MANTIS IN LACE (aka LILA) (1968)
Director: William Rotsler
Image Entertainment/Something Weird Video

This is it! The infamous Harry Novak hippie nudie-ghoulie lensed by Laszlo Kovacs -- a landmark adults-only film. It failed as a sex picture under its original title but became a hit for Novak's Boxoffice International as MANTIS IN LACE. The ad campaign featuring Susan Stewart as a meat-cleaver wielding acidhead stripper would go down in the annals of grind house lore, and it is guaranteed a place in schlock movie history for its sheer audacity alone. It's fascinating to watch today as a vivid snapshot of the psychedelic 60s seamy underside and it's amazing to see such a brilliant-looking print of such a fringe movie. Surely ranking as one of the jewels of Something Weird's DVD campaign so far, MANTIS IN LACE is a must-own for the true trash connoisseur.

The plot is fairly simple. Lila (Stewart) is a young stripper who picks up men at the club where she dances. They meet her after work and she takes them to an abandoned warehouse where she takes acid, strips, has sex with them, and then kills them after hallucinating all sorts of crazy things. This happens again and again until the typically dim detectives working on the case get her dropped right in their laps.

Something Weird presents what is being advertised as the longest, most complete version of MIL ever on home video. The credits refer to the film as "Lila," so it is presumably the original release cut that we're getting. There's lots of 60's stripper footage that will appeal to aficionados of vintage go-go. In between are a series of psychedelic hatchet murders that really do have to be seen to be believed. It's during these segments that you really get to see Kovacs show his stuff. As the acid kicks in, Lila starts hallucinating hard 'n heavy, watching her lover's faces change in multicolored light; becoming a bunch of bananas squishing in her fingers, a ripe melon cracking in two, or a overstuffed piñata getting split open with a bat before she freaks out and takes a screwdriver to his back and an axe to his, well, the sound-editing stands out, and the result is some of the most effective bad trip segments ever filmed. As an extra, SW has thrown in an alternate, even more psychedelic murder scene cut from the movie.

Perhaps the most well known sequence features Russ Meyer stock player Stuart Lancaster as a curious psychologist who falls into Lila's web. He keeps a clinical distance, declining to partake in the LSD ("verrry interesting case."), but lets himself get caught up by her none-too-subtle advances while analyzing her. For the first time we actually start to feel sorry for the little tramp -- seeing this creepy old shrink knowingly take advantage of her. The first victim was just a basically innocent hippie drifter. This Dr. however, is a world-class sleazeball. By the time she takes her final swing you're cheering this go-go getter all the way.

The police scenes, featuring sub-Z thesps Steve Vincent ("neighbor" in ANGELS FOR KICKS) and M.K. Evans (screenwriter of WEEKEND LOVER), are present only to fill space between go-go dancing and acid-sex, stringing together something that resembles a backstory to the murders. They say things like "He was doing field research on the psychedelic generation by making rounds of the go-go palaces," and walk right through ground zero of the elusive drug-sex murders without ever copping a clue.

The useless sex scene between Lila and the bartender of the club drags on for ten minutes that feel like 25, really bringing the movie to a halt. I'm guessing that this was something taken out of the movie when it got edited for the gore circuit and I'm comfortable saying that this would be better if it wasn't here. It would make a perfect extra -- it's pretty explicit for something like this and the super-syrupy romantic soundtrack is crazy. Instead, it's a stone cold party stopper- skip it!

That is but a minor complaint though, as this is going to be a standard-bearer for other vintage exploitation releases. Picture-wise, this special edition is likely as good as we'll ever get for a pre-70s independent adult-only relic. The detail is amazingly crisp and clear, it doesn't look the least bit washed out, and there is only very minor wear and tear on the print.

As you would expect, SWV provides lots of extras. In addition to the alternate murder scene, there's a complete anti-acid classroom short called LSD: TRIP OR TRAP?, an excerpt from ALICE IN ACIDLAND, and a dance sequence from GIRL IN A CAGE. I really liked running the Harry Novak exploitation art gallery with the radio-spot audio. An original theatrical trailer is also included as well as trailers for THE CURIOUS DR. HUMPP, THE MAD BUTCHER and FRANKENSTEIN'S CASTLE OF FREAKS, all of which are conveniently available from Image/SW video. (Ted Cogswell)

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