Sweet Kill [The Arousers] ** (1972, Tab Hunter, Cherie Latimer, Nadyne Turney, Isabel Jewell) – Classic Movie Review 12,082

The 1972 tacky and tawdry B-movie horror thriller film Sweet Kill [The Arousers] [A Kiss from Eddie] is written and directed by Oscar-winner Curtis Hanson in his directorial debut, is produced by Roger Corman, and stars blond, clean-cut Hollywood heartthrob Tab Hunter as a psychotic maniac.

Tab Hunter plays Eddie Collins, a Norman Bates-like character who is afflicted repressed memories of his mother and cannot perform sexually with women. After killing a woman accidentally while trying to sleep with her, and finding he can get aroused by the dead body, he starts luring women into bed to kill them for sexual gratification.

Tab Hunter and Curtis Hanson work hard to keep the horror and suspense interesting, with a level of creepy intensity, and the film sustains reasonably well over its short 85 minutes.

Hanson got to know Roger Corman while doing re-writes on the script of The Dunwich Horror (1970). Hanson told Corman he would like to direct a film he had written and Corman said he might be interested in a modern horror film along the lines of Psycho (1960). Hanson wrote the script with the killer as a female. Corman liked the script but asked that the killer be turned male.

Hanson said the film cost $130,000 and Corman agreed to put up two thirds of the money. Hanson alleged that a couple of weeks before filming started Corman ‘reneged on the deal and said he would only put up one third of the money. My producing partner and I had to raise the other two thirds. To show how foolhardy I was, I went to my parents and persuaded them to put a mortgage on their home in order to finance this film.’

It was shot from November 1970 to early 1971.

The apartment where Eddie Collins lived in Venice, California, was owned by Hanson’s grandmother.

It had its world premiere on 18 February 1972 before its US release in January 1973.

The Sweet Kill poster when it was re-released as The Arousers.

The film was originally released as Sweet Kill but box office performance was disappointing and it was re-released as The Arousers. Corman got Hanson to shoot additional sex scenes over two days to spice up the film. The Sweet Kill poster when it was re-released as The Arousers (‘They take on all comers’) features half a dozen semi-naked women and there is no sign of Tab Hunter.

The producer, Tamara Asseyev, was Corman’s former assistant.

It is the last film of Isabel Jewell.

When Tab Hunter, Cherie Latimer (as Lauren), Nadyne Turney (as Barbara) and Isabel Jewell (as Mrs Cole) were cast in November 1970, the film was called A Kiss for Eddie.

Hanson described the experience as a very unhappy one. He showed the film to Corman and ‘he said it needed more tits in it. It was my first nightmare post-production experience. It was recut to some degree and more bare breasts were put into it. It was the first time I learned the lesson that I had the opportunity to learn multiple times after that which is: If you’re going to risk being wrong, it’s better to be wrong with your own mistakes than with somebody else’s.’

Hunter recalled: ‘It was very low budget and it was a really interesting script. But, of course, Roger Corman had to put his own little tweaks into it. He had his own way of making motion pictures, and selling them.’

Arthur Andrew Gelien (né Kelm; July 11, 1931 – July 8, 2018), known professionally as Tab Hunter.

Curtis Lee Hanson (March 24, 1945 – September 20, 2016).

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,082

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com