The Glamour Camera of Russ Meyer, etc. Photographs, with text

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Russ was a Combat Cameraman with the 166th Signal Corp in WWII and a well known Playboy glamour photographer in the 1950s and 1960s. Contrary to some accounts, Meyer was never married to Kitten Natividad, his longtime companion and the star of his final two films. Sullivan, Steve, "Kitten Natividad: Russ Meyer's Most Bodacious Babe", Glamour Girls Then and Now, number 11, 4-5/86, 8/17/90.

Starting in the mid-1990s, Meyer had frequent fits and bouts of memory loss. By 2000, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and his health and well-being were thereafter looked after by Janice Cowart, his secretary and estate executor. That same year, with no wife or children to claim his wealth, Meyer willed that the majority of his money and estate would be sent to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in honor of his late mother. Russell Albion Meyer (March 21, 1922 – September 18, 2004) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, and editor. He is known primarily for writing and directing a series of successful sexploitation films that featured campy humor, sly satire and large-breasted women, such as Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!. Meyer often named Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) as his definitive work. Your response to Russ Meyer's Pandora Peaks will depend on your tolerance to reused footage, large breasts, rapid-fire editing, and crystal-clear photography used over and over and over again for seventy-one minutes. Keep in mind, this style rarely results in a specific point and discussion of themes housed in the film can definitely be initiated but only to a questionable reward. So while the general public could easily perceive Jane Russell or Sophia Loren as "Russ Meyer material", their balanced bodies did not mesh with Meyer's precise aesthetic preferences." [26] And indeed, Meyer said many times that it was Gina Lollobrigida's smaller-breasted figure that he preferred visually over her larger-breasted, taller and bigger-hipped rival, Sophia Loren. [17] Thus, Meyer's oeuvre shows the viewer that while his actresses could easily be described as voluptuous, buxom and curvaceous, it's debatable to some if they were strapping, stately or even statuesque as Meyer readily proclaimed. [17] [27]Martin, Douglas (September 23, 2004). "Russ Meyer, 82, a Filmmaker of Classics in a Lusty Genre, Dies". The New York Times . Retrieved August 1, 2008.

Despite his reputation, Meyer never employed the casting couch during his career's peak years, though that shifted during his post-1980 unfinished projects, and rarely had sex with any of his actresses. [18] He had no children, though there were rumored unsuccessful pregnancies with his second wife Edy Williams and last serious girlfriend, Melissa Mounds, who was also found guilty of assaulting him in 1999. There is a long-standing rumor among his closest friends and at least one biographer that he had a son in 1964 with a secret lover who he would refer to only as "Miss Mattress" or "Janet Buxton." [37]Yes, there is little presence of a story, and many of the brave souls who will seek out this film are likely to dislike it and write off the entire project as a muddle. You're, in a way, correct. Pandora Peaks, through all its weirdness and inanity, is almost too easy of a target when put in a critical perspective. And yet, Meyer does what he wants with the project, ,molding it and forming it anarchically, forgoing convention and instated formula. The film is, in many ways, a fine send off to a bold filmmaker, and a strong showcase for its titular character, with an emphasis on "tit." Russ Meyer's lifelong unabashed fixation on large breasts featured prominently in all his films and is his best-known character trait both as an artist and as a person. His discoveries include Kitten Natividad, Erica Gavin, Lorna Maitland, Tura Satana, and Uschi Digard among many others. The majority of them were naturally large-breasted and he occasionally cast women in their first trimesters of pregnancy as it enhanced their breast size even further. [18] Meyer was born on March 21, 1922 in San Leandro, California to a German- American family. He was raised in Oakland, California. Film historian and Meyer biographer Jimmy McDonough posits that Russ Meyer's usage of physically and sexually overwhelming female characters places him in his own separate genre. [19] He argues that despite portraying women as sex objects, Meyer nonetheless depicts them as more powerful than men and is therefore an inadvertent feminist filmmaker. He followed it with Finders Keepers, Lovers Weepers! (1969), and Cherry, Harry & Raquel! (1970), which utilized long montages of the California landscape (replete with anti- marijuana voiceovers) and Uschi Digard dancing in the desert as the film's "lost soul." These plot devices were necessitated after lead actress Linda Ashton left the shoot early, forcing Meyer to compensate for 20 minutes of unshot footage. [10] Meyer (left) and Roger Ebert in 1970 20th Century Fox: Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and The Seven Minutes [ edit ]

and the Screen Actors Guild, Russ Meyer received the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 for creative excellence from Cult Movies Magazine. McDonough, Jimmy (2005). Big Bosoms and Square Jaws: The Biography of Russ Meyer, King of the Sex Film. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-07250-1. Lorna was very successful commercially, making almost a million dollars. Mudhoney was more ambitious, based on a novel, and did not perform as well. Motorpsycho, about three men terrorising the countryside, was a big hit—so much so Meyer decided to make a film about three bad girls, Faster Pussycat. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! was commercially underwhelming but would eventually be acclaimed as a cult classic. It has a following all over the world and has inspired countless imitations, music videos and tributes [ citation needed]. HEAVENLY BODIES! is basically a dull documentary on the art of photography that gets dreary at times,as the scientific style description of the various used cameras and the nude scenes with the nude models are pretty much the only things that this film has going for it. With Gaby Martone(THE MERMAIDS OF TIBURON,HOLLYWOOD'S WORLD OF FLESH),Althea Currier(LORNA,THE GIRLS ON F STREET),Monica Liljistrand(THE IMMORAL MR. TEAS),Princess Livingston(MUDHONEY,WILD GALS OF THE NAKED WEST),and Rochelle Kennedy(SKYSCRAPERS AND BRASSIERES) amongst the featured nude models. In the Army, Meyer forged his strongest friendships, and he would later ask many of his fellow combat cameramen to work on his films. Much of Meyer's work during World War II can be seen in newsreels and in the film Patton (1970). [4]Extremely similar to Russ Meyer's abysmal 'Mondo Topless' some 30+ years earlier, there's not a hint of a plot in this film, and even the rampant nudity gets redundant after a while. Pandora Peaks fills the screen with her fit body (thanks to Trimax exercise equipment -- she actually shills for the company for almost two straight minutes!) and obviously enhanced breasts, and she tells moderately uninteresting stories while we get to look at everything she has to offer. If you prefer natural breasts, Hungarian Tundi appears in numerous clips that were apparently filmed more than a decade before the film was released. Russ Meyer, meanwhile, incessantly rambles on about various places in California (particularly in the desert) and Germany, and sophomoric sound effects routinely play whenever a pair of large breasts are unleashed on the screen. Greene, Doyle (2004). Lips Hips Tits Power: The Films Of Russ Meyer. Persistence of Vision, Volume 4. New York: Creation Books. ISBN 1-84068-095-4.

Meyer followed Teas with some shorts, This Is My Body (1960) and The Naked Camera, then made a second nudie cutie, Eve and the Handyman (1960). This starred Meyer's wife Eve and Anthony-James Ryan, both of whom would be crucial to the production of Meyer's films. He was married to Betty Valdovinos from 1949 until they divorced in 1950. Then he was married to Eve Meyer from 1952 until they divorced in 1966. Then he was married to Edy Williams from 1970 until they divorced in 1973. Kenneth Turan (November 9, 1976). "Russ Meyer, Almost An American Institution: Russ Meyer, Almost an American Institution". The Washington Post. p.B1. Pandora Peaks" is easily among the worst films I have seen in quite a while, if not the worst. First of all, this is not 26 minutes long as it states here, but roughly 71. Maybe there is a shorter version I don't know of, but I doubt it. Anyway, it's the last directorial effort from filmmaker Russ Meyer before his death and he also wrote the script and co-narrated this one. I have not seen any of his earlier works I think, but looking at how he is a fairly well-respected filmmaker, I guess he had really lost it at this point. he is obsessed by budgets and schedules, and his actors do not remember how 'turned on' a scene was, but how many times it was re-shot. In a genreRM Films International is the only official source of Russ Meyer films. Member of the Directors Guild, Writers Guild Regardless of what story we're involved with, Meyer provides us with sharp photography, heavy on color- contrast and clarity and makes a film that is low on continuity, questionable in its intentions, but surprisingly bright and fun to look at. Overall, it's easily one of Russ' worst efforts. His plot-driven films weren't always great, but at least they had more than big breasts and boring commentary. The frequent nudity MIGHT be enough to please teenaged boys, but in today's internet-driven world, I doubt it.