Directing

Michael Findlay

Born 1937-08-27 · New York City, New York, USA

Michael Findlay, along with his wife Roberta Findlay, directed and produced numerous sexploitation movies. They have been described as "the most notorious filmmakers in the annals of sexploitation". In the mid-to-late 1960s, Findlay was prominent among a small group of underground New York filmmakers (including Joseph W. Sarno, Joseph P. Mawra, and Lou Campa) that produced exploitation "roughies" (a mix of sex and sadism) for the grindhouse theater market. Sometimes he would direct under the alias Julian Marsh and act in his own films billed as Robert West. His wife Roberta (aka Anna Riva) was the cinematographer, co-writer, and supporting actress for many of their films together. They also employed the same actors repeatedly, most notably Uta Erickson, and Marie Brent, aka Janet Banzet. The Findlays were friends with George Weiss, producer of Ed Wood's Glen or Glenda and a series of fetishistic Olga films (Olga's House of Shame, Olga's Girls, et al.). In 1964 Weiss encouraged them to make films in this new subgenre of violent sexploitation. Description above from the Wikipedia article Michael Findlay, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Acting credits

4.8

Man drugs, photographs & tortures women he meets by personal ads.

The Ultimate Degenerate

1969

4.6

An anthropology professor has invited his class to a remote cabin in the mountains to research the mythical Abominable Snowman. Soon after they arrive, strange events begin to befall the students, including sightings of a huge, white, furry creature.

Shriek of the Mutilated

1974

4.3

A man's sexual obsession with a neighbor ends in bloodshed.

Take Me Naked

1966

4.7

Henpecked misogynist Richard Davis murders his shrewish wife and goes out to dispose of her corpse. However, things go awry for Richard after he's abducted by a pair of insane lesbians who take him to their house where they keep a grown woman called Baby in a crib.

A Thousand Pleasures

1968

3.0

The followers of a charismatic cult leader set out to murder a pregnant actress.

Snuff

1976

4.4

A sadistic teenager searching for "Daddy" murders and dismembers anybody who picks her up hitch-hiking.

Janie

1970

3.8

A stripper is kidnapped by a drifter and taken to the home of a wealthy pervert. The pervert proceeds to strip her and beat her with a whip. She escapes, and he has to track her down and kill her before she can notify the police.

Body of a Female

1964

3.6

Presented as an inquiry into the ways of lust, this film is staged as a documentary. It moves from rural prostitution (the roadhouse) to pornographers, then on to streetwalkers, male hustlers, and high-class call girls. The madam runs the bordello, she depends on the photographer to supply her with pornography; he's in the city, using his camera to lead him into depravity. The streetwalkers risk arrest from the cops and abuse from the johns. Even the call girls have a tough time: from their expenses to their lack of self-reflection. Their motto: "Live fast, die young, and make a beautiful corpse."

Lusting Hours

1967

4.8

Richard Jennings returns from a business trip to discover his wife in bed with a lover. Panic stricken, he staggers to the street and is hit by a car, losing an eye. Scorned and vengeful, he adopts a new identity and begins a murderous rampage against all women he deems "immoral."

The Touch of Her Flesh

1967

5.5

Continuing his quest to rid the world of sex-crazed females, Richard ups the ante - and bodycount, devising an array of increasingly gruesome methods of dispatching his victims all while planning the ultimate revenge against his wife's lover, Steve.

The Curse of Her Flesh

1968

5.3

Richard has lost what little sanity he had left, instead putting all emphasis on seeking out and brutally slaying any and every woman who crosses his path. However, this time he might have met his match as his deceased wife's sister, Maria, is hellbent on putting an end to his orgiastic rampage.

The Kiss of Her Flesh

1968

3.7

Shot without sound, this is little more than a series of soft-core vignettes strung together via narration. Not a highlight in the careers of NYC sexploitation filmmakers Michael and Roberta Findlay.

Take My Head

1970

5.0

A famous movie star filming on location in Buenos Aires becomes involved with a Manson-like cult. Years after this flopped at the box office, it was purchased by Michael Findlay and became the backbone for the notorious film Snuff (1975).

The Slaughter

1971

Sickening image of love, sex, death and birth in black and white.

Party Levitation

2021

4.3

At a Senate crime hearing, four young girls testify as to how, shortly after their arrival in New York, they became "zero girls," also known as "party girls".

The Sin Syndicate

1965

2.9

A man awakes from his sleep to discover that he's in ancient Greece. He witnesses a scantily-clad woman whom he woos, then kills with a club. A group of lesbians find the man, tie him to a tree, then partake in an incredible deed.

Mnasidika

1969

10.0

A masked man breaks into a Times Square adult movie theater and forces the projectionist at gunpoint to show assorted pornographic scenes to him.

Virgins in Heat

1976

5.3

A psychiatrist probes deep into the erotic traumas experienced by a young woman who has turned to lesbianism.

The Altar of Lust

1971

5.0

A sleeping woman leaves her body and finds herself in a series of bizarre, surreal and highly lascivious scenarios.

Bacchanale

1970

Wet & Wild is no exception.We open with his camera prowling 42nd Street. It's like traveling back in time, before the sacred Deuce was defanged by greedy politicians and Disney. Rows of lit-up marquees, peepshows, X-rated theatres and nudie bars bring a lump to the throat. (Snuff is shown playing at the National!) In a Times Square grindhouse, a ski-masked sex fiend, brandishing a .38 caliber pistol, busts into the projection booth. He forces the projectionist to run porno flicks. We're taken on a foot-to-the-floorboards ride on a sexual safari through New York City's gutter. ("A steamy, seedy jungle of unfettered sex!")