Day of the Nightmare / Scream of the Butterfly

Day of the Nightmare / Scream of the Butterfly
by Eber Lobato, Howard Veit, John A. Bushelman

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DVD details

Actor: John Richards (VIII), N?lida Lobato, Nick Novarro, Richard Beebe, Robert Miller
Director: Eber Lobato, Howard Veit, John A. Bushelman
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Special Edition
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 170 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-03-25
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Image Entertainment

DVD Reviews of Day of the Nightmare / Scream of the Butterfly

DVD Review: Sixties sexploitation films with some psychological twists
Summary: 3 Stars

This double feature DVD from the people at Something Weird offers up a pair of sexploitation flicks from the 1960s. In "Day of the Nightmare" (a.k.a. "Don't Scream, Doris Mays") , Jonathan Crane (Cliff Fields) is an artist who makes bad nude sketches of his model. Then she makes the mistake of offering to make love to his "way." The next thing we know the model has disappeared and is presumed dead since her body cannot be found. However, the swingers in the building heard some of what was going on. Fortunately they were playing topless blind man's bluff (pretend that being blindfolded makes your hearing better just for the sake of argument, otherwise there is no reason to have a scene with lots of half-naked people). Detective Sgt. Dave Harmon (John Ireland) is on the case, which gets more interesting when Doris Mays, the missing corpse, apparently shows up and tries to kill Jonathan's wife, Barbara (Beverly Bain). This cannot be good.

"Day of the Nightmare" ends up being a rip off of "Pyscho," and an argument for why you should never see your mother having sex (does anybody need that argument to be made?). Apparently Jonathan's mother and his father, Dr. Philip Crane (John Hart), had an open marriage, which supposedly explains why Jonathan is so screwed up. I suppose the nudity prevented it from being prime fare for "MST3K," because this film would have been a perfect choice, from the comic relief provided by Detective Smith (James Cross) to the awfully convenient way justice is served down at the docks at the end of the film. But the chief affront here is the way psychological problems are exploited to advance the story, which is certainly a fair but obvious cop to make for any exploitation film.

"Scream of the Butterfly" (a.k.a. "The Passion Kit") begins with sexy Marla Williams (N?lida Lobato) being run down by her lover, David (Nick Novarro), after she apparently tried to kill her recently wedded husband, Paul (William Turner). A key detail in the story is that Paul cannot swim, but an even more important detail is that David is a gigolo, which means that he swings both ways. We find out about the twisted love triangle is flashbacks at the office of District Attorney Michael Farmer (Robert Miller) where Phil (John Richards), the assistant district attorney, is arguing for David to get the death penalty and Ron (Richard Beebe), the public defender, thinks he can get David off. Consequently, we get to see the story told with Marla still in love with her husband (the view of Phi) and as a tramp (the perspective of Ron). Not exactly he said/she said, but in certainly a variation thereof.

All of the scenes outside of the D.A.'s office are dubbed (because why record sound at the same time you are filming scenes?), but then the point here is to watch Marla frolic in the suds filled spa pool at the hotel and not really listen to anything she has to say. Actually, that scene is emblematic of the rest of the film, because Marla is a water creature. But I found the scenes in the D.A.'s office more interesting because Farmer is wrestling with a big dilemma. He thinks that David needs to be in a state hospital where he can get help for his illness (i.e., being gay) and everyone involved can avoid having their dirty laundry aired in public, but Phil is pushing for the death penalty and lots of publicity to reinforce the local morality, constantly reminding Farmer of the political consequences of his decision for the upcoming election. True, no one will actually come out and say that David is gay or that homosexuality is a mental illness, but they do dance around the issue, and there is no way you can see the twist that comes at the end of this one.

In addition to the twin features there are the usual collection of thematically related extras. We start with a series of Naughty Nympho Trailers for "Agony of Love," "Cool It Baby," "Death of a Nymphet," "Free Love Confidential," "Fuego," "Justine: The Erotic Excitement of Evil," "Nympho: A Woman's Urge," "The Passionate Strangers," "Sex Obsessed," and "The 7th Commandment" (a minor complaint: you can not just hit a button and see them all, you have to go one by one). Then there is a Gallery of Underground Sexploitation Movie Magazine covers with Audio Oddities (another minor complaint: the audio odditiy is just music and none of those great bits from the drive in). There are a trio of shorts: "The Wife and the Whip" is a curious look at the life of a male prostitute, "L'amour pour une Femme" is a silent short where you see the punch line coming a mile away, and "Nympho-a-Go-Go" is about a troubled woman who has yet to give into her impulses but is sure thinking about it a lot.

DVD Review: Scream's a Scream; Nightmare's a Nightmare
Summary: 3 Stars

"Scream of the Butterfly" is surprisingly enjoyable for a low-budget, black and white film about a complex plot involving gold-digging, a homosexual relationship, and multiple adultery. The movie is structured as a set of conversations between district attorneys and defense psychologists framing flashbacks leading up to the opening scene that shows Marla Williams (played by Nelida Lobato - related to director Eber Lobato?) standing in front of a car and arguing with the male driver. The driver hits the gas, and Marla goes down. It turns out that Marla was a nude bubble-bathing gold-digger who married rich tycoon Paul Williams (played by William Turner). No sooner had Marla taken off her wedding dress, than she was already looking for someone new. She picked up cute, often-shirtless David (played by Nick Novarro) on the beach. Hubby Paul can't swim; Marla got an evil idea. But who is that drunk guy who keeps talking to David? Everyone gets a surprise. Especially at the end. The story is well told, and the camera work is all right. The acting is moderate. The gay angle is sympathetic in parts, but one character is very self-loathing; 1965 was well before Stonewall, after all. Enjoyable short, cheapie film.

"Day of the Nightmare" is also all right. A jealous woman stalks a young wife. But isn't the jealous woman already dead? The wife seeks help. "The Night of the Living Dead" meets "Psycho."

The fillers provide generous helpings of womanly T&A.

Description of Day of the Nightmare / Scream of the Butterfly

Day Of The Nightmare (1965, 94 Minutes) - Love can be murder in this wacky mix of horror, sexploitation and down-and-dirty psycho kookiness! One minute Doris Mays is supposed to be dead, the next she's chasing her ex-boyfriend's wife with a steak knife! Crackpot artist Jonathan Crane tried to end his affair with Doris by stuffing her body in a trunk, but when Doris starts stalking his wife, Jonathan realizes something's gone terribly wrong: "You were dead! Dead! Now stay dead!" Despite the efforts of police detective John Ireland (I Saw What You Did), ultra-creepy Miss Mays pursues Mrs. Crane in the hopes of permanently ending the marriage. Featuring fun cameos from Elena Verdugo (House of Frankenstein) and Liz Renay (Desperate Living), with photography by director Ted V. Mikels (The Corpse Grinders), this is a Day of the Nightmare you'll never forget! "Scream Of The Butterfly" (1965, 76 Minutes) - Two days after marrying rich Sap-of-the-Year Paul Williams, bosomy sex-machine Marla is making it with a "young Adonis" on the beach and planning on killing Paul until--oops!--some surprising-for-its-time homosexuality twists the plot into a kinky pretzel! With photography from cult fave Ray Dennis Steckler (Wild Guitar) and one of the sixties' most cynical endings, "Scream of the Butterfly" also marks the first time in cinema history that the leading lady is referred to onscreen as "Miss Slutsy-Wutsy."

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