R.I.P. Russ Meyer - True American Hero

[Locobot]

I'm in mourning. Flags at half mast for one month.

What? You don't know who he is? LOTS of good links where I found this too.

Russ Meyer
Russ Meyer began making 8mm films as a kid, then served as a combat newsreel cameraman during World War II. After the war he worked as a freelance photographer, shooting six centerfolds for Playboy, before returning to filmmaking in the late 1950s. His first feature, the nudist comedy The Immoral Mr. Teas, cost $24,000 to produce and eventually grossed more than $1,000,000 on the independent/exploitation circuit, ensconcing Meyer as "King of the Nudies." Over the next decade, he made nearly twenty movies with a trademark blend of over-the-top sleaze, huge-breasted starlets and warped humor, including classics Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) and Vixen (1968). Meyer was a true auteur who wrote, directed, photographed and edited the films himself. He also financed each new film from the proceeds of the earlier films, and got very rich in the process.

At the height of his underground success, Meyer got the chance to make a big-budget Hollywood film for 20th Century Fox, producing the brilliant but not-quite-what-Fox-expected Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970, co-written by Roger Ebert). After a forgettable second film for Fox, he returned to the independent sector and made four more films, including Supervixens (1976) and Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens (1979). Over the years since, Meyer has frequently mentioned a lengthy autobiographical work-in-progress entitled The Breast of Russ Meyer, but as he told one interviewer, "I refuse to stop fishing and womanizing and having epicurean meals and generally having a good time, so it'll be ready when it's ready."

FILMOGRAPHY

The Immoral Mr. Teas (1959)
Naked Camera (1960?)
Eve and the Handyman (1961)
Erotica (1961)
Wild Gals of the Naked West (1962; aka The Immoral West)
This Is My Body (1962?)
Heavenly Bodies! (1963)
Europe in the Raw (1963)
Lorna (1964)
Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1964)
Mudhoney (1965)
Motorpsycho (1965)
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)
Mondo Topless (1966)
Good Morning and Goodbye! (1967)
Common Law Cabin (1967)
Finders Keepers, Lovers Weepers (1968)
Vixen (1968)
Cherry, Harry & Raquel (1969)
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)
The Seven Minutes (1971)
Blacksnake (1973; aka Sweet Suzy)
Supervixens (1975)
Up! (1976)
Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens (1979)

http://www.dazereader.com/russmeyer.htm

[Charlatan]

An American legend... a film legend is gone.

I am now in mourning... time to watch Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill! again...

A good friend of mine has made a Faster Pussycat diarama with Barbies... I feel the need to visit her and light a candle at the alter...

[RedCometChar]

Uncle Russ, nooo! Revolutionary guy, hasn't really felt the love he deserved in recent years.

[melee2000]

wtf? hes the guy that did blacksnake? my my my that was filmed in my home country barbados... never did watch it, but since we have a fairly conservative society the filming of that movie is almost like an urban legend, well an urban legend thats never mentioned in polite conversation i would have to say reading a little snippette about the movie tho i'm undecided... i wonder if i should hunt it down and watch it but honestly i would probally just end up looking for all the faults i can find instead of enjoying it

[RonRyan85]

Tried to rent some of Russ Meyer's movies from NETFLIX but they do not
have any in their stock.

[Ella]

Damn....I loved Faster Pussycat, and Valley of the Dolls is a classic. Another one bites it, hey?