Because of the weather and a problem with the printer, I am currently out of stock on Grindhouse Resurrection 1 & 2. They have been printed, so I’m waiting for # 3 to be done and get them in house all at once. I’m hoping for next weekend as they have to be picked up and I’m not driving in a blizzard. Many thanks to those who have already purchased any of my stuff.
Sad news came in 2’s as we lost actress Tisa Farrow and exploitation czar, Terry Levine. Tisa starred in Zombi, The Grim Reaper, Fingers and other films. Terry Levine owned Aquarious Releasing. His office was over the Selwyn Theater on 42nd Street. Levine imported films from Europe and came up with lurid titles and outrageous ad campaigns.
Terry took a film , Cannibal Ferox, changed the title to Make them Die Slowly and that ran for ten weeks straight. Joe D’Amato’s Blue Omega became Buried Alive. Fulci’s the Beyond became Seven Doors to Death. His most outrageous ballyhoo came with his acquisition of Zombie Holocaust. Levine created a title sequence from an unfinished Roy Fromkes film and released it as Doctor Butcher MD.
Terry said that he wanted to top Make Them Die Slowly. Levine and Rick Sullivan built an operating room on a flatbed truck. It had mutilated corpses and nurses in bloody uniforms. Cops would arrest Rick and company and Terry would bail them out. They also tricked out an ambulance as a “ bloodmobile” and it cruised all over the city. Both Make them Die Slowly and Doctor Butcher advertised a rape as a selling point. Neither film had a rape in it. Terry was the last of the old time NYC exploitation distributors.
Others were William Mishkin and Joseph Brenner Associates. The passing of Terry Levine, who was still working as of a couple of years ago, is truly the end of an important chapter in Grindhouse history.