Russ Meyer
July 5, 2011 8:20 PM   Subscribe

Variously dubbed "King Leer", "Hollywood primitive", "trash master" and "dirty old man", this self-proclaimed "King of the Nudies" and "glandscape artist" not only defined the sexploitation genre, he practically invented it. [all links NSFW]
posted by Trurl (20 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
I kept meaning to get into Russ Meyer, and luckily my local revival cinema was running his films every Friday night for a month. During the same month I was dating a very jealous girl.

When I finally saw Faster Pussycat Kill Kill I found out she looked like Tura Santana.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 8:29 PM on July 5, 2011 [1 favorite]


One of the greatest film auteurs ever.
posted by Renoroc at 8:30 PM on July 5, 2011 [1 favorite]


Faster Pussycat Kill Kill was waaay more interesting than I ever thought it would be.
posted by KokuRyu at 8:33 PM on July 5, 2011


My first experience with Russ Meyer was fairly late in life, at one of the first Butt Numbathons at the old downtown Alamo Drafthouse in Austin.

They thought it would be good to show Beneath the Valley of the Ultra Vixens at ~3am to a crowd that had been watching films since 10am the previous morning.

I can still remember the screaming. Oh the screaming...
posted by hanoixan at 8:36 PM on July 5, 2011


An interesting guy for sure. I find his movies hilarious, which may not be what he intended. And he has such a wide range of interests, like breasts and, er, tits and boobs and uh knockers and, oh, hooters and of course jugs and, um, then there's melons and racks, not to forget bosoms and mammaries of course. The YouTube docu on his life is fun and instructive.
posted by binturong at 9:46 PM on July 5, 2011 [3 favorites]


And of course, was close friends with Roger Ebert, whose only movie script was for Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.
posted by kmz at 11:05 PM on July 5, 2011 [1 favorite]


He did actually work on later Meyer scripts too, I believe.
posted by stinkycheese at 12:24 AM on July 6, 2011


man, I just can't get into these Ultra Vixens

let me know when they get to Hyper Vixens

I'll get out the camera when they're Legendary
posted by LogicalDash at 4:08 AM on July 6, 2011


( @ )( @ )
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:27 AM on July 6, 2011 [3 favorites]


You're going to need bigger parentheses. We're talking about Russ Meyer here.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 4:43 AM on July 6, 2011 [3 favorites]


Meyer's reputation is probably enhanced by the fact that, at least in every picture I've seen of him, he seems to be leering just a little (and sometimes more than a little). Must have been tough for him growing up: "Dude, will you stop looking at her like that? That's my mom." "Sorry. (pause) So, uh, when did she, uh, stop nursing you?"
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:32 AM on July 6, 2011


This delightful tribute has been around for a while. Gotta love those old school topless babes...
posted by kinnakeet at 6:01 AM on July 6, 2011


I stumbled into a screening of "Ultra Vixens," drunk, at 2AM, at a horror con. Afterwards, shell-shocked, I kept trying to explain it...too weird to be porn, but too porny to be an art feelm?

(I now own my own copy, of course.)
posted by JoanArkham at 6:28 AM on July 6, 2011


Singular, titular....one my cinematic heros. If only 'Who Killed Bambi" had happened.

http://www.cinema-suicide.com/2010/04/27/what-could-have-been-russ-meyer-roger-ebert-the-sex-pistols/
posted by judson at 6:49 AM on July 6, 2011 [1 favorite]




It was his happening and it freaked him out!
posted by jake1 at 8:36 AM on July 6, 2011


Interesting, thank you.
posted by schyler523 at 10:40 AM on July 6, 2011


His dialog was often hilarious. Faster Pussycat contains one of my favorite exchanges, in which a gas station attendant is leering at Tura Satana and rambling about cross-country road trips. He eyes her bosoms and says, "I always say see America first!"

"You won't find it down there, Columbus!" she shoots back.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:34 PM on July 6, 2011 [1 favorite]


It's hard to imagine now a time when Russ Meyer was shocking.
posted by Nelson at 2:21 PM on July 6, 2011


Funny, I was just listening to a recording of an interview with John Waters this morning. It's tacked onto the end of this Filmspotting episode here and worth a listen.

But the point is, near the end of it, Waters tells a brief story about Meyer. 15 min before the end:

Q: What Russ Meyer movies do you think is tied into The Wizard of Oz? Any Russ Meyers?

Waters: God, do you think he ever saw it? I mean, for Russ... There's no big tits in it so I doubt he ever saw it.

Russ was SO tit-obsessed. He was in my apartment once, in Baltimore, and he was looking through my books and I saw him LUNGE for a book and he pulled it out and it was The Melons, but it was about the family... He thought it was a tit book.

So I don't think there was any tits in the Wizard of Oz. The tit-count was low.
posted by phearlez at 2:45 PM on July 6, 2011


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