Saturday, December 08, 2018

Movie review - "Supervixens" (1975) *

After two flops Russ Meyer returned to more Vixen/Cherry Harry and Raquel territory with this sexy comedy action parody. For the most part this is carefree silly stuff, about a gas station attendant who is irresitible to all these well endowed women. I wondered if maybe Meyer was inspired by Alvin Purple though the actor cast, Charles Pitts, isn't as nerdy as Graeme Blundell.

There's plenty of treats for Meyer fans - he runs into some spectacular women, who are named after characters in other Meyer films with "super" in front of their title (eg SuperLorna, SuperCherry). Actors like Charles Napier, John Lazar and Stuart Lancaster return from earlier Meyer works, as well as the dude who played Vixen's husband - Lazar and Lancaster have cameos basically but Napier has a big role as the villain. There's someone playing Martin Borrmann again.

And there's some very attractive women on display. Shari Eubank is a fantastic Meyer heroine - she's got the chest, but can act pretty well (she has a double role and they are very distinct, not easy to do) and is very pretty and sweet. Uschi Digard is hilarious as a Swedish maid take off. The other girls are good.

I give the film one star for a hideous, revolting scene where Napier's character kills Eubanks' (well, one of her characters she has a dual role). She taunts him for impotence, so he bashes her, drowns her in the bath, stomps on her - she's bleeding and lingers so he kills her off. It's a horrible, mean and awful scene. Meyer pushed the violence earlier but nothing like this. Eubanks plays a maneater but no one deserves that. I just hated it - and can't help wondering if Meyer was motivated in part by the disintegration of this marriage to Edy Williams.

Come to think of it there's a bit of anti female violence - Pitts punches Eubank and Lancaster thumps Digard.

The film also goes on too long - it's 100 minutes. You don't mind the long running time in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls because there's so much plot, but this is basically a scene of linear encounters - Pitts hooking up with various women.

The film was a hit but it's got a nasty soul. The best Meyer movies celebrated sex. This one celebrates violence.

No comments: