Customer Reviews

Satan in High-Heels

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Often with Something Weird's releases, the extras easily overpower and overshadow the featured film. There is nothing wrong with this, of course; I think it adds to the fun. But Satan in High Heels offers a great feature alnog with some dandy extras.

The feature is a dandy little film noir, made in 1962. In terms of sheer content it is strictly PG-rated stuff, but that doesn't mean it's not an exploitation delight. A woman, Stacy, rips off her creepy ex-junky husband and escapes her life as a carny burlesque dancer. She moves to New York and gets a job as a singer in a high-class but oddly seedy club run by Pepe, a dominatrix-style woman with a stare that can shatter windows. Stacy wastes no time in seducing both the club's owner and his shiftless son. Much witty banter follows, as does the club's "star" Sabrina (playing herself in a performance of such high camp it may be harmful to small animals), and the piano player (played by Del Tenney, director of "I Eat Your Skin", also on SW dvd). It all ends with a blow-out, leather-clad performance of "Deadlier Than the Male", a song you'll take to your grave, and maybe... MURDER!!! The film is quite good, the direction and the genuinely funny writing well above average for an exploitation picture of the era. The low budget does shine through (an awful lot of the film takes place in the club), but it's very well made and almost effortlessly entertaining for lovers of witty sleaze and evil (though not beyond sympathetic) women.

The extras are the usual greatness. First, we have the jaw-dropping "The Wild and the Naked", which is very similar to "The Girl and the Geek", also on SW dvd. A woman walks around a lot, gets naked for photos, dances, and is chased around in the buff a LOT by an assortment of characters. The film appears to be a string of almost totally random silent footage spliced together with a hysterically bad narration tacked on to make sense of it all. The narration fails, of course, but the film is a riot. A classic adults-only film, only an hour long, from the early 60's (so no frontal nudity you dirty dirty persons).

Other extras include two shorts. One is a film of a carny act involving a woman and a full-sized marionette doing a routine. It's oddly unsettling. The other ("Latex She-Devils") is astounding: an honest-to-god early 70's S&M reel!!! Watch as a cat burglar is abused by two latex-clad cuties! Wow. There are also trailers, and the usual gallery of art. Overall, it's a great package for Something Weird fans!!!

This is the best of Something Weird's rather disreputable DVD offerings of 60's sleaze. A surprisingly well made and acted low budget trash gem starring respectable actress (and former cheesecake model) Meg Myles as voluptuous carnival dancer Stacy Kane. Stacy's had it with low rent living so she rips off her junkie husband and goes to New York to seek fame and fortune. Well, fortune anyway. She lands a job at Pepe's cabaret as a singer (yes, she CAN sing) run by "Pepe" ("Dark Shadows"' Grayson Hall!) a wily lesbian with the eye for Stacy. But Stacy can't keep her hands off men and/or their money. She gets a sugar daddy but soon finds herself dallying with his skinny young son causing the inevitable snowball to start rolling downhill. Myles performs a torchy ballad in the audition for Pepe's and later a leather clad dominatrix number that will knock your socks off called "Deadlier than the Male" . This routine alone is worth buying the DVD for. But wait! There's more...a British blonde bombshell named Sabrina appears as a former "protege" of Pepe's to do a couple of numbers at the club. She must have been a pin-up model in England or something because she's an absolute eyeful. Her song numbers and costumes must be seen to be believed...period. Anyway, this is a true cult film on any level and thankfully has survived to be enjoyed today. The ladies' performances are catty and arch and the storyline and script just trashy enough to be great fun. The DVD picture and sound are great. Enjoy this one. It's a real collector's item.

Definitely one of Something Weird's better offerings. This one hits the perfect medium between being campy and just being a good movie. For the camp fans there are memorable song and dance routines (including a hysterical dominatrix number by the femme fatale lead character), a desperate junkie, a grouchy gay piano player, an over-the-top lesbian club owner . . . And for straight drama, the love triangle formed by the husky-voiced, manipulating sex bomb Stacey and the father and son who both want her, is quite compelling. Throw in Stacey's ex-husband, a desperate junkie who wants her back but can never have her, as well as some wildly entertaining characters who perform at the same club as Stacey, and you've got a plate full of entertainment.

This Movie is a real treat for any fans of Grayson Hall. She is a raspy voiced, lesbian night club owner named Pepi in this flick. Grayson's acting is suprisingly really superb, and not overacted. She is in more scenes than I expected. This is a cheesy kitschy treat for those is search of vintage Grayson. The other actors did a fine job too. It is low budget, but worth a view. The vintage s&m / erotica film shorts on this disc were an interesting surprise too.

When I first saw "Satan in High Heels" a 1962 blank-and-white film I laughed heartily at the script and acting. It is indeed a humourous testament to our past. However it occupies an important cultural niche in the lives of American men. Meg Myles was a former 1950's pin-up girl. This movie marks the demise of the pin-up and the descent into more sexually-oriented magazines and films. It reflects a bygone innocent era. The DVD also includes a substantial sampling of trailers and an additional short film of the same type. It still stands as a cultural icon.

"Slut goddess Stacey Kane is a second-rate stripper in a third-rate carnival who wants more out of life." Well, that sentence, from the DVD case itself (and it doesn't get more authoritative than that), sums up what's about to happen in the ultra-campy, Sixties-chic SATAN IN HIGH HEELS. Our fair heroine (Meg Myles) steals some dough from her ex, hops a flight to the Big Apple, and finds herself in a dysfunctional night club--where she's about to become the headline act. Meanwhile, she blinks, and smokes, and pouts, and plays night club owner Arnold against his bratty son, Lawrence.

Then she smokes some more. Everyone smokes, a lot. It's so. . .Sixties.

I was really hoping Ms. Myles would live up to the "Satan" in the title, but alas, she only reminded me, with that dishwater blonde hair-sprayed mop, of my fourth grade English teacher. Meanwhile, I noticed actress Grayson Hall right away (she plays the chain-smoking night club manager) as the chick who would move on to find cultish fame starring in the "Dark Shadows" TV series and films. She was much better falling in love with vamps than running a club in a campy movie. The ending is predictable (and bad), and SATAN IN HIGH HEELS is less than weird enough to qualify for its "Something Weird Video" label.

Now let's talk extra features. They include two shorts: "Satan and The Virgin" and "Latex She-Devils" (which reminded me of some parties I attended many moons ago). But the added hour-long feature, "The Wild and The Naked," saved this DVD from becoming a coaster. A nubile young Frenchwoman, running hither and yon in the buff, being chased by all kinds of creatures--including a hermit and a gorilla--then augmented by three naked "wild women" dancing to really, really bad rock 'n roll. It doesn't get any more weird than that, and in this case, weird is good: very, very good.
--D. Mikels, Author, THE RECKONING

The title has been contrived to lure those who love the sight of high heeled women, but the role of the actress in stilleto slides is more focused on her next boyfriend's money. Stacey Kane, played by Meg Miles, shows the result of a person who has grown up in a world of greed and drugs. She has learned to get ahead, by looking out for herself through any means as she wields control by using her womanly assets and deceit. She could have made a better life, but she is only concerned about what she wants in controlling others, even if it causes some to die.