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Motorpsycho
[Blu-ray 4K]
Blu-ray ALL - United Kingdom - Severin Films Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (10th April 2025). |
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The Film
 Bikers Slick (Vanishing Point's Timothy Scott) and Dante (Beyond the Valley of the Dolls' Joseph Cellini) are following war vet Brahmin (Werewolves on Wheels' Stephen Oliver) through the California desert on the way to Vegas. Although Slick and Dante are sure Brahmin is a bit of a nutcase, they are not above joining him in terrorizing the locals from brawling to rape. When desert veterinarian Corey Maddox (Stanley's Alex Rocco) knocks Brahmin off his feet for trying to "get funny" with his wife Gail (The Crazies' Lane Carroll), the trio burst into his home and gang rape her while Corey is resisting the overtures of busty Jessica Fannin (Sharon Lee) who is looking for a different kind of stud service when he comes to look at one of her horses. When the sheriff (director Russ Meyer himself) makes it known that Gail's assault is a low priority for him – since nothing happened to her that "a woman isn't built for" – Corey takes to the road in search of the bikers and comes across "Cajun witch" Ruby (Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks' Haji) whose husband Harry (The Beast of Yucca Flats' Coleman Francis) was accidentally shot by Slick in a struggle over his rife, after which Brahmin attempted to kill her and they stole the couple's jeep. Ruby accompanies Corey in pursuit of the trio into "The Cauldron" an abandoned mining site where they must match wits against Brahmin's dwindig ammunition. An atypical Russ Meyer film in the context of his earlier nudie cutie films like The Immoral Mr. Teas and Southern Gothic melodramas like Lorna and his later "Bosomania" films like Vixen onward, Motorpsycho! seems to be Meyer courting the mainstream with what looks like a biker exploitation film but actually is a mishmash of biker film, rape-revenge, and western with a conventional narrative stocked with Meyer characters including bosomy, sex-starved spouses married to middle-aged or older men (with Corey the only truly virile one distracted by practicalities like work rather than the opening couple where the husband finds fishing more desirable or Ruby's husband who blames her promiscuity on his inability to perform). Although the film features strong for the time scenes of sexual assault, Meyer does not eroticize him and even has Ruby – initially presented as a harpy – questioning Corey's motives whether he is avenging his wife or himself. Meyer also photographed the film, and his monochrome cinematography is a series of striking compositions that turn every shot-reverse-shot exchange into a standoff simmering with either erotic or violent tensions. Had the film been made a few years later, one imagines that Meyer would have taken a more surreal approach to things owing as much to the direction of his own career as the effect of Hollywood's own "New Wave" of the sixties and seventies which even extended to the treatment of the biker and western genres; indeed, as it turns out, he did just that as pointed out in the commentary (see below). 
Video
Distributed by Meyer himself under his own company Eve Productions – named after his wife – the rights to the film remained with Meyer who put it out on VHS on his own label RM Films International and on laserdisc in a deal with Image Entertainment as a double feature with Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!. The NTSC video master of which was licensed to Arrow Entertainment in the United Kingdom in a PAL-converted double feature disc with Good Morning... And Goodbye! (along with the 2006 twelve-disc, eighteen film Russ Meyer Collection and their later 2011 thirteen-disc, nineteen film reissue). Apart from these releases, the Meyer titles were pretty much off-the-radar throughout the DVD and Blu-ray eras allegedly due to issues with Meyer's estate. Severin Films' 2160p24 HEVC 1.66:1 widescreen HDR10 4K UltraHD and 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 widescreen Blu-ray – identical in content and encode to Severin's U.S. 4K UltraHD/Blu-ray combo and Blu-ray (the Blu-ray is also available separately in the U.K.) – come from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative kept with the Museum of Modern Art with optical sequences derived from the original interpositive and the audio newly transferred from the original materials. The results are absolutely immaculate with monochrome values that look more European arthouse – more so with Haji's vaguely Fellini-esque make-up – than low-budget American sixties thanks to the professional photography of Meyer himself who started out as a cameraman. The image is free of damage with only a slight degradation evident during said opticals. The night interiors and exteriors boast deep blacks which fare better in 4K HDR while the give the image a slightly flatter feel in shots where the shadows encompass much of the frame. 
Audio
The English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track is also immaculately clean, conveying all of the cleanly-recorded dialogue, sparse sound effects, and the music which makes more evident the clash between the jazzy scoring – IMDb attributes the scoring to Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter who are not credited on the film so their contribution may consist of music library tracks as was the case with a number of their credits during the sixties and seventies – and the Slick's transistor radio rock which sometimes co-exist in the same scene. Optional English SDH subtitles are included. 
Extras
The film is accompanied on both 4K and Blu-ray by the theatrical trailer (3:32) and a new audio commentary by film historian Elizabeth Purchell and filmmaker Zach Clark who discuss the film as a turning point between his early nudies and melodramas and the more outrageous films with which Meyer would be identified while also belonging to his attempts at the mainstream like his studio films Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and The Seven Minutes. They also note that it was overshadowed by Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill which is the same thing but with a female biker gang, as well as pointing out the ways in which Supervixens could be seen as the "funhouse mirror" image of the film from its plot to the desert setting and the dynamite ending. They also discuss the use of sexual assault in the film, its depiction of men, and the film's gender roles in the context of Meyer's later films as well as the contributions of producer/art director George Costello (Night of the Creeps) as well as editor Richard Brummer (Godmonster of Indian Flats) in developing Meyer's MTV-esque editing style and sound design as well as noting that Meyer does not waste a shot, cutting in on the action without bothering with establishing shots or filler to smooth out the editing. Included only on the Blu-ray side is "Desert Rats on Hondas" (21:16) intercutting separate archival interviews with the late Haji and Rocco. Haji reveals that she was a dancer when she was introduced to Meyer and Costello and that she originally read for the smaller role of the wife of the first couple seen early in the film before Meyer then asked her to read for the lead. Rocco had been a bookmaker in Boston and decided after serving a one year jail sentence to go straight, flipping a coin to choose between Hollywood and New York. He was noticed by Eve Meyer who told him that he could be an actor – an observation also backed by Ted Knight (Caddyshack) – and he ended up studying under Leonard Nimoy (Invasion of the Body Snatchers). Rocco also read for a smaller part before winding up with the lead in the film. The both recall the desert shoot, Meyer's direction of actors, as well as sharing a hotel room to get to know one another before an intimate scene. 
Packaging
The 4K/Blu-ray combo comes with a slipcover while the Blu-ray only includes a standard keep case.
Overall
Overshadowed by Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! even into the video era, Motorpsycho! stands on its own on 4K and Blu-ray.
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