expressionless delivery illustrates their stupefying suburban existence and adds to the humor of the situation as the body count rises and things seem to spin out of control. Woronov went on to star in many more films (and write several books) but
Eating Raoul
remains her best performance on screen. Paul Bartel went on to direct several lackluster films, including
Lust in the Dust
(starring Divine) and
The Class Struggle in Beverly Hills
, and act in some good ones, like
The Usual Suspects
,
Basquiat
, and Ethan Hawke's
Hamlet
, before passing away of liver cancer in May 2000.
In 1982 the gallows humor of
Eating Raoul
pushed the frontiers of bad taste, but despite itself is a very likeable black comedy.
EEGAH! THE NAME WRITTEN IN BLOOD (1962)
âThat's my girl. Her father is Robert I. Miller, writer of all those adventure books. They live up at the club. You oughta see her swim!â
âTommy (Arch Hall Jr.) in Eegah!
Most filmmakers would do anything to stay off the bottom of the bill at the drive-in. Arch Hall Sr., the maverick mini-movie-mogul and president of Fairway-International Productions, was not like most filmmakers. He spent a few glorious years pumping out B-movies best seen just after dusk through the windshield of your dad's car.
By the early 1960s Arch Hall Sr. (real name: William Watters) was an established B-movie wheeler-dealer, distributing schlocky low-budget films and documentaries. In 1961 he attained notoriety as the subject of
The Last Time I Saw Archie
, a comedy directed by Jack Webb and co-starring Robert Mitchum as Archie.
Like many doting parents, Senior was convinced that his son, Arch Hall Jr., could be a movie star. That Junior was supremely untalented was of little consequence. Hall Sr. gave his son a guitar and a shiny suit and paraded him through a series of rock-and-roll exploitation flicks. âHe always used to say, âGee, Pop, I can't sing,'â said Hall Sr. âBut I told him that a lot of people had done well who didn't know how to sing.â
Their first outing, 1962's
Wild Guitar
, featured Junior singing his own songs . . . badly. The film was directed by Ray Dennis (a.k.a. Cash Flagg), who would later direct and star in the most clumsily-titled drive-in classic ever,
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies
. Not surprisingly,
Wild Guitar
lost money; even red ink wasn't enough to keep Hall Sr. from trying to turn Junior into the next Ricky Nelson.
The elder Hall conceived
Eegah!
after meeting the 7'2'' Richard Kiel, who was a bouncer in a cowboy bar. Hall Sr. sensed that Kiel's unusual looks and 300-pound size could make a commanding if not unusual film presence, and began working on a script that would co-star Arch Jr. and Kiel. Kiel had appeared on television, usually as an extra, and was willing to give the lead role a try as long as Hall supplied a place for him to stay.
Hall Sr.'s script added his own special twist to the
Beauty and the Beast
fable, set to the rock-and-roll beat of Arch Jr.'s compositions. Keil was cast as a caveman who has survived from pre-historic times by drinking sulfur-infused water in a secret desert cave. He is discovered by Roxy Miller (played by Marilyn Manning, who in real life was a receptionist for a chiropractor who had rented an office from Hall), when she almost runs him over on a desolate desert road. Unhurt, she rushes home to tell her father of her discovery. Robert Miller (Arch Hall Sr.) is a distinguished author of adventure books who dons his pith helmet and investigates his daughter's outrageous story. He disappears. Roxy and her boyfriend Tommy (Arch Hall Jr.) set off in a dune buggy to rescue doddering old Dad. They have no luck and decide to bed down for the night (in separate sleeping bags, of course). During the night the caveman looms over Roxy, but is scared off when Tommy rolls over and inadvertently switches on his transistor radio. The next day, while Tommy
Eating Raoul
remains her best performance on screen. Paul Bartel went on to direct several lackluster films, including
Lust in the Dust
(starring Divine) and
The Class Struggle in Beverly Hills
, and act in some good ones, like
The Usual Suspects
,
Basquiat
, and Ethan Hawke's
Hamlet
, before passing away of liver cancer in May 2000.
In 1982 the gallows humor of
Eating Raoul
pushed the frontiers of bad taste, but despite itself is a very likeable black comedy.
EEGAH! THE NAME WRITTEN IN BLOOD (1962)
âThat's my girl. Her father is Robert I. Miller, writer of all those adventure books. They live up at the club. You oughta see her swim!â
âTommy (Arch Hall Jr.) in Eegah!
Most filmmakers would do anything to stay off the bottom of the bill at the drive-in. Arch Hall Sr., the maverick mini-movie-mogul and president of Fairway-International Productions, was not like most filmmakers. He spent a few glorious years pumping out B-movies best seen just after dusk through the windshield of your dad's car.
By the early 1960s Arch Hall Sr. (real name: William Watters) was an established B-movie wheeler-dealer, distributing schlocky low-budget films and documentaries. In 1961 he attained notoriety as the subject of
The Last Time I Saw Archie
, a comedy directed by Jack Webb and co-starring Robert Mitchum as Archie.
Like many doting parents, Senior was convinced that his son, Arch Hall Jr., could be a movie star. That Junior was supremely untalented was of little consequence. Hall Sr. gave his son a guitar and a shiny suit and paraded him through a series of rock-and-roll exploitation flicks. âHe always used to say, âGee, Pop, I can't sing,'â said Hall Sr. âBut I told him that a lot of people had done well who didn't know how to sing.â
Their first outing, 1962's
Wild Guitar
, featured Junior singing his own songs . . . badly. The film was directed by Ray Dennis (a.k.a. Cash Flagg), who would later direct and star in the most clumsily-titled drive-in classic ever,
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies
. Not surprisingly,
Wild Guitar
lost money; even red ink wasn't enough to keep Hall Sr. from trying to turn Junior into the next Ricky Nelson.
The elder Hall conceived
Eegah!
after meeting the 7'2'' Richard Kiel, who was a bouncer in a cowboy bar. Hall Sr. sensed that Kiel's unusual looks and 300-pound size could make a commanding if not unusual film presence, and began working on a script that would co-star Arch Jr. and Kiel. Kiel had appeared on television, usually as an extra, and was willing to give the lead role a try as long as Hall supplied a place for him to stay.
Hall Sr.'s script added his own special twist to the
Beauty and the Beast
fable, set to the rock-and-roll beat of Arch Jr.'s compositions. Keil was cast as a caveman who has survived from pre-historic times by drinking sulfur-infused water in a secret desert cave. He is discovered by Roxy Miller (played by Marilyn Manning, who in real life was a receptionist for a chiropractor who had rented an office from Hall), when she almost runs him over on a desolate desert road. Unhurt, she rushes home to tell her father of her discovery. Robert Miller (Arch Hall Sr.) is a distinguished author of adventure books who dons his pith helmet and investigates his daughter's outrageous story. He disappears. Roxy and her boyfriend Tommy (Arch Hall Jr.) set off in a dune buggy to rescue doddering old Dad. They have no luck and decide to bed down for the night (in separate sleeping bags, of course). During the night the caveman looms over Roxy, but is scared off when Tommy rolls over and inadvertently switches on his transistor radio. The next day, while Tommy
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