CARNIVAL ROCK (1957)

  This one's a pretty early Roger Corman-directed teen epic involving just what the title says, a carnival that has some rocking' acts play. The Platters are the biggest names featured but being a big fan of rockabilly myself I really dug seeing Bob Luman & His Shadows. The film itself is a weird mix of highly melodramatic scenes dealing with the owner of the carnival(David J. Stewart) losing his business along with his girlfriend and boppin' parts with teen dancing and bands tearing it up. It's all really drawn-out for such a shallow story so unless you really dig 50s music give this a pass. 

CHOPPING MALL (1986)

 Kelli Maroney, from NIGHT OF THE COMET, and a few of her friends spend the night in a mall with killer robots(or KILLBOTS as the original title called them). CHOPPING MALL sounds like the title of a slasher movie, which this basically is, except instead of a homicidal killer you get 3 out of control, laser-shooting robots who might rip your neck out, electrocute you or blow your head to smithereens(in the films big money-shot/show-stopper scene). The plot is about as basic as it gets but all the elements are there(blood, boobs & beasts(technically metal beasts in this case but same idea))for a good stupid horror flick. As a bonus the film is only around 70 minutes long so you get in and out nice and quick.
 The cast in this is pretty sweet with Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov showing up in the beginning as their characters from EATING RAOUL which makes me want to go re-watch that film again soon and Dick Miller as Walter Paisley which was his character from A BUCKET OF BLOOD as well as a bunch of other things.
 Julie Corman was the producer here and her husband Roger's b-movie classic ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS shows up playing on TV.

SUMMER SCHOOL TEACHERS (1974)

 
 I think my favorite thing about these stupid Corman produced sexy teachers films, besides the bouncing boobs, is that you almost always get the great Dick Miller playing an asshole character. Usually it's a coach of some sort and that's what he is here. In this one he is his usually ignorant self spouting out lines about how much he hates faggots and whatnot. There's also various dumb plots about women-libbers getting to play football, nude-modeling and some kinda insurance scam ring that develops into attempted murder and silly car chases. You also get a couple of old-lady peeping-Toms. It's overall a really forgettable film and the director, Barbara Peeters, would go on to make the far superior HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP a few years later.

THE STUDENT TEACHERS (1973)

 An offshoot of the naughty nurses series this here started off the similar tawdry teachers set of films for Roger Corman's New World Pictures. 
 Right away you get naked boobs on display so you know what you're in for.  From there on out you get a weird mix of a sex flick with what almost feels like a sort of experimental student film about the generational gap shot in an extremely 70's style until it all settles into what are a few different plots going on all involving teachers and students at a high-school.  Drug-dealers and the mafia get involved, sex-education is made a big deal of and Dick Miller appears in one of his most absurd roles as a stupid gym teacher and part-time clown-mask wearing rapist.  Also Chuck Norris shows up for a split-second as a karate instructor.  They seemed to throw almost everything they could into this one(besides some blood and guts) and it comes off as a pretty big mess but still worth a  look for a weird slice of 70's exploitation.  There's also a really hot super skinny chick in here named Rose Cypress(aka Tara Strohmeier) that I  wouldn't mind seeing more of.  AKA COLLEGE CO-EDS(they're not even in college!) & SELF-SERVICE SCHOOLGIRLS

CANDY STRIPE NURSES (1974)

 
  All of these Corman-produced(Roger's wife Julie Corman is responsible for this one) nursesploitation flicks deliver on the boob count but not so much on the plots that you give a crap about.  It all starts out with an animated credit sequence complete with nude cartoon ladies and then there's three main gals we follow around.  One is the Spanish chick who's trying to help an innocent guy accused of robbing a gas station, the other two are white gals and they're trying to help a speed-addicted basketball player and an impotent rock star who looks like a bit like Harry Shearer's character from Spinal Tap.  There's no black chick here which is pretty much the only element that's different about this when you compare it to all the rest of these types of things.  Candice Rialson is our main blonde candy-striper and she would go on to be in a bunch of exploitation flicks throughout the 70's with her biggest role being in HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD.  Dick Miller also shows up for a small bit as a dickhead heckler at a basketball game.  There's attempted rape, streakers and a girl eating a Twinkie in a bathtub(which I'm assuming has got to be a fetish for someone out there). Like all of these flicks it's equally heavy on the drama as it is on the boobs so I guess it all equals out in the end.

TNT JACKSON (1974)

Director Cirio H. Santiago was responsible for a ton of exploitation flicks throughout the the 70's and then a bunch of cheap-ass action epics that went straight to video in the 80's and 90's.  Shot for pennies in the Philippines most of them aren't all that great but they must have made money for someone cuz he never stopped  churning them out until he died in 2008.  This one was made for Roger Corman's New World Pictures and was co-written by cult actor fav Dick Miller.   It's sort of a mash-up of a kung-fu and blaxploitation flick that comes of as a crappier version of Pam Grier's FOXY BROWN.  You get a little blood and some boobs(including a cool topless-fu scene by star Jeanne Bell).  Bell's acting and fighting is pretty awful but it fits in well in a trashy film of this type.  The plot is your basic brother is killed now I must get revenge type and it plays out exactly how you expect it to.  Not the worst or best of either of the genres it's part of.  Check it out for the great giant afros though.

A BUCKET OF BLOOD (1959)

 Dick Millers greatest role?  Probably.  I mean out of the tons of things he's been in he wasn't really the star of many things I can think of.  This AIP studios classic, directed by b-movie great Roger Corman, is a simple story of a schlub named Walter Paisley(Miller) whose life sucks.  Who can't relate to that?  Our sympathy shifts though after he starts murdering people for his artwork which makes him popular but ultimately seals his doom.  I guess the lesson is don't try to please the popular people because they're mostly jackasses anyway.  At least that's the way I see it.  This would be a pretty nihilistic movie it it wasn't done in such a lighthearted goofy way.  Silly beat-nicks, retarded poetry, bad art jazz man.  It all adds up to good times.  Look for it on some cheap-ass DVD label near you or for free online. Miller went on to use the Paisley name in a few other flicks as well. This was HG Lewis' inspiration for COLOR ME BLOOD RED which is one of Lewis' worst movies so stick with this one.

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It's true, life really is an obscure hobo bumming a ride on the omnibus of art: