Hands on a Hard Body: "It's a contest, they say, of stamina..."

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Written by Alison Willmore, the all-seeing Indie Eye blog reads the news so you don't have to. (Well, maybe just the A & E section).

Alison Willmore

is the editor of IFC.com's film coverage and one of the site's video hosts. Follow her at twitter.com/indie_eye

Email: ifcblog (at) ifc dot com

By Alison Willmore on 08/26/2008

Filed under: Watchy

"Hands on a Hard Body" director S.R. Bindler has put his riveting 1997 doc about a Texas car dealership competition up in its entirety on Google Video -- you can watch it here. The film's been out of print on DVD for ages -- a narrative remake was slated to be Robert Altman's next production until his passing, a project that's likely since faded away. Bindler, incidentally, directed and co-wrote his friend Matthew McConaughey's new film "Surfer, Dude," set to open in Austin next week.

While you're at it, Charles Laughton's "The Night of the Hunter" is up with the usual "limited commercial interruption" on Hulu here. And Tod Browning 1932 "Freaks" is streaming on Archive.org here (and on Google Video here), and has been generating pointed debate as to whether or not the film actually is in the public domain. According to some, the rights to the film were purchased and released into the public domain in the '80s by Church of Satan founder, former carny and fan of the film Anton LaVey.

[Photo: "Hands on a Hard Body," Idea Entertainment/J.K. Livin/Wessex Entertainment, 1997]