Dr. Sex / Wanda the Sadistic Hypnotis

Rating:
Summary: Loads of Fun
Review: After Kiss Me Quick, Dr. Sex is the best nudie cutie film I've seen. In Dr. Sex, a trio of sex therapists share humourous, Twilight Zone style stories about their patients. Unlike most nudie cutie films, there is a lot of genuinely funny storytelling amongst the cheesiness. Dr. Sex is also noteworthy for being the first film made by Ted Mikels.

The print is not great, but apparently there will never be a better one (Something Weird used the only known surviving print of the film), and it is still extremely watchable. The biggest problem is that a short section is missing from the third story (told by a serious, skeptical psychiatrist). The psychiatrist sets up the patient's problem, and his patient is shown putting his solution to practice, but part of the exposition between the two scenes in which the psychiatrist apparently recounts his advice is missing. This missing portion appears to be no more than 5 to 10 seconds, and is not essential to the story. Thankfully Something Weird has preserved the vast majority of this worthwhile film.

Wanda is not as strong (it plays like a second rate Harry Novak film) but is still an interesting historical curiosity. The DVD is rounded off by nudie cutie shorts of varying quality. "Jane on a Train", which I've already seen on another SW DVD, and which will be included on the Best of Burlesque DVD as well (someone must love it!) has some interesting special f/x, but my favourite is the extremely surreal "Handyman" which takes place at an apartment building straight out of a David Lynch film.

Rating:
Summary: OK but not great nudie cutie
Review: Dr. Sex is a pretty good nudie cutie type movie from the 60s. A bunch of psychiatrists (who obviously need psychiatric help themselves) discuss their unusual case histories of patients with unusual sex disorders. What follows is a bunch of outrageous episodes. Wanda was disappointing. The movie has a great beginning with a guy looking into the window of a curio shop at figurines of beautiful nude women in various poses. As the titles roll the figurines are replaced by real nude women in those poses. Unfortunately, the movie never lives up to the promise of that great beginning. Wanda and her live-in girlfriend are OK but not really hot looking babes who live in a big house with a big pool in southern California. Wanda has some hypnotic ability and the two women like to waylay men and then bring them back to the house and play mind games, etc. Eventually they release the victim unharmed when they grow bored. They capture a guy and then play around a while. Some friends come over and then join in the mind games. Wanda tells a hypnotized lesbian that she is a man-hungry nymphomaniac. She has a hypnotized Mary Kay Cosmetic lady perform a striptease, etc. An inmate from the local funny farm escapes and makes his way to the house where he releases the current victim and the two men then proceed to play some games of their own with the captured bunch of women. That's about it. It was OK but not as good as I expected. The Toy Box and the Godson were much better SMV DVDs.