Broken Heart (15 page)

I was stunned.

If the journalist was right, that made three films now –
Hell Trip
,
Axe Maniac
and
Die Slowly
– each with the same scene of Korin repeated at the end.

The question from the journalist never really got properly answered. Korin apologized again and repeated that she didn’t remember the scenes, that she barely remembered a lot about the actual movies themselves, only the time she spent with Hosterlitz making them. It was hard to tell from the transcript whether she was sidestepping the question or answering it honestly, but I didn’t know why she
wouldn’t
have had a conversation with her husband about what exactly the scene was about.

Grabbing my pad and a pen, I started to make some notes, attempting to put my thoughts into some sort of order. The first two
Ursula
films were set during the Second World War, and the third just after it – before the advent of television in homes – so despite some trademark Hosterlitz moments, as the camera lingered on Korin alone, watched her, followed her, there had been no replication of the scene in
Axe Maniac
, or of the ones that the journalist had referred to in
Die Slowly
and
Hell Trip
. But what about the other eight films that Hosterlitz had made with Korin between 1979 and 1984?

I grabbed the copy of
The Drill Murders
, removed the wrapping and fired it up. I didn’t bother watching it properly, not least because it was in Italian and I wouldn’t understand a word of it anyway. I just kept my thumb on
Fast-Forward and an eye out for anything that looked like an echo of the scene I’d watched in
Axe Maniac
. I knew if it was going to be anywhere, it would be at the end.

Which was exactly where I found it.

Korin, who barely seemed to have featured in the movie at all, was in the kitchen of a house, a knife in her hand. Her face, neck and vest were all covered in blood. Again, the final scene of the movie began with a slow dolly in towards her, across a kitchen this time. As in the others, there was no music – just her breathing and her heartbeat. Behind her, on the counter, a television was playing – and onscreen was exactly the same footage of the street, shot from inside a car.

What the hell is going on?

I unwrapped
Death Island
and did the same, fast-forwarding through the entire film. At the very end, just like the others, I found the same scene
again
. The fact that the movie was in Spanish made no difference; at this point, there was no dialogue anyway, just a near-identical sequence.

Pulling my laptop towards me, I went online to see if I could find any discussion of the repeated scene, because I had a hard time believing no one else except a journalist, maybe a few hardcore Hosterlitz fans, and now me, had taken note of it. His noirs got mentions on a number of forums, while his horror films were listed on a site that detailed every movie that made it on to the Department of Public Prosecution’s Video Nasties list in the 1980s – which included Hosterlitz’s
Ursula of the SS
and
Savages of the Amazon
. I found various mentions of him on Wiki and list sites, but none dealt with the particular scene I was interested in.

At the point of giving up, I finally stumbled across an American horror movie forum called Darker Screen. That was where I found something.

19

A forum thread titled ‘Ursula of the SS, Directed by Robert Hosterlitz AKA Bob Hozer – THIS FILM ABSOLUTELY STINKS!’ had been created on 22 October 2008, and was set up by someone who had clearly just watched the film for the first time, and whose exposure to Hosterlitz’s horror movies had been limited.

#1 | Posted by ListicalNinja on 10/22/08 | Member since 2002

Picked up a copy of ‘Ursula of the SS’ yesterday from a secondhand store close to where I live (Milwaukee). Has anyone else seen it? Hard to believe it’s directed by Robert ‘The Eyes of the Night’ Hosterlitz. It’s TERRIBLE.

I continued down the page. People were slow to respond, which suggested that either the forum didn’t get a lot of traffic, or the subject matter had failed to ignite the imagination of the people posting. When I took a look at some of the other threads, I quickly decided it was the latter. Hosterlitz wasn’t a big draw, and even among this community, neither were his horror films.

#2 | Posted by MickeyMooney on 11/03/08 | Member since 2003

Saw it ages ago and I agree it sucks a fat one. Have you watched any of the films he made AFTER that? They’re supposed to be even worse.

#3 | Posted by CollarMeBaddUK on 11/03/08 | Member since 2000

I’ve seen ‘Axe Maniac’, but most of them you can’t even buy any more. Not sure about in the States. Maybe you can still get all of Hosterlitz’s Spanish-made films there, ListicalNinja …?

#4 | Posted by ListicalNinja on 11/03/08 | Member since 2002

Nah. It’s the same here too. I can only find a few of his films in English. There might be some dubbed versions available somewhere, but most of his movies are vapour – the original negatives have probably been lost forever.

#5 | Posted by PinheadMcTavish on 11/03/08 | Member since 2002

Yeah, those films are gone and they ain’t coming back. In fact, rumour has it that the last time anyone saw them, they were in a plain brown envelope being mailed to ‘XXXL Landfill Site, Siberia’ ☺

A user called MelissaA posted about the availability of Hosterlitz’s horror films, informing the thread that, of the movies he’d made after he left the States for the final time in 1970, only
House of Darkness
– which he shot in the UK in 1971 and whose troubled production Collinsky had referenced in his article – the
Ursula
trilogy and
Axe Maniac
were still
available to buy in English. Four others were available in Europe – three in Spanish, and one in Italian – but most users on the forum seemed to agree copies would be rare, and difficult to locate. It tallied with what the guy from Rough Print had told me.

After MelissaA talked briefly about Hosterlitz suffering a stroke in 1974 and his addiction to painkillers in the years before he moved to Spain, the subject shifted to Lynda Korin – and, among male posters, the size of her breasts.

#33 | Posted by CollarMeBaddUK on 11/05/08 | Member since 2000

Lynda Korin = ☺ AM I RIGHT?

#34 | Posted by PinheadMcTavish on 11/05/08 | Member since 2002

Yeah, she’s definitely a contender for a BREAST Actress Award. ☺ ☺ ☺

#35 | Posted by MickeyMooney on 11/05/08 | Member since 2003

She would have been great in a remake of The TIT and the Pendulum.

#36 | Posted by PinheadMcTavish on 11/05/08 | Member since 2002

ROFL. Wonder what a woman like that ever saw in Hosterlitz?

My gaze lingered briefly on that last post.

Pretty soon, the thread fizzled out and remained entirely dormant for over two years. But then, at the start of 2011, someone posted about Korin’s upcoming appearance at the Screenmageddon convention.

#58 | Posted by CollarMeBaddUK on 01/22/11 | Member since 2000

If anyone out there is still interested in Robert Hosterlitz’s career, Lynda Korin is appearing at Screenmageddon in London on 7 July. She never does public events so could be worth a look. Tickets available
here
. I’m going!

#59 | Posted by PinheadMcTavish on 02/04/11 | Member since 2002

Shit! She’s still pretty hot. How old is she now?

#60 | Posted by CollarMeBaddUK on 02/04/11 | Member since 2000

58, believe it or not. Hope my wife looks like that when she’s 58
😐

#60 | Posted by MickeyMooney on 02/05/11 | Member since 2003

Man, I hope my GF looks as good as that when she’s 28!!! LOL. If it wasn’t gonna cost me $$$$$, I’d be in London faster than the Flash.

After that, there was another long gap between posts – over three years. But then, in June 2014, the thread suddenly got bumped, thanks to a fresh post.

It was from Marc Collinsky.

#61 | Posted by MarcCollinskyCine on 06/12/14 | Member since 2014

Hello everyone. Not sure if this is going to be seen by anybody, as there doesn’t seem to have been much activity on here since 2011, but my name is Marc Collinsky and I’m a writer at Cine Magazine in the UK. Good news: I’m interviewing Lynda Korin about Robert Hosterlitz in a couple of weeks, and being a big fan of Hosterlitz’s early work, this is VERY EXCITING. Bad news: I know his film and TV work back to front up until the third ‘Ursula’ film in 1978, then it all gets a bit fuzzy. I’ve managed to get hold of a copy of ‘Axe Maniac’, which I’ve never seen before, but I haven’t been able to find a trace of the others anywhere. Does anyone know where I can find them?

#62 | Posted by MickeyMooney on 06/14/14| Member since 2003

Welcome aboard Marc! Yeah, you’re shit out of luck if you’re hoping to find copies (in English) of anything other than ‘Ursula 1–3’ and ‘Axe Maniac’. Even eBay don’t have them. You might have to find a specialist collector somewhere – otherwise it’s Hozer and out ☺

#63 | Posted by MarcCollinskyCine on 06/14/14 | Member since 2014

Appreciate it, MickeyMooney. If anyone has any suggestions for questions, then feel free to put them out there. I can’t promise I’ll ask them but I’m especially thinking in terms of the 11 films he made after ‘Ursula 1–3’.

#64 | Posted by PinheadMcTavish on 06/14/14 | Member since 2002

Number one priority: let us know if Lynda Korin is still hot!!!!!

I scrolled through the rest of the page, and through the next one too, the subject returning to Korin’s nude scenes, to predictable discussions about the size of her breasts and how good she looked in 2011, in her late fifties.

But then I got to the bottom of the page.

Here, someone new had posted.

#76 | Posted by Microscope on 06/15/14 | Member since 2014

I’ve got a question you can ask Lynda Korin: why does every film she made between 1979 and 1984 have exactly the same ending?

20

The poster was someone calling themselves ‘Microscope’. They’d never posted on the forum before and appeared to have joined solely to raise the question of the repeated ending. MelissaA – the most sensible of the regulars – responded first.

#77 | Posted by MelissaA on 06/15/14 | Member since 2007

Welcome Microscope! What do you mean, ‘the same ending’?

#78 | Posted by Microscope on 06/15/14 | Member since 2014

Which of Hosterlitz’s films have you seen, MelissaA?

#79 | Posted by MelissaA on 06/15/14 | Member since 2007

All of them up to ‘Ursula 3’, as well as ‘Axe Maniac’.

#80 | Posted by Microscope on 06/15/14 | Member since 2014

Then you won’t know what I’m talking about.

#81 | Posted by PinheadMcTavish on 06/15/14 | Member since 2002

Psycho alert!

#82 | Posted by MelissaA on 06/15/14 | Member since 2007

Uh, OK. So why don’t you TELL me what you’re talking about?

#83 | Posted by Microscope on 06/15/14 | Member since 2014

All 11 films he made in Spain after ‘Ursula 1–3’, from ‘Cemetery House’ in 1979 to ‘Death Island’ in 1984, have the same last scene in them. The only reason no one on this forum realizes that is the case is because ‘Axe Maniac’ is relatively easily available, and in English, whereas four other films are only in Italian or Spanish and much harder to track down, and the other six are gone for ever. Trust me, the last 90 seconds of all 11 films he made during that time – but for some minor differences – are the same.

#84 | Posted by MelissaA on 06/15/14 | Member since 2007

Are you serious?

#85 | Posted by Microscope on 06/15/14 | Member since 2014

100% serious.

#86 | Posted by MelissaA on 06/15/14 | Member since 2007

How have you managed to see all 11? Very few places have copies of ONE of those foreign language films, let alone all four. But not only are you telling us you’ve seen those four, but you’ve seen the other six ‘lost’ films as well? I call bullshit, sir! You said yourself, the six lost films are gone for ever.