The Frightened Woman (1969, Piero Schivazappa)

Dagmar Lassander plays Maria, a journalist writing an article on male sterilization and Philippe Leroy plays a cold robot-like sadistic villain who claims to like killing women at the point of climax. He detains her in his apartment and sexually, physically and psychologically abuses her. If Alejandro Jodorowsky or Dario Argento had directed The Collector it would have been something like this. A sadistic film but never even approaching torture-porn, it is more influenced by 60s experimentalism of films like Blow Up than horror and the dialogue is far more intelligent than a typical giallo film, overtly dealing with sexual politics. The most memorable element of the film is undoubtedly the visually arresting distinctly 60’s art deco production design somewhere between A Clockwork Orange and Barbarella. After a tense first hour the film suddenly descends into a cutesy love scene which even includes their car working as a boat and sailing across a lake. This last third of the film is whimsically absurd, with the woman undergoing what can be assumed to be Stockholm syndrome, and while this somewhat ruins the film, it is followed by a strong ending that further surprises. An entirely unique movie.
4/5

Secret Ceremony (1968, Joseph Losey)

It’s a wonder that 3 big name stars agreed to be in such a dementedly perverted film. Cenci (Mia Farrow) sees Leonora (Elizabeth Taylor) on a bus and due to an uncanny likeness to her deceased mother, adopts her. Leonora is a prostitute in mourning for her dead child and moves into the mansion of the psychologically disturbed child where the two develop a strained mother-daughter relationship with hints of lesbianism until the girls lecherous stepfather shows up. If the ridiculousness of the set-up doesn’t deter you, it’s an enjoyably bitchy, over-the-top camp film, though slightly slow paced. Taylor often borders on her shrieking insanity of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf and Robert Mitchum is great as Cenci’s paedophile stepfather but my favourite characters were the two evil aunts straight out of a Roald Dahl book. The opulent decadence strikes a resemblance to the director’s earlier film The Servant but this is far less restrained.
3.5/5

Forty Deuce (1982, Paul Morrissey)

The film consists of a 12 year old runaway some rent boys had been pimping dying in their bedroom and them discussing what they are going to do about it. They eventually invite a client over and drug him up in the hope that they can blame it on him. While the locations are grimy, there is nothing explicit in the film. Based on a play by Adam Bowne, to which its dialogue heavy nature must have been better suited, as the film is never ending repetitive talk. Unfortunately it is all rendered incomprehensible due to accents, slang and bad quality sound. While it is most famous for having a pre-fame greasy haired Kevin Bacon playing a junkie drug dealer the only interesting moments come from a female drug dealer’s deranged delivery of her lines and Orson Beans performance as a paedophile trick. It is nice to see 42nd street in New York back when it was a seedy cess pit but the film doesn’t have the comedy of Morrissey’s earlier and vastly superior Trash or Heat and its pace is mind numbingly dull.
1/5
Available from revengeismydestiny.com with foreign subtitles

Orgies of Edo (1969, Teruo Ishii)

The first of three stories involves a woman forced into prostitution, the next a woman turned on by unattractive men who has threesomes with dwarves. Her admirer disfigures himself so she will like him. The third features a sadistic and powerful man who has bulls with flaming horns charge into a courtyard of women wearing red who are forced to strip to avoid being gored. This one ends in a very graphic way which I will not ruin. Other than pink eiga/pinky violence films it is comparable Salo in its mixture of high production values, decent acting, well written dialogue and sadistic beauty. The most creatively perverse film I have seen in a long time.
4/5
Torrent with fansub by glopglop and lordretsudo (who did an awesome job)