The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher (1979) - Steckler

As I expressed in previous reviews of his films, the way to enjoy a Ray Dennis Steckler film is not in the traditional mode. Not only does he dislike sound, but as Jean Epstein before him he dislikes narrative--to the point that he refuses to write scripts. He's a cinematographer who likes to film and loosely structures whatever footage he ends up with around some characters. There's a vague plot, but one gets the sense he's not committed to it. So what one must do is scan the images, get one's own enjoyment out of what footage he came up with: it's surprising what you can find.

The title of The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher pretty much tells you the plot. Two serial killers are on the loose in Hollywood. By chance they meet and one falls in love with the other. In the stunning finale they consummate their special relationship as only serial killers can. We follow the lives of both as they prey upon the vulnerable of society: prostitutes and elderly homeless drunks. This does, as you might expect, give the film a mean-spirited edge.

The Strangler is really the protagonist, the anti-hero, because it's him we're with most of the runtime and it's his interior monologue that's running over half of the film. We never get inside the Slasher's head. She has a cold, expressionless face throughout the film--it only breaks into a wry grin once--and this is actually very creepy and unsettling, especially as she eyes the old drunks who stumble into her bookstore.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2428/4088847860_3bf96217a8.jpg - Her expressionless face is contrasted with the watchful glee of Oliver Hardy.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2706/4088087605_697b6cc524.jpg - Ew! A bum!

The action is very repetitive. The Strangler kills a prostitute and pets his pigeons. The Slasher kills a hobo, goes for a run, then opens her shop. This repeats three or four times until the end. That could never get old, could it?

The most stunning thing about the film, for me, was the discovery that it's a silent film! Steckler even includes references to silent films throughout:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2688/4088087929_5a5658926f.jpg - A book on the great silent actor, Valentino, beside a KISS album. Not sure what the significance of the album is.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2677/4088089159_8e64028a1e.jpg - A poster for the Raoul Walsh silent film, The Thief of Bagdad.

The distributors insisted Steckler add some sort of sound, so he added some voices later. I couldn't quite call it dubbing. Whenever a prostitute, or 'photographer's model', is stripping for the Strangler's camera, there are some awkward, detached sounds of her saying generally come-hither things to him, as well as the few things he tells her and his internal monologue consisting primarily of "Garbage must die!" "She's a dirty slut!", "Come ooon! What are you waiting for? Kill her!", "She's just like the others," and "Just like Marcia." One interpretation for the detached voices of the women is that what they're saying is all in the Strangler's head, which is an interpretation I quite like. Joe Bob Briggs offers another interpretation: that the Strangler is so detached from reality, the voices of the women is just a background buzz. Either way, it has a creepy quality.

This film is a lot more focused than the other Steckler films I reviewed, which isn't saying that much. We don't get relaxing footage of rodeos or airplane shows here. But there is still plenty of 'relaxing' footage to go around. It's just focused on the characters: in between kills, both of the killers allow themselves 'down time'.
The Strangler takes his 'down time' spending an inordinate amount of screentime with his pigeons and dogs:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2651/4088847808_d91635a2fb.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2631/4088088967_3b5b2192f0.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2759/4088847626_0dba2b8b6d.jpg - Pigeons are faithful, unlike Marcia. Also unlike Marcia, they defecate everywhere, lay eggs and don't press charges for keeping them in a cage.
And going to a weird place called Plato's Retreat West, where we have to watch these people rollerskate around for five minutes:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3525/4088846832_64d0e08136.jpg
The Slasher spends her down time running
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3201/4088846956_a63d45d9a6.jpg
and walking
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2674/4088088529_3eb6a19402.jpg
and running
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2738/4088088861_df92e57f62.jpg
and walking and shopping
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2651/4088846722_c2e1c6a62e.jpg - Don't feed the panda.
and engaging in extreme bondage!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2436/4088089531_6ac24db9f6.jpg

As I discovered while watching Blood Shack, Steckler's films love to take their time, linger on negative space, people walking, rodeos, and all sorts of things that have nothing to do with the plot or action. Like this: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2577/4088089473_118cd253cc.jpg - We watch her walk from one end to the other; Antonioni, eat your heart out.
This can be quite boring, which is made worse by the lack of dialogue. So you have to make the most of what's on screen and get your own fun out of it. In this case, Steckler has shot loads of documentary footage of 1979 Hollywood, which is pretty fascinating--especially since he was in a pretty seedy part of town, where every second store is a porn shop!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2514/4088089389_33b17d5949.jpg - That theater is playing three of the greatest adult films ever made, and all in one day.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2679/4088089105_b3a124db95.jpg - Is the great enterprise 'Junk for Joy' still in business, I wonder?
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2624/4088846900_8e1dff4054.jpg - What's in the bag?
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2526/4088847022_2b0c9149d6.jpg -
Did this shorts-wearing frump get the ice she needed?
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2800/4088847080_dc15fe144b.jpg - Did this black man ever get his porn?
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2611/4088846688_4f4e5245fd.jpg - Did this fellow ever get out of those tight jeans?
I find it very amusing that Steckler was shooting these people and putting them in a movie without their knowing it.

And I found myself noticing all the kiddie stuff around the film:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2755/4088847362_ca75770af9.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2486/4088087763_48f3a540cf.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2650/4088846346_a5957e455c.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2735/4088846490_4902fb4905.jpg
That's pretty odd.

And as I found out with Blood Shack, Steckler can frame a great shot. Here are some of my favourite compositions:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2737/4088847318_d5ac6e14e3.jpg - Steckler says on the commentary that it's the Vegas Vampire's coffin in this shot.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2554/4088088001_b18254f5f8.jpg - He only had three lights to shoot this at night. Pretty good, huh?
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2781/4088088643_7352a99ef1.jpg - Carolyn Brandt had some fine legs, even at 40.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2750/4088088185_5b9ce4ce0c.jpg - A girl is being murdered in the background; in the foreground, an amusing commentary.

There are also some pretty girls:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2559/4088848000_6b6abfcd7e.jpg
And the requisite references to Steckler himself:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2790/4088088591_96ae01edce.jpg

While the focus of the film on some sort of plot allows a surprisingly clever progression. When the Strangler falls for the Slasher, she's looking washed-out and past her prime. As the film goes on and she kills more, she becomes more attractive: she wears sexier clothes, better cosmetics, and puts her hair put up. This is the direct cause of the final conflict between Strangler and Slasher.

However, I ultimately found the focused quality of Hollywood Strangler did more harm than good. I preferred Blood Shack and The Las Vegas Serial Killer for allowing me more space to create my own film from the images. Blood Shack has the genre-appropriating free-spirited fun of Steckler's '60s films and Las Vegas Serial Killer is so strangely avant-garde, I find myself amused by the former and mesmerized by the latter. Hollywood Strangler is more straight-forward and just beginning the experimental touches found in LVSK. Or maybe I just like rodeos, which both films have. So to reiterate, The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher is not a good film by classical viewing conventions. But I've come to love Steckler's films, including this one, for allowing me space to think and have my own fun within them. Everyone has their own unique adventure with a Steckler film.