RIP Ray Dennis Steckler, iconic director of Incredibly Strange Films.
Incredibly Strange Films (1986) – V. Vale , Andrea Juno [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPnIsifeE70&]
If Al Adamson was the poor man’s Roger Corman, then Ray Dennis Steckler was the poor man’s Al Adamson.
Ray Dennis Steckler (January 25, 1938 – January 7, 2009) was an American film director, born in Pennsylvania.
When he was reportedly fired for almost knocking an A-frame onto Alfred Hitchcock, Steckler turned to the then fledgling B-movie circuit. Steckler made his directorial debut in the Hall vehicle Wild Guitar and co-starred under his on-screen name Cash Flagg.
In 1963 he co-produced his first solo film, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?, co-starring his then-wife, Carolyn Brandt. Reportedly filmed for a budget of $38,000, the film was photographed by then newcomers László Kovács and Vilmos Zsigmond, a fact that both men acknowledged as their first big break.
Steckler’s next film was his answer to Psycho, entitled The Thrill Killers, released in 1964.
Steckler continued to produce a number of low-budget but fanciful films which soon attained cult status, including Rat Pfink a Boo Boo (a spoof of Batman) and Lemon Grove Kids Meet the Monsters (an homage to the East Side Kids films). By the late 1960s, he also directed the video for Jefferson Airplane‘s “White Rabbit.”
With the decline of drive-in horror films of the nature Steckler was producing in the 1960s, and following his divorce from Brandt, Steckler dabbled with producing porn films during the 1970s and 1980s, and catering to the home video market.
I’m fairly certain that no “video” was made for Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit,” and it would not have dated from the late 1960s at any rate. The song was released in early 1967. The only promotional film I’ve seen from the Airplane, apart from tapes of TV appearances (usually lip-synched) was for their song “Greasy Heart,” released in mid 1968. It too featured a Grace Slick vocal. I doubt this promo film was Steckler’s work, but it’s possible.
The only rock promo film I know Steckler directed was for “Open My Eyes” by The Nazz. An attempt to do Richard Lester on the cheap, it’s a fun piece of film and unmistakably Steckler’s work.
This most be a Wikipedia hoax. The primary page of 99 percent of artandpop pages are Wikipedia pages. Thanks for notifying me. I will remove it from the Steckler entry.
My best wishes for you and yours for 2009.