The Ghastly One: The Sex-Gore Netherworld of Filmmaker Andy Miligan

From Publishers Weekly
Milligan's greatest films were The Orgy at Lil's Place, The Naked Witch, Fleshpot on 42nd Street and Monstrosity (a violent, bloody rape revenge fantasy that was a cross between Frankenstein and The Golem). Shooting on budgets that hovered around $10,000, Milligan who turned out 29 movies between 1965 and 1988 was infamous; his movies were appallingly shot, often ludicrously plotted shock films that played in 42nd Street grind houses, drive-ins and avant-garde film festivals. No easy subject for a biographer, Milligan, who died of AIDS in 1990 at the age of 61, was drawn to (in no particular order) drugs, violence, s&m sex, misogyny and general weirdness. McDonough's verbatim interviews, which form the spine of the book, reveal a man who could be alternately brutally honest, obstructionist, deceitful and quite kind. McDonough (who has written for the Village Voice and Spin) is careful to add well-researched, nuanced context. His portrait of Milligan's importance to the famous Caffe Cino, for example, considered to be the beginnings of Off-Broadway, are startling, notable additions to theater history. Although McDonough is a loyal fan he even worked with Milligan's production team as part of his research he maintains a critical eye and provides a worthy historical overview of both the aesthetics and business of exploitative cinema. Students of popular American culture, film, as well as of gender and gay and lesbian studies, will relish this intelligent portrait. 91 b&w photos. Agent, Jeff Posternak/Andrew Wylie. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
The Marquis de Sade had nothing on filmmaker Andy Milligan, who between 1965 to 1988 cranked out a prodigious number of plays and 29 sex-and-exploitation films, many of which are now lost, with such sleazoid titles as The Filthy Five, Gutter Trash, Fleshpot on 42nd St., and Torture Dungeon. It would be (sl)easy to dismiss Milligan, who died of AIDS in 1991, as a grindhouse auteur, but that, as journalist and biographer McDonough so wonderfully and effectively explicates, would be an egregious mistake. Juxtaposed with Milligan's story, told with the help of a cornucopia of interviews, including trenchant commentary and extended passages from Milligan himself, are the colorful and significant tales of the developing Off Broadway scene, the birth and rise of the exploitation film industry, and that Ber-nude-a Triangle of "all sizzle, no steak" celluloid called the Deuce, or 42nd Street. Chock-full of movie stills, lurid poster art and advertisements, and some great excerpts from Milligan's film scripts, McDonough's book succeeds overwhelmingly in making the respectability case for Milligan. Undoubtedly, it will also lead many to seek out Milligan's work; may y'all have better luck than this reviewer had at your local video store. Clearly, this title will not be everyone's bowl of borscht, but it is enthusiastically endorsed for all large public and academic library film and American studies programs. Barry X. Miller, Austin P.L., TX Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
McDonough tells the strangely fascinating story of Andy Milligan, a fashion designer and off-off-Broadway producer and a big fan of rough trade. His movies, like the stage productions he mounted mostly at the notorious Caffe Cino, exhibited and exploited sadism, misogyny, and similar lifestyle options, fascinating viewers in the same way that "gawk[ing] at car accidents, read[ing] lurid detective magazines, [and] eyeball[ing] the dead two-headed baby in a jar" would. Such Milligan features as Bloodthirsty Bitches , Torture Dungeon, and Depraved! never did big box office, yet his story is engrossing, though not for the squeamish. It is a saga of creative perversion, ugly sex, and bent filmmaking that includes a cultural history of Times Square, off-off-Broadway theater, and the burgeoning drug culture in the early '60s. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Rudolph Grey, author of Nightmare of Ecstasy
"Andy Milligan has finally received his due respect from McDonough, a tireless investigator whose writing has real depth and vision."


John Waters
I devoured this book--an appalling pocket of cinema history, delightfully explored and obsessively researched. Andy Milligan is one scary man


Callahan the paralyzed cartoonist
Mind-bendingly, bone-crushingly, breathtakingly fascinating and sordid! . . . It brought feeling back to my legs!


Rudolph Grey, author of Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Ed Wood, Jr.
...first-rate all the way. A vivid, assiduously researched work with a depth and scope that transcend its subject.


Johnny Legend
A hurricane ride through the human cesspool! Andy Milligan makes Ed Wood look like Ozzie Nelson.


Richard Meltzer
Light-years ahead of your standard ‘descent into hell’ account...arguably the finest nonfictional evocation of that theme committed to print.


Publishers Weekly
Students of popular culture, film, as well as of gender and gay and lesbian studies will relish this intelligent portrait.


Booklist
A saga of creative perversion...


Library Journal
Enthusiastically endorsed for all large public and academic library film and American studies programs.


Roctober Comics & Music
"One of the best books about filmmaking"


Book Description
From 1965 to 1972 Andy Milligan made 20 exploitation movies, including Gutter Trash, Torture Dungeon, Bloodthirsty Butchers, and Fleshpot on 42nd Street. For Milligan-sadist, misogynist, maniac-exploitation was no joke; it was his reality. Based on hundreds of interviews, including many with Milligan himself, this is a tale of violence-physical, sexual, psychological. Even the author got sucked in, appearing in one of Milligan's last gore-fests and nearly getting killed. But The Ghastly One-profusely illustrated with strange stills-isn't just about a lunatic with a movie camera. It's also an anecdotal history of exploitation films, the birth of off-Broadway theater, the Warhol crowd, and the malevolent place called Times Square. The sick secrets revealed here will shock even hardcore grindhouse fans.


About the Author
Jimmy McDonough is the author of Neil Young’s biography, Shakey. He has also contributed to such publications as the Village Voice, Variety, Film Comment, Mojo, Spin, and Juggs.


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"Students of popular American culture, film, as well as of gender and gay and lesbian studies, will relish this intelligent portrait."
 — Weekly Publishers


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