FLESH FEAST (1970)
Article 2150 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-3-2007
Posting Date: 7-2-2007
Directed by Brad F. Grinter
Featuring Veronica Lake, Phil Philbin, Doug Foster

A female scientist has come up with a radical method to reverse aging using flesh-eating maggots. She is hired by leaders of a South American revolution to regenerate their leader.

Veronica Lake’s career thrived in the the early forties. Her career took a nosedive after she changed her trademark peek-a-boo hairstyle, but she continued to work in movies and television for another ten years before disappearing from the industry. She popped up in only two movies after that; one is an obscure Canadian adventure movie, and this one, in which she was convinced not only to star but to invest her own money. It’s pretty awful; horridly written, badly directed, and amateurishly acted. Lake herself is long past her prime as an actress; she has moments here where it seems she has trouble with her lines and struggles with her props. Practically every write-up I’ve seen of this movie also gives away the ending twists, which is a shame; they’re about the only thing this movie has going for it. Up to that point, the movie is dull and confusing. At least the ending scene makes it into the realm of campiness, and Lake overacts monstrously as she exacts a long-awaited revenge. Though it was planned as Lake’s comeback, it ended being nothing of the kind, and she would die only a few years later.