Vinegar Syndrome Restores Director Andy Milligan’s Fleshpot On 42nd Street As The Lead Title Of Its Mar. 26 Release Slate

Vinegar Syndrome announced its March film restoration slate this past week — all streeting on Mar. 26 as Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack product offerings.

Leading the parade is writer/director Andy Milligan’s 1973 film release of Fleshpot on 42nd Street, which made the rounds theatrically as both an adult entry and mainstream “R” sexploitation release under the guise of The Girls on 42nd Street.   The difference in running time was about three minutes (excising some of the “hardcore” material to get the film into general release).

What’s interesting about the film is that it was shot on 16mm and destined to make the rounds as a hardcore entry, but the finished product — sort of a cinéma vérité style — seemed to offer some crossover appeal and was subsequently blown up to 35mm.   A new 4K restoration from the original 16mm camera reversal (print without a negative) is planned.

What Vinegar Syndrome has schedule for release on Mar. 26 is a reconstructed director’s cut of the film, which includes footage not seen in either of the aforementioned versions.   The 1973 theatrical presentation ran 81 minutes, the “adult” release clocked in at roughly 84 minutes, but the newly reconstructed “director’s cut” arrives on Blu-ray with a running time of 87 minutes.

The gritty streets of New York City, especially the area in and around 42^nd Street — with its grind houses, seedy bars and adult venues — is captured perfectly here (like a time capsule … worth a look-see on that alone).   It is here that we are introduced to working girl Dusty Cole (played by Laura Cannon, aka: Janet Lynn Channin; aka: Diana Lewis … among others — Forced Entry, Teenage Nurses, etc.), who dumps her latest “boyfriend,” Tony (Richard Towers — The Last House on the Left) and attempts to pawn some of his stuff and is told that it is worthless … but scores a quick trick with the pawn store operator nonetheless.

Now homeless, Dusty bumps into Cherry Lane (Neil Flanagan — Sometime Sweet Susan, Guru, the Mad Monk, Torture Dungeon, etc.), a drag queen, who agrees to share his apartment with her.   After some interaction with some of the other locals, Dusty meets the man of her dreams, Bob from Staten Island, played by none other than legendary adult film star Harry Reems, who was billed as “Bob Walters.”   

They fall in love, but she’s worried that it won’t work out because of her line of work.   Sordid events that follow at a really nasty poker game — she’s been hired to service all of the players — finally convinces her that she should give Bob a chance, who wants her to retire.   A beautiful evening passes between the two and a promising future awaits … but a nasty twist comes with the dawn.

Fleshpot on 42nd Street may have started out as a routine adult entry, but ended up being an arthouse entry.   You just never know. 

As to bonus materials, Vinegar Syndrome has include a featuretted titled “Locations: Then and Now” and a commentary options featuring Samm Deighan (Associate Editor of Diabolique Magazine), Heather Drain (Music & Culture Editor at Diabolique Magazine) and Kat Ellinger (editor-in-Chief at Diabolique Magazine and author of “Daughters of Darkness”).

Also on the Mar. 26 film restoration film calendar from Vinegar Syndrome are three direct-to-video classics, although director Michael Anderson’s 1978 ghostly horror tale, Dominique, got a theatrical break in the U.K., it failed to find distribution in the domestic and went the direct to VHS route, despite both Logan’s Run (1976) and Orca (1977) being commercial successes.

Although a U.K. production, the cast featured American Cliff Robertson in the lead, but featured a really solid British that includes Jenny Agutter (of Walkabout fame, plus Jessica in Anderson’s Logan’s Run), Jean Simmons, Simon Ward, Ron Moody and the always popular Judy Geeson.   Post-production problems were the likely culprit in the film’s failure to find a theatrical distributor in the United States.

In any case, Vinegar Syndrome has a new 2K restoration from the film’s original 35mm negative and two newly-prepared video sessions with actor Michael Jayston and assistant director Brian Cook.

The other two films in the Mar. 26 mix are writer/director Francis Teri’s 1989 horror flick, The Suckling (a new 2K restoration from the film’s 16mm camera negative) and filmmaker Nico Mastorakis 1990 thriller, In the Cold of the Night (a 4K restoration from the 35mm camera negative).