A Night to Dismember (1983)

For anyone who still holds up Ed Wood as the worst director who ever lived, consider A Night to Dismember as a nomination for Doris Wishman. This largely incomprehensible horror film (her first feature in 20 years) features porn star Samantha Fox in a rare "legitimate" role as a suspected psycho killer sprung from an insane asylum. Is it mere coincidence that the body count begins anew? The Queen of Exploitation adds mutilations, dismembered bodies, and buckets of gore to her trademark nudie style, but her technique is just as primitive as ever. The special effects are crude (to say the least), the photography dark and dreary, and the soundtrack awkwardly dubbed in (why waste time recording sound on set?) while a grating narrator hopelessly tries to make sense of the mess. This one is for Wishman fans and bad-cinema junkies only.

The film may be dreadful, but the brash and brassy Wishman is a real character and contributes a hugely entertaining commentary track. She bickers with her longtime cinematographer C. ("Chuck") Davis Smith and explains how the film was cobbled together from remnants after much of her original footage was destroyed by the lab. That explains the cinematic clumsiness and narrative incoherence, and illuminates the poor shape of the film master. This is, quite frankly, a terrible-looking and -sounding disc, but it's hard to believe it ever looked much better on the screen. The DVD also features a six-minute promotional short taken from a bleary video master. --Sean Axmaker Amazon.com

The film? Like playing Jenga on acid. The commentary? Gold, I tell ya...

Rarely does a film change direction so rapidly that I wonder if I didn't doze off for a few minutes and miss some imporant plot points. Every ten minutes. Well, Mesa of Lost Women, sure, and Rat Pfink a Boo Boo to an extent, but, boy, "A Night to Dismember" tops em both hands down. Allegedly, the 'all over the place' nature of the story is due to the substantial portion of the negative being lost, although the cameraman, Chuck Smith, claims he has almost all of what director Doris Wishman said was destroyed.

The plot (if it can be called such) involves a woman (porn starlet Samantha Fox), recently sprung from a padded room, envisioning the bloody murder of her family, who live in a house where another woman slaughtered her own parents. At least I think so. All the Wishman trademarks are present and accounted for: kung-fuesque dubbing of off screen talking, feet shots, and so on. This is the only horror film Doris ever made, and she admirably tries to out Hersh the Hersh with decapitations, blood spurting stumps, a needle through the neck, a heart pulled from it's owner's chest, chopped fingers, bodies in the fridge, more fun with heads being crushed by cars or waved around the room by the handle of an axe or even set on fire. She doesn't have the panache of Mr. Lewis, nor his drive to attempt verisimilitude, but God love her, she tries like heck. Let's see you do better.

I may be wrong, but "A Night to Dismember" seems to be the only commentary Doris recorded before she passed away several years ago. It's a riot, with Wishman and cohort Smith jabbing each other playfully for 69 minutes of comedic gold. There's plenty of great dirt about "ANTD", such as how Doris basically got the money to make the film by selling a distributor on a quickly assembled trailer. Not so unusual, as many exploiteers will tell you they sold pictures based on only a poster, a few shots, or even a title! She also tells a funny story about Chesty Morgan holding up filming on "Deadly Weapons" to rush out to a bra sale!

An added promotional reel does a good job selling the film, hitting all of the gory highlights coupled with outtakes. Not positive wether this is the trailer Wishman used to obtain financing, or something slapped together for the later video release. In either case, the quality is awful, apparently ported off a worn VHS tape complete with glitches and tracking lines. Does enhance the power of the effects by obscuring them, and reminds kids what independant horror movies looked like for those of us who grew up renting them from sleazy, non-corporate video stores.

Honestly, "A Night to Dismember" is a convoluted mess, but who cares. The audio commentary is the selling point...just see the blurb splashed across the cover. I can definitely recommend this disc to any fan of not only Doris, but of psychotronic low budget films in general. Keep an eye out for the extended cut Chuck Smith has promised is not only forthcoming, but makes a thousand percent more sense than this version. June 21, 2007

A Night To FORGET!!!!!!!!

Let me just tell you this without boring you with the stupid plot. This is a perfect example of everything that could possibly be wrong in a movie. If you like incoherent storytelling, a lot of shots of people feet, and dubbing not far off from an 70's Kung-Fu film then feel free to subject yourself to this [...]. If I could possibly give this film less than one star I would. April 10, 2007

Beyond bad....

I knew I wasn't expecting much from this movie after reading some of the reviews,but it was far worse than I thought.The narrator was annoying,as was the commentary.It wasn't even good bad,like Plan 9 or Bride of the Monster or The Astounding She-Monster.When I had it on the commentary and the guy was saying here's a good scene or this is really good,I was thinking,You have no idea what you're talking about,do you??? If any of you out there like bad movies,either rent this or stay away completely.You won't find much cheap entertainment here..I'd rather watch Monster A Go-Go instead... April 7, 2007

2 sams

this is not samantha fox the british pop singer or famous page 3 girl this is just some ex fading porn star so sam fox fans make sure that you check out the real sam fox movies
of which i know of only two one was about a football team in england where she plays a bartender and a bollywood flick from india im sooooo gald i researched these movies before i purchased them
Amazon should really review there search options to allow for 2 people with the same name

though i have heard that this samantha fox was taken to court by sam fox and is no longer allowed to use her almost trademark name February 6, 2006

Watch it for the commentary, it's priceless!

This is one of the last films made by the late great Doris Wishman and it is probablly the most technically inept of all of her films. No one truly expects to see stunning cinematography from a Doris Wishman flick but the choppiness of this movie almost made me seasick! Doris explains, in the director's commentary on the disc, that this film was made entirely from out takes and footage from some of her previous films due to the fact that the original negatives were destroyed. There is little to no actual dialogue in this movie other than that of the narrator and, as is typical in a Wishman film, we see many shots of the sky, feet and other inanimate objects.
The commentary track on this DVD is PRICELESS. It is a rare occassion to actually hear Doris Wishman comment on her films but when you throw in "Chuck" (the man who operated the camera for 17 of Wishman's films) it makes for a highly entertaining segment. Doris hurls insults at Chuck left and right and he plays the "Dummy" very well. At first, the viewer might be thrown off by this and might perceive Doris as a real Witch with a capital B but after awhile you come to realize that this is all a game and that their entire relationship is based on teasing each other. I would recommend watching the movie with the commentary track on first in order to find out if the movie is truly your cup of tea or not. If nothing else, you'll hear some very entertaining one liners from the Queen of Exploitation and her trusty sidekick. February 10, 2005

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