The Many Faces of Cash Flagg

Ray Dennis Steckler photographed by Ronda Churchill in 2007

THE MANY FACES OF CASH FLAGG: A TRIBUTE TO B-MOVIE MASTER RAY DENNIS STECKLER
by Melissa Howard

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A far-out, zany director responsible for Hollywood’s first monster musical – The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies – Ray Dennis Steckler was a master of generic propecia online within canada the genre.  His low-budget, individualistic flicks paid homage to all things weird.  The discordant elements of Steckler’s films were in fact keystones of the auteur’s work – ragged zombies, fortune-tellers, hooded killers, and superheroes all lived under the same roof in a Steckler production, and herein lay the twisted charm levitra cost at walmart of his films.

Born in 1938 in Reading, Pennsylvania, Steckler gradually made his way to Hollywood in the late 1950’s.  By the early 1960’s he was working in the film biz (serving as a cinematographer on Timothy Carey’s 1962 cult film The World’s Greatest Sinner, among others) and had teamed up with producer Arch Hall Sr.’s son, Arch Hall Jr.  Together the two made Wild Guitar (1962), Steckler’s initial crack at directing and first starring role under the catchy pseudonym, Cash Flagg.

Steckler often cast himself in his films along with his first wife, actress Carolyn Brandt, both of whom appeared in his first solo directorial project, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (1964).  Creatures laid the groundwork for Steckler’s well-deserved foray into cult hero status, thanks to the film’s surreal plotline and random musical interludes.  Much of the film omits any sense of cause-and-effect – the story deals with a crazed carnival fortune- teller, desperate to turn her customers into zombies (why, we are never quite sure).  Armed with a jar of acid and a hypnotizing spinning wheel, Madame Estrella (Brett O’Hara) ensnares Jerry (Steckler as Cash Flagg), the bizarre lothario of the film.  Subsequently, Jerry goes on a killing spree through the agency of Estrella’s mind control.  A dancer dies, people scramble and the killer is loose, and yet the film continues to showcase the several song and dance routines performed at the carnival’s nightclub – all of which begs the question – what is going on?

above: Blood Shack

Never one to adhere to the typical Hollywood formula, Steckler continued creating violent oddities like The Thrill Killers, Blood Shack, Rat Pfink a Boo Boo, as well as the innocuous Lemon Grove Kids Meet the Monsters, a personal favourite…

 

The Lemon Grove Kids features rival teen gangs playedby Cash Flagg and canada cialis no prescription his screwball cronies.  The principal characters, Gopher and Slug (two of the best names in a long list of Steckler personalities) run amok through the streets and yards of suburban California, cracking sodas with their teeth and pouting for the hell of it – which sounds right for a kooky adventure story about a crew on the loose.  What follows however, is atypical of any juvenile gang series ever created.  These “Lemon Grove Kids” (most of whom are actual grown men) outwit monsters and humans alike.  A grasshopper alien, a mummy, a vampire woman, a movie star, a psychic and a couple of bumbling villains – who look like they belong in a Parisian café more than the mean streets of L.A. – all make appearances along the way.  Steckler disregards narrative cohesion in favour of bombarding his audience with chintzy monster costumes, makeshift sets levitra online prescription and rapid-fire editing, making this three part series wildly fantastic, random and great! It’s also worth noting that the real children in the film (many of whom are friends or family of Steckler) have some of the best lines (and glares) onscreen.  Giving cialis in india these kids complete creative license to do what they feel works well and adds to the charming home-movie feel going on.  The rhyme and reason of Steckler’s Cash Flagg could be lost on some audiences, but the brilliance of his whacked out tale telling and adult slapstick combine to make The Lemon Grove Kids astand-out number in a long line of bizarre Steckler flicks.

By the mid 1970’s, during the porno-chic, post-Deep Throat days, Steckler crossed over into the soft-core porn market and made such films as Undressed to Kill, Sacrilege, and Red Heat (under various pseudonyms), provin g to be a true jack-of-all-trades.  His robust resume also in cluded his direction of music videos for both The Nazz (“Open My Eyes”) and Jefferson Airplane (“White Rabbit”).  This prolific history and down-to-earth approach to filmmaking (he was never above sneaking into vacant buildings to shoot a scene) reflected Steckler’s talent to create a remarkable parallel universe – a place where nothing made sense, and was better off for it.

Ray Dennis Steckler died from cardiac arrest in Las Vegas on January 7, 2009, at 70 years old.  He is survived by his four daughters (two from his first marriage) and by his wife Katherine Steckler.

 

About the author:

Melissa Howard

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