Steak -- Rare!

How many times has Ray Dennis Steckler lost a leading man? We learned in "Wild Guitar" that the actor signed to play tough guy "Steak" walked out at the last minute; Steckler had to step in. Now we find out in Steckler's 1969 abomination "Body Fever", that again his leading man walked off the set. Fortunately, Steckler was there again to save the day. Was it coincidence that the lead character, Private Eye Charlie Smith, made love to three separate women in the film (including wife Carolyn Brandt?)

"Body Fever" -- which for some reason is titled "Super Cool" in the film -- is, like the recent "No Country for Old Men", a story about a drug deal gone wrong. The lead baddie is named "Big Mack" (Steckler apparently was eating at McDonalds while writing the script). Like Coleman Francis's "Red Zone Cuba", the film is pretty much a mess, but about two thirds of the way through, Steckler voices over an explanation of what's been going on (Coleman, incidentally, plays "Coley", Smith's friend, who used to own a laundromat. The business is closed and the washers and dryers are gone, but Coley, nostalgic for clean underwear and the smell of bleach, can't seem to leave the place).

There's much to send an embarrassing chill down your spine. At one point, Steckler/Smith walks past a movie theater with pictures of Humphrey Bogart on display. Charlie Smith asks himself, "What would Bogie do?" Well, first, Bogie would file suit against Stecker for un-authorized use of his image.

I rented the film from Netflix because it contained the rare Steckler's short entitled "Goof on the Loose" (not to be confused with the Three Stooges's short "Goofs on the Loose"). This is an eight minute film made by Steckler in 1964, dedicated to the silent film comedians of yesteryear. The short starts out with "goof" (Bert Van Leu) looking over the fence of "Mrs. Bait's [sic] Home for the Fruity". It's supposed to be a take-off on "Psycho", but "Psycho" was funnier. The film then becomes an idiotic home-movie with all the Steckler Lemon Grove regulars making an appearance, including Carolyn Brandt. (Based on Stecker's commentary, the "Cee Bee" in her Cee Bee Beaumont character stands for Brandt's initials).

In other news, the seventy year-old Steckler has completed an "extension" to his 1964 Classic "Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living". According to his website, Stecker "has made this movie for his fans, friends and family. Steckler never wanted to make a sequal [sic] to "Incredibly Strange Creatures"...would Orsen [sic] Wells [sic] want to make a sequal [sic] to "Citizen Kane"?”Of course not!!! Originals should be left alone. This movie is just an extension of Steckler's life and work 45 years later." Whatever.