Tuesday, February 5, 2013

#904. The Defilers (1965)


Directed By: Lee Frost

Starring: Byron Mabe, Jerome Eden, Mai Jansson







Tag line: "Everything they touch is stained!"








Despite its abrasive title, The Defilers opens innocently enough, with Carl (Byron Mabe) and Jamie (Jerome Eden) cruising in their convertible, picking up their dates on their way to the beach. The only thing that’s kinda odd is they end up with four girls in the car (as Carl drives, Jamie sits in the back seat making out with a couple of them). Once at the beach, everyone seems to be having a good time, frolicking in the water and enjoying the beautiful day. But as our two leads are soaking up the sun, we gain some insight into their way of thinking when Carl turns to Jamie and says “When are you gonna learn that females have but one function in life, to give men pleasure? They give it… you take it!” As we’ll soon discover, even when the girls aren’t giving it, Carl and Jamie take it!

These guys have a way with the opposite sex. Sure, Carl can get a bit rough at times, but hey, it’s all for a laugh. Seeing as the insatiable duo already has more babes than they can handle, Carl decides to seek out some new thrills. That’s where Jane (Mia Jannson), a gorgeous young gal fresh off the bus from Minnesota, comes into play. Taking advantage of the fact she doesn’t know anyone in town, Carl and Jamie lure the poor girl into a basement, lock her up, and make her their love slave. But when Carl starts beating on the helpless Jane, it may spell the end of his and Jamie’s friendship.

Our first inclination that all is not right with young Carl comes early in the movie, when he and his pal are at the beach with their quartet of beauties. After the sun gone down, everyone’s sitting in a circle when, out of nowhere, Carl burns his girlfriend’s foot with a cigarette, laughing hysterically as she reacts to the pain. A few scenes later, he takes another girl, Kathy (Linda Cochran), to his father’s warehouse. Leading her into the basement, Carl welcomes Kathy to his “Secret dungeon, where I keep all my love prisoners”. It’s a dank area, with a makeshift bed in the corner and some crates doubling as tables. At first merely unimpressed, Kathy suffers Carl’s wrath when she angrily rebukes his advances. He begins by slugging her across the jaw (which he does quite suddenly, getting her, and our, undivided attention). This causes Kathy to fall back onto the bed, at which point he pounces. Kathy frantically tries to escape, but Carl refuses to let her go. “What you need, chick, is a little, old-fashioned discipline”, he says, yanking down Kathy’s panties as he spanks her. Yet what started as a brutal assault ends in passion when Kathy finds herself enjoying the pain, and they wind up sleeping together. Yeah, it’s that kind of movie. And once Carl and Jamie turn Jane into their sex slave, The Defilers goes from unpleasant to downright vicious.

The Defilers is a prime example of a “roughie”, a style of ‘60s exploitation that merged sex with violence, offering plenty of nudity along the way (admittedly, we never see the sex). Flesh and sadism aside, this is a well-made, mostly well-acted film (especially Byron Mabe, who’s very convincing as a twisted pervert), relating a fascinating, albeit warped tale of two pals and their quest for some non-traditional fun. For fans of exploitation cinema, The Defilers is an absolute must-see.






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