A Smell of Honey a Swallow of Brine

Smell of Honey, A Swallow of Brine, A (1966)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A notorious sex roughie from David Friedman is considered by many to be the Citizen Kane of sexploitation flicks. In the film, a beautiful blonde virgin (Stacey Walker) gets her sexual kicks by stripping down in the nude, turning her boyfriends on and then screaming rape. She sends on guy to prison, another to suicide but she meets her match when she meets a real rapist. As you can tell, this type of storyline isn't going to be for everyone but the first half of the film is played for cute laughs and it manages to get quite a few. The dorky guys who the woman has to lead on are all rather funny and Walker is pretty good in her role. I wouldn't say good performance but her body and girlish charms work well. The second half of the film falls into S&M and dream sequences, which are all very boring but I guess this was the only way to stretch out the running time of 69-minutes. The film also contains the classic line where the woman gets hit on by a lesbian: I may be a bitch but I'll never be a butch!

Fairly interesting exploitation flick in black and white written by David F. Friedman. The lead actress Stacey Walker is well-cast and strangely attractive. She resembles a deranged Renee Zellweger with a bad hair-do. This chick only made two of these films and then moved back to Texas. The music is terrible. One of her boyfriends is played by Sam Melville (from the TV show THE ROOKIES) using a different name.

Best line in the film from Tony - "Are you putting me on, doll? None of my chicks put me on". Good B/W cinematography from Laslo Kovacs (EASY RIDER & TARGETS & many others). Good locales (cool swimming pool, also used in THE DEFILERS). Strange ending but fitting. A 4 out of 10. Best performance Stacey Walker.

I don't know what it is, but Stacey Walker, the lead character in this film, has a real screen presence. She is riveting, exuding a real sexiness that transcends physical beauty. Otherwise, there would not be much to recommend this film, as it drags at times and the plot is very predictable once the general premise becomes known. I thought Stacey was at her most erotic in the final scene of the film, when she was hanging out on a street corner with a cigarette dangling from her lips, waiting for a John.

According to the Director, David Friedman, he discovered Ms. Walker on the beach in Santa Monica when she badgered him to buy het a hot dog. While I find that hard to believe, it could possibly be true. Alas that Stacey Walker made only two feature films before disappearing into obscurity. I think she could have been a real star in the sexploitation movie industry had she wanted to. But I suppose it is always better to leave them wanting more. I do however recommend this fiim for Stacey Walker alone.

The story for this one is pretty simple, simple enough that it doesn't really fill a 69 minute running time, so a fair amount of padding is utilized. The incredible Stacey Walker ("The Notorious Daughter of Fanny Hill") delights in her rotten role as Sharon Winters, a man-hating sexpot who gets her kicks getting guys all hot and bothered and then screaming for the cops with cries of "rape", delighting in their resulting misfortune. One goes to jail, one is financially ruined, and one suffers a particularly nasty fate. It's not until Sharon meets Tony (Bob Todd), a chauvinistic, brutal singer, that she finally meets her match.

This is the kind of exploitation flick this viewer would have dearly liked to have enjoyed a little more. Instead, it's just too draggy for its own good, with scenes of seduction that just go on and on. What does make this tolerable enough are the physical charms of Ms. Walker, who has so much fun treating people - even her lesbian roommate Paula (Sharon Carr)! - like garbage. This leads to that one great line with which many of us who have seen the promotional sequence on all Something Weird DVDs are familiar:

"Paula, I may be a bitch, but I'll *never* be a butch."

Now *that's* priceless.

The almost non-stop garage rock music on the soundtrack does serve as atmospheric accompaniment; it's just too bad that there's not a little more action, as this could have been a trash flick really worth savouring. Of course, we can always have fun with the unbelievably amateurish acting in the supporting roles, such as Tom Hughes as the shy and awkward Dick Owens. Writer / producer David F. Friedman, one of the all time legends in the exploitation genre, cameos as a juror near the beginning; the direction is by Byron Mabe, who'd also acted for Friedman in "The Defilers" and directed "She-Freak".

There's definite curiosity value here in seeing vintage black & white trash (shot in style by the great Laszlo Kovacs) such as this flick; it is worth seeing for people eager to check out the Something Weird catalogue. Kovacs and co-star Sam Melville (who plays Lowell Carter) work under pseudonyms.

Six out of 10.

Barbara Jean Moore (Stacey Walker) was a dropout from Texas who, while vacating in Santa Monica, was discovered on a beach one afternoon by cigar-chomping sexploitation producer, Dave Friedman who decided to cast her in the title role for his latest picture THE NOTORIOUS DAUGHTER OF FANNY HILL (1965). Pleased by her acting skills (and looks I suppose), he casted her in this as well as a nudist camp short. A Paramount executive saw some of the films and was eager to run an interview with Walker but while Friedman went looking for her she had already gone back to Texas. So for all we know Miss Walker could have become a big Hollywood name!

In A SMELL OF HONEY, she plays Sharon, a sexy, sadistic office worker who teases men to their limits and screams "rape" once she's done. "Roughies" had become big in the adults-only film industry so Sharon gets what she deserves from some horny b*stards towards the end.

The cinematography was by the great Lazlo Kovacs so you can always keep yourself occupied during the 71 minutes just admiring the b/w visuals. It's slow in spots and ends abruptly (may be the print) but for a post-BLOOD FEAST Dave Friedman film, it's not bad. Walker's twangy accent and an equelly twangy, reaccuring tune by Et-Cetra (which you're sure to be humming in your head after viewing) strangely creates some kind of rural, southern feeling to the film (don't expect Russ Meyer, though). For a more slappy, enjoyable Dave Friedman experience try THE ACID EATERS (1968).