'Monstrosity' is gutter auteur Andy Milligan's take on Frankenstein

 

Essay and review by Doug Gibson

Rob Craig’s book on Andy Milligan, Gutter Auteur: The Films of Andy Milligan, is aptly named. Milligan, who died nearly 35 years ago, made films designed for 42^nd Street. The sleazier the “Deuce” got, it didn’t matter; a Milligan film would provide well for its audience.

Jimmy McDonough, who penned the superb biography, “The Ghastly One: The Sex-Gore Netherworld of Filmmaker Andy Milligan,” recounts Milligan’s early career, when there might have been an opportunity for him to break through bohemia and into a mainstream career. In the ‘60s, he wrote, acted and directed plays in such iconic locations as Caffe Cino and La MaMa Experimental Theater. A short film he directed in 1965,”Vapors,” is well regarded as an early gay-themed film. It played art houses on both coasts.

But McDonough also chronicles a horrific familial life Milligan endured, and it likely affected his career, as he feuded with producers and distributors, and could be tyrannical, even cruel, when directing. After making some late-feature adult drama films that are unfortunately lost (some attracted better than average reviews and box office) Milligan settled down into grindhouse horror direction. William Mishkin was his money man. Milligan would get $20,000 or so, spend half of it making a film, and presumably pay himself with the excess.

A dress-maker who ran a shop for a while, Milligan made garish period pieces. He made versions of horror films, including “Torture Dungeon,” (Richard the Third), “Blood,” (House of Dracula), “The Body Beneath,” (Dracula), “The Rats are Coming. The Werewolves are Here,” (The Wolf Man/Willard), “The Man with Two Heads,” (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), “Nightbirds,” (The Servant) and “Bloodthirsty Butchers,” (Sweeney Todd).

Drawing on his dysfunctional life, he made psychological, violent films that assailed marriage (The Ghastly Ones,” religion, “Guru the Mad Monk,” and family life, “Seeds.” He even made a poignant, downbeat porno/adult film, “Fleshpot on 42^nd Street,” that is a commentary on life where his films were often shown.

Occasionally Milligan would attempt to move from Mishkin to other producers. He even made films in England. But most films were with Mishkin.

For a long while, Milligan lived in Staten Island, and some films were shot at his home. He eventually bought and lived in a Staten Island hotel where he shot a couple of films. He then moved to Manhattan and ran an off-Broadway theater, The Troupe, for several years.

Perhaps feeling his age, and disgusted with the decay of Manhattan, Milligan moved to Los Angeles in the mid ‘80s. He resumed much of his past life, opening an ill-fated dress shop, started a Troupe West playhouse which lasted a few years, and made some movies. Milligan, a gay man, also settled into a relationship with a younger man, a sometimes hustler, named Wayne Keeton.

Milligan made three films in Los Angeles: “The Weirdo,” an interesting remake of a lost film that involved a bullied young man in a dysfunctional family. He also directed (for hire) a film, a comedy horror titled “Surgikill.’

In between Milligan kind of reunited with the Mishkin family to direct “Monstrosity.” Lew Mishkin, William’s son, provided the money. Andy and Lew hated each other, but the VHS boom probably motivated the ulta-low-budget film, which is Milligan’s take on the Frankenstein monster, with a little bit of the Golem thrown in.

None of Milligan’s ‘80s films made any money. The video boom was over. “The Weirdo” perhaps had a tiny VHS release, and later a Blu-Ray. “Surgikill” sat on the shelf for decades. ‘Monstrosity” economically fared no better. It may have had a small Europe VHS release. It finally found a DVD home early in the 21^st century and a Blu-Ray release in 2018.

Yet “Monstrosity” is my favorite Milligan LA film, and I feel comfortable saying it’s the most cultish of his last films. It’s dreadfully cheap, with typical Milligan gore (a couple steps below Herschell Gordon Lewis). The first 25 minutes – despite interesting film-noirish shots of sleazy ‘80s Los Angeles – is torture porn.

Stereotypical punks kill and maim random people on the streets. They rape and badly injure a young woman. While in what’s supposed to be a hospital room – but looks like a bedroom – one of the killers, pretending to be an orderly, savagely kills her, removing her intestines (again poor special effects). Her grieving boyfriend, along with a couple buddies, decide to create a Golem-like monster to get revenge. In an outdoor shed, they do just that and name the creation “Frankie.” Get it?

Readers may be wondering why I keep watching. But once Frankie arrives – played by frequent Milligan actor Hal Borske – “Monstrosity” turns into something special, the unique work, indeed, of a gutter auteur. As Craig writes in “Gutter Auteur …,” “… “Monstrosity” is an amazing, baffling and at times extraordinary film, equal parts social satire, slapstick farce and light fantasy, awash in the overall sheen of the horror-comedy mythos. … “Monstrosity” is Andy Milligan’s “Frankenstein,’ a conceit stated overtly by one of the characters, and vividly illustrated via the film’s main plot points.”

Borske's Frankie captures the spirit of Mary Shelley’s creation. He’s a monstrous innocent, initially trusting in his creators but learning the downbeat, dysfunctional lesson that most of the world hates him, and his creators only want to control him.

It’s not an irony, but merely obvious, that Borske’s Frankie, despite his deadly violence, is the most humane character in “Monstrosity.” And Milligan throws in a love interest, a dim-witted, oft-abused but gentle drug addict named Jamie Lee, played by Carrie Anita. It’s a marvelous performance by an actress I doubt was in another film.

Milligan never did love better than in this film as the relationship between a monster and a street girl seems natural. In wacky fashion, the pair are married by a guardian angel. During intimacy blood, rather than semen, shoots from other parts of Frankie’s body.

The cruel murder of Jamie Lee by Frankie’s creators leads to a revenge-filled bloody climax.

The final scene of “Monstrosity” is a cult gem. Author Craig accurately tags it as “allegorical.” Frankie sits on a public bench chatting away with a “bag lady’ named Agnes. They converse about life and the things they’ve learned through existence. Frankie is mellow, a bit downbeat but also optimistic, prepared to use his brain to be the best man he can be. What I like most in this final scene is that Frankie seems to have blended in with life on the street. His contemporaries aren’t alarmed by his conventionally grotesque appearance.

The camera moves up into an epilogue where Milligan shouts “Cut, that’s a wrap! Then cast and crew members join Frankie and Agnes on the street. It’s another cultish touch that probably wouldn’t have been included had the film received an initial release.

After “Monstrosity” there was the for-hire “Surgikill.” Milligan’s boyfriend Keeton died of AIDS. Soon afterwards Milligan was diagnosed with AIDS. The Troupe West playhouse closed and Milligan died in 1991. Author McDonough, who worked on the crew on “Monstrosity,” relates Milligan’s horrific final days. By then a pauper, Milligan is buried in an unmarked grave.

If you want to learn more about Andy Milligan, you can purchase McDonough’s’ updated biography and Craig’s analysis book here, and here. You can search ebay or other sites for issues 52, 53 and 54 of Tim Lucas’ Video Watchdog, to read a three-part series on Milligan. And Plan9Crunch blog has a detailed look at the making of “Surgikill” by its writer, the late Sherman Hirsh. Andy, in rascal fashion, conned Sherman into believing he never made films in England, but it’s a great read. And Plan9Crunch blog interviewed McDonough a long while ago. Many of Milligan's films are reviewed at Plan9Crunch.com.

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.

Gutter Auteur an interesting criticism into work of grindhouse filmmaker Andy Milligan

By Doug Gibson

"Gutter Auteur: The Films of Andy Milligan," McFarland Press, 2012, is the latest subject of film criticism from Rob Craig, who earlier tackled "Ed Wood: Mad Genius" for the same press. To be honest, it doesn't really matter much if readers agree or not with Craig's comments and criticisms of the late grindhouse filmmaker, Milligan, who completed about 30 very low-budget films over nearly three decades, the 60s to early 90s. (Most of his films were completed prior to 1975). What's important is that Milligan, and his films, are receiving this depth of examination and commentary. Milligan, 1929-1991, made unique films which developed tiny cult interest prior to his death. In the past generation, thanks largely to an excellent biography by Jimmy McDonough, articles from Tim Lucas (Video Watchdog) and more critiques from Sleazoid Express author, the late Bill Landis, his cult has grown, albeit very slowly.

As good as McDonough's biography is, if focused more on his life than his films. Craig's effort -- despite some introductions -- including a thin one from Milligan contemporary Robert Patrick -- and background information on grindhouse cinema and the culture of sleaze that defined the now-gone 42nd Street theater district, where Milligan's films flourished, -- focuses on the films, describing them, deconstructing them, and even providing some information on how they fared commercially. For those who have seen enough of Milligan's films, "Seeds," "Torture Dungeon," "Bloodthirsty Butchers," "Nightbirds," "Blood," "The Ghastly Ones," "The Weirdo," ... and so on, it won't be a surprise that Craig views Milligan's work often as harsh, dysfunctional deadly attacks on the traditional family, motherhood, heterosexual relationships, heterosexual oral sex and happiness, which simply is not an approved ending in a Milligan film. Sex is twisted in a Milligan film, which often features incest.

To find the reasons for this pessimism, Craig hearkens back to McDonough's biography, which revealed the extremely dysfunctional family that Milligan grew up in. It included a morbidly obese, probably insane mother and a hapless, enabling father. The early films of Milligan are lost, thanks to a producer who destroyed them. However, a surviving early film, "Seeds," probably is representative of Milligan's early "sex" films, that dealt with life in the city and family. Craig regards "Seeds" as both a sex film and a horror film. Perhaps, but the horror is not traditional; it's comprised of a family literally rotting from hate and dysfunction, where violence and murder seems a natural result rather than a plot twist. (In the Seed DVD extras, there is a "working print" of Seeds that is far better than the main film, which is slowed down considerably by 35MM sex inserts. (Milligan shot Seeds and most of his films in 16MM blown up). The inserts almost ruin the film.

Milligan's "horror" films are better described as period pieces produced -- mainly for producer William Mishkin -- that fit a particular commercial need for 42nd Street fare but still enabled Milligan to produce his Genet-like and Grand Guignol-type attacks on traditional values, including the family and sexual relations. A dressmaker by trade, his films include garish colors, elevator music, and roses. They include "Torture Dungeon," his version of Shakespeare by way of Staten Island, "The Man with Two Heads," his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which Craig aptly notes may be the best version of Stevenson's classic tale, "Bloodthirsty Butchers," his take on Sweeney Todd, "Blood," his monster-mash of Universal's creations, "Monstrosity," his take on "Shelly's Frankenstein, "The Body Beneath," his vampire take, and "Guru: The Mad Monk,: his dark riff on religious dogma. (And to think I've only mentioned a few of his films!)

Craig understands that sampling Milligan, while not exactly a pleasant experience, is time well spent intellectually. They provide a glimpse into a world where positive results are simply not possible due to the ugliness that dominate human relationships. Take the recent BFI Flip Side DVD release of the once semi-lost Milligan film, "Nightbirds," which Craig critiques. In it, a young man meets a beautiful woman who enraptures him with sex, then casts him away. He dies and the predatory woman goes after a new man to ruin. As Craig mentions, it's a claustrophobic film, with most of the action confined to a single room. The male protagonist is a pathetic figure, a mere fly for the evil woman's web. It's also impossible not to keep watching.

Milligan was literally a one-man filmmaker, doing everything from directing to gaffer work to music scoring in order to make his films cheaply for Mishkin and others. Most of his films cost about $10,000. It's a tribute to his ramshackle skills (perhaps mostly learned as a director for the iconic, tiny Caffe Cino in the early 1960s) that Milligan could create these haphazard agitprop worlds on the cheap yet create characters and situations that hooked viewers.

By most accounts, Milligan could be a very unpleasant man. He drove away potential investors and friends and railed against Mishkin and other producers, although he seemed to live comfortably enough for more than two decades. He bought homes and a small hotel in Staten Island, and an off-off broadway theater in New York City. He eventually moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1980s, and capped off his career making films for William Mishkin's son Lew, who was not as bright as his father. Lew Mishkin hated Milligan so much that he, as mentioned, deliberately destroyed copies of his earlier films. To this date, film sleuths are still looking for titles such as "The Naked Witch" and "Tricks of the Trade," and others that Mishkin Jr. melt for copper and spite. From time to time, Milligan films are discovered. Examples include "Vapors," his first film, a pre-Stonewall short about life in a gay bathhouse, "Seeds," and "Nightbirds."

It's interesting that Craig also did a book on Ed Wood. Both Milligan and Wood died in poverty. Milligan and Wood are diverse in that Wood was a likable chap with limited skills who destroyed himself with booze.  Milligan was a very skilled filmmaker who made his films in slapdash fashion. Milligan, although a prowler of gay night sex (he would die of AIDS) was not a drinker or drug abuser. His harsh personality drove away relationships that might have improved his finances.

Craig's criticisms  are interesting. He takes a somewhat contrary view of some films. He's less enthusiastic of "Vapors" and "Fleshpot on 42nd Street" than other critics are, and he likes later Milligan efforts such as "Legacy of Blood," and "Blood," more than many other Milligan enthusiasts. I appreciate his strong thumbs-up critique of "Monstrosity," the Frankenstein knockoff starring Milligan actor Hal Borske, that is a terrific, satirical comedy that deserves more notice. (In fact, memo to the folks at TCM Underground -- there are a wealth of Milligan films that deserve late-night Friday showings on your series.) One nice piece of observance by Craig is how Milligan, in his later films, "Carnage," "The Weirdo" and "Monstrosity," appear more kind to the protagonists than in earlier films, although the films still retain the customary dysfunctional endings. Craig, like McDonough, has only scorn for "Surgikill," Milligan's final hospital horror comedy. While the movie is very crude and juvenile, it does have some positive moments, and a Milligan touch, a drag queen nurse.

"Gutter Auteur" is a good read, and an improvement on Craig's otherwise OK book on Wood, which relied too much at times on feminist theory. I agree with Craig that Milligan's films are better on the big screen (I have yet to see one that way, unfortunately) I hope "Gutter Auteur"  takes a place as a work that contributes to Milligan's slow-but-baby-steps-consistency march to greater cult status. His films are fascinating slap-dash pieces of dysfunction, and Craig understands that, and provides some interesting commentary. Despite this book, a great biography and other works, I suspect there's more to learn about the fascinating life and work of Milligan.

For those uninitiated in Milligan, here's a great scene from Torture Dungeon (below).