Customer Reviews

Stanley: Special Edition

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I saw this in the theater in 1972 and had not seen it in the 39 years since 'til I recently rented the DVD. Although not as "good" on the small screen as it was on the big screen back in the day, it was fun to see again. Let's just say if you're afraid of snakes, there's a lot of them in this movie so you may want to proceed with caution - it could give you nightmares. Not a great movie by any stretch - the acting is only fair at best and it contains cheesy early 70's music at the beginning & end of the film during the credits. This might be considered a drive-in classic though and, double-featured with "Frogs" (that came out the same year), you can have a fun & slithery Saturday night late show. Aside from the film itself, one of my favorite features on the DVD is when you insert & load it into your player, this cool animated view from the perspective from a car's driver's seat comes on and your car winds into the drive-in cinema, you see other cars in there and those big drive-in speakers, and then the up on the outdoor screen is the DVD's menu!

I love Stanley! It's a kind of Death Wish with snakes(and without Charles Bronson) Tim is a Native American recently back from Vietnam. He lives alone out in the Everglades, refusing most contact with the human world, even his own tribe. Tim loves snakes more than humans, and keeps MANY of them around his shack, but the apple of Tim's eye is a rattlesnake named Stanley.
Tim seems to be heading down that road to the laughing academy, and a visit by a racist and murderous group of thugs puts Tim and Stanley into action. Tim goes on a revenge fueled killing spree using Stanley and a mess of other rattlesnakes as weapons. When an exotic dancer betrays Tim-by biting the heads off the snakes he lends her for use in her dancing act at the whim of her jerk-0 boyfriend/manager-he goes after her as well. The film ends in an act where Tim kidnaps the daughter of the mafia type dude he killed earlier. Seems Tim needs a little human companionship after all and decides to show her his pet trouser snake. This relationship throws everything into turmoil and it all comes to a head in the end.
Needless to say, Stanley is a fun bit of drive-in style late night fun. Not overly violent or gory(though some of the animal cruelty is unpleasant), the film originally was released with a PG rating back in the 70s. This DVD is the uncut version, which isn't a bloodbath or anything, but does jack it up past the PG level a bit.
Definitely a must see for exploitation and grindhouse fans.

Incredible behind the scenes on the Special edition. I saw this movie when I was a kid & it brought back memories.

Disclaimer: The version of the film that I watched is included on The Gorehouse Greats Collection, so I cannot comment on the quality or the extras included in the package offered on this product page. My review addresses the entertainment value of the film itself - However, since Navarre has gone out of business, and this title is out of print, the only reasonably priced version that may be available for some time is those included in Mill Creek's multi-pack.

The tagline for this film is 'Stanley will make your skin crawl!', and I have to give the film props for following through with that goal. Of course, it's going to depend on how you feel about snakes - I feel I have a rather normal aversion to them, and watching a writhing mass of rattlesnakes, pythons, and water moccasins does indeed make my skin crawl. In fact, I thought I was going to have unpleasant dreams after watching this snake-fest.

A young Seminole Indian named Tim (Chris Robinson, or Dr. Rick Weber of General Hospital fame) has recently returned from Vietnam, and sick of humanity, has holed up in his swamp cabin with the only friends he's capable of making - his snakes. Of these, his closest companion is Stanley, a six-foot-long rattler that spends most of his time draped around Tim's neck. The two of them share an almost psychic connection - or at least Stanley has developed a dog-like ability to understand Tim, to the point that when Tim is finally pushed too far by the exploiters of nature who invade his swamp, he and Stanley take revenge as a team. That is, until even Tim crosses the boundary between right and wrong, and Stanley has to follow his own nature.

Alex Rocco is always showing up in these Crown International Pictures, and here he teams up with the star of 'Wild Rebels', Steve Alaimo - as a snakeskin belt manufacturer and a trapper, respectively. Obviously Tim isn't going to go along with their plans to hunt and kill snakes in the swamp - and add to that an aging exotic dancer for whom Tim provides snakes and who embarks on a new act of biting the heads off her dancing partners - and you have a recipe for revenge. But what sends him totally over the edge is a violent scene where one of the trapper's buddies, high on coke and pills, sneaks into Tim's cabin and kills Stanley's mate and their brood. It's on then, and one by one, Tim and Stanley meet out 'justice'.

This is one of the few films on the Gorehouse Greats Collection that I would think of as 'Grindhouse' or exploitation (along with 'Trip for Teacher'). Those films are still gritty and affecting today (as well as goofy), and there are elements in the script that no modern filmmaker in his right mind would even think about touching. One thing about '70's cinema is a shocking lack of PC sensibility - it is simply amazing to me what filmmakers and filmgoers found acceptable, especially after all the years of self-censoring we've done as a society since then.

Make no mistake about it though - that doesn't make 'Stanley' a 'good' film by most standards, and probably not even by exploitation fans' standards. It's too PG for those who enjoy more extreme scenes, and too kooky for those who like realism. It reminds me a bit of the 'Billy Jack' films, with its resistance against organized and conservative elements of society - except 'Stanley' uses snakes to focus our sympathies instead of a bunch of orphans, and that's a big leap for me. There is also a scene where one of the hunters clubs several snakes to death - it sure looked authentic to me - and scenes of snakes feeding on live mice, so it's probably best that all PETA members stay away. But for those who search out obscure cinema like this because they appreciate the occasional blast of quirky insensitivity completely absent from mainstream films, or simply because they are fascinated by snakes, 'Stanley' might be perfect.

This special edition offers some extras that are not available on the 'Gorehouse Greats' collection, primarily the commentaries and a making of featurette. I'd like to hear the commentaries someday, as there are some scenes I'd be interested in knowing how they were filmed, but as long as the OOP price is jacked up to exorbitant levels, I'm satisfied with the Mill Creek multi-pack. Netflix may also be an option, at least until it gets another release.

Favorite B-movie '70's moment: The trappers hire a pill-popping psycho to help them in case Tim tries to stop them. He shows up looking as if he'd killed and skinned a striped mattress and was wearing its hide for pants. Fashion!

The long-awaited special edition of the 1972 William Grefe' film STANLEY is now available... thanks to the efforts from BCI Eclipse! Presented in its fully uncut theatrical version (running about 107 minutes) and in its original 1.85:1 theatrical ratio with anamorphic enhancement, this cult classic looks better than ever before!

The ALL-NEW bonus features include:

1: "DARK SIDE OF EDEN: The Making of Stanley"- A 50 minute retrospective documentary featuring NEW interviews with director William Grefe, screenwriter Gary Crutcher, star Chris Robinson, and co-star Steve Alaimo. It also contains exclusive behind-the-scenes footage (from director William Grefe's private 16mm collection) and photographs detailing the making of the film.

2: "STANLEY: Revisited"- Journey across the everglades with William Grefe' as he revisits the locations used in the film more than 25 years later. (6 minute featurette)

3: "STANLEY goes Hollywood: Q&A at the New Beverly Theater (25 minute featurette)

4: STILL GALLERY

5: TWO SEPERATE AUDIO COMMENTARY TRACKS- One with Director William Grefe, the other with screenwriter Gary Crutcher.

It is a great package that I am sure the fans will love.

I'm interested in off beat movies, and will watch most things. DVD Drive-in made this sound interesting. Strange movie of course and best watched with the audio commentary, the one by the screenwriter was the one I liked best.

Great acting with snakes, and all around good acting with strange surroundings.

I'm not really sure what just happened.I had no understanding of this film beforehand( reviews, criticisms, etc.) But...if you like to see animals beaten to death for the "sake of realism" then by all means seek this P.O.S. out. Ive seen everything available here by Rugggero Deodato and this film is by far a contender for most despicable film ever made. Senseless animal cruelty awaits you. Enjoy?

Snake lovers beware