The Bellboy and the Playgirls

This was a first time watch for me and it was awful. Now to be far, I don't blame Francis Ford Coppola for this because he hasn't quite found himself yet, so I can't be too critical on his filmmaking with this project.

Positives for The Bellboy and the Playgirls (1962): There is some investment that can be had with this movie's premise especially for the male auidence.

Negatives for The Bellboy and the Playgirls (1962): The acting in the movie is very amateuriah and boring. There literally isn't any story attached to this movie and it feels like the filmmakers shot random scenes and they called it a movie. And finally, there were times to where I almost feel asleep while watching this movie.

Overall, The Bellboy and the Playgirls (1962) is not a movie that you Rush into just because of Francis Ford Coppola, but unfortunately I did and I paid the price.

George the bellboy aspires to be a private eye and be popular with women. Women scares him. He sneaks into a nearby playhouse to watch how an experienced director handles women. He suspects a group of beautiful women staying in the hotel as professionals. He starts snooping. The girls turn out to be lingerie models.

This is most notable for being partly directed by student filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. The movie can be divided into two parts. One is a black and white German film of low quality and nothing worthwhile. The second is a color nudie film that Coppola helped direct. The black and white part is a grind. The dialogue is hopelessly clunky. The historical fantasies are boring. There are some interesting aspect like George breaking the 4th wall but non of it is compelling. The color nudie is with Playboy bunny June Wilkinson and a bunch of buxom women. George is being played like a Don Knotts character. It's basically a student nudie film and that's what it looks like. Everybody has to start somewhere and this is where Coppola started.

Here's the outline: the bellboy wants to be a private investigator so he's reading a book about it, and decides to practice on hotel guests. A group of women check in that represent a lingerie manufacturer. The bellboy poses as a buyer to "investigate" them. The girls model their wares, with special attention to how easily they can be removed. Lots of T&A and not much else.

When released in the '60s, this was the sort of thing shown in "adults only" movie theaters full of cigarette smoke and men wearing raincoats. In fact, the contents are pretty tame by today's standards - you could almost show it on PBS if it had any intellectual pretensions at all.

The only copy I've seen was an '80s VHS release. Being an unimportant movie in German, the audio is dubbed, and dubbed poorly. Video quality suggests a really old print or perhaps even 16mm.