STANLEY (1972)

[The Burgomaster]

I waited a long time to see this movie, and finally purchased the special edition DVD.  Boy, what a disappointment.

If you aren't familiar with the plot, Chris Robinson plays a Seminole Vietnam vet who uses his pet snakes (including one named Stanley) to kill his enemies.  For a movie like this to be enjoyable, I think it needs to have one or more of the following elements:

* Gruesome killings
* Over-the-top characters
* Lots of nudity
* Tremendous amounts of cheesy badness

Unfortunately, STANLEY has none of these elements.  It's mostly boring (including the snake killings) and the closest thing to an over-the-top character is Alex Rocco (who has a pricelessly ridiculous battle with a bunch of snakes in a swimming pool . . . one of the few amusing moments in the whole movie . . . get a load of his facial expression as he dives in). 





There's also a scene in which a stripper bites the head off a snake, but it isn't as good as it sounds.

The DVD does have some decent special features (including director William Grefe reminiscing about the movie and walking around the grounds of what used to be the Ivan Tors studio).

I was really hoping this would be a 1970s treasure in the tradition of WILLARD, but it's just a flat, dull pseudo-horror movie.

[Mr. DS]

Good god.  I reviewed this one around this time last year.  It was a on a double feature disc that I had bought for a dollar.  The awful shots of the the fake snake 'attacking' it's victims were hilarious. 

[Andrew]

It has been some time since I watched it, but my memory agrees with what you say.  Way too boring for a movie about a man with an attack snake.  What you said about the pitched pool snake battle royal also made a brain cell fire.  Might have to track this one down just for that scene.

[Raffine]

Caught this one at The Beautiful Lake Theater and the ONLY scene I remember is Rocco's pool tangle with the hoard of water moccasins.

Definitely a big let-down after WILLARD, of which which TV ads promised it was gonna be another.

It did feature Grefe regular Milton 'Butterball' Smith, who was the most spherical human being I've ever seen in my life. He's got a revealing swim suit scene in Grefe's MAKO, JAWS OF DEATH - which itself was sort of a shark version of WILLARD.

[lester1/2jr]

the sahw brothers Williard rip off "killer snakes" is f**king awesome.  i think I saw a preview for this on the deeath curse of tartu dvd and th director was saying somrething like "we';d never heard of williard"  we had the idea before jaws."  like someone is going to sue him NOW

[quabrot]

I'll just stick to my "Family Value Collection" dollar store version.  About halfway through the DVD, the movie shuts off and goes to the blue screen until the word "play" reappears in the top corner. 

[Samuel Clough]

I found this movie on a DVD called "Gorehouse Greats Collection". It's a 12 movie set I picked up at Wal-Mart in the $5 bin. I was looking for info on the snake handling for the film.  Are thous real or fake snakes in some of thous sceans? I did fall asleep watching this thou but being a 70s trash fan I did like it a little. What I could stay awake for anyway.

[RCMerchant]

Gee...I'll bet I must be the only person on earth (or any other planet,for that matter) that likes this movie. Not like as an enjoyable film-but like just because when I first saw it at about 2:00 am on a uhf channel half crocked,I thought I was hallucinating .

[Raffine]

Gee...I'll bet I must be the only person on earth (or any other planet,for that matter) that likes this movie. Not like as an enjoyable film-but like just because when I first saw it at about 2:00 am on a uhf channel half crocked,I thought I was hallucinating .

That's the best way really appreciate this one.  

I liked MAKO: JAWS OF DEATH at lot more. It has the classic scene where the Willard-like shark guy turns his buddies loose in one of those underwater ballet things and the sharks eat the dancers!

As I mentioned before, it's also got Milton 'Butterball' Smith in the 70s version of a speedo.

Good to see you around, RC.

[Trevor]

About halfway through the DVD, the movie shuts off and goes to the blue screen until the word "play" reappears in the top corner. 

 

Sounds a bit like my DVD of Tiger Joe ~ at one point, the image flips and David Warbeck and company are walking on their heads.