AllMovie

Ted Bonnitt directs this affectionate look at the lives and careers of David Friedman and Dan Sonney, two central figures of schlock movies from the 1940s through the 1960s. The film opens with the two swapping amiable barbs at one another as they ride around in the backseat of a car winding through the streets of L.A., where they shot hundreds of no-budget brilliantly-weird exploitation flicks. Sonney recounts how his father made the unlikely journey from coal miner to grandstanding law-enforcer to the producer of the 1934 movie Maniac (aka Sex Maniac). He also explains how films during this time, such as Wages of Sin maintained a pretext of "education," while in fact sensationalizing sex, violence, and a sundry other taboos. Friedman, meanwhile, discusses his career path from major studio publicist to carnival manager to producer of such lowbrow classics as Blood Feast and Space Thing. Also interviewed is film historian and exploitation flick enthusiast Frank Henelotter who muses "You have to wonder if (the films) were made on planet Earth."