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Russ Meyer’s first of two films for 20th Century Fox is a swinging quasi-sequel to Jacqueline Susann’s tawdry Valley of the Dolls. Written by Roger Ebert, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) tells the tale of a female rock group who move out to Hollywood only to find it a cess-pool of broken dreams where only the strong and pure of heart survive. Interviews include Doyle Green (Lips, Hits, Tits, Power: The Films of Russ Meyer), Dolly Read-Martin (Kelly), Marcia McBroom(Pet), Erica Gavin (Roxanne), John Lazar (Ronnie “Z-Man” Barzell), Stu Phillips (Composer), and Lynn Carey (Vocals). Joining Mike this week are Heather Drain and Jordan Blossey. Buy Beyond the Valley of the Dolls on Blu-Ray Buy Life Itself by Roger Ebert Buy Lips Hips Tits Power: The Films Of Russ Meyer by Doyle Green Visit the official Jim Rugg website Donate to Boxes of Hope Visit the official Erica Gavin website Visit the official Stu Phillips website Hear more of Lynn Carey on Soundcloud Visit the official Lynn Carey/Mama Lion facebook page Read the Cease and Desist Memo

Director Steven Okazaki discusses his latest documentary, Mifune: The Last Samurai.  The film highlights Toshiro Mifune’s samurai films, especially those he made with Akira Kurosawa. Learn more at Strand Releasing:   http://www.strandreleasing.com/films/mifune-last-samurai/

Special Guest: Randall Emmett Mike talked to producer Randall Emmett about his career (Narc, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Lone Survivor) and the long journey Martin Scorsese’s Silence (2016) took to get to the silver screen.   Visit Randall Emmett’s website Download the Silence screenplay Learn more about Masahiro Shinoda’s version of Silence (1971)

Special Guests: Dean DeFino, Jimmy McDonough Guest Co-Hosts: Beth Accomando, Miguel Rodriguez Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to violence, the word and the act. A trio of busty go-go dancers (Tura Santana, Haji, Lori Williams) kill a man in the desert and kidnap his girlfriend before attempting to rob a lascivious old man and his two sons in the heated melodrama Faster, cat! Kill! Kill! (1965) from auteur Russ Meyer. Beth Accomando and Miguel Rodriguez of the Horrible Imaginings Film Festival join Mike to discuss this paean to female power and fast cars. Guest Dean DeFino is the author of the Cultography on Faster, cat! Kill! Kill!, while Jimmy McDonogh penned Big Bosoms and Square Jaws: The Biography of Russ Meyer, King of the Sex Film. Buy Faster cat Kill Kill on DVD Buy Big Bosoms and Square Jaws: The Biography of Russ Meyer, King of the Sex Film by Jimmy McDonogh Buy Faster, cat! Kill! Kill! (Cultographies) by Dean DeFino Learn more about the Cultography series Visit the official Russ Meyer website Listen to the Cinema Junkies podcast Be sure to LIKE The Film Geeks

Special Guest: Marc Walkow
Guest Co-Hosts: Geoff Todd, Axel Kohagen

The Lone Wolf & Cub Films (also known as the Babycart Films, the Kozure Okami Films, the Shogun Assassin series and more) are six movies released from 1972-1974 starring Tomisaburo Wakayama as Ogami Itto, the Shogun’s decapitator. After he’s framed by the villainous Yagyu clan, he travels the countryside with his young son in a tricked-out baby cart as an assassin and son for hire. Adapted from the manga by author Kazuo Koike, the films are both gorgeously contemplative and gory bloodbaths.

Geoff Todd and Axel Kohagen join Mike to discuss the original manga, the television adaptations, the 1989 follow-up film, the 1992 reboot, and a handful of influences that the films have had on American popular culture.

Special Guests: John Kenneth Muir, Jez Conolly, Dean Cundey, Joel Polis, Thomas G. Waites
Guest Co-Hosts: El Goro, Patrick Bromley

Initially lambasted by critics, John Carpenter‘s The Thing (1982) was a brilliant adaptation of John W. Campbell’s novella Who Goes There?. The film tells the story of a dozen men in Antarctica who are infiltrated by an alien shapeshifter.

Interviews include authors John Kenneth Muir (The Films of John Carpenter), Jez Conolly (Devil’s Advocates: The Thing), actors Joel Polis (Fuchs), Thomas G. Waites (Windows), and cinematographer Dean Cundey.

Patrick Bromley of the F This Movie podcast and El Goro of the Talk Without Rhythm podcast join Mike on this very special episode.

Special Guests: Boaz Davidson, Zachi Noy, Diane Franklin
Guest Co-Hosts: Oren Shai, Heather Drain

Lemon Popsicle (AKA Eskimo Limon AKA Going All the Way AKA אסקימו לימון‎‎) is a heartfelt 1978 coming-of-age sex comedy written and directed by Boaz Davidson and produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus.

Mike talks with writer/director Boaz Davidson, star Zachi Noy, and star of the Lemon Popsicle remake, Last American Virgin, Diane Franklin.

Oren Shai and Heather Drain join Mike to discuss the original film, the American remake, and the 8(!) other films in the series.

Special Guests: Samantha Fuller, Christa Fuller, Paul Talbot
Guest Co-Hosts: Joseph Maddrey, Cullen Gallagher

Sam Fuller‘s Run of the Arrow (1957) tells the tale of O’Meara (Rod Steiger) the man who shot the last bullet of the Civil War. Disenfranchised by Reconstruction, he heads west to live with the Sioux (lead by Charles Bronson). Relevant in 1957 when the U.S. was tearing itself apart over Civil Rights, the film is still as relevant in today’s tumultuous times.

Filmmaker Samantha Fuller discusses A Fuller Life (2013), the documentary about her father’s life, while Christa Fuller offers insight about the making of Run of the Arrow. Paul Talbot, author of Bronson’s Loose!: The Making of the Death Wish Films, discusses Charles Bronson’s career and the times he played Native Americans in film.

Joining Mike are film scholar Cullen Gallagher and Joseph Maddrey, author of The Quick, the Dead and the Revived: The Many Lives of the Western Film.

Special Guests: Russell Mulcahy, Gregory Widen
Guest Co-Hosts: Mike Thompson, Josh Hadley

There should be only one?

The Projection Booth celebrates our 300th episode with Russell Mulcahy‘s Highlander (1986), a science fiction/fantasy film in which immortals fight through time until only two remain — Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) and The Kurgan (Clancy Brown). Though originally a box office flop, the film found new life on cable and VHS before spawning a bizarre franchise.

The film’s director, Russell Mulcahy, and original screenwriter, Gregory Widen, discuss their relationship with Highlander. Josh Hadley and Mike Thompson join Mike White in unraveling the many incarnations of the film’s progeny.

Noirvember 2016 concludes with a look at Arthur D. Ripley‘s The Chase (1946). Adapted by Philip Yordan from a Cornell Woolrich novel, the film tells the tale of Chuck Scott (Robert Cummings) a down-on-his-luck veteran who ends up working for gangster Eddie Roman (Steve Cochran) before falling for Roman’s wife (Michèle Morgan) and stealing away with her to Cuba.

Cullen Gallagher and Maitland McDonagh join Mike to discuss The Chase, Cornell Woolrich, and more.