MARIA'S B-MOVIE MAYHEM: TEENAGE TRAMP (1973)/CAT MURKIL AND THE SILKS (1976) Blu-ray
Directors: Anton Holden/John A. Bushelman
Code Red Releasing

Code Red takes juvenile delinquency into the seventies with a TEENAGE TRAMP and the gang CAT MURKIL AND THE SILKS on Blu-ray.

Having fallen in with a bad crowd on the East Coast, young Kim (Alisha Fontaine, FRENCH QUARTER) hooks up with draft dodger Skip (Don Jarrell) and heads back home west, submitting to the pawing of truck drivers along the way. She comes home to discover that her older sister Hilary (Robin Lane, INCOMING FRESHMEN) has tied up their inheritance in her art gallery and her attempts to launch the career of younger stud painter Adam (Anthony Massena). While she refuses to give Kim any money, she tells her that everything she has belongs to her as well; and Kim takes her up on that by teasing Adam who has already tested their relationship in a dalliance with another underage girl. When Hilary discovers that Kim is hiding a draft dodger on the property, she tells her to get rid of him but then Kim reveals that Skip is not the only one being hunted; however, Kim is not in trouble with the law, but with dope pusher Maury (the film's writer David Sawn) who wants his best dealer back and takes his hippie gang cross-country to invade Hilary's home. When he discovers what Kim stands to inherit, Maury plots to murder Hilary with an overdose of her own tranquilizers to which she has resorted more as she feels her hold slipping on her boyfriend in favor of her little sister.

A quite singular effort by a director who dabbled in sexploitation in the sixties with AROUSED and CARGO OF LOVE before this sole seventies entry and a subsequent career from the eighties onwards in post-production sound, TEENAGE TRAMP begins in a confusing fashion with three sets of characters vaguely introduced and referring to others without specificity until they all converge midway through the film. The film's tone shifts from nudity-dappled melodrama to a spot of gaslighting before turning into a very casual home invasion. While Lane's Hilary seems overwrought from the start, the tension of the second half of the film is carried by Sawn and Fontaine. One can almost feel the camera running out of film as the movie rushes to its climax, with the final result feeling more like an incongruous oddity of various exploitable than a satisfying piece of sexploitation set to variations on an easy-listening song by "The Ortez Brothers" and some rock instrumentals by Stagger (the latter particularly making the film's perspective feel "middle-aged").

Released theatrically by N.M.D. – whose output included Joel M. Reed's NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES, Ed Adlum's INVASION OF THE BLOOD FARMERS, Massimo Dallamano's WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO OUR DAUGHTERS? as THE COED MURDERS, and the comedy CRY YOUR PURPLE HEART OUT! (released by Code Red on a DVD double bill under its reissue title HOW TO SCORE WITH GIRLS with WHITE RAT) – TEENAGE TRAMP's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen transfer comes from a very ratty 35mm print with a clipped opening, lime green scratches, lost frames, torn frames, and at least two exchanges where repairs to damaged frames lead to jump cuts that also drop dialogue and throw what remains out-of-sync on the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track. The take-it-or-leave-it condition of the print is likely the best we will see, and it seems doubtful a better print if found would command a reissue. The feature is viewable with a Maria's B-Movie Mayhem introduction and post-script in which WWE wrestler/model Maria Kanellis takes the film's title as a personal insult from Code Red's Bill Olsen before providing some factoids on the film.

In CAT MURKIL AND THE SILKS, Eddie Murkil (David Kyle, Judith Myers' minute man boyfriend in HALLOWEEN) is "Eddie the Cat" a member of the street gang The Silks who seem to exist solely to hassle shopkeepers and pick fights with other gangs. The kid brother of jailed former leader Joey (Steve Bond, THE PREY), Eddie himself is low in the ranks and constantly belittled in front of the others by leader Bumps (Derrel Maury, MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH) when he tries to put his two cents in on any matter. One night while hanging around the parking lot at the school game, Eddie and Bumps beat up a pair of Mexican gang members stealing the hubcaps off of a car; however, this is no civic duty as they steal the hubcaps and stereo to sell for their own profit. When the Mexican gang comes after them in a car chase with guns, Eddie seizes power by shooting Bumps himself and then leading a campaign of revenge upon the other gang. Since Eddie and the other members are legally adults, they recruit more naïve high school kids to perform their dirty work, which here includes sending awkward freshmen Moss (Ricardo Militi) and Bright (Gary Wild) into the rival school to shiv two of the Mexican gang members in the gym showers. When detectives Harder (Rhodes Reason, KING KONG ESCAPE) and Lambert (Doug McGrath, BLACK CHRISTMAS' "fellatio" desk sergeant) investigate, Eddie and his second Marble (Meegan King, HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP) manage to easily intimidate teacher Miss Plimpton (Jackie Chapman) into lying to the police about the alibis of Moss and Bright despite being fingered by an eye witness. When the Mexican gang crashes a party and Eddie shows his cowardice, however, the real danger to him may not come from the law or the rival gang.

More of a throwback to the traditional JV picture of the fifties and sixties, CAT MURKIL AND THE SILKS initially seems to make a vital miscalculation from the start with the casting of scrawny Kyle as a gang tough; however, Eddie Murkil is very much a JV antihero in the mold of ANATOMY OF A PSYCHO's brutal but ultimately pathetic lead. He has built up memories of "good times" with his tougher brother that may not have ever been; and his reaction when confronted with his own literal or figurative impotence – by anyone from Bumps or needling (Don Carter, A BOY AND HIS DOG) to Joey's ex-girlfriend Claudine (Kelly Yaegermann, BREWSTERS' MILLONS) who has become a stripper and shacked up with Carlos (Joe Renteria, MARKED FOR DEATH) who has aged out the Mexican gang but seems no more mature – he resorts to violence when he has the upper hand (i.e. a weapon) or flees until he can get the jump on them. Parental figures are generally checked out, Eddie's mother (Ruth Manning, AUDREY ROSE) the exception although she feels powerless to intervene, while authority figures are either lackadaisical or overly cynical. When Eddie's idealized image of the past crumbles with a reality check from Joey, he becomes more murderous but also more reckless and is ultimately betrayed by those he has treated the same ways for which he resented Bumps. Editor-turned-director John A. Bushelman only helmed a handful of flicks including DAY OF THE NIGHTMARE but edited a number of Bert I. Gordon flicks including TORMENTED and PICTURE MOMMY DEAD. The previous screenwriting credits of writer/producer William C. Thomas (THEY MADE ME A KILLER) were in the forties and fifties, and one wonders if CAT MURKIL AND THE SILKS had originally been conceived back then as an actual JV film.

Initially released by Gamma III (Roger Vadim's CHARLOTTE), CAT MURKIL AND THE SILKS was reissued in 1979 as CRUSIN' HIGH by Ellman Film Enterprises (SCREAM BLOODY MURDER), it was the latter titled version that went to VHS from Lightning Home Video in the eighties. I have not been able to ascertain if the reissue version was cut, but Code Red's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen transfer carrying the Gamma logo but the CRUISIN' HIGH title card has had to resort to pillarboxed fullscreen video inserts to replace footage that was either censored or damaged in the print source. A couple bits could have been trimmed from the reissue for censorship while some might have been done for pacing, but some of the scenes would be quite choppy without the inserts; so the inserted material may either have been originally trimmed or the print source might have been damaged at these points (the rest of the presentation however looks quite clean and colorful so damage is unlikely). There are no extras related to the film but trailers are included for MAMA'S DIRTY GIRLS (on a triple feature Blu-ray with PIRANHA PIRANHA and SUPERVAN), THE GREAT SMOKEY ROADBLOCK, SPASMS, STREET LAW, and TOP OF THE HEAP. (Eric Cotenas)

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