WILD GUITAR-1962-Arch Hall Jr. stars as Bud Eagle, a Rock-A-Billy yokel who comes to LA and is exploited by agent Mike McCauley (William Watters AKA Arch Hall Sr.). Director Ray Dennis Steckler plays Steak, McCauley’s strong-arm thug. He meets (former amateur ice skater) Nancy Czar and performs on a TV show and becomes a big star. After being cajoled and blackmail (and unsuccessfully seduced by a hooker) Bud and his brother sent things straight.
WILD GUITAR is a pretty wacky little movie made in the pre-Beatles era of teenage rock and roll. The music is ok but Arch’s hair is really out of control. This was the first feature directed by co-star Steckler. EEGAH! was made the same year by the father and son team. Arch Jr. would star in the eerie THE SADIST the next year.
THE SADIST-1963-If you’ve only seen Arch Hall Jr. in EEGAH! or WILD GUITAR you owe it to yourself to see him in this movie as a deranged psycho! As he proclaims before the credits roll: “I have been hurt by others. And I will hurt them. I will make them suffer like I have suffered”.
Three schoolteachers on their way to a baseball game have car trouble. They pull into a dilapidated gas station for help. Ed (Richard Alden) and Doris (Helen Hovey) are the two youngish sweethearts to be types. Carl (Don Russell) is the older guy. Their quick stop for a new water hose becomes a nightmare when they are confronted by loony thug Charlie Tibbs (Hall Jr.) and his imbecile girlfriend Judy (Marilyn Manning also in EEGAH!). He’s a mass murderer on the run and wants the teach-mobile fixed so he and his moll can make a quick getaway. Fortunately Ed takes practically the whole film to fix the damn thing. However Charlie manages to taunt the trio every chance he gets. He pistol whips Carl and then shoots him in cold blood after drinking a coke. There’s a good deal of suspense and a few interesting plot twists. Hall is really slimy in the lead and quite surprising after the goody teenage roles he had been playing.
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