I was surprised watching PRETTY WET LIPS on a new Alpha Blue Archives DVD to discover it was strictly soft-core in the sex department, given its casting and age (1974). But it fits the pattern of Chris Warfield's Lima Productions, which continued making soft porn well into the hardcore era.
Film unfolds with plenty of pseudo-documentary structure, as a shrink interviews three young ladies whose lives intertwined due to crime. Flashbacks tell the tale, which is not all that interesting but plays okay by '70s drive-in movie standards.
Eve Orlon is interesting to observe as always, playing a criminal named Chickie whose teammate Buster is into raping women, and Chickie likes to egg him on. The other two women are their victims, and the events are dredged up here in a manner as corny as the numerous TV series later in the '70s (think Policewoman, Charlie's Angels, even Baretta) that were unacknowledged rip-offs of those wonderfully lurid early '70s drive-in epics, often employing the same directors (like Barry Shear, Jack Starrett, etc.).
It all adds up to a soft roughie, lacking any real guts or edge, and paling in comparison to the notable crazy films of this period, many made by Lee Frost. Brigitte Maier (whose international career is so haphazard as to be emblematic of what a screwed-up industry there was at that time) pops up awkwardly in the film -first standing around near a pool for no reason, and reels later literally stopping in as a neighbor seeking the proverbial cup of sugar while the principals are involved in a home invasion, just so her beauty and body (luridly dressed in red) can be tossed into the mix.
The flat, listless interviews and the crudely shot action and sex scenes add up to a big nothing, The filmmakers chose to remain anonymous, a wise decision if either Lima's Chris Warfield or John Hayes were responsible.
One scene features a poster advertising a stage production of "The Sound of Music" at the Music Center starring Patricia Morison and Werner Klemperer -that ran in 1972, indicating the year this movie was shot.
