Exponerad or Exposed, Diary Of A Rape, The Depraved.

DVD Cover with the warning advertisement.

This week in the S.P.A.M. Alternative blog we’ll be taking a look at the 1971 Swedish exploitation flick Exponerad AKA Exposed AKA Diary of a Rape AKA The Depraved- with a bevy of title changes you know this one will be something to behold.  Gustav Wiklund, who is better known for his acting in Sweden, directs the film, and Christina Lindberg, the Swedish exploitation goddess, stars.  While the content of the film itself amounts to little more than the nasty sex flicks Lindberg was known for during the time, the presentation of this film was much more artfully done.  Some sources also state that this premiered at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival, however I found no proof backing that up.

In Exponerad, Christina Lindberg plays Lena, a naïve young girl roped into an abusive relationship with a man named Jan, who exploits her in nearly every way he can.  She eventually escapes his grasp and falls for another man, Helge, but Jan finds her and her past life begins to once again resurface.

The interesting thing is that we’re never really sure if Lena is an unwilling participant in Jan’s games or not.   The film frequently jumps to fantasies Lena is having involving being dominated in one way or another.  It seems that she’s constantly torn between her safe relationship with Helge, and the drug-fuelled, orgy-having relationship with Jan.

To complicate things further, the film also jumps forward and back in time.  This non-linear structure confuses Lena’s state of mind even more, leaving it up to the viewer to draw their own conclusions about her feelings.  It’s this element that elevates the film from just another exploitation film to something more contemplative.

Photo shooting sesion.

Lindberg’s performance is the driving force behind Exponerad, with everyone else feeling stiff and slightly odd.  Heinz Hopf’s role as Helge felt particularly weird, with multiple shots focusing in on his face while having this incredibly dumb look on him.  This caused a few bits of unintentional comedy, but not enough to really bring the film down too much.

 

As far as the content in Exponerad, it features everything you might expect from a ‘70s Lindberg movie.  She’s naked nearly the entire film, and there’s sex scene after sex scene, most of which are unnecessary.  Most of these scenes feature consensual sex, so it’s not as disturbing or graphic as something like Thriller, but if orgies and lots of full frontal nudity make you uncomfortable, this may not be for you (who am I kidding? this movie is for  you!)

Jan, a former ABBA member haha.

Without a doubt this film’s main attraction and reason why the story works is the casting of Christina Lindberg in the film’s lead role of Lena. Christina Lindberg is very good in roles like this one which require her to be innocent and sexually curious. Fans of Christina Lindberg will be happy to know that she spends plenty of screen time with little or no clothing at all. Her strongest scenes are with Heinz Hopf who she would work again with three years later, Thriller: A Cruel Picture. Performance wise Heinz Hopf plays a role that is very similar to the one that he would play in the film Thriller: A Cruel Picture. The film’s most memorable scene is a bondage scene where Helge who has just broken into Lena’s apartment retrains her arms and legs as she lays in bed. The weakest performance in the film is an actor named Björn Adelly who portrays Jan, one of the two suitors who are in love with Lena. Ultimately fans of Swedish erotica and Christina Lindberg should thoroughly enjoy Exposed!

Christina Lindberg's Talent.

Synapse Films presents Exposed in an anamorphic widescreen that preserves the film’s original aspect ratio. This transfer has been flagged for progressive playback. Colors are nicely saturated, black levels fare well, details looks sharp throughout and print damage is minimal and never distracting. Overall this is another strong transfer from Synapse Films.

 

This release comes with one audio option a Dolby Digital mono mix in Swedish and removable English subtitles have been included. The audio sounds clear, evenly balanced and there are no major audio defects.

Extras for this release include the film’s original theatrical trailer (1 minute 54 seconds), The U.S. trailer for the film (3 minutes 47 seconds), two songs sung by Christina Lindbergh titled ”Allt blir tyst igen” (Everything Goes Quiet Again) and “Du är min enda vän” (You are my Only Love) and a stills gallery (30 images) that plays like a featurette with music from the film playing in the background. The main extra included with this release is a seventeen minute featurette titled “Over-Exposed” which includes interviews with Christina Lindberg and director Gustav Wiklund (in Swedish with English subtitles). The bulk of comments come from Gustav Wiklund who discusses how Christina was chosen for the role, the real life event that loosely inspired the plot, the score for the film and a missed opportunity to work with Roger Corman. Some topics that Christina Lindberg discusses include working with Heinz Hopf and promoting Exposed at the Cannes film festival. There are also many stills of Christina Lindberg that appear in the featurette. Overall Synapse Films give Exposed a strong DVD release that is highlighted by the two music tracks sung by Christina Lindberg.

Kinky face?

Overall an average movie, I wouldn't consider this piece as a cult movie, since the story is quite simple and not very original. The acting seems to be also lacking on this movie, characters seem to be extremely cold (probably swedish are that way IDK) and again this is another of the 25 films made by Christina Lindberg in which sex, and nude scenes are the reason for which she's a part of it. I'm not saying i don't like her, I do but as an actress she isn't very capable, her body language and speech seem all the same in every movie she's been into, so don't watch two or three Lindberg's movies cause you will evidently see that she seems to be all the time playing the same part with different names and settings but still the same thing.

 

An Exploitation legend, definitely

Yeah! She's dressed some times too!

After watching this film I watched a 2008 interview with Christina Lindberg, in which I noticed how unpleasant she felt about the interview, since it was mostly about her nude & sex scenes, you could tell how she forced herself into saying she didn't really remember much of the exact dates in which she worked on her films and also didn't remember her exact age when filming, only assuming she did make two to three films per year and that most of them took six months of work at most.

Finally she also said how different is sex, nudity and violence toward women in films today, but didn't really give much of an opinion at all, probably  cause she's not very fluent with English or perhaps cause she's not a 61  granny proud of her acting career, but hey, she said she was ok with being nude and still is.

Who knows?

Swedish movie poster.

This original poster suggests the "banned in 36 countries"

By the way this movie is said to have been banned in several countries at the time of its release. The reason? well, plenty of nudity & sex, but it's not hardcore sex, not real at all just erotic scenes and that's it, but probably for those days standards it was a major scandal...

Worth watching? sure, the story is simple but catchy, not a piece of art.

Here's the official movie trailer:

Anego Den, AKA Sex & Fury

Japanese Movie Poster.

Today's recipe is made of pure refined ingredients, coming from one of the greatest, or maybe the greatest of all the exploitation films from the 70's. This movie has it all. A good plot, a very well written script, good actors, good action sequences, blood, and some sex scenes which justify and enhance the revenge storyline. Photography is also one of the highest points of this film.

 

Sex & Fury Technical Data:

• Title: Sex & Fury (Anego Den)
• Alternate Titles: The Story of a Bad Elder Sister, a Deer Amongst Wild Boars.
• Director: Noribumi Suzuki
• Writers: Masahiro Kakefuda (screenplay), Noribumi Suzuki
• Actors:Seizaburo Kawazu, Masataka Naruse, Christina Lindberg, Reiko Ike, Hiroshi Nawa
• Country:Japan
• Language:Japanese
• Release Date:17 February 1973 (Japan)
• Runtime: 88 min.
• Color:Color
• Aspect Ratio:2.35 : 1
• Rated: R

• DVD Release

• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen

• Language: Japanese

• Subtitles: English

• Region: 1 USA & Canada

• Rated: Unrated

• Studio: Synapse Films 

• DVD Release Date: September 29, 2009.

• Film known names: Anego Den, Sex &; Fury, The Story of a Bad Elder Sister, a Deer Amongst Wild Boars.

Deadly Ocho.

Colors are very important in the films quality.

Taking a walk on some very beautiful tori gates with her father, a young Kyoko witnesses the merciless assassination of her father (a detective) when some unknown culprits show up to stab him to death. However, before he dies he picks up three cards depicting the images of a boar, a deer, and a butterfly. With only this information to aid her in identifying her father's killers, Kyoko changes her name to Inoshika Ocho and lives the next 20 years of her life honing skills in the underworld gambling and pick pocketing. 

One day at a gambling house owned by a seedy man named Imamura, a dealer is accused of cheating and is killed by its patrons. However, before he dies he tells Ocho that Imamura was the one who told him to cheat and he asks her to take 500 yen (btw this movie is set in 1905) to "purchase" his sister freedom from a prostitution house located in Asakusa, in which she's about to lose her virginity and become a forced slut.

a Dead father's hand holding key clues.

Revenge!

That night, while taking a nice bath, Ocho is attacked by Imamura and his goons(yeah they were hidden listening to Ocho's conversation with the unfortunate dealer), so we, the viewers are treated with the image of a totally nude Ocho (the actress Ike Reiko was 19 or 20 at the time this film was made), slicing apart Imamura and his men in a montage of lively red blood, naked flesh, severed limbs, and snow with early 1970s psychedelic music, which reminds you of  Quentin Tarantino's choices for his movies soundtracks.

Ocho eventually arrives in Asakusa and, along with communicating with her foster mom and her step sisters, she finds Yuki, the dead man's sister, but her current owner, a business man named Iwakura is unwilling to let go of his new virgin, since deflowering virgins is his hobby(!) However, he doesn't take the $500 yen and instead offers to let go of Yuki only if Ocho can defeat the new in town foreign gambler named Christina (yes Christina Lindberg's role) but if she loses Iwakura will get to stay not only with Yuki but with Ocho as well.

A spy and her Duty.

Movie Poster.

Christina does well at first, but after the party is attacked by her former lover Shunosuke, who bears a grudge against Iwakura and the politician Kurokawa(that's funny cause he's always screaming Kurokawa like hell and never really gets to accomplish his deed haha) her mind is filled with images of their love-making and she loses her mind and eventually loses the poker match. However, in the meantime, Iwakura to avoid going empty handed, prepares a special syrup(placed on Yuki's vagina) that would transform Yuki into a nymphomaniac for life, and yeah to make sure the syrup works he himself has sex with Yuki.

Later the abused girl tells Ocho Iwakura has a tattoo of a deer on his back. So, having found one of her father's murderers, Ocho embarks on a quest for revenge during which she will have to face all sorts of adversaries, including switchblade-wielding nuns, gangsters and a long gone relative... 

Deadly Assasin Nuns.

Religion.

During the golden 50s cinema was a major spectacle in Japan. Millions of film viewers flocked to thousands upon thousands of theaters. However, during the 1960s television and its all encompassing grasp took hold of the country and film studios began to close and many film directors such as Kobayashi Masaaki himself and Kurosawa Akira had difficulty funding their films. Instead films filled with sex and violence, Roman Porn or Pink Films, became the standard and so was the exploitation seed planted everywhere on film industries. 

Once respected film studios such as Nikkatsu started to churn out one skin flick after the other. With limited budgets and limited filming schedules, these films were quickly produced, consumed by the audience, and completely forgotten. However, some of these films, such as this film, Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs, the Female Prisoner Scorpion series, have made more of a lasting impact that can be seen in the films in such directors as Miike Takashi.

Ocho doesn't need to fight with her clothes on.

These scenes inspired Kill Bill's crazy 88s battle.

Sex and Fury is of course filled with violence. Severed limbs fly about and red blood sprays all over the walls. Ocho must endure being chained up and whipped by Christina, bondage and S&M scenes are quite common in these films, while her tormentors look on. There is of course a lot of sex also, including a lesbian sex scene between Christina and a servant of Kurokawa's named Shinobu. Add to this mixture of sex and violence a soundtrack of rock music, Sex and Fury is an enjoyable, quick watch. I mean with switchblade-wielding nuns how could you go wrong?

Grand Finale.

Christina Lindberg's Talented face.

Here's the Sex & Fury trailer:

The Hellcats/Dangerous Charter/Death Machines/Hell on Wheels/The Devil has 7 Faces/The Wild Rebels/Twister's Revenge

Alright, today I'll give you some brief reviews since these bunch of flicks didn't have that much to offer. Most of the are found on Mill Creek's 12 Movie Collection "Savage Cinema". "Twister's Revenge" & "The Devil has 7 Faces" both come from Mill Creek's "50 Drive-in Movie Classics"

Movie number one promises a lot on it's title and movie poster Hellcats! (1967)

Hellcats?  I'd say Lamecats.

The storyline reads promising: "A soldier comes back from the war and goes undercover to avenge the death of his cop brother. His link to the murder is the fiancée of his brother, who wants vengeance too, and knows he was an infiltrated cop with a drug-dealing biker gang, the Hellcats, who are employed by the mob to move the drugs from Mexico to the USA. The two would-be avengers infiltrate the Hellcats, the girl is abducted, and now it's the retired soldier against all the bad guys" Written by Ken Oyler   

Now to bo honest all you see in the movie is a bunch of junkies, alcoholics, bad dancers and yeah bikers. The movie tries to portrait some sort of hippie bikers comunity that spends most of its time on the field having fun. It's only at the very end of the movie that we see the part of the drug dealing thing and some action, but oh boy what a let down.

Movie number 2, Dangerous Charter (1962)

Dangerous Boredom.

The storyline offers us: "A fishing boat discovers a deserted luxury yacht at sea with a dead body on board. They claim the yacht as salvage, not knowing that a drug smuggling ring has hidden $500,000 worth of heroin on the boat" Written by frankfob2@yahoo.com

Basically, the movie is pointless the fishermen are made of cliché, and the action is nearly absent in the film. There is a boat chase scene that could have been a good scene, but it couldn't.  

 Now movie number 3 Death Machines (1976) a martial arts wannabe movie with a simple storyline about an evil Oriental Dragon Lady which injects three martial arts fighters with a serum that turns them into zombie-like assassins, and she sends them out against her many enemies. 

Could have been.

Which such plot you could probably think, hey this is going to be a great action packed movie! but, oh boy! the movie is definitely an attempt, but a very poor one. The three killers are ok, but I guess they didn't have bigger matches on the script so we don't really get to see them as the "Death Machines" they want us to think they are.

The main character is a complete loser, a martial arts wannabe who gets beaten every time he gets his nose into something, the good thing about him is probably his beatiful nurse girlfriend (sorry no exploitation) 

Overall it's a bad movie, but you can watch it, it does have some action scenes and also some sort of thriller like scenes where this dragon lady plots her next killings.

Movie number 4 Hell on Wheels (1967)

Boredom on Wheels.

Storyline:

"Two brothers, one a popular race car driver that all the women love and the other a brilliant mechanic who makes the winning possible, become enemies when one messes with the other's girlfriend" Written by Fryingham  

Essentially, the movie in itself, loses it's flow with the excess of racing scenes with little or no interest at all, add some  bad country music, and Uncle Sam's propaganda stating "Remember: Moonshine Kills"

The film has it's camp value, and definitely is worth watching with a bunch of friends as the background movie, or music since it's so boring that you don't need to bother on focusing your busy mind on the movie all the time.

Now, it is obvious that this movie suffers from its time, car racing in those days was the new real thing, but still that wasn't enough to make a movie about racing scenes with a subplot.

Movie numer 5 Il Diavolo a Sette Face (1971)

Almost.

Carroll Baker stars as a woman targeted by a group of international jewel thieves who mistake her for her twin sister. It would seem that her twin made off with a serious rock of some other families jewels. Two men help the desperate woman to run from the pursuing thieves but are they what they seem.

'Seven Faces' starts out with the feel of a 'Giallo' (even the name seems to indicate it) but you soon find out that it's a fairly standard crime thriller with the prerequisite twist. The production is pretty standard. It's not overly visually 

interesting and the script isn't much better. For fans of the genre only.

Movie number 6 The Wild Rebels (1967)

You call this wild?

Storyline: "After one crash too many, race car driver Rod throws in the towel only to be recruited by a motorcycle gang to be a getaway driver for their next bank robbery" Written by Leo L. Schwab

This was a movie that had a promising title, bikers? wild? blonde? kicks? unfortunately the best of the movie is just that, the movie poster.

The poorly developed plot is about a car racer who becomes part of a bikers gang, famous for their "ferocious" crimes hahaha (sorry but if that was considered as ferocious ILMAO) so these bikers decide to change their modus operandi by doing their next big kick in a car, as to avoid the police, aware of their bikes. Boy that sounds good!

Overall the movie is about a "Wild" nothingness. There is only the final town bank robbery scene with very lame action and the rest is mostly the bikers and their new friend planning their big act. They didn't even bother to add some sex or nudity, which could have helped the movie a lot but oh brother!

Movie number 7 Twister's Revenge (1987)

Silly.

Basically a movie about a computerized Monster Truck named Twister, that seems to be of interest to three very stupid thugs.

To watch it and enjoy it you need to be totally wasted, high on drugs or drunk. Sober you would kill yourself.

Soon i'll be reviewing a really good movie 1973's Exploitation Sex & Fury the movie that served as inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill,  featuring cult starlet Christina Lindberg.

The Sidehackers

Movie poster.

The Sidehackers was a 1969 action film about mere revenge but using those days hype: motorcycles. In fact, the movie title it's a synonym of "sidecar", you know, the bike add-on extra sit which a passenger rides and tilts to one side or another when going around curves. The credits thank the "Southern California Sidehack Association"; sidehacking is also known as sidecarcross or "sidecar motocross racing"...

Directed by	Gus Trikonis
Produced by	Ross Hagen
Written by	Larry Billman (Story) Tony Huston
Starring	Ross Hagen Diane McBain
Music by	Mike Curb Guy Hemric Jerry Styner
Cinematography	Jon Hall
Editing by	Pat Somerset
Distributed by	Crown Productions
Release date(s)	May 1969
Running time	82 min
Country	United States
Language	English

Cool wallpaper.

The film centers around Rommel, a mechanic/sidehack-style racer, who turns down the offer of J.C., a hot-tempered entertainer, to join his act after J.C. witnesses a sidehack race for the first time. During this time, J.C.'s abused girlfriend, Paisley, falls for Rommel and attempts to seduce him...

Bad motherfucker.

 He rejects her advances and sends her away crying. Later, when J.C. and his crew return to their hotel, they find Paisley drunk and her clothes tattered, claiming that Rommel raped her. Angered, J.C. and his gang beat Rommel unconscious and kill his fiancee, Rita. Rommel then spends the rest of the movie plotting his revenge against J.C., who goes into hiding from the police...

This is the scene that leads to the main plot.

The film's end is nihilistic in nature. After both Rommel and J.C.'s men have killed each other (while two of Rommel's men escaped on a sidehack bike), the two men brawl. When Rommel manages to gain the upper hand, he elects to walk away when the police are about to arrive, but J.C. picks up a gun and shoots Rommel from behind. The last images of the film are a flashback of Rommel and his fiancee rolling about in a grassy field, superimposed over a shot of Rommel's dead body.

Nothing better than a fist fight, no weapons allowed.

Searching through the web I wasn't able of finding any trailer for this interesting biker hype movie, but I offer you in humble exchange the whole movie in 9 parts. Some guy took the time and placed it on youtube. Now, of course the image & sound quality is nothing like the DVD but at least is something. Anyways the DVD released by Mill Creek Entertainment on the "Savage Cinema" 12 movie pack does not have the greatest of the greatest transfers, and that means it won't look good on today's standards LCD/LED TVs.

So, here's the Youtube "uncut" movie version:

See you some time soon with more B movies!