WILD GUITAR (1962)

 The great kewpie doll-faced Arch Hall Jr. was in only 6 movies back in the 60s and this is his first starring role. While his fleeting stardom was due to his dad, Arch Hall Sr., being the producer on these films I feel he still had enough talent, especially when compared to more modern so-called actors, to get by. In this one young Arch plays a naive hick named Bud Eagle who travels to Hollywood to make it as a singing star. He hooks up with an unscrupulous record producer, played by Arch Sr., who exploits our not-very worldly hero. Where does the line between reality and movie-fantasy storytelling blur together? Well allegedly Arch Jr. wasn't all that interested in being a big Hollywood star and was pushed into that role by pops so it's hard not to feel that at least some of this movie wasn't totally acting and that's what makes it an interesting watch. Also just on the surface, even if you don't care at all about any of the back-story, the movie is a pretty breezy, quick-moving tale about the dangers of the star-system with some cool 60s tunes and a love story thrown in to move things along. Director Ray Dennis Steckler turns in his usual ominous performance under his Cash Flagg pseudonym as the record company's tough-guy enforcer and he was nice enough to throw in his Lemon Grove Kids(Steckler's version/rip-off of The Bowery Boys) for some stupid comedy scenes. They would return in his goofy-ass LEMON GROVE KIDS MEET THE MONSTERS and Arch would be back in his greatest film THE SADIST. While Arch's films are remembered now as being classic bad movies they have some great clunky 60s charm to them.

Twist Fever!:

THE SADIST (1963)

"Teachers think they so much smarter than everybody else"

 Thanks to the unique acting style of star and titular sadist, Arch Hall Jr., this story of three folks on their way to the big baseball game running across a crazy psychopath named Charlie Tibbs and his kooky gal-pal really stands out as a camp classic and actually goes beyond that and works as a real suspense-filled scare-flick. This was obviously inspired by the real-life thrill-killer Charles Starkweather who was a James Dean-obsessed murderer who also went on a murder-spree with his girlfriend. To me this is Arch's greatest role and the one where he lets it all hang out. In most of the other handful of films he starred in he was the hero or sympathetic character but not here as he enjoys shooting folks in the face and rubbing pretty ladies faces in the dirt all the while giggling like Barney Rubble. There's not a big body-count since there's only a cast of 5 people during most of the film but they manage to keep the sense of dread high and you never know when killer Charlie is gonna decide to get violent. Check it out for a low-budget film that works because of it's sparse setting and desolate locations. Also some snakes show up and get to be the real heroes of the film and you hardly ever get to see that.

                                AKA SWEET BABY CHARLIE: