General News

CENTERFOLD GIRLS Midnights This Weekend at The Hi-Pointe

By Tom Stockman | February 2, 2014

Violence, torture, voyeurism, gang-rape, murder, nudity, and epic levels of misogyny…..it must be time for another Late Night Grindhouse!!!

At The Hi-Pointe Theater (1005 McCausland Ave, St. Louis) this Friday and Saturday nights (February 7^th and 8^th) at Midnight, the guys at Destroy the Brain are presenting a 35mm print of CENTERFOLD GIRLS, a remarkably skanky gem from 1974. Andrew Prine, decked in saddle-shoes, a hideous leisure suit, and a shag haircut, stars in CENTERFOLD GIRLS as Clement Dunne, a kooky puritanical nerd who sets out to murder a year’s worth of centerfold girls from a nudie mag. His motive is altruistic: He wants to save them from a life of posing naked, but his method, ‘saving’ them by slicing them to ribbons with a straight razor, won’t get him into heaven. The film itself is kind of an anthology, divided into three acts, each concerning one of the centerfolds and their adventures that precede Clement’s attack, the only constants being Clement and his need to kill these gals and their gratuitous nude scenes before he does so.

CENTERFOLD GIRLS has a style that is hard to dislike and buried under all of the sleaze is a shockingly entertaining film. John Peyser’s efficient direction, a relatively insightful screenplay, the constant cascade of exposed female flesh, and of course the bloody violence all add up to deviant fun, while the minimal score, clumsy cinematography, and grainy film stock give it the squalid ambience of scuzzy ‘70s porno (I hope that 35mm print at The Hi-Pointe this weekend is nice and scratchy and faded). CENTERFOLD GIRLS is one of the most mean-spirited films of the ‘70s (and that’s saying a lot!). Practically every last character is nasty, especially the male ones – Aldo Ray as a loathsome rapist, Jeremy Slate as a gruff homicide detective, and Ray Danton as an eccentric stroke mag publisher, come across as really despicable cretins. Even the stewardess heroine played by Tiffany Bolling (a LNGH fave after CANDY SNATCHERS screened last year) is rude and stuck-up. But what makes CENTERFOLD GIRLS such a must-see is the drooling, sweaty performance from Andrew Prine – no stranger to these types of roles. With his lanky build, emaciated face, nervous voice, and awkward disposition, Prine established himself as an early 70’s twitchy psycho performer par excellence with his zoned-out portrayals of a desert-dwelling maniac in the sordid BARN OF THE NAKED DEAD (1974) and an evil, world-weary warlock in the trippy SIMON KING OF THE WITCHES (1971) Prine was in town over the summer as a guest at the Contamination convention and signed my SIMON one-sheet!

You’ll get your chance to see Prine do his thing when CENTERFOLD GIRLS plays on the big screen this Friday and Saturday night (February 7^th and 8^th) at midnights at St. Louis’ fabulous Hi-Pointe Theater (1005 McCausland Ave, St. Louis) as part of Destroy the Brain’s monthly Late Night Grindhouse Film Series. The pre-show begins at 11:30. Don’t miss it!!!!