The Mini-Skirt Mob (1968): Allow me to introduce you to The Face of Pure Evil
The title of this movie a clear give-away to the horribly-made, low-budgeted awesomeness that it is.
AIP at their most classic.
I watched The Mini-Skirt Mob for Sherry Jackson, because she's one of my favorite TV actresses. And she was quite cool in this...even if she did get the abused character. She kept getting beaten up, gagged and tied, almost blown up with Molotov cocktails, forced to trek through the scorching desert on foot, AND basically run over with a motorcycle. The person responsible for this madness? The Face of Pure Evil.
{At this exact moment she is sitting on a motorcycle -- about to run over a poor, defenseless Sherry.}
Diane McBain is one of the great blondes of '60s television (and I do not hand out that title lightly), but herewith she will be known simply as The Face of Pure Evil. It's not that I didn't know that Diane had experience playing characters that lived off of their complete evilness (I have watched '60s TV), it's just that her playing a gleefully revengeful leader of a biker-gang is so bloody scary. I quite assuredly will have nightmares of her snake eating a mouse speech.
I was also rather amused because I had seen this Sherry vs. Diane battle play out before -- in an episode of Wild Wild West. In "The Night of the Vicious Valentine" there is also a good vs. evil showdown (three guesses who is good and who is evil). Of course, in WWW Sherry had James West and Artemus Gordon on her side (aka she easily defeats evil). In The Mini-Skirt Mob, she only had Ross Hagen (whoever that is) and he has the creepiest raspy voice ever, so I was pretty sure he was supposed to be a serial killer (until I finally realized he was supposed to be THE good guy).
Oh my! I certainly abused the parentheses in the preceding paragraph!
Anyway. I can't remember exactly what I wanted to say about this movie (I watched it like 5am this morning), but it was certainly interesting. It even had the Bad Seed all grown-up and being noble at the last minute. Of course, being noble at the last minute in AIP movies only means that your soul is saved -- you're still condemned to some sort of retributive (usually dramatic) death. So, if you want to survive an AIP movie, BE NOBLE ALWAYS (which usually just means, DON'T KILL PEOPLE).
That ending though. I was confused for a bit. According to the particular formula for this particular film (there is an art and science to Mind-Smushing Entertainment), I knew that Diane McBain was gonna have to die a gruesome, horrible death. And then Sherry RUSHED to save her from falling off a cliff. I mean, REALLY?!
Of course, then Sherry realized what she did and slowly released her fingers one-by-one and let Diane plummet to her death below!
Oh, um, SPOILER ALERT!
I mean, girl! I know that the formula told you that Diane needed to die. And I KNOW she knocked you unconscious a few times, and had you tied and gagged, and almost blew you up, and shot at you, and chased you around on her motorcycle, and almost killed your husband like 18 times. And, I know that this all took place on your honeymoon. But still, your face when you let her fall down the mountain -- that was harsh.
Well, in conclusion, this movie is wild. And unless you're wild — don't watch it.
Just kidding you. You totally need to go watch it.
-Meg
originally published on ClassicForever on July 1, 2011