Directed by Russ Meyer
Written by Roger Ebert; story by Ebert and Russ Meyer
1970/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
Ronnie (Z-Man) Barzell: You will drink the black sperm of my vengeance.
I couldn’t resist seeing this Roger Ebert-Russ Meyer collaboration. Â It met my low expectations.
The plot such as it is involves an all-female rock band that seeks fame and fortune in Los Angeles. The girls rapidly are drawn into the free-love fest pot parties hosted by the ambiguously gendered “Z-man.” This slight framework is hung on copious amounts of female nudity and a fair amount of mild soft-core porn. Edy Williams, then-wife of Russ Meyer, plays a nymphomaniac porn star. The house band is played by The Strawberry Alarm Clock.
Despite its title, this film has nothing whatsoever to do with the Jaqueline Susann novel or its film adaptation. Â Its screenplay is arch but not particularly witty. Â The movie left me feeling slightly icky. Â Apparently Russ Meyer would have included even more sex and nudity had he known in advance that this film would receive an X-rating! Â There’s plenty as it is.
Unerotic, imbecilic, boring and silly. What a waste of non-talent! The music is beyond horrible. I never could take Roger Ebert seriously.
I probably would never have taken Ebert seriously if I saw this movie before I read his books. That’s for sure. Only good music was the one-hit-wonder Strawberry Alarm Clock’s “Incense and Peppermints.” (Those were the days for bizarre band names!) Whoever did the girl-band stuff was a complete hack. The singer tried and failed to impersonate Grace Slick.
I can only take Russ Meyer in small doses. 10-20 minutes or so are fun, then it just turns strangely boring and repetitive.
When I watched Faster Pussycat Kill Kill for the List my DVD player insisted on converting the 4:3 format to widescreen which made all these outsize women even more extreme to look at. Taking bizarre to the next level it almost saved to movie.
Believe it or not this movie makes Faster Pussycat look good!
BVD is absolutely fantastic, and holds up well to repeated viewings. A work of true genius.
Do I detect a scent of sarcasm in your comment? I myself have a special love for so bad it’s good movies, but this one seemed just plain bad to me.