Michael Findlay (filmmaker)
Michael Findlay | |
---|---|
Born | United States | August 27, 1937
Died | May 16, 1977 New York City, New York, United States | (aged 39)
Occupation(s) | Film director, film producer, screenwriter |
Spouse | Roberta Findlay |
Michael Findlay (August 27, 1937[citation needed] – May 16, 1977) was an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter.[1] Along with his wife Roberta, Findlay created numerous low-budget Z movies in the 1960s and 1970s. They have been described as "the most notorious filmmakers in the annals of sexploitation".[2]
In the mid-to-late 1960s, Findlay was prominent among a small group of underground New York filmmakers (including
The Findlays were friends with George Weiss, producer of Ed Wood's Glen or Glenda and a series of fetishistic Olga films (Olga's House of Shame, Olga's Girls, et al.). In 1964 Weiss encouraged them to make films in this new subgenre of violent sexploitation.
Early films: 1964–1966
Findlay co-directed his first film, 1964's Body of a Female, with his close friend, John Amero.
In 1965 he directed The Sin Syndicate, a false documentary about prostitutes turning State's evidence against the Mob, and the infamous Satan's Bed starring a then-unknown Yoko Ono (three years before she met The Beatles' John Lennon). This is actually two films edited together. In the unfinished Judas City, Ono plays the fiancée of a drug pusher who is eventually robbed and raped. Findlay added a secondary story about three addicts on a crime spree who terrorize several women. Roberta Findlay plays one of their victims.
This was followed by Take Me Naked (1966), a lurid story written by Roberta Findlay about a depraved
The Flesh trilogy
Findlay's breakthrough film was The Touch of Her Flesh (1967), the tale of a cuckolded gun dealer named Richard Jennings (played by Findlay) who is disfigured in a car accident after finding his wife in bed with another man. In recovery, Jennings comes to generalize his hatred of his wife to promiscuous women in general; after he is released, Jennings goes on a killing spree, murdering prostitutes and strippers with a variety of unique implements, including poison-tipped rose thorns, blowdarts, a
The success of Touch led to two sequels, The Curse of Her Flesh and The Kiss of her Flesh, both released in 1968; both films followed the formula of Jennings recovering from life-threatening injuries sustained at the end of the previous film and returning to kill prostitutes and strippers while plotting elaborate revenge against individuals who were directly involved with his wife or knew of her affair. Kiss was intended to end the series, with a title card informing the viewers that Jennings' demise was positively the end.
Findlay continued to make films about sex and violence with A Thousand Pleasures (1968), and The Ultimate Degenerate (1969), which was largely a remake of Body of a Female.
Films of the 1970s
In the 1970s the Findlays turned toward horror films. One of their efforts, The Slaughter, produced in 1971, was a poorly received cash-in on the
Michael Findlay is also the director of the 1974 Yeti slasher movie, Shriek of the Mutilated.
Roberta Findlay's films
Roberta Findlay later went on to direct hardcore pornographic films including Anyone But My Husband (1975), Angel on Fire (1974), A Woman's Torment (1977), and Mystique (1979). She left the adult film industry after the controversial Shauna: Every Man's Fantasy (1985), about the tragic suicide of porn star Shauna Grant. Since then she's made mostly horror and action films such as Tenement, The Oracle (both 1985), Blood Sisters (1987) and Prime Evil (1988).
Death
On May 16, 1977, Michael Findlay was killed in a helicopter accident on the roof of the
A "Michael Findley" of Manhattan was named in press reports as being one of the three men on the roof killed instantly when "literally cut to pieces".[7] Other reports claimed the bodies were not "transsected" but had "deep lacerations".[8]
References
- ISBN 978-0-520-21943-4. Expanded ed.
- ^ qtd. Williams , p. 328
- ^ The Rialto Report: John Amero and 'Body of a Female' – Interview with Ashley West, March 4, 2013
- ^ "Horror Watch". horrorwatch.com. Retrieved November 1, 2016.
- ^ Aircraft Accident Report – New York Airways, inc., Sikorsky S-61L, N619PA Pan Am Building Heliport, New York City May 16, 1977 (PDF), National Transportation and Safety Board, October 13, 1977, archived from the original on September 30, 2007, retrieved May 30, 2008
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ UPI, "Helicopter Crash Kills Five", Beaver County (Pa.) Times, May 17, 1977, A-13
- The Fort Scott Tribune: Tuesday, May 17, 1977, page 1.
- Daytona Beach Morning Journal, May 17, 1977, page 1
External links
- Michael Findlay at IMDb
- Roberta Findlay at IMDb
- Snuff Said, Channel 4 news
- "John Amero and Body of a Female" at The Rialto Report - audio podcast interview with John Amero about Michael Findlay's first film