Kidnapped Coed, also known as Date with a Kidnapper, is a grindhouse (low budget, gritty, quickly shot) movie that was paired with Axe, which made the video nasties list in the 1980s over in the UK, and Hitch Hike to Hell (1977) on double bills. Both were directed by Frederick R. Friedel. I’ve not watched either, yet, but Kidnapped is either ignored as a boring, not so action-packed, grindhouse effort or praised as a pensive meditation with some artsy flair and carefully planned tracking shots. Either way, I found the pressbook’s cover interesting enough to share it with you. It sells the exploitation and the leering quality that grindhouse should be edged with, art or not. I love that tagline too.
Born in Brooklyn in 1948, Friedel had no training in film, no experience on a film set, and no idea of what actually was involved in film production. But he did know that Orson Welles had made Citizen Kane when he was twenty-five and decided that he wanted to make a feature by that age himself. (Cagey Films)
