The Loving Touch is an early movie by the director of Angel, Robert Vincent O’Neil. It’s a little spotty and a tad predictable, but there is some truly inspired and nutty stuff to be found here. Warts and all, it’s a minor sleaze classic.
The opening is strong. Marco (Frank Cuva) puts a nylon stocking over his face and rapes and strangles a woman. He’s later arrested and his shrink Dr. Alden (Lawrence Montaigne) deduces he’s a chronic insomniac who believes he’s dreaming when he kills. The doc has an alcoholic wife (Jo Ann Meredith) who cuts into his time with his hot mistress (Elizabeth Plumb). When his mistress tells him the plot of The Manchurian Candidate, Dr. Alden gets the idea to program his patient into making his wife the next victim.
O’Neil’s handling of the attack scenes is effective. In addition to the opening, there’s a strangling in the shower, a great nude modeling scene, and some nasty necrophilia. The standout sequence arrives when the killer chases a topless woman while red and green neon fills the room, making it resemble a trippy grindhouse giallo. Even the simple close-ups of the killer’s stockinged face are quite unsettling. O’Neil also delivers some unintentionally hilarious romantic interludes that play like old-timey cigarette commercials (but with T & A).
The Loving Touch is more commonly known as The Psycho Lover, but I’m referring to it by the onscreen title, which oddly appears not once but twice during the opening credits. Sure, you’ll see the big twist coming from a mile away. That doesn’t detract from the experience though. There are just too many weird moments here that are more fun to focus on. Like the fact that Dr. Alden drives around in a little space car that looks like something out of The Jetsons. Then there’s the ongoing discussion about a (thankfully implied) sex act involving a ketchup bottle. The killer’s big freak out scene is pretty wild too.
All in all, those outlandish touches make The Loving Touch worth checking out.
AKA: The Psycho Lover. AKA: Psycho Killer. AKA: The Lovely Touch.
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