What’s a nudie cutie without the nudie? Why, it’s What’s Up Front!, directed by Bob Wehling, scripter of 1962’s infamous Eegah. In fact, this film is something of an Eegah reunion, being co-written by Arch Hall Sr. and co-starring caveman-kidnap victim Marilyn Manning.

Homer L. Pettigrew (the weasel-resembling Tommy Holden, Magic Spectacles) used to sell pots and pans. Now, through a setup even a sitcom would reject, the founder of Johnson Bras (Hall Sr. himself) anoints Homer as its first door-to-door brassiere salesman. Homer proves a real mover and shaker, but the sales manager (Carmen Bonacci) schemes with secretary Candy Cotton (Manning) to take credit for all the sales.

Not much of a story hangs on the flick. I’d ask you to forgive that pun, but What’s Up Front! is full of them — all of them. For example, Mr. Johnson laments declining sales by telling his troops, “Bras are sagging!” Homer moves from one mishap to the next, including accidentally stepping on the dress of Mr. Johnson’s lovely daughter (Carolyn Walker), ripping it partly off. His visit to hillbilly territory yields one true laugh when a prospective buyer says, “Last time we bought anything from a travelin’ salesman, I was 13! Just married!”

For a movie about female undergarments, that focus never veers to the fetishistic. Thus, What’s Up Front! feels remarkably modest, as if it’s fearful to take action beyond a wink — sexy, yet sexless. Amid the nudie-cute boom at the box office, its total absence of bared skin makes it a curiosity. So colorful and carefree, it might be mistaken for a Walt Disney picture if production values were present (for example, underwater ocean scenes are so clearly a swimming pool, you can see the floor). Is the sight gag of a goat with lingerie tied to its horns really all that far from a field goal-kicking mule? —Rod Lott