What is the secret of Wendel Samson? And why is he trapped inside a giant spider web? Find out in Mike Kuchar's 1966 follow-up to his classic, Sins of the Fleshapoids. Starker and more sombre than Fleshapoids, The Secret of Wendel Samson nevertheless has the unmistakable melodrama of a Kuchar film and a musical score by the extremely talented and lovely Bob Cowan.
Excerpt from an interview with Stop Smiling:
SS: I was really impressed by The Secret of Wendel Samson (1966) and how touching that portrait of conflicting sexual feelings and guilt is. What inspired this film?
MK: There was a New American Cinema show at one of these theaters, a mixed program of different filmmakers. After the program ended, we would bump into each other in the lobby. Red Grooms [the versatile pop/mixed-media artist] said, 'I really like your picture, here's my telephone number.' I said, 'I like your picture, too. Maybe in the near future we can work on something together.' It was a start. I wanted to do something fantastical-looking, image-wise, but I had no idea of a plot. So I said, 'Well, I'll make a spider web, hang him in a spider web. Why not, that'll take two hours or something.' So I shot that, but then I started thinking it could be a metaphor. It kind of moved on from that. You see, sometimes I just sort of sit down and start somewhere, you just start writing and thinking and devising situations. I liked the way he looked photographically, so I said, 'You have nice orange hair, grow a beard. Let's take up some more of the orange.'
It's strange, he's not at all like [Wendell Samson] in real life, he's like a big silly kid, Red Grooms. Yet in the picture, it's strange, he took on, he walks like me, and he doesn't in real life. You know, creation, it's a psychic kind of thing, like a medium mystic. You just sort of go along in a trance, because something's trying to express itself. As long as I start somewhere, I'm actually opening a door. It's like talking to a psychiatrist; you open your subconscious. Things flow out, but it's not an overt, conscious thing. As you get into it more and more, you see how to maybe put the pieces together and come to a solution. But also, with the flashy gun malls at the end, the shooting gallery, I'm thinking that I'm making a movie, too.
SS: You mention on the DVD commentary being inspired by Orson Welles's film version of Kafka's The Trial. Were the psychodrama films of Deren, Brakhage, and Anger, and the way their films work out of sexual preoccupations in dreamlike atmospheres, were those also an influence?
MK: Especially Kenneth Anger, especially the more exotic ones. Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome. I really admired that picture. The exotic sensuality I found inspiring.
They opened doors and possibilities. It was like a sharing, in a way, seeing other people's pictures. Or else it energizes you. John Waters, the first time I met him at a party, he said Sins of the Fleshapoids kind of energized him to complete Pink Flamingoes. Something that energizes you or gives you inspiration, it gives you impetus to continue what you're doing.
Technical Information:
Title: The Secret of Wendel Samson
Year: 1966
Country: USA
Director: Mike Kuchar
Source: DVD5 Retail
Video Codec: 480p-x264
Container: .mkv
Size: 1.03 GB
Length: 0:33:24
Programs used: Womble 5.0, JoinVobFiles, RipBot, DVD Audio Extractor, MKVMerge
Resolution: 720x480
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Video: MPEG 4 H264 @ 3896 kb/s
Frame Rate: 29.97
Audio 1: Dolby AC3 English @ 192 kb/s
Audio 2: Director's commentary- Dolby AC3 English @ 192 kb/s
Subtitles: No
(Our prefered x264 player is Media Player Classic.)
Wendel Samson Megaupload Link
This is also included as a bonus feature on the Sins of the Fleshapoids DVD