Mondo Collector

Rock N Roll Ray

Web: http//www.rockandrollray.com

The term “mondo” generally is taken to mean cool and is often used in associated with the words strange and bizarre. Mondo films, for example, are strange films documenting the unusual, quirky and downright weird. The most famous of these was the ground breaking “Mondo Cane” which single handedly began the craze of cult documentaries.

Mondo Collector follows in that tradition exploring the world of the collector. Hosted by Rock ‘N Roll Ray, who is actually Raymond P Whalen, a Minneapolis filmmaker, we are taken on a journey into the strangest and most unusual collections he can find. To keep our enthusiasm from lagging during the journey we receive liberal doses of go go dancers breaking up the stories with their sexy gyrations to some very cool music.

The film opens with Ted V Mikels and that is a name to conjure with. Mikels has produced independent and cult films since Adam was a lad and is best known for such memorable titles as Mark of the Astro Zombies, Blood Orgy of the She Devils and The Corpse Grinders. Mikels shows off his collection of weapons which range from axes and guns through to homemade bows. He seems to spend a lot of his time convincing us “he doesn’t hunt anymore” and showing off his chest !

We then meet the doll (sorry, action figure) collector who has everything from Bonanza figures to Star Trek, Six Million Dollar items to lunch boxes and Batman outfits. He seems rather normal compared to our next character, the Pez Man.

Remember Pez, those little lolly dispensers with the different heads, well our next collector loves them. He tells us that he loves them because “they are like eating lollies from a penis” and his sanity seems to go downhill from there on in. He wants to eat enough Pez so he can die “young, beautiful and naked” since the old die ugly anyway. A strange and bizarre collecting moment and the image of him naked covered in Pez will stick in your mind for way too long.

But this is just the beginning; we then have a truly obsessive collector who is devoted to the 1974 film Phantom of the Paradise. A strange and unusual rock ‘n roll, science fiction and horror tale directed by Brian De Palma. It is a strange and wonderful collection filled with one off items and a rather devoted collector who tells us he came from another world in search of memorabilia ! A great piece with a good mixture of humor and a very unusual if not “focused” collection.

Of course, we then need a dose of religion, and so we are introduced to a sexy lingerie wearing lady who is truly devoted to the Lord. Her house is filled to the brim with all manner of Jesus items, from the more bizarre (a Jesus Penis and whip) to the sublime, a Jesus light bulb. She takes us on a tour of her marvelous home and then whips herself with a Jesus whip after which she gets drunk on communion wine from a very nice and collectible “communion” vessel.

And this is only just the tip of the iceberg, there is Marco the hippy collector, the lead singer of Impaler and his horror collection and the right wing militiaman from Waco who collects all manner of guns and proceeds to blow televisions and computer monitors to pieces with them !

There are so many more strange characters in this marvelous film. It is a true “Mondo” experience, a type of “outsider” cinema which is clearly made on a limited budget and yet succeeds because of it. It has a directness which makes it enjoyable, entertaining and at times downright bewildering !

Throughout we are presented with all manner of weirdness including some deliberately humorous interludes ranging from a possible murderous collector to a man who has a perverse attachment to melons.

This is a superb DVD filled with eccentrics, humor, weirdness and lots of collecting !