Boiled Lobster of Lucky Landlady Lagoon

Jack Smith 
Lower East Side 1969

This is the one that Ira Cohen referred to as Reefers of Technicolor Island.  You see the marijuana plants treated as miniature palm trees, precisely as described.  I take it all as his remake of Edgar Ulmer’s Isle of Forgotten Sins with Mario Montez’s white clad nun filling in for Gale Sondergaard’s brothel keeper and Ira’s crazed sea captain in the John Carradine role.

The Devils

Ken Russell 
Pinewood Studios London 1971

Released forty five years ago today, it was dismissed by most American critics as yet another of Ken’s self indulgent spectacles.  Stanley Kauffman called it a swirling multicolored puddle, but he greatly admired Oliver Reed’s majestic portrayal of Father Grandier just the same.  As well he should have. Time has been much kinder to it than most of the films released around that time.  People still marvel at it, from its staggeringly grotesque performances (particularly those of Vanessa Redgrave, Michael Gothard and Murray Melvin) to the monumental set designs by Derek Jarman.  It’s depictions of religious hysteria are more than well balanced with images of genuine serenity and passion.  It is kind of a great film.