SKIN IN THE FIFTIES -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 4/17/11

 

Secret Key Motion Pictures brings us another nostalgic festival of 50s smut-filled sexploitation with their 2-disc set, SKIN IN THE FIFTIES.  Loaded with old 8mm nudie loops along with the 1956 roadhouse feature THE FLESH MERCHANT, this titillating time-capsule is more fun than you can shake a stick at.  Or whatever you happen to be holding at the moment.

THE FLESH MERCHANT begins as Paula Sheridan (Lisa Rack) gets a surprise visit from her kid sister, Nancy (the perky, voluptuous Joy Reynolds).  Eager to escape her small-town existence and jealous of her big sister's success as a Hollywood "model", Nancy has come to the big city to get in on the action herself.  Despite Paula's insistence that she turn around and go back home, the naive Nancy applies for a modeling job and quickly ends up as a prostitute servicing rich clientele at a swank hideaway called "The Colony."  This joint is run by a violent scumbag named Vito Perini (Marko Perri) who slaps his employees around whenever they don't "cooperate"--which proves a painful lesson for Nancy after she initially rejects a wealthy customer's amourous advances. 

Nancy's roommate is an over-the-hill veteran named Easy (Geri Moffatt) who is getting fed up with her life of sexual servitude.  After blowing up at a customer one night, she's dealt with by a vicious Perini, who savagely beats her up and banishes the aging party girl to a cheap brothel on skid row.  With Easy gone, Nancy gets a surprising new roommate--her sister, Paula.  When Paula sees the sorry state her kid sister has ended up in, she rebels against Perini and the rest of the flesh merchants at the risk of her own life.



THE FLESH MERCHANT is an hour-long parade of softcore 50s-style titillation that's surprisingly entertaining.  The story zips along briskly, rarely slowing down even when clips from various nudie loops are spliced in here and there to naked things up a bit.  In fact, about halfway through this story I realized I was really getting into it. 

This is especially true during the scene where Easy is called into Perini's office--as she desperately begs the heartless creep not to kick her down the ladder to skid row, only to be beaten within an inch of her life, the movie has suddenly become surprisingly effective.  And when Paula lashes out at her bosses and the clients themselves for being a bunch of sick perverts, Lisa Rack's intensely dramatic performance during this well-written scene is riveting.  This may be the first time I've sat down to laugh my way through a cheap, campy old sex flick and watched it morph into a relatively good movie before my eyes. 

Technically, it's just below the level of a really low-budget 50s TV episode, with performances that range from adequate to fine.  The nudie-loop inserts (the full versions of which are available as disc-one bonus features) are pretty well incorporated into the movie proper, though their film quality is markedly inferior.  The print used for this DVD isn't in the best shape, but to me that adds to its grindhouse appeal.  Unfortunately the original opening and closing titles appear to have been lost.
 
 

Moving on to disc two, we get a selection of nineteen short nudie films from the era.  These bring back old memories of my younger days when I ordered some of these things from the back of adult magazines before home video made 8mm obsolete.  Even the discs in this set are made to resemble 8mm movie reels, and a booklet insert, which includes a history of 50s sexploitation films along with a vintage Joy Reynolds pictorial, has the look of an old nudie digest.  

Most of these loops look pretty ancient, some seemingly pre-dating the '50s a bit.  There's full nudity, except for the "forbidden zone", of course.  Some of the girls are pretty cute, while others are, well, frightening.  Several shorts have rudimentary storylines, which tend to be downright nutty--in fact, "African Frenzy" is one of the most accidentally avant-garde films I've ever seen, and "Cocktails and Cuties" is so wacky it's hard to believe real people actually made it. 

One nice-looking brunette does something called the "Danse de L'Ebandan" in which she slinks into a seedy bar and proceeds to freak out for three-and-a-half minutes as her clothes fall off.  The rest of the performers seem to be second-rate burlesque dancers, some resembling a few of my grade school teachers.  One pleasant surprise, however, was the appearance of an adorable young Jennie Lee in "Diamond Lil."  Her segment is about as captivatingly sexy as one of these 50s loops can get, ending with Jenny performing her famous "tassle trick."  At that moment, I was officially enjoying myself.  And when another statuesque beauty resembling Blaze Starr showed up to do her routine to the sultry strains of "Harlem Nocturne", I think my TV started to smoke.  Or maybe that was just me.

I didn't live during the heyday of these films, but mail-order warehouses everywhere were still clearing out their stock of this stuff well into the 80s.  And now that it's on DVD, I don't have to crank up my old projector to see it.  If you're still nostalgic for those times, or you just want to check out what they were all about, SKIN IN THE FIFTIES should be a welcome addition to your collection.

SKIN IN THE FIFTIES -- DVD Review by Porfle

DONKEY PUNCH -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 3/25/09

 

Seven young Brits on holiday in Spain go from party to Purgatory with a single DONKEY PUNCH (2008), director Olly Blackburn's deviously clever and exhilaratingly tense horror-thriller.

Three sexy lasses--Kim (cute-as-a-button Jamie Winstone), blonde babe Lisa (Sian Breckin), and their more reserved friend Tammi (Nichola Burley), who's nursing a broken heart--hook up with party boys Marcus, Josh, and Bluey (Jay Taylor, Julian Morris, and Tom Burke, respectively) in a nightclub on the Spanish coast. The boys are tending a luxury yacht while the owners are away and invite the girls aboard, where they meet the more reserved Sean (Robert Boulter), who we just know is going to hit it off with Tammi.

Taking the yacht out onto the open sea, the thrill-seeking yoots delve into a hedonistic free-for-all of booze, drugs, and "sexy time." While Sean and Tammi have a nice, reserved heart-to-heart chat on deck, the others soon retire to the master bedroom to indulge in enough wild softcore sex for three Skinemax flicks put together. Bluey invites shy observer Josh into the mix, but in his moment of peak excitement he foolishly applies a move jokingly referred to earlier by Bluey--you guessed it, the dreaded "donkey punch"--and in one terrible instant one of the girls is dead and the rest of the bunch suddenly has a serious problem on their hands.

Up to this point Blackburn has directed the film with the light touch of a teen sex romp, but with an underlying bad-vibes tone that lets us know things are gonna go wrong. Even the musical score somehow sounds a little off as it slithers its way around the action with a hint of mockery. The sex scene, which is probably the main reason this film is being sold in both rated and unrated versions, starts out slow and then picks up momentum until it's out of control. In another movie such graphic debauchery would seem gratuitious, but here it's necessary to convey the mindless abandon that leads to that one fateful mistake which plunges everyone into their worst nightmare.

The story then becomes a deliberate, inevitable progression from bad to worst as the guys hotly debate whether or not to cover up the deed while the remaining girls, who have no intention of watching their friend's body being dumped overboard and then complying with a fake story, begin to realize what a tenuous position they're in. The conflict will become more deadly as the situation devolves. At this point screenwriters Blackburn and David Bloom start ratcheting up the nailbiting suspense and bloody mayhem until the former pleasure cruise becomes a frenzy of survival instincts gone wild.

Blackburn deftly choreographs his actors, all of whom are very good (especially my future wife, Jamie Winstone), and the camera flows beautifully throughout the yacht's confines with an unobtrusive documentary style that's effective rather than affected-looking. It's all very straightforwardly done, with no hokey jump scares or musical stings, in an almost real-time way that makes us feel like we're a part of the relentlessly unfolding events. Once things get started, there are no lulls in the action and the suspense is kept increasingly taut until the fadeout. It's like stepping onto a carnival ride that doesn't let up until it's over.

The DVD from Magnolia Home Entertainment's Magnet label is in 1.85:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital sound, which look and sound fine. Extras include a director/producer commentary track, a "making of" featurette, interviews with director Blackburn and the cast, deleted scenes, and trailers for this and the other films in the Six Shooter Film Series. As stated before, the DVD is available in both rated and unrated versions. I got to see the unrated version (heh, heh) so I'm not sure exactly what you'll be missing out on with the other one, although I'm willing to bet it'll mostly have something to do with that orgy sequence.

DONKEY PUNCH is a finely-wrought exploitation flick with a really good cast and production values, and generous helpings of sex and violence to augment its harrowingly suspenseful story. And as a cautionary tale, it should succeed in reminding today's youth that boys and girls can have a cracking good time together without the need of anyone whipping out the old donkey punch for any reason whatsoever.

DONKEY PUNCH -- DVD Review by Porfle

JOY & JOAN -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 8/13/10

 

Where 1983's softcore sex romp JOY left off, JOY & JOAN (1985) picks up and continues with the life story of a vacuous supermodel (Brigitte Lahaie) whose successful career is overshadowed by a troublesome love life.  This time, after suffering continued setbacks in her relationships with men, Joy decides to try her luck playing on the other team for change.  Will it be a whole new romantic revelation, or just the same old grind with different underwear?

As the story opens, poor Joy is finding it hard to smile during a photo shoot.  Sometimes the life of a supermodel can be so hard!  Her heartthrob and Daddy-figure, Marc (played this time by younger actor Jean-Marc Maurel), blithely refuses to commit to her and is about to flit off to Thailand on a writing assignment.  So Joy cleverly beguiles her other older-guy lover, Bruce (played this time by older actor Pierre Londiche) into taking her there, too.  But the terminally smitten Bruce has a few perverse plans for Joy up his sleeve (among other areas) and, while staying at the luxurious villa of the creepy Prince Cornelius, things begin to get so strange that Joy is forced to flee in order to preserve her...virtue?

Stranded in Thailand without any money or champagne, Joy meets a lovely and vivacious young woman named Joan (Isabelle Solar) who divides her time between being a tour guide and conning rich old men out of their money.  Joan falls head over heels for Joy and they start making out like a couple of girl rabbits.  Things go well for awhile, but after a traumatic S&M gangbang in a dank grotto in the Philippines, Joy finds her way back to France alone.  Will Joan be able to find her again and rekindle their romance?  And what about Marc?  Will Joy be okay?

JOY & JOAN has all the slick production values of the original film but is more creatively shot and edited, with a story that actually manages to be interesting from time to time.  The travelogue elements are fine as Joy finds herself amidst some beautiful locations in Thailand and the Philippines, particularly during some stunningly-photographed beach idylls and a sightseeing tour through the waterways of Singapore. 

The first half of the film is the best, as Bruce's weird side emerges when they arrive at Cornelius' palatial estate and meet the man himself, a quivering little troll who openly lusts after Joy.  Bruce goes all out to celebrate her birthday, inviting a crowd of formally-attired pervs to queue up and take a Joy-ride after the naughty voyeur has drugged her drink and laid her out on a huge chaise lounge under the stars.  This tastefully bizarre and delightfully strange sequence is like something a more restrained Ken Russell might cook up, especially when a mock orchestra and portly opera singer start mimicking a recording of "Madame Butterfly" while Cornelius giddily hops around in a bandleader outfit and baton. 

When Joy finally gets away from Bruce with the help of his exotic Malaysian slave girl Millarca (after a tender lesbian interlude, natch), her encounter with Joan leads to several steamy erotic sequences which take place in beds, beaches, trains, and just about any other location with a horizontal surface.  The story rolls lazily along at this point but never really grinds to a halt, and, after the bad business in that grotto, relocates back to Paris for a fairly interesting resolution in which Marc gets back into the act. 

While she has a lot of loyal fans, I think Brigitte Lahaie lacks charisma and due to her often sluggish performance the character of Joy seems more vapid than ever.  However, this shouldn't matter very much to those interested in seeing her naked, because she and the other female leads spend a great deal of time shucking their clothes and making out with each other in classic soft-porn style.  When she isn't going one-on-one with Joan or Millarca, Joy sometimes finds herself akin to an amusement park ride that everyone wants a turn on, and it isn't always consensual--one of the drawbacks of being dangerously irresistible. 

The rest of the cast carry their weight and a few of them stand out.  As the pathetic Prince Cornelius, Jacques Bryland ultimately manages to give an unexpected depth to his almost farcical character as he pines for Joy from afar and ends up chasing her across continents.  Maria Isabel Lopez also makes an impression as the melancholy slave girl Millarca, who helps Joy escape from her master's clutches.  Isabelle Solar makes an appealing but not all that exciting Joan, while Jean-Marc Maurel is carefree roguishness personified as the happily faithless Marc.

The DVD from Severin Films is 1.85:1 widescreen with a Dolby 2.0 French soundtrack and English subtitles.  No extras.

Definitely more substantial storywise than its predecessor, JOY & JOAN is still pretty lightweight drama.  However, it makes up for this with some nice visuals, offbeat scenes, exotic scenery, attractive stars, and lots and lots of nudity and sex.  For this kind of film, you probably can't ask for much more than that.

JOY & JOAN -- DVD Review by Porfle

JOY -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 8/12/10

 

"Mostly harmless" is how Douglas Adams might have described Italian director Serge Bergon's softcore sex flick JOY (1983).  He may have also added "mostly not all that interesting, either", although it's a pleasant enough film that's easy on the eyes and features several yards of Claudia Udy's bare skin during its running time.

After a pretty title song, we meet Joy as a little girl who catches Mom and Dad making out on a rug in front of the fireplace.  Years later she becomes a model whose preoccupation with casual sex and a glittery lifestyle masks a deep longing for the father who abandoned her as a child.  Seeking a father figure in her older lover, Marc, Joy soon realizes that they have widely differing expectations for their relationship. 

It sounds like a rich vein of dramatic possibilities for director and co-scripter Bergon to tap, but he barely bothers to even give Joy much of a personality let alone make us care a whole lot about her.  Perky and shallow, she's like a plastic sex doll that's been imbued with about half a soul.  Nothing seems to affect her very deeply even when she's seemingly preoccupied with Marc (who regards her only as an interesting diversion when he isn't with his other mistress) and, until a couple of melodramatic sequences near the end of the film, her life is mostly champagne and satin sheets.

A photo shoot in Mexico takes her on a beach frolic with a handsome young photographer, and when a billboard of her lying naked on the sand with the caption "Orgasm: A Woman's Right" leads to a national scandal, she cheerfully cashes in on the notoriety.  This leads to her being whisked to New York to star in an action movie, where she meets another older gent named Bruce (Kenneth Legallois) who not only introduces her to Tantric sex with his New Age friends but also begins a search for her missing father. 

All in all, Joy seems to lead a fairly charmed life and even her lemons turn into pink lemonade sooner or later.  Which means that JOY is a film with very little drama or conflict, and whatever entertainment value it has depends solely on how much you enjoy watching her having fun, being cutely petulant, or trying to turn guys like Marc into Daddy surrogates.  Of course, there's also the scads of bare bodies on display, with the blissfully uninhibited Joy flitting from one softcore sex encounter to the next (the "voyeur chamber" and "Tantric sex orgy" scenes are particularly interesting) amidst scenic locations in Paris, New York, and Montreal.

Director Serge Bergon (aka Sergio Bergonzelli) takes good advantage of those locations and the film has the slick look of a superior Skinemax flick, albeit with a very subdued color palette.  Attractive old-style settings rub shoulders with 80s-style Art Drecko, with some scenes boasting the chintzy opulence of a Pat Benetar video.  I often enjoy this sort of wince-inducing yet nostalgic retro-chic stuff and thus found the movie fun to look at most of the time, even while the story is about as surprising as a video fireplace.

As Joy, Claudia Udy is cute as a button and girlishly winsome, with a terrifically fit body.  As with the rest of the cast, her acting is adequate--not great, but good enough.  Aside from Joy, Marc, and Bruce, the other characters don't figure all that much into the story and we barely get to know them. 

The DVD from Severin Films is 1.85:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital sound.  The soundtrack is French with English subtitles.  An 11-minute interview segment, "Reflections of Joy", features a personable Claudia Udy circa 2010 as the now 50-year-old Canadian actress looks back on the film and her career in general. 

The plot heats up somewhat near the end with a disturbing visit to an S&M club and a harsh exchange between Joy and Marc, followed by a bittersweet sequence in which Joy revisits her childhood home.  Still, it's all so low-key that even the abrupt ending doesn't seem all that jarring.  And despite all the eye-catching nudity and simulated sex, the best way to describe JOY as a film is "pleasantly bland." 

JOY -- DVD Review by Porfle

ART OF LOVE -- DVD Review by Porfle

If nothing else, Walerian Borowczyk's French-Italian historical sex film ART OF LOVE (1983) is worth watching simply to gaze upon the voluptuous, Rubenesque beauty Marina Pierro in various forms of undress. The film grabbed my attention right off the bat by showing her luxuriating in a clear glass bathtub during the titles, an image we'll get to see several more times along with other arresting views of her ample and curvaceous physique. Unfortunately, in order to do so, you have to watch the movie.

It's the year 8 A.D., and Roman poet and love-advice expert Ovid (Massimo Girotti) is holding lectures for men and women based on his three-part poem of seduction and love, Ars Amandi ("The Art of Love"). During these lengthy, rambling monologues, we see his teachings being followed by his various students, including Claudia, the unfaithful wife of Roman soldier Macarius (Michele Placido), and her young lover Cornelius, who looks like a late-60s pop idol.

Their heated trysts offer most of the entertainment to be found in this rambling, often incoherent narrative. In one scene, a sick Claudia is tended to by Cornelius according to Ovid's sage advice: "Bring to her at times an old lady who, with trembling hands, will carry eggs and sulfur to purify the room and bed." I think the movie is trying to be funny when Claudia chokes and gags on the sulfur smoke as the old lady starts throwing eggs at the walls. But it's played so straight I'm just not sure.

Other characters include Claudia's faithful African servant and confidant Sepora (Mireille Pame), who likes to fellate a bronze phallus that she keeps in a cabinet, and Macarius' porky mom Clio (Laura Betti), who likes to poke her servants with pins despite Ovid's explicit admonitions and sometimes has the blonde fright wig snatched off her head by a pesky cockatoo. And then there's the barbaric Roman general Laurentius, whose abuse of his cowering wife Modestina includes beating her and locking her in a dog cage.


That highly unpleasant subplot doesn't have much to do with anything, but neither does most of the seemingly random action that occurs during the course of the film. There's a tame orgy sequence about midway through that consists of people running around half-naked and what appears to be scenes from another film spliced in (apparently this is the "restored" orgy footage mentioned in the DVD notes).

The sparse plot is padded to the gills with whatever footage director Borowczyk felt like shooting at the time, including endless stolen moments between forbidden lovers and several sequences that don't make a whole lot of sense (a man gleefully chomps a live goldfish, a woman fondles a marble horse's genitals, etc). One of these is Ovid's story of a love-starved woman who disguises herself as a cow in order to be serviced by a bull. No, I'm not making that up.

Besides a number of lovely vignettes in which Marina Pierro is meticulously photographed with the care and attention of an ardent admirer--my favorite parts of the movie--the camerawork and editing are often as shaky and choppy as the plot. To make things worse, Luis Bacalov's musical score sounds like the same enervating snatch of elevator music played over and over. I do like the natural lighting and the authentic Roman locations, and some of the performances are pretty good if you can get past the bad dubbing.


Ovid's endless blather quickly wears thin, though, as most of the film is accompanied by such turgid poetry as: "Do not allow useless modesty to withhold the magic of your caresses. You will see your beloved's eyes film over with a sheen of tremulous and dainty lust, as the sun's rays rise back from the surface of the placid pond." The rest of the dialogue is littered with such gems as "Are you happy with your parrot, Claudia?" and "Swear on the privates of your favorite god!", and while the action often resembles "A Mediterranean Night's Sex Comedy", the overall mood of the film is rather dire.

The DVD from Severin Films is in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, dubbed in English. Image quality is fair, though somewhat washed-out. The sole extra is a trailer.

After trudging my way through ART OF LOVE, which seems much longer than it is, I felt as though I'd escaped from it. The final minutes do boast an unexpected twist that flies in from out of left field, but like the rest of the story it has little impact. (A couple of shots in this sequence contain a strange, unidentified shape silhouetted at the bottom of the screen--what the hell is it?) As for Ovid--in accordance with history, he finally has his act shut down by the Roman government for promoting adultery, with the resulting raid coming none too soon to suit me.

ART OF LOVE -- DVD Review by Porfle

THE ALCOVE -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 2/21/10

 

 

 

Prolific exploitation director Joe D'Amato, whose many films include around sixteen entries in the "Emanuelle" series with Laura Gemser, places the celebrated sex star in a unique and strange little tale with THE ALCOVE, aka L'alcova (1984). I've rarely bothered watching this kind of stuff on Cinemax or The Playboy Channel because I usually find it pretty boring, but this one's worth the effort.

In 1930s England, Alessandra (Lilli Carati) is in no hurry for her adventurer husband Elio (Al Cliver) to return from the Zulu war because she's been having a torrid lesbian affair with his assistant, Wilma (Annie Belle). When Elio does show up at last, he has a big surprise--a dark-skinned slave girl named Zerbal (Laura Gemser) given to him by a tribal chief in payment for a debt.

Hostile toward her at first, Alessandra grows increasingly attracted to, and finally obsessed with, the exotic and mysterious Zerbal. A jealous Wilma and a marginalized Elio find the ill-disguised affair intolerable, but this is nothing compared to the ultimate revenge that the devious Zerbal has planned for everyone involved.

THE ALCOVE is languidly-paced and takes some time to get into, but it caught my interest once I settled into the story. We're not given much indication at first how things will progress beyond the usual sordid domestic conflicts, until the slowly unfolding plot finally gives way to some pretty bizarre developments--including a murder plot, a surprising exchange of power, and a brutal rape caught on film for financial gain. By the time the somewhat abrupt but satisfying ending came, I felt the time I'd invested in this film to be worthwhile.

Joe D'Amato displays a pleasing directorial style and the cinematography is rather nice, especially during the many well-staged softcore sex scenes. These are quite erotic and are incorporated into the story so that they seem neither overlong nor superflous. When Elio's sensitive young son Furio (Roberto Caruso) returns home on leave from the Navy and falls in love with the older Wilma, his tentative romantic overture toward her is handled with a soft touch. The rest of the sexual encounters between Elio, Alessandra, and Zerbal, and eventually the on-camera violation, exude a sick but strangely compelling air of illicit lust and perversion.

I never found Laura Gemser all that attractive myself, but her fans should be happy to see her in such an interesting role which requires her to be naked for most of her screen time. She's very good at conveying not only Zerbal's earthy strangeness but also the growing defiance and unnerving malevolence bubbling beneath the surface. The character is memorable and Gemser makes the most of it with a subtly impressive performance.

At first, Lilli Carati didn't appeal to me all that much either, mainly due to her distasteful character, but I began to grow quite fond of seeing her lounging around naked. She does a good job in her role as does the lovely Annie Belle as Wilma, who has a very strong sexual appeal similar to that of Velma from "Scooby-Doo." Despite her faults, she was the one character besides Furio that I had any sympathy for. As the husband, Al Cliver mercifully remains clothed throughout his well-modulated performance, expressing Elio's growing detachment, jaded decadence, and casual moral corruption.

The DVD from Severin Films presents the film in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and Dolby Digital mono. Print quality is mostly good and the English dubbing isn't too bad. Extras include a trailer and a jovial ten-minute interview with D'Amato, who's fun to listen to even though his English is rather hard to decipher.

With its fairly opulent locations, above-average production values, and convincing period atmosphere, THE ALCOVE is a pleasantly perverse exercise in refined art-house sleaze. Stick with the slow-fuse plot and its numerous sexual diversions and you may find the startling ending to be as memorable as I did. Oh yeah, and if you figure out what an "alcove" has to do with any of it, let me know.

THE ALCOVE -- DVD Review by Porfle

RETURN TO NUKE 'EM HIGH, VOLUME 1 -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 3/12/14

 

Chances are that, sooner or later, many people who watch Troma Entertainment's latest cinematic outrage, RETURN TO NUKE 'EM HIGH, VOLUME 1 (2013), will reach a particular point in the action where they hold up their hand and say, "Okay, that's just going TOO far."  For some, that point will begin during the pre-titles sequence and last for about an hour and a half. 

For others, it may not happen until the disintegrating penis scene, the tossing-a-dog-over-Niagara-Falls scene, the "duck rape" scene, or the corrosive green slime lactation scene.  For me, incidentally, it was when two guys are arguing about music and one of them keeps insisting "Justin Bieber is the best!  The BEST!!!"

But first, there's a nostalgic opening montage of mayhem from previous Troma "Nuke 'Em High" films (with relatively much lower production values than this one) and a surprise narrator.  A tone of breezy irreverence sets in early and doesn't let up--in fact, it increases with each new and more imaginative atrocity,  beginning with an obligatory teen sex scene in the high school janitor's room that degenerates into horrific extreme gore in which both teens dissolve into heaps of gooey detritus.  (The girl's dramatic last words, "What kind of a god...?" become a running gag.) 

This scene is so colorfully, so gleefully over the top that we know "Okay, we don't have to worry about any kind of censorship, limits, boundaries, or taste--WHATSOEVER--for the next hour and a half."

The cause of this boundless horror is the former nuclear power plant site next to the school, which is now a sleazy "health food" factory called Tromorganic whose product is so rancid that even fast food joints won't carry it, and whose CEO (Troma chief Lloyd Kaufman himself, hilarious as the profoundly unscrupulous Mr. Herzkauf) has a deal with the school principal for his chemically contaminated vittles to be served to the unwitting students.

This will be the cause of serious trouble later on when bully magnets The Troma Poofs, a glee club composed of the school's biggest nerds, eat Tromorganic tacos and start morphing into sadistic monsters known as The Cretins who then terrorize their former antagonists along with whomever else gets in their way.  Much of the resulting mayhem may remind viewers of Peter Jackson's blood-and-guts-drenched horror comedy DEAD ALIVE not only in the high level of gore but in how downright bizarre much of it is. 

Comedy-wise, RETURN TO NUKE 'EM HIGH, VOLUME 1 makes NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE look like GIDGET GOES HAWAIIAN.  Director Kaufman stages crowd shots that are as densely packed with sight gags and elaborate set design as early MAD magazine panels, with Tromaville High so fully realized that it comes off like the legendary "National Lampoon High School Yearbook Parody" on acid. 

Against this backdrop comes the new girl, Lauren (Catherine Corcoran), whose pampered life is envied by the lower-class orphan Chrissy (Asta Paredes), an activist-blogger with her sights set on bringing down Tromorganic.  They meet-hostile at first, but somehow we know (since everyone's a familiar stereotype and every situation is a takeoff of the usual teen movie plot developments) that after a couple of highly stimulating catfights the girls will become friends. 

What we don't know, but I'm giving away now, is that despite the constant urging of her ultra-horny boyfriend Eugene (Clay von Carlowitz) to have sex with him, Chrissy is actually a budding lesbian, and that, even though obese, ultra-horny geek Zac (Zac Amico,  who's like a cross between Harry Knowles and Harry Knowles) begs her to go to the prom with him, Lauren is, in fact, also a budding lesbian and the two former enemies are now falling in love with each other.  (Wow!  This movie has everything!) 

Surprisingly, after the action has been barrelling along non-stop since the fade-in,  it's the lesbian sex scene which finally brings everything to a grinding halt (so to speak), but most viewers who have stuck it out this far (so to speak) won't be complaining.

Dialogue includes memorable lines such as "F*** me with your fish dick, Gil!",  which, unless I'm mistaken,  is an original.  There's also a series of those obligatory freeze-frame introductory thingies for each character that are so funny ("Caught masturbating to the Food Network") ("Black guy")  I didn't even care that I was never going to remember half of these nimrods or their quirky traits.  The script by Kaufman and four co-writers doesn't just deliver a gag and bow out gracefully but pounds us over the head with gleefully horrible variations of it until I can imagine a live audience screaming with laughter and literally rolling in the aisles.  Okay, figuratively.

All of the lead actors are fine, with Kaufman playing Lee Harvey Herzkauf with such unreserved wackiness that he makes Mel Brooks look like Emo Phillips.  Herzkauf's cohort in sleaze, Principal Westly (played by someone named Babette Bombshell) is like a fatter David Frye doing a more extreme version of his famous Nixon impression.  (As it turns out, he's the only person who has actually read Chrissie's anti-Tromorganic blog.)  Familiar faces such as Debbie Rochon and Lemmy pop up in welcome cameos, along with the aforementioned surprise narrator.  The gore effects, needless to say, are extreme and plentiful, as is the requisite boobage. 

The DVD from Anchor Bay is in 1.78:1 widescreen with stereo sound and subtitles in English and Spanish.  There are two commentary tracks, one with the main cast and the other featuring Kaufman and several fellow writer/producers.  Other extras include the featurettes "Casting Conundrum", "Pre-Production Hell With Mein Kauf (Man)", "Special (Ed) Effects", "Cell-U-Lloyd Kaufman: 40 Years of TROMAtising the World", a music video from the film's consistently awesome soundtrack, and a preview trailer for Vol. 2. 

RETURN TO NUKE 'EM HIGH, VOLUME 1 is the kind of resolutely "wild" and "crazy" comedy that can become tiresome, lame, and/or overwrought real quick if the people making it don't know what they're doing.  Wonder of wonders, the people making this one actually knew what they were doing!  Needless to say,  decent folk are hereby warned to stay far, far away from this movie.  As for me,  the only thing I found disappointing about it was the abrupt ending--when Kaufman says "VOL. 1" he really means it.

RETURN TO NUKE 'EM HIGH, VOLUME 1 -- DVD Review by Porfle

CHESTY MORGAN'S BOSOM BUDDIES -- Blu-Ray Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 9/8/12

 

When adult filmmaker Doris Wishman got together with bazooka-boobed Polish stripper Chesty Morgan in the mid-70s, the result was two of the most head-scratchingly cockeyed and totally off-the-wall nudesploitation flicks ever made.  "Deadly Weapons" and "Double Agent 73" are now together on the same Blu-Ray disc along with an unofficial non-Chesty follow-up, "The Immoral Three", to form the Something Weird Video collection CHESTY MORGAN'S BOSOM BUDDIES.

It was a match made in junk-film heaven--Wishman, a filmmaker with an abundance of energy and enthusiasm but little actual skill, and Chesty, a stunning human visual effect who nevertheless displays absolutely no natural talent whatsoever in front of the camera.  In fact, her absolute lack of any discernible acting skill makes everyone and everything else around her seem better by default.  And yet, with those mind-bogglingly huge all-natural hooters and preternaturally unaffected (some might say "spaced-out") expression, she somehow demands our disbelieving attention every second she's on the screen.

"Deadly Weapons" (1974) features Chesty (here billed as "Zsa Zsa") as the faithful wife of a mob wiseguy named Larry who gets whacked after he steals an incriminating address book and tries to blackmail his boss with it.  The grief-stricken Chesty vows revenge.  Overhearing one of her hubby's killers referring to his addiction to "burlesque", Chesty knows what she must do--get a job as a stripper and wait for him to show up at the club. 

Naturally, she has no trouble doing so after the bug-eyed manager gets a load of her blouse-bursting knockers, which gives Wishman a chance to include scenes from Chesty's burlesque "act" as part of the plot.  When the killer shows up, she gets him alone long enough to wield the only weapons at her disposal, smothering him to death with her enormous cleavage in a scene that has to be gaped at to be believed. 

Later, porn star Harry Reems (DEEP THROAT) meets the same fate despite sporting what must be one of the most formidable moustaches in film history.  But screenwriter Judy J. Kushner (Doris' niece) saves the most shocking twist for the final minutes of the film, which should leave viewers shaking their heads in dismay.

With "Double Agent 73", Chesty portrays secret agent Jane Tennay, who, in service of a plot that doesn't really bear keeping track of, has a camera surgically implanted into her left boob.  That way, whenever she kills an enemy agent she can snap a photo via her Nipple Cam for use back at headquarters in identifying the big cheese, "Mr. T." (no, not THAT "Mr. T."). 

This gives the robotic Chesty an excuse to doff a variety of hideously unflattering outfits throughout the story, beat up bad guys with her wrecking-ball boobs, and snap their pictures.  But first, we meet her while inexplicably sunbathing in a black bra, hot pants, and pantyhose while watching that old nudie-flick standby, naked coed volleyball. 

Later, there's a weird slow-motion sequence with her beating up an attacker with her boobs while taking pictures of him, leading to a hilarous speeded-up car chase that's like a cross between "Bullitt" and "The Road Runner."  In another highlight, Chesty's pretty blonde houseguest is mistaken for her by an assassin, giving director Wishman a chance to duplicate the shower scene from "Psycho" but with a decidedly different approach than Hitchcock.  To her credit, Wishman does manage a couple of semi-cool action scenes in which Chesty is manipulated into looking like she's actually doing something, a feat even Hitch probably couldn't have pulled off.

Wishman's directorial style is primitive, but it's always watchable.  She even shows a little imagination here and there, particularly during scenes of people getting beaten up, and there are flashes of rudimentary style.  But the main fun here (aside from the inescapably nightmarish 70s decor and fashions) is in watching Wishman try to coax a performance out of Chesty Morgan the way nature photographers attempt to manipulate animals into "acting" for the camera.  

While listening to breathless dramatic dialogue being dubbed over Chesty's expressionless closeups, to hilarious effect (Doris and her husband dubbed ALL the voices themselves), it finally occurred to me that these films reminded me of the 1970 TV series "Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp", in which footage of chimpanzees dressed as human characters was coupled with voiceover dialogue to create modest little spy spoofs.  Even the look of the film, sets, and costumes is similar, and it wasn't hard to imagine Chesty fitting right in as Lancelot Link's female sidekick Mata Hairy ("Oh, Lancie!"), albeit with less acting ability than the original ape actress.

Since there were only two Doris Wishman epics produced with Chesty Morgan as the star, the third film in this collection, "The Immoral Three", aka "Hotter Than Hell" (1975), is more of a generic offering.  That is, the three women who star in it have more generic physical endowments, although star Cindy Boudreau as "Genny" is still pretty conventionally stacked.

This time, agent Jane Tennay (also Boudreau) is murdered by a mysterious assailant.  We discover that she had three daughters who were the result of "carelessness" during missions involving sexual relations with the enemy.  The half-sisters Genny, Sandy (Sandra Kay), and Nancy (Michele Marie), strangers to one another until now, must find out who killed their mother and avenge her in order to inherit her $3,000,000 estate.

What follows is some dull softcore sex stuff such as a bikini-clad Sandy fellating a banana to entice the pool man and a drunken Genny doing a seductive dance in bra and panties (the elevator scene is actually kind of funny), mixed with scenes of abrupt, bloody violence as the girls' search for their mother's killer draws some desperate characters out of the woodwork.  The final minutes are rather intense in their own haphazard way, with a surprise ending from right out of left field.

The triple-feature Blu-Ray from Something Weird Video is in 1080p high-definition widescreen 1.78:1 with mono sound.  Bonus features are a gallery of Doris Wishman exploitation art and a sizable collection of entertaining trailers from her many films.

In recognition of one of his major influences, John Waters has the teenage son in "Serial Mom" breathlessly watching Doris Wishman's Chesty Morgan flicks on home video in the privacy of his bedroom.  I, too, rented these movies back in the early 80s and found them, while not exactly "sexy", to be delightfully odd artifacts from a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration of cinematic forces.  With CHESTY MORGAN'S BOSOM BUDDIES, we can revel once again in the bizarre.

CHESTY MORGAN'S BOSOM BUDDIES -- Blu-Ray Review by Porfle

SSI: SEXY SQUAD INVESTIGATION -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

(NOTE: This review originally appeared online at Bumscorner.com in 2006.)

Remember how a lot of cheap porn movies tried to be comedies, and between the old in-out, in-out scenes there would be embarrasingly lame attempts at humor by people who had absolutely no comedic skills, or acting ability in general?  You don't?  Uh, me neither.  Heh...I never watched movies like that. 

But it's a sure bet that those movies would've been a heck of a lot funnier if Thomas J. Moose and Andy Sawyer had made them, because their SSI: SEXY SQUAD INVESTIGATION (2006) is a scream.

Of course, this isn't a porn flick--there's nothing here that you couldn't see in the latest issue of Playboy, or at least Penthouse.  But the emphasis is on T & A, and there's plenty of it.  There are some really hot women in this movie.  One quick shot of a gorgeous black actress named Lexi Martinez reclining naked on a couch almost made me choke on my bean burrito.  "HOOO-LY SH**!" I cried, hastily grabbing for--the remote control.  (What did you think I was going to say, Mr. Dirty Mind?)

There are several other moments in SSI that are similarly inspirational, though these scenes are pretty brief.   Since this movie is as much a comedy as it is a gawkfest, the sex stuff isn't allowed to drag on to the point of boredom like it does in porn films.  Or so I've heard. 

However, the keepcase contains a coupon you can send in, along with three dollars postage, to receive an "unrated" version in which, I would assume, these scenes are much longer and more...uhh..."useful."  If you're a PERVERT, that is!

The story, such as it is, takes place in New York, although most of it was shot in Manchester, England, with actors valiantly struggling to simulate American accents with wildly varying degrees of success.  The guy who plays President Shrub (Frank Bowdler) sounds about as Texan as Leslie Howard, and his cowboy hat looks more like a pimp hat.  But it doesn't matter, because he's funny. 

President Shrub's decree that all sex outside the bonds of holy matrimony is now illegal necessitates the formation of the titular Sex Squad, who tirelessly peep around corners and through windows trying to catch perps in the act of "gittin' it on."

SSI agent John Honeysuckle (John Paul Fedele) is haunted by memories of the day his partner and brother Mickey (director Thomas J. Moose) was accidentally shot in the head by a farmer as they were spying on some sex-criminals while disguised as a pantomime horse.  This is the first of several laugh-out-loud scenes in the movie. 

Another is when Agent Honeysuckle is gazing at his new partner, Officer Katrina Lightbody (the lovely, flourescent-eyed A.J. Khan) while she examines some evidence.  The camera slowly pushes in on her as she picks up a cheerleader's pom-pom in slow motion, and the close-up of Honeysuckle's lovestruck face informs us that he's having a feverish fantasy.  He's imagining her dressed as a cheerleader, right?  No, he's imagining himself dressed as a cheerleader. 

Later, when he has another flashback about his former life as a welder who dreams of being a dancer, Fedele's goofily energetic spoof of Jennifer Beals in FLASHDANCE is a howl.  And then there's Honeysuckle's Viet Nam flashback, where a grenade went off in his lap and blew his balls off, and they landed in "Oozedick" Kawalski's mess kit, and...

Anyway, Honeysuckle and Lightbody's investigation of a mysterious woman who is going around seducing people into illegally having sex with her leads them to uncover a sinister plot that is directed at the President himself, and his virginal daughter, Jessica (Natalie Heck). 

But that's about as much of the story as I need to yak about, since it's really just an excuse for one comedy bit after another.  Much of this is similar to stuff like Mr. Show or SCTV, with generous helpings of Benny Hill thrown in.  There are a few slow spots along the way, but heck, even BLAZING SADDLES has a few slow spots. 

The commentary track features Thomas J. Moose (I wonder if he's any relation to Bullwinkle?) and Andy Sawyer, but I could only get through about half of it because almost everything they start to say is cut off by cries of intense pain.  For some reason they decided to play an old Victorian parlor game that administers electric shocks while talking about the movie, so the commentary sounds pretty much like this:

"So, these shots were taken in Manchester, and John Fedele, who stars in the movie as 'Honeysuckle', shot all the New York material, and we found that--AAAAGGGGHHH!!!"

"In fact, there were a couple of streets in Manchester that we used a couple of times, you'll see one later...in fact, there it is GAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!  BASTARD!!!"

Along with a short blooper reel and some trailers, the DVD also contains a thirty-minute short called FBI GUYS, which is a black-and-white mock episode of a 50s-type cop show that won "Best Program" in the 1992 USA Hometown Video Awards, whatever that is, and it's also hilarious.

No, this isn't a Woody Allen film, and it's not likely to pass within range of Roger Ebert's eyeballs any time soon, but SSI: SEXY SQUAD INVESTIGATION is brimming with babes and it's cheap, stupid, and funny.  As Major Kong might say, "a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff."

SSI: SEXY SQUAD INVESTIGATION -- DVD Review by Porfle

CLOAK & SHAG HER -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 11/24/10

 

With its poppy 60s-spoof packaging and "Austin Powers" overtones, CLOAK & SHAG HER (2008) looks like it's going to be as much fun as another  Seduction Cinema release I caught earlier, SSI: SEXY SQUAD INVESTIGATION.  But this one doesn't quite have the same mojo, baby.

I don't know about you, but I find extended softcore sex scenes to be even more boring than extended hardcore sex scenes.  Sure, I love looking at nude women, but watching long, drawn-out sequences of them coyly fiddling around with each other and doing R-rated stuff eventually makes me start to yawn, especially when a movie is composed of several of these scenes linked by brief patches of lame, half-hearted comedy. 

Maybe that's why I liked SSI so much--it had the same structure but the comedy was actually funny in its own dopey way.  And I think it helped that I saw the shorter version in which the pretend-sex scenes ended before I started to nod off.  SSI also had the advantage of some location photography, as opposed to the claustrophobic CLOAK & SHAG HER which was taped entirely under one roof, plus an overall sense of comic enthusiasm that is lacking here. 
 
The story, such as it is, concerns a scheme by the evil Dr. Mean (Darian Caine) to use a love potion to make horny yuppies more susceptible to her commands.  I think.  This is such a terrifying prospect that super-sexy secret agent April Flowers (Julian Wells) and her bumbling partner Basil Shagalittle (Dean Paul) are fetched from the late 60s via time machine and summoned into action.  This action, of course, consists of having sex with Dr. Mean and her minions.

The actors are adequate but nobody in the cast is in danger of winning an Oscar.  As April Flowers, Julian Wells is cute as a button and makes really cool faces during sex.  Dean Paul gives us his best Austin Powers imitation as Basil, but it just ain't happenin', baby.  Darian Caine is a little bland for a super-villian--she recites her lines okay but doesn't really put much into them.  As her minions, the sexy A.J. Khan and the incredibly non-sexy Shane Annigans (as the hulking, homicidal-but-sensitive henchman "Sid the Mangler") do what they can with their roles, while Ruby LaRocca is a lot funnier as herself in the making-of featurette than she is in the movie.

The extras also include a director's commentary and a bunch of trailers from other Seduction Cinema releases (most of which looked like more fun than this one).  And there's also a 2nd disc that consists of--surprise!--the film's soundtrack music by a group called Trigger Finger.  The songs tend to get a little monotonous, but this is mainly because they were written as backup to monotonous scenes.  Otherwise, it's a pretty cool CD. 

This might be a pleasant diversion if you catch it in the right mood, but it's just too blah for me to give it a "yeah, baby, yeah!"  The pop-art opening titles sequence, with all the female characters indulging in some topless go-go dancing to Trigger Finger's catchy main theme, is a lot of fun and kicks the movie off right.  It's too bad the rest of CLOAK & SHAG HER barely even tries to be as shag-a-delic.

CLOAK & SHAG HER -- DVD Review by Porfle

MASSACRE IN DINOSAUR VALLEY -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 

Just to clear things up, there ain't no dinosaurs in MASSACRE IN DINOSAUR VALLEY (Severin Films, 1985), so all you Ray Harryhausen and Willis O'Brien fans can scratch that off your list of reasons why you might want to watch this movie. There aren't even any iguanas with fins glued on their backs waddling around on a tabletop jungle set.

What there is, however, might very well appeal to you anyway if you're into jungle adventures with plenty of action, violence, gorgeous babes, manly heroes, sadistic cannibals, and that always-unbeatable combination of nudity and gore.

What's more, the overracting, bad Italian-movie-style dubbing, and very low-budget filmmaking might even satisfy your bad-movie sweet tooth, although this lively effort is (a) not all that bad, and (b) by no means dull. 

 

In fact, once our expedition of disparate character types survive a chartered plane crash in the Brazilian jungle (which is surprisingly well-staged) and find themselves in a desperate struggle to survive all its many dangers (including the aforementioned cannibals), this flick tends to get downright riveting at times.

Those various characters include the handsome, two-fisted young paleontologist Kevin (Michael Sopkiw, BLASTFIGHTER, KILLER FISH), a venerable professor and his beautiful but reserved daughter Eva (as Susane Carvall), Viet Nam vet Capt. John Heinz (Milton Rodríguez) and his hateful ex-wife Betty (Marta Anderson, BARE BEHIND BARS).

There's also a naughty photographer and his two sexy models, and a shady pilot whose inferior flying skills plus some freak turbulence get them all stuck slogging through the jungle in the first place.

Before that, the film establishes itself as having a lighthearted streak with dinosaur bone hunter Kevin bopping around Brazil with no money but a way with the ladies. He also gets into a humorous brawl with two guys who are each two feet taller than he is, and has a sexy encounter with one of the models which is just the first taste of nudity and softcore sex that the film has to offer.

After the plane crash, he and ex-Green Beret Capt. Heinz supply the movie with its maximum daily requirement of testosterone as they battle for leadership of the ragtag group in a fight to the death that is interrupted by a cannibal attack that results in a very entertaining and somewhat colorful reduction of the sizable cast one screaming character at a time.

Of course, we get the standard sequence in which the ladies are dressed in revealing ceremonial garb and tied up in the middle of camp for some good old cannibal fun and games which include the usual horrific stuff that we've sat through the previous half of the movie to see. 

This leads to an exciting escape thanks to the ever-stalwart Kevin and a frenzied pursuit through perilous jungle and raging river, with our heroes little suspecting that they're headed straight for an even more dangerous encounter with white jungle crime lord China (Andy Silas) in his secluded plantation where slaves mine diamonds and his lesbian henchwoman Myara (Gloria Cristal) helps him ravish all female captives before executing them in not-so-nice ways.

The Blu-ray from Severin Films is scanned uncut in 4k from the original negative. In addition to a trailer, Italian main titles, and some deleted scenes, the extras menu includes the very engaging "Valley Boy – Interview with Actor Michael Sopkiw" (Kevin) and "Lost in Brazil – Interview with Co-Writer Dardano Sacchetti." The special edition Blu-ray features a slipcover and different box art.

What director Michele Massimo Tarantini (as Michael E. Lemick) lacks in finesse, he more than compensates for with an ability to stage big frenetic action and mayhem by making the most of his meager budget in imaginative ways. In other words, MASSACRE IN DINOSAUR VALLEY should give those receptive to such slapdash fun more than enough to tickle their funny bones.


Buy it at Severin Films

Special edition with slipcover


Special Features:

    Valley Boy – Interview with Actor Michael Sopkiw
    Lost in Brazil – Interview with Co-Writer Dardano Sacchetti
    Deleted and Extended Scenes Reel
    Trailer
    Italian credits
    Reversible Wrap
    Exclusive Slipcover (not on standard edition)



Special edition/slipcover art:

 

MASSACRE IN DINOSAUR VALLEY -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

"SKIN: A HISTORY OF NUDITY IN THE MOVIES" -- Captivating New Documentary Available On Demand August 18 -- Watch the Official Trailer Debut HERE!

SKIN: A HISTORY OF NUDITY IN THE MOVIES

Available On Demand August 18th


A definitive documentary on the history of nudity in the movies, beginning with the silent movie era through present day, examining the changes in morality that led to the use of nudity in films while emphasizing the political, sociological and artistic changes that shaped this rich history.

Skin delves  into the gender bias concerning nudity in motion pictures and will follow the revolution that has pushed for gender equality in feature films today.

A deep discussion of pre-code Hollywood and its amoral roots, the censorship that “cleaned up” Hollywood and how the MPAA was formed leads into a discussion of how nudity changed cinematic culture through the decades.

It culminates in a discussion of “what are nude scenes like in the age of the #METOO movement?”

WATCH THE TRAILER:

Featuring:

Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, Paper Moon, Targets, Saint Jack)
Shannon Elizabeth (American Pie, Scary Movie, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back)
Diane Franklin (The Last American Virgin, Better Off Dead, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure)
Pam Grier (The Big Doll House, Jackie Brown, Foxy Brown, Above the Law)
Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Look Who’s Talking, Clueless)
Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange, Caligula, Startrek: Generations, Halloween)
Eric Roberts (Runaway Train, Inherent Vice, Star 80)
Kevin Smith (Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Clerks, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back)
Sean Young (Blade Runner, Dune, No Way Out, Wall Street)
Jim McBride (creator of Mr. Skin)

Written by | Danny Wolf, Paul Fishbein
Directed by | Danny Wolf
Executive Produced by | Jim McBride, Paul Fishbein
Produced by | Paul Fishbein
Runtime | 130 minutes
Distribution | Quiver Distribution

"SKIN: A HISTORY OF NUDITY IN THE MOVIES" -- Captivating New Documentary Available On Demand August 18 -- Watch the Official Trailer Debut HERE!

Song: "Sweet Marijuana" (1934) From Pre-Code Musical "Murder At The Vanities" (video)

The plot of this 1934 film concerns a murder investigation during a bawdy stage musical.

The film itself was released during the fabled Pre-Code era...

...shortly before the Hays Office would begin to crack down on screen immorality.

Hence, the inclusion of a song called "Sweet Marijuana"...

(sung by Gertrude Michael)

...and featuring a number of topless chorus girls.


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

Song: "Sweet Marijuana" (1934) From Pre-Code Musical "Murder At The Vanities" (video)

Nudity In The Sean Connery "James Bond" Films? (video)

Connery's Bond operated in the less-permissive 60s.  

Thus, little or no nudity was seen.

Ursula Andress seems to briefly bare all in "Dr. No."
But a closer look reveals her dignity remains intact.

As for the bedroom shot of Daniela Bianchi in "From Russia With Love"...
...is she, or isn't she?

"Goldfinger" comes close a couple of times.

Most of the time, however, a bit of suggestion was enough.

(Note: the emphasis here is on shots intentionally staged by the director, not accidental slips.)


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

Nudity In The Sean Connery "James Bond" Films? (video)