Abby to come into town. I had a great time with her.

Claude Fulkerson, who was another local actor, who's in a lot of Bill's movies. I think he's one of the evil attendants in Asylum of Satan. And then Abby, he's a guy she picks up in a bar and kills in her car. But Bill's still around. And it was kind of fun a few years ago.

We took around a little tour of Louisville. We went down to the church in the West End where a lot of the action for Abby takes place. And they were having a choir practice that day and walked in, and a lot of the women who were in the choir, you know, circa 1974, were still in the choir. And they remembered her, and she remembered them, and they all started singing. It was a pretty cool event.

Choir for life. Yeah. Wow. A lot of fun. You know, there's just a lot of appeal there.

And like I said, that's my favorite. Get a kick out of Abby. And William Marshall, you know, playing the exorcist. So it's a great film. He made some pretty big strides in a short amount of time.

I mean, he only had a few years to make movies, made quite a few of them, and, you know, ended up making some fun stuff and working with some pretty big people. Yeah. I mean, he worked. He continued to work. He would get discouraged, but then he'd pick it all up again and shoot.

And this is in an era where you're still shooting film. This was expensive stuff. It's 35 millimeters. And he'd find some investors or he'd get the family behind it. His brother-in-law was his producer on most of his local films.

And he'd just keep working. And he had a lot of gumption. And he got a lot of local media coverage back then. And it was fun to watch. I was a little kid, and I was vaguely aware of what was going on.

But then a few years ago, when we'd do the articles in the festival, I talked to his second wife, and she still had a lot of his paperwork. She had his shooting script for the Manitou and his scrapbooks. And it was fascinating to look through all that stuff. and just see what he had accomplished. There's always these rumors about what he would have done. I don't know, a legendary rumor that he was on the short list to shoot The Empire Strikes Back, which is hard to believe.

I thought Jedi had that weird short list. Yeah, it's just one of those things, but he was definitely making strides. When the Manitou premiered, that's the one that I was most conscious of. That was, I think, 77 or 78. I think it actually premiered after his death.

Of course, that had Burgess Meredith and a lot of other big people in it. It was a pretty good supernatural thriller. It gets a little silly with the big supernatural showdown part, but it's fun. Got a lot of press, got a lot of release, based on a pretty fun book. He was on the way, and things just went the wrong way for him.

They were shooting a lot of stuff in the Philippines in the 70s. Don't trust helicopter pilots in the Philippines is the moral of this story. This is right around the same era, I guess, when they were shooting Apocalypse Now. So he was over there to do something else. And, you know, Coppola tells a story about how they'd have their helicopter pilots, you know, shooting scenes, and then suddenly they'd all veer off and go in another direction because they had to go fight some insurgents.

Yeah. So they were utilizing the real Air Force, but they had to go do their job occasionally, and they didn't know what was going on. It's kind of a dangerous job. He probably wasn't using the real Air Force, and the guy didn't know what he was doing. So he had a private pilot.

I think they got entangled in some kind of power line and went down. What was the film he was making? I can't remember what the film he was scheduled for in the Philippines was. I'd have to go back and look it up. I know that it was slated.

I guess it was an AIP production, but I don't remember the title on it. Well, we thought, you know, it wouldn't be cool to come hang out here with him and not bring him something. So we did bring him some, I picked specifically a bunch of blood red flowers. I thought William would appreciate that. And rather than a cheesy vase, we went with a black cup with bats on it.

Again, I thought, you know, William would definitely have a little more fun with that than boring traditional flowers. He seems like a man who would appreciate some camp. I think so. All right. Well, I guess, you know, it's It's actually not bad out here.

It was supposed to be, like, stormy and breezy, and it actually was raining for a minute when we got here, but now it's not too bad. But I think, though, you know. Bill's son lives fairly nearby here in the neighborhood, Branton. I think he lives just right over here on Hilliard. Because he came to the festival.

He and his mother, Bill's first wife, actually came. And they had a good time. They got a kick out of it. They were happy to see that people still remembered, you know, what he had done back in the day. So the family still has a presence here.

Curiously, the person who did the most work on digging up history on Gertler and his films was a girl named Patty Breen, who was not from here. A friend of mine stumbled across a website, williamgertler.com, which was beautiful and highly detailed. We found out it's from this girl in Pennsylvania. We're like, what's a girl in Pennsylvania doing getting obsessed with William Gertler? Because it's such a local phenomenon.

And we started talking and hit it off with her really good, and she was a big part of the festival a few years ago. Was working on a book, had a ton of interviews, a ton of great material, found photos and all kinds of behind-the-scenes stuff. We had the Girdler Fest, and then she vanished. I have not heard from her or seen her since. She got married and went away.

If you're still out there, email us and let us know. She's out there. I know she's out there, but she's not responding. So maybe she found out something. She shouldn't have.

Secret. So she never published the book? Interesting. Nope. A ton of great material.

We went to all the Gertler filming sites, interviewed the family. You name it, she's got it. But it all just kind of evaporated. I don't know why. Uncovered something she did.

This sounds like the plot of a good movie, actually. Yeah, some dark secret from their past. I like it. It's very meta. Like, I feel like, you know, hire Wes Craven, you know, about the life.

Yeah, we could actually make this work. Patty, if you're out there, if you do hear this, please get back in touch. We should write this movie and then we'll make Bo direct it. That's not a bad idea. Yeah.

Speaking of which, I think that's why we're going to wander off. Bo's a big Girdler fan himself, and he's not too far. So we think we're going to go bother him at work right now. So we'll take a break here, and when we come back, we'll go see if we can sit down and discuss this week's movie. When I live with snakes and.

Lizards and other things that go on in. My life, it's me every day. It's Halloween, I'm giving up. Commission time. If leaving, please replace your inner car speaker before releasing brakes or starting motor.

Do not back out. Drive to the aisle in front of you and exit. And now, for those remaining... I've got Abby! What do you think of my powers now?

American International presents Abby, the story of a woman possessed. I. She took the devil for a lover, and he possessed her body and soul. Abby, a story of terror, lust, and exorcism. Grab her arms and hold her.

Abby, starring William Marshall as the exorcist. I command you to vacate this body now. And Carol Speed as Abby. Can anyone stop her? Can anyone help her?

Can anyone save her soul? I've got Abby! Abby, the story of a woman possessed. Rated R, under 17, not admitted without parents. Are you tired of film podcasts where the hosts exist in a constant blissful state of agreement?

I mean, the main characters are two of the dullest main characters I have ever encountered in any film. Well, you're in luck. Let me introduce you to Tune Stroker and Punter. One is an ex-film. Student with a penchant for David Lynch and art cinema.

The other is a man on the street. Listen in perplexed and horrified terror as we tear apart one film a week. It just really isn't. It's not visually striking? No.

Just getting confirmation. That's the third time, though. I mean, is this on? You can find us at csvsp.libson.com. So come and share the big truth.

If you could f * * * any man in film, who would it be and why? My answer is Lance Henriksen. He wouldn't tell. He looks like somebody. He looks like somebody who can keep a secret.

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Tweaked Audio. Sounds better. I am Michael Berryman and you're listening to Michael Berryman and I'm going to tell you about Movie Meltdown. It's time for Sofa Theater. On the inside filled with terror and evil beyond belief a beautiful girl torn from the arms of love her very life a nightmare in the house of hell with no hope of escape or mercy.

What do you know about those people over there nothing we don't ask It's simpler that way. The doomed at their last meal with death as the dinner guest. If you don't mind, I didn't sleep very much last night and I'm very tired. Now the only thing I want to hear about or discuss is my immediate release. Sit down.

Awakened by a mutilated, crazed animal who seeks her beauty to appease the bloodlust of a devil bridegroom. Pursued through the canyons of hell to the edge of sanity by the bestial craving of the prince of darkness. The asylum of Satan. Beauty, tenderness destroyed as the lovers walk into the path of hell. The venomous death of a lovely innocent girl, murdered by reviling reptiles drenched in a pool of her own blood.

The pleading eyes beg for mercy. The soundless voice cries silently as the fiery flames burn into cremation. And spill his ashes. Inside the scorched walls of hell, carpeting the floor of the damned. The Asylum of Satan.

Death and murder at its most hideous. transforming a lovely young girl into a frightened animal before your very eyes. The devil beast roaming the earth, searching always, seeking a bride for his twisted paradise to reign forever beside the archdemon of hell. The Asylum of Satan. Never to be found around no more. Never find no more.

A little baby Once as fresh as a daisy A lovely lady. She's done and gone went crazy Maybe in a dream she's seen A chauffeur driven limousine Taking her out of. Town Now out of town My red light lady, I look out for the night. My red light lady, things just don't look right. All right, so we are back, and we have now relocated out of the spooky graveyard, and we are in the spooky movie theater, which, once again, is very fitting for this, um.

Do we want to plug the actual theater, or are we just telling them we're at a movie theater? I don't really care. I figure we might not, just in case. Maybe they don't want us here. They don't know where we are.

They don't know where we are. We're at the Baxter Avenue Theater, 1250 Bardstown Road, in. The Mid-City Mall. On the backside. As Brian likes to say in the recordings.

Which, this was an actual filming location for... Three on a meat hook. Mid-City Mall was, yeah. Yeah, Mid-City Mall downstairs. There was a bar and lounge and bowling alley.

You name it. Roller skating rink would be there, too. And Girdler shot his friends in a band. Yeah, it's the scene where James Pickett, it's after... I can't remember if it's right after he's killed a girl or he's like...

I think he's like scoping out, like trying to pick. Up another victim. He just goes to this bar where, yeah, it was like a. Local band that Girdler knew and they were performing there. So it goes on. very, very long because the movie's like 90 minutes.

And I want to say like this whole band set you keep seeing is like 10 of the 90. At least two or three numbers. Yeah. So the band can play. And it'll show the band and it shows him sitting at the bar drinking.

It goes back to the band again. Editing is what you're saying. But, uh, 10 years ago, almost to the day, we had the, uh, swinging 70s satan-a-thon here at the Baxter Avenue Theater. We celebrated, uh, Bill's work, and we showed Asylum of Satan on 35mm, really, really red-pink 35mm. It's the actual...

Bleed-O-Vision. Bleed-O-Vision. It's the producer's copy. It's Bill's ex-brother-in-law's print, which was a slightly different copy. It has a couple of lectures.

We showed that, and we showed Abby on 16mm. It had a good response, good crowd. It was a lot of fun. Carol Speed was here, and so was Claude Wayne Fulkerson from Asylum of Satan. He's the fellow who plays the head orderly.

He actually still lives locally just right across the river. I see him up here, I'd say, about once every couple months. He's kind of a local institution as far as voiceovers and commercials. A lot like Charlie Kissinger. Played the villain in Asylum of Satan.

Did a lot of commercial work. A lot of theater. All right, so let's get into the movie. This week's Sofa Theater feature is Asylum of Satan. The year is 1972.

Director William Girdler... The plot, according to IMDb, and there's sort of a spoiler already in here, but according to the title, you ought to figure this out. A young woman is brought to an asylum to receive special treatment from a mysterious doctor. Dr. Spector does more than just run the hospital.

He offers his patients as sacrifices to Satan. And obviously, spoiler alert, since that's. Kind of the plot of the movie right there. So, yeah. Where would you like to begin with Asylum of Satan?

The cheesy opening song? What is that song? I guess the first thing I would begin with is the similarity. I couldn't get around the similarity of the woman in the hospital to the church lady. As soon as I saw her, I thought, it's the church lady.

And then, who could be running this place? Satan? Satan? I think you're on to something here. Yeah, and I asked my wife, because I have a pretty good eye for this.

I'm like, this woman here, is that a woman? She's like, no. And I'm like, that's, yeah, that's my call. I think it's Dana Carvey. I think we need to get him on the phone.

It. It. She really has the beauty of. A pause to, you know, like, pass off as a woman. As soon as you see, like, when we showed it here, both as midnight and for the satanathon, like, the honey just cracks up.

As soon as Charlie Kissinger walks out in drag and I really want to know if back in 72 when Girdler screened it if the exact same thing happened like he walks out and everyone just laughs he. Has and she's dubbed too it's a woman's voice and you can tell it's dubbed so it's like there's something very very wrong especially towards the end of that first scene where she's like reaching down and like those man hands I'm just you can put fingernails on them and you're what but those are man hands yeah I'm embarrassed about my reaction. In my defense, the copy that we were watching was kind of grainy. I was like, I don't think that's actually a woman. And then I was like, yeah, that's definitely a man.

And Brian was like, do you think? Yeah. I used to work for this guy who would drive around to kill time in the park over there. And he would always, like, watch women jogging, but he had a terrible eye for that sort of thing. And he would be like, oh, what about her?

Wow. And I'm like, dude, that's another guy with a ponytail. You gotta. I hate how creepy people always, like, park their cars around Seneca Park and just watch people jog. That's so creepy.

Yeah, it's pretty creepy. I'm going to watch Hot Babes jog today. I'm going to look crazy. I had nothing else to do. Exactly.

You mentioned the opening credit music. I like the music. Both the opening credit and closing credit music. And the theme. Well, I like both of them, and he composed most of the music in this thing, but what I don't get is they don't match anything in the entire movie.

Neither of them. The whole red light lady thing, I don't know the lyrics and none of that really. Sync for the movie. No. Bill hit something on the back burner.

He was going to be a singer-songwriter or something. Well, if movies don't work, I'll sell tunes. Hey, I've already got my soundtrack here, so... he's a John Carpenter too. Oh yeah but John's always fit the movie as opposed to these. And what was that bootlegging movie we watched what was the oh the what is that.

Why can't I think of it we're. Waiting for the ghosts to respond. Yeah ghosts tell us that Mitchum movie yeah. The Mitchum movie with Oh, Thunder Road. Thunder Road, there we go.

Well, in that case, the song at the beginning just tells the whole story. You don't need to watch the movie. Thanks, Mitchum. That's my favorite part of the movie. The song, yeah.

It's a great song. The only thing the song doesn't have in it is he knows what a mobile is. There needs to be another verse. That's the second best part of the movie is the mobile. I thought he pronounced it mobile.

I know what a mobile is. So this one I realized why hospitals have elevators is they're hauling her body up a flight of stairs. Do we know where that part was shot? I thought it was the old Stewart's warehouse, wasn't it? Or the elevator shaft?

Well, I guess that, too. But most of the bulk of it's in that one building. Well, the estate is a real mansion that used to be out on River Road. It's gone now. It was a very well-to-do Louisville family who kind of deteriorated.

I can't remember specifically any names. There was a woman who lived there with like 20 cats or something. She had poodles. She had all these poodles. She dressed them as cats.

The whole house was full of animal crap. And they were shooting in this decayed southern mansion full of animal crap. And this is a family friend of the Gardlers, I'm sure. And then the elevator shaft, though, that was shot at the warehouse, Stewart's warehouse. Off Broadway.

Because I remember Claude Wayne Fulkerson mentioning that. He was telling this whole story. Originally, he wasn't even supposed to... I can't remember if he was supposed to be the one who got pushed down the elevator shaft or whether he wasn't supposed to play that role at all, but basically what they were going to do is when they explained it to the original guy, which is why I totally appreciate this, just the low budgetry of it. They're like, well, no, what we're going to do is to make it look like you're falling down this elevator shaft.

We're going to tie a rope around your waist and then you get at the shaft and we're all going to run towards the doorway. So that way you fall down, but we'll stop before you hit the bottom. And then the, apparently the person's like, fuck, no, I'm not doing that. And he's like, Claude, when would you do it? And he's like, I guess.

And apparently, like, when they were doing it, he said they actually, like, slipped and tripped and lost grip briefly. And they're just like, shit! Oh, my God. There goes the movie. I mean, sorry.

Zoom. Yeah. Physically run towards him with a black note. Physical filmmaking. He's got to go down that shaft.

They don't make stuff like that. It's all CG. I don't know where the pool was shot. I've heard where the pool was, and now I'm trying to remember now. It was some sort of place like the Y or something downtown.

That he was obviously kind of going for his cat people pastiche. I mean, Gertler, he knew his movies, and he knew what he wanted to copy. He wasn't that original. At the time. Like I said earlier, he was very much a Hitchcock devotee.

There's a lot of Hitchcock. In this one. He had to have the cross-dressing villain. That or even the whole main thing like as she right as you get into the story with her I'm like it's that whole wrong man accused kind of thing where she's just I shouldn't be here I didn't do anything like it's a different version of it but it's that same feeling of the whole movie of like no it's not me I swear I didn't do anything and yeah so it's it's that idea and then you see the eye looking through while she's getting undressed. Which that's the whole thing anytime I show that movie to people I mean I'll ask How many of you all here.

Saw this for the first time? Me. Why does that scene exist? Did you pick up on that? There's a lot of that stuff.

Okay, well that's the whole thing. I didn't know why the hole was so roughly gouged out. It makes drills and stuff. All the different sacrifices. Satan needed the blind, the dumb, the crippled, and a virgin.

And that's why he bathes, and that's why he's looking, pulsing with bathing and looking, and somehow. He's supposed to tell that she's a virgin. Yeah, I can tell. And then later on, when Satan's talking, and he's the garbled Satan voice, it basically says, it's like. You deceived me.

Basically, Satan thinks that Dr. Spector tricked Satan by bringing him a girl that wasn't a virgin when she was. Yeah, and I was thinking Dr. Spector's going to say, Satan, dude, you know I serve you, but I can't tell what the fuck you're saying. I just don't know.

What I want. You have all the powers of darkness. Just clear your throat. It's so vague the first time you watch it. It's hard to pick up, and that's why they have the whole really, really bad love scene flashback to tell you that she's not a virgin when she is.

Also, it was the 70s, so. What are you gonna do awesome outfits. No that guy it reminded me of like uh what the cabin in the woods it's like well we work with what. We have. But i'm supposed to be the virgin uh we work with what we have.

Well same thing with that one that's what you said more later you're like well now we see why she wants to hook up with this guy i mean look at his cool outfits that Porsche with Porsche written down the side. I mean, this guy is stylish. That was Gertler's car. Oh, nice. Because I sat there the whole time going, why did that?

You ended up having to sell it to make later stuff, didn't you? Of course, it was the cheap Porsche, the 914. Well, I mean, Porsches are nice anyway. You don't need to spell it out on the side. Well, they were actually marked that way.

Oh, I remember. I've seen them, but I always think those are the ones that look so tacky. They're being a little ostentatious. The average guy could afford because it was like a VW engine. Yeah.

Yeah. But, yeah, he worked with what he had. Yeah, that's what you do. Although Nick Jolly, no one can really explain that guy. Where did he come from?

Because he's a mystery to me. Carla Borelli, she was like on As the World Turns or some other sitcom. She was on Soap, and I had seen her do commercials. Yeah, she was like a C-grade actress that he managed to latch on to. Yeah.

Nick Jolly, I don't know what his backstory was, like where the hell Girdley found him. To me, he's so. Humble, he has to be local. It's like, I'll do it. If they just let him be the studly star, he's not.

Because I do know at least the police detective, I knew he was local. Yeah, the police detective is actually. Or no, not the police, God, who am I thinking of? No, but continue. That's Queenie B's dad.

Uh, of course, Queenie B runs the big, uh, advertising agency. Hmm. Huh. Carol Bandy Hellidge. So he wasn't an actor by trade, right?

Lou Bandy was an actor. Yeah. But mostly TV spots and stuff. And, uh, that was Lou. And then, uh.

He's a little harsh in his, uh, delivery. His daughter became Queenie B before she got into advertising. Nice. But, uh, yeah, I'd forgotten about that, that family connection. Hmm.

Uh, Yeah, and Charlie Kissinger was pretty much a local institution. I mean, he had done lots of television and lots of advertising. He was the fearmonger, and that was pretty much at the height of his fame as the fearmonger. And I think he just felt like, well, I can expand working with this director. And he's shown his job.

It's like he's the satanic priest, and he's in drag, and he even does that whole thing where it's like he's the caretaker. When they show up. And it's like he's channeling Dennis Weaver from Touch of Evil there. So it was a good chance for Charlie. You know, the fact that Charlie would go on to do Three on a Meat Hook with him too, which he's actually, I like him a lot in that film.

He's very good as the overbearing father. Yeah, Charlie's good. I mean, his performance is, again, you just see sort of the budget involved. Because then he keeps, when he has to keep changing characters, obviously they had to just keep throwing on these So even when he's the evil doctor, you can almost smell the spirit gum on that beard. When did he die?

Charlie died. I never met him. Well, he died after Girdler, correct? Oh, yeah. Charlie died in the 90s.

Early 90s, I think. Was he in all of Girdler's local Louisville films? I'm trying to remember. Yeah, he was even in Grizzly. He's got a little bit rolling in Grizzly.

I need to go back and re-watch Grizzly. I had been trying to find out who the fear monger was. He was a character from my youth. I had asked around. Nobody seemed to be able to tell me.

I actually wrote Inman. When there was a need for Inman? He never answered. I said, listen, I know you're local. You don't need to publish this letter.

Just tell me. He never answered. Within like three months, I saw Kissinger's Hobbit. Well, damn, I missed my chance. But it turned out a lot of people I knew knew him.

Jim Petersmith knew him, and some of the guys that were in the local acting scene knew him. I eventually ended up getting an autograph the guy had for him. But yeah, he kind of passed on before there was an appreciation of that whole era coming back. His agent's still around, and his family are still around. They provided some neat biomaterial and everything.

I would hate to be outlived by my age. I would just want to ride in a claw. That's the curse of Hollywood. They get buried with me. It's like the ancient Egyptian pharaohs.

Actually, I think my favorite Kissinger would probably be on Zebra Killer. I like him a lot. Yeah. That's a fun girl. I was telling him about it.

It's a Zebra Killer movie a lot of people haven't seen. It's like Dirty Harry movie. James Pickett is actually a lot of fun as the main villain. I've got to see that. Dirty Harry.

He's singing at the locations. Pickett, yeah, he would just The character, basically, he would dress in blackface, wore an afro, and he. Was trying to start basically a race war by pretending to be a black man killing white people. He was like the version of the psycho in Dirty Harry. But it was a pretty good film.

The weird thing about that is I'd seen ads for it, and I'd seen posters for it, and then I'd seen a bootleg video of it, and when I was talking to Girdler's brother-in-law, who was a producer on most of his pictures, He had zero recollection of that movie. It ends with a boat chase on the Ohio River, of all things. Well, that's Sheba. Oh, no, Sheba, baby. I'm confused.

No, Zebra Killer does end up on the Ohio at some point, doesn't it? I'm pretty sure it does. But his brother-in-law was like, oh, I don't think we ever made that. I have a copy of it at home. It went around through different titles, like Panic City and other things.

But I've seen the movie. He's like, well, I don't know anything about that. Okay, it was your brother. Very odd. The baby's going off the chase through the Kentucky State Fair.

The State Fair chase. The first use of a jet ski in a movie. With, you know, hey, we're here. That's history. That's all you need.

It's a really fun picture. And that's one that I have a good time with that one, too. Gertler, you know, gratuitously shows off Louisville. Down in the Belvedere. It was first built, so they're down in the Belvedere.

They close up a business on Main Street. Didn't get approval. Just blew it up. Just blew it up a little. There's a scene in the car wash on Broadway.

I remember that. There's a lot of local locations. He was always good about showing off his hometown. Yeah, Abbey has a fair amount of that, too. Just over in the West End, you know.

Abby, I mean, Abby is just so much fun. I've seen my niece in Louisville, Kentucky. Yeah. Plug. We were talking about Abby earlier.

That's my favorite of his films. It's the most fun, I think. But got him in the most trouble. Made a lot of money. I was going to say, I think my top three would probably be Abby and A Sign of Satan, Day of the Animals.

I like Day of the Animals as a whole. Out of all of his major Hollywood ones, that's my favorite. Yeah. It's the ultimate animal attack movie. It is.

All of nature turns against you. It's like, no, no, we're not just going to have a shark, we're not going to have a bear. Every goddamn thing is going crazy. Even Leslie Nielsen gets made crazy by it, and so he starts attacking. And it's just really funny.

It's like you've seen Leslie Nielsen playing a complete asshole. Because he's up there, there's like this mother with her daughter that are on a hiking trip. And basically the whole plot of it is Back when all of a sudden it was discovered, the concept of the ozone layer. In fact, the ozone layer had a hole developing in it. The premise of the movie is, well, since the rays of the sun are being filtered differently, if you're high enough in altitude, it makes you go crazy.

And it makes all the animals go crazy. And it just sparks this bloodlust within you. And so Leslie Nielsen is the first one to have, like, the bloodlust go. And so he just, well, that makes sense. At one point in time, he just points at the, he's like, I'll take whatever I want.

Right now I want her. And so it's like he's playing essentially a rapist. It's very weird. And there's a climax to where in the middle of, like, this thunder and lightning rainstorm, he's fighting a bear. On the top of the mountain.

Yeah. I can only picture him just slipping on a gopher and just hitting his head and just being a klutz. That's all I can picture Leslie Neeson doing. The filtering on it was just really kind of, I always thought it was kind of cool how he shot it because he makes it all look overexposed. Like the concept of more sunlight is coming in and this area is just going.

To look like bled out. It just felt sort of dirty like that. Kind of crafty for having no money, you know. Yeah, it's pretty good. By that time, it was AIP, so, you know, it was like AIP was kind of having a, kind of a second renaissance, you know.

Was Abby his first AIP? I believe so, because it made so much money, it put him instantly, you know, in their sights. It's like, well, we'll let this guy do some more stuff. So, you know, Day of the Animals. I don't think Sheba, that wasn't really AIP, was it?

I know the. I think the DVD is out. Under a more... MGM. That's AIP, but I thought it was a different...

I think it was a Warner, but it couldn't have been. Grizzly, was that also AIP? I think they ended up releasing it. I don't know if they financed it. Because that was a big deal.

It was the land-locked version of Jaws. And I remember it got lots of local advertising. It was like that Edward L. Montoro, whatever his name is. I remember.

The advertising for it was everywhere. I was a kid. I remember walking into, like, a Super X drugstore. And, you know, the gumball machines had always been around. And the big ones always took a quarter to get a toy or whatever.

I remember there was a Grizzly Puffy sticker. Oh, that's awesome. With the poster art. And we were getting one for a quarter. I was like, cool, it's a Grizzly sticker where he's looming over the girl.

I'm sure that only happened in Louisville. Yeah. That kind of promotion went on. Do you have the Puffy sticker? I do not.

Oh, my God. I really do not. That's so sad. Huh? I probably wore something, actually.

Oh, yeah. Grizzly has a weird, strong following. A lot of our friends, you know, Frank Dietz and all those guys, all love Grizzly. They have Grizzly parties, yeah. That was a Grizzly party.

Which, to me, I mean, it's fun, but it's. Not my favorite Girdler. It kind of falls in the. Middle of the road for me because he is just trying to make something that is more a Hollywood movie that's going to make money and doesn't have, like, the weird tongue-in-cheekness that a lot of his local stuff would have. Yeah.

Well, this one, I was like the... Again, it's so 70s because 70s movies became so obsessed with cult because it had everything that was about a cult. It had its little thing, and they were pushing it and making money off of it. So this one, definitely, you're a few minutes in, and you've got everybody wearing hooded robes, and it already is sort of leading you down that path. And he even pimped it at the time as to how. someone had been sent by Anton LaVey from the Church of Satan to come and supervise the ritual at.

The end to make sure it was all correct. Of course. Make sure. It's not a rectangle. You stand in a circle.

The guy's probably sitting there like, no, that's how Satan talks. No, everyone's going to think you're screwing up. On the film, but no, that's how Satan talks. Totally how he talks. In the filming of that scene where she's tied down as a sacrifice and there are all the hooded figures holding candles, the first shot you see in the distance, it's like, is that somebody dressed as a hamster?

And it's actually the circles in the two stars on the wall, but they just happen to be right behind the head. And so the first thing is like this sort of Mickey Mouse-ier. Thing standing over there. Not Satan. Yeah.

I've always suspected. Mickey Mouse, yeah. I'm trying to tell us. It's like the weird pulsating that the face makes. Oh, yeah.

Well, yeah. There's the big claim that that mask was actually used in... Rosemary's Baby. But it was too terrifying to show in Rosemary's Baby. It was too awful to show.

And I've watched Rosemary's Baby and I'm like, I don't really. That macrame pillow on the couch was too horrible to show in Rosemary's Baby. Now it's supposedly just a bodysuit. Was the same bodysuit that he wears? It's like a gorilla suit.

It kind of is. What was your description of the mask, Marlena? It looked like it was made of food. It did. It really did.

The eyes were Cheerios. Yeah, and the ears were carrots. Or the horns were carrots. It looked like it was something made. It was made from the craft table.

We need a monster quick. Here. Guacamole. They'll never notice. Looks delicious.

Well, again, Satan is all about indulgence, so, you know, it just seems about right. But he looked like he was made of vegetables. I mean, I would think, like. Well, when I eat vegetables, I think, oh, Satan. Tastes like hell to me.

Tastes like despair. At least rocks. Asparagus. Oh, God. At least rocks don't taste like despair.

I mean, the only drawback to Silent Satan is I feel like it does linger and just kind of fart around too much. Oh, I'm still stuck here. He's really stretching it to feature length. He's dooming himself by doing that. I do have a copy of that script, I think.

Do you have a copy? I think I have a copy of the first, because. I think it was usually called The Asylum of Dr. Specter or something like that. Yeah, I knew it had that title or something.

I have a copy at home. I have to dig up. It's a thin script. He did a lot of stretching. Yeah, it kind of feels like it.

I know he just wanted to get his run. Time in, because... Maybe now it's barely at 80 minutes. Yeah, it was kind of amateurish thinking, thinking, well, I've got to make a feature. I'll do this, and He'd use family money, and he had local investors, and premiered it at the Vogue out in St.

Matthews with family. They were all pretty much aghast. What exactly, I mean, I'm assuming they had issues with somebody being in drag, probably, but aside from that, was it violence? You know, because it's a tame movie. Yeah, in its way.

It's kind of charming about Gertler's films at that period is They tackle, you know, odd subject matter, but they're pretty tame, especially asylum. I don't know, just the fact of it, but they just thought it was tasteless. Which is why we like it. Yeah. I know, you know, yeah, there wasn't a lot of acceptance of some of the ideas that are in that.

Charlie Kissinger was gay, and his family still won't acknowledge that fact to this day. Oh, he was a great guy. I'm sure he was a great guy. They just won't go there. You'd see that Charlie looked at this as an opportunity to do something fairly outrageous and have fun.

And at that time, you couldn't do, yeah. No. Stop it. And, you know, a lot of, you know, odd social taboos back then in Louisville. Certainly.

So, yeah, I just think the fact that it was a horror film, the fact that it was sort of an exploitation movie, the fact that Satan was involved, it's a cross-stressing craze. I think Satan has been following me I always wonder with the investors, is nobody paying attention along the way when you're investing? It's the thing that still goes on. It's like, we're making a movie. It's great, we're making a movie.

It's that scene out of Ed Wood where he's scamming people into paying. For his movie. It goes on to this day. They get starry-eyed over it and they don't really see what's really being made. And it still happens locally, too.

Actually, I know of a school that produces plays and They approve them. They have the script. They've done them before in the past. It's been going on for decades. And then after it goes up, they'll go, there was drinking in Maine.

You knew that. But it's a process they go through of producing something that they know what it is, and then they're aghast at it. There's a nude scene in here? Wait a minute. One person complains that they have a line.

I saw hair at actors, and my wife and I turned to each other and almost like simultaneously said, they really went out on the nudity, didn't they? I keep trying to convince at my school, because I'm friends with the drama teacher, I'm like, just do some Samuel Beckett on Bullet County. I want that to happen. I do too. No one will get it.

I'll just find it funny. I want to do their performance. I was watching this show in class the other day, and they interviewed Jack McNaughton, who did Henry. And he was saying, you know, everything, when you're watching it in a theater at home, seems so incredibly gruesome. When you're shooting it, it's ridiculous.

You know, like, you can see everything that's going on, and it just seems so silly, but then you watch it, and it's almost shocking how disturbing it is after the fact that it's all, like, put together. Yeah. I mean, the film is made in editing, yeah. Mm-hmm. So, you know, after Asylum of Satan, you know, kind of put William in the basement as.

Far as his financing and his reputation... He stayed there, you know, for quite a while. I can't remember when Meathook was made. Meathook was the year after. Was it a year?

I'm saying it was 72 and Meathook was 73. Because I know he literally had to go out to, like, LaGrange and then found somebody who would be willing to let him use the property. I think it was literally him and Pat, his brother-in-law. That was it. They were the only people with money into it.

The irony on that was that's the one that got picked up. That's the one that got distributed. The drive-in circuit. Which, you know, clever title. Not only that, but at that time there were so many other Ed Gein-inspired movies just popping up.

People dug that stuff. And there was a market. There were regional filmmakers all around. There were guys who were doing that kind of work in smaller cities. And they knew that they could do it because there would always be a circuit to promote.

That's all gone. Yeah, it's such a different system now. Video came and kind of expanded on that to where you could make something and get it distributed on VHS in the 80s and actually do well. But now there's no market like that, so these kind of guys. Well, it's three on a meter because the silliest of all his deaths by far to where it's like out in the barn, this axe comes swinging and cuts a girl's head off.

But the way he did the cutting the head off is... they like cut a hole in the side of the barn and had her stick her head through and they put the axe like in the wall underneath her so she rested her head on top of the axe and they got a fake body and just started filming and they just. Like drop it and let it fall away. Yeah, her head's still on the axe. That takes some precision with the axe to get to do that trick. Quick shot.

And it's got the Hitchcockian surprise ending to it. Yeah. Of course, it's not the guy you think is the killer. It's his dad, but he's actually killing for the mother that he thought was dead. Who's a cannibal.

This is not complicated at all. It's a double whammy Hitchcock there. Oh, man. Well, I don't know. This one doesn't have that ending exactly.

It's got another one of those 70s clichés of just weird, throw-it-at-you kind of ending. There's that extra little... you think something else is going on. You've got to have that with most movies, but I don't know. That whole final scene with Satan, I guess we'll pretend like he is. Yeah, I don't know.

What was your take on the whole wrap-up there? Oh. Yeah. it's just there yeah because I'm like was that was that really what he was going for because it just seems sort of thrown in especially that last part where they just come in and it's just sort of over and I don't know it just seems like they didn't know what else to do with it. At that point I think so I think it they can look good on paper yeah you know and I think I think it. Ends the same way in the script I have but it's yeah it's just like.

That's where the the inability to construct a logical narrative takes over It's like, well, we shot all. This, but there's no material. We don't have coverage. And even then, it's like. That's where it ends, the end.

And you don't even get the beginning. Like, do we ever find out what happened? Like, why she ended up there? I mean, it was all part of his plan, but at the same time, it's like, what happened to her that she ended up there? Exactly.

Yeah, all that's just sort of glossed over. It's all. And then there's one of the cops is just standing there in the scene, and he kind of looks toward the camera at it, for a minute, like, is this all I'm gonna do? Is this all I get to do here? Well, that's the other thing, like, that scene, well, there's a couple of times they go to, I guess that's the police station that they're yelling at each other at when the boyfriend's there.

And. Is it just me? I know that second time they were in there all by themselves. Granted, I'm basing all my police station experience with movies and TV, but there's always like 400 people. There's noise.

Yeah, there's phones ringing. It's the cliche stuff. In this one, it's like they've got the building that kind of looks like your standard cop office, but it's just dead. I don't know. I think that was probably shot at one of his dad's offices.

Yeah. And it doesn't look bad. It's just, it's funny that there was just nobody around. You know, LPD establishing exterior. Yeah.

Cut to this blank looking office. For some reason, those scenes really made me miss Toma. It was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid. I loved Toma. Oh, especially like when he lost his gun and he had to go in and tell his boss.

He was just like, oh. Yeah, I lost my peace. What? I love Toma. That was a great show.

Well, the whole 70s genre of cop shows and cop movies. I think Gertler was really enamored with that stuff. That's why he ended up doing Zebra Killer. He always had cops in his movies. He always had these guys.

Yeah, this one's just a dick. There's never a moment when you're not like, Dude, calm down. What the hell? It says cynical in my character. And that's the way I'm going to be.

Whether you like it or not. Playing an adjective. Don't have much of a script, but we've got an adjective. Cynical, cynical. How am I going to go there?

Let's go with cynical. Yeah, it's all very, you know. In your face cardboard stuff going on that's part of the charm but it's also part of why the movie. Just any movie from the 70s brings back so much oh yeah that was the 70s like the exorcist itself when i saw that again i couldn't believe all the stuff i'd forgotten like uh When the doctor prescribed... No, when she goes to see the doctor first, he's like, cigarette?

Smoking. The smoking doctor. Cigarette. And then he prescribes Ritalin. Oh, yeah.

Ritalin, which was pretty new at the time, but your child is possessed by Satan. We've got Ritalin. That'll take care of it. And then, like, the party where the guy's just falling down drunk, and they're like, you're. So drunk, go home.

Here are your keys. Here are your keys. Get out of here. And then the. Next day, everybody's shocked.

He's dead? What could have happened? Stop to think. What could have happened? We just saw him drunk last night.

Driving. Driving home. I don't know. It was a simpler time. Yeah, it was.

I mean, I have. Friends whose dads were cops in the 70s and they said it wasn't uncommon for like... them to hang out at a bar all day and then be like, all right, let's get in our cars and drive around and pull people over. It's just the way things worked. Over the past 30 years, entertainment has sanitized a lot. Nobody's smoking.

Nobody's behaving irresponsibly. Nobody's masturbating with a crucifix yeah. It's all the specifics even the shots are unconventional now it was a pretty unconventional shock for any era but yeah it's just they were more reflective of real life and now movies. In general aren't or are which is scary to the point it's weird sometimes how unlike that they are I'll watch even from the 80s and you'll see somebody light one up yeah It's like, oh, it wouldn't do that in that at all. Well, I went on, and I remember calling out the, like, especially the new run of horror movies.

Like, I specifically cited, in a previous episode, the new Nightmare on Elm Street, like, where none of the kids have sex. Like, they show no affection towards each other. Like, it's the most, like, TV, like, not even like normal Gossip Girl kind of TV show. They show plenty of that. It's like an 8 o'clock squeaky clean world where, like, nothing goes on.

And I'm like, that is weird. And I'm like, I don't even know, it's rated R. Like, I don't even know what you're presenting with that. Well, it's like, they're getting away with a lot there. Yeah.

Well, it's like the new generation's idea of what a horror movie should be. It's like, it should hit these points, it's like, then this person dies, and it's like all logical, and the people don't interact like real people, and it's just odd seeing, like, these remakes where there's... It is. Reflective of, you know, culture to a great extent. Yeah.

I mean, I went to this, you know, this Nick Cave show down in Nashville last year. Oh, that sounds awesome. And, you know, it was with the Grinderman, and, I mean, it's one of the loudest, rockiest shows I've ever been at. But this young couple standing in front of me, and they're not moving. They're like 19, 20, 21 maybe.

I guess it was 21. They're just staring at me. Because it's not what they listen to. So therefore they could not process the rock. And all the 50-year-olds are getting, you know, it's great.

And they were there, and they were just staring. And finally, like, right towards the end, the one guy started kind of bobbing his head a little. And I just kept staring like this. And then the band goes off. Oh, it's like Back to the Future, where he starts doing handwrites.

Yeah, exactly. But then the band goes off, you know. It's like, good night, folks. Well, you know, they're going to come back for an encore, but they left. They've never been to a show.

That was too much. They were just like, oh, I guess it's over. Maybe they've just never been to a show. I've been to a lot of shows recently where there's younger people who are misinterpreting the music. Like, it was. close to st patrick's day and the fogues were playing at knock bar and this this like young couple they start playing like a pair of brown eyes and this young couple they're like dancing like slow dance i'm like this is not a romantic.

Song yeah this is like a this. Sounds romantic maybe but it's not like a loving pair of brown eyes it's not what they're talking about you're not paying attention. You know, if their frame of reference is Bieber or something, it's like, well, I guess they don't know what this is. Slow dancing to anything by Ian McShane is just odd. No roads, no roads.

It doesn't work. Well, yeah, it's where culture's gone. At least in the 70s and 80s, early 80s, people were real. People were getting fucked up and going to bed. And it was just like, I don't know.

Yeah, I remember seeing some movies, and I remember seeing the. Movie in the theater... when I was a kid in. The 70s, and seeing the same movie in a theater with an audience decades later, and everything's different. People respond. I remember seeing, what was it, Uma Guma, the.

Pink Floyd movie? And there was just a scene where David Gilmour says something like, well, people think we do drugs, and we don't do drugs. You can trust us. And then his. Tongue is hanging out of his lip for a second.

And when the tongue disappeared, it's like, oh, excuse me. Everybody laughed. Everybody thought it was so funny. And then I saw it. Decades later, and the audience was like, they don't do drugs.

That's good. He seems like a good role model for kids. Well, I mean, that's something, watching Asylum of Satan, I think that's one of the things I respond to, because if you look at the basics of it, it's pretty cheesy, and it seems like it would be something to just laugh at, but I think it's... Again, I come back to that 70s tone, especially in horror movies, but even the action movies kind of have their own grimy tone, but the horror movies specifically have such a thing. If you just like that tone, and you like that type of movie...

There's like a whole bunch of them out there, and this one fits it perfectly. It's just those creepy scenes, some of which I don't even know why they're there. What's the one-eyed werewolf for? I'm not really sure, but it's kind of awesome. There's also something, too, just about the fashion.

That works with horror. It's horror alright to me that guy's plaid jacket foreshadows the beast at the end I. Don't know that's rivaling the checkered pants because the checkered. Pants oh the pants too yeah they just just the whole thing it tells you that something horrible is happening in this world it was. Everywhere though yeah it was everywhere TV.

The Sears catalog everywhere And, you know, it was that whole weird homogenization of the 60s that was taking place in the 70s. In the 60s, people dressed wild if they were counterculture. Now it gets assimilated. This is the series catalog version of the 60s. What they called the plastic people who would dress up as hippies on weekends.

It's there. It's very evident. Yeah. You know, I had some of those pants as a kid. That's the thing.

I look back at my pictures and I'm like, what did you dress me in? And lately, it's funny, I always blame my parents. Lately, my mom came out and was like, your grandmother made those. She made you. We had to put you in them.

She was so proud of those pants. So she was always there on the photo occasions, obviously, because there's so many pictures of me wearing horrible, horrible clothes. Oh, yeah, I had some red, white, and blue check pants. Yep. I wouldn't know anything about it, though.

Everybody was dressed in ridiculous clown line. Somewhere there's a burnt orange turtleneck. I had a lot of those. Yeah, and I'm like, I couldn't tell you. That was probably the last time I wore a turtleneck.

But this guy in the movie, every scene, he's got another turtleneck on. I'm just like, those are weird. Nobody wears those now. You know, it's interesting that you would take such time into cultivating such a manly mane of chest hair only to cover it up with a turtleneck. Is it like a surprise for the ladies?

Well, it's actually. I happen to know you don't really have to cultivate the chest hair. You don't have to, like, put in rows and, like, water it or anything. It just happens. There's no, like, manscaping whatsoever.

I mean, it's, like, so. Again, now I'm sure there is. Not like it is today. Now we've got that weird era of, you know, manscaping. It's very strange to me.

Oh, the kid from Rushmore said for that part, They actually. Waxed his chest. And he kept it. It's just like, when are you going to do that? Just this chest plate they tore off his hair.

Nice. God, that had to be excruciating. It is reflective of that. I was a kid then. Yeah.

So it was not a world I was privy to, going downtown to the Grime Houses and seeing all those movies. But I saw it in the paper. I remember the advertising and stuff. And I read the Monster Magazine and I saw all this really gnarly horror that was being promoted. I wanted very badly to be a part of it.

And so when I was able to finally see it a decade later, it made sense. It was the same thing. I think I remember bits and pieces, but it was when it hit that 80s wave of cable TV. I was, again, every weekend watching Joe Bob's Drive-In Theater, and he's running these movies. It took a long time, but I feel like I still sort of had that experience.

It just came later in my life, but it's that same appreciation for this. It's funny, I grew up in a smaller town that didn't really have that. But I was aware of it because I had the magazines and stuff. And so I would just sneak out and ride my bike around the town. I felt like there was something out there, but it actually wasn't there in my town.

It was just... It was out there. It was just a little further out there. Yeah, you don't know where it is. It was here on 4th and on Market.

But we didn't come downtown. Yeah, I didn't. I loitered around and showcased. We stayed in the suburbs. I lived at Showcase.

Showcase was as far in as I got. It was still there to a degree in the late 70s and right up until the very early 80s. My dad is a hoarder. but one of the great benefits of my dad being a hoarder is I got a bunch of old newspapers from the 70s. Got all these entertainment sections from back in that era. You opened those papers up, man.

Movie ads were wall to wall. It was like picking up the Village Voice. Full pages, full pages, full pages. And it's all this great grindhouse stuff because you had drive-ins running everything. You had all the downtown theaters running everything.

And you had all the porno theaters running everything. And there was an era there in the mid-70s where everybody was running porno because it made money. Actually, I'm pretty sure I remember seeing a movie that was very similar to this one, except the woman was naked. And I specifically remember a scene where she was eating at a dining table And. She was naked.

And it was just an odd scene. I think, yeah. Is it, was it Tonight I'll Possess Your Corpse? I don't know. It's like a Spanish, it's like this crazy war movies I made in the 60s.

Yeah, it's Coffin Joe. Yeah, oh. Yeah, it's like black and white for like the first section and then like she goes to hell and it becomes color. And it gets all fucked up and it's like, I love this stuff. But yeah, there were a lot of those satanic pictures back then.

Yeah. Queen of the Witches, Simon King of the Witches and all this stuff. They would throw in nudity and whatever they could. And all the Wicker Man stuff. Once that hit, yeah, it's bringing it in from England.

By the time Hollywood picked up on it, which is like The Omen, it got boring to me. It's pretty watered down at that point. It's all a part of the counterculture stuff. Bill was trying to. Tap into that to a degree with Asylum, and then still not upset Mom and Dad too much.

I've seen that in action with filmmakers before, too. I... did make up for nominally a movie that was shot across the river by a guy, I won't mention any names, but his parents are wealthy and they were indulging his hobby. In the film, he wanted to have the villain cut in half from head to crotch. Just with a samurai sword. He wanted me to engineer this and as usual, he wanted it done yesterday and he had the money.

Nice. And so I said, well, we can do it the proper way and build sets with false floors and do all this stuff with umatics. And I got a dummy. I got a store window dummy. I said, okay, well, we'll have to shoot it from behind, and we'll have to hinge it, and we'll put guts and stuff in there.

And then we go down and shoot it, and it's shooting at his parents' house, naturally. Very nice place. I said, so, I said, well, what about blood? You want to? Obviously, a man's being cleaved.

There's going to be a little bit of blood. There's going to be some blood here. And I said, you need to put down the drop claws and stuff like that. He's like, well, I really don't want to get any blood on my dad's carpet. So we don't really need any.

Oh, okay. I was like, wow. But they had hired him a real production unit out of L.A. To shoot this. And they were all just like, it's been this way all.

Week. So I think Bill was in that position. It was like, mom and dad have money, but they don't want, you know. Things to get too messy. But this one still, like, watching it, it's like it's got, and again, some of it may just be that weird 70s thing in the air, but like those shots of the... people in the hoods out on the lawn in wheelchairs is just creepy and them sitting there with eggs in front of them is like.

It's just weird the egg yeah he would slip on things like. That there were just weird shots in there that I'm like visually it's like he definitely had style and it's like you can see him sort of capturing these weird creepy moments even in a movie that by the end of it doesn't have a ton of stuff but it's got those moments that are still really creepy. Yeah I think enthusiasm comes through not coherence, you know. All that series of shots of her in the window, he kept going back to that as like a little motif. Help me, help me.

Why can't they hear me? Because you're kind of whispering. There's moments when you kind of want to answer them. Because there's the other one where they go, they're like, don't you know Dr. Spector?

And I'm like, Yeah, isn't he the villain on The Venture Brothers? That's exactly who he sounds like to me. There was a comic book back then. I think it was a gold key, and it was like Dr. Spector's Tales of.

That's the thing. Even the name was not that original. When I heard the name, I was like, isn't there already a Dr. Spector? So yeah, I just thought that was funny.

It's exactly what he sounds like to me. I think he was thrilled because he had Charlie. He's like, well, I've got the local horror mansion. Even though he's not a legend yet, I've got him. He's enthusiastic that And he wants to be in all my pictures.

So he was happy to have that. He was happy to have people. Come in. And he had enough money to bring in an actress who was at least recognizable. It was enthusiastic.

But like. I said, not well received. Everything was done locally. I have one of the only one sheets. It's over at Bo's right now.

It was locally printed. It's a full 27 by 41 sheet, but they did it with a local printer. Just did enough to put up, I guess, at the Vogue because it got no distribution beyond that. They did an ad tear sheet. I've got a.

Press book for it. And they did go through all the motions of proper distribution. But it was just in this area. It was playing. It was playing.

I often accuse little filmmakers. We're just playing. It was kind of like that. Nice. But, you know, even though I think it was Studio 35, that's how they call themselves.

So, you know. But, you know, he had enough energy that it kept going. Sorry, I had to go do work. Oh, work. Press some buttons.

Well, I think we're rounding it out. Do you have any last minutes? He's back. Do you have any last words? What 70s culture was like.

Asylum was kind of reflective of that. Any wrap-up for Asylum of Satan? I'm going to say if Girdler was around in the 80s, he definitely would have been big in the VHS realm. Oh, yeah. There's no doubt there.

Well, he kind of was. I mean, he was three on a meat hook. He kind of vanished into public domain, and boy, that tape was everywhere. And I'm sure it made somebody a. Lot of money.

Well, didn't Abby end up in public domain, too? Never legitimately. Because of the lawsuit, because it was technically AIP, I don't think I can remember seeing a legitimate Abby VHS. I read somewhere that Grizzly made more in rentals than Blackula. Wow.

Well, apparently Grizzly did gross more that year than Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Yeah. Yeah. It would have made a huge amount of money. It's like four-walling, you know, rural distribution made a lot of money showing that movie.

And he was hot on the heels of Jaws. I mean, were they, it was less than a year later, wasn't it? It was like quick. It was really quick. And that's what they did back then is they were good at it.

Yeah. Exploitation was on its toes. They would get something out. Pretty quick. You know, they were still doing that in the 80s.

Yeah. Or sort of the Sorcerer came out like the week before Conan. They were on top. Oh. We were first.

You ripped us off. Yeah. So they could do stuff like that. Well, once again, we've had fun with the movie and thank you to William. We went to see him today.

So, yeah, it's just sort of appreciating him and sort of appreciating the fact that he was from here and is now buried here. So we Yeah, I thought it was kind of a fun tie-in to go over and visit him for the intro there. But yeah, he's done some fun movies. If anything, he's deserving of one of the Louisville's William banner. Because you have all the Louisville's so-and-so, all the banners around town.

It's like, he deserves one. Yeah, they do these huge banners that are on the side of buildings. And they claim the people that we have, which it's not a huge list, but we've got a few impressive people. But yeah, I. Think he should be there.

There'll be a lot of scratching of. Heads, I think. There's some scratching of heads by me when I'm like, I don't know who this person is supposed to be. Well, is there a Todd Brown in one? No.

That's the thing. I was like, how can you have any of these without him? Because that's one of the most impressive people we've had. All the ones that are up are all like, you know. Freaks is too on PC.

Yeah. Screw them. It's not Bob. Dracula's huge. Yeah.

They only go back, you know, once a game, you know, sports figures. Yeah. Sports figures. Like Paul Marnigan. Muhammad Ali.

Yeah, of course, Muhammad Ali. Todd Browning would be great. Todd Browning's up there. And Gerdler. That's even more reason to put him up there.

He ran away as quick as he could. Oh, yeah. We all try to, but somehow we end up. It's impossible. I've been trying.

There's no escape. Gerdler loves this town. It's obvious in the movies and locally. He's one of the exceptions to that rule. But, yep, I think it He's definitely worth looking into if you haven't seen him.

It'll work well, at least they have the William Girdler section, probably the only video store in the U.S. That does. I don't know. The hardcore ones that are still out there might have it. There's only a handful, but yeah, go look for it.

Does anybody have a good closing song? Song? A song to go with Satan or an asylum or. If not. Well, I was throwing that in earlier, I think.

But then, I don't know. The only other one I found... You should just end with Red Light Lady then. Oh, God. Just make people listen to that.

There's that Satan song in the original score of Hair. Elevator going down. What is it? Oh, this day have I been expelled from high school heaven. Yeah, that's the weirdest song.

That's a great song, though. And there's Satan's in it somewhere. Yeah. Or I've got, you know, I found the Rondells do a song called Satan's Theme. Cool.

It's just an instrumental. I think, yeah. They used to have the A.I.P. Abbey record that had the radio spots and stuff. Nice.

So we'll end on Satan's Theme and leave it with that. Otherwise, I guess that about does it. We will return next week. Same gig time, same gig feed. Thanks for listening.

I would love to be part of that that's almost like some of them there's some The Exorcist and then all the copies yeah well that's yeah that's kind of it's own series and. There's tons of stories in the production of that just like the angel who fell banished forever to hell today have I been expelled from high school heaven that's the song. From the original there you go yeah that's a great song. This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown produced and edited by The Oddity Studios with opening music performed by the Empires. For more on how to sponsor or support the show, email producer at moviemeltdown.com.