QT Six kicks off

QT Six is here, the long-awaited sixth edition of the Quentin Tarantino Film Festival of the Obscure, and there is much rejoicing. (Though sadly, at this very moment I'm missing day two - the All Night '80s Horror Marathon - as I just had far too much work to do today. Dammit.)

Anyway, the first QT Fest in four years kicked off yesterday with Secret Agent Night, featuring a fun '60s Robert Vaughn double-feature. The first film, 1965's The Spy With My Face, was basically - and literally - a two-part episode of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (originally aired in 1964 as "The Double Affair"), in which T.H.R.U.S.H. unleashes an agent surgically altered to impersonate our suave hero, Napolean Solo. It was gleefully absurd, unapolagetically crappy (in terms of production value, or lack thereof), and consistently if only mildly amusing. But next up was 1967's virtually forgotten The Venetian Affair, an exponentially more handsome and fascinating spy thriller that clearly had an actual budget (it was actually shot in Venice), not to mention a uniquely eclectic cast including Elke Sommer, Karl Boehm, Roger Carmel, Ed Asner and Boris Karloff, all of whom were excellent. Vaughn plays an anti-Napoleon Solo with haggard aplomb, in stark and refreshing contrast to his more famous persona, and with the added benefit of a catchy Lalo Schifrin score. It was a tad lethargic and convoluted, but rather engrossing, gutsy and ultimately quite satisfying. Finally, Quentin took a hard left turn into animated pornography with the astonishingly tasteless Tarzoon, King of the Jungle from 1975, and we all couldn't quite believe what we were seeing. It's probably for the best that I don't elaborate, but you can read all the sordid details in Harry's enthusiastic (and obscenity-laden) report for AICN chronicling the entire evening (which amusingly mentions me).

I'm going to try and attend as much of the fest as I can through next Saturday (which will be followed next Sunday by the Firefly Marathon, btw), but I'm most looking forward to Tuesday's World War II Epic Night (Five for Hell and From Hell to Victory), Wednesday's Italian Crime Films of the '70s Night (Death Rage, No Way Out, and The Sell-Out), and Friday's Grindhouse Triple Feature (Crack House, The Dirty Outlaws, and Fistful of Talons). Should be fun.