Although his fairy tales and horror films were more numerous and popular, K. Gordon Murray began and ended his career as film producer with the staple of the independent producer: the exploitation film. These films are really a mixed bag, containing everything from corny nudie movies to tedious foreign melodramas to surreal, lusty backwoods marvels.
Following a promising early career as a traveling carnival entrepreneur, K. Gordon Murray leaped into the equally circus-like atmosphere of exploitation cinema sometime in the 1950s, although his precise date of entry remains unknown.
GOTCHA!
Murray, perhaps the last great exploitation man knew, like his brethren, the real secret of the term. Unlike the general public, who felt the name was created to define films which "exploited" a dangerous or taboo subject, the crafty producers of this profitable throwaway culture knew that what was really being exploited, in every instance, was the audience! Selling something lurid and exciting, and delivering something inevitably less, was the sole, unwavering focus of the entire process.
The trick was luring the potential patron with techniques so seductive, they would be unable to resist their curiosity, and would almost be forced to purchase an admission ticket, in a futile desire to discover shocking, dark secrets that no film could possibly deliver.
Murray applied this sacred formula, taken directly from the circus and sideshow men of yore, not only to his lurid sex films, but to his children's fairy tales and indeed, even his horror films. By coming up with great titles, aggressive promotional campaigns and arresting ad and poster art, Murray was able to suggest an experience so enchanting and wonderful, or diabolical and unearthly, that few could resist. Yet afterwards, one could hardly imagine that the tedious, creaky old wheezer of a movie they had just suffered through was the same thrill-ride so alluringly conjured just outside the lobby doors.
The one cardinal rule of the exploitation magus which Murray, like the snake-oil salesman of antiquity, dutifully obeyed was: "Get in and out of town as quick as you can, before anyone catches on to the scam!" Thus, the short runs of the sex films, and most significantly the weekend-long engagements of most of the fairy tales, were perfect examples of this hit-and-run philosophy of quick-buck marketing.
WASTED LIVES
Murray's first venture was to re-release a forgotten 1949 religious "epic", THE PRINCE OF PEACE. Soon following were redubbed foreign potboilers like CHILDREN OF LOVE and WASTED LIVES: THE BIRTH OF TWINS. The latter was Murray's first bonafide "hit", due largely to the insertion of shocking childbirth footage and a built-in come-on for "sex manuals", which were sold at the refreshment stand!
During the early 1960's, Murray's energies seemed to be focused on his far more successful string of fairy tales for children, and his exploitation releases for this period, including CALL ME BAD, EVE OR THE APPLE, THE TURKISH CUCUMBER, and THE PRICE OF SIN, were nothing special, boxoffice-wise.
SAVAGES FROM HELL
Never one to shy away from burning the candle at both ends, in 1966 Murray formed a production arm designed to make original films for the drive-in market. He hired Cuban director Jose "Pepe" Prieto to helm his first two "original" productions, SHANTY TRAMP and SAVAGES FROM HELL, two priceless South Florida potboilers that were very successful in numerous releases, and still hold up today as torches of B-movie brilliance.
These low-budget wonders utilized a large number of (non-union) Cuban personnel, both in front of and behind the camera. One reason for this, says Murray colleague Sheldon Schermer, was mere happenstance:
"The 'Freedom Tower' (Miami's immigration center) was right next to our offices on Biscayne Boulevard. Cuban immigrants would come in, go to the Tower, get registered, and stroll outside, looking for work. Half of them ended up in our offices!"
Quick to disabuse the notion that Murray saw in these luckless newcomers a source of mere cheap labor, Schermer adds, "These folks were industrious, and many were creative people; actors, technicians, designers, etc. They were very talented, and thrilled to be able to continue their craft outside of their home country, where life had become problematic."
THE DAREDEVIL
Following these two hits, Murray refrained from further exploi-exploits for several years. In the early 1970's, Murray made two last stabs at exploitation infamy, THE DAREDEVIL and THUNDER COUNTY, but both were failures at the boxoffice, and thereafter Murray confined himself to still-popular reissues of his fairy tales, and TV sales of his horror film package.