You’ve all been good little Catholic girls patiently waiting for American Giallo Pt. 2 – today it arrives in a yellow raincoat holding a butcher knife! Eli Roth returns to discuss Alfred Sole’s dizzying slasher Alice, Sweet Alice with Quentin and Roger. Then, they finish this epic two parter with J. Lee Thompson’s Happy Birthday To Me, before giving out some awards and passing out from too much birthday cake. I’ve got trivia, tape covers and fan art on today’s Counter Talk, so let’s prepare the kebab…
Dear listeners, we love reading all your suggestions and recommendations for films you want to see discussed on the show. But be warned – Quentin and Roger have very firm opinions on what films they’ll cover, and it’s not easy to crack the Video Archives canon. They watch tons of movies that they’ll decide afterwards are not quite interesting enough to bring to the podcast. This ruthless culling even applies to movie suggestions from our guest customers – just because they’re coming on the show doesn’t necessarily mean they get to choose what they’re watching! But Alice, Sweet Alice was an Eli recommendation that made the cut, and if you haven’t seen it, it’s an essential watch for giallo lovers, thematically rich without skimping on killer setpieces.
Today’s discussion touches on director Alfred Sole’s life and career, which is a truly fascinating arc we only scratched the surface of. Sole got his degree in architecture, and worked as an architect as a young man before breaking into filmmaking. His directorial debut was an adult film called Deep Sleep, made for only $25K with a crew of his friends and family. Due to the release of this single indie picture, Sole was not only charged with violating New Jersey’s obscenity laws, he was excommunicated from Paterson, NJ’s Roman Catholic diocese.