Good Morning, and Goodbye! (2024)

Russ Meyer, 1922-2004

Russ Meyer, 1922-2004

Russ Meyer, the filmmaker whom many historians creditfor creating the soft-p*rn industry with suchself-descriptive titles as The Immoral Mr.Teas, Vixen, and of course, the cultclassic of the genre, Faster puss*cat, Kill,Kill, died on September 18 in his Hollywood Hillsof complications from pneumonia. He was 82. Born Russell Albion Meyer on March 21, 2004 inOakland, California, his father was a policeman andmother a nurse. It was the latter that lent youngRusty the money to purchase an 8-millimeter Univexpicture-taking machine when he was 12. Quickly he wasmaking films around the neighborhood and won his firstprize by the time he was 15. When World War II camearound, he was sent to Europe as a newsreel cameraman. After the war, he became a professional photographer,working on studio sets, producing stills on such filmsas Guys and Dolls and Giant. Heeventually found himself doing glamour shots ofbeautiful models, and would then find fame as one ofHugh Hefner's chief photographers for Playboymagazine.Sensing that the same audience who was receptive toPlayboy would also be receptive to a "nudie"flick, Meyer made his film debut with The ImmoralMr. Teas (1959). Shot as a silent on a minisculebudget of only $24,000, the financial windfall of thissoft-core sex film astounded the movie industry,garnering over $1 million. The key to Meyer's successwas to walk the fine line between sexual baiting andobscenity. The plot - a man subjected to a powerfulanesthetic discovers that he can see through theclothes of every woman who walks by him - wastitillating without being too graphic (there is neverany physical contact between the players), and Meyercleverly worked himself around the local film censorswhile still appealing to his mostly male audience.Meyer kept the streak coming with such films asErotica (1961), Wild Gals of the NakedWest (1962), and Europe in the Raw (1963),but these were still soft core teasers thatconcentrated more on voyeurism, than anything moreintimate. That changed with the release of thenotorious Faster puss*cat, Kill, Kill (1965),where there was a healthy dose of foreplay, leather,blood, carnage, and big-breasted gals for thefilmgoers. He kept the fever pitch up with theequally raunchy Motor Psycho (1965), andMondo Topless (1966). Although his films wererelegated to drive-ins, arthouses and adult theaters,many of these viewers came back for more screenings,and Meyer was seeing a healthy profit being turned onhis productions. The film that would eventually break him out of theunderground was Vixen (1968). The titlecharacter was essentially a nymphomaniac who wouldsleep with anybody - including her own brother! Thefilm had purists in a lather, which is just what Meyer- ever the self-promotor - wanted. The film was anastounding hit. The entire production cost merely$76,000 dollars, yet earned over $6 million. 20thCentury Fox, in deep financial trouble, wanted to cashin on the sudden rash of X-rated films and signedMeyer to direct his first big-studio picture. Thefilm, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970), anin-name only sequel to Valley of the Dolls(1967), was a smash. The screenplay, written by filmcritic Roger Ebert, dealt with the lives of three youngladies who were determined to make it as a rock bandat any cost! It was well-received as a fairly sharpparody of its predecessor and holding more than itsshare of campy laughs. His next film, the "serious",The Seven Minutes (1971), based on thebest-selling novel by Irving Wallace about ap*rnography trial, was a critical and commercial flop,and it quickly ended his career in big-budgetpictures. By the mid-'70s, Meyer returned to the skin game withsuch titles as Supervixens (1975), Up!(1976), and his final film Beneath the Valley ofthe Ultra-Vixens (1979). With the advent ofhard-core p*rnography (Meyer's films were teasing butnever explicit) and the demise of drive-ins, Meyerfound himself out of fashion in the adult filmindustry. By the '80s, he was something of a recluse,although he continued to make money with the successof his films on VHS, and eventually DVD.Toward the end of his life, Meyer saw muchappreciation for his work on numerous levels: he wasoffered a cameo role as a video camera salesman inJohn Landis' (a longtime fan of Meyer) Amazon Womenon the Moon (1987); respect from mainstream filmcritics, various film festivals honoring his work;teachings on his films offered in modern culturecourses at such respectable modern institutions asYale and Harvard; and the open sincerity of noteddirectors like Landis and John Waters, who claim thatMeyer is a great influence on their own work. In1992, Meyer published his three-volume autobiography,A Clean Breast: The Life and Loves of RussMeyer. Meyer was single at the time of his deathand he left no survivors.by Michael T. Toole