When I first saw this bizarre film, I was a gawking teenaged Syracuse University film major at a midnight movie fest in 1978. I couldn't believe the images being put before me. That baby. The Cornish hen dinner. The fat-cheeked dancing girl squishing the gunk-filled worms. I couldn't believe my ears either. There were sound effects that I'll never forget. The squeaky sound while rubbing the eyes. The baby constantly crying and gurgling. And of course the Thomas "Fats" Waller soundtrack, an eerie, echoing jazz organ from another world that ever since converted me into a Fats Waller freak. There were plenty of other thrills in this movie; the sheer ugliness of it all was such over-kill,> it provoked sick laughter.
But alas, I rented the film almost 20 years later, a freaked-out couch potato film fanatic, all psyched up to relive the madness... and fell asleep.
But alas, I rented the film almost 20 years later, a freaked-out couch potato film fanatic, all psyched up to relive the madness... and fell asleep.