THE BEST OF DORIS WISHMAN (2021) ***

The Best of Doris Wishman is a celebration of the smut movie pioneer’s work.  It is a hodgepodge of movie trailers (Hideout in the Sun, Nude on the Moon, Gentlemen Prefer Nature Girls, Blaze Starr Goes Nudist, The Sex Perils of Paulette, Bad Girls Go to Hell, Another Day, Another Man, My Brother’s Wife, A Taste of Flesh, Indecent Desires, Too Much Too Often, The Amazing Transplant, Love Toy, Keyholes are for Peeping, Deadly Weapons, Double Agent 73, and The Immoral Three) and musical interludes from her films (such as Diary of a Nudist, Blaze Starr Goes Nudist, Indecent Desires, and Deadly Weapons) that almost play like mini-music videos.  In addition to the DVD, there’s also a bonus CD, which is essentially just an audio version of the DVD.  It’s not exactly a must-have, but I’m glad that Something Weird and Modern Harmonic is really taking up the cause to preserve music from old exploitation movies.  Some of these rarities would be forgotten if it hadn’t been for their efforts, and for that, we should be thankful. 

The Best of Doris Wishman offers a nice sampling of her work.  Most of the eras of her career are touched upon, from nudie movies to roughies to her gonzo exploitation films.  I just wish it had been a bit more exhaustive as there’s no mention of her magnum opus, Let Me Die a Woman or her attempt at an ‘80s slasher, A Night to Dismember.   

The DVD runs seventy-six minutes, but strangely, only forty are devoted to Wishman.  The rest of the time is spent on ads for Modern Harmonic’s other vinyl releases like Something Weird’s Greatest Hits CD (which in itself is highly recommended), The Doll Squad, Mr. Peter’s Pets, Pacific Northwest Fuzz Box, Missile to the Moon, She Demons, Psychedelicsex Kicks, Pacific Northwest Jukebox, Girl in Gold Boots, The Party Girls, It’s a Revolution Mother, Dracula (The Dirty Old Man), and Something Weird’s Spookshow Spectacular a Go-Go.  I’m not knocking it as I have enjoyed every CD I’ve bought from Modern Harmonic.  However, I kind of wish the DVD was a wall-to-wall trailer compilation.  The musical interludes are fine (as is the rare audio of Wishman on the set), but I was kind of hoping the DVD would be more than a mere visual accompaniment to the CD.  Even with my reservations, this is still a treat for Wishman fans.  

RESISTANCE (2003) **

Bill Paxton stars as an American fighter pilot whose plane is shot down over Belgium during WWII.  A boy finds him and brings him to the home of Julia Ormond, whose husband (Philippe Volter) is part of the Belgian resistance against the Nazis.  While hiding him from the clutches of the Germans, she and Paxton grow close and eventually fall in love.  Naturally, her jealous husband learns about her betrayal and sells them out to the Nazis.

Resistance is an unapologetically schmaltzy and well-intentioned period drama.  Just as U-571 was a throwback to the old Men on a Mission actioners, this is a retooling of the war-torn romance films of the Golden Age of Hollywood.  (The resistance leaders are so cliche that they would look right at home in Top Secret!)  All of this is relatively low key, predictable, and a tad forgettable, but at least it moves at an agreeable pace and doesn’t get bogged down with a lot of unnecessary subplots like a lot of similar romance dramas. 

In fact, the pacing is a bit too fast as the film enters the homestretch.  The ending is so rushed that it almost feels like it was the victim of reshoots.  The fact that major plot points are delivered via exposition by two minor supporting characters at the very end is especially odd and ends the movie on an unsatisfying note.  

I guess the main stumbling block is that there isn’t a whole lot of sparks between Ormond and Paxton.  In their separate scenes with other actors they are quite good.  However, their romantic sequences are lacking passion and kind of fizzle out before they can even gather any momentum.  Plus, the kid who acts as a surrogate son to the couple will grate on your nerves pretty quick.  It’s enough to make Resistance awfully resistible.