Scum of the Earth!
Directed byHerschell Gordon Lewis
Written byHerschell Gordon Lewis
Produced byDavid F. Friedman
StarringWilliam Kerwin
Allison Louise Downe
Lawrence J. Aberwood
CinematographyHerschell Gordon Lewis
Edited byPatrick Murphy
Music byManuel Ortiz
Distributed byBox Office Spectaculars
Release date
  • October 8, 1963 (1963-10-08)
Running time
73 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$75,000

Scum of the Earth! (also known as Sam Flynn) is a 1963 American exploitation film directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis and produced by David F. Friedman. It is credited as being the first film in the "roughie" genre.[1]

Synopsis

An innocent college student, Kim Sherwood (Downe), is lured into doing "glamour" poses to earn money for tuition. Once she has done this work she is blackmailed by the photographers into doing more and more explicit posing. Various forms of implied sexual violence follow until the girl is rescued from her desperate situation.

Cast

  • William Kerwin as Harmon Johnson (as Thomas Sweetwood)
  • Allison Louise Downe as Kim Sherwood (as Vickie Miles)
  • Lawrence J. Aberwood as Lang (as Lawrence Wood)
  • Sandra Sinclair as Sandy (as Sandy Sinclair)
  • Mal Arnold as Larry
  • Craig Maudslay Jr. as Ajax
  • Christy Foushee as Marie (as Toni Calvert)
  • Doug Brennan as Carl
  • Christina Castel as Cindy, the model
  • Edward Mann as Mr. Sherwood
  • Lou Youngman as Dave, punk in diner
  • William Caulder as Joe, punk in diner

Production

In his autobiography, David F. Friedman wrote that Scum of the Earth was shot in six days, just two weeks after filming on Blood Feast had ended and was filmed in most of the same Miami and Miami Beach locations as in the previous film. It was filmed in black-and-white not to save money, but to intentionally give it a dirty look, "like an old, scratched 16 mm stag film."[2] Friedman had the idea of promoting the film a week before its showing by giving theater audiences comic books of the story.[2]

Critical reception

Allmovie wrote, "Unintentionally funny and poorly photographed, this film certainly has its moments for connoisseurs of bad cinema, but others will find it tawdry and dull."[3]

Availability

Something Weird Video released Scum of the Earth on DVD with The Defilers (1964) on 20 February 2001.[1] It is also available on the Arrow Video Blu-ray release of Blood Feast (1963) as a special feature.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "The Defilers/Scum of the Earth (1965/1963)". digitallyobsessed.com. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  2. 1 2 David F. Friedman; Don De Nevi (1990). A Youth in Babylon: Confessions of a Trash-Film King. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books. p. 26. ISBN 0-87975-608-X.
  3. ↑ Robert Firsching. "Scum of the Earth (1963)". Allmovie. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
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