When I noticed that Snuff and Emmanuelle In America were coming to DVD this summer from Blue Underground, that's when I really knew that just about anything from the lost-but-not-forgotten days of Grindhouse filmmaking could be reborn in my own living room. It's pretty amazing that movies like Blue Sunshine, Viva La Muerte, Sting of Death and The Nude Princess are released by DVD companies and purchased by a large audience. I guess it shows these movies have a lot more appeal and relevance than most critics and companies gave them credit for long ago. But even with the great film revival that the coming of the DVD has given us, there are still countless films that seem to remain lost, or at least amazingly hard to find in any studio released format, anywhere in the world. For every Ginger and Image that gets released to DVD, there are plenty of Nightmare Alley's and F.T.A.'s that remain unattainable by conventional means.

So I decided to make a wish list, a list of the top 9 DVDs I would love to see released . Hopefully, someone will take notice of this list and make my dreams come true! Read on, and if you feel inspired to think of great lost films you dream of finally seeing released, I'd love to know. Email me.

No. 9: Poor Pretty Eddie
Released to video in 1985 by Mark V. International INC (who?) never saw the light of day again, and barely saw it then.This has to be one of the most overlooked exploitation movies ever made. With a cast as good as this: Shelly Winters, Slim Pickens, Ted Cassidy, Dub Taylor & Leslie Uggams! and a story so seeped in Southern Fried trash, I just can't understand why this movie is not at the top of more trash fans lists. Just hearing Slim Pickens ask Uggams, after her Elvis impersonator rape, "Did he bite you on the tities?" is enough to sell me! Extra features should have a commentary track with Winters & Uggams alone in a room, plus a documentary on the making of this classic. I've heard many a bizarro story about Shelly from folks who worked on the set, some involving bodily functions, booze and girdles!

No. 8:Au Hasard Balthazar:
Robert Bresson's finest film has been a criminally absent film in any format for far too long. As far as I know, this film was only released on video in the UK and in Japan (without English subs). I just can't figure out why a movie that has been universally heralded as one of the most important films ever made (Jean-Luc Godarded stated this film "was the world in 90 minutes") has been so universally shafted. A double DVD release from Criterion seems imminent, but who knows....

No. 7: Merrill Womack's He Restoreth My Soul
For those who don't know anything about Merrill Womack, he is a Christian vocalist who began singing after he was horribly burned and scared in a plane crash. As the story goes, as the EMT's were pulling him from the fiery wreck and loading him onto a stretcher, he began singing! And that is exactly what He Restoreth My Soul is about, Womack's plane crash, rescue and understanding that the Lord saved his life so he could sing his praises for all to hear! Think of it as a Real Stories of the Highway Patrol reenactment as seen from a fundamentalist burn victim's point of view. A must see, in any format. I heard that Womack used to sell this video for $150.00 a tape, a price I would gladly pay now, considering you can't find the damn thing ANYWHERE! Someone, somewhere, please put this out along with the soundtrack.

No. 6: Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
Considered by many to be one of the most important films ever made, Chantal Akerman's grittily realistic tale of a single mother who is also a prostitute, brings forth all of the underwhelming power of Carl Dreyer's best work and the gutsy social damnation of Godard at his subversive best. Running a whopping 201 minutes, one might call this film an endurance test, but it's truly the rhythm of the film that gives it its full impact and meaning. Seeing Jeanne Dielman go through her daily routines becomes an undeniably heart wrenching experience and it's hard not to find something haunting in the 201 minutes that make up this film that you can truly relate to your own existence. A truly masterful work of art that is sickeningly ignored the world over it seems.

No. 5: The Peace Killers
Most likely my favorite biker movie. This one has it all! It contains wall-to-wall violence, spontaneous campfire shindigs, free love, great pseudo-60's dialogue and a Hippie being crucified on a giant peace symbol! What more can you want?! You also get Hippies fighting back with razor sharp peace symbols; used in the film's final, bloody battle to cut the throats of any evil bikers who try to cross them again! One of my favorite things about this movie is the fact that director Douglas Schwartz is not only the nephew of TV production genius Sherwood Schwartz, but he also the creator of Baywatch, not to mention he directed some 44 episodes of the show! A DVD with Schwartz commentary just seems to me a necessity, wouldn't you say?

No. 4: Last Movie/American Dreamer:
To see both Dennis Hopper fever dreams on a triple DVD release would be a true to life dream come true for not only me, but for a lot of people out there. The Last Movie, which was Hopper's follow up to the monster hit Easy Rider, remains one of the most crackpot, drugged out, "what the fuck is going on" movies ever made. I think it's safe to say that it would have never even come close to getting made if Easy Rider had not garnered so much surprising praise and box office success. It seems the studio heads at Universal saw fit to give Hopper Carte Blanche, and The Last Movie is what he came up with. It's basically a clumsy art film that morphs into a drugged out home movie by the halfway mark, as the story of an abandoned Peruvian film shoot that becomes a high concept existential view of art vs. life disintegrates into an LSD/cocaine fueled ego trip. One could argue that it's the absolute antithesis of Hollywood's bungling desperation to relate to the counter culture of the times, just the fact that they allowed this mess of a movie to be released is proof enough. As if Easy Rider wasn't a big enough hand job insult towards the real youth culture of the time! Don't get me wrong, I love The Last Movie, I think it's a one of those rare movies that could NEVER get made today, or really any other time when you think about it. It's such an audacious, misdirected, sloppy patchwork of ideas, vision and attempt, it's hard not to love it. And when you factor in The American Dreamer, it becomes all the more perfect.

The American Dreamer is a documentary made by Paris, Texas screenwriter L.M. Kit Carson about Dennis Hopper trying to edit together The Last Movie. Just imagine Dennis Hopper, sitting naked, whacked out of his mind on cocaine, surrounded by drugged out nude teenage groupies & a terrifyingly large amount of machine guns, in a room filled with film reels containing endless hours of incomprehensible footage, while the townspeople of Taos, New Mexico discuss Hopper's presence like that of Frankenstein's Monster! That's pretty much what The American Dreamer is about. It's a rare chance to see a creative force self-destructing under it's own narcissism. And it has never been released in any home video format, not even via bootleg tape. Some might say it's the most sought after bootleg video ever (I am one of them). But I'd much rather see a DVD, complete with new age Dennis Hopper republican commentary, plus as many Last Movie outtakes as they can fit on a third DVD!

NO. 3: If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do?
There are many movies that have been called "jaw dropping," "life changing," and "beyond belief," but to put it mildly, few films live up to any of these hyperbolic catch phrases. There are a few movies, however, that do live up to these expectations and If Footmen Tire You has to be one of the front-runners by far.

Made in 1971 by exploitation extraordinaire, turned born again Christian, Ron Ormond, Footmen remains one of the most shocking, offensive, misguided and individualistic films ever made. The film depicts, in docudrama fashion, the possible consequences we, as a nation, may face, if we don't give our hearts and minds back to Jesus Christ. The movie shows a world where the evil and Godless Communists gain control over our very lives and souls, thanks to our neglect for the good Lord. Basically, it's an extreme wake up call for all American's to stop living in sin, and it's steeped in an abundant amount of paranoia, bigotry and hate, yet it retains a very authentic Christian view point. What is so insane about the film is the fact that it's made by one of the most prolific exploitation filmmakers of all time. I guess it's hard to shake the ghost of such trash classics as The Monster & The Stripper, Please Don't Touch Me, Forty Acre Feud and Mesa of Lost Women, all of which Ormond made during his 20 + year run as the king of southern fried exploitation. But when Ormond came into he 1970's, something happened inside of him. In fact, something happened to his whole family, as they all became born again Baptists and opened their own church in Tennessee! And to repent for all of his cinematic sins over the years, Ron turned his camera lens onto the word of the lord and churned out some of the most unforgettable religious scare films ever conceived, with Footmen being his greatest effort bar none. Based on a book and a record of the same name by Southern Baptist fundamentalist Estus Pirkle, the movie retains much of Ormond's earlier exploiter traits, which work wonders in getting many of the harder edged points of Mr. Pirkle across. What makes If Footmen Tire You so incredible is its undeniable foreignness to the genre it's working in. Ron couldn't just turn off all of those exploitation cheap shots he used so well back in the old days, so why not turn them into beacons of Christian "tough love"? Why not depict children having their eardrums punctured with bamboo sticks, so they can't hear the words of the Lord to show just how evil the godless commies could be? Why not show large groups of doughy southern brethren being gunned down like cattle all because they refuse to denounce their lord and savoir, Jesus Christ? And why not show a small boy being decapitated because he refuses to step on a picture of good ol' J.C.? If it worked on the drive-in circuit, why can't it work elsewhere? To list the amazing moments in this film would take a few pages alone, and to really explain the cultural and social (or should I say anti-cultural & anti-social) implications of this film would take even longer. Let's just say that If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do remains one of the most amazing movies I have ever seen, and I am absolutely sure that it will remain that way for the rest of my life. If ever there has been an exploitation movie that deserves a DVD release, it's this film. Just image the DVD extra possibilities! You could throw in Ormond's short The Grim Reaper, which features what may be the most amazing scene ever in a film, Ron's depiction of Hell! How about a commentary track from his son Tim Ormond, who appeared in a number of Ron's exploitation films and went on the born again trek right along with daddy? You could include the incredibly rare LP of Estus Pirkle reading the Footmen book as a bonus CD! This is one DVD project that would make the world a better place.

No. 2: Blast of Silence
Made on a shoestring budget by many of the same people behind the film Cuban Rebel Girls, which was Errol Flynn's last film, and one of the first films directed by exploitation great Barry Mahon. Blast of Silence is a stark, sparse anti-movie that depicts a film noir universe so crumbling and claustrophobic, it's like being trapped in an elevator for 90 minutes. The story is so simple, it's almost absent. Frankie Bono (played by director Allen Baron), a professional hit man, is hired to kill a low-level mobster named Troiano. To get to Troiano, Frankie has to travel back to his home town of New York City, a place he hasn't been near for many a year, and for good reason. Frankie left New York a failure, a failure in love and in life, and he doesn't want to be reminded of any of it. But the clock quickly turns back as Frankie runs into some old "friends" who bring him back in contact with an old flame he still has feelings for. Naturally, the girl has moved on, started a real life with someone else. Blast of Silence depicts Frankie's overwhelming psyche in a very effective manner, using a prominent voice over that tells Frankie how to feel, what to do and what not to do. The voice over was done by Lionel Stander, who was a blacklisted actor known for his roles in the Loved One, Call Northside 77 and as Maxon on TV's Heart to Heart. Stander's voice, which sounds like broken glass over gravel, makes a blunt counterpart to Baron's nasal, sad and almost feminine voice, lending a strong metaphorical nature to the film. Add to that the stunning and dark cinematography by Merrill S. Brody and the general misanthropic viewpoint of the movie (one of the best lines in the movie is "he wears a mustache, to hide the fact that he has lips like a woman. The kind of face you hate!") and you've got one of the most nihilistic & important neo-noir films ever made, and only a handful of people have had the chance to see it! As far as what you could do with this film , I know that Allen Baron is still alive, as are a number of people who worked on the production of the film, so an audio commentary track would certainly be possible. Maybe a short documentary on Larry Tucker, who played Big Ralph, a creepy gun dealing bird lover in the film. Blast of Silence was his first job in the entertainment industry. Tucker went on to appear in Sam Fuller's Shock Corridor; write and produce the counter culture comedy I Love You, Alice B. Toklas; create the insane early 80's TV show Ethel is an Elephant and have a hand in the creation of the TV show The Monkees!

Even without extras, Blast of Silence deserves a nice restoration release . It was distributed by Universal in the early 60's, but is now quite possibly a public domain title. Any takers? How can something this good just waste away in a vault somewhere?!

No. 1: The World's Greatest Sinner
Never has a movie mixed so many confrontational ideas, philosophies and style! Never has a film pushed the boundaries of commonplace thinking and comfort so harshly! Never has a movie filled with so many revolutionary concepts come and gone with little or no public notice whatsoever. Timothy Carey's The World's Greatest Sinner is the MOST neglected film in the history of filmmaking! A brilliant, insane, delirious, challenging, confrontational and down right monumental moment in the time line of film, and more people have seen Clean Slate with Dana Carvey!

Made in 1956, the film tells the story of Clarence Hilliard, an insurance salesman who decides one day that he is God. He quits his job, forms a rock band and travels the country preaching his gospel of greed and self importance (keep in mind this film was made 10 years before the creation of the Church of Satan!). He soon finds himself running for president with the aid of a mysterious advisor. In the end, he battles the "real" God to the death! Carey's creation is filled to the tip top with bizarre lighting, out of control camera angles, reverse film stock, off center acting, loud, noisy rock music, and a sense of discontent with all that revolves around "normal" filmmaking. Carey said Sinner was intended to be a kind of wake up call to Hollywood, a cry for something new in a time when everything was formulaic. Before John Cassavetes ever made a movie, before Andy Warhol or Jonas Mekas decided film could be a viable form of art, before Jack Smith explored anything beyond 8 minute shorts, before just about anyone attempted to make an full length, independent film, using their own money and resources, Timothy Carey churned out Sinner with $100,000 of his own money. He wrote, produced, directed, stared and distributed Sinner, making it one of cinema's true labors of love, and a shining example of the purity behind true independent filmmaking. A double disc special edition just screams to be released! Just think of all the great extras that could be included! Carey's son, Romeo, has been working on a documentary about his father's life and work, a project that would make a perfect counterpart to Sinner . There are hours of unseen Sinner footage that could be included as deleted scenes, plus seemingly endless unseen footage of Carey from TV shows, other films, home movies and so on. Certainly the Sinner disc could be a fitting tribute to the life of one of cinema's most important participants!

Read Timothy Carey: Saint of the Underground

**** Just a few honorable mentions of Lost Films I'd love to see released to DVD****
Funeral Procession of Roses; Young Playthings; Sonny Boy; The Apple; Trial of Joan of Arc; Made in U.S.A.; God's Angry Man; Turkish Star Wars; Mondo Daytona; Ice; Rolling Thunder; Nightmare Alley; Where the Sidewalk Ends; Fists in the Pocket; Blood of the Beasts; anything by Fredrick Wiseman; Skidoo; Bunny Lake is Missing; California Split; Black Shampoo; The Candy Snatchers; Samuel Beckett's Film; Poor Cow; Pound; Sometimes Aunt Martha Does Dreadful Things; Tough Guys Don't Dance; Population One; I Like to Hurt People; Killdozer; Performance; The Farmer; Impulse; Night of the Lepus Naked Came the Stranger X rated version; Pets; A Place Called Today; Privilege; Crispin Glover's What Is It?; Soul Vengeance; Bare Knuckles; Synanon; Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story.