James Bond Lite Part Two

By: John Thonen
Date: Sunday, May 12, 2002

Hitting video stores across the country last week was ROD STEELE: YOU ONLY LIVE UNTIL YOU DIE, a James Bond spoof whose title character is dubbed as follows: "More class than Bond... More hip than Powers... And dumber than Smart." Today, writer-director Rolfe Kanefsky continues his chat about the new film.

ROD STEELE: YOU ONLY LIVE UNTIL YOU DIE is an erotic-oriented James Bond spoof featuring Robert Donavan, a minor, perennial B-movie performer in what might be a career-changing role as the title character, secret agent 0014. Looking amazingly like a cross between Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton, and sporting an amusing mock-Sean Connery voice, Donavan is the main reason viewers of the film may actually fast-forward through the frequent sex and nudity to get back to the gags. The other reason is writer/director Rolfe Kanefsky's gag filled script, which he shot on a limited budget and short shooting schedule.

ROD STEELE was

being produced as part of the CLICK films, a series based on the erotic comics of Italian artist Milo Manara. The creator's sexy, but light-hearted work was much in keeping with Kanefsky's own approach to what most would have viewed as just another T&A flick for late night on Cinemax. "I've seen some of those late-night erotic films and most of the time the pretty bodies will pull you in for a few minutes, and now and then they're actually erotic, but five minutes after you've seen them you can't remember a single scene. So, there's some wild and outrageous stuff, crazy ideas and special effects, all done with no money. I was trying to tell a story that happened to have sex in it, not a movie that was simply a sex story."

Rolfe explains that he found his inspiration in Hong Kong category three films, which are often a mix of outrageous sex and goofy comedy, sometimes with dashes of action and violence. "I had seen Hong Kong films like SEX AND ZEN and others which have great lighting and camerawork, wire work, effects, and I fought to just be able to put a fraction of that kind of mentality into the film. To make it something that, if someone caught it on late-night cable, they would tell their friends about it the next day."

To accomplish this goal Kanefsky created his film in a manner his producers would probably have hated, had they known what he was up to beforehand. "I was always looking for something weird to be going on which takes your attention from the sex. Or to put a joke in there which would break up the erotic moment. There's a standard rule in these films, and don't ask me who came up with it, that there has to be one three minute sex scene every half our, or twenty seven minutes of sex in a ninety minute film. That's just overkill. So, my idea was to have five erotic sequences in a half-hour, but to make each of them no more than a minute long. That way, it still fits the producers' time limits, but it doesn't stop the movie dead-in-its-tracks for three minutes."

Casting a

film viewed by its producers as existing primarily as cinematic Viagra was something of a minor battle. "When I had first gotten involved with Alain [Siritsky, producer] the auditions were mostly just a girl coming in, taking off her clothes and walking around the room in a circle. No line readings, nothing, and the acting some of them delivered was terrible. So I said, these are comedies. If you have an erotic film that is melodramatic and filled with bad acting, people might still watch it if the women are attractive. But a comedy that is not funny, people will turn off even if the women are drop-dead gorgeous. We have to find people who can actually give a performance. I think I was the only director that actually rehearsed the actors. When I told [the producers] that I was going to do that, they told me that they didn't pay for rehearsals and that no one would show up if they weren't getting paid, but I felt they would if [they] actually wanted to act."

Kanefsky was right. His performers were delighted to be treated like talent and not meat, all of which allowed Kanefsky to achieve something far closer to his concept of the film than he had thought possible at the outset.

"It's very over the top and outrageous," he says when asked to describe the film. "You've got the villainess, Mistress Tangerina, and her assistants Pussy LaMour, Aerola, Fanny and Dick Longo. There's a snake called Stretch and a scene in a lab near the end which is almost ROCKY HORROR. There's a weapon's master called 'P' whose budget has been cut to the point that all he can offer Steele for his latest mission is a pair of tennis shoes for running and a pen that shoots ink. I think there's probably a Bond reference in every scene and I've shown the film to a lot of Bond fans and they all seem to really like it."

As well as the film's rushed shoot went and as satisfied as he was with the final product, Kanefsky saw his movie sit on the shelf at Concorde for six years before finally being released. "It was released overseas by Alain, but Concorde was in control of domestic rights and I guess they were always too busy with STRIPTEASER 2 and CARNOSAUR 3 or whatever, and they just didn't really care about my film since they had essentially gotten it for free."

When Roger [IMG4R]Corman's operation finally did decide to release ROD STEELE, Kanefsky decided to make the moment count. "I told [Concorde] that I wanted to do a satire of the Bond DVDs and they said, 'Well, we won't give you any money to do it, but go ahead if you want.'" The result was menu screens that mock those on the Bond discs, as well as a commentary track, a behind the scenes featurette entitled "A Behind the Scenes, Insiders Look at the Making of an Up Close and Personal Special Report." Last, but far from least, there's also a twenty-four minute short called "The Feel of Steele," which features mock sound bites from Kanefsky and Siritsky as well as most of the cast as they discuss the fanciful history of the Steele films and the various actors who have played the role, including Brad Pitt in the Joel Schumacher-directed THE CODPIECE IS NOT ENOUGH. The mockumentary turned out so well that Kanefsky has even been entering it in film festivals where it's been quite well received.

After leaving ROD STEELE: YOU ONLY LIVE UNTIL YOU DIE to sit on a shelf for over half a decade, Concorde is now so pleased with the film's sales that discussions are happening regarding a possible sequel, tentatively entitled MIND LIKE A STEELE TRAP, or perhaps TODAY, IS YESTERDAY'S TOMORROW. "They say it will take about three months to know if the film rented well and that, if it did, they'll got back out to the stores and see if they would commit to picking up a sequel. It's already written, and really takes advantage of Robert Donavan's talents. It's not just a Bond spoof, but a take-off on all movie and TV detectives. It's got Robert doing Columbo and others and lots of one-liners about all the great movie detectives."

Meanwhile, Kanefsky is talking to people about a possible sequel to his first film, THERE'S NOTHING OUT THERE, and trying to find distribution for his teen comedy PRETTY COOL and the Gen-Y thriller TOMORROW BY MIDNIGHT. In spite of some glowing reviews, that film has itself spent three years on the shelf, as no one knows quite how to sell it. The initially humorous story, about five teens who inadvertently take a video store and its staff hostage, gradually slides out of control into violence and death. After having experienced similar delays with ROD STEELE and earlier with THERE'S NOTHING OUT THERE, many filmmakers might have become discouraged, but Kanefsky has a different view.

"I'm proud of TOMORROW BY MIDNIGHT," he says. "It's more personal than any of the other films I've done, and the audience and critical reaction has been great for those few who have seen it. I take the view that nothing is ever dead. It can always come back."