One that had me thinking for days... Faces of Death
Auggie,
I had completely forgotten about "Faces of Death". I definitely would have included it in my initial list
of cult films. As soon as I read your post mentioning "Faces of Death" I instantly had a word association
with an earlier film with a similar genre and that is "Mondo Cane".
I still have a pretty good memory of exactly where and when I first saw " Mondo Cane" even though it
was nearly 57 years ago ! It was 1963, my freshman year in college and after class I walked a few blocks
and saw it in a small theatre where I think there were maybe 10 other people in the entire theatre and I recall
two people got up and walked out about 2 or 3 minutes after the film started. It was very graphic and shocking
at the time, but in today's world I don't think this movie would raise too many eyebrows, tame by today's standards.
To me, the theme song of the film was the redeeming feature. The song called "More" actually reached number 8
on the Billboard Top 40 charts in July of 1963. The version that charted was an instrumental by a Danish jazz trombonist named Kai Winding. The song was also recorded by numerous artists with lyrics, but the song with lyrics never made pop charts.
I believe the instrumental version was even nominated for a Grammy in '63 but didn't win.
"Mondo Cane" also spawned some really terrible sequels. I remember there was a "Mondo Cane 2" ( didn't see it)
and then a genre of "Mondo" films nicknamed "Shockumentaries".
"Faces of Death" came out in the late 70's I believe, and it copied the format of "Mondo Cane" in that it was a documentary
showing bizarre customs from all over the world, scenes of an autopsy, accident victims with mutilations, and just general disgusting scenes, but the one highlight of "Faces of Death" if you can consider watching people kill a live monkey at their table
in a restaurant and then dining on the monkey's brain as a highlight, then this film is right for you.
This scene is what most people remember as the most shocking sequence and probably most talked about. It is set in a restaurant and a waiter brings out the monkey, looks like one of those monkeys one would see with an organ grinder in an old b/w movie
from the 30's or 40's. I think there were 2 couples at the table, the table had a hole in the center, the waiter put the monkey under the table with just his head visible on the table. Waiter gave everyone a small hammer/mallet and then they proceeded
to kill the monkey, spoon out the brains and dine upon them. I have only seen this movie once at that was over 40 years ago
but that is how I recall the scene. Now before someone calls PETA to report this thread, I will say that I read an article many years later that it was revealed this entire sequence was faked and there was never a monkey being killed tableside and many of the
parts of the documentary were also staged. I know that "Faces of Death" had numerous sequels parts 1,2,3,4 etc. I had no desire
to see any of them, one was enough.
I'll close with 4 other cult films I happened to think of this evening, that I should have listed previously on post #17
They are:
"Atomic Cafe"
"Quest For Fire"
"Waiting For Guffman"
"Lawn Dogs"
JB