Animal Women – Animalische Frauen (1973)

Animal Women – Animalische Frauen: Directed by Raphael Nussbaum. With Ed Bishop, Joan Blackman, Candice Rialson, Teri Guzman. Naive, but brash and sultry teenage runaway Bonnie finds herself lost and adrift in America. The lovely young lass runs afoul of a colorful array of evil oddballs who all treat her like an object: violent criminal Pat makes Bonnie help her kidnap the middle-aged Dan Daubrey; domineering lesbian painter Geraldine Mills wants Bonnie to be her kept girl and uses her as a model; and wicked misogynistic rich sicko Vincent Stackman desires poor Bonnie as the ultimate prized possession in his menagerie of caged female animals he keeps locked up in the basement of his swanky remote mansion.

“The lead character does seem to always end up as somebodies pet. First itu0026#39;s a African American Hooker, then a Lesbian painter, then, finally, Ed Bishop as art gallery owner. There are also various little furry friends the various characters own. So thatu0026#39;s the thread that runs through this.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt is not a white chick u0026amp; black chick ride through the night kind of sleazy buddy film that the DVD version seems to be sold as.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt is not particularly well made, the DVD source print is among the worst youu0026#39;ll see (though still worth watching if). Itu0026#39;s not amateur time but itu0026#39;s pretty rough around most edges production. The paintings featured are well done and the topless portrait of Candace would be a great collectors item–where oh where is that now? Itu0026#39;s better produced than other 70u0026#39;s drive in stuff but very limited in what it can afford to do. Climax which potentially could involve a live tiger ends very quickly for example. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe music is a u0026quot;Everybodies talkingu0026#39; at meu0026quot; attempt at ballads and then no score at all. Which hurt as the movie seems to lose energy by the end. In fact the first nearly 40 minutes consists of about 4 scenes one of which lasts at least 15 minutes. So itu0026#39;s not fast paced exploitation, this is fairly low budget affair, donu0026#39;t expect any car crashes.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eYou can expect some nudity and youu0026#39;ll get it and be pretty happy with what you get. Star Candace does well in the part and certainly willing to go all out when required. Ed Bishop is fun but doesnu0026#39;t really get to cut loose as much as you might hope during the last section of the film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNot much prolonged violence in this film and it has less and less exploitation as it goes along. Again itu0026#39;s worth a watch if youu0026#39;re in the mood, just know what it is and isnu0026#39;t. The film does take itsu0026#39; time with story, the characters arenu0026#39;t very deep. You think thatu0026#39;s a flaw? Well it wouldnu0026#39;t be except thatu0026#39;s sort of what youu0026#39;re left with in this film after awhile. It may well have some aspirations to be sort of a u0026quot;Sleazy Rideru0026quot; only all of it takes place within about 30 minutes drive of Malibu and Santa Monica. A few nice views of some old rotting piers that are now gone from the coast line. Some 70s music score would have helped sounds like they had to buy canned music and again not very much music other than the songs, which are kind of fun in a bad way. Mostly this film is for fans of Candace or may help create new fans of hers. Certainly this works better than the wretched CHATTER BOX. You can see why she stopped making movies with titles like that in her resume. But this is early on and she seems ready to be a cool 70u0026#39;s chick in exploitation movies which sort of did and sort of didnu0026#39;t happen for her.”