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Nude On The Moon
[Something Weird]
1961; color
Directed by Doris Wishman
Starring: Marietta, William Mayer, Lester Brown, Pat Reilly & Ira Magee
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To date, most, if not all, of the Doris Wishman titles we've reviewed in this column would fall under the wide genre blanket of exploitation film. The earliest part of her unique cinematic career however, started in a genre that was one of the roots of the mighty tree of exploitation, the nudie cutie. Now, although that old adage of not judging a book by it's cover is often a good one to go by, in this case the nudie cutie film you may as well go ahead and do so because they are pretty much exactly what the genre title would imply. In other words, they are films whose main purpose is to offer as many examples of nude cute people in as many shapes and sizes as possible; and I mean the latter part of that statement very literally. The former is a little less accurate, as many of the ladies and gentleman in these films in general, and in this film particularly, are not all that cute. This fact probably won't surprise anyone who has seen a sampling of adult material from this era (that's just how things were back in the day) but for those who haven't seen any adult material from back in the day, trust me, it wasn't all Jenna Jameson and Tera Patrick. It wasn't even Mary Carey. Basically, whoever was willing to take their clothes off in front of the camera was hired and, generally speaking, it was not nubile 20-somethings with perky breasts and no cellulite lining up for that job. By the way, I realize this isn't much of a selling point for those considering watching this film, but I'm just being honest. Anywhoo, for those of you who aren't familiar with the genre, and may be under the impression that there is no plot or dialogue in these types of films, that is not the case. Of course, no one promised the plot would be linear or believable or that the dialogue would be well written or acted but, nonetheless, it is there. This one actually has a fairly extensive plotline involving a two-man mission to the moon. (In a space craft built they built themselves, natch!) Of course, once the less than dynamic duo arrive on this distant galaxy they discover that certain portions of the moon are not only inhabited, they're inhabited by a colony of nudists. Nudists whose homeland bears a striking resemblance to this weird roadside attraction called Coral Castle near Homestead, Florida (apparently also used as a location for portions of kitschy '50s sci-fi film The Wild Women Of Wongo) that we read about, appropriately enough, in the copy of Weird Florida I bought the Kommandant for his birthday last year. That book is awesome by the way; although I haven't checked out the whole series, I highly recommend it and the magazine that inspired it, Weird NJ. But I digress. I can't quite recommend Nude On The Moon quite as highly to those not into the genre - unless, like me, you are on an unofficial mission to see every available film Ms. Wishman ever made - but for those who are, this is an undisputed classic and worth seeing at least once.
—Bunny
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