A: Scum of the Earth (the title of the film, that is!)

Mike Ripps, rolling into the Late 70’s with his EMC company, was still playing his games with the movie going public, some of them still taking the bait for stuff like this. Using the old fashioned small “coming soon” ad approach in a paper’s Movie section, he would present little things like this in between larger ads to see if people would want to be interested, spreading the word. This made the film look like a sequel to his biggest Drive In hit Poor White Trash which was in reality the 1957 film Bayou starring Peter Graves. Although there was no real connection to that film, it followed the template once again in re-titling an older feature, putting another feature along with it and using the popular “Give them a show!” method in it’s history of one week runs (in the original PWT’s case, co-featured with I Hate Your Guts, aka Shame starring William Shatner, there would be “guards” in the theater)

Much later, long after the fact and when this would be found on VHS (Magnum Video), people would find out, especially through the efforts of the early Genre fans in the world of Zines which have influenced many that this was in reality Texas-based SF Brownrigg’s 1974 film Scum of the Earth starring Gene Ross and Ann Stafford under Ripp’s new name. Brownrigg, after working with Larry Buchannan in his early days, was also Director of Don’t Open the Door, Keep My Grave Open, and the brain on hold 1986 Comedy Thinking Big (Seriously not to be confused with the Trucking Comedy from 1989 Think Big, starring Peter and David Paul).

EMC would be Ripps’ final success story in the Exploitation field, based in Mobiel, Alabama. The LA offices would feature the three guys responsible for the infamous MPM (Mausoleum, Savage Streets) including Lon Kerr who learned from a legendary Exploitation master on how to re-title films and sell them off as new product with this being one of the lessons.

This small ad was spotted in the Detroit News, May 28, 1976. In the Jul. 1’st issue, you will see a “Starts Wednesday” ad, then by the next week, it will be playing it;s one week in a number of theaters, usually with Sweet Sugar.

The film itself is now connected with Grindhouse Releasing.

~ by screen13 on June 23, 2013.