Cherry, Harry And Raquel / Common Law Cabin

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Cherry, Harry And Raquel (1970) Common Law Cabin (1967)

(aka "Big Six" or "Conjugal Cabin" or "How Much Loving Does a Normal Couple Need?")

directed by Russ Meyer
USA 1967

Hoople's Haven is a tumbledown cabin located along the Colorado River. Surrounded by desert and isolated from civilization, the cabin looks near inhospitable from -afar heap of wood speckling the flat, arid landscape, something that could fall victim to even the slightest wind. As it happens, the rundown structure is a tourist trap run by ex-military man Dewey Hoople, his wife Babette, and their teenage daughter Coral. In charge of wrangling "suckers" to visit this isolated false paradise -a journey that involves driving off-road in the desert and boating through thin inlets of the Colorado - is Cracker, a salty old man with a penchant for the bottle. When we first see him, he is sitting at a bar in the heart of a nearby city, regaling the bartender with the story of his newest finds: a buxom young nurse named Sheila Ross and her insecure yet abusive husband, a doctor named Martin Ross, who is incidentally portrayed by Meyer's fearless narrator, John Furlong. Joining them is Barney Rickert, a man who pays Cracker for a seat on his next trek back to the cabin and is, as we soon discover, one of Meyer's most vile and vicious characters.

Excerpt of review from Adam Balz located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: July 1967 (USA)

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Arrow Films (The Russ Meyer Collection) - Region 0 - PAL

DVD Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

Distribution

Arrow Films

Region 0 - PAL

Also available in the Russ Meyer Collection which includes 18 films!

Runtime

1:09:!2

Video

1.33:1 Aspect Ratio

16X9 enhanced
Average Bitrate: 6.5 mb/s
PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate

Audio

English (Dolby Digital 2.0)

Subtitles

None

Features

Release Information:
Studio: Arrow Films

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen anamorphic - 1.33:1

Edition Details:
• Trailer Reel

DVD Release Date: April 25th, 2005
Keep Case

Chapters 6

Comments

The two films included on this disc, "Common Law Cabin" and "Cherry, Harry, and Racquel", share very little in common. Chronologically, they come at different points in Meyer's career. The former came directly after "Mondo Topless" and singled the shift of Meyer's Gothic southern period to his series of melodramas that culminated in 1968's "Vixen!". "Cherry, Harry, and Raquel" followed "Vixen!" by two years and was the beginning of Meyer's madcap sex comedy films--a precursor to films like "Supervixens" and "Up!". Yet, here they are together. Of the two it's fairly clear that the second entry is the better of the two films. Meyer was many things, including a consummate showman and a master of the sex comedy. Unfortunately, I wouldn't say that he was equally as skilled as a dramatist. Still, "Common Law Cabin" is worth a gander if you purchase the disc, and for those who appreciate Meyer's other comedy entries, this would be a decent blind buy.

Unfortunately the image on this disc, and indeed all of the films included in Arrow's Russ Meyer Collection, can only be described as a disappointment. The image is incredibly soft and carries low levels of contrast and clarity. The image also contains very distracting ghosting that occurs during almost any movement, no matter how fast it is. Finally, the image is also interlaced. Even when my computer ran interlacing correcting programs, the combing was readily apparent. When they were turned off, horizontal movements looked like they do in the seventh capture on both films.

The sound on this release was just fine, with the Dolby Digital 2.0 sounding clear and about as good as the tracks come. Unfortunately there are no subtitles on the release.

The only extra included is a trailer reel that is found on a number of the releases in this collection.

While the release is far from ideal, I'll give the disc a slight recommendation. What you see is what you get with the poor image, but "Cherry, Harry, and Raquel" is a hoot and "Common Law Cabin" is also worth at least one viewing. Hopefully there'll be a better release in the future that corrects the image problems here.

- The Immoral Mr. Teas

DVD Menus

Screen Captures

Heavy Combing and Ghosting

(aka "Cherry, Harry & Raquel!" or "Megavixens" or "Three Ways to Love")

directed by Russ Meyer
USA 1970

Russ Meyer looks into the narcotics traffic along the Arizona border, and finds -not surprisingly- necrophilia, lesbianism, frenetic violence, and incidental incest. This was the first of Meyer's totally chaotic, completely incoherent sex cartoons, a style that arose out of necessity when the original negative was lost by the lab- the film had to be entirely reconstructed from outtakes. You could call it a triumph of form over content, but that would mean assuming (dangerously) that there was any content here to begin with (1969).

Excerpt of review from Dave Kehr located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: April 22nd, 1970

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Arrow Films (The Russ Meyer Collection) - Region 0 - PAL

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Arrow Films Region 0 - PAL
Runtime	1:12:09
Video	1.33:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.5 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Subtitles	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Arrow Films Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: DVD Release Date: Keep Cases inside of Cardboard Case Chapters 6