The legendary Russ Meyer directed this collection of Nudie-Cutie vignettes. Like most anthologies, the results are uneven more often than not, but when it hits the sweet spot of cheesecake cover girls and lightweight humor, it works. Things kick off with an amusing 2 ½ minute film school of how to make your own movie that ends with the announcer stating proudly: “This film was made by adults for ADULTS!” Then the segments begin.
“Naked Innocence” (****) has a blonde wandering through the woods until she comes upon a stream where she stops to sunbathe and eventually skinny dip. There isn’t much to this scene, but the part where our heroine strips down and changes into her bathing suit only to take it off seconds later is what certain highly knowledgeable film scholars would describe as “awesome”. This sequence gets bonus points for not having any superfluous comedy bits. (More on that later.)
“Beauties, Bubbles and H2O” (***) is next. Three brunettes hop into a swimming pool and lather each other with soap and sponges. The shots of gorgeous gals bathing in their birthday suits are just dandy. However, the thing that brings this segment down a notch is the unfunny comic relief narration by a plumber who rattles off bathing-related history, statistics, and minutia. Since it’s all beautifully photographed and the ladies look fantastic, it’s a relatively minor quibble in the long run. I just can’t help but think Meyer would’ve been better off with just some classical music in the background or something.
After that, we have “The Bare and the Bear” (**). A busty redhead in a fur coat rolls around on a beach while a narrator talks about trying to sell bear skins. Every now and then the action cuts away to some bears in a zoo somewhere. Despite the model being drop dead gorgeous, there’s very little here to recommend. This sequence almost feels like a leftover nudie reel that Russ added nature footage to. The silly narration doesn’t help much either.
That’s followed by “Nudists on the High Seas!” (***). Three gal pals go out sailing together. They lounge topless topside and generally enjoy their day at sea. Like the other segments, Nudists on the High Seas! suffers from unfunny comic relief narration. (This one features a biography of the ship’s captain.) That said, this is a decent slice of cheesecake filmmaking hallmarked by great cinematography and lovely models. I just wish the “skin diving” bit was longer.
Then it’s time for “The Nymphs” (** ½). A blonde and a brunette change out of their evening gowns, bathe, and then go for a swim. The joke in this one is that the filmmakers accidentally use the wrong soundtrack, so that the narration doesn’t match the action on screen. While this is sort of funny, it ultimately comes at the expense of the models.
“Bikini Busters!” (***) is our final sequence, and it offers up a loose history of the bathing suit throughout the ages. From Eve’s fig leaf to cave girl loincloths to the bikinis of the ‘50s. This segment is the most successful in terms of blending the comedy with nudity. Some of the silent movie shtick doesn’t work, but the narration is better than the previous sequences.
Overall, the spotty narration is the only drawback here. If you just turn the sound off, you’ll be in for a real treat as Meyer’s penchant for photographing beautiful women is on full display. If he had shit-canned the comedy, Erotica would’ve truly been erotic.
AKA: Eroticon.
No comments:
Post a Comment