10 Most Tasteless And Outrageous Directors In Movie History

3. Paul Morrissey

Never let the film titles which say 'Andy Warhol's ...' fool you. Chances are Warhol had little to do with them in name only and they were the work of Paul Morrissey. Morrissey deserves major critical acclaim for these movies: shocking and tasteless they may be, they were the pinnacle of 1970s avant garde film making and are fascinating films to experience. There are so many gloriously outrageous Morrissey films, it is difficult to know where to begin deconstructing them. There is the seminal trio - Flesh, Trash andg Heat which all feature the handsome Joe Dallesandro - a man who seems to spend all of his time in the buff. Never has there been an actor more at home with himself in the nude than Joe Dallesandro. In these films he plays a hustler, a rent boy, a drug addict and an aspiring actor. Surrounding Dallesandro are the colourful dregs of NYC society who keep the various plots going such as a surbaban housewife who wants Dallesandro to rape her and a faded, movie star who wants to get into Dallesandro's rather skimpy briefs. Flesh For Frankenstein was a very crude and rude dip into horror films with themes of incest, necrophilia and nymphomania a-go-go. Entertainingly gory, the film ended up as a Video Nasty in the UK just proving that censors have no sense of humour. The only risible film Morrissey ever made was Blood For Dracula which is very boring and does not hold the viewer's interest beyond five minutes. Finally, it is impossible not to mention Bad as a tasteless and outrageous Morrissey film with its scenes of female hit women and a baby being chucked out of a high rise window. Yes it's wrong, yes it's distasteful, but Morrissey's oeuvre of films remain tremendously entertaining.