(Originally reviewed April 24th, 2019)
Jane (Cindy Boudreau) is strangled to death while sunbathing on a balcony. At her funeral, Jane’s three long-lost daughters, Sandy (Sandra Kay), Nancy (Michelle Marie), and Ginny (also played by Boudreau) meet for the first time. They also learn their mother (whom they never met) was a special agent who slept with and killed enemy agents. That means her daughters were “occupational side effects”. Jane’s will states the three girls need to team up and find her murderer before they can collect the three-million-dollar inheritance. They are given a list of four suspects and set out to determine which one is the killer.
Early on in Doris Wishman’s The Immoral Three, one of the characters mention in passing that Jane was known as “Agent 73”. That means this is actually an under the radar sequel to Double Agent 73! All I have to say is that Cindy Boudreau is no Chesty Morgan, but then again, who is? While she may not have Chesty’s impossible bustline, unlike Chesty, Boudreau can recite intelligible dialogue, which helps. I guess. There’s no camera boob gimmick this time out though, which is a little disappointing.
The good news is, this is a Doris Wishman movie through and through. It may not be up to the dizzying heights of Wishman’s classics like Double Agent 73, Let Me Die a Woman, and Deadly Weapons, but The Immoral Three has enough moments of WTF (Wishman’s Type of Filmmaking) to make it worthwhile. There’s the oddball plot. Misogyny. Murder. Nudity. Shots of people walking slowly towards the camera. And of course, random shots of feet. As a bonus, the flick features what has to be the most inexplicable use of a xylophone found on a soundtrack.
The Immoral Three is one of Wishman’s better put together films. Sure, it kind of drags around the halfway mark, but her Kitchen Sink approach assures you’ll be riveted. While most of this plays like some sort of sexed-up mash-up of Charlie’s Angels and Mission: Impossible, some scenes feel like a prototype for a slasher movie with a black-gloved killer stabbing people. We also get a not-bad double twist ending.
The main draw will be the shit-ton of nudity. The lovely ladies in the cast get naked at the drop of a hat. Whether getting changed, skinny-dipping, or having sex (willingly and otherwise), there’s never a shortage of skin on screen.
The nuttiest scene comes when Kay simulates fellatio with a banana to arouse a potential suspect. When she goes down on him, Wishman superimposes shots of Kay sucking the banana over his face, which scores maximum laughs. While I can’t say The Immoral Three lives up to the promise of Double Agent 73, moments like these assure exploitation fans will have loads of fun with it.
AKA: Hotter Than Hell.
DORIS DECEMBER NOTES:
1) This print features both titles, The Immoral Three AND Hotter Than Hell.
2) One can only imagine what the film would’ve been like had Chesty Morgan reprised her role as Agent 73. Then again, it would’ve been a shame to see her killed off so early in the film. (Or I guess she could’ve played a dual role as Boudreau does here, although it might’ve been weird seeing her playing her own daughter.)
3) The $3,000,000 inheritance the heroines are trying to get is the same amount the hero of Nude on the Moon received.
4) I think the secret to The Immoral Three’s success is that it has a sense of fun about it, something that really wasn’t present in Doris Wishman’s films since her nudie movie days. Oh, and the rampant nudity helps too.
5) Director Trademarks: Odd dubbing, weird narration, awkward telephone conversations, women staring at their nude frame in the mirror, random dance sequence, and naturally, feet.
6) The banana scene is, as Martin Scorsese would say, “CINEMA!”
7) The theme from Double Agent 73 is heard again to cement the fact that this is indeed a sequel, albeit a loose one.
8) The death by candy dish scene is a direct homage to (or “blatantly stolen from”, however you want to phrase it) Bad Girls Go to Hell.
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