Dena (Sandy Roberts) is a sexy blonde who is framed for murder and becomes embroiled in international espionage. A detective named Mike (Jeff Baker) reluctantly takes her case and pounds the pavement for answers. When Dena is kidnapped by some gangsters, it’s up to Mike to rescue her.
I know that’s kind of a barebones plot description, but you have to understand that about 75% of The Platinum Pussycat is just flat-out incoherent. It’s one part detective story, one part spy caper, and one part skin flick. There’s a lot going on in the story, but nothing ever really happens. It’s all one big jumble, and it’s often difficult for the mind to catalogue just what is occurring on screen in any given scene.
Like most ‘60s sexploitation cheapies, it has crisp black and white cinematography and out-of-synch sound. While some of the dubbing is good for a laugh, the constant narration and voiceovers make things a lot more confusing than they needed to be. (I could be wrong, but it sounded like one of the voices on the soundtrack was Coleman Francis.) The whiplash-inducing editing is also frustrating and often prevents the viewer from understanding what should’ve otherwise been a straightforward scene.
I was tempted to give this a lower rating, but there were a few noteworthy moments that kept this hovering around the Two Stars mark. One is the random color sex scene that appears for no good reason about halfway through the movie involving a greasy guy getting it on with two hookers. I also liked the scene where Baker gets the drop on the bad guys while wearing a wetsuit and shoots them with a speargun. (I think this was part of the James Bond influence.) However, these scenes are fleeting, as most of the running time is devoted to long stretches where nothing happens and short stretches where way too much happens.
Even though much of it doesn’t make a lick of sense, there is a lot of skin here, so that’s always a good thing.
The co-director was Edward L. Montoro. He only directed one more movie (the Uschi Digard comedy, Getting into Heaven) before going on to create Film Ventures International. He later took millions from the company and disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again. He’s such a legendary figure in the world of cult filmmaking, I’m surprised nobody’s made a movie about him yet.
AKA: The Losers. AKA: The Pink Pussycat.
No comments:
Post a Comment