Vixen

Vixen (1968)
70 min

Along with Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and The Immoral Mr. Teas, Vixen is one of Russ Meyer's most infamous and influential films. In retrospect, the film seems almost tame in the sense of explicitness, but don't let that fool you, Vixen is a tour de force unlike almost any film before or since.

Director Russ Meyer's films work on so many levels, and Vixen is Meyer at his best. As a huge fan of the golden age of exploitation, I came upon Meyer's work from that direction (as I'm sure most fans of the breast man have). I had been poking around the wonderful world of exploitation for a while before I finally saw my first Meyer film, mostly due to the fact that his films aren't generally as readily available as some others (mostly thanks to Something Weird Video). Right from the beginning it's evident that there is something different here. To begin with, technically these films are head and shoulders above their peers, all of the women are eye poppingly well endowed, and to top it all off the writing and direction both have a razor sharp wit about them.

Like any director with so prolific a career, Meyer has had his ups and downs. The film in question here though, is definitely one of his ups. Vixen has everything that makes a great Meyer movie. Aside from that, it's an excellent film that I think would have a good deal of mainstream appeal. Of course it seems dated now (being 35 years old and all), but I think this would make a great introduction into the directors body of work. In short, if you like this one, you'll probably like the rest of his work too.

It's hard to say exactly what I think the strongest part of Vixen is; the film is so well rounded. Being that is it may, I think the plot is as good a place to start as any. This is a wild ride with plenty of Meyer's political views thrown into the mix. We start out with a nice dumb guy named Tom Palmer (the kind I've grown to love in Meyer movies) and his promiscuous wife Vixen Palmer (the kind I've really grown to love in Meyer movies). Tom is a good guy with good morals, and he's about as naive as a small child. Vixen, on the other hand, is one of the greatest Meyer creations ever. The tagline says 'Is she woman - or is she animal?' - this is one of the more accurate taglines I've read. She is really the ultimate movie bitch. She runs around screwing everyone in sight, well, just about everyone. Some of her 'victims' include a Canadian mountie, both members of a vacationing couple, and her own brother (!!), yet she stops short of her brother's friend Niles (who she calls Rufus) only because he's black. She's openly racist and bratty throughout the film, determined to get her way at all costs. She always does, this behavior developes a great relationship between her and Niles for the climax.

Speaking on of the climax, that is brought about when Niles meets a peculiar Irishman who has hired Tom and Vixen to fly him to California. We learn a good deal about Niles, and some particular resentments that he holds. Soon enough everyone in the plane is bickering back and forth and we're treated to an interesting dialogue on racism, communism, equality, individuality, and even a little bit of sexuality thrown in for good measure. I'll refrain from going into many specifics, as I think it would ruin a wonderfull experience. Suffice it to say, that this movie is surprisingly character driven. The set up in the beginning compliments the climax perfectly. Not to say that it is especially realistic, Meyer's films generally aren't. Instead we get more colorfull characters who represent more than just an individual. These people could more accurately be described as ideologies. That's not to say that this movie gets caught up in itself and isn't entertaining though. Credit for that goes to a lively cast and a sharp witted director.

The cast is led the unstoppable Erica Gavin in the title role. I've seen a few digs at her acting in various reviews for Vixen. Perhaps I'm second guessing people here, but I really think they were missing the point. Nothing in this movie aimed at realism, and Gavin's performance is the best example. From her exaggerated appearance to her wild and over the top behavior, she is exactly what this film needed to become the classic that it has. As much as I love some of Meyer's other regulars, I don't think that any of them could have given this role the gusto that Gavin did.

Playing opposite Gavin is Harrison Page as Niles, or Rufus as Vixen likes to call him. He is the perfect foil for her character. While not as memorable as Vixen (I can't think of many characters who have been), he works well with the material given to him. His bickering back and forth with Vixen has great timing. The two work together perfectly. He has such a perfect look, I love when he flashes Vixen that killer stare. He has probably the most challenging role in the film, having some distinct and complicated aspects to his personality. He's easily the easiest to identify with on one hand, but at other times he's the most despisable. Page pulls this off remarkably well considering he doesn't have nearly the amount of screen time as Gavin. While not able to steal a scene quite the same way as a Harry Sledge or some of the later Meyer creations, Page's low key performance provides a perfect contrast with Gavin's out of control Vixen.

As for Meyer's direction, everything I've grown to love about him is here. He's always raising the bar for sexploitation films, and in terms of quality, no one has ever been able to touch him. Vixen isn't quite as outragious as Up or Supervixens but works well within itself. The only way that I could see this picture coming off as somewhat tame is if it were compared to some of the previously mentioned out of control films Meyer made in the 1970s. Vixen has everything done extremely well, just not to the degree that it would be taken later on. This isn't meant as a slight in any way against this film though, in some ways it seems more pure than some of his later efforts (which have merits of their own, even if they tend to get bogged down by too much going on).

So, as you can tell, this is one of my favorite movies. I feel like I could go one about Meyer long enough to have something akin to his own three volume autobiography. Suffice it to say, I find him to be hands down one of the most infuential, and most importantly, entertaining film makers in the history of the medium. He's simply a natural talent with an eye for great storytelling and huge boobs.

To find more information about Meyer, visit RMFilms.com and for info on actress Erica Gavin, visit her website here!

I give this one a full 5 incestious psycho sluts out 5!

Click on the curious head to email me!

review by Joe Canistro 11/4/02