“The Defilers” (1965)

Studio: Sonney Amusement Enterprises
Starring: Byron Mabe, Jerome Eden, Mai Jansson, Linda Cochran
Directed by: Lee Frost
Rated: Not Rated
Running Time: 69 min.

Synopsis: Two young men kidnap a woman in Hollywood and sexually torture her.

A cool little gem from the master of exploitation, David Friedman, who made many controversial films in the 60’s and 70’s. Produced and written by Friedman and directed by Lee Frost (Friedman also directed the film, but was uncredited), this film is a mix of sex, drugs, and teen violence. The Defilers was one of the first films Friedman done without the Godfather of Gore, Herschell Gordon Lewis, who he made several pictures with like Blood Feast, Two Thousand Maniacs, and Color Me Blood Red, just to name a few.

The Defilers is about two guys, Carl and Jamie (Carl being a rich kid and Jamie his long-time best friend) from Hollywood who appear to be these two clean cut polite men on the surface, but are really two troublesome youths that get their kicks, as they say, by abusing women for their own sexual pleasure. Carl is the main one that takes sick pleasure in beating on his girlfriends, while for Jamie, that’s not really his thing, but he follows his best friend and does what he says.

Meanwhile, a young woman named Jane Collins moves into the big city in hopes and dreams in becoming a model. She rents a room in a seedy part of town. Turns out, her nice old landlady is a drug dealer and two of her clients are Carl and Jamie. One day, when the two are buying some pot from the woman, they run into Jane and happen to give her ride into town. Later that night as Carl and Jamie are getting high, Carl is itching to do something to get his rocks off. He decides to kidnap Jane and have his way with her. Jamie hesitates at first, but is bullied into by Carl. The two lure Jane to a basement in one of Carl’s father’s abandoned warehouses. There they keep her captive and Carl forces himself on her as Jamie sits there in disgust, but doesn’t do a thing about it.

Filmed in gritty black and white, which helps give the film a dark edginess to it. Most of the shots are your typical wide shots, mid-shots, and close-ups, but the filmmakers throw in a few interesting shots like many different extreme close-ups and some handheld shots as well. They are a few sequences in the film that are long and a bit drawn out, but most of the film is entertaining with the story being simple but well done. A few of these scenes are just shots of the two guys with tons of women on the beach and another scene with Jane walking down Hollywood Blvd. and visiting Mann’s Chinese Theater. Both these scenes are done with no sound and just music or natural sound pumped in.

You get a taste of what the main characters are like when during the opening scene, Carl and Jamie chase around the girls on the beach when Carl is whipping one with a stick. Then he pours beer on Jamie and his girlfriend as they’re making out. Later on that night at the beach, as some of the girls go skinny dipping, Jamie and his girl have sex on the beach, while Carl takes one of the girls and plays rough with her by biting her. Once he’s done he watches Jamie and his girl have sex. Carl’s perverted and brutal actions show even more when he takes one of his girlfriends down to the basement of the warehouse (this is before Jane is kidnapped) and spanks her bare ass until it’s bruised. At first she screams in pain, but then begins to like it and two begin to have sex. Carl and Jamie also become peeping toms, when they watch from outside Jane’s apartment window and spy on her as she undresses and takes a bath just before they kidnap her.

Most of all the cast are very likable and the acting isn’t bad. Carl and Jamie are the standouts and Jane plays the prefect naïve girl in the big city. Carl plays a good jerk in the film and is very manipulative. Jamie is the good friend who doesn’t want to get into trouble, but also doesn’t want to let Carl down. There’s a part in the film where Jamie turns to the dark side after his girlfriend won’t give him any and he decides to go pay a visit to his captive and rapes her. Jane just gives into him and looks helpless and terrified as Jamie lies on top of her. Most of all the graphic scenes are done off camera, but they are plenty of racing scenes throughout the film. There is tons of nudity from pretty much every actress in the film and the violence is pretty tame for today’s standards, but is still brutal and impactful.

The film also captures the time of the early to mid 1960’s. The look and style to everyone in the film are very pre-hippie generation and it looks more like what kids would look like in the late 50’s or early 60’s. Also this style of film is almost in the vein of other youth gone wild films like Blackboard Jungle, but this film is a little bit more extreme than those teen rebellious films of the 1950’s.

If you’re a fan of the Lewis-Friedman Blood Trilogy, you will recognize some familiar faces in this film. Jerome Eden who plays Jamie is in all three Blood Trilogy film, Blood Feast, Two Thousand Maniacs, and Color Me Blood Red. Also, in the film is Linda Cochran who plays one of Carl’s girlfriends who gets her ass spanked. She plays one of the Two Thousand Maniacs, Betsy and also starred in other Friedman productions.

This film also has a very cool trailer, which is all still photography of pictures from the movie, done with a great narration and music. Something Weird Video puts out the DVD of this film and it’s jammed packed. It’s a double feature with Scum of the Earth, which is directed by Lewis and produced by Friedman. The DVD is also filled with extras and tons of trailers to other Something Weird DVDs. The film is no classic, but is a good film and if you’re a fan of Friedman, it’s worth checking out