The Movies Made Me Do It! tells the fascinating story behind the quest to make the dramatic feature-length motion picture, eXploZion!!. This detailed narrative with photographs includes descriptions of the specific motion pictures and literary sources that influenced the author, information about the environmental factors that contributed to the formation of the author's ideas, and the talented individuals and various locations that helped shape the film. The book, as well as the film, features a tribute to the most dangerous and influential films ever made, including The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Weine), Frankenstein with Boris Karloff (James Whale), Vertigo with Kim Novak and James Stewart and Psycho with Anthony Perkins (Alfred Hitchcock), Breathless with Jean Seberg, Pierrot le Fou with Anna Karina, Contempt with Brigitte Bardot, Sympathy for the Devil or One Plus One with The Rolling Stones (Jean-Luc Godard), L'Avventura with Monica Vitti, Blow-Up with David Hemmings and Zabriskie Point with Daria Halprin (Michelangelo Antonioni), The Last Movie (Dennis Hopper), Possession with Isabelle Adjani (Andrejz Zulawski), Belle de Jour with Catherine Deneuve and That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Bunuel), Naked Lunch with Peter Weller as William Lee (William S. Burroughs) and Judy Davis and Crash with Rosanna Arquette (David Cronenberg) among many other influencial films, directors, and performers. The environmental factors include the stunning effects of small town central Texas (consider Hud with Paul Newman), watermelon farmers, truck drivers, cowboys, swamp legends; a cavernous one-screen theatre with a stage (where The Moods, a local rock 'n' roll band, first performed during a Watermelon Thump Minstrel Show); television programs (Shock Theatre on KENS, Channel 5, where the classic Universal horror classics were screened); The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis); Classics Illustrated comic books (Hamlet and Moby Dick); and many others. Many talented individuals and varied locations helped shape the final version of the film, including the first producer (Joe Rodriquez, Never Bet the Devil Your Head from the author's first screenplay), the first director (Larry Randolph, Texas Tech University Theatre, who first cast the author in a major role in a main stage production), the first playwriting professor (Dr. Clifford Ashby, Texas Tech University Theatre, who helped shape the original version of the play, Of Strange Voices and Watermelon Men), the first technical assistant (Dean G. Martin, Texas Tech University College of Mass Communications, who helped operate cameras on location at Galveston Island and Cloudcroft, New Mexico), and the stunning actresses and actors (from Texas Tech University, Lockhart Community Theatre, San Antonio, Galveston, Houston, Ghana, Nigeria, and Canada). And, of course, the film itself, adapted from the author's acclaimed underground novel, eXploZion!, in which a film producer, haunted by the ghost of his departed wife, attempts to exorcise his demons by creating the ultimate horror film.
About the Author: Ross Wells, an American Author, Stage and Screen Director, and Independent Film-Maker, has written two books (eXploZion!, The Movies Made Me Do It!), and written, produced, and directed three films (Haunting Mary Shelley, Raven's Nightmare, and eXploZion!!). Born in Lockhart, Texas, and educated at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, he served as Founding Artistic Director of the Lockhart Community Theatre; Director of Public Relations/Assistant to the Head of School at Keystone School in San Antonio, Texas; and Executive Artistic Director of Painted Rock Visual and Performing Arts.