He made 29 films in 23 years – and all were awful. So here are three reasons I love underground Director Andy Milligan! Shooting on budgets that hovered around $10,000, Milligan turned out 29 movies between 1965 and 1988 – movies that had some of exploitation’s greatest movie titles!
Bloodthirsty Butchers led to Guru, the Mad Monk, and ultimately to his greatest film title The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here!
Yes, that is a real movie title, and here are three of this “best bad” films that are fascinating to watch!
1- Fleshpot On 42nd Street
“Erotic, Sensual and Smoldering!” That’s just one of the classic sexploitation tag lines on the poster. In 1973, Milligan blew the lid of 42nd Street’s sleazy sex trade!
The plot of this classic was simple: A street whore desperately seeks love and acceptance against the backdrop of the criminal element of early 1970s Times Square.
The film featured classic Milligan dialogue like this:
Dusty Cole: How’s your mother?
Cherry Lane: She threw me out. I guess she got tired of me using all her hairspray.
Of course. Next up, one of his best shockers:
2- The Ghastly Ones!
Here is the plot: three married couples are forced to spend the night in a Victorian-era house where they start getting killed off by a deranged psycho who’s bent on claiming an inheritance they are all entitled to.
Here’s a great bit of trivia, thanks to IMDB: In several of the fight scenes of the film, the crew and their cameras and sound equipment are visible. There are also moments when the director can be heard softly reminding the actors of their lines.
Now THAT’S filmmaking! Here’s another example of Milligan’s madness:
3 – The Body Beneath!
In this movie, Milligan captures the eerie horror of-, ah who’s kidding who? Do you REALLY care what it’s about? It’s slow-moving and laughably bad in a dementedly fun way!
Check out the trailer to see these women all sporting blue faces for no reason: – and let me know how many of Milligan’s films you’ve seen: