My quick rating -Â 4.7/10. I recall reading about the "Flesh" trilogy of movies back in my video store days but never saw anywhere to watch them until one recently popped up. I am curious if these are essential grindhouse viewing like I recall them being referred to as. Since this was 1967, full frontal nudity was a no-no so there are plenty of shots of topless women and creatively covered-up vagina shots. Michael Findlay seemed to have moved on from mere sexploitation with this one as he incorporated violence into the mix. I know that sounds normal to you now, but for the time being, it seemed to be one or the other. Findlay takes on double duty acting as a distraught weapons dealer (Jennings) who is involved in an automobile accident after catching his stripper wife (the lovely Angelique Pettyjohn) in bed with another man. Upon recovering, he goes on a killing spree, bumping off exotic dancers and hookers while plotting revenge on his wife. The scenes of the women exposing themselves are overly extended which I am sure was the point back then but it ends up being a record skipping to keep playing the same song while the women dance. At first, Jennings is more hands-off, killing his victims in mundane methods such as poison, but gradually moves on to more sadomasochistic sex scenes bringing on the woman's demise. All the while that he is murdering these prostitutes he is scheming revenge against his cheating wife and anyone who may have known about the affair. The story definitely has a slasher-type feel to it and as you can see, this flick predates that subgenre. Rarely do the characters speak on film as it appears that the voices were all dubbed in over the scenes so judging the acting is a bit haphazard. I am not sure if I caught an edited version of this since the kills in this seemed very censored. There were clear suggestions as to what you should see such as a table saw blade spinning away which immediately cuts to the next scene. At no point did they even attempt a bloody shot or scene showing the victim going towards it. Not what I would personally expect to make this some grindhouse imperative viewing. For the time, it had to be a fairly edgy early slasher-like film that still is more sexploitation than a thriller. Just not anymore.
Justwatch doesn't currently have any outlets for viewing this one. (1.26.24)
