Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly D — Blood & Flesh (Blu Ray)

As the old phrase goes ‘fact is stranger than fiction’ and that’s very true for the story of Al Adamson- son of cowboy actor, who went onto make some of weird, wacky, and (by grindhouse standards) popular films. During his run as a director of cult films he had run-ins with Colonel Sanders, Charles Manson, and a host of aging actors. Then sadly ended his life buried under a concrete floor- either at the hands of his dodgy builder friend, or by those wanting to cover up his discovery of Alien/ human crossbreed…see what I mean by the opening phase...here from Severin Films is the 2019 documentary about Mr. Adamson life- plus a good selection of extras including one of his more coherent & less hammy films.

Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson was directed by David Gregory- who has helmed 200 plus featurette/ docs on various cult film releases since the early 2000s including the critically acclaimed feature-length doc Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau, he was also behind the formation of Severin films label, so he has an extremely good grounding in cult/ B movie circles. And he certainly does a great job with the doc to hand- in total it features interviews with 40 friends, family, colleagues, and historians talking about Al, his films, all surrounding them & of course his rather sad ending in 1995 & those who were involved. There is also a good selection of interviews with Al himself, that took place just before his death- all of these Gregory arrange into a nicely flowing, fascinating, and later rather sad & shocking documentary.

The film runs at the one hour & forty-minute mark- and begins with Al's origins, and discussing his silent cowboy acting father Denver Dixon. Moving on to talk how got bitten by the film bug- first, he acted, then decided he wanted to be behind the camera- and here we moved into the crazy, title changing, and footage blending of his film work- which officially started with 1965’s Psycho a Go-Go and officially finished with 1989’s Lost-a family drama about a young girl lost in the wilds of Utah. Over his thirty plus films Al dipped in & out of every sub-genre of exploitation- going from biker pics( Satan Sadist & Hell's Bloody Devils), chessy gothic horror(Blood of Dracula's Castle & Dracula vs. Frankenstein), tacky monster pics(Horror of the Blood Monsters & Brain of Blood), Blacksploitation(Dynamite Brothers & Mean Mother), Cheeky soft-core(The Naughty Stewardesses), martial art action (Black Samurai)..along with bizarre  exploitation crossbreeds, oh and two bizarre kids film- one of which featured a talking chimp & a mind-reading magician (Carnival Magic). Just before his death he was involved in the making of a UFO doc, and this is where one of the really bizarre twists come in his story- as he went into the project a none believer in extraterrestrial life, but his mind was changed after he met what he believed was a human/ Alien crossbreed. In the docs last half-an-hour or so we move into the true-crime part of the story- I won’t over detail this, as it’s again fairly bizarre considering his background. Throughout Al is painted as a likable & well thought after- sure like a lot of exploitation directors/ producers he owed folks money, but even with these they seem no issue. Also there is a lot of frankness about his output with many concluding that many of his films where far from masterpieces, and at times downright bad- but his heart was in the right place. All in all Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson is a well put together, often charming & intriguing doc- I think you’ll to have a least some interest in cult/ B films- as in places it does focus/drag a touch on the film side of things, and less on the details of the murder case.

Moving onto the extras, first & biggest of these is The Female Bunch- a 1971 film, which is seen as one of his better productions. The film follows the plight of Sadie- who loses all her money, and then-husband in Las Vegas- she hooks up with dreadful & sleazed lounge singer who then dumps her…she tries to take her own life & is saved by go-go dancer/ waitress Libby- big-haired blond Regina Carrol who landed up marrying Adamson in real life. She takes Sadie to a desert ranch- the location was the infamous Spawn ranch. At the ranch she introduced to an all-female gang- who are involved in drug trafficking from Mexico, rolling around half-naked on barroom floors, and generally terrorizing any male they come across. We get a fair bit of fleeting female flesh, a bit of bright red gore, sleazed drug-taking, campy bitch-ness, plane-car chases, man branding, and more. It’s a very much sort of sub-Russ Meyer type affair with less nudity- and as campy & amusing 1970’s exploitation it’s a good enough cheesy romp.  Of the other extras we get fifteen minutes of cut scenes from Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson, a fifteen interview with a few of the cast from The Female Bunch, poster gallery, and trailers for both films.

I’d only had fleeting knowledge Mr. Adamson & his films before seeing Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson- it's a great doc really giving you a wonderful overview of his life & works. It’s a film that’ll make you chuckle, shake your head in disbelief, and feel more than a little sad- but also grateful that the world had characters like Adamson- the Blu Ray is now available both Stateside & the UK, so pretty much where ever you are you should be able to get hold of it.