Nazi Zombies, White Slave Traders, Cannibal Cults and More from Eurocine

Exploitation films in every imaginable genre from the late fifties to the mid-eighties attracted a specific kind of viewer that enabled U.S. companies like American International Pictures (AIP) and Crown International Pictures to become profitable enterprises through drive-in and grindhouse saturation and later the VHS market. By spicing up their low-budget productions with more sex, violence and subject matter Hollywood avoided, these minor players provided a wildly diverse alternative to mainstream commercial cinema but it wasn’t unique to America alone. Europe also got into the act and the French company Eurocine went from obscurity to cult status for some of its more infamous hits like The Awful Dr. Orlof (1962), Red Hot Zorro (1972), White Cannibal Queen (1980) and Zombie Lake (1982). A behind-the-scenes look at the company’s history and Marius Lesoeur, the man who made it an international brand, is the focus of Eurocine 33 Champs-Elysees (2013), an entertaining and often amusing French documentary which is named after the company’s address in Paris.

Continue reading

Burning Love

The early 1960s was a turbulent time for the film industry and the Hollywood studio system was becoming a relic of the past as television and other competitors in the entertainment field lured audiences away. Some movie actors could see the writing on the wall and began to pursue film offers outside Hollywood and the U.S. Some of the more famous former studio contract players who escaped and reinvented themselves in Europe were Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, Lee Van Cleef, Jean Seberg and Jane Fonda. Even seasoned veterans like Edward G. Robinson, Lee J. Cobb and Bette Davis appeared in movies made overseas but one of the more unusual examples of American actors appearing in an international production is Barry Sullivan and Martha Hyer in Pyro…The Thing Without a Face (1964, aka Fuego in the European market), directed by Julio Coll and filmed in Spain. 

Continue reading