The Thrill Killers
Encyclopedia
The Thrill Killers is a horror/thriller film released in 1964
and directed by low-budget film-maker Ray Dennis Steckler
. It stars Cash Flagg (Steckler under a nom de plume) and Liz Renay
.
The story concerns several psychotic murderers who escape a mental institution and go on a killing spree in Los Angeles.
Joe Saxon (Joe Bardo) is an aspiring actor whose outlandish parties and spending worry his wife, Liz (Liz Renay). As per the narrator, he is "trapped in the world of non-reality".
In another scene, we see a young, Greek immigrant named Dennis Kesdekian (Atlas King) kisses his wife and family good-bye as he leaves for another day at work. Kesdeckian sees a hitchhiker (Steckler) and offers to give him a ride. The hitchhiker shoots the man and steals his car.
That night, Joe throws a party at his house. He and Liz doesn't know most of the people who attend, but it is part of Joe's plan to wine and dine producer George Morgan (himself), whose next picture Joe desperately wants a part in.
On the other side of town, the hitchhiker has picked up a nightclub dancer/prostitute (Erina Enyo) and takes her back to her apartment, where he brutally murders her with a pair of scissors.
While Joe and Liz are arguing, they hear of the murders over the radio, and learn that the assailant was Mort "Mad Dog" Click, long wanted by the police for similar crimes. Also on the loose are three mental patients who have escaped from the local asylum.
The next day, Liz decides to leave Joe and drives out to her cousin Linda's restaurant up in the hills. At the restaurant, Linda (Laura Benedict) congratulates her friends Ron (Ron Burr) and Carol (Carolyn Brandt) on their marriage and purchase of a nearby house. Liz pulls in just after the couple leave.
Ron and Carol get to their new house and look around. When they find their handyman missing, they look out back at a smaller house on the property, where they find him decapitated by the escaped mental patients-- the axe-wielding Keith (Keith O'Brien), Herbie (Herb Robbins) and Gary (Gary Kent). Ron is decapitated in front of Carol, and then after some amount of chasing around the property, Carol is disposed of in a similar fashion.
Joe and Morgan show up at Linda's restaurant, as do the three killers. Herbie calls his friend, who turns out to be Click, to come by and get rid of the two others. When Liz and Joe realize who the three are, the killers hold them hostage. Linda poisons Herbie's coffee and kills him, while Gary chases Liz outside up in the hills.
While Linda and Morgan phone for the police, Joe follows the Gary and Liz up into the hills and a battle between Gary and Joe takes place on a mountain-top. Liz goes to get help, but is picked up and kidnapped by Click, who is now on the scene. Gary is pushed off a cliff and falls to his death. Joe, from afar, sees Liz get into Click's car, unaware that the man driving her is also a madman.
Liz escapes Click's clutches as the police arrive and take chase. Click shoots a camper and steals his horse, and heads further up to the hills on horseback, chased after by a motor patrolman. After a furious gun battle, Click is shot to death.
Sometime after the events have taken place, Joe has sworn off acting, until he gets a call from Morgan that he wants him (at $2,500 a week) to star in his picture opposite his newest discovery, Miss Transylvania-- Linda!
(1963), he and producer George J. Morgan decided to cash in on the "psycho-killer" craze in Hollywood, brought upon by Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
.
The original film was to focus around the three mental patients, but Steckler found that while directing the film (with little to no set script) that the film was not running long enough and therefore began to shoot scenes with him as Click.
On a shoestring budget, Steckler was able to cast friends and associates for little to no money. Morgan, Brandt (Steckler's then-wife), Enyo, King, Titus Moede, George Caldwell and James Bowie had previously worked on The Incredibly Strange Creatures, while Joe Bardo (billed as Brick Bardo), Gary Kent and Herb Robbins were friends Steckler had met at a local community playhouse. Fellow low-budget film director Coleman Francis provided the narration. The female lead Liz Renay was a friend of Bardo's and had just finished a 27-month prison sentence on Terminal Island
for perjury involving her then-boyfriend, gangster Mickey Cohen
.
The Thrill Killers also marked the first on-screen collaboration between Steckler and Ron Haydock
, who would later become the director's "partner-in-crime" up until his death in 1977.
engagement, similar to what he had done with Creatures, with the film playing mostly midnight shows at hard-top theaters and on a regular bill at drive-ins. During the murder scenes, Steckler, as well as others in masks designed to look like Steckler, ran out into the audience with prop knives in an order to startle them.
Subsequent reissues of the film (under the title The Maniacs Are Loose) added a color prologue with famed hypnotist Ormond McGill
(billed as "The Amazing Ormond"), as well as extended color sequences of a "hypnodisc" during the moments where Steckler and company would burst out into the audience.
1964 in film
The year 1964 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 29 - The film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is released....
and directed by low-budget film-maker Ray Dennis Steckler
Ray Dennis Steckler
Ray Dennis Steckler , also known by the pseudonym Cash Flagg, was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor best known as the low-budget auteur of such cult films as The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies...
. It stars Cash Flagg (Steckler under a nom de plume) and Liz Renay
Liz Renay
Liz Renay, née Pearl Elizabeth Dobbins was an American author, actress and convicted felon, who appeared in John Waters' film Desperate Living ....
.
The story concerns several psychotic murderers who escape a mental institution and go on a killing spree in Los Angeles.
Synopsis
The story takes place in 1964 in Hollywood, California.Joe Saxon (Joe Bardo) is an aspiring actor whose outlandish parties and spending worry his wife, Liz (Liz Renay). As per the narrator, he is "trapped in the world of non-reality".
In another scene, we see a young, Greek immigrant named Dennis Kesdekian (Atlas King) kisses his wife and family good-bye as he leaves for another day at work. Kesdeckian sees a hitchhiker (Steckler) and offers to give him a ride. The hitchhiker shoots the man and steals his car.
That night, Joe throws a party at his house. He and Liz doesn't know most of the people who attend, but it is part of Joe's plan to wine and dine producer George Morgan (himself), whose next picture Joe desperately wants a part in.
On the other side of town, the hitchhiker has picked up a nightclub dancer/prostitute (Erina Enyo) and takes her back to her apartment, where he brutally murders her with a pair of scissors.
While Joe and Liz are arguing, they hear of the murders over the radio, and learn that the assailant was Mort "Mad Dog" Click, long wanted by the police for similar crimes. Also on the loose are three mental patients who have escaped from the local asylum.
The next day, Liz decides to leave Joe and drives out to her cousin Linda's restaurant up in the hills. At the restaurant, Linda (Laura Benedict) congratulates her friends Ron (Ron Burr) and Carol (Carolyn Brandt) on their marriage and purchase of a nearby house. Liz pulls in just after the couple leave.
Ron and Carol get to their new house and look around. When they find their handyman missing, they look out back at a smaller house on the property, where they find him decapitated by the escaped mental patients-- the axe-wielding Keith (Keith O'Brien), Herbie (Herb Robbins) and Gary (Gary Kent). Ron is decapitated in front of Carol, and then after some amount of chasing around the property, Carol is disposed of in a similar fashion.
Joe and Morgan show up at Linda's restaurant, as do the three killers. Herbie calls his friend, who turns out to be Click, to come by and get rid of the two others. When Liz and Joe realize who the three are, the killers hold them hostage. Linda poisons Herbie's coffee and kills him, while Gary chases Liz outside up in the hills.
While Linda and Morgan phone for the police, Joe follows the Gary and Liz up into the hills and a battle between Gary and Joe takes place on a mountain-top. Liz goes to get help, but is picked up and kidnapped by Click, who is now on the scene. Gary is pushed off a cliff and falls to his death. Joe, from afar, sees Liz get into Click's car, unaware that the man driving her is also a madman.
Liz escapes Click's clutches as the police arrive and take chase. Click shoots a camper and steals his horse, and heads further up to the hills on horseback, chased after by a motor patrolman. After a furious gun battle, Click is shot to death.
Sometime after the events have taken place, Joe has sworn off acting, until he gets a call from Morgan that he wants him (at $2,500 a week) to star in his picture opposite his newest discovery, Miss Transylvania-- Linda!
Production
After the success of Steckler's first independent feature, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up ZombiesThe Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies
-DVD release:The DVD release of Incredibly Strange Creatures features a commentary track by "drive-in movie critic" Joe Bob Briggs.-In popular culture:...
(1963), he and producer George J. Morgan decided to cash in on the "psycho-killer" craze in Hollywood, brought upon by Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
Psycho (1960 film)
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
.
The original film was to focus around the three mental patients, but Steckler found that while directing the film (with little to no set script) that the film was not running long enough and therefore began to shoot scenes with him as Click.
On a shoestring budget, Steckler was able to cast friends and associates for little to no money. Morgan, Brandt (Steckler's then-wife), Enyo, King, Titus Moede, George Caldwell and James Bowie had previously worked on The Incredibly Strange Creatures, while Joe Bardo (billed as Brick Bardo), Gary Kent and Herb Robbins were friends Steckler had met at a local community playhouse. Fellow low-budget film director Coleman Francis provided the narration. The female lead Liz Renay was a friend of Bardo's and had just finished a 27-month prison sentence on Terminal Island
Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island
Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island is a low-security prison for men located on Reservation Point on Terminal Island and in San Pedro, Los Angeles. The other Federal prison in the Los Angeles area is the Metropolitan Detention Center in Downtown Los Angeles...
for perjury involving her then-boyfriend, gangster Mickey Cohen
Mickey Cohen
Meyer Harris "Mickey" Cohen was a gangster based in Los Angeles and part of the Jewish Mafia, and also had strong ties to the American Mafia from the 1930s through 1960s.-Early life:...
.
The Thrill Killers also marked the first on-screen collaboration between Steckler and Ron Haydock
Ron Haydock
Ron Haydock was an American actor, screenwriter, novelist and rock musician.His band, Ron Haydock & the Boppers, was sometimes compared to Elvis Presley...
, who would later become the director's "partner-in-crime" up until his death in 1977.
Release
When originally released, Steckler and company took the film on as a roadshowRoadShow
RoadShow , formerly known as "資訊娛樂共同睇" [paraphrased as Integrated View of Information and Entertainment]) is the first "Multi-Media On Board" service on transit vehicles in the world. It was launched by Kowloon Motor Bus Company on 26 November 2000...
engagement, similar to what he had done with Creatures, with the film playing mostly midnight shows at hard-top theaters and on a regular bill at drive-ins. During the murder scenes, Steckler, as well as others in masks designed to look like Steckler, ran out into the audience with prop knives in an order to startle them.
Subsequent reissues of the film (under the title The Maniacs Are Loose) added a color prologue with famed hypnotist Ormond McGill
Ormond McGill
Ormond Dale McGill was the "Dean of American Hypnotists".Born in Palo Alto, California, McGill became interested in magic as a child , but first studied hypnosis in 1927 while still a teenager...
(billed as "The Amazing Ormond"), as well as extended color sequences of a "hypnodisc" during the moments where Steckler and company would burst out into the audience.