Scum of the Earth!

This article is about the 1963 film. For the 1974 film, see Scum of the Earth (1974 film).

Scum of the Earth!
File:Scum of earth poster 01.jpg
Directed by	Herschell Gordon Lewis
Written by	Herschell Gordon Lewis
Produced by	David F. Friedman
Starring	William Kerwin Allison Louise Downe Lawrence J. Aberwood
Cinematography	Herschell Gordon Lewis
Edited by	Patrick Murphy
Music by	Manuel Ortiz
Distributed by	Box Office Spectaculars
Release date	October 8, 1963 (1963-10-08)
Running time	73 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$75,000

Scum of the Earth! (also known as Sam Flynn) is a 1963 American exploitation film written and directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis and produced by David F. Friedman. It is credited as being the first film in the "roughie" genre.

Synopsis

His current model, Sandy, is nearing the end of her career and begs to be released from her service. Lang, the leader of the operation, agrees on condition that she will procure and help manage new models to continue the cycle. Sandy agrees and her first victim is a naive young girl named Kim, who wishes to save money to go to college. Harmon gets her hooked on modeling by overpaying for some relatively tame "shoe" ads that show off Kim's legs. When she comes looking for more work, Harmon entices her with doing more explicit photos. During this activity a helper, Larry, snaps even more explicit photos and the group blackmails her into doing further work. Kim is distraught at her situation, but Larry and the gang convince her that it will all be behind her if she agrees to one more day of shooting. However, during the shoot, Ajax continues to menace the girls and threatens to rape Kim. Finally having enough, Harmon intervenes on the girls' behalf, killing Ajax with a baseball bat. Realizing that this will cause the police to investigate, Harmon gives Kim all her negatives and other material and tells her to run away. During a police interrogation, Harmon is then unexpectedly saved by Sandy, and they decide to get married. Hearing of the encroaching police, Lang makes a run for it, but is pursued until he runs into the ocean and, cornered, shoots himself. In the dénouement, Sandy counsels Kim to pretend it was all a dream.

Cast

• William Kerwin as Harmon Johnson (as Thomas Sweetwood)
• Allison Louise Downe as Kim Sherwood (as Vickie Miles)
• Lawrence J. Aberwood as Lang (as Lawrence Wood)
• Sandra Sinclair as Sandy (as Sandy Sinclair)
• Mal Arnold as Larry
• Craig Maudslay Jr. as Ajax
• Christy Foushee as Marie (as Toni Calvert)
• Doug Brennan as Carl
• Christina Castel as Cindy, the model
• Edward Mann as Mr. Sherwood
• Lou Youngman as Dave, punk in diner
• William Caulder as Joe, punk in diner

Critical reception

Allmovie wrote, "Unintentionally funny and poorly photographed, this film certainly has its moments for connoisseurs of bad cinema, but others will find it tawdry and dull."

Availability

Something Weird Video released Scum of the Earth on DVD with The Defilers (1964) on 20 February 2001. It is also available on the Arrow Video Blu-ray release of Blood Feast (1963) as a special feature.

See also

• List of American films of 1963

External links

• Scum of the Earth! at IMDb
• Scum of the Earth! at AllMovie