 "Big
Bosoms and Square Jaws: The Biography of Russ Meyer, King of the Sex Film"
by Jimmy McDonough
Crown Books, 2005
If there were a patron
saint of swinging bachelors and dirty old men, Russ Meyer
would surely be it. This was the man who not only created some of the greatest
pin-ups of the 1950’s, but he basically invented the nudie-cutie genre
of film and was the driving force behind some of the greatest exploitation
films ever. Meyer was a man who basically lived what he filmed. He was
a man obsessed with two things…making movies and big breasts.
Meyer’s life
and times are told in a great new book by Jimmy McDonough
titled Big Bosoms and Square Jaws. The title, McDonough
argues, is basically how Meyer saw the world. Things were
black and white in his world. Men where either he-men or weak-willed and
women were well-stacked vixens. This is the theme that would run though
all of his movies in one way or another. And it was this formula that would
make Meyer a millionaire and one of the great exploitation
directors of the 20th century.
The book takes time
to trace his troubled childhood and his formative years (both personally
and professionally) as a combat photographer in World War Two. It was in
the war that Meyer really discovered himself and it was a
time that helped define the rest of his life. It’s not surprising that
many of his movies were run like a military operation with Meyer
as the drill sergeant. The book then follows his career as one of the premiere
pin-up photographers. (Many of his over-the-top photos of Tempest
Storm, Virginia Bell,
and his second wife Eve can be found
in the Femme Fatale section of
this website.)
In the late 50’s, Meyer
hit box office gold with The Immoral Mr. Teas, the film that
basically launched the nudie-cudie film genre. A few years later he started
adding more violence into his film. It was during that time he directed
what many consider his masterpiece
Faster,
Pussycat. Kill! Kill! starring the amazing Tura
Satana. From there it was more box office success with Vixenfollowed
by Super
Vixen.
In the late 60’s Hollywood
came calling. It was also in this time Meyer found a like-minded
soul with film critic Roger Ebert. Together, they worked
together on Meyer’s biggest film Beyond
the Valley of the Dolls. Although it wasn’t a huge hit, it
did help secure his stature as one of the great cult directors.
In the 70’s and 80’s,
Meyer
found himself on the losing side of the exploitation industry, which couldn’t
compete with the growing porn industry. In the last decades of his life,
Meyer moved away from movies and became obsessed with writing
and publishing his epic biography
A Clean Breast.
Big Bosoms and Square
Jaws tells Meyer’s story in the same larger-than-life,
bombastic style that Meyer lived his life and filmed his
films. McDonough is wonderful storyteller and makes great
use of interviews from those who worked with
Meyer and knew
him the best. You really come to understand why Meyer made
the films he made and how these films were a direct reflection on his life
philosophies. Without a doubt, this book belongs on every bachelor’s bookshelf.
An interview with Jimmy
McDonough about this book was aired on the August 2005 edition
of WILL-Radio's program Sidetrack.
You can hear the archive here.
(The interview is about 40 minutes into the show.)
Buy this book from
Book Shelf Archives>>>
|
