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United International Pictures

From The Grindhouse Cinema Database

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Overview

With all of the possible United International Pictures in film history, things can be a little confusing for those starting to get into it. This United International Pictures, however, might be familiar to those who recently brought Kung Fu-The Invincible Fist into their collections. While there was a UIP in The UK that was in action until 2007, the UIP mentioned here is based in Boston, Massachusetts and rooted in Grindhouse Exploitation films.

United International Pictures Inc. was led by two little known legends in Exploitation history; James Vlamos, a Film Editor for the Greek National Herald and the Producer of Dark Odyssey (an early Radley Metzger film) who later became the president of a company that owned a couple of theaters in the Boston area who were part of the I Am Curious Yellow controversy of 1969, and Steve Prentoulis, one of the few who helped Distribute films into The States through The 60's through his own company. The company mainly centered around two genres, Sexploitation and Kung Fu, ready to be played in the Grindhouses of the Mid 70's, although this company was very short lived despite the duo's history. It's only serious year of being active was in 1974 with a number of pick ups that are mainly forgotten today, although with the appearance of Kung Fu-The Invisible Fist in some budget sets, their films may wind up on a DVD somewhere.

Their Kung Fu line up consisted of The Invincible Fist (Cheh Chang, 1969; Stateside release 1973), From China With Death (Ma Wu; May, 1974), Kung Fu-The Invisible Fist (See-Yung Ng, 1972; Stateside release 1974), The Karate Killer (Man Yi Yang, 1973; Stateside Release 1974), and Black Belt (Stateside release 1974). Sexploitation was represented through films like Love Times Three (1973) and Love Under 17 (Veit Relin; 1971, Stateside release 1974) while European pick ups included Cut-Throats Nine (Joaquin Luis Romero Marchent; 1972, Stateside release 1974) and The Devil In the Flesh (Massimo Dallamano; 1969, Stateside release 1974).

Pages in category "United International Pictures"

The following 10 pages are in this category, out of 10 total.

Newsletter
  • Grindhouse Database Newsletter
  • Exploitation books
  • Kung fu movies
  • Giallo BluRay