Anyone buying this video knows what to expect from its title.I bought a copy because I wanted to see again the Italian actress, Christa Nelli.I first saw her in 1965 (when I was 19) in the UK London ATV tv series "Riviera Police", episode one.I even went to the Colindale Magazine & Newspaper Library in north west London and researched the 30/7/65 edition of the "TV Times" when she appeared as the front cover girl and I was able to obtain a copy of her photograph and of the programme details inside."Riviera Police" was panned by the critics and despite my best endeavours it seems to be impossible to obtain a video of this series.38 years later I used Imdb to research her other films in which she appeared."Pierre le Fou" from 1965 with Jean Paul Belmondo had her as "Mme Staquet" but throughout the film I failed to see her.Maybe her scenes were edited out in the video version.
"Massacre pour une Orgie" a.k.a. "Massacre for Pleasure" a.k.a. "Massacre for an Orgy" would have been strong stuff in 1966.Because of the licencing laws then governing this type of sexually explicit film, one would have had to go to a cinema club in say Soho, London and become a member first.Even then, I venture that you would not have seen all the scenes you see now.Of course in this age of unfettered pornography "Massacre" seems fairly innocous and amateurish by comparison.
My main criticisms are:
1.Bad Continuity:In the scene where Christa Nelli is being beaten by "Fat Man" with a stick causing stripes of blood to appear by every downward thrust on her upper torso; immediatly afterwards as she is wrestling with another prostitute, her said torso is in pristine condition!
2.Poor Dialogue:Once again we have that French style of minimalist speaking and improvisation.There is so little spoken that a narrative by the French police inspector is necessary just to inform the audience what is happening.
3.Poor Editing:The scenes do not flow naturally one to the other and some scenes are disjointed and have an unfinished feel to them.
4.No Credits: I dom't expect to know who was Best Boy or Chief Gaffer but it would have been helpful to add a cast list so we know who played whom.All we get is the title, name of the director and film production company.
It is films like this which reinforce why I mainly watch British/American films but only those which do not insult your intelligence and leave you something to work out for yourself.Of course, there have been many good foreign films.My favourites are "Monsieur Hulot's Holiday with Jaques Tati (1953) "Rocco and His Brothers" with Alain Delon (1966) and "Il Postino" (1995)."Massacre pour une Orgie" however is not one of them!
