FLESH FEAST

Veronica Lake

FLESH FEAST (1970). Director: Brad F. Grinter. Co-produced by Veronica Lake.

Newspaper man Ed Casey (Phil Philbin) hires a woman named Kristine (Heather Hughes) to play nurse in order to infiltrate a compound run by a mysterious doctor named Elaine Frederick (Veronica Lake). Dr. Frederick plans to use flesh-eating maggots on certain patients in order to give them a highly unusual (and totally improbable) face lift. The first patient is Max Bauer (Chris Martell), who looks like a million bucks after "surgery" but who has unfortunate anti-social tendencies, to say the least. Dr. Frederick has certain unexpected plans for the next patient in the lurid if satisfying finale. Jose (Bill Rogers) is a kind of hit man who falls for a pretty young nurse also working in the compound. Dr. Frederick reports to the leader of a group of revolutionaries who turn out to be Nazis. An interesting early scene has an associate of Casey's being killed by a broom with a knife on the end of it as he sits in a phone booth. Flash Feast is probably not Lake's worst movie; it holds the attention and some of the acting, including Lake's, is perfectly okay. Although not unattractive, Lake [Bring on the Girls] looks older than her 47 years due to heavy drinking and was dead three years later. This was her last movie. Brad F. Grinter also co-directed Blood  Freak, which was much, much worse than this.

Verdict: And you thought botox was bad! **1/2 out of 4.

BLOOD FREAK

BLOOD FREAK (1972). Directed and written by Steve Hawkes and Brad F. Grinter. 

"He's not Hershell anymore -- he's changing!" 

Hershell (Steve Hawkes, who also co-wrote and co-directed), an Elvis wannabee with a curled lip, eats some contaminated turkey meat and turns into -- you guessed it -- a homicidal monster with a turkey head. Judging from the acting and production values, this looks like it was put together by a very low-budget porn unit. Mentally arrested gorehounds may enjoy the grisly and graphic scene when Hershell cuts off a man's leg with a buzz saw. A narrator talks pretentiously about what's going on and keeps looking down at the script while smoking and choking on a cigarette. There are some attractive cast members but this isn't funny enough to be a parody and not entertaining enough to be anything else. This is the worst movie reviewed on Great Old Movies so far. Admittedly TCM can sometimes be accused of running the same movies over and over and over again, but surely there's better stuff out there than this! IFC would have been more a more appropriate venue. 

Verdict: A literal turkey. 0 stars.