Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens (5 Stars)

This was Russ Meyer's last film, made in 1979. Ironically, it was the first film of his I saw. I still remember going to watch it at a cinema on Stuttgart's main street, the Königstraße, which is now known to the world after being shown in "The Avengers" (or "Avengers Assemble", or "Marvel's Avengers Assemble", or whatever they finally decided to call it). The cinema was next door to a comic shop I used to visit, Heinzelmännchen, a great shop which unfortunately closed down in 2005. But let's try to keep to the subject. The film was advertised with a series of photos of nude women outside the cinema. I shook my head, amazed that a porn film should be shown in a serious cinema on the main street. In those days I was less open-minded than I am now, I disapproved of pornography. A day or two later I read a review of the film in the local newspaper, the Stuttgarter Zeitung, praising the film enthusiastically as a political satire. I thought I should give it a look. And I wasn't disappointed. From then on I watched all of Meyer's previous films in the cinema. (German cinemas frequently show older films, not just new releases).

The film's plot may sound seedy, but look below the surface. Lamar Shedd is a young man from Smalltown, Texas, doing a university correspondence course, despite his IQ of 37. He can only find satisfaction by having anal sex, much to the distress of his wife Lavonia. Lamar works for Smalltown's main business, Sal's Junk Yard, where old cars are recycled to make Polaris missiles. Sal is a tough boss, threatening to fire any employees who don't have sex with her. Lavonia also has sex with Lamar's colleagues, since she doesn't find any satisfaction in doing it Lamar's way. The film's soundtrack is German wartime marching music and Christian hymns.

The film is a sequel to "Supervixens". We see the return of Martin Bormann, who now owns the local Christian radio station, Rio Dio, "100,000 Watts of healing power". Since the last film he's developed a taste for having sex in coffins. His partner is Rio Dio's host, the faith healer Eufala Roop. The film's narrator is Lute, the farmer from "Supervixens". His family is now involved in incest, but what else can we expect in small town America? The film ends with the promise of another sequel called "The Jaws of Vixen", a film that was never made.

The film breaks through the third wall, in a meta-film style. As the film draws to a close the narrator speaks to Russ and draws him into the film. From this point Russ takes over the narration himself. Maybe Russ suspected this might be his last film. He shows some distress that the film crew has gone home and he's been left alone on the set. The only person left with him is Martin Bormann, lying asleep in his coffin.

Russ Meyer lived another 25 years after making this film. He announced that he had plans to make a mammoth film, an eight-hour epic, but it never happened. When his friends encouraged him to make more films he sadly said that nobody was interested any more; people only wanted pornography, not art. Russ's films had evolved from the nudist films of the early 1960's. Lots of nudity, but no explicit sex. Those days had gone, in his opinion. I disagree with him. If he had continued to make films in his own style, without compromises, people would still have watched them. There is a big gap left in the film world since his death, or rather since 1979. We need another Russ Meyer. Doesn't anyone out there have the talent and the vision to pick up where he left off?

As a certain popular book tells us, "A prophet is not accepted in his home town". Russ Meyer is American, but very few of his films have ever been released on DVD in America. He has much greater popularity in Europe than in America. In America it's mostly film freaks who know and admire him. In the TV series "Dawson's Creek" Russ's name was mentioned in conversation several times, usually by Dawson, the aspiring film director. I wonder how many of the viewers knew who he was talking about.