Rather one of the earliest proto-slasher although the killing doesn't really look so bloody at all although there are some sudden moments. But maybe it is cutting of the hair that seems to be what it is really about. Early on we see the mother and the massive picture of her and her little boy although he wears girls clothes and certainly his hair is rather big and odd. At the very beginning there is a bar and a jukebox and a girl dancing and a man leering so we know that something is going on. Unfortunately it seems a bit slow but it certainly gets going and I really like it. The kills are different but it is the mother and her domineering manner that seems to lead him on, although at first we will have a ride through Vegas, oh and then onto a rather amazing sex orgy. It is here that we really see just how well shot it is and maybe it is not the director that is in charge. I notice that this was shot in 1964 which makes a difference in the 60s with like the clothes and that hair. Oliver Drake did the writing and his wife who was known professionally as Liz Marshall - she had danced in the 40s and here she was 48 and is acting the killer's mother and also wrote it as well. But Drake had an amazing career, with a ranch near Pearblossom, California used for location shooting mostly for westerns. He was born in 1903 and did silents, TV and films later mostly through the 40s and 50s he became a prolific writer and occasional director and producer, working with Gene Autry, Tex Ritter and others. In this film although we know that it was low budget and marketed for the drive-in and 'grindhouse' and presumed lost until recently discovered a splendid one by Vinegar Syndrome. The very good cinematographer here was William G Troiano born in 1914 and made several such as, She Freak (1967), After They Ran for Their Lives (1968) and later with A Whale of a Tale (1976) starring William Shatner. The main 'star' here was Robert Dix (1936-2018) worked through the 50s and 60s often with the Drakes and was also with Satan's Sadists (1969). I consider that this really is a great 'lost picture'.
Review of No Tears for the Damned
