Luckily for those of us not fortunate enough to have lived anywhere within shouting distance of New York's notorious 42nd Street grindhouses, we can live vicariously through the single-minded devotion paid to the subject by authors Bill Landis and Michelle Clifford. "Sleazoid Express," named after the magazine founded by Landis in 1980, takes an unflinching, disturbing, and downright fascinating look at the mildewed, downtrodden, and often filthy theaters in Times Square whose stock in trade was screening sub-B films, the pond scum yin to Hollywood's yang. Demonstrating an encyclopedic expertise on the subject as well as an unbelievably rich prose style, the authors manage to accomplish the seemingly impossible - make gore epics, women-in-prison films, shockumentaries, race-hate movies, roughies, rough trade, Orientalia, and Eurosleaze seem almost savory. Although sections of this book may make you feel unclean and, like the films it so joyously celebrates, is probably best enjoyed with a bongful of dope and a quart of warm, stale beer, it may also send you on a quest for viewing material for your next church social. All of this is a fancy way of saying "I love it!" Best thing I've read in ages...
