David F. Friedman | B-movie producer, 87

David F. Friedman, 87, the B-movie producer of the 1960s and '70s who turned out the cult classic

Blood Feast,

died Monday of heart failure in Anniston, Ala.

Mr. Friedman worked with director Herschell Gordon Lewis to create 1963's Blood Feast, a roughly acted film that depicted the dismemberment of attractive women. The film is considered one of the first of the so-called gore movies, said Mike Vraney, owner of Something Weird Video in Seattle. Blood Feast cost a paltry $24,500 to make but netted a $6.5 million profit, said niece Bridgett Everett.

Mr. Friedman spent much of his youth in Birmingham and Anniston. After working with carnivals, he became a press agent at Paramount before leaving in 1958 to try his hand at independent movies.

Some of his adult-oriented B-movies, such as Goldilocks and the Three Bares were shot in nudist colonies. Others combined sexual themes with horror and crime, including The Adult Version of Jekyll and Hyde.

Mr. Friedman moved to Anniston in 1988 to be near his late wife's family. "He thought all of his movies were forgotten," Vraney said. In 1991, Vraney tracked him down and began reissuing his films, which found new markets. He was invited to speak at several film festivals. - AP