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The Bootleg Files: Babes in Bagdad

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BOOTLEG FILES 607: “Babes in Bagdad” (1951 romp directed by Edgar G. Ulmer).

LAST SEEN: It can be found on YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It is not entirely clear why.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Lord, I hope not!

One does not approach a film titled “Babes in Bagdad” expecting a provocative cerebral challenge. But, at the same time, one should not expect an unfocused mess of half-baked feminist politics and burlesque antics molded together by several great talents who hit respective career lows with this nonsense.

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Don’t Let the Devil In (2016)

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Newlyweds John and Samantha’s (Marc Slanger and Jordan Lewis) marriage is already crumbling after an abortion. John’s boss offers to relocate him to a small town in Maryland in hopes to heal and to oversee the development of a casino. But the small town they move to aren’t happy that he’s there and set something sinister in motion.  Don’t Let the Devil In was written and directed by Courtney Fathom Sell.

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Assholes (2017)

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In the directorial debut of Peter Vack, Assholes opens up with a recently sober Adah (Betsy Brown) talking to her psychotherapist. She complains about having to compete with her brother for their parent’s affection and laments how horny she is. She soon falls off the wagon at her brother’s house and eventually runs into her brothers best friend Aaron (Jack Dunphy) at their psychotherapist’s office and begin tumbling down the rabbit hole of depravity, indulgence, and awkward comedy.

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Death Metal (2016) [Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival 2017]

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Panhandling plus satanic riffs equates to all out of carnage and bloodshed in writer/director Chris McInroy’s return after Bad Guy #2 with horror short Death Metal. Lars spends his day in the park, strumming his guitar with a tip jar at his side. Instead of money, it’s insults that are thrown his way. After lamenting to his father, and being completely negligent, Lars returns with an evil axe that makes him sound like he actually can play the instrument well.

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Filippa (2017) [Horrible Imaginings Film Festival 2017]

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A father comes home to his daughter playfully wanting to play hide and seek. As he searches for her, something is clearly not as it should be.

Written and directed by Alexander Rönnberg, Filippa plays on parental fears and a father’s wants, hopes, dreams, and nightmares. The short film does so by showing just a small activity between a father and daughter and adding a fear element that just about any parent can relate too. Here that fear of losing a child gets more complex as the film advances and does so in subtle, nuanced ways that give the film a power over the viewer that is strong, impressive, and soft all at the same time. It’s one of those shorts that does not put things up in the viewer’s face and lets the viewer find their own fear and dread in the story. The film builds a nice family vibe and then adds this fear slowly and sneakily at first and then it all adds up to a sense of dread that permeates the atmosphere.

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The Northleach Horror (2016) [Horrible Imaginings Film Festival 2017]

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Somewhere in the UK, a scientist and his assistant run odd experiments that have bizarre, weird, and scary results.

Directed by David Cairns who co-wrote with Alex Livingstone, The Northleach Horror is a comedic take on the wartime insane scientist scenario. They take something that has been done before and breathe fresh air into it with a sense of humor that can only be from the UK. This sense of humor makes the film as it’s dark, it’s inappropriate, yet it’s so funny. The way the humor works is perfectly paired with the film’s darkness while it also balances it out. The entire film is soaked in this humor and riddled with inappropriate jokes that work perfectly. Of course, this is for someone who has a similar sense of humor and some might not find it to their taste, but horror fans should be quite pleased.

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The Honeymoon (2017) [Horrible Imaginings Film Festival 2017]

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A very religious couple books a room in a quaint B&B for their honeymoon and to finally consummate their marriage. Once arrived there, things are a bit more extreme than they expected.

Written and directed by Ruth Pickett, The Honeymoon is anything but subtle and that works for it. The sex den these newly wed land into is just perfect and hilarious given their expectations. The way she uses these newlyweds in comparison with the lady who keeps the B&B works on the humor side and also as a bit of a message on society’s divide in terms of sexuality and many other subjects. Here she uses this mostly for laughs but it works on many other levels. The film’s subject is a bit ridiculous, but the humor makes it quite something. The humor here is rather in your face and uses sex a lot for laughs, but as people living a society where sex is taboo still, this works to bring the funny and make the film quite entertaining.

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