[miketardis]

STANLEY (1972)
Native American Tim Ochopee (Chris Robinson) isolates himself in the Florida swamps after he returns from Vietnam because he was sick of "the white man telling the red man to kill the yellow man." His only friends are his snakes, with rattlesnake Stanley being the best of them. Of course, trouble comes around when sleazy businessman Thomkins (Alex Rocco) tells Tim he will pay kindly for snake skins for the fashion industry. When Tim refuses, he sends in some guys to "get rid of that Injun!"

This is an odd little horror-revenge film from William Grefe, but much better than the other film I saw of his, DEATH CURSE OF TARTU. The film pretty much ends around 85 minutes in as Tim gets his revenge, but then continues on for another 20 minutes with a bizarre segue where hero Tim kidnaps Thomkins' nymphomaniac daughter (Susan Carroll) and slowly becomes a raving lunatic as he tries to woo her. Robinson is very good as the lead and spends lots of time handling snakes. Grefe's narrative almost has a "back to nature" feel to it with the hippie-esque opening song and Tim's speeches. But then you realize Grefe kills a few live snakes on screen. You do have to admire a movie naive enough to have two guys shocked when their friend named Psycho goes crazy on them though.