It Happened Here

Val-Morin, 1974. You never would have thought.

With the recent release of WORLD TRADE CENTER, a movie I did not dare seeing, after reading what the media had to say about it, Oliver Stone has resurfaced in the cinematic landscape. Forgotten after his last few duds (ALEXANDER, anyone ?), Mr. Stone, whose modest debuts in Hollywood were done as an actor, appeared in THE BATTLE OF LOVE'S RETURN (1971), the second movie Lloyd Kauffman ever directed, and the first feature to be produced by the now legendary Troma studios.



Stone wrote a few worthy screenplays, including MIDNIGHT EXPRESS in '78 and SCARFACE in '80. He became a director in 1974, shooting his first full lenght right here in Val Morin, Québec. The beautiful house near the lake, in the quiet Laurentides, was the perfect setting for the story about to be told.



Edmund Blackstone (Jonathan Frid) is a writer working on a horror title intended for children, and his wife Nicole (Christina Pickles) has invited some guests for the week-end in their country retreat. Intrigue and games start almost right away. The guests are from various social backgrounds, and they all know each others pretty well. The Hughes (Joseph Sirola & Mary Woronov) are rich, but the Kahn's (Anne Meacham and Roger de Koven) are not. Troy Donahue is a rocker trying to bang Mr. Hughes' wife, while the rich man hits on the maid.

The first night, strange things happen, and the guests, once they retire inside the home, feel spied on. A small face appears at the window. The maid disappears. All of a sudden, a French-Filipino midget (the delirious Hervé Villechaize) breaks a window and fights off the guys. The Queen of Evil (Martine Beswick) appears with her big black bodyguard and tells them, in substance, that at dawn they'll be dead except for one survivor.



We might not get it at first, because the "answers" we're seeking do not come right away, and to be honest the whole thing does not make a lot of sense. Things will slowly be explained, but when the ending credits roll on, there are still some questions in the air...

Most of all : why ? Having characters come to life can be interesting, but there's usually at least a partial explanation. Here, the tormentors just appear and do their job. Martine Beswick is sexy as hell, and Villechaize's accent is loads of fun - especially when he says : "You fancy yourself superior to me ? I'll deal with you later !"



Yes, most of the persons killed do appear self-centered and act with questionable ethics, but do they deserve death ? Was Stone looking for an excuse to use the eternal contrast offered by a giant and a midget ? Was this Canada - USA co-production considered worthy at the time ? How can you compare the guy who directed SEIZURE back in the days to the "renewed" Oliver Stone who directed political opus like JFK & NIXON ?

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Louiseville, 1975. It's cold at "Le Château" and the boss needs an exotic dancer to warm the locals' blood.

Gina (Céline Lomez) is a sexy stripper sent there by her boss to "entertain" the slackers living there, who seemingly have nothing else to do than hang out in an abandoned ship on the frozen river, and ride their skidoos all day while drinking booze. During her first meal at the hotel she sleeps in, she befriends a gang of fellow montrealers, four guys in town to shoot a movie about textiles. The hot blooded skidoo gang, after an escalating series of incidents, come to the club where Gina dances and decide to have their way with her once her shift is over.



As much an exploitation piece than a fine social commentary on another kind of "exploitation", the textile sweatshops of "no future" small towns, GINA is a classic rape & revenge b-movie as conceived through the lens of an autheur. A part of the movie has to be autobiographical, since Arcand shot ON EST AU COTON A YEAR LATER, in '76, where he is seen interviewing textile workers and asking them questions about their working conditions & environment. It's not clear which idea came first, but it's a strange mirror for sure : in GINA, the cinema team is sent to Louiseville by the fictional NCB (National Cinema Board), and ON EST... was produced by the NFB.

The climate of small towns comes to life quite well, as the skidoo gang, led by the late Claude Blanchard, sounds especially truthlike : guys with nothing to do except boozing and going around town, looking for trouble.

Two members of the fictional cinema team would go on and have a brighter future : Serge Thériault, one half of the comical duo Ding & Dong, has become a familiar face in local TV series and popular movies, such as the "Les Boys" quadrilogy. And Gabriel Arcand, Denys' brother, also played a few starring roles since then, most memorably as a shady rocker in LE DÉCLIN DE L'EMPIRE AMÉRICAIN.



Lomez is the absolute star here, angel of vengeance and talented stripper : she speaks spanish, english & french, and has quite an exquisite body. Her "attributes" were put to good use in many movies of the era, starting with L'INITIATION in 1970, when she was 15. She appeared in Arcand's RÉJEANNE PADOVANI in 1973, the same year she played a waitress in Maurizio Lucidi's LAST CHANCE HOTEL, an italian production shot in a Québec small town and also featuring Fabio Testi and Ursula Andress !! It is rumored that nowadays, she teaches at Concordia University, but it is an information I could not verify...

The ending of the movie is brutal, and features a chase that has to be seen to be believed : a purple Plymouth Roadrunner roaring and chasing skidoos on snowy streets. It's a climax that does not put an end to the movie; instead, a funny cameo by Donald Pilon wraps things up.

The movie also features a very groovy musical theme composed by Michel Pagliaro and Gabriel Arcand, with an unforgettable bassline rolling through drum crashes and an orgy of electric guitar riffs. Dorothée Berryman, Donald Lautrec, Denise Filiatrault and Marcel Sabourin also appear, as does Frédérique Collin, playing a textile employee that the filmmakers befriend. GINA is a movie that I highly recommend to anybody, curious or not, as it's as entertaining for the eyes as it is for the brain.