Severin Films with exec assistant Janice Cowart of The Russ Meyer Charitable Trust announced this week that they will restore Meyer’s movie trilogy, Vixen, Supervixens, and Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens. This marks the first time these films have been remastered from their negatives in over four decades. The new versions, to be released in 4K UHD, Blue-ray and DVD in December, will feature the ubiquitous “special features.”
The Meyer aesthetic
Director/producer/screenwriter/cinematographer/editor Russ Meyer surely had a ‘type,’ to put it bluntly. His ‘sexploitation’ films featured wild action, stunts, ridiculously campy one-liners and sight gags, and the Meyer feminine archetype female…a large-breasted, hypersexual woman not afraid to use her fists or feet or putdowns. Starring the likes of Japanese American actress/vedette Tura Satana, topless dancer/actress Erica Gavin, and Barbarella Catton, known in Meyer’s movies as Haji, these ladies and plenty more conquered across Myer’s high-octane stories.
Meyer’s first feature, 1959’s The Immoral Mr. Teas, made for $24,000, grossed more than a million dollars when it was shown across U.S. independent/exploitation cinemas (often called ‘grindhouse’ theatres). It was from this start that Meyer earned the moniker “Kink of the Nudies,” with "Teas" considered the first of the 'nudie-cutie' movies that became popular at the time.
In addition to this, very much like Larry Flynt’s efforts, Meyer kept the flag flying for free speech and anti-censorship through his work. "As a filmmaker, distributor, and First Amendment warrior, Russ Meyer is one of the last great icons of American cinema,” said David Gregory co-founder and CEO of Severin Films in this Variety piece about the new releases.
