The Curse of Her Flesh

Curse of Her Flesh, The (1968)

** (out of 4)

Second in the "Flesh Trilogy" has Richard Jennings (Michael Findlay) returning, stalking the streets for more women to kill. The bigger budget adds some better production values and the cinematography is pretty good here. The jazz music score helps move things along and Findlay does a better job with the story structure. However, there's still way too much dead space to be fully entertaining.

Touch of Her Flesh, The (1967)

* (out of 4)

Richard Jennings (Michael Findlay) catches his wife in bed with another guy so he runs out of the house only to be hit by a car. Now, confined to a wheelchair, he decides to take revenge on any hooker/stripper he comes across. One of the first "slashers", this NYC cheapie might be one of the first of its kind but that doesn't make it a good movie. Like most of these films, the biggest problem is the fact that we've got 20-minutes worth of story and then 50-minutes worth of pointless and boring strip scenes. To me, that's why short films are often a lot better than trying to push something that isn't there into the feature category. Wall to wall nudity can't save this one. The first film in the "Flesh" trilogy.

Kiss of Her Flesh, The (1968)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Thankfully the final film in director Michael Findlay's Flesh trilogy. Once again the psycho killer stalks the streets looking for women to kill. Boring on all accounts, as is the entire trilogy. These three films could have been edited down and together into a twenty minute movie and they'd still be slow and dull.

This is the delightfully sicko sequel to THE TOUCH OF HER FLESH, with director Michael Findlay directing as "Julian Marsh" and playing the maniacal predator Richard Jennings again, under still another name! I found this guilty pleasure to be more entertaining than the original, with what appear to be better production values, if such a term could apply to such an obviously cheap sexploitation flick. Live sound is used instead of voice-over work, and we get some interesting shots (the most impressive of which was a surprisingly gripping finale shot in the back of a moving truck).

There is really no clear plot here, nor is it needed: Still nursing a grudge due to the wife who cheated on him, the bitter forerunner of Jason Voorhees and all those later serial madmen is back to rid the world of all "bad girls" who strip and turn tricks. Richard Jennings deals death in a number of unusual ways (using cats, a machete, poison and sexual devices perhaps better left unmentioned here). Oh, and don't miss the segment with the squash (yes - squash).

Contains a potent S&M stage scene and an enticing pre-credits striptease not only at the start of the festivities (with a nicely done credits sequence this time too), but again later on with more of the same.