Straw Weisman may not be a name everyone familiar with exploitation cinema knows. But Weisman is without a doubt one of the busiest men in the business. His roots in exploitation are long and deep. He was an apprentice to William and Lou Mishkin. The Mishkin's are of course famous for their long and notorious relationship with Andy Milligan. Milligan's classics such as Bloodthirsty Butchers and Torture Dungeon played the Deuce throughout the 1970's and into the early 80's. One of Weisman's first jobs was putting together the ad campaign for a film called Penetration (1976). Penetration was actually an Italian giallo film from 1972 called So Sweet, So Dead. Directed by Roberto Bianchi Montero, it starred Farley Granger. In 1974, Mishkin had released the film under the title The Slasher is a Sex Maniac. Mishkin included a photo of popular porn icon Jennifer Wells on the poster. And in 1976, he went full steam ahead and actually had hardcore inserts shot and edited into the movie. Weisman also oversaw that shooting as well. When the film was released, the publicity was so good that word got back to Farley Granger who in turn sued to have the film pulled. It was pulled, and more than likely the Mishkin's had the remaining film prints melted down for the silver content. They also did this with Milligan's urban dramas (such as The Filthy Five).
In 1977, Straw wrote the screenplay for the notorious urban hate drama called Fight For Your Life. Directed by filmmaker turned orthodontist Robert A. Endelson and starring William Sanderson, this film is one huge explosion of hate that perfectly fit the mood of Manhattan during one of the decades worst cases of urban blight. Exploitation never seemed to get as sleazy as this film aspired to. And it succeeded. And on the heels of this film, Straw's career began to hit overdrive.
In 1984, Straw hooked up with New World pictures and wrote the American language translation for the release of Godzilla 1985, the first film in a new series of motion pictures depicting the second generation of Godzilla films produced by Toho. I distinctly remember waiting in anticipation for this film to open, I was beyond ecstatic at the idea of a Godzilla picture opening up in the age of the slasher film. It was such a welcome return.
In the late 80's, Straw reunited with Lou Mishkin and began shooting for the then burgeoning home video market. The result was a film called Grave Robbers. The film actually plays as a black comedy, very much in tune with films that had a very sardonic sense of humor (ex...Reanimator). Since then, Straw has been producing, writing and directing films nonstop, amassing credits as late as 2020.
This is an uncut podcast of a complete interview that I did with Straw Weisman this past June 2020. The pandemic slowed both our schedules up as much as to give us the time to pull this amazing interview together. Straw had reached out to me about two years earlier. It was agreed that I'd interview him and publish it on the Cinefear website. In recent years, I've pulled back on adding articles to the website as it was constructed on HDML code and is very difficult to add to without distorting perimeters. Hence why I'm adding all articles to my blog spot instead. This is the first of what I hope will be many podcasts. Please be sure to join my blog and leave me feedback, as I certainly value my readers reactions. Thanks for tuning in.
