Do you like to groove on unadulterated images of pillowy, half-nekkid English women from the late 1960s? Or perhaps a heaping helping of wiry, English males showing off their bum cake is more your cup of tea? How about a grouping of seeming meaningless stories involving people in half dressed states, strung together by the narration of an ancient mummy with the cordial, voluble, eloquent voice of Valentine Dyall (the actual mummy was played by writer Elliot Stein)? It's all here, along with a whole lot more, in this psuedo erotic horror English anthology aptly titled Bizarre (1970), originally known as The Secrets of Sex, brought to us by executive producer Richard Gordon (Fiend Without a Face, Tower of Evil, Inseminoid) and co-writer and director Antony Balch (Horror Hospital), in his first full length feature. I could go on and list the principle cast within the film, but there really isn't one, and listing all the actors would be an exercise in tedium as there are a great number of them, none standing out above any of the others...besides the characters were relatively insignificant in terms of their relationship to the stories in general, like puppets on strings...I don't mean this in a derogatory sense, but just as a matter of opinion.
As the movie begins, we see a buxom, nekkid blonde (the erotic) playing ring around the rosy with two nekkid men (the horror)...then we cut to an actual story, one that took place many years ago involving a man coming home to learn his younger wife may have hidden a lover in a large, wooden trunk. Rather than opening it to find out, he has it buried by his servants, which signals the end of that piece and the beginning of the credits, played over scenes of a woman in a black leather outfit removing her clothes. From here we meet a mummy as he begins talking about all the things he's seen in the passing years, in terms of relationships between men and women, or, at least that's what I got as the mummy is quite verbose for someone who's been dead for many a year. The visuals played out during this bit involve women stripped to their delicate things, being pelted with vegetables, while shirtless men run around with guns. After this we proceed into a more traditional type tale involving a female photographer hired to take pictures of scenes of torture, and the lengths she's willing to go to achieve a sense of artistic reality. The next is about an older, wealthy man and his young and intelligent fiancée'...seems the man wants a son, and the woman is willing, but something in her past (distant past) comes forth, rearing its congenitally malformed head...the next tale deals with a female burglar breaking into a flat, only to be discovered by the male occupant to which she convinces him not to phone the authorities by using her feminine charms (I'll wash your back you do mine), with these scenes intercut with those of passenger airliners taking off (if you're not a big fan of mens hairy behinds, you'd be advise to skip this one)...followed by a comical vignette about a seemingly naive spy character named Lindy Leigh, who, apparently is a character originally presented in an English men's magazine. The next tale is one of the oddest of the bunch, featuring a creepy guy arranging for a female escort, only she gets freaked out as his preoccupation with lizards surfaces, possibly stemming from some traumatic childhood experience. The last `proper' piece involves a really annoying woman who can conjure up nekkid people in her garden...this one had the best ending of all, given the annoyance factor of the woman. This is followed by scenes of group copulation, intercut with fireworks...and then the end...
There's a bit of misleading advertising on the DVD case, in my opinion...'An erotic and horrifying journey into the mind of the undead!' Don't let this draw you in...there was very little eroticism, unless somewhat unappealing women with cottage cheese behinds is a turn on for you...and as far as `horrifying', perhaps the `photographer' vignette qualifies, moderately, but that's about it...so just what the hell is this? Well, I'll give you an idea...in the mid to late 50s a genre came about dubbed `nudie cuties', or exploitive films featuring generally unattractive woman appearing to engage in copulatory activities with unattractive men, other unattractive women, or both, often shown in metropolitan theaters referred to as `grind houses', and were ultimately the precursors to more explicit material...well, I would call this film a `nudie cutie' for the intellectual set, or perhaps art house pornography...highbrow smuttiness works too...seriously, if you're not the type who can sit through, much less enjoy, a hour and a half of cinematic, experimental, often times puerile, free flow, beat generation emanations, you'd be wise to pass this one up. If you're looking for something out of the ordinary, something completely curious and slightly subversive often defying interpretation, then you've found yourself a rare treat in all of its uncut glory. While I was expecting something in a more traditional vein, I actually wasn't disappointed with what I got...as a work it was interesting, frustrating, annoying, slightly disturbing, confusing, obtuse, and even entertaining...but probably not for everyone. My rating is based on a number of things (material, presentation, extras), but also on the fact someone actually took the time and spent the effort to dig up this...well, bizarre, perhaps acid induced, bit of cinema, and re-release it on an unsuspecting public.
The wide screen (1.66:1) presentation on this Synapse DVD looks very sharp, although I did notice slight differences in quality between the segments, but nothing to get in a bind about as there was an obvious, and appreciated, effort behind this release. The audio comes through pretty clean, presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono. In terms of special features, there's a commentary track with executive producer Richard Gordon and film historian and author Tom Weaver, which I haven't heard, so I can't comment on...also included is an interview with one of the writers of the film in that of a very gregarious Elliot Stein (11:07), an original theatrical trailer, liner notes inside the DVD case written by Chris Poggiali, and two earlier short films by director Balch titled Towers Open Fire (10:24) and The Cut Ups (19:09), both inspired by the writings of William S. Burroughs.
Cookieman108
Once again, if you're expecting some sort of horror anthology here, akin to those released by Amicus Studios in the 60s and 70s, you will be disappointed...
