supervixen

Supervixens (1975)
100 min

Supervixens was my first introduction into the wild and wonderfull world of Russ Meyer. Everyone knows his name, and that it's synonymous with extremely well endowed women. Having been born in the late 70s, I unfortunately missed the heyday of Meyer's wonderfull movies. Since his films aren't as easily accessible as those of Harry Novak's or David Friedman's through companies like Something Weird Video, he was one of the last great sexploitation heros that I got into. Well, after finally seeing this movie I have to say that I can't believe what I've been missing this whole time! I will always love the movies of the producers I mentioned, as well as those of Byron Mabe, Lee Frost, and just so many of the era, but I was totally unprepared for how amazing a movie this was going to be!

As much as I love the great movies of the sexploitation era (and believe me, I do love them!), I would say that this transcends that genre without leaving it behind completely. First and foremost in a Russ Meyer movie, are the huge breasts bouncing all over the place with reckless abandon! After I got past that, I noticed that the story and the film making were really strong. The editing was frantic, but still easy to follow, the acting was all pretty good, the story was fast paced and energetic, and the characters were all really colorfull and interesting.

Well, perhaps I should attack these topics one at a time. I'll start with the story - it's completely wild and off the wall. We start with a blue collar man, Clint Ramsey, working at a gas station. He gets a call from his insanely jealous wife, SuperAngel Turner who demands that he come home immediately and give her the attention she deserves. When he hangs up on her, she calls back and gets his boss and threatens to blow up the station. Eventually Clint heads home with steam coming out of his ears. Before you can say domestic dispute, their nosey neighbor has called the cops. Officer Harry Sledge walks in and immediately clubs Clint, knocking him out. Angel shows her gratitdue by promptly letting the guy ball her on the spot. Unfortunately though, he can't get it up until he's good and ready. Never being one to take disappointment well, Angel has a complete fit. Before the end of the day is up, Angel is dead and Clint is wrongfully accused and hits the road.

Most of the remainder of the film documents Clint's road trip, as he runs into some of the strangest and most perveted people this side of EVI. The movie switches gears from hilarious to gruesome somewhat frequently. Sometimes it's a little disorienting, but as a whole it's a ton of fun. My personal favorite scenes in the movie include, the fight between Angel and Harry, Clint's bumbling adventures with SuperEula (and the bodybuilder), and of course the amazing scene with the farmer Lute (Stuart Lancaster) and his mail order wife SuperSoul (the utterly amazing Uschi Digart). I don't really want to go too deeply into what happens in these scenes or the explosive climax since, unlike most sexploitation movies, this one is pretty unpredictable. I really didn't know where this one was going at some points.

Before I move on, I'd just like to make mention of how satirical the story is at times. Underneath all the huge breasts and wacky adventures, Meyer actually has quite a bit to say about human nature. Don't expect any groundbreaking revelations, or to discover yourself in this movie, but it is a lot more intelligent than some of the high profile pretentious crap that's come out recently. Beneath the Valley of the Utravixens deals with a lot of the same issues in a more straightforward manner.

That being said, I'll move onto to some of the other topics I mentioned earlier. The most obvious of which would be the huge boobs throughout. I have to say, that these are really incredible. Meyer was king and cornered the market, and I don't see anyone ever taking that crown away from him. I'm not generally a big breast kind of guy, but the huge breasts in the Meyer movies fit in with the characters huge personalities. It would seem so wrong to see things any other way in one of his movies.

Like I mentioned earlier, Meyer's frantic editing is as much a part of his story as the actual narrative and big breasts are. Not only does it function to keep the movie exciting and visually appealing, there are a number of sight gags that he edits together wonderfully that I'm sure would have fallen flat in the hands of lesser directors. While the quick editing is his main mode of storytelling, he never gets caught up in it to the point where it hampers the story. He intercuts between the two main stories as they seperate and merge together again, keeping the pacing exciting and interesting.

Moving on, I'd like to say a few things about the acting before I finish up. This isn't academy award nomination stuff, to be sure but the acting is quite good in accomplishing what's necessary for the film. The three leads work well off of each other. Charles Pitts is very cool as the nice guy with a whole heap of troubles on his lap. Charles Napier is flat out awesome as the scummy cop Harry Sledge. The only person who could have been more dispicable would probably have been David Hess! Shari Eubank also does quite well in the dual role of SuperAngel and SuperVixen. She really plays both extremes quite well and is an outstanding asset to this picture. Being the Uschi freak that I am, I feel I should mention her small but memorable part. She plays farmer Lute's mail order bride with unrivaled zest. There are very few women I've seen on film that have the total package more than she does. It's also interesting to note that her character SuperSoul makes an appearence in Beneath the Vallery of the Ultravixens, as Lute is the narrator for the majority of that one.

As much as I love the classic sexploitation pictures, I realize that they have a very specific audience 40 to 50 years later. What I find so remarkable about many of Meyer's movies are that I don't see them as limited in their potential audiences. There's so much great material here, that I could see so much more of an audience really digging this movie. Of course, the breasts are huge. It is notable though, that they are mostly all attractive too, the two don't always go hand in hand. I'm sure some feminists would have a hard time with the content of the movies but other than that this movie are such a good time that I can't really understand how some people wouldn't at least be amused by them.

Unfortunately, not too many of Russ Meyer's films are in wide distribution. In a perfect world Something Weird Video would have the rights and distribute them all with Russ Meyer/Mike Vraney commentary tracks! Unfortunately, things aren't always as they should be. Meyer distributes some of them through his own website (some on video, some on DVD). You can also get a bunch of them on import French DVDs from Luminous (region 2). That's where this one came from. The print is decent at best, but seeing as this movie isn't especially easy to come by it might be the best we can get for a while.

Interestingly enough, Meyer is also selling a 3 volume autobiography on his site. Priced at $199, I haven't been able to pick up a set yet, but look forward to it when I have a little extra cash. If anyone has it already, I would love to hear your opinions, so please drop me a line below.

Click on the curious head to email me!

I give this one a full 5 SuperUschis out of 5!

review by Joe Canistro 07/29/2002