The Touch of Her Flesh/Review

From The Grindhouse Cinema Database

< The Touch of Her Flesh
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In the mid-to-late 60s, darker, grittier nudie movies were en vogue in the New York grindhouse scene. Audiences were already growing tired of the nudie cuties and were clamoring for rougher fare. Michael and Roberta Findlay were right in the middle of this "roughie" trend, and when they released The Touch of Her Flesh in 1966, they had something of a hit on their hands. So much so that they quickly put together two sequels.

So what did The Touch of Her Flesh have that resonated with audiences? Quite a few beautiful, murdered women.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We start with some rather creative opening titles which are projected onto a naked woman (an uncredited Roberta Findlay).

I've heard of opening titles, but these are opening TITles.

Director Michael Findlay stars as Richard Jennings, a weapons dealer and husband to Claudia (Angelique Pettyjohn - Hell's Belles). Returning home one day to collect a forgotten speech, Richard finds Claudia in bed with another man. Distraught, he runs out of the apartment and into the city, where he is hit by a car.

He awakens in a hospital and the doctor informs him he's lost an eye and is temporarily paralysed from the waist down.

Richard is none too pleased.

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His infidelity-caused depression turns to murderous rage. He doesn't just blame his wife, however, but beautiful women in general. And for the rest of the film, he will watch and then murder a number of topless dancers and a prostitute, all the while working up the courage and rage necessary to murder his wife.

Feminist this film ain't.

But the film is interesting as a historical curiosity and is surprisingly well photographed. The camerawork isn't merely leering; someone (most likely cinematographer Roberta Findlay) put some thought into the shot composition, and this film has an undeniably cool visual style.

This is no doubt helped by the fact that the women are amazingly beautiful.

Modern viewers will probably find the film to be slow. There is minimal dialogue, just barely enough to move the plot forward. Instead, the film spends most of its time watching women take their clothes off and dance topless. So if watching some of the most beautiful women you've ever seen dance and take their clothes off sounds boring, this film isn't for you.

I won't say I recommend the film, but if you want to watch it, I get it.


Rob McGee has written comedy and short stories for The American Bystander, Sammiches and Psych Meds, and a number of other funny places online and off. You can follow him on YouTube.

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