"When I was a kid, my Daddy told me,
'There's a buyer for everything.' And I lived to find out that he was
right."
Harry H. Novak, alongside David F Friedman
(24 December 1923 — 14 February 2011) one of the great (s)exploitation kings of
the last half of the 20th century, died 26 March 2014 at the age of 86.
A detailed career review of all the
projects Harry H. Novak foisted upon the American public would be Sisyphean
task at best and hardly possible, as no full and unequivocal list exists. What
follows is a review of the films that we found that, for the most part,
probably had Novak's involved somewhere along the way — and some that may not
have. It is definitely not a complete list, and definitely not infallible, it
is merely culled from sources reliable and unreliable that we found online. We
also in no way suggest that the given release dates are the correct ones, they
are merely the first ones we found.
If you know any we missed, feel free to
send the title...
Go here for Part II (1956–64)
Go here for Part III (1965–1966)
Go here for Part IV (1967)
Boneless
Aka Mutilation, original title: Honenuki.
Another Japanese pink film picked up by Harry Novak for stateside release. EigaWijia
says: "Given the title Mutilation in some English texts, the film was
released in the US by Harry Novak under the title Boneless. Under that title it
has been released in the US on DVD-R by Something Weird video, who describe it
as 'a lurid offering from the formative years of the Japanese eroduction'.
Over at imdb, c.auger@gmx.de explains the
plot: "When the two lovers Yukio (Kaoru Miya) and Minoru (Mari Nagisa)
meet again after four years of separation, they find that their old feelings
are not dead. The problem is that Yukio is now married. But things get really
complicated when they are spied upon by a blackmailer who then forces Yukio to
have sex with Mister Jacob, a foreign businessman. Ironically, it was Yukio's
unknowing husband, who ordered the blackmailer to find a woman for his
important business partner Jacob. When Jacob leaves the country the blackmailer
decides to use Yukio for other jobs and make her his partner."
Japanese poster above from Las Mejores Peliculas delMundo.
For Single Swingers Only
Included by benefit of doubt, this Don
Davis (aka Donald A. Davis) movie should not to be confused with Columbia
Pictures' For Singles Only, released the same year (poster below). For Single
Swingers Only was later released on VHS by Something Weird as a Harry Novak
double feature with Gordon Heller's Free Love Confidential (1967).
RottenTomatoes
reduces the plot to "the party really gets started when single girls
Gracie (Heidi Anderson) and Gloria (Sharon Sanford) move into a swingers-only
apartment complex", but Amazon offers more detail: "Gracie and Gloria
move into an apartment complex reserved For Single Swingers Only where the
bed-hoppin' neighbors include studs-in-residence Arty and Dave, 'everybody's
playmate' Connie, and Ruth, the lesbian landlady who's also 'a peek freak.' But
not everyone was made to swing and Gracie starts to crack, especially after
finding Arty & Dave making it with a teen runaway in the living room and
Gloria & Ruth doing it in the bedroom: 'Everything has an insane dirty
feeling about it!' So insane that poor Gracie starts to imagine all the
swingers turning into refugees from a horror film. Sexploitation as you like it
from the vaults of Harry Novak. Remember: 'Only Groovy Chicks Need
Apply'!"
Scenes from Columbia
Pictures' For Singles Only:
Sounds like a plot to us, but DVD Drive-in
disagrees: "Unlike Don Davis' other films, For Single Swingers Only has a
threadbare plot on which to hang non-stop nude and sex scenes. This is the
epitome of the weekend wonder, obviously shot for pennies in a local motel
posing as an apartment complex. You get two long shower scenes, lots of
extended scenes of people unpacking, walking around their apartments, or
sitting around naked, somehow ballooning the running time of this thing to 68
minutes. It fits well on this double feature, considering we follow two more
young women having sexual shenanigans in the free love 1960s, but unfortunately
has little to recommend about it."
As far as we can tell, no one in front
of the camera ever made another movie — or at least not under the same name. For Single Swingers Only can be found for free on any number of NSFW websites, like this one here.
Four Kinds of Love
(1968, writ. & dir. William Rotsler)
"Yes, there are Four Kinds of Love . . . four kinds of sex. There is an infinite number of combinations. If you can avoid Hate and Money-sex, find enough Like-sex and search for Love-sex, you just might get through life alive."
"Yes, there are Four Kinds of Love . . . four kinds of sex. There is an infinite number of combinations. If you can avoid Hate and Money-sex, find enough Like-sex and search for Love-sex, you just might get through life alive."
Years before Ellen S. Berscheid came up
with her specifications of the four kinds of love (Romantic/Passionate Love,
Companionate Love, Compassionate Love, and Attachment Love), Rotsler reduced
love to sex and proposed and presented his own definitions of the four kinds of
love in this movie here, aptly entitled Four Kinds of Love, which the American Film Institute's Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the
United States (Volume 1, Part 2) explains as: "An investigation into human
sexual behavior reveals four different modes of erotic involvement: sex between
lovers, called 'love-sex'; 'money-sex' including all relationships motivated by
the desire for material gain; casual or 'like-sex'; and 'hate-sex', which
includes rape."
We took a superficial look at this
"drama" in our R.I.P. career review of Paul Hunt:
"According to imdb, Paul Hunt appears uncredited as 'Paul' in this sex
film directed by Renaissance Man William Rotsler. At imdb, john22900
says: 'There's not much to this movie. The women in this movie are much better
to look at than the men. For the most part the women have nice bodies and
pretty faces. Two of the men that are almost instantly recognizable are Jay
Edwards and William Rotsler aka Shannon Carse. The best looking brunette is
probably Carol Turner who is very hot but there is a blonde with a nice set of
large breasts too. This film is in black and white and most of the film is
spent on nudity and sex. No plot to speak of. The film is better when it
concentrates on the naked women, not the men who thankfully keep most of their
clothes on during this movie'."
The press book at One-Sheet Index
explains the fine points of the four segments: "The Love-sex portion of Four
Kinds of Love features Kathleen Williams and Don Alman in what, in effect, is
an erotic poem. [...] Money-sex is the world's oldest commodity. A lot of
marriages are built on Money-sex. Money-sex isn't just prostitution (as shown
in the film by Jay Edwards purchase and use of Carol Turner) or street corner
assignation or the money on the dresser. It's the girl who allows you certain
freedoms because if she doesn't, you won't take her to dinner or the movies and
she won't be popular. It's the wife who married for the large house, the safe
husband, the sure job, the bank account and the duplicate credit cards. [...]
Hate-sex comes in many guises jealousy, frustration, fear. [...] Sheri Jackson
is annoyed at Hugh Hamilton's eager pawing and decides to build him up to a big
let-down . . . only she falls victim to her own trap and is raped. [...]
Like-sex is most of the sex in the world. Ordinarily people must at least like
each other to participate. Like-sex is the sex part of most marriages, and all
casual affairs. [...] And no one likes sex better than Clint Randall, James
Brand and Paul Hunter who pursue and are pursued by an eager band of lovelies —
Karen Richards, Brigette Grennell, Linda Stiles, Sheri Jackson, Vicky Saunders
and Christine Thomas."
Among the other women of the film is
brunette Kathy Williams, above, who showed up that same year in a secondary
role in Don Henderson's great morality tale, The Babysitter (trailer).
Theme Song to The Babysitter:
Behind Locked Doors
Not to be confused — as many people do —
with Distribpix's
B&W roughie Two Girls for a Madman, also from 1968, directed by Stanley H.
Brassloff, whom some online sources credit as co-scriptwriter to Behind Locked
Doors.
Trailer to Two Girls for a Madman:
Aka Any Body... Any Way, Le amanti proibite
del Dr. Sex, and Sto gymno kormi sou, Behind Closed Doors appears to be Charles
Romine's only known film; more than one source indicates that it was released
in the 70s with hardcore inserts under the title Then Came Ecstasy, while other
sources say the movie originally came from South Africa (we assume the country,
not the region) and was bought and distributed by Novak. The tidbit about South Africa,
which is hardly likely if Stanley H. Brassloff truly did script the film, is
strongly negated by DVD Drive-in,
which states "Contrary to popular belief, Behind Locked Doors was not made
in South Africa. Director Charles Romine hailed from the Cape, but the film was
shot in upstate New York, which would explain the appearance of Shriek of the
Mutilated's (trailer)
Ivan Hagar as the creepy handyman (as in that film, he spends much of the time
shirtless and in awe of his own hairy muscular body) and familiar library music
from Findlay and Wishman flicks."
At DB Cult,
Phil Hardy
offers the following originally not 100% correct but now corrected synopsis:
"After their car is drained of petrol, two young girls (Eve Reeves and Joyce
Danner) stay the night at the mysterious hilltop mansion of a Mr. Bradley (Daniel
Garth) and his sister Myra. They soon discover they are prisoners, and are
to be used as subjects in Bradley's scientific experiments to find a perfect
love mate. A mixture of old-dark-house horrors and sexual goings-on, the film
is effectively suspenseful and climaxes in a Corman-esque conflagration further
enlivened by the appearance of the re-animated corpses of Bradley's previous
victims."
Trailer to Behind Locked Doors:
The Muthers
(1968, dir. Donald A. Davis)
Novak distributes yet another movie
directed by the Ed Wood wanna-be Donald A. Davis, this time written by
"Jason Hunter", who wrote a total of four Davis films — including Marsha:
The Erotic Housewife (1970 / trailer)
— and then disappeared.
The Muthers is not to be confused — although it always is — with the
Blaxploitation movie from 1976, also titled The Muthers (see above): the cast in the 1968
Davis movie here is lily white and privileged.
Marsha Jordan, seen above in full glory, the lead wanton
woman of The Muthers (and Marsha: The Erotic Housewife, for that matter) was a
highly active actress in the sleaze cinema of the 60s and 70s, only quitting
with the rise of raw wiener and tuna and detailed salami sandwiches. Her most
famous film is probably Count Yorga, Vampire (1970) in which, unlike The
Muthers and Marsha: The Erotic Housewife, she does not play the lead.
Trailer to Count Yorga, Vampire (1970):
TCM
has the plot: "A group of thrill-seeking, Southern California suburban
women ignore the effects of their extramarital sexual activities on their
children until Susie (Kathy Williams), teenage daughter of one of the women (Marsha
Jordan), mortally wounds her boyfriend when she finds him in bed with her
mother."
The other "suburban lounge
lizardess" of note in The Muthers is Virginia Gordon, seen above, Playboy
magazine's Playmate of the Month for January 1959. "Gordon's most
significant film, in terms of cinema history, is 1962's Tonight for Sure, as it
marks the directorial debut of Francis Ford Coppola." But her most
shocking film is surely Lee Frost's 1968 disturbingly sleazy The Animal.
Full Movie — The Animal (1968):
Kitten in a Cage
No Kitten with a Whip (1964) here, just a Kitten in the Cage. Novak did the theatrical distribution of
this movie; ten years later director Richard MacLeod did the porn movie The
Ganja Express (with Jamie Gillis & Annie Sprinkle [a still NSFW edit of the movie])
and then disappeared. Going by the trailer below, Kitten in a Cage was
post-synced with all the finesse of an Italian slasher.
Trailer to Kitten in a Cage:
Over at Fandango,
Mark Deming of Rovi offers the plot: "A woman is caught in the middle of a
plot by thieves to steal a fortune she doesn't really know about in this
oddball sexploitation opus filled with strange plot twists, non sequitur
dialogue, characters who appear only to be dropped moments later, and clumsy
post-production audio recording. Regular guy Ted (John Durnham) is driving down
the highway when he's flagged down by Julie (Miriam Eliot), a panicky woman
wearing only a raincoat who has just escaped from a mental institution with
cops on her trail. According to Julie, she was locked up against her will for
reasons she doesn't understand, and needs to get back to the city. Ted is
puzzled but offers to help, and eventually Julie makes contact with her boss,
Brian, who owns several nightspots in town. Brian offers to let Julie stay with
him, and when Ted informs Julie that her apartment has been ransacked, she
takes Brian up on his offer. However, after a man in a ski mask attempts to
attack Julie with a syringe, Brian arranges for Julie to stay with Kelly (June
Roberts), an exotic dancer who works at one of his clubs. As it happens, Kelly
would like Julie to be more than just a houseguest, but that's the least of
Julie's troubles; a gang of criminals have discovered a fortune in jewels has
been stashed in one of Brian's bars where Julie once worked, and they need her
help to find them, even if she's unaware of their presence."
Video Vacuum
was not impresses with Kitten: "Man, this is one muddled and under-plotted
skinflick [...]. The biggest problem with Kitten in a Cage is that the audience
never really knows what the fuck is going on throughout the entire movie.
Sometimes this is a good thing, like if Christopher Nolan or David Lynch is
directing the flick, because at the end there's some sort of payoff. Since this
flick was directed by the no-name never-was Robert MacLeod, none of this remotely
works. At one point Julie says, 'There are so many loose ends'. That pretty
much sums everything up. [...] The plot is paper thin (although that's really
an insult to paper) and the painful running time is padded with decidedly
unsexy footage of horse-faced strippers. Combine that with the molasses pacing,
terrible acting, non-existent production values, and horribly looped dialogue
and sound effects; and you've got yourself one truly shitty flick. I did like
the lesbian massage scene though."
Kitten in a Cage was the last film for glamour model and second-string sleaze starlet June Roberts; credited here as "June Morgan", she plays Kelly. Roberts probably began her "film career" (if one can call it that) the Brazilian "melodramas" (if one can call them that) Otto Lara Rezende ou... Bonitinha, Mas Ordinária aka Pretty But Wicked (1963 / full Brazilian version) and Acosada aka The Pink Pussy: Where Violence Lives (1964), went on to work for such fine filmmakers as the Findleys, Joseph P. Mawra, Barry Mahon, Joseph Sarno, C. Davis Smith, Sande N. Johnsen and Doris Wishman before, well, disappearing into obscurity. As the website Mr Skin says, "June Roberts is one of the original pioneers of perversion on the big screen, and for that we owe her an eternal debt of gratitude [....]".
Kitten in a Cage was the last film for glamour model and second-string sleaze starlet June Roberts; credited here as "June Morgan", she plays Kelly. Roberts probably began her "film career" (if one can call it that) the Brazilian "melodramas" (if one can call them that) Otto Lara Rezende ou... Bonitinha, Mas Ordinária aka Pretty But Wicked (1963 / full Brazilian version) and Acosada aka The Pink Pussy: Where Violence Lives (1964), went on to work for such fine filmmakers as the Findleys, Joseph P. Mawra, Barry Mahon, Joseph Sarno, C. Davis Smith, Sande N. Johnsen and Doris Wishman before, well, disappearing into obscurity. As the website Mr Skin says, "June Roberts is one of the original pioneers of perversion on the big screen, and for that we owe her an eternal debt of gratitude [....]".
Trailer to The Pink Pussy — Where Violence Lives (1964):
The Devil in Velvet
Novak distributed this movie not based on
the classic John Dickson Carr novel of the same name.
The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures (Volume 1, Part 1), which calls the movie a comedy, explains the plot: "The Marquis de Sade is brought to trial before Chancellor Marboeuf (Edmund Nightwood) on charges of poisoning three prostitutes after a bawdy-house orgy. As the witnesses file past, the Marquis' strange and imaginative sexual practices are revealed, along with his outrageous sense of humor. After the orgy in question, each girl was presented with a box of candies, which the plaintiffs claim were poisoned. The testimony reveals that the candies actually contained a laxative. It becomes evident that the Marquis' gross sensualism is devoid of malice, and the Chancellor becomes convinced that the charges against him are an insult to the nobility of France. Before sentence is passed, however, the Marquis is permitted to speak. The contempt he expresses for the entire court enrages the judge, who sentences him to life imprisonment in the Bastille. Having spent 13 years in confinement, the Marquis makes imprudent remarks about the prison governor, and he is transferred to the Asylum for the Insane at Charenton 11 days before the Revolution would have freed him. Regretfully, he contemplates his former life."
The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures (Volume 1, Part 1), which calls the movie a comedy, explains the plot: "The Marquis de Sade is brought to trial before Chancellor Marboeuf (Edmund Nightwood) on charges of poisoning three prostitutes after a bawdy-house orgy. As the witnesses file past, the Marquis' strange and imaginative sexual practices are revealed, along with his outrageous sense of humor. After the orgy in question, each girl was presented with a box of candies, which the plaintiffs claim were poisoned. The testimony reveals that the candies actually contained a laxative. It becomes evident that the Marquis' gross sensualism is devoid of malice, and the Chancellor becomes convinced that the charges against him are an insult to the nobility of France. Before sentence is passed, however, the Marquis is permitted to speak. The contempt he expresses for the entire court enrages the judge, who sentences him to life imprisonment in the Bastille. Having spent 13 years in confinement, the Marquis makes imprudent remarks about the prison governor, and he is transferred to the Asylum for the Insane at Charenton 11 days before the Revolution would have freed him. Regretfully, he contemplates his former life."
Among the babes in the film: Christine
Cybelle (seen above from Fly Now Pay Later [1969]), also found in Cool It, Baby
(1967), which we took a look at in Part IV of this RIP career review.
Scriptwriter "Walter M. Berger" wrote five films for Larry Crane and
then dropped off the face of the earth. The last script he supplied was for
Crane's 1969 B&D opus, All Women Are Bad.
Trailer to All Women Are Bad (1969):
Mantis in Lace
(1968, dir. William Rotsler)
Aka Lila. Written by Sanford White — not the long-murdered architect Stanford White — whose
meager (known) film career includes the film script to Free Love Confidential
(1967) and, supposedly, a directorial turn with The Art of Gentle Persuasion
(1970), the theme song of which, Sexy World — if we are to believe The American
Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures (Volume 1, Part 1) — is sung by
"Tushi Grabasso".
Eccentric Cinema,
which doesn't like the movie, says "This is a truly bizarre movie that was
originally released in two different forms: one a psychedelic serial killer
film with sex, the other a psychedelic sex film with a serial killer. Take your
pick; either way it's a very strange trip. Both versions have one thing in
common, though: lots of tits and little sense."
Over at Mondo Digital,
Harry Novak himself explains which is which: "That [film] was a horror
mystery, a thriller, with a little T&A in it, and it had psychedelic
lighting which was quite the thing at the time. For the drive-ins and the
conventional theaters, Mantis in Lace was the horror title, and Lila was the
sex exploitation version. There was very little difference, maybe ten minutes
at the most. It did exceptionally well for the period."
Mantis in Lace Theme Song:
Here at A Wasted Life, we took a
superficial look at the movie Lila during our R.I.P. career review of surfing
sleazemonger Paul Hunt:
"Better known in (its edited form) as Mantis in Lace. According to imdb,
Paul appears uncredited as a member of the audience — a slim connection at best
for including the film here, but it is Rotsler's masterpiece and does have a
great title song. Plot, per imdb: 'A topless dancer attracts, seduces, then
murders the men she sleeps with. She does it with a twist, however; she kills
them with garden tools.' As Girls,
Guns and Ghouls puts it: 'If you're looking for a nice, humble sleaze-film
that relishes its vintage strip-club environs, go no further than Mantis in
Lace. It doesn't drench the screen with gore or even that much sex, but there's
something quite effective about the whole demented little endeavor.'"
The on-line magazine called Funhouse
offers further info: "The story is very basic: go-go dancer (Susan Stewert
as Lila) picks up goon, brings goon home, takes acid, and stabs goon while
having simultaneous sex and bad trip (she never has a good trip, but keeps
dropping the dope). [...] Good scenes are of the Sunset Strip were we see The
Youngbloods, Things To Come, and Procol Harum on the Whiskey A Go-Go marquee,
Gazzari's, and a sign advertising an 'LSD Review'. Also all of Lila's strange
trips. In one she cuts into a sandwich, which changes to a knife cutting
through a bloody arm. Referring to this scene Rotsler notes, 'The lab lost a
vital 400-foot roll and Peter Perry (of Kiss Me Quick [1964]) did a magnificent
job of editing without anything to edit. [...] A man in the Washington, DC area
who had a number of theatres — he wanted more blood. So we rented the same
stage and used my grandfather's meat-axe, and every time she ['Lila'] chopped
down two fat guys threw paper cups full of blood on her.' [...] While the
bodies continue to disappear the bumbling cops begin to investigate. This
allows us to follow them into various topless bars and sunset strip type
psychedelic go go clubs, which gives us the opportunity to watch a number of
other topless dancers. Among those featured is Pat Barrington [...].
NSFW (Yes, They Are Plastic) —
Pat Barrington's Belly Dance from All The
Way Down (1968):
"That's about it, but the general
shallowness of the development of the plot is more than made up for by the
crazy combination of topless go go dancing, acid tripping, and bloody murder.
The movie is still however more of a nudie flick than a gore flick, with an
ample showing of female breasts, and the displayed violence being actually
minimal. With the budget he had to work with, Rotsler turned out a film a step
above others of its type in quality."
Trailer to Mantis in Lace:
Naked Pursuit
Original title: Kôfun!!. Director Okuwaki
was once married to Tamaki Katori, the now-retired actress who, with roughly
600 film credits to her name and extremely active in the early days of Pink,
once was known as the Pink Princess of Japan. According to Jasper Sharp's book Behind
the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema, the original
Japanese version of this film here is now lost, while Novak's is still around.
BFI,
concise as always, explains the film thus: "A young girl planning suicide
is raped by a student (Masayoshi Nogami [2 March 1940 — 22 December
2010]). The sensual pleasure she experiences for the first time restores her
will to live." In other words, another film that propagates that
misogynist fantasy that women enjoy being raped. (Remeber: "No" means "Yes" — Not!)
The rapist — or rather, the actor playing the rapist, Masayoshi Nogami — enjoyed a long career; zombie fans might want to check out a 2001 film in which he appears, Stacy.
The rapist — or rather, the actor playing the rapist, Masayoshi Nogami — enjoyed a long career; zombie fans might want to check out a 2001 film in which he appears, Stacy.
Trailer to Stacy:
Suburban Pagans
"Shannon Carse", of course, was
one of William Rotsler's favorite pseudonyms. Released in Germany as Wilde Nächte im Pornoclub — "Wild Nights in the Porno Club".
In regard to this faux
documentary full of ugly men who luckily remain for the most part fully
clothed, the on-line magazine Funhouse
says, "The operative word with this kinky is CHEAP. It is one of the
emptiest in story and shoddiest in production value of any films of this sort
that I have yet experienced. We start with a TV reporter (James Brad), with the
seemingly obligatory fake mustache, interviewing Lt. Art Grennell (Steve
Vincent) about the latest case he's wrapped, an evil group of San Fernando
Valley swingers. [...] We are never really informed about just why it is
illegal for a group of consenting married adults to get together and trade
spouses, but the Lt. does give us a bit of his moralizing as to the cause.
[...] When he states that, 'Man being then kind of animal he is, there are
undoubtedly other clubs like this functioning at this moment', we cut to
the action. After a sweep of the city, we see a group picking each other's
house keys from a wastebasket to determine the current pairings. The featured
actresses are Cara Peters, Kathleen Williams, Christine Thomas, and Carole
Sanders. The rest of the plot is mostly taken up with the featured couples
going through a variety of the swinger motions. [...] This film does show more
female nudity, and does so for more extended periods of time, than many others.
It also at least partially depicts activities such as group sex and lesbianism.
[...] This film qualifies as a three-sleazer mostly by the fact that it's so
shoddy. The direction is horrible, there's no continuity, the overdubbing is
atrocious, and the dialog and story line are comical. Along with the relatively
greater explicitness of the sexual situations, this ultra cheapness knocks it
up a sleaze level. [...]."
Another Suburban Pagans Clip:
Acapulco Uncensored
Aka Mucho Macho Acapulco, Acapulco Expose, Acapulco
Sex. Personally, we here at A Wasted Life have our doubts that Harry H. Novak
had anything to do with this movie, as there is only one source, an on-line
magazine called Funhouse,
that claims he distributed it.
My Duck Is Dead
explains the basic concept of this faux documentary: "Hidden cameras
reveal the seamier side of one of the world's wildest cities. For the first
time, see Acapulco uncovered, where young women perform all sorts of incredibly
perverse acts in the secret houses of pleasure."
At imdb, good ol' lor from New York City actually saw the movie and wrote about it: "[...] Acapulco Uncensored offers little to the soft porn fan. It was clearly filler when released in the '60s and has even less interest today. A phony sailor (familiar actor Victor Izay [23 December 1923—20 January 2014]) is on-screen narrator, introducing mainly staged sex scenes using familiar porn talent. Usual hidden-camera premise to watch real people is bogus, though some unattractive non-pros are included in the cast. Condescending narration tries to contrast Mexican slums with high-society folk getting down to do the nasty (softcore style). A wife-swapping session by a pool features full frontal nudity, but looks like a sequence lifted from some feature film. Local prostitution is presented unglamorously and in boring fashion. At one point two hookers demonstrate lesbian sex — unarousing and patently phony. Kathy Williams displays her torpedo-shaped breasts as an American tourist named Marsha, seduced by a water ski boat owner Ramon (Vic Lance). This acted out scene is supposedly 'reality'. A nightlife segment features a busty young novice in a brothel but we don't even get to see her topless. Film concludes with an idiotic sequence on the narrator's boat with buxom redhead Linda O'Bryant camping it up as a dominating lesbian whore, who gives both our hero and his deckhand Mario a hard time. [...] It's the worst feature credited to usually reliable Don Davis I've sat through so far, by far.
At imdb, good ol' lor from New York City actually saw the movie and wrote about it: "[...] Acapulco Uncensored offers little to the soft porn fan. It was clearly filler when released in the '60s and has even less interest today. A phony sailor (familiar actor Victor Izay [23 December 1923—20 January 2014]) is on-screen narrator, introducing mainly staged sex scenes using familiar porn talent. Usual hidden-camera premise to watch real people is bogus, though some unattractive non-pros are included in the cast. Condescending narration tries to contrast Mexican slums with high-society folk getting down to do the nasty (softcore style). A wife-swapping session by a pool features full frontal nudity, but looks like a sequence lifted from some feature film. Local prostitution is presented unglamorously and in boring fashion. At one point two hookers demonstrate lesbian sex — unarousing and patently phony. Kathy Williams displays her torpedo-shaped breasts as an American tourist named Marsha, seduced by a water ski boat owner Ramon (Vic Lance). This acted out scene is supposedly 'reality'. A nightlife segment features a busty young novice in a brothel but we don't even get to see her topless. Film concludes with an idiotic sequence on the narrator's boat with buxom redhead Linda O'Bryant camping it up as a dominating lesbian whore, who gives both our hero and his deckhand Mario a hard time. [...] It's the worst feature credited to usually reliable Don Davis I've sat through so far, by far.
Victor Izay also appeared in Ted V. Mikels'
Blood Orgy of the She-Devils (1972):
The Love Clinic
A popular title for vintage sleaze publications, none of which were the basis of this movie, which is an early film from the sleaze producing duo
of husband Ferd Sebastian (director) and wife Beverly Sebastian (producer) —
with regular collaborator (pseudonym?) Ann Cawthorne (scriptwriter) — whom we took a
cursory look at in our R.I.P. career review of cult actor Richard Lynch
when we took a look at the Sebastian & Sebastian flick Delta Fox (1979). As
Emovieposter,
whence we took the image below, states: "Ferd Sebastian, [...] directed
several exploitation movies and then, after suffering from health issues,
became a born-again Christian!"
Yet again, we here at A Wasted Life have
our doubts about to what extent Harry H. Novak had anything to do with this
movie, but not only does the on-line magazine Funhouse
believes Novak had his fingers in the pie, but TCM
also lists Boxoffice International as the movie's distributor, so we'll include
it here.
In the book The Celluloid Couch, Leslie Y.
Rabkin explains the plot: "This naughty-naughty of the late sixties
involves a 'love clinic' presided over by a sexologist computer, COM
9001. A mix of voyeurism, masturbation, impotence, and swinging, it ends with
the Luddite-inspired destruction of the machine, and a lustful 'marriage rape', which makes everything better." As the poster claims, the
movie introduces two new actors, Marion Cline as the wife Kate Morgan and Jim
Carlton as husband Sam, but the introduction seems to have gone nowhere for
neither ever made another movie
Trailer to Ferd & Beverly Sebastian's
masterpiece,
Gator Bait (1974):
Go here for Part VI (1969).
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