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

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 | 11:43 AM

"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]