"I always had a tremendous interest in big tits."
—Russ Meyer
"He's this guy who made these awful movies during The '70s featuring these kinds of women. He's obsessed. He's obsessed with breasts. That's hard to say."
Russ Meyer (March 21, 1922 - September 18, 2004) was an American director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer from Oakland, California best known as a pioneer of sexploitation films during the 1960s and 1970s.
Selected Filmography (collectively known as Meyers' Bosomania Collection):
- The Immoral Mr. Teas (1959)
- Mudhoney (1965)
- Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)
- Vixen 1968 (1968)
- Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)
- Supervixens (1975)
- Up1976 (1976)
- Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens (1979)
"I always had a tremendous interest in big tropes":
- Ascended Extra: He was on the camera crew for the 1957 Documentary The James Dean Story.
- Author Appeal: Buxom women, violence, weak-willed men
- Autobiography: A Clean Breast
- Character Title: 1964's Lorna, 1968's Vixen!, 1969's Cherry, Harry & Raquel!
- Everytown, America: Beneath The Valley of the Ultra-Vixens was set in "Smalltown USA".
- Excited Show Title!: Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Vixen!, Motorpsycho!, Up!
- Exploitation Film: His stock in trade.
- Insistent Terminology: He called 20th Century Fox inviting him to make Beyond The Valley of the Dolls "going up the mountain."
- It Will Never Catch On: This was his original attitude toward home video. He had sold his catalog to a distributor who released poor-quality editions of his films, leading to him suing to regain control of his work.
- Lantern Jaw of Justice: The profile of him in the book Videohound's Cult Flicks and Trash Pics included "Men with square jaws" as something usually found in his movies.
- Charles Napier in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and Supervixens.
- Legacy Director: John Waters cited him as a major influence.
- Ms. Fanservice: He had an eye for sexy women and filled his movies with them.
- Returning War Vet: He served in World War II as a combat photographer.
- Take That!: His service led him to hate Nazis, which is why he used them as objects of ridicule in his films.
- Trope Codifier: Meyers is credited with being the inventor of the "Nudie Cutie" with The Immoral Mr. Teas.note
- Undying Loyalty: Was this to numerous wartime comrades, screenwriters, and actors over the years. Roger Ebert described a crowded dinner where Meyer's former ensign asked who he was. "Russ said 'That's Ebert.' There was no follow-up question."
- World of Buxom: The women in his movies are never flat-chested — there's a reason his oeuvre has gone under the moniker Bosomania Collection.
