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argosciv ago

(11/13)

[57. wiki - "Batman Dracula(1964 film)": https://archive.is/YoPBt]:

Batman Dracula is a 1964 black and white American film produced and directed by Andy Warhol,[1] without the permission of DC Comics, publishers of comics about the character Batman.

Production background

The film was screened only at Warhol's art exhibits. A fan of the Batman comic series, Warhol made the movie as a "homage." Batman Dracula is considered to be the first film featuring a blatantly campy Batman.

The film was thought to have been lost until scenes from it were shown at some length in the documentary Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis (2006).

Jack Smith appeared as Batman.[2]

Cast

  • Tally Brown as Florence, Granddaughter of Old Woman and Old Man
  • Beverly Grant as Rose [1]
  • Sam Green
  • Dorothy Dean as Doris
  • Bob Heide
  • Baby Jane Holzer[1] as Rebecca Sister of Sydney and Titus
  • Sally Kirkland
  • Ron Link
  • Naomi Levine as Elizabeth Daughter of Gaston
  • Gerard Malanga
  • Mario Montez
  • Billy Name
  • Taylor Mead
  • Ivy Nicholson as Roxanne [1]
  • Jack Smith as Batman/Dracula[1]
  • Andy Warhol

Very little about Batman Dracula's plot is able to be discerned at this point, other than that it was allegedly about Batman facing his fear of bats, in the form of an adversary who could turn into a bat; Dracula. Both characters were played by Jack Smith, allegedly as an homage to the "spiritual connection"(because bats) that Batman has to Dracula.

Further information can be gathered from the following article and accompanying videos, but, not much really.

[58. openculture.com - "When Andy Warhol Made a Batman Superhero Movie (1964)": https://archive.is/rXgnA]:

~Though Warhol did complete Batman Dracula, he only showed it at a few of his art shows before DC Comics called and demanded an immediate end to its screenings.

Nobody has found a complete print since, but you can watch a few minutes of the surviving footage cut to "The Nothing Song" by the Velvet Underground & Nico (a much more enduring product of the Factory) in the video at the top of the post. Below that we have the LowRes Wünderbred video essay "Deconstructing Andy Warhol's Batman Dracula," which provides more details on the making of Batman Dracula and its context in the careers of Warhol and his collaborators. The Film Histories video on Batman Dracula just above gets into how the movie opened up a "Pandora's box" of unauthorized Batman and Batman-like movies, including The Wild World of Batwoman and the Filipino Alyas Batman at Robin. So many Batman projects, official and otherwise, now exist, and so many more remain to be made. But will any of the material's future stewards push its artistic boundaries as much as Warhol did?

Videos linked in above quote, first to last, via invidio.us:

https://invidio.us/watch?v=0piLgzapXaw

https://invidio.us/watch?v=e6nom-5V3uo

https://invidio.us/watch?v=oioWr7IzRmE

So again we have the recurring theme of Vampire(anti-Dracul[a]) propaganda linked to Warhol, but it doesn't stop here. By looking closer at 2 of the Warhol superstars involved, Mario Montez & Jack Smith, we find even more. As we proceed, again keep in mind that Andrea Feldman's suicide coincides with the date of Marilyn Monroe's death...

Let's start with Mario Montez, as this will lead us on to Jack Smith again anyway.

[59. wiki - "Mario Montez": https://archive.is/WKmUd]:

Emphasis added by me.

René Rivera, (July 20, 1935 – September 26, 2013), known professionally as Mario Montez, was one of the Warhol superstars, appearing in thirteen of Andy Warhol's underground films from 1964 to 1966. He took his name as a male homage to the actress Maria Montez, an important gay icon in the Fifties and Sixties. Before appearing in Warhol's films, he appeared in Jack Smith's important underground films Flaming Creatures[1] and Normal Love.[2] Montez also stars in the Ron Rice film, Chumlum, made in 1964. Mario Montez, was "a staple in the New York underground scene of the 1960s and '70s."[3]

[60. wiki - "Flaming Creatures(1963 film)": https://archive.is/8kmmn]:

Emphasis added by me.

Flaming Creatures is a 1963 American experimental film directed by Jack Smith. The film shows performers dressed in elaborate drag for several disconnected scenes, including a lipstick commercial, an orgy, and an earthquake. It premiered April 29, 1963 at the Bleecker Street Cinema in New York City.

Because of its graphic depiction of sexuality, some venues refused to show Flaming Creatures, and in March 1964, police interrupted a screening and seized a print of the film. Jonas Mekas, Ken Jacobs, and Florence Karpf were charged, and the film was ruled to be in violation of New York's obscenity laws. Mekas and Susan Sontag mounted a critical defense of Flaming Creatures, and it became a cause célèbre for the underground film movement.

Description

Most of the film's characters are sexually ambiguous, including transvestites, intersex, and drag performers. Flaming Creatures is largely non-narrative, and its action is often interrupted by cutaways to close-ups of body parts.[1]

The film opens with credit sequence set to the soundtrack of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and the announcement that "Ali Baba comes today." Two creatures laze in a garden and dance. In what Smith called the "smirching sequence", characters apply lipstick while a mock advertisement poses the question, "Is there lipstick that doesn't come off when you suck cocks?" Two creatures chase each other, and one throws the other to the ground.[2] Several creatures gather around her in a rape scene, which grows into a large orgy. The earth begins to quake, and the creatures collapse.[3] A vampire resembling Marilyn Monroe climbs out of a coffin and drains some of the lifeless creatures. This reignites the action, and the creatures rise again to dance with one another.[1]

Again, we have the recurring theme of vampire propaganda(at the expense of Marilyn Monroe's likeness, no less), including sexual assault and a mild resemblance to plot points/events that would later be seen again in Blood for Dracula(earthquake awakening vampires).

Noteworthy is the arrest and prosecution of various people for screening this film, and even moreso, that the situation became quite political - I'm going to skip past that here though and stay on topic.

What's also very curious to me, is that the film opens with a "credit sequence set to the soundtrack of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and the announcement that "Ali Baba comes today."" - Why is this significant? Well, let's follow this and see how far we can take it...

[61. wiki - "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944 film)": https://archive.is/u28oI]:

Emphasis added by me.

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves is a 1944 adventure film starring Maria Montez and Jon Hall, and directed by Arthur Lubin. The film is derived from The Book of One Thousand and One Nights but its story departs greatly from the tale of the same name and includes an actual historic event. The film is one of series of "exotic" tales released by Universal during the war years; others include Cobra Woman, Arabian Nights and White Savage.[2]

Plot

The story begins in the immediate aftermath of the successful Mongolian conquest of Bagdad by Hulagu Khan (Kurt Katch).~

Starring

Jon Hall

Maria Montez

Leif Erickson

Kurt Katch

Turhan Bey

Frank Puglia

Well fancy that, the actress that Mario Montez based his screen name on, Maria Montez, starred in the film that Flaming Creatures used soundtrack audio from in its opening credit scene... Is that all? Of course not! Follow along for more...

[62. wiki - "Maria Montez": https://archive.is/TResr]:

Filmography

  • ~Arabian Nights (1942)
  • White Savage (1943)
  • Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944)~

Maria Montez played a role in the other 3 "exotic" tales released by Universal during the war years, mentioned at the start of ref 61. Curious, no?

But wait! There's still more!

[63. wiki - "Arabian Nights(1942 film)": https://archive.is/uNAIH]:

Emphasis added by me.

Arabian Nights is a 1942 adventure film starring Sabu, Maria Montez, Jon Hall and Leif Erickson and directed by John Rawlins. The film is derived from The Book of One Thousand and One Nights but owes more to the imagination of Universal Pictures than the original Arabian stories. Unlike other films in the genre (The Thief of Bagdad), it features no monsters or supernatural elements.[3]

The film is one of series of "exotic" tales released by Universal during the war years. Others include Cobra Woman, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and White Savage. This is the first film by Universal to use the three-strip Technicolor film process.

Plot

The story starts at a harem in Persia, where the elderly overseer bids his young charges to read the story of Haroun al-Rashid (Hall) and his wife Sherazade (Montez), unfolding the film's plot in the process.

Sherazade, a dancer in a wandering circus owned by Ahmad (Billy Gilbert) - whose troupe also includes Sinbad the Sailor and Aladdin, who have seemingly fallen on hard times -, had captured the attention of Kamar (Erickson), the brother of caliph Haroun al-Rashid.~

Why is Sinbad the Sailor significant? Where are you going with this? Well, it's time to circle all of this back around to Harvey Weinstein, Bruce Berman, Andy Warhol and NXIVM/Scientology, by way of flashbacks to my previous research.

Continued ahead in comment 12...