Mortuary Academy (1988) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)

1. (6.46) - Eating Raoul (1982)
2. (5.64) - Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989)
3. (5.02) - Cannonball (1976)

He has also directed two other films with ratings above 5.5, these two written by others::

1. (6.36) - Private Parts (1972)
2. (5.80) - Death Race 2000 (1975)

Eating Raoul is considered a cult classic, and if Bartel had written nothing else, it would have been enough to confer on him the status of "minor B-movie legend," and that position is firmly cemented by the others listed above. Bartel's "sort by ratings" page at IMDb actually turns up four writing credits, not three. There are the three above which he directed himself, and this film, Mortuary Academy, which was his lowest-rated writing effort and the only one directed by somebody else (then-rookie Michael Schroeder).

It's just not a good movie, far below Bartel's usual caliber. It's a comedy in which everyone is trying desperately to be zany instead of letting the material work for them. Although, considering the material, I can see why they were pushing.

The story centers on two brothers named Grimm (the brothers Grimm - nudge, nudge) who find themselves heirs to a mortuary and an academy to train morticians. Their late uncle's will makes the unusual inheritance contingent on their having passed the program at the academy. They boys find this rather challenging since the corrupt man currently running the academy (played by Paul Bartel himself) has no intention of letting the boys take over, and he can prevent it merely by failing them. When exam time arrives, the other students get questions like, "What do you call the place with tombstones where dead people are buried?", while our heroes have to answer long, impossibly technical trick questions. That's pretty much the highlight of the comedy, and is certainly the high point of the movie's tastefulness.

I did smile during one scene when gangs from two different mortuaries had a rumble over body parts at the scene of a grisly accident, but the rest of the jokes seem to center on necrophilia. For example, the head of the academy falls in love with the corpse of a cheerleader, so the zany students hot-wire her genitals to trap the professor inside, and thus blackmail him into giving them a passing grade. Actually, now that I type that up, it sounds like a twisted enough concept to be darkly funny in the proper hands, but it just didn't work here. The film ends up being a mixture of the usual juvenile Police Academy humor and Bartel's more daring conceptual stuff, and the filmmakers never do find a way to combine those effectively. It is possible that the premise might have worked if the actors had taken it seriously and played it straight, letting the bizarre material work, but many of the film's problems derive from a broad performing style, in which every character is allowed to deliver lines in the "look at me, I'm making funny exaggerated faces" style of Vince McMahon in a wrestling skit, or Caesar Romero playing the Joker on Batman. Bartel himself was especially hammy, and one of the minor characters was actually played by Caesar Romero in full Joker mode ...

... and he was one of the more subtle characters.

Some of the film's other actors include B-movie veterans Christopher Atkins, Anthony James, Vance Colvig, and Tracey Walter. Some of the more unusual casting included Wolfman Jack (pictured below left with Perry Lang), and the guy who played Marmalard in Animal House (below right, with Lang again), who was still playing Marmalard, right down to the clothing. I think he saved his wardrobe from Animal House.