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Illustration : Unknown |
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Swinging Barmaids |
Gus Trikonis | US | 1975 |
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Featuring cult actor
William Smith and a beavy of 70s lovelies
(including "Ilsa" herself Dyanne
Thorne), this grindhouse
thriller from director Gus Trikonis kicks into gear after the
opening credits, and never lets up until the final bloody shootout. Trikonis — once married
to Goldie Hawn — directed a slew of low budget genre favourites
throughout the 1970s, finally ending up in television helming episodes
of Baywatch! Points could be
deducted for the rather misrepresentative title, but this is still an
engrossing psycho-thriller enhanced with an excellent performance from Bruce Watson as the schizophrenic
murderer. The four attractive
cocktail waitresses: Jenny (Laura
Hippe), Susie (Katie Saylor), Marie (Renie Radich) and Boo-Boo (Dyanne Thorne), who work at the
‘Swing-a-Ling’ bar are reduced to three when an imbalanced
customer tails Boo-Boo home, stabbing her in the back after a
protracted scuffle. As chance would have it, the remaining girls arrive
a Boo-Boo’s apartment just as the murderer is taking snapshots of
the body, but he manages to flee into the night. Lieutenant Harry White (the burly William Smith) takes up the case, but the investigation stalls fairly quickly; unbeknownst to the Lieutenant, the murderer, Tom Breen (Watson), changed his appearance dramatically after the homicide, thus rendering the girls’ eyewitness photofit picture useless. The resourceful Breen gets a job at the ‘Swing-a-Ling’ as a dishwasher-cum-bouncer, but taking offence at one of Marie’s jokes, he drowns her in her own pool, hospitalizing the bar’s co-owner Zitto (Zitto Kazann) in the process. After Zitto is finished off in his hospital bed, a plan is hatched by the bar staff to snare the killer. Little do they know that the killer is one of them…
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The uncut The Swinging Barmaids hit the theatres on a double-bill with Lee Maddon’s The Manhandlers (“The Teasers…The Pleasers…In One Sex-Sational Double Bill!”), courtesy of Brent Walker Films in 1976. Later, Walton Films of London, which in the early 80s had branched out into the video market, released Trikonis' film in April 1983 (the same year they ceased trading) with the more salacious title of Killer, but with a rather unimaginative cover. SK Productions’ 1986 re-release of the film was issued with a BBFC ‘18’ certificate and 2m 26s of cuts. The BBFC objected to the often rough mêlée and ripping off of the victims clothes at each murder, including any exposure of bare breasts. An alternative release on Xtasy Video can be found here. aka : Killer; Eager Beavers cast : Bruce Watson, Laura Hippe,
Katie Saylor, Renie
Radich, William Smith, Zitto Kazmann, Dyanne Thorne, James Travis, Ray
Galvin, John Alderman, Andre Tayir, Dick Yarmy, Milt Kogan, Judith
Roberts, M.J. Kane
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