Gutter Auteur: The Films of Andy Milligan by Rob Craig;Foreword by Robert Patrick

Author:Rob Craig;Foreword by Robert Patrick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-12-18T22:16:00+00:00

In Andy Milligan's Torture Dungeon (1970), three ladies in waiting recoil before the suspended Christlike body of a prisoner, his nakedness further confusing revulsion and attraction (from the collection of Ian Sundahl).

As with most Milligan films of this vintage, the scenario unspools largely via rushed dialogue exchanges between two characters, almost invariably in tight, claustrophobic two-shots, effectively capturing the imprisoned nature of doomed heterosexual relationships which Milligan portrayed so well. The admittedly theatrical quality of these play-like dramatic exchanges are subverted by the bizarre costuming, the threadbare, impressionistic interiors draped with scraps of mismatched fabric, the omnipresent stock music, and most vitally by Milligan's nervous, often hand-held camera, which prowls the set like an inmate seeking escape from asylum. Milligan's astonishingly primal eye assaults the viewer, refusing him the luxury of passive observer.

Although the main thrust of the plot is political intrigue in a corrupt royal court, the ensuing melodramatics mirror Milligan's primary expositional template - the dysfunctional family at war. By film's end, this gathering of pretenders to the throne will be revealed to be more "family" than they had ever imagined. Dungeon thus ruminates on some profound psychological issues, foremost the tragedy of the broken family and the tragic horrors which await each failed member.

The film opens with the beheading of an unknown person, followed by a glorious funeral procession along a Staten Island beach, at which one of the female attendees reveals not only that that fallen man was her brother, but that they were lovers, and that she is pregnant with his baby! Here, in a hastily-dictated nutshell, is Milligan's entire thematic core: murder, perversion, incest, all emanating from a severely dysfunctional family. This traumatic opening is counterpointed with an idyllic swimming scene between an attractive young man and a beautiful young woman, who frolic nude in a sublime lake surrounded by fecund nature. The setting is clearly meant to evoke the Garden of Eden, and an "Adam and Eve" about to fall. Milligan's camera, of course, is the serpent, prowling the space with a notion to subvert the innocence of this pastoral ecstasy. That the scene is punctuated by goofy cartoon music shows exactly what Milligan thought of "straight" couples (as well as biblical bedtime stories).

Liberal nudity (especially male nudity, not surprising considering the artist's sexual proclivity) is sprinkled throughout Dungeon, and although nudity was common in grindhouse films of the time period, it is exceptionally candid here. When the Duke of Norwich at one point orders both of his lovers (a female and the hunchback) to confess their (primarily sexual) past, the act is reminiscent of various rituals in occult fraternal organizations such as the notorious "Skull & Bones," in which sexual confession makes the confessor vulnerable, thus bonded to the group. In addition, this forced extraction of cherished personal information from one party by another is a staple of sado-masochistic ritual, in which the dominant party demands the submissive party perform humiliating and revealing acts for the amusement of the former, and in so doing underscores the essential power dynamic of the group.

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