16mm Film The Muthers (1976) Jeanne Bell Blaxploitation Schlock-fest UNCUT!

Description

Up on the auction block is a 16mm original film print of that great Drive-in/Grindhouse gem,
THE MUTHERS
(1976) starring Jeanne Bell, Jayne Kennedy, Rosanne Katon, Trina Parks,
J. Antonio Carrion, John Montgomery, and Sam Sharruff.  How do you describe THE MUTHERS?  Simple.  It’s a blaxploitation/sexploitation/Kung Fu/women’s prison/white slavery/sea pirate/R-rated schlock classic and reportedly one of
Quentin Tarantino's favorite grindhouse movies
.
This is a movie that’s laughably bad, yet it has so much spirit and so much pizzazz that it keeps you riveted to the screen all the way through.  We loved it!  Bell (a former
Playboy
playmate who flaunts her perfectly formed breasts numerous times throughout the film) and Katon (who’s also gorgeous) head a small ship of modern day pirates who prey on small party boats, robbing patrons of their valuables and shooting up their boats with machine guns.  When Bell discovers her sister has been kidnapped by a female slavery outfit, her and Katon allow themselves to also be kidnapped by the evil Montiero, who harbors dozens of kidnapped women to pick coffee beans on his vast plantation, sometimes selling a few of the better looking ones into the female slavery market.  The acting in this film is almost non-existent.  Imagine four southern California mall girls trying to act tough.  The fight scenes are even more hilarious, with Bell, Katon, and even fellow prison buddy Parks all seemingly possessed of Bruce Lee-level skills, taking on a multitude of thugs and kicking their asses.  It’s pitiful to watch but oh so enjoyable.
The music score is appropriately schlocky and adds to the ludicrous lovability of the film.  Then there’s the snake scene.  Even though the film is obviously set in South or Central America, the director, Cirio Santiago, felt the need to have a deadly cobra (indigenous only to Africa and Asia) crawl up into Park’s shirt and bite her on the boob.  “Just like every other snake I ever met…can’t leave my tits alone!”  Of course one of the girls simply leans over and sucks the venom out and she’s good to go!  Mind-boggling.
The last 20 minutes are a running battle between Bell and her crew (who have all magically re-attired themselves in their mall clothes), Montiero and his men, and a competing band of sea pirates.  You have to believe this sequence was done on the fly, no script, just the director yelling instructions and making it up as he went along. Watch for Bell swinging on vines from tree to tree like Tarzan!  That’s not to say everything in this movie is bad—there are indeed numerous good moments.   Kennedy (a former Miss Ohio and regular on
The NFL Today)
has a scene with a gun and a can of beans that will make you laugh out loud, “Dinner is served!”   Carrion hams it up well as the evil slave master, with some nice, juicy bits of dialogue.  Some of the girls even have occasional moments of decent thesping.  Put it all together and you have a true, low-budget grindhouse/drive-in classic featuring four of the most beautiful black women you will ever see.  A
must
!  Rated R for nudity, language, violence (the death scene on the bridge is pretty graphic), and a couple of sexual assault/rape scenes.
Regarding the print:
It’s a 16mm original print in tip-top condition.  The density and contrast are excellent and the audio sounds very good.  The on-screen images are clear and crisp.  Physically the print is in
near
mint
condition with hardly anything in the way of hairlines or splices.  The color is still fairly nice, some scenes have more color than others...see screenshots above to see what I mean.  Overall it’s a real beauty and
UNCUT
.  Cool…  The rarity of this title in 16mm (especially uncut) makes it a real find for any grindhouse film collector.  IMPORTANT:
To the best of our knowledge, this film has never been registered for copyright
.   So if your aim is home video, you could undoubtedly use this print to make a very nice film scan.  As we’ve said many times before, uncut 16mm prints of these ‘70s drive-in films are getting rarer and rarer; so don’t miss this golden opportunity…bid today!  No Vinegar Smell.  Comes mounted on three 1600ft. reels.  Have fun bidding!
Pictures above are all from the actual film being offered and were taken while the print was running on a projector. Film is much sharper than pictures indicate. Some pictures might be more out of focus than others due to the camera used NOT the actual print.
We are always selling rare prints like this, so keep checking our listings.
Any questions at all feel free to ask and thanks for looking!