House of Zodiac

Has anybody seen this movie before? Came out in 1969.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3635510/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_30



Matthew

IMDB doesn't even have the plot ....must have been a 1-3 theater showing in SF
made weeks after the killings and the zodiac phenominon across the US
some one at ZKS said ther was one that turned into a comedy 3/4 of the way thru back then might be this one

Jack Starrett directed it. He wasn't famous or anything but he was kind of well known as an actor and director. I wonder if Z had something to do with this movie. Maybe he was a crew member. The movie was likely filmed in 1968 if it was released in 1969. I cannot find anything about any of the crew members and it had very few cast members.



Matthew

James M. Tanenbaum did the special effects for the movie. It was one of the first movies he ever worked on. He still works on movies today, mostly in the sound department.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0849237/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cr5

He has worked on some big flicks including Avatar, A Night at the Roxbury, The Untouchables and many many more.

I cant find a pic or a date of birth on this guy. Can anybody help?



Matthew

Tanenbaum wrote and directed a movie in 1975 called The Love Butcher.



From cinematicshocks.com:

Gruesome murders of young beautiful naked women are depicted in ‘The Love Butcher’. It is a rare ultra-low budget slasher forerunner that was released on the grindhouse and drive-in circuits a year after Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Bob Clark’s ‘Black Christmas’ and three years before John Carpenter’s ‘Halloween’ - genre landmarks that would mould the American modern horror landscape. It was given a slightly wider release in 1982 in an attempt to capitalize on the then booming sub-genre that was induced by Sean C. Cunningham’s gory elaboration in 1980 with Friday the 13th. Despite being ahead of its time in 1975, due to its limited distribution and despite its early ‘80s lesser limited re-release as it got lost in the sea of red of all the slashers released every weekend becoming just one of the blood pack it largely went unnoticed putting a damper on any influential potential it might of had.

The film’s unevenness though is another drawback that prevents it from being placed in the same league as those aforementioned influential titles but overall this is powerful trashy stuff. Don Jones best known for his terrible 1982 slasher ‘The Forest’ co-directs with Mikel Angel who also co-wrote the screenplay of this Psycho-esque schizoid psychological character study that is immensely sleazy and extremely disturbing encapsulated in an unpleasant atmosphere. There is only a little bloodletting and the female nudity is minimal but that does not make this a lesser effective piece of exploitation that features some standout sequences and an intense powerhouse performance from its star the late Erik Stern in a dual role as the insane Caleb/Lester.

A string of bizarre and brutal murders of young attractive housewives involving the use of garden tools has an upscale suburban neighbourhood in a grip of terror. A crippled gardener with thick-lensed glasses named Caleb performs his daily chores tending to the gardens of local female residents who verbally mistreat him. At the end of the day he returns to his filthy little apartment and talks to his brother Lester. The thing is Lester is not as he appears and neither is Caleb - Lester is actually his suave and handsome yet psychotic alter ego. When pushed too far Caleb transforms into Lester and using a variety of disguises returns to punish the women that have done him wrong convinced all females are evil.

The movie has a deeply misogynistic tone. The writers Angel and James M. Tanenbaum portray the female victims of the supporting cast as cruel bitches, and it is hard to feel sympathy for them. It is feasible that this might have been the intention in getting the viewer to root for the unfortunate Caleb who is an easy target for their ridicule when getting his revenge as Lester, although the most shocking murder scene is saved for the only likable female character here. When Caleb returns as his avenger alter ego Lester to slay the horrible stuck up cows who wronged the harmless gimp yard-worker, Lester who is an exact polar opposite of his other personality - an alpha-male stud - hates women in general. The murder of the only sympathetic female is in jealously for her showing kindness to his other half as both personalities are at odds with each other with a sibling rivalry. Lester’s hatred for women stems from a childhood trauma in relation to his mother and he sees himself as a Godly figure of masculinity that should be worshipped by women.

In one scene just after Lester seduces a woman in her home a bible-bashing nuisance turns up at the door preaching to her about how her “immortal soul is in jeopardy”. She closes the door on him but within the sub-text of the scene she is rejecting his help as she is then brutally murdered by Lester; before Carpenter would make promiscuous sex a sin in ‘Halloween’ that would become a major trope codifier in the slasher sub-genre we see it here three years earlier.

Stern has helluva a lot of charisma and gives a highly memorable turn with manic energy. We pity and feel sympathy for poor Caleb but are terrified of the menacing and merciless Lester and how the actor pulls off the transformation is amazingly convincing. His monologues with oh so over the top demented dialogue as his two personalities converse with each other when alone is pitch black comedy but the character’s flashback at the end depicting the origin of his madness is truly heart-breaking stuff.

The rest of the performances though are what you might expect of a low-budget production of this nature, the dialogue delivered by this supporting cast portraying eccentric characters is kooky, and often clunky it is laughable whereas the lines spoken by the lead actor seem more naturalistic in comparison. The attempts at humour here as well put the tone way out of whack at times ruining the otherwise mean spirited approach whereas the dark humour in the Caleb/Lester conversations complement the schizophrenic madness. However, used as buffers for the viewer there are scenes of romantic light-heartedness between a couple who later feature in two nasty unsettling sequences made all the more tragic by this comfort zone placing. The police investigating the case are some of the stupidest ever committed to celluloid - they are baffled to solve the crimes when it is so obvious staring them in the face and it boggles our minds in how they cannot see it. The supporting cast includes the lovely Robin Sherwood of the obscure 1979 classic 'Tourist Trap' and the best sequel of the Death Wish franchise 1982’s Death Wish II. Shot entirely on location the gross décor of these suburban houses reminds us of just why the ‘70s was the decade taste forgot.

Due to its shortcomings ‘The Love Butcher’ was never going to be uttered in the same breath as the influential genre classics of the 70’s Golden Age of cinema that would lay the foundations for modern horror no matter how many people saw it on its limited release and slightly wider 80’s re-release. In spite of these faults with its unevenness though, it succeeds in the respect of being a crazily entertaining solid piece of trash cinema that is a dirty gem well worth plucking out of the dirt of its rarity for these reasons if you are looking for some naughty exploitative fun. The recent Code Red DVD release is a remastered version featuring the original Techniscope (2.35:1) aspect ratio as opposed to the previous horrible cropped transfer by Monterey Home Video. This little seen depraved and quirky slasher prototype is recommended for connoisseurs of the sub-genre.



Matthew

http://templeofschlock.blogspot.com/2009/03/5000-reward-for-house-of-zodiac.html

From Temple of Schlock: Our friend Gary Crutcher (THE NAME OF THE GAME IS KILL) is offering a $5,000 reward for the negative and/or a print of HOUSE OF ZODIAC, the unreleased, long-lost psychedelic nudie that Jack Starrett directed in 1969 based on Gary's original screenplay. "HOUSE OF ZODIAC was the biggest cinematic disaster next to THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE that ever occurred," Gary says with a laugh. "It was based on a five-day bum acid trip I had taken, about the same time Nicholson wrote THE TRIP. We had thirteen beautiful girls in it, including Rita Murray (RUNAWAY RUNAWAY) and Lavelle Roby (FINDERS KEEPERS, LOVERS WEEPERS), each one representing a sign of the zodiac. Craig Rumar, Jack Starrett, Richard Compton and I were all involved as producers. We shot it on weekends for very little money and we were stoned out of our heads, but we did get the film made. There was an answer print and I saw it at a screening room on the Sunset Strip with Paul Koslo, who was the lead, and Crosby, Stills & Nash, who were going to do the music. But we ran out of money before we could finish it, and the story goes on and on and on from there. If anyone can find a print of it for me, they got $5,000. I really would love to see it again, and I could probably get it out on DVD."

Hear that, film hunters? Five thousand bucks! Get searching!



That was from 2009, but still it is kind of cool.
Matthew



And this is also from that same site:

The movie was never released. I did some research on it a few months back when I seen it on IMDb and found that the lead actor (I forget his name now) played a character that was called "The Zodiac Killer." I'm pretty sure it was written in 1968 and then filmed in early 1969. I will have to find the link to where I think that I read that again. I'm pretty sure I started a thread on this already, but looking around I cannot find it. Definitely worth discussing and looking into further.

I did a little research on the writer of the movie, Gary Crutcher, but did not find anything that I thought would tie him to the Z case. I also researched every other cast and crew member I could find (all the ones listed on IMDb) and didn't find anything, but I kind of have a feeling that this movie could have a clue to the Z case. I mean, they filmed the movie in late '68 or early '69, right as the Zodiac started "doing his thing." This was before he sent any letters and before he made it public that he was calling himself Zodiac.

One theory is perhaps the actual killer was somehow involved with the movie or knew somebody who was and that is what inspired him to use the name. The main character in the movie is "The Zodiac Killer" and this is just a very short time before the actual Zodiac Killer becomes known in the bay area. Maybe this movie inspired Zodiac in whatever way and he sat back and waited for it to be released and then it never was.

Call it a hunch, but I think there is more to this thing. I think there is a connection and I hope that contact can be made with the writer, leading actor or somebody who knows more about this unreleased film.

I wonder when this film was added to IMDb. I wonder if anyone actually got to see it. A lot of questions arise on this topic. I'm going to see if I can get in touch with Gary Crutcher or the lead actor (James Kelso?) or even James Tanenbaum.

BTW, I have a photo of a man I think might be the same James Tanenbaum. I want to verify it is the same guy before I post it. In 1969, Tanenbaum worked on a movie called The Gun Runner, which is about a mercenary hired by the government to infiltrate a crime ring that's selling guns to a right-wing militia in Texas. The movie was written and directed by Richard Compton who also produced House of Zodiac. Very Minutemen-like!


EDIT: Paul Koslo was the leading actor who played "The Zodiac Killer."
Here is a link to an interview he did in 2001... http://iamlegendarchive.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_10.html

Here is part of the interview where he talks about the movie, but calls it The Zodiac Killer instead of House of Zodiac...

IAL Archive: The Losers was a strange hybrid of biker and Vietnam War flicks. Your character, Limpy, had a touching relationship with a Vietnamese prostitute and her black baby, fathered by the Army Captain leading the rescue mission.
PK: That was my first movie in America. Actually, my second movie. The first movie I did was never released. It was called The Zodiac Killer, which was also directed by Jack Starrett, who directed The Losers.
IAL Archive: What part did you play in The Zodiac Killer?
PK: I played the Zodiac Killer.
IAL Archive: So, you had the lead role and the film didnt get released.
PK: Yeah. It was done on a bet. Actually, Jack Starrett made a bet with some people in Vegas that he could make a full-length 35-mm feature for fifteen thousand dollars. I think it took another twenty thousand to do the postproduction.
IAL Archive: That is going pretty cheap, even for back then.
PK: Exactly. He won the bet, needless to say.


I was watching Blazing Saddles one night at work and wanted to know who the guy was that played Gabby Johnson, so I went on IMDb and found that it was Jack Starrett who played the role so I looked what else he was in and that is how I found the House of Zodiac movie.

Here is a smaller version of the page of the script that Matthew posted...

Benjamin Van Meter was a pioneer in psychadelic film making in the 60's. He once made a movie called Naked Zodiac, but according to an anonymous post at dangerousminds.net, he "trashed all but 3 copies of the film."

"Van Meter uses home movie footage of hippies and rock concerts as a launching pad for stroboscopic collages that replicate the liquid lightshows of the era"


This guy sounds pretty interesting. I wonder if he is still alive. I would like to hear his opinions, if he has any, on the Zodiac case. There is no page for him on IMDb. I wonder if he knew Rick Marshall or Richard Gaikowski. I wonder if anyone involved with the House of Zodiac movie knew Marshall or Gyke.

EDIT: Found Ben Van Meter on IMDb... http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0887501/
Naked Zodiac (1969): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1045865/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_2
So we have 2 films from 1969 that have "Zodiac" in the title, and both were filmed in San Francisco. I always hoped Zodiac had some ties to underground films in San Francisco and to the whole hippie scene. Maybe we are on the right track to finding some clues.


http://dangerousminds.net/comments/ben_van_meter_pioneer_of_psychedelic_film_making

Ben Van Meter's website... http://www.benvanmeter.net/

On the site you see his first business card has an address on Sutter St. It was about a mile west of Mason & Geary. Ben and his girlfriend Julia moved into the flat on Sutter St. in 1963.The enrolled in San Francisco St., where Ben majored in poetry and also took film and photography classes.


This guy fascinates me. I will try to contact him and see if he knew Gyke, Marshall, maybe Eric Weil.


EDIT: Just sent Ben an email. Fingers crossed!
EDIT #2: After reading his entire website, I am now a big fan of Ben Van Meter. I hope I can somehow get to see his movies from the 60's.


I could see Gaikowski being a huge fan of Van Meter's work. Here is one of his movies from 1964:



Ben was in a 1968 issue of Rolling Stone magazine... http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/features/make-love-not-war-or-brown-rice-19680511

EDIT: Just realized that Fred Manalli lived less than a mile from Van Meter in San Francisco 1963 and I'm pretty sure Manalli was a student at San Francisco State at the time, and so was Van Meter and his wife (would be ex-wife not long after).

Film maker Zoltan G. Spencer made a film called Tropic of Scorpio in 1968 and also had a movie in 1968 called the Satanist, which opens with a couple making out in a car, and then a second woman appears in the darkness, then the woman in the car apparently kills the man (he falls backwards at her touch). She exits the car and walks away with the other woman.

There were some odd movies being made in the late 60's. I don't find them odd. Actually, I love those type of movies. I meant that the average person would find them odd.

WOW! great post Mathew
and great research Ophion  Thats major Z news in my book ...if it is before Aug 1 69. You know people make quick movies to cash in on that type of nationally known event too ,they may have done it in a week ,but could not find a theater to run it.
yes I agree he would nearly have to be connected to the movie in some way
,if just that he  heard about it ,but how?
you might email Kevin Fagen of the SF Chronicle about it .
maybe it is why the guy is willing to pay $5000 for a copy

Apparently there was a screening of the movie in Hollywood, but I don't know when. I'm guessing sometime in 1969. I wonder if someone who was at the screening decided to steal the name of the Zodiac Killer.

What a great find. Like it was said in the thread how could it be possible that there was a zodiac killer in this movie and then a real zodiac killer shortly after. Cant be coincidence can it?

just stumbles upon this thread. san fran had a weird "cultish" type of vibe going on back in the 60s. there were a bunch of odd film makers and musicians creating new styles of their respected "art form." psychadelic music and films were being made. drug use was heavily involved. especially lsd. lots of people were doing it, even the squares or yuppie types. do you think rick marshall or anyone from his crowd of people may have seen this house of zodiac movie? i wonder if it was ever screened in the bay area.

ophion, i noticed that you posted about this movie in zodiackillersite.com and there was a quote by the film's writer that i did not see posted in this thread

Gary says with a laugh. "It was based on a five-day bum acid trip I had taken, about the same time Nicholson wrote THE TRIP. We had thirteen beautiful girls in it, including Rita Murray (RUNAWAY RUNAWAY) and Lavelle Roby (FINDERS KEEPERS, LOVERS WEEPERS), each one representing a sign of the zodiac. Craig Rumar, Jack Starrett, Richard Compton and I were all involved as producers. We shot it on weekends for very little money and we were stoned out of our heads, but we did get the film made. There was an answer print and I saw it at a screening room on the Sunset Strip with Paul Koslo, who was the lead, and Crosby, Stills & Nash, who were going to do the music. But we ran out of money before we could finish it, and the story goes on and on and on from there. If anyone can find a print of it for me, they got $5,000. I really would love to see it again, and I could probably get it out on DVD."

that is pretty funny and another good example of what i mean by lots of people were taking lsd back then. even film makers and actors. i wish we could get to see this movie but it looks like that will never happen.

The Virus wrote:ophion, i noticed that you posted about this movie in zodiackillersite.com and there was a quote by the film's writer that i did not see posted in this thread

Gary says with a laugh. "It was based on a five-day bum acid trip I had taken, about the same time Nicholson wrote THE TRIP. We had thirteen beautiful girls in it, including Rita Murray (RUNAWAY RUNAWAY) and Lavelle Roby (FINDERS KEEPERS, LOVERS WEEPERS), each one representing a sign of the zodiac. Craig Rumar, Jack Starrett, Richard Compton and I were all involved as producers. We shot it on weekends for very little money and we were stoned out of our heads, but we did get the film made. There was an answer print and I saw it at a screening room on the Sunset Strip with Paul Koslo, who was the lead, and Crosby, Stills & Nash, who were going to do the music. But we ran out of money before we could finish it, and the story goes on and on and on from there. If anyone can find a print of it for me, they got $5,000. I really would love to see it again, and I could probably get it out on DVD."

that is pretty funny and another good example of what i mean by lots of people were taking lsd back then. even film makers and actors. i wish we could get to see this movie but it looks like that will never happen.

Sorry, I thought I had posted that quote by Gary on here. I have been checking into a guy that has the middle initial of Z, who worked with Gary on Gary's 1968 film "The Name of the Game is Kill!" This guy has been working in television and film since 1963 primarily as a producer and in the music dept., but he has also been a writer and an actor. He has worked on 21 Jump Street (the TV series), Married... With Children, The Wonder Years, Full House, Pulp Fiction, Rock 'N' Roll high School, The Outsiders, Machete and worked on the David Letterman Show. He was a member of a somewhat popular 60's rock group.

"M______ G_____ discovered many new artists and actors during his career as a songwriter and music producer including Michael Bolton and Demi Moore."


"M______ Z. G_____'s first song was a hit record. He bred and raced thoroughbred racehorses and his first horse won 13 races out of 16 starts. G_____ became a leading thoroughbred breeder in California. He has owned a cocktail bar, worked as a Court Reporter, taught Court Reporting and ultimately was hired to run the Court Reporting College. During this time, he also purchased and remodeled houses for resale. G_____ taught himself how to play the guitar and piano after buying a booklet on piano chords."

I'm not sure how old this guy is, but he is still alive and was working in 1963 so he shouldn't be too young or old to fit the Z profile. I just don't know what parts of California the guy has lived in. Trying to find more info on the guy. The horse breeding is pretty interesting.


EDIT: Matthew posted the Crutcher quote earlier in the thread. I e-mailed Crutcher earlier today. I hope he writes back.

WHOA!!! Here we go...

"G_____ was born in Minneapolis, MN and grew up in Rapid City, SD. He has two sisters. He and his family moved to Glendale, CA in 1957, and moved to Los Angeles, CA shortly thereafter. He graduated from Fairfax High School in 1958."

Ross Sullivan and his family lived in Glendale, and, if I'm not mistaken, I believe they moved there in 1957 as well.

So lets call this guy "MZG" for now. Since he graduated high school in 1958, the estimated DOB should be between 1941 and 1943.

"Presently G_____ resides in the Los Angeles area. He has several projects in pre- and post-production, including several of his own original screenplays."

Can't seem to place the guy in the bay area, but in his line of work I'm sure he travels a lot. He did quite a bit of touring in the 60's with his band.

I will post a photo of the guy in the secret suspect section in a minute. Actually, I am going to start a thread on the guy. I'm not going to post his name, though.


https://zodiackiller.forumotion.com/t335-mzg#1304

EDIT: This "MZG" guy was not Zodiac nor was he involved. I have talked to him a few times and he is a really cool old dude!

On August 16, 1966, a group of film makers; Ben Van Meter, Bruce Conner, Robert Nelson and Emory Menefee met at the Haight Movie Theater in S.F. to discuss forming a distribution company. The company was formed and they called it Canyon Cinema Cooperative. They also partnered with Larry Jordan and Lenny Lipton (he wrote the song Puff the Magic Dragon... Lipton, like most of the people mentioned in this thread, is a pretty fascinating guy... http://www.laweekly.com/music/the-man-who-wrote-puff-the-magic-dragon-swears-its-not-about-drugs-5365040).

http://canyoncinema.com/about/history/

I really think there is something to this group of underground film makers from the bay area. A lot of them took LSD and participated in orgies. That's not a crime. Hell, I would have been doing those things if I was there! Anyways, there were a lot of people in this circle of film makers and some of them were pretty shady.

Here is a cool site I found that gives some names of people and movies I plan on researching:
http://www.undergroundfilmjournal.com/underground-film-timeline-index/underground-film-timeline-1960-1969/


Notice Kenneth Anger's name mentioned quite a few times. He made some pretty odd films and was also a member of the Church of Satan. Matthew mentioned that his (unnamed) suspect was close friends with Anger.


Robert Nelson - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0625703/?ref_=fn_al_nm_2
Bruce Baillie - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0047595/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
Bruce Conner - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0175126/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
Ben Van Meter - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0887501/?ref_=tt_ov_dr
Kenneth Anger - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001910/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
Larry Jordan - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0430071/?ref_=fn_al_nm_3 (he was a merchant marine)


Canyon Cinema is still around - http://canyoncinema.com/
List of their film makers - http://canyoncinema.com/catalog/filmmakers/


Bruce Baillie had a film that had something to do with purgatory and paradise, but I can't remember which film it was. "A manual for negotiating the paradoxes of Purgatorio and Paradiso."

Good work Oph. Im liking the idea of a few people from this group maybe being behind the Z murders. Im not sold on it but it is growing on me. Remember there was a rumor about Z having a friend at lake berryessa filming the attack of Hartnell and Sheppard?

Rocketman wrote:Good work Oph. Im liking the idea of a few people from this group maybe being behind the Z murders. Im not sold on it but it is growing on me. Remember there was a rumor about Z having a friend at lake berryessa filming the attack of Hartnell and Sheppard?

Yeah, I never put much thought into the possibility of someone filming that. I doubt that is true, but nobody has proven otherwise so it is a possibility.

Any developments on this? I thought you were on the right track into finding a big clue.

Rocketman wrote:Good work Oph. Im liking the idea of a few people from this group maybe being behind the Z murders. Im not sold on it but it is growing on me. Remember there was a rumor about Z having a friend at lake berryessa filming the attack of Hartnell and Sheppard?

Somewhere at ZKS a veteran  member stated a younger ranger was taking pictures from a plane one week before the attack at,  of zodiac island ,and it was never challenged

Zodiac island?