My phone started ringing off the hook. “Al Adamson is dead!” Say it isn’t so. Not the infamous director of Satan’s Sadists, Blood Of Dracula’s Castle and The Naughty Stewardesses. God couldn’t be that vengeful. “And he was murdered!” You’re kidding? His movies weren’t that bad.
It all exploded online the next day. Al had been missing for several weeks, and when police went to investigate his Indio, California, home, they found his body entombed in his “treasured” whirlpool tub, which had been filled with cement and covered over with tile. Soon after, they issued a warrant for Fred Fulford, the contractor who was living and doing work on Adamson’s property. Fulford was later arrested in Florida. What really happened is anyone’s guess, but the scant articles about the crime tried to tie-in the kind of films Al made- “Horror Film Director Meets Macabre End” was typical of the way the story was treated. But anyone familiar with Adamson’s movies knew that he never came up with a scenario this original.
Al Adamson was one of those enterprising directors who thrived in the late 60s and early 70s. He kept to genre pictures: cheesy monster movies, biker films, sex comedies, violent westerns, even kiddie flicks. If possible, he threw them all into one movie. After all, these films pandered to the drive-in trade, which was a rather indiscriminate lot. Open any film encyclopedia and the term you’ll likely find to describe his movies will be “god-awful.” Even hardcore Psychotronic fans have a tendency to hate Al Adamson’s films. Writes Kim Newman in Nightmare Movies: “Any fool who thinks bad movies are uproarious fun would be cured if locked in a cinema during an all-night Al Adamson retrospective.”
I remember stumbling onto his films on late-night TV and being baffled but wildly amused by them. Through the years, I’ve sought them out on DVD and Blu-ray. Yes, I will grudgingly admit, at times they are incoherent, juvenile, preposterous and hard to sit through. But I’ve come to adore every stupid minute of Adamson’s films. And especially his wife and frequent star- the bodacious and bigger-than-life Regina Carrol.
Albert Victor Adamson Jr. was born in a show-business trunk. His father starred and directed many silent westerns and was known onscreen as Denver Dixon; his mother was the actress Dolores Booth. With his dad’s help, Al Junior made his directorial debut with a film called Half Way To Hell. It wasn’t a raging success, and it was several years before he plunged back into the game. Two major meetings forever changed his life. One was with Sam Sherman, who began Independent International Pictures Corp. They formed a partnership and friendship that lasted until the day Adamson died.
The other occurred while casting the female lead of a film, when he met the sensational Regina Carrol. Carrol, a former child actress who had her own stage act in Las Vegas. Her “suitcase” routine on stage was lovingly re-created in Dracula Vs. Frankenstein.
The two hit it off so well they became husband and wife. Von Sternberg had Marlene Dietrich. Paul Morrissey had Joe Dallesandro. Adamson had Regina Carrol. She was startling onscreen. With big silver-blonde hair, white lipstick, a skimpy denim halter top that revealed her ample bust, low-rise bell bottoms and white vinyl go-go boots, she was like Nancy Sinatra times 50.
Carrol appeared in 13 of Adamson’s films and, sadly, died from cancer in 1992.
Adamson was big on using “blood” in his film titles. Blood Of Ghastly Horror (1967) is actually the incorporation of an old film about a jewelry heist Psycho A Go-Go (1965) and new footage with zombies, a mad scientist (John Carradine) and Regina Carrol transforming into a thousand-year-old living mummy. Horrors of The Blood Monsters (1970) mixed in a black and white film from the Philippines with color footage about a group of scientists on a space mission to a faraway planet to find the cure for the vampire virus that has over-run the earth. Five Bloody Graves (1969) is a western and narrated by “Death”. It’s about a revenge-seeking gunman hunting for the Native American who killed his bride on their wedding night. “Only I know how many shall die,” teases Death.
Brain Of Blood (1971) is about a dying Middle Eastern ruler named Amir (Reed Hadley). His body is wrapped in, what looks like, Reynolds Wrap and shipped to America where a scientist (Kent Taylor) removes his brain and puts it in the nearest available body- Gor (John Bloom), a giant half-wit with a face scarred by battery acid. There is a mean dwarf (Angelo Rossitto), women chained in the cellar, and actor Grant Williams (The Incredible Shrinking Man) as the hero.
Hell’s Bloody Devils (1970) This began as a secret agent/spy film called The Fakers, but when it couldn’t be sold the movie was padded with Nazis, bikers, Broderick Crawford and even Colonel Sanders, who shows up and says “Isn’t that the best chicken you’ve ever eaten?”
Blood Of Dracula’s Castle (1969) was originally supposed to star Jayne Mansfield! Alex D’Arcy and Paula Raymond play a modern-day vampire count and countess who keep nubile girls chained in the basement- watched over by their faithful servant (John Carradine). They drain their blood with a syringe and serve it in cocktail glasses.
Tough, empowered women were the focus of several of Adamson’s films (without losing any of the sleaze elements that made these grindhouse films popular). In The Female Bunch (1971), Regina Carrol (sporting big blonde hair) plays a go-go dancer who is part of a secret man-hating society in Utah. They all look like showgirls and are involved in the drug trade. They also ride horseback to trap, brand and execute their male enemies. “They treat their horses better than their men!” screamed the ads.
Jessi’s Girls (1975) A Morman couple are attacked by outlaws- the husband is killed, the wife raped and left for dead in the desert. She survives and frees three female convicts to help her seek revenge.
Angel’s Wild Women (1972) A biker gang goes on the run, so their girlfriends decide to get on their motorcycles and have some fun. They ravish a farm-hand who cries “This ‘aint natural!” They scuffle with cops and end up at Spahn Ranch, which has been taken over by a creepy, caftan-wearing cult leader named “King” who is secretly dealing drugs. Regina Carrol plays the whip-wielding, buxom blonde, gang member Margo. “They’ll Beat ‘em, Treat ‘em and Eat ‘em alive!” bragged the poster.
Many Al Adamson films were shot at Spahn Ranch, while the infamous Manson Family were living there. When Charles Manson and his merry band were arrested in connection to the Sharon Tate murder, Regina Carrol hysterically called up producer Sam Sherman: “They arrested that guy Manson! He was working on our car while we were shooting!” Sherman decided to exploit the connection, and the ad campaign for Satan’s Sadists read: “Hippie Psychos On A Mad Murder Spree! Filmed On The Actual Locations Where The Tate Murder Suspects Lived Their Wild Experiences!”
Satan’s Sadists (1969) is about a bad-ass biker gang and stars Russ Tamblyn (in red trip glasses) as its ruthless leader- Anchor. Regina Carrol plays his biker “mama” and frugs wildly to work off steam. The gang attacks a couple on lover’s lane. They beat and drug the boy and sexually attack the girl. Then they put the couple in a car and push it off a cliff. The bikers all descend on a diner and commit mayhem. It’s up to a Vietnam vet named Johnny (Gary Kent) to take down Anchor and his bloodthirsty crew. Surprisingly nasty and pretty outrageous.
Nurse Sherri (1978) was Adamson’s answer to Carrie and The Exorcist. A crazed evangelist, with his hippie followers, is trying to raise the dead in the desert. He drops dead from a heart attack, and his body is brought to a hospital. There, his evil spirit invades the body of sweet nurse Sherri (Jill Jacobson), who goes on a gory killing spree at the hospital. This was known under a myriad of titles such as: Black Voodoo, Beyond The Living, Killer’s Curse, Terror Hospital, and The Possession of Nurse Sherri.
The Naughty Stewardesses (1974) was a salacious, soft-core sex comedy about four swinging flight attendants. “Life to me is one big orgasm,” one exclaims. But I prefer Adamson’s follow-up- Blazing Stewardesses (1975), where the gals get to work a charter flight to a dude ranch. Regina Carrol plays Lori, one of the stewardesses, wearing a red wig, glasses, goofy hats and with a high-pitched voice.
Yvonne De Carlo co-stars as a madam of a whorehouse called “The Bee Hive.” She’s dressed all in white, with a big cowboy hat. In one sequence at a rodeo, De Carlo sings a tender ballad into, what appears to be, a mound of dirt. This also stars the aging (and annoying) Ritz Brothers (“Don’t holler!”).
Cinderella 2000 (1977) Set in the year 2047 where books and fornication are banned. The masses are monitored by robots and the women wear garish metallic green outfits with giant pink bows. Cinderella (Catharine Burgess) daydreams and scrubs floors while her wicked stepmother (exploitation queen Renee Harmon) wails: “I’m horny!” A fairy Godfather (Jay B. Larson) comes from another planet, singing “We All Need Love,” and Cinderella goes to the Great Controller Masquerade Ball and ends up in bed with Tom Prince (Vaughn Armstrong). Yes, it’s also a musical with un-catchy tunes like “Doing Without,” containing these lyrics: “Living on this planet is a pain in the neck….I’m turning into a nervous wreck….”
The zenith of Adamson’s checkered career was marked by Dracula Vs. Frankenstein (1971). This is his Battleship Potemkin, Citizen Kane and The Rules Of The Game, so to speak. It has everything- a crazed scientist with clicking dentures (J. Carroll Nash), an ax-wielding mute (Lon Chaney Jr.), a curly-haired, nelly Dracula (Zandor Vorkov), a mush-faced Frankenstein monster (John Bloom), another motorcycle gang, once again led by Russ Tamblyn, and Regina Carrol as a showgirl who is slipped LSD. Her freak-out scene alone is worth the price of admission. I defy you to explain the plot to me. And yet it’s so dementedly enjoyable.
It’s doubtful that someone like Tim Burton will make an Ed Wood-like film about Al Adamson, even though his career, cast and crew were just as colorful. But what I find really sad is that the guy got murdered and still no one paid tribute to him, which he richly deserves. The contractor- Fred Fulford– was eventually tried, convicted, and sentenced 25 years to life for Adamson’s murder, but there wasn’t much follow-up in the press. Wouldn’t you know that the man cited as making the most inept exploitation movies ever ended up with a death that didn’t even work.
