William Grefe Movies (Wild Rebels, Stanley, Sting of Death, Etc.)

dcj2112 · June 23, 2020, 05:50:05 PM

I'm about to listen to some commentary tracks from him on the Something Weird double feature DVD I got for his movies Death Curse of Tartu / Sting of Death.

I read that they were released as a drive-in double feature way back in 1966. I'm curious if they really put Death Curse of Tartu on as the A picture since that gets first billing. Neither are great films but Sting of Death is definitely the superior picture. It even has an original song in it called "Do the Jellyfish" by Neil Sedaka. YouTube it with caution as that damn thing will get stuck in your head.

I also think I have his movie Stanley lying around somewhere on a budget release. But after these two I can't say I'm in a rush to watch it

Anyway have you folks seen anything by him or have any opinions of his movies?

Allhallowsday · June 23, 2020, 08:44:22 PM

DEATH CURSE OF TARTU was actually shown on TCM last year or so... I think I wrote a "dumb film" review here about it. It's rotten... and sometimes fun because of that fact. Truly a turd pile.

Found it :

http://www.badmovies.org/forum/index.php/topic,150541.0.html

dcj2112 · June 23, 2020, 10:34:22 PM

Quote from: Allhallowsday on June 23, 2020, 08:44:22 PM
DEATH CURSE OF TARTU was actually shown on TCM last year or so... I think I wrote a "dumb film" review here about it. It's rotten... and sometimes fun because of that fact. Truly a turd pile.

Found it :

http://www.badmovies.org/forum/index.php/topic,150541.0.html

Haha cool stuff!

I just got done listening to the commentary tracks and here are a few things I found interesting...

*Grefe had already made Sting of Death before Tartu, but the distributor only wanted double features for drive-in horror movies. So Grefe had to make a movie as fast as possible to rush it out by A certain deadline so both could get distributed. He wrote Tartu in one 24 hour period then shot the whole movie in 8 days.

*All the animals used in Tartu were real and owned by an animal handler Grefe would work with a bunch. For the alligator Grefe wanted a tame one to work with the cast. The handler owned alligators but he didn't have any big enough for what Grefe wanted. So he captured one in the Everglades the night before they shot the alligator scenes. The alligator was about 12 feet long and couldn't fit in the handler's pickup so he had to tie the alligator's tail back to fit him in.

*The female cast didn't want to work with the alligator. Grefe got close to the alligator to try to convince her it was safe and the alligator started beating him with his tail. Grefe said the hits felt like sledgehammers. She needed a lot more convincing after that.

*For Sting of Death the only reason they were able to get Neil Sedaka is because he just happened to be in town as they were shooting. They threw a few thousand dollars at him and he recorded, "Do the Jellyfish"

The commentary tracks were a lot of fun. You never know with some of these older directors. Grefe is still kicking, but I'm not sure if he's recorded anymore. These ones are helped out greatly as well by having Frank Henenlotter (the guy who directed Basker Case) sit in. Also, just a follow up to something else I mentioned Grefe's Stanley appears on the DVD set Gorehouse Greats. I've had that set for about 2 years now and haven't gotten through much of it. It's chalk full of crap, but is far from the worse budget set I own. You can get it for under $6 including shipping on eBay these days

RCMerchant · June 24, 2020, 12:39:40 AM

Of Grefe's movies I've seen STING OF DEATH (1966) which is hilarious, the WILD REBELS (1967) which is stupid, STANLEY (1972) which is a z-budget WILLARD with snakes instead of rats, and IMPULSE (1974) with William Shatner- which I loved!

RCMerchant · June 25, 2020, 06:25:50 PM

Even the pressbook art is cheezy!

Oh- for the record...Neil Sedaka also did the music for the talking coochie movie CHATTERBOX (1977)!

dcj2112 · June 25, 2020, 07:16:24 PM

Quote from: RCMerchant on June 25, 2020, 06:25:50 PM
Even the pressbook art is cheezy!

Oh- for the record...Neil Sedaka also did the music for the talking coochie movie CHATTERBOX (1977)!

Hehe I have to track down Chatterbox and similarly the movie about a penis with super powers featuring Vincent Price. I can't recall the name right now, but I'm sure someone here knows

As for Sedaka I'm also pretty sure he edits his own Wikipedia page lol. Or at least a super fan/someone from his team does. The incorrect formatting and overly detailed descriptions of minutia are a dead giveaway.

RCMerchant · June 25, 2020, 08:13:18 PM

^ The one with Vinnie is IT"S NOT THE SIZE THAT COUNTS (1974)!

UGH! I haven't seen it- but I need to!

http://youtu.be/D_2UumTj4bw

JJ80 · September 03, 2020, 08:48:57 AM

I've only seen "Sting Of Death" but the bubble-headed 'Jellyfish' monster and the ridiculous party sequence with the Neil Sedaka song made it a worthwhile watch.