See New Orleans
as it was meant to be seen – as a murky, overripe B-movie!
HOT
THRILLS AND WARM CHILLS
(1967)
Starring Rita Alexander,
Lorna Maitland, Jean Mason
Directed by Dale Berry
This
smut was filmed "on location in the Sin City of the Western Hemisphere
where babes and booze can be had with the wink of an eye." The storyline
has something to do with three lusty ladies who conspire to steal the King of
Sex crown on Mardi Gras Day!? It makes no sense, but id doesn’t matter: The
girls are sexy. The dialogue is so bad it’s funny. And the Mardi Gras
footage from the ‘60s is cool. Bourbon Street stripper Rita Alexander (known
as the Champagne Girl) is a real beauty with her platinum bouffant and
authentic Southern accent. The non-existent production values and bad acting
make this master schlock, assisted by gratuitous scenes of fornication,
lesbianism, and topless dancers. Oh, and then there’s the shoot-out in the
French Quarter. The cops are on the tails (literally and figuratively) of Rita
and her bosom-buddy as they dash through a real Mardi Gras crowd. Classically,
the police bemoan the shortage of good officers in New Orleans. Hmm. Onlookers
gawk at our hassled heroines, unaware of the cameraman perched on a near-by
lightpost. In an only-in-an-exploitation-movie moment, our detective stops his
pursuit to spy on a naked woman tonguing her reflection in a mirror. Our
fugitives hide in a cemetery, ambush the cop, and stomp him. When Rita gets
trapped in a mausoleum, she is either claustrophobic, suffocating, or having
an orgasm. You’re not quite sure, and then the movie suddenly ends. You can
almost hear the director yelling, "That’s a wrap. We’re out of
film!"
GIRL
IN TROUBLE
(1963)
Starring Tammy Clark,
Bettina Johnson, Neomie Salatich
Written, produced, and directed by Lee Beale
This
farmer’s-daughter-in-the-Big-Easy tale sports a melodramatic narration. Judy
tells how she left her perfect boyfriend in hometown Springfield for the
glamour and excitement of New Orleans. In a classic B-movie plot twist, she is
attacked while hitchhiking. After clobbering her attacker with a rock, she
steals his car and drives to New Orleans. One too many laughably buskined
voice-overs ("The day was as dismal as my future," "My suitcase
was as heavy as my thoughts.") make the film’s lamely-dubbed talking
scenes almost preferable. Judy rents a room in a St. Charles Avenue mansion,
and sets off to find herself a job. She is quickly fired from Bucket O’
Chicken for not sleeping with the boss. Her next opportunity as a lingerie
model, sends her to the Roosevelt Hotel (now the Fairmont) for a
"job." As naïve Judy models revealing lingerie, the client suddenly
snaps, leading to a creepily stylized rape scene, complete with close-ups and
dramatic music. Jaded Judy soon becomes "The Texas Twister" (perhaps
a take-off on Bourbon Street stripper, "The Texas Tornado"), a
feature dancer at the Club Flamingo, her towering flip hairdo chock full of
Spray Net. We’re talkin’ serious high hair, here. Judy Ods on sleeping
pills after her sweetheart, Johnny, tracks her down at the nightclub. But as
she leaves Charity Hospital (which, incidentally, looks exactly the same as it
does today), her spirits are lifted when she spots a forgiving Johnny waiting
to take her back to the small-town life she’d tried to escape. After all,
tomorrow is another day.
If you know of an obscure film shot in New
Orleans, or would like to review old films for Eccentric New Orleans, please contact
us.