Search - The Lemon Grove Kids Meet the Monsters - Trilogy on DVD

More Steckler Hijinks

The Patriarch | 02/27/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you even know this film exists then you're a B movie/Steckler fan. Like his movies or not, you can always count on Steckler to utterly confuse you with the projects he undertook. This film is his homage to the Bowery Boys. It's actually 3 short films. The first is the most Bowery of the three. Plenty of fast motion slapshtick. This is the most well made of the three. Altough the plot falls apart at the end and Gopher(played by Steckler) gets chased by an ape and a mummy. The next film involves an alien known as green grasshopper. Most of the characters from the previous movie have disappeared so this one is less charming. One of his adawable daughters plays the hero by stealing the grasshopper's magic flower which transports these witch-like people who appeared out of nowhere to the grasshopper's home planet. The grasshopper and the vampire lady(yeah a vampire lady rode on the spaceship with the green grasshopper) are so terrified that they hop back into their spaceship and disappear, presumably for their home planet. Folks I can't beleive I just typed that, I never actually tried to take the plot seriously before. This one looks like a rejected episode of HR Puffenstuff.
The final film in the Trilogy is "go to Hollywood." I think this one was shot in 35mm. Its basically the lemon grove kids, but without the lemon grove kids. Steckler resumes his role of Gopher(sans baseball cap) and drug his wife and pwecious daughters into this one. Its like a scripted home movie. There is also a boy who may have been related. I'm not sure as the credits often change the names. Anyway if you are up for miore STeckler hijinks you can't go wrong with this one."

Innocent Beauty from a Parallel Universe

PeKa | Matul | 01/09/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I can understand that something like this may be hard to swallow for the average genre fan - let alone the mainstream movie consumer.
But this IS what film making is all about!

Steckler has never been one of the guys who tried hard to produce "cult cinema" nor is he one of the craftsman cinematographers who aimed for the drive-in market to make a fast buck.
To me he is among the truest and most enthusiastic lovers of his trade who ever lived.
I don't even want to think about his films in a cinematic way. Like most of his films, I feel like I'm watching a gang of friends doing what they love. That is true for INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES, and even more for his LEMON GROVE films.

Caroline Brand is simply gorgeous and seeing Herb Robbins in yet one more of his weird cameos really makes my day.
I am not too familiar with the EAST END KIDS movies these films are an hommage to, but seeing today's vain attempts at creating mass-compatible comedy in different ways makes me appreciate these crazy antics nontheless.
This is innocence in its purest form!

Listening to Steckler's audio commentaries is always exciting and enlightening - and the fate of some of his acting friends brings more than one tear to my eyes.

If you are looking for a more accessible and artistic way into the world of Steckler, check out THRILL KILLERS for a start.
If you want to feel more familiar with his parodistic elements, watch RAT PFINK A BOO BOO.
But then return here to witness LEMON GROVE KIDS!

The world would be a better place with more people in the movie business sharing this man's enthusiasm and child-like activism!"