In Remembrance: Russ Meyer

     Russ Meyer, the sexploitation filmmaker known for such cult classics as Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls, has passed away on Saturday, September 17, 2004. He was 82.

     Born in San Leandro, California on March 21, 1922, he borrowed money from his mother at age 12 to buy an 8mm movie camera. At age 18, he saw an ad for combat photographers for the Army Signal Corps and signed up. After being taught basic motion picture photography at an Army school at MGM Studios he was stationed in France and then Germany during World War II and shot newsreel footage and combat films in some of the most dangerous conditions of the war. He was often frequently assigned to shoot footage of General George Patton. It was during the war that Meyer developed his signature style of cinematography

     After the war, Meyer and his fellow Signal Corps cameramen found themselves unable to get work in Hollywood’s increasingly unionized studios. He struck out on his own, shooting educational and industrial films. He also worked as a still photographer on several MGM films including Guys And Dolls (1955) and Giant (1956) as well as photographing models for nude magazines. Over half of the Playboy Playmate centerfold layouts were shot by Meyer.

     Inspired by Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner’s ability to successfully capitalized on sex appeal of wholesome, girl-next-door type models, Meyer decided to transfer the formula to motion pictures. The result was 1959’s The Immoral Mr. Teas, which he was able to secure mainstream distribution in spite of the nudity in the film. The comedy was a hit, running for up to a year in some of its initial engagements. Shot on a budget of $24,000, Mr. Teas grossed $1 million at the box office.

     The success of Mr. Teas cemented the kind of film Meyer was set to make for the majority of his career. Mixing overly buxom actress and a dash of camp, Meyer produced a string of pictures through the 60s and 70s that are considered classics in a class that transcends their exploitation roots, including Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1968), Vixen (1968), Cherry, Harry and Raquel (1970), Supervixens (1975), Up! (1976), and his last film Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens (1979). In addition to serving as director and cameraman, he often produced, wrote and edited his films. In addition to his energetic camera and editing styles, Meyer’s films stood out for their strong female characters who often used men as sex objects, in a witty reverse on other exploitation films.

     Although his films contained nudity for which many would receive an X rating, he never ventured into harder core pornography. As he told film critic Roger Ebert, who co-write Meyer’s Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (1970), “I want to play in regular theaters and keep the profits, instead of playing in porn theaters and doing business with the mob,” and that “Frankly, what goes on below the waist is visually not that entertaining.”

     Meyer’s films may not have all received critical acceptance when first released but they have endured. Directors as diverse as Jonathan Demme, John Waters and John Landis have all expressed their admiration of Meyer’s work. Comic actor Mike Myers included homages to Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls in his 1997 comedy Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery. The 1990s rock bands Mudhoney and Faster Pussycat have taken their names from his films. In 1992, Meyer published his three-volume, 1210 page autobiography, A Clean Breast: The Life and Loves of Russ Meyer.

     The 1990s also saw a critical reevaluation of his work. A retrospective of his work was held in Los Angeles in 1992, about which Los Angeles Times writer Kevin Thomas wrote, “No one projects heterosexual male sex fantasies with greater gusto and resolute dedication than Meyer, who at heart is a puritan and who has always been a bigger tease than any burlesque queen.” In addition to his work being screened at festivals and revival houses, Meyer’s movies have even been discussed in the halls of academia at such institutions of higher learning like Yale and Harvard. In 2002 an exhibition of his 1950s pinup work was displayed at the Feigen Gallery in New York.