GATOR BAIT Screens at Schlafly Bottleworks Next Week !

Webster University’s Strange Brew film series, the first Wednesday evening of every month, always features a fun cult movie  at the Schlafly Bottleworks Restaurant and Bar in Maplewood (7260 Southwest Ave. – at Manchester – Maplewood, MO 63143). SUSPIRIA, THE TWILIGHT ZONE MOVIE, HEAD, and TARANTULA are a few of the movies they’ve screened in the past that went well with some St. Louis-brewed suds and next week, December 7th,  they’re venturing into NOT Available on DVD territory with the 1974 swampsploitation opus starring ’70s Drive-in goddess Claudia Jennings.
Imagine if Russ Meyer had directed DELIVERANCE and that might give you an idea of the berserk backwoods hijinks to be found in GATOR BAIT. It’s a simple story about murder and retribution starring the heavenly Jennings as Desiree Thibodeau, a ‘purty’ rural  wildcat who hunts down the bunch of toothless hillbillies who had raped and killed her younger sister. Snakes, guns, swamps, incest, nekkid women, and high speed johnboat chases are all ingredients of the tasty Cajun stew that is GATOR BAIT.
Beverly and Ferd Sebastian were a husband and wife writer/director team that made a string of low-budget sleazefests in the ‘70s (including SINGLE GIRLS, also starring Ms Jennings) and GATOR BAIT is their finest hour. In 1988 they made GATOR BAIT 2: CAJUN JUSTICE starring Jan MacKenzie but it was a pale imitation of the original. GATOR BAIT has achieved cult status thanks to the presence of its sexy star Claudia Jennings. Born in 1949, Ms Jennings took a job as a receptionist at the offices of Playboy magazine in 1968, was discovered there and became Playboy’s Miss November 1969. Less busty than most 60′s Playboy models, Jennings had a healthy, all-American cheerleader type of good looks and was crowned 1970′s Playmate of the Year. After her Playboy stint, Jennings became
a low-budget movie star and reigned as “Queen of the Drive-In” for a brief period in the mid-70′s. UNHOLY ROLLERS (1973) was her first starring role followed by GROUP MARRIAGE (1973), THE SINGLE GIRLS, and TRUCK STOP WOMEN (all1974), and (among others) THE GREAT TEXAS DYNAMITE CHASE (1977). She was strongly considered as Kate Jackson’s replacement on the Charlies Angels TV series but reportedly Aaron Spelling worried about tarnishing his show with her Playboy connection. In October 1979 Claudia Jenning’s car was hit by a truck after she fell asleep behind the wheel and she was gone at age 29. Her final film role was in David Cronenberg’s FAST COMPANY (1979). Jennings is so good in all of her films, especially GATOR BAIT, that it’s a shame her career was tragically cut so short.
I highly recommend seeing GATOR BAIT Wednesday, December 7 at 8:00 pm at Schlafly Bottleworks and experiencing the glory that was Claudia Jennings