Russ Meyer, prolific portrayer of buxotic beauty and dangerous dames via the silver screen has lensed his last. Meyer, as the wire services note, died, age 82 at his home in the Hollywood Hills.
Meyer was best known for his exploitation nudie pictures and cult classics and his obsession with women with very large breasts. He has been described as the only film maker in America who truly deserved the title of "auteur", acting as cinematographer, director, editor, writer and distributor of most of his movies.
His only major studio success was with "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls", written by Roger Ebert. Meyer is best known for his indie cult classics, "Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill", and his Vixens trilogy, "Vixen", "Supervixens" and "Beyond the Valley of the Ultravixens".
What often gets overlooked with Russ Meyer, and what really put him far ahead of his contemporaries, and even fans such as John Waters, was that Russ Meyer was an outstanding technical film maker, combining exceptional cinematography with sound and film editing to create an unmatched natural energy and pacing which carried the movies far beyond their corny humour and camp outlandish mix of sex and violence.
(It could not be confirmed at press time that Oscar was related, or that he said: "Russ did for breasts what I've done for weiners").
Article comments
1 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
excellent obit, Jim. It's a sad day for cinema.