Friday, January 6, 2006

The Ultimate Degenerate - multiple (Something Weird Video)

I LOVE Something Weird Video. I love their philosophy, I love their owners (who occasionally appear in their commentaries, especially in the HG Lewis and David Friedman discs), and I love their discs. The Ulitmate Degenerate is a trio of 60's sexploitation movies (would be considered softcore by some, silly by most) from the sixties. **WARNING: Frank sex talk ahead. If such talk offends or upsets you, or you are under 18, please do not read. I hear Disney.Com is a swell destination**

The Degenerate - 1969
Although the credits are full of synonyms (there are more here than any other IMDB entry I can remember), this is a Michael and Roberta Findley flick. For those who know trashy cinema, they know that alone makes this disc worth its price. This movie is about a guy (who must be rich) who has a group of girls perform all sorts of "degenerate" acts on his private stage. The problem is, by today's standards, very little of what they do would be considered even slightly unusual. I mean, whipped cream from a can is hardly dark or degenerate. Doesn't everyone use this as foreplay at one point or another? The ending is kinda a surprise, and is a lot darker than one would expect for a movie from back then. The girls are not the most attractive, as seems to be typical for Findley's work. All of the "Her Flesh" movies have girls (including Roberta herself) that are not exactly top drawer. But there's plenty of nakked women.

The Lusting Hour - 1967 (listed as The Love Hour in IMDB)
The weakest of the three, the director of this softcore outing would go on to create some hardcore stuff in the 70's and 80's, but nothing you've ever heard of, and with no one who ever went on to anything. This flick pretends to be a documentary (like so many of the sexploitation flicks do), with chapters on Brothel girls, street walkers, and expensive escorts. The street walker section has a daring (for its day) section about gigalos, and has a sort of proto-gay scene that must have really upset the raincoat crowd on 42nd street back in the day. There's not nearly the nudity that some of the later features have, but you do get this great transvestite whipping a gigalo scene that's worth the price of admission.

In Hot Blood - 1968
My personal favorite of the trio. I don't think a minute goes by in this 70 minute flick that a bare breast isn't on the screen. If you love large natural breasts, this is the flick for you! Also, the only hint of a plot is given by the weird narration. If it wasn't for that (there is no dialog, just narration and hippy sixties music), you'd just think this was amateur video shot at someone's love in. Special note, Dave Friedman would love this flick, there's a bunch of fake whipping/beating that everyone seems to enjoy and never leaves a mark).

These old exploitation films really are a hoot. They roll around with only their uderware bottoms on, as if they don't know what to do. In a very real (but weird) sort of way, there's an innocence to them that makes them very funny (at least to me). I find it hard to believe that anyone ever behaved this way, or could believe that people did, yet these flicks sure talk like this is happening everywhere, and all the time. Hard to say. I was 11 when this movie made the grindhouse circuit.

Four beers out of five (bonus star awarded for the constant parade of breasts)