Andy Milligan's Compass Rose, 1968, a look at Caffe Cino of the '60s

 

If you're a fan of filmmaker Andy Milligan, you are familiar with many of his trademark film characteristics - impalement with a pitchfork, beheadings, actors dressed in cheap period costumes, and his unique camera technique of the swirl camera. Compass Rose (1968) deviates a bit from these characteristics but is still an important film in the Milligan canon. The film explores the lives of struggling actors and bohemian types in New York City at the off Broadway Cafe Cino in the 1960s. (Above and below are two stills from Compass Rose)

The opening sequence shows a couple (Anthony Moscine, Anne Linden) having sex on a bed, kissing and rubbing each other. In true Andy Milligan form - the sex on screen is not very erotic or sexy. These are not bodies that are in perfect shape or very sexy in any way. We can almost smell their body odors as we see their scars, pimples, moles and other imperfections on full display on the screen. Any sex shown in a Milligan film is not intended to arouse or sexually stimulate the viewer. These are real, everyday people engaged in sexual activity, and not body perfect porn stars.

Milligan's wife-to-be, Candy Hammond, wastes no time disrobing for the camera when she first appears on screen. The viewer is treated to a quick glimpse of her pubic area when she runs into a bedroom after disrobing. She is nude in all of her scenes until she commits suicide in her final scene. Hammond always appears to be confident, if not aloof, about her nudity on screen as she frequently touches her breasts. Hammond would eventually marry Milligan in 1968 during the production of Compass Rose.

The viewer is also treated to the inside world of Caffe Cino. The walls of the cafe are plastered with posters, fliers and other visual ephemeral that keep the viewer looking everywhere. Decor and drapery hang loosely from the cafe ceilings. The entire environment is visual overload, which is likely the point. Actors perform strange drag impromptu dialogue on a small stage as patrons of the cafe watch casually while smoking cigarettes.  

If you purchased the Severin films Blu-Ray set of Gutter Auteur: The Lost Legacy of Andy Milligan, the print of Compass Rose has sound which cuts in and out throughout the film. Small segments of the film have no sound at all, and sound sequences are often hard to decipher during conversations between actors. This is not a complaint from this reviewer. We are very fortunate to have this film to view, so we can overlook the sound imperfections.  

The final scene of Compass Rose is a chaotic orgy of naked sadism. Twisted bodies squirm around in an S&M playground, smeared with food in the same basement that Milligan shot The Ghastly Ones (1968). The film ends abruptly with a statement on screen which mentions that Milligan never completed the film. The film was likely unreleasable due to sound problems. 

Milligan's next project was - The Filthy Five (1968), another lost film in the Milligan canon. The Severin Blu-Ray of Compass Rose has an 18-minute interview with film historian Stephen Thrower about the film. Thrower gives us great insight into the career of Milligan and the making of the film. The Degenerate Blu-Ray set also includes Milligan's post-nuke film - The Degenerates (1967), Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1968), House of Seven Belles (1979), and the documentary - The Degenerate - The Life & Films of Andy Milligan. The three discs are packed with lots of extras. Don't miss it.

Steve D. Stones   

Gutter Auteur: The Films of Andy Milligan - by Rob Craig

Review by Steve D. Stones

After the Medved brothers published their Golden Turkey Awards book in 1980, it became hip, if not sophisticated, to poke fun at "bad movies." The hit 90s TV show, Mystery Science Theater 3000, took this a step further by poking fun at bad movies while the films were shown on TV. Cult movies writer Rob Craig has never jumped on board this bandwagon. In fact, he shows great respect for his cult movie subjects, particularly the grindhouse films of Andy Milligan.

In his 2012 book - Gutter Auteur - The Films of Andy Milligan, Craig gives a sweeping analysis of the films of low budget director Andy Milligan. Milligan literally made films for peanuts, usually for less than $20,000, and shot them on 16mm stock film. The films were blown up and shown on movie screens on 42nd Street in New York, giving them the appearance of a 19th century Impressionist painting, as Craig points out in the book.

Milligan was able to employ a number of stock actors in his films from Caffe Cino in New York, a small coffee house that produced plays. Playwright Robert Patrick once described the Caffe Cino as a theatre, flop-house, dope ring, temple and brothel. This gives the reader an idea of the eccentric kinds of people who spent time there. Future stars who perfected their craft at Caffe Cino are Harvey Keitel and Bette Midler.

Craig's analysis of Milligan's films clearly points out the recurring themes that the director explored, such as the emptiness of the sexual revolution of the 60s, a deconstruction of the traditional heterosexual lifestyle, and the family unit portrayed as dysfunctional and evil. Craig also points out the connection Milligan makes in his films of violence and sex, and the controlling nature of the matriarch in a dysfunctional family. Milligan's mother was very controlling of him, so this theme is often expressed in his work.

Milligan was also fond of creating period pieces from the Middle Ages to the Victorian era of the 1800s. Costumes were sewn together by the director himself. He gives his costume screen credit as Raffine, Milligan's Greenwich Village dress shop.

I particularly found Craig's section in the book on the lost films of Milligan to be the most intriguing. Craig discusses such lost classics as - The Promiscuous Sex (1967), The Naked Witch (1967), The Degenerates (1967), Depraved (1967), The Filthy Five (1968) and others. Film critics at the time seemed to praise these works. It's unfortunate that these films were thought to have been destroyed by William Miskin's son, Lew, who had an on-going feud with Milligan. Miskin served as Milligan's producer for many of his films. Fans are hopeful that prints of some of these films surface someday.

Craig mentions the stylistic trait of Milligan's "cinema verite" style of guerrilla filmmaking. His films come across as gritty, random and experimental. He also employs the "swirl camera" technique in which the camera turns in a full circle as it zooms in to its subject, as it does in the opening beheading scene of Torture Dungeon (1969).

For any fan of grindhouse films and the films of Andy Milligan, Rob Craig's book Gutter Auteur is a must. Happy reading. To purchase Gutter Auteur, please contact McFarland at www.mcfarlandpub.com and their order line at 800-253-2187.