Vinny Durand (Joe Spinell) is a New York taxi driver with big dreams, he just knows he can make it in the movie business as a director of his own films, and he has identified the right star who will take the lead in them, his favourite actress Jana Bates (Caroline Munro). Unfortunately for Vinny, this is easier said than done, and he is mocked by his fellow cabbies; when he gets home it's not any better as his doting mother (Filomena Spagnuolo as Mary Spinell) keeps on at him that this ambition is no good, not that Vinny listens. There's always his plan to meet up with Jana, and what better place to do so than a film festival, and even better the biggest in the world: The Cannes Film Festival of 1981!
The eighties were a strange time for distinctive American character actor Joe Spinell as he tried to get his own projects off the ground yet as if one of his proudest achievements, the horror movie Maniac, had made him persona non grata in most of the Hollywood studios, not to mention falling out with his old pal Sylvester Stallone who had put him in Rocky, the work he appeared in for that decade, his last on Earth, wasn't exactly high profile. Those leading roles he sought were thin on the ground and many of his post-Maniac parts were often one scene wonders, yet he was such a recognisable performer that there was an oddly illicit thrill to seeing him show up in something and think, hey, it's that scuzzy guy again!
In this one he again took the lead, only here he was second billed to a blonde-streaked Caroline Munro who had also been in Maniac, and in Starcrash with him for that matter, even though Vinny is more or less the main character. What he does when he attends Cannes is curiously what the actual production did, which was make a film without any permits and grabbing what footage they could by filming here and there, basically when nobody was looking, hence the shots of the Croisette where the sunbathers were captured on celluloid without their knowledge, and the various actual movie stars who have uncredited cameos, with Isabelle Adjani and Karen Black in the same movie at last for example, not that it's likely they ever heard of The Last Horror Film.
Fortunately Spinell and his team, including director David Winters, did not end up murdering people to make their efforts more convincing, but that's what the deranged Vinny seems to be up to here as he hides out to gather the clips of the oblivious Jana to piece together his movie. That said, what was really happening was a case of your guess is as good as mine, what with not one but two twist endings, one of which featured Joe and his actual mother sharing a joint which portrays what we have just watched as one big joke. What do you expect when the man who made one of the nastiest shockers ever starts lecturing you on the effects of horror movies on their audiences, and whether they can result in violence in real life (the then-current Ronald Reagan assassination attempt is referenced extensively), a question that it looks to be taking seriously until the equivalent of blowing a loud raspberry and running away.
Spinell was something to behold here, patently delighted to be making another movie as the star and on rollicking form whether Vinny was having hallucinations about his presumed future success, his actual lack of it, or breaking into Jana's hotel bathroom as she has just finished showering with a bottle of champagne as a peace offering. This he proceeds to break in frustration at her panicky reaction (social skills are not his strong point) and wave the broken shards at the actress who then escapes out of the rooms, down the stairs and into the lobby where she is meant to be guest of honour. Part of the gag is that the audience think she is putting on a show for them what with Vinny pursuing her, but it's not exactly hilarious, unless watching a bug-eyed, profusely perspiring Spinell feverishly overacting is your idea of funny (to be fair, perfectly possible for some). For the most part this looks more like a scrapbook than a proper movie, and it's little wonder it took so long to receive any kind of distribution, even then just a footnote and a curio. It's ideal for eighties synth rock enthusiasts, however.
