The Corpse Grinders (1971)

Director:

Ted V. Mikels

Writers:

Arch Hall Sr. (screenplay) &
Joseph Cranston (screenplay)

Genre:

Comedy | Horror

Tagline:

They Went in People and Came Out Hamburger!

Plot:

When the Lotus Cat Food Company finds itself in financial trouble, the owners decide to find a new, cheap source of meat -- the local graveyard...

Plot Keywords:

Cat | Human Flesh | Cat Food | Food | Corpse

Cast

Sean Kenney	...	Dr. Howard Glass
Monika Kelly	...	Angie Robinson
Sanford Mitchell	...	Landau
J. Byron Foster	...	Maltby
Warren Ball	...	Caleb
Ann Noble	...	Cleo
Vincent Barbi	...	Monk (as Vince Barbi)
Harry Lovejoy	...	The Neighbor
Earl Burnam	...	Mr. Desisto
Zena Foster	...	Mrs. Babcock
Ray Dannis	...	Mr. Babcock
Drucilla Hoy	...	Tessie
Charles Fox	...	Willie (as Charles 'Foxy' Fox)
Stephen Lester	...	The Mortician
William Kirschner	...	B.K. - Mort. Asst.

Also Known As:

The Flesh Grinders (USA) (reissue title)

Runtime:

72 min | UK:62 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:R | Norway:(Banned) (video rating) | UK:18 | USA:R | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Company:

CG Productions

Trivia:

Released in the U.S. as the main attraction in a triple-feature package with Il mostro di Venezia (1965) (US title: The Embalmer) and The Undertaker and His Pals (1966).

Movie Connections:

Edited into Out of this World Super Shock Show (2007) (V)

Fairly enjoyable horror schlock.

From director Ted V. Mikels comes this silly movie that has an entertaining premise courtesy of Joseph Cranston and Arch Hall Sr.: to cut costs, cat food company bosses Landau (Sanford Mitchell) and Maltby (J. Byron Foster) start making human bodies the primary ingredient of their product. They use cadavers supplied by a gravedigger named Caleb (Warren Ball), but it doesn't take much for them to start resorting to outright murder.

While this is going down, a Dr. Howard Glass (Sean Kenney) and his sexy blonde nurse Angie Robinson (Monika Kelly) notice that pet cats are now attacking their owners, and that the cat food is the common denominator. So they start playing amateur detective and find themselves in lots of trouble.

I had no illusions going in that this would be high quality stuff. I know of the directors' work, so was prepared to be entertained for all the wrong reasons. That said, this was mildly amusing. It has its quirky little touches - Calebs' partner Cleo (Ann Noble) carries around a doll that gets a serving of soup at dinner time, Landau and Maltby employ a mute named Tessie (Drucilla Hoy) who's also physically disabled. You can't accuse these guys of discrimination! The obviously low, low budget allows for some chuckles. The corpse grinding machine is hilariously low-tech, but it still does the job of turning human bodies into hamburger in just seconds.

The movie falls too short in some departments, namely gore and nudity. There's some hot looking women here, who do strip down to bra and panties, but that's as far as it goes. People expecting more of a sleaze fest are going to be disappointed.

At least viewers can take pleasure in some of the sillier moments, like the hilariously unconvincing cat attacks.

Overall, I thought it was a reasonably fun ridiculous low-budget genre flick. The good thing is that it's over fairly quickly.

5/10