Director: Joseph Cates
Starring: Sal Mineo, Juliet Prowse, Jan Murray
More info: IMDB
Tagline: Why with everybody else - why with every slob ... and not with me?
Plot: A busboy at a disco has sexual problems related to events in his childhood. He becomes obsessed with a disc jockey at the club, leading to obscene phone calls, voyeurism, trips to the porn shop and adult movie palace, and more! A police detective is similarly obsessed with sexual materials, leading him to become personally involved in the case.
My rating: 8/10
Will I watch it again? Absolutely!
That's one groovy theme song, huh? NICE! Even for a movie made in 1965 this seems awfully taboo. It touches on all kinds of things like incest, lesbianism, sexual abuse, voyeurism, obscene phone calls, stalking and on and on and on. This is that nice little piece of art house sleaze you've been looking for.
Here's a little who's who to get you through the rest of the shots...
Norah (Prowse) spins records at a NYC hot spot.
Lawrence (Mineo) and his mentally slow sister, Edie (Margot Bennett).
Lt. Dave Madden (Murray) is the man who's either going to save Norah or kill her!
Marian (Elaine Stritch), Norah's bull dike boss (but we don't know she's gay until muuuuch later when she makes her move on Norah).
And now for some classic reading material...
Enough of these boring books and all their letters and such...it's time for a show!
What's this? Call Girl 77 & Hollywood's World of Flesh? I'll get my hands on these and report back soon!
He must have enjoyed himself 'cause now he needs a smoke!
Ahhhhhhh. That's better.I wasn't around then but it feels so real. It'd be neat to go back in time to experience this era of NYC even for just a few hours. It seems like worlds away.
At one point everyone goes to the local zoo which has untold numbers of exotic wildlife.
Seriously? WTF? No kiddin', folks. These are the animals found at this particular NTC zoo!Our old buddy, Bruce "Father of Crispin and all 'round Badass Character Actor" Glover stops by for a couple of minutes.
Lt. Madden is an interesting character. You really don't know until it's too late if he's the killer or if he's burned out and is as sleazy as the people he goes after or what. It's a great role. He has a small apartment where he lives alone with his young daughter. One night he's listening to some audio of a woman talking about being sexually assaulted and we get a glimpse of the reading material he has lying around the house (for his kid to see). Is he listening to the tapes for work or for kicks? He's so used to studying the seedy side of life that he's nearly numb to it. It's his job to know intimately about the types of people he's trying to catch...or is it?
There's a wonderfully funny moment after the Lt., reaching out to Norah in fear of her safety, brings her home for dinner and to stay the night. When Norah slips off to another room, his daughter, Pam (Diane Moore) slides up to him and says...
"She's very pretty."
"Is she a hooker?"Her delivery is priceless. You get the idea pretty quickly that Pam is learning little pieces here and there just by observing her father and his work. One one level it may seem wrong but she's so well-adjusted that it's not that much of an issue.
This is one movie that I'd like to do a play-by-play full rundown on but with a backlog of more than 150 flicks to write about that I've seen in the past year I simply don't have the time.
I can never get enough of 60s dancing...
The budget is small but the ideas, acting, photography, music, and everything else is so big. Sadly this largely unseen masterpiece is not available on DVD. You'll have to find it elsewhere. It's not easy to come by but your reward for your patience and dilligence in searching will certainly pay off.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment