All posts by Rod Lott

The Touch of Her Flesh (1967)

touchherfleshI’d like to think that even if writer/director Michael Findlay could have afforded real credits for The Touch of Her Flesh, he still would have chosen to project them on the parts of a naked lady. Yes, Virginia, production value can be God-given.

Findlay also essays the lead role of Richard Jennings, and it’s no mystery why: so he could act out his sexual fantasies. His Richard is an author of a “weapons book” successful enough to send him on a business trip out of town. Seconds after he walks out the door, his wife, Claudia (the unimonikered but double-breasted Angelique, from Joe Sarno’s The Love Rebellion), welcomes her lover through it.

touchherflesh1Having forgotten an item, Richard returns home, only to catch the two in the act. The shock sends him running into the streets, where he is “hit by a car and hurt very badly” (so says the doctor, twice). In fact, Richard’s lost an eye … and gained a thirst for revenge.

In the rare case when the film isn’t showing curvy dames undressing or writhing in the nude, it’s showing them befall a cruel fate. From a topless go-go dancer to a street hooker, Richard’s vowed to kill them all, whether via a rose with poisoned thorns, a crossbow or his own bare hands. When it’s Claudia’s turn, Richard takes time first to molest her breasts: “Let me see them again and feel them again before they die!”

Shot in black and white with sound recorded after the fact, The Touch of Her Flesh is padded with wall-to-wall lovin’ touchin’ squeezin’. It’s obvious Findlay had a type: naturally busty. So long as his women met that stringent qualification, nothing else mattered — not even Angelique’s armpit hair, not even a script. The project is completely inept, yet I couldn’t look away. Two sequels followed, because boobs. —Rod Lott

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Ooga Booga (2013)

oogaboogaBecause of Karen Black’s iconic role in the 1975 made-for-TV Trilogy of Terror, there’s an irony to Ooga Booga‘s casting of her opposite a killer doll. Any semblance of cleverness ceases thereafter.

The Full Moon Features production stands as yet another example of director Charles Band’s love for pint-sized puppets and demonic toys, this time in the tasteless African native of the title. Early in the story, the African-American protagonist Devin (earnest first-timer Wade F. Wilson) says to his friend, “Not the bad-ass dolls idea again?” The rhetorical question could be directed at Band himself, and should be.

oogabooga1Devin’s dreams of becoming a doctor are shattered when he’s shot dead by racist cops in a convenience store. But because his corpse is shocked by the slushie machine (his girlfriend requested “one rhubarb squirtie”), Devin’s soul is transferred into Ooga Booga — an action figure made by his pig-nosed pal, Hambo (Chance A. Rearden, Zombies vs. Strippers) — and, therefore, is able to exact revenge on the officers and the epithet-spewing Southern judge (Stacy Keach, The Bourne Legacy) who cleared them.

The spear-chucking, bone-through-the-nose Ooga Booga is just one of a series of offensive figurines Hambo hawks; the others include Joe Cracker, Crack Whore, The Gook and Butt Pirate. Any assumption that Band might be parodying racism is null and void, given that the market-savvy filmmaker sells limited-edition replicas on the Full Moon website at $39.99 each.

But back to the movie, which is a lamebrained, long 75 minutes. Not the motorboating kids’ show host, not the meth head named Boner, and not even the giant breasts of the hooker named Skank (porn star Siri, Gazongas 7) can mitigate the considerable tedium. —Rod Lott

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The Killer Snakes (1975)

killersnakesIn the despicable, dirty and even depressing The Killer Snakes (that’s all the recommendation you need, right?), the saddest sad-sack character I may have ever seen in movie history works one dead-end job after another and sleeps in a shack with pornographic pictures taped to the ceiling over his bed.

He gets bullied a lot by just about everyone with whom he comes into contact — skinny, street-corner whores included. The guy is in such dire need of a haircut and a flea dip that I could barely stand to watch him. I’m still unsure as to whether his character is supposed to have a mild mental handicap or if the movie is just that poorly dubbed.

killersnakes1After a hard day of being fired from the place where they serve the innards of snakes’ gall bladders and being caught masturbating by the woman he loves from afar, this miserable little man befriends an injured cobra in his shack. The cobra is sad because his gall bladder has been taken from him without his consent. So our hero zero sews him up and nurses him back to health, affording the same treatment to all the serpent’s equally scaly pals, also robbed of this organ.

Somewhere along the way, he trains the snakes to attack and kill, although we never see this most difficult of training processes. It’s time for revenge. First he goes to the whorehouse where earlier he was the recipient of much kicking and abuse. He does his business with the hooker most resembling circus clown Emmett Kelly (in a scene so entirely disgusting you’ll want to shower) and then lets the cobras go full-fang at her bodyguards, while she faints. He takes the unconscious whore home, ties her up and then lets the slithering creatures have sloppy seconds.

Starring Kurt Lang (Purple Storm), Maggie Lee (Kung Fu: The Punch of Death) and “1001 killer snakes” (per its poster), the Shaw Brothers production is one of the more perverted and sick-minded exploitation offerings I’ve seen. Its X rating is well-deserved. —Rod Lott

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The Bare Wench Project (2000)

barewenchIn The Bare Wench Project, the umpteenth Blair Witch Project parody of that year, four sorority sisters and their lunkheaded guide, Lunk, venture into the hills to search for the “Bare Wench.” Because this is written and directed by Jim Wynorski (Scream Queen Hot Tub Party) and the sisters include Skinemax vets Julie K. Smith, Nikki Fritz, Lorissa McComas and Antonia Dorian, it’s less a spoof and more an excuse for wall-to-wall boobage. To date, it also has spawned four sequels to its source’s measly one.

No sooner has our skank quartet embarked on its trek when one whines, “My twins are sweaty,” prompting a brief stop in the shade so they all can remove their shirts. (This scenario repeats several times with slight variation over the next 70 minutes.) Wynorski would have you believe that if you got four nubile chicks in the middle of nowhere and switched on a video camera, numerous acts of lesbian lovin’ would occur: south-of-the-border kisses, impromptu campfire stripteases, bumping nipples together with devil-may-care abandon. There is more flicked-tongue action in Bare Wench than the last three snake movies I’ve seen combined.

barewench1Instead of Blair Witch‘s iconic twigs, the girls encounter dildos and other sex toys. Instead of hearing children’s voices in the middle of the night, they hear a braying donkey. Instead of keeping the witch unseen, they show Julie Strain (Heavy Metal 2000) in a long white wig.

The only scene offering any true parody is of a flashlight-lit Smith making a dead-of-night confession into the camera. But whereas Heather Donahue was shot neck up, a buck-naked Smith is shown from the waist. The shot is held so long, you’ll go from amazement to wondering what kind of magic lens Wynorski must have employed.

If you found Donahue annoying in Blair Witch, wait until you get a load of these ladies. (The end-credit bloopers make one wonder how they mustered enough knowledge to remove their clothes, much less walk.) There’s nothing funny to be found in Bare Wench, unless you’re the type to chuckle at character names like Dick Bigdickian; I am not. —Rod Lott

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Venus in Furs (1969)

venusinfursTo mention the word “masterpiece” in the same breath as “Jess Franco” is like pairing “Chef Boyardee” and “gourmet.” Yet 1969’s Venus in Furs is often cited as the über-prolific director’s finest hour (and a half) — one awash in atmosphere, not acumen.

What happens to a beautiful woman after she’s murdered at a swank party? As the song goes, she’ll be waiting in Istanbul. On that Turkish city’s Black Sea shores, the corpse of Wanda Reed (Franco fave Maria Rohm, Eugenie) washes up in purple garters, her chest deeply sliced above the left breast. Finding her, jazz musician Jimmy Logan (James Darren, TV’s The Time Tunnel) immediately flashes back to the night before, when he discreetly watched her get stripped, whipped and stabbed by three fellow partygoers (one of whom is a millionaire playboy played by Nosferatu himself, Klaus Kinski).

venusinfurs1The shock sends Jimmy fleeing to Rio — and to the bed of local club singer Rita (Barbara McNair, The Organization). Just as he’s able to take up his trumpet again, who should walk through the door but Wanda herself. Barring supernatural forces, how can that be? To Franco’s credit, you’ll want to know, but the answer is secondary to seeing Wanda exact her sexy revenge.

Venus in Furs’ strength lie in the unfailing hallucinatory vibe it exudes. While Jimmy’s sparse narration recalls pure pulp gumshoe, Franco employs every ’60s trick in the book: primary color gels, wavy screens, slowed-down film, sped-up film and so on. And then there’s Rohm, his most special effect of all. Despite her character being an instrument of death, she’s a captivating, sultry presence. —Rod Lott

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