ALICE GOODBODY (1974)/MAD MOVIE MAKERS (1974) Blu-ray
Director: Tom Scheuer/Ray Marsh
Code Red Releasing

Code Red Releasing double bills an R-rated sex comedy about getting into mainstream show business with a PG-rated comedy about getting into porno with their Blu-ray of ALICE GOODBODY and MAD MOVIE MAKERS.

Waitress Alice Goodbody (Sharon Kelly aka Colleen Brennan, A SCREAM IN THE STREETS) dreams of being a movie star and seems to be about to get her big break when she is "discovered" by Myron (Daniel Kaufman), the assistant production manager on Massive Pictures' musical of JULIUS CAESAR. Myron's interests in Alice are, of course, less than altruistic as he tells her he will come across for her if does so for him. Placed in a background of chorus girls, Alice's fifteen minutes of fame are not even that when she gets a black eye from a stray boom microphone. Just as Alice starts to despair, Myron promises her a slightly bigger role if she has sex with the assistant director (THEY LIVE's George "Buck" Flower, billed as "C.D. LaFleure") who has a food fetish. Disaster strikes again when Alice is clobbered by a fallen spotlight. Myron offers her an even bigger part if she sleeps with the germophobe production manager (Norman Sheridan, DRIVE-IN MASSACRE), then the paranoid director (Norman Fields, VIDEO VIXENS) after she is knocked off the stage, the film's narcissistic star Rex Livingston (Keith McConnell, TIME AFTER TIME), and finally producer Manny Spearman (Arem Fisher, MAFIA GIRLS). While the crew at first suspect that series of accidents are a plot by Myron to delay the production – leading to Spearman offering Alice larger parts for fear of a lawsuit – they are soon dreading the ultimate karmic comeuppance of Alice sleeping her way up the ladder.

While the film-within-a-film is a parody of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR (the only musical number we hear throughout is "Julius Caesar, Crowd Pleaser"), ALICE GOODBODY – also known as GOSH! (OR HOW TO SUCCEED IN HOLLYWOOD WITHOUT REALLY ACTING) – draws its inspiration from an oft-repeated anecdote about an extra on Cecil B. DeMille's THE TEN COMMANDMENTS who asked "Who do I have to fuck to get out of this movie?" Kelly bares plenty of flesh but also shows some comic acting chops in a scenario that could just have easily fueled a standard softcore or hardcore movie (indeed, the film does in some ways anticipate CANDY GOES TO HOLLYWOOD). Composer Vic Caesar (MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE) also appears as Alice's boss at the diner, and the film-within-a-film's lesbian costume designer was played by Lorna Thayer who was best remembered for the "chicken salad sandwich" scene from FIVE EASY PIECES.

Released theatrically by Intercontinental Releasing Corporation and on VHS by Media Home Entertainment, ALICE GOODBODY had an unauthorized DVD release through Substance before Code Red's 2010 DVD which sported an anamorphic transfer, audio commentary by writer/producer/director Tom Scheuer and associate producer/film editor Gary Maxwell, the theatrical trailer (2:14) under the GOSH! title, and the alternate GOSH! title sequence (3:42). All of those extras have been ported over to the Blu-ray with the commentary shedding some light on how the production came together with Scheuer trying to launch his own directing career with his own script and Maxwell having worked with Kelly, Fields, and Flower previously in Bethel Buckalew's THE DIRTY MIND OF YOUNG SALLY. Scheuer reveals that he sought the advice of the MPAA on how to shoot the sex scenes so as to earn an R-rating (including one "POV" shot that had never been done before). Although ALICE GOODBODY is his only credit, he does reveal that he worked on a non-hardcore film with Gerard Damiano that was never released (unfortunately, he does not elaborate beyond that).

Having produced Jewish plays for the stage, cab driver Ziggy (Michael Pataki, GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE) has been dreaming of breaking into the movies. When a producer cannot break a hundred dollar bill to pay his fare, he gifts Ziggy with a script titled THE TEMPTATIONS OF SYNTHIA. Partnering with fellow cabbie Tony (Frank Calcanini), the pair set about raising money, preying on their stern boss Boris (Mike Kellin, SLEEPAWAY CAMP) with the prospect of a million dollar payoff and pitching the film as a religious epic to Tony's Catholic mother-in-law Mama Teresa (TV regular Carmen Zapata) and her fellow church-going widows. The director Ziggy hires O.D. (Tom Signorelli, ALICE SWEET ALICE) assures them that the film can be made in three or four days, but the pair have their work cut out for them as they try to keep the true nature of the project a secret from their boss – who has fallen in love with star "Linda Loveman" (Robyn Hilton, MALIBU EXPRESS) – Tony's mother-in-law, and their prying wives (MESSIAH OF EVIL's Marianna Hill and THE PSYCHO LOVER's Jo Anne Meredith), not to mention the vice squad and a certain "godfather".

With the cover title MAD MOVIE MAKERS, the menu title THE LAST PORNO FLICK, the onscreen title MAD, MAD MOVIEMAKERS, and the working title of CABBIES, the disc's co-feature is an incredibly bizarre release from Bryanston Distributing after DEEP THROAT, BLOOD FOR DRACULA, and FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN; although it is possible that they might have been trying to appeal to audiences familiar with these titles while also playing it safe a year after the DEEP THROAT obscenity trial (with other 1974 Bryanston releases Joseph Sarno's R-rated DEEP THROAT PART TWO and Damiano's LEGACY OF SATAN, a barely feature-length horror film that might have been shorn of some softcore or hardcore sex scenes). MAD MOVIEMAKERS, however, is strictly PG-rated fare bound to disappoint anyone anticipating a little titillation with absolutely no nudity and everything of interest happening offscreen going by the expressions on the faces of the characters. The film is professionally-made, relatively slick, and sometimes actually funny, with Pataki and unknown but capable Calcanini given support from a cast of movie and episodic TV character actors normally not associated with the grindhouse. Also keeping their clothes on are such future exploitation starlets as Colleen Camp (DEATH GAME), Annik Borel (WEREWOLF WOMAN), Jovita Bush (THE CHEERLEADERS), and Roberta Collins (CAGED HEAT). Presented on its own, the film would be a disappointment, but it is perhaps well-suited as a co-feature for ALICE GOODBODY. The disc also includes trailers for THE BLACK GESTAPO (under the title THE GHETTO WARRIORS), DUNE WARRIORS, TRAPPED, and WHEELS OF FIRE. (Eric Cotenas)

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