THE CENTERFOLD GIRLS - Revenge of the Crusader

THE CENTERFOLD GIRLS: It’s not often you watch a movie anymore and say, “Why the hell haven’t I seen this?” Thanks to cable, the internet and Wal-mart bargain bins, very few films of quality fly under the radar. But Dark Sky has unearthed just such a rarity with The Centerfold Girls, starring Andrew Prine as a disturbed stalker who tracks down each “girl of the month” to punish her for sins of the flesh. The slasher idea is really nothing new, but how director John Peyser tells the story is. The Centerfold Girls is broken down into three distinct parts like an old school anthology with each victim (a nurse, a model and a stewardess) inhabiting their own Tales from the Crypt segment. From a Manson family home invasion to an Agatha Christie-style who-dun-it, each third of the film has its own exploitation edge with Prine’s charmingly demented serial killer popping up in all three. The fact that each girl is being overtly punished for her sexuality gets the jump on conventional ‘80s slasher films like Halloween and Friday the 13th. And while The Centerfold Girls doesn’t have a famous face like Michael or Jason in the lead role, it definitely has more going for it than any of the subsequent sequels in those tired franchises. If you’ve been wondering where all the good Grindhouse fare has gone, this one is the real deal! Dark Sky’s special edition compiles several trailers, TV spots and groovy music cues along with a well-produced 15-minute documentary that finds several participants (even those who had to get naked) still justifiably proud of what they accomplished. THE REVENGE OF THE CRUSADER: Produced at Cinecitta studios in Italy, whose prolific output of pepla (sword and sandal movies like Hercules and Ben Hur) swamped the international film market throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s, this cinematic bookmark would seem at first to have very little to offer. Written by Riccardo Freda (The Horrible Dr. Hitchcock), there are very few recognizable faces and no “name” director to draw in the cult crowds. But that script by Freda turns out to be an ace up the film’s sleave. What begins as a poorly choreographed renaissance fair turns into a gripping game of thrones with a newly crowned queen tossed in the dungeon once her husband leaves for fight his Holy War. Stephen Forsyth (Hatchet for the Honeymoon) revels in his role as the cowardly usurper who grasps control of the kingdom with an iron fist, only to face the wrath of his ex-ruler during a wicked sword fight that wraps up the film. Sporting a rather large cast of extras and set against some impressive landscapes, The Revenge of the Crusader is a true sleeper in a genre that pads its codpiece more often than not. MYA Communication presents the film in non-anamorphic letterbox (don’t ask me why) with no extras.