Director Fred Olin Ray was sure that moviegoers would pay to see a cartoon character rip off a woman`s blouse. They never got the chance. This unique opportunity is limited to those who rent Ray`s ”Evil Toons” on videocassette.
Thanks largely to video, Ray, an independent director, has developed a cult following with gleefully low-budget films sporting such titles as
”Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers,” ”Bad Girls From Mars” and ”Beverly Hills Vamp.”
”Evil Toons” is a throwback to the golden age of 1970s drive-in movies that placed beautiful but plucky women in various states of distress and undress. The new twist is that the villain is a cartoon beast.
Ray tried pitching that to Hollywood executives and got no takers. ”Even Roger Corman turned me down,” Ray said from his Hollywood office. ”He said it was too risky. So . . . we did it ourselves.”
”Evil Toons” is one of the more bizarre films premiering in the next few months at area video stores, where the adventurous renter can find such oddities and buried treasures as:
– ”Fires Within” (1991): ”I love you,” says anti-Castro Cuban Jimmy Smits. ”You love Cuba more,” counters wife Greta Scacchi. The question in this romantic drama is: Who does she love more? Is it Smits, her husband, who has been released from Castro`s prisons after eight years, or Vincent D`Onofrio, a Miami fisherman?
– ”Pyrates” (never released): A spokesman at the Illinois Film Office seemed to recall that a small, second-unit film crew zipped in and out of Chicago to get establishing shots for this supposedly Chicago-based romantic comedy that finished shooting in 1990. This is clearly a labor of lust for Kevin Bacon and his real-life wife Kyra Sedgwick, who portray a couple so passionate that they spontaneously combust when they have sex.
– ”Over Her Dead Body” (1990): You`ll find this one in the 1991 edition of ”Leonard Maltin`s TV Movies and Video Guide” under its original title,
”Enid is Sleeping.” The black comedy was well-received at the Montreal, Sundance and Seattle Film Festivals, but went no further. Judge Reinhold and Elizabeth Perkins star as a couple who accidentally kill Perkins` hated sister after she catches the two in an affair. Disposing of the body becomes a comedy of errors.
– ”Love Hurts” (1991): Sitcom plotting stymies a superb cast in this dramatic comedy about a dysfunctional family thrown together during a wedding. Jeff Daniels stars with Chicago`s John Mahoney as his estranged father.
– ”Legend of the White Horse” (1986): This fantasy was a U.S.-Polish co-production. Christopher Lloyd stars as a geologist who accepts a surveying job in a distant country. In the wild mountain wilderness, he and his son encounter a reputed witch, her beautiful blind ward and a magical white horse. – ”Rover Dangerfield” (1991): Rodney Dangerfield`s G-rated animated musical got no respect. Its Chicago theatrical release was limited to matinees one weekend last October. Dangerfield co-wrote the script and provided his voice and edgy comic persona to the title character, a high-rolling Las Vegas pooch who winds up on a farm and is forced to work to earn his keep.
– ”Tiny Toons Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation” (1991): Originally conceived for home video, this feature-length program was granted one matinee screening last June at Skokie`s Old Orchard Theatre. For confused adults, think of ”Tiny Toons” as ”Bugs Bunny: The Next Generation.” The Emmy Award-winning cartoon characters-Buster Bunny, Plucky Duck, Hamton Pig and the rest of the animated Acme Looniversity students-are even more manic than their predecessors, and the canny scriptwriters give them plenty of jokes aimed way over the heads of children. Watch closely and you`ll see E.T. and Elliot knocked from the sky, and the Road Runner utter his last ”beep beep” before being run down by a speeding car.
– ”Back Track” (1989): In March, Vestron Video will release the director`s cut of Dennis Hopper`s long-unreleased romantic thriller. Hopper stars as a hitman who falls in love with his target, artist Jodie Foster, on the run after witnessing a mob killing. The film`s tangled history dates to 1989, when Vestron Pictures took control of it from Hopper. It was only released overseas as ”Catchfire.” Hopper disavowed it and sued. The cast includes Joe Pesci, John Turtrurro, Dean Stockwell and, in a brief bit, Bob Dylan. An unbilled Charlie Sheen isn`t onscreen five minutes before he is shot in his sleep.
