Friday, December 13, 2024

LET’S GET PHYSICAL: CARNAL GO-ROUND (1972) ** ½

FORMAT:  DVD

A hooker named Alice (Becky Sharpe) recruits her friend Minnie (Carmen Olivera) into the world’s oldest profession.  After she teaches the fledgling streetwalker the tricks of the trade (so to speak), they head to a big orgy held by a swinger who looks like Jeff Garlin cosplaying as George Wendt.  When Minnie’s boyfriend Arnold (Rick Lutze) finds out she’s a hooker, he breaks up with her.  Alice then swoops in to bang him. 

Carnal Go-Round has its share of memorable moments.  The scenes of Minnie and her John are fun.  They are intercut with Alice addressing the camera and giving pointers like, “Always get the money up front” and “Leave them wanting more!”  This kind of makes it feel like a bargain bin self-help seminar for sex workers.  The funniest bit is when Lutze and Sharpe bang on a bed adorned with Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote bedsheets!  (Lutze also wears a Donald Duck shirt in the final fuck scene.)

Although there are some bright spots sprinkled throughout, Carnal Go-Round never quite comes together in the end.  (Pardon the pun.)  The big problem is that the camerawork is really erratic.  It would be one thing if that camera was only shaky during the scenes of cars going up and down Hollywood Boulevard.  It’s another thing when the camera can’t keep still in the bedroom while people are trying to get it on.  (The constant zooming in and out during the orgy scene is especially hard to take.)

The oddest thing about the movie is that even though it was shot with sound, there are still silent movie title cards that frequently pop up.  Weirder still is the fact that they all look like they were written on a strawberry Fruit Roll-Up with a white crayon.  Then again, all this is just weird enough to make the flick memorable. 

The good news is, Sharpe and Olivera have a lot of chemistry.  Their charisma holds their scenes together, despite the overall technical shortcomings of the film.  The three-way scene where they gang up on a client is particularly strong thanks to the way they bounce off one another.  (Both literally and figuratively.)  Their antics make the otherwise so-so Carnal Go-Round worth a go. 

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