Part 5: The Vice Squad

Howard: After shooting the live footage Beveniste was to do the editing and supervise the special effects. I went back to making porno features so that Graffitti would have a continuous cash flow. We had over 20 theatres, including our own (The Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles) that depended on our product. Weeks went by and I began to get a sense that Benveniste was in over his head. He insisted on working at night when I couldn't watch him and he refused to let me view his editing until it was "ready." Work on the special effects was going very slowly and I was having difficulty generating enough cash to pay everyone. I had rented an abandoned venitian blind warehouse in Eagle Rock to house the special effects work. Mike Hyatt (Benveniste's weird friend) was going to do the animation of the monster that appears at the end of the film. He had made the monster as a project at USC but had never animated it. I rented him a studio in Santa Monica. All of this was being supported by the pornos I was making each week.

Finally after 6 months, Benveniste announced that the film was ready to be screened. He stated "A few special effects shots were missing but everything should be available in another 3 weeks." A lot of people had heard of the film and were anxious to see it. I rented a large screening room and over a hundred people showed up. I was nervous because the film had really put us into a financial bind. By this time I was paying a lot of people with IOU's and they were getting antsy. As the film rolled through the sprockets of the projector I began to develop a hot sweat. It was a disaster! There were gaping holes where effects were to go and the editing was totally sophomoric to put it euphemistically. I will never forget that night for the rest of my life. Everyone tried to be diplomatic but I knew we had laid a bomb. It was embarrassing. The next morning I had breakfast with Benveniste. He was so out of touch that he didn't even know that anything was wrong. We sat in the Old World Restaurant on Sunset Blvd., just across from what is now Tower Records. Benveniste was smugly polishing off his eggs when I told him he was fired. The little prick dropped his fork. He didn't finish his eggs.

I went back to my office on Melrose street, a two story building directly across from Fairfax High. It had one way reflective glass so no one could see in. I had built secret double walls to hide footage in case of a police raid. Porno was still illegal at that time. I had been busted once before, charged with conspiracy to commit oral copulation - oral copulation being a $50 misdimeanor but conspiracy a felony; and I had taken precautions in my office to make sure that didn't happen again. I wanted to immediately get things going on Flesh Gordon and try to save the film. As I put the key to the door I heard a voice ask, "Howie Ziehm?" I turned to face two guys who identified themselves as LAPD, officers Martin and Brust. My stomach sank as they told me they had a warrant for my arrest blah blah blah blah. It was a general harassment thing. The warrant gave them the right to go through my office, vaults, trucks, etc. in order to find a girl with big tits and long hair that was suspected of something or other. For three days they poured through hundreds of loops in my vault and hauled everything off, including the negative to Flesh Gordon. From my office they took the work print that was being used to edit. I was handcuffed and booked, given the old ass-hole check and everything. A warrant was also issued for Bill and two other associates, Walter Cichy (my right hand man) and a sound man.

Bail was 20 grand each. We put up the bail and were out of the slammer in 4 hours but there were bigger problems. We now had a bust to pay for and without the negative to Flesh Gordon we were through. In fact, if I didn't get that negative back, I was probably going to do time since I didn't have money to pay for a lawyer. To get the film back I hired a lawyer by the name of Harry Hershburger (not sure of spelling). Harry said it would cost 5 grand a week and he would give it his all. We went to court day after day arguing for release of the picture. In the third week it appeared it was hopless. No one was budging. Then when we came back from lunch, Martin and Brust offered to return the footage if they could eviscerate any porno footage in the film. I had already decided that the film's future was not as a "porno" and I readily accepted. In a back room at the courthouse, we meticulously rolled the negative through a moviescope - the print was unacceptable to them. Out of 44 thousand feet of 16mm film they took a roll about 370 feet. What a joke.

With footage in hand I went back to the job of completing the film. It took almost 18 more months. I owed everyone money. Mike Minor led a revolt, the deal being the negative of the special effects would be handed to me when I payed cash. I somehow got the cash. It was worth the aggravation. I could see the effects were wonderful even if they were being handed to me with a scowl. I shot some of the effects footage myself and handled all the compositing of the raw elements that I had been handed. In duress one learns quickly. An Egyptian by the name of Abbas Amin did the editing on spec. I gave him my $15,000 KEM editing table as colateral and a percentage of the film. He was a professional and he made the film come together.

Through this all, I had discovered major irregularities in the handling of Graffitti's money by my partner Bill Osco. The breaches of trust were irretrievable and our partnership was over. We would co-exist until the film was finished but on non-speaking terms. Because of legal pressures he had come under, he agreed to let me operate the company and finish the film. It was all I needed, I had to take over Bill's management of the Beverly Cinema as well as complete Flesh Gordon and produce our weekly porn. It would be several years before I would know how lucky I was to get rid of him. The film was ready to go to the negative cutter. The final stage had been reached - or so I thought.

Three days into cutting, the negative cutter called me to inform me that footage was missing. My stomach dropped to the floor. I searched everywhere, including the police vaults. They were still holding other footage from the raid although supposingly all Flesh Gordon footage had been returned. I searched the lab that developed the film. It was nowhere to be found. I thought it was over. If it were not for Walter Cichy it would have been. He carefully went through the outs and found alternate shots that could be used. Only one shot had to be redone, a shot in Wang's throne room where the Jewel Chick has the power pasty. I constructed a few walls of the castle in my back yard and put the Jewel Chick's face 1 foot away from the lens. By using a split field diopter I could keep the foreground and background in focus. Her face, close to the lens, blocked out all the action that was behind her - a real cheat, but it came off artsy.

The film was finished and a screening at the MGM preview theatre was a huge success. Everyone loved it but I couldn't find a distributor. After going through guys who were afraid we were going to be sued by "Flash Gordon" (that's why we have the disclaimer at the head of the film), to guys who wanted to change the music, to guys who said maybe they could get me back some of my money, I found Peter Locke and Jim Buckley. Peter and Jim had made a film for Al Goldstein's Screw Magazine called It Happened In Hollywood. They loved the film and agreed to put up 100 grand to launch it. Being New Yorkers they rightly felt that the place to open a movie was in the Big Apple. They set up several screenings only to get from "the ones who know" (the theatre owners), "Who would want to see that?" Unbelievable!!!

Flesh Gordon Collector's Edition Unrated $29.99
Flesh Gordon (R) rated $29.99
Flesh Gordon 2: Flesh Gordon Meets The Cosmic Cheerleaders Unrated $14.99
Flesh Gordon 2: Flesh Gordon Meets The Cosmic Cheerleaders (R) rated $14.99

Flesh Gordon DVD Unrated $29.99
Flesh Gordon 2: Flesh Gordon Meets The Cosmic Cheerleaders Unrated DVD $14.99