Exploitastic: Vice Squad

Bill Lustig once noted that the theater scene from Midnight Cowboy is the most accurate representation of the grindhouse theaters on 42nd Street at the time. There's a mood that tumbles outward from the screen and onto your skin. A foul odor that makes you immediately makes you want to take a shower. While Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Devils Rejects captured this feel through their sun baked sadism, the movies we're talking today took to the streets. Where puddles on the sidewalk would reflect the neon glow of XXX theaters.

There's a a group of exploitation film from the 70s to early 80s that focused on how grimy the streets of New York City can be. Scorsese's Taxi Driver, Friedkin's Cruising, Jerry Schatzenberg's Panic In Needle Park, Abel Ferrera's Driller Killer and Ms. 45, Bill Lustig's Maniac, Frank Henenlotter's Basket Case, Buddy Giovanazzo's Combat Shock just to name a few of my favorites.

Movies that make you feel dirty.

What sets this movie apart from the pack is the location. Los Angeles. The particular brand of neon slime we are talking about today is Gary Sherman's Vice Squad.

Gary Sherman got his first major directing job on a film called Raw Meat. Or as it's properly known in the UK, Death Line. A much cooler title if you ask me. Death Lines deals with diggers of the London Underground who get trapped inside during the turn of the century and are now out for 'raw meat.' Sherman ended up smuggling in commentary on social structure in the genre. Donald Pleasance gives one of his best performances as Inspector Calhoun. It did well in Europe but bombed in the States because AIP ended up buying it and completely fucked up the release.

Sherman had such an unpleasant experience with the release of Death Line, he wouldn't return to directing until 1981 with Dead and Buried. From a script by Alien scribe Dan O'Bannon and makeup effects from Stan Winston. It managed to cause social guardians in the UK to hit the panic button and put it on the now infamous Video Nasties list. Though if they had any foresight, they would realize that this was an art film compared the film Sherman was preparing to do next.



With two now classic horror films under his belt, he wanted to get away from horror movies. Both of his cuts for the respective films being butchered. The experiences left a bad taste with him. So he turned to action. Sherman's method of pre production was taking an accelerated police course for 8 weeks where he would follow cops on their beats. John Alcott, the cinematographer behind A Clockwork Orange and The Shining shot the movie and brings out the ever present glistening scuzz of a night on the early 80s Los Angeles streets.

The plot deals with Princess (Seasons Hubley), a single mom who is a prostitute by night. A cop named Tom Walsh played by Gary Swanson uses her to trap a vicious pimp named Ramrod (Wings Hauser) who murdered one of her friends. When Ramrod escape police custody, he goes on a hunt for Princess. Now the cops must find Princess or Ramrod before Ramrod can get to Princess.

The characters in Sherman's films are defined not necessarily by their dialogue but by their environments and actions. Look no further than how Princess is introduced.

Now when the bloodthirsty sadist pimp Ramrod shows up, the film takes off into another level. Wings Hauser gives a terrifying performance and is one of the most underrated villains in film. Imagine The Terminator crossed with a cowboy and you'd get a good inkling of what this guy is about. He's a character where you are genuinely scared of because you don't know what the scene is going to turn into once he enters the frame.

There's a story that Gary Sherman tells where there was trouble casting Wings Hauser because he was coming off the show "The Young and the Restless." Wings was tired of playing the milk toast love interest on the show and had much pent up anger he wanted to use on Sherman's film. So before a meeting with the film's production company, Avco Embassy, Sherman told Hauser that he doesn't want him to enter the meeting as Wings Hauser. He wants him to go into the meeting as Ramrod. So he goes into the Avco Embassy meeting and says "I hear you motherfuckers think I can't play this role.", walks up to the head of the studio at the time and starts choking him by his tie. Hauser got the role after that.

There's a story of Martin Scorsese getting into a fight with reviewer Dawn Steele at a restaurant when asked what the best film of 1982 was. He said the best picture of the year is one that's not going to get nominated for anything because they are too scared. And that's Vice Squad.