There are opportunities you just don’t pass up. As the great philosopher Tom Jones once said, “Tomorrow is promised to no one,” and when a chance at joy comes your way, especially at this moment in history, you’re well-served by grabbing hold and not letting go until it thunders. And that’s how I found myself talking to Vixen herself, the legendary Erica Gavin.
It begins with David Gregory, the head of Severin Films (if you’re into physical media, you’re doubtless familiar with Severin). Gregory basically did the independent film equivalent of finding the Holy Grail when he worked out a deal with the estate of legendary filmmaker Russ Meyer to bring three of his titles into the HD/4K era. Meyer’s films are American originals — hard-hitting melodrama, a bounty of bosoms, white-hot thrills and a preternatural ability never to wear out their welcome. And other than very basic DVD editions from back at the dawn of the millennium, they’ve not been easy to get hold of.
But now, with the nation in chaos, Los Angeles in flames and Puritans and reactionaries holding sway, the time is right for the return of Russ Meyer to the human id, and with the Vixen Trilogy (1968’s Vixen!, 1975’s Supervixen and 1979’s Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens) making that HD leap, it’s a chance to pay tribute to one of the great directors in American film, but also one of its greatest stars.
So how does it feel for you coming back to Vixen, this character you created who is no less vivacious, shocking, liberating and complicated now, 57 years on?
Erica Gavin: I don’t think it’s really hit me yet, just how big this is. People tell me it’s big. But it just feels great to be talked to about it.
It’s historic that we’re finally getting Russ’ non-Beyond the Valley of the Dolls films out there and available to the public again, but one of the things that feels very fitting with these films coming out thanks to Severin is that we’re very fortunate to have several boutique home media labels, all of whom share the ethos of preserving films unlike anything else out there that define their own respectability. But in the past few years, Severin has been doing an incredible job — first in 2023 with the Laura Gemser Emanuelle Nera films in The Sensual World of Black Emanuelle box set, and then just last year with Indonesian scream queen Suzzanna in the second installment of the All the Haunts Be Ours set — finding these films featuring these singular women of cult and exploitation cinema and saying, “These iconic women deserve your attention and respect.” And as far as I’m concerned, bringing Erica Gavin to the forefront and saying, “This is a big deal” is both accurate and fair.
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EG: It certainly points toward liberating all these actresses, and Severin has stepped outside the box to do it.
David Gregory: And all three of the examples you’ve offered are icons who rightfully should be celebrated and whose world should be presented to today’s audience in the best possible quality. What we like to champion is the work of true filmmakers and performers who were going out and making entertaining and well-made movies with limited resources. And that, for me, is very exciting. When people are getting a band of like-minded people together and by hook or by crook, getting something in the can in order to make a film, and then coming out with something that stands the test of time — particularly like Vixen!, where it was a massive hit at the time and has remained for me an important American independent film —that’s something we’re very happy to champion.
JS: Have you run into any issues with this new restoration due to it still technically being banned in several counties in Ohio?
DG: Interestingly, we are trying to organize the first legal screening of Vixen! right now in Cincinnati, due to the film still being banned there. Which is absurd. It’s that no one has tested that theory in recent years, so we’re working on that. But it is still on the books. And there are certain hoops to be jumped through to make that happen. I don’t think anyone would raid the cinema like they did back in the day, but that might be cool too.
EG: It would! It would certainly draw a crowd.
DG: It would get a lot of attention. If Vixen! was still being seized.
EG: I was just looking at a newspaper clipping of the vice cops going in to see Vixen! in Ohio, and that whole movement was led by [disgraced conservative activist and convicted felon] Charles Keating. And he was a very upstanding citizen, what with his S&L crisis.
DG: As is often the case with people who are moral crusaders, who want to get into the way of other people’s liberties, they’re often hiding something in their closet themselves.
EG: And he wasn’t hiding it very much, was he?
DG: It’s crazy that back then that theaters were being raided and prints were actually seized. But Russ used to love that — engaging in that discussion about limiting American freedoms on something like nudity. It’s absurd.
EG: And he spent millions of dollars taking Keating to court.
DG: And it also got him a lot of publicity.
Which doesn’t hurt. Vixen! is such a quintessentially American film. It’s about sex and hypocrisy and racism and Vietnam, and what happens when you stir that particular gumbo together.
EG: Russ was very good about addressing whatever was in the news at the time; he was almost ahead of it. Just look at the end of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and the Manson murders. How he had that insight, I don’t know. I guess that’s genius.
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The chain of events it must have taken for this release to happen is impressive: You have the Meyer estate, you have Severin, you have the Museum of Modern Art. And that is a dinner party I would love to be a fly on the wall at.
EG: [Laughs] Agreed.
DG: Oh, absolutely. Working with the Russ Meyer Trust has been very good for us. At the heart of it, they want to make sure that Russ’ work is preserved and presented in the best possible way to a contemporary audience, and that’s what we have gone to pains to deliver. We retained the graphic design he used on his VHS releases and brought those over to the disc format — that was very important to the trust. We had to imagine what he would want with his films if he were with us now.
EG: This was what he would have been going for in the time that the films were made, he just didn’t have the technology that we do now.
DG: [Holds up a U.K. VHS of Vixen!] I have my VHS of Vixen! right here, and it has a sticker on it that says, “Mint quality. Made from original negative.” And in the early ’80s, those transfers were state-of-the-art.
EG: They were.
DG: But obviously, the technology has moved on quite a bit since then, and thankfully the negative was in very good condition thanks to the Museum of Modern Art, who were able to supervise the remastering.
The thing about the new transfer that’s so staggering to me is that, being familiar with the previous transfers, these colors come to life. Particularly, Ms. Gavin, it emphasizes your eye for clothes, because every single one of Vixen’s outfits is iconic — it is the late ’60s and it is alive! And I am in awe of that.
EG: Thank you. ... It couldn’t have been any more pop.
DG: And the costumes were yours, Erica?
EG: Yeah, yeah. They were my clothes. [Laughs] My putting together whatever I had in my suitcase packed for Miranda, Calif.
They are spectacular outfits, and you can see them to this day — in couture, in drag performances and everything in between. That’s an impact still being felt today, and not just in Cincinnati.
DG: You’re an influencer, Erica.
EG: Thank you. I never thought of it in that way. But I appreciate it.
The Vixen Trilogy is available on Blu-ray and 4K UHD from Severin Films, and these new restorations are also streaming on Night Flight. 1965’s Motor Psycho and 1976’s Up! (a personal fave) will be released on Blu-ray and UHD in March.
Special thanks for assistance in preparing for this interview to Jess Bennett.
