Starring: Kitten Natividad, Raven De La Croix, Janet Wood, Edward Schaaf
Directed by: Russ Meyer

The plot:

Adolf Schwartz (Schaaf, who bears an uncanny resemblance to that other Adolf) is murdered in his Austrian-style castle when a piranha is placed in his bathtub. After this arresting opening (which follows a pretty graphic orgy), no one seems to care too much whodunit. Adolf’s bucolic little community is soon infatuated with newcomer Margo Winchester (De La Croix), and a series of sexual subplots and multiple false identities combine for a story that requires a GPS to navigate. Fortunately, a one-woman Greek Chorus (Natividad) turns up regularly to gleefully explain what’s going on.

Why it’s good:

Lushly shot in the beautiful countryside of Vancouver, this film is a summer hoot. While not technically hard-core, the sex is explicitly implied and both male and female nudity abound, much in the great outdoors. The acting is competent, the script (co-written by Meyer and film critic Roger Ebert) is witty, the plot is convoluted, and the 80-minute running time zips along giddily. The characters boast names like Limehouse, Pocohontas, and Homer Johnson (this film has its tongue firmly in its cheek). Kitten Natividad is particularly manic as the gyrating, devilish Greek Chorus (though her lines were voiced by another actress). The wholesomely delectable Janet Wood does a fine job as Sweet L’il Alice, and the whole silly enterprise is great fun.

Why you should own it:

Before Woody Allen ever picked up a camera, one of America’s premier auteurs was Russ Meyer, a lifelong Californian who wrote, directed, produced, photographed and edited all of his 19 features. A veteran World War II cameraman and Playboy photographer, Meyer was interested in sex and satire, and had an obsession with big-bosomed women, almost to the exclusion of all else. While Meyer certainly exploited women sexually in his films, he was something of an inadvertent feminist, as he consistently made the female characters smart and resourceful—they always triumph over the lunk-headed males. When Hollywood studios noticed his films turning huge profits, he was offered mainstream work. But after 1970’s “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” (also co-scripted with Ebert) and 1971’s “The Seven Minutes” both bombed,Meyer went back to doing things his way. He owned the rights to most of his films, and in later years made millions by selling VHS and DVD copies from his Hollywood Hills home, usually answering the phone himself. The RMC DVD has no special features but is inventively packaged.