Snakes on a DVD: Stanley!

Those with acute Ophidiophobia beware! Snakes abound in the special edition DVD release of the 1972 cult classic Stanley. When the movie Willard (about a disturbed young man and his army of rats) was a surprise box office hit, director William Grefe decided to give snakes try. Chris Robinson (who went on to star in the TV soap opera General Hospital) plays a Vietnam vet and Seminole Indian named Tim, who lives in a shack deep in the Everglades consumed with hate for his fellow man with a lot of pet snakes. His favorite -- a rattlesnake named Stanley. A greedy crook (Alex Rocco) and his henchman Crail (Steve Alaimo) want Tim to help them trap snakes to make belts out of them. “Some fag fashion designer from Paris publicly says animal fashions are in!” he cries, and then adds: “I should be praised not condemned for making worthless animals into something worthwhile.” But Tim won’t harm snakes, and decides to send in his army of slithery friends to attack those who do harm to his cold-blooded friends -- like a stripper who bites the heads off of snakes in her act. Director Grefe (Death Curse Of Tartu), who I had the good fortune to meet at a Chiller Convention years ago and was a delight, filmed this horror film in several weeks on a tiny budget and it looks great on this DVD, which features many documentaries charting the making of the film and revisiting the everglades locations years later with Grefe.