Cherry, Harry & Raquel!

It makes one wonder about the footage (half the film) that the processing lab irretrievably lost. Too bad too because although Meyer improvised by reshooting footage of huge-breasted Uschi Digard (and who can argue with that?), I'd be willing to bet that the lost footage was even better. Not that I don't have anything at all against Uschi (I don't), but I get the distinct impression the missing footage would have even been more erotic. If the missing footage is anything like the most erotic scene in the movie - the seduction of the Franklin Bolger character by the nurse = it would have blown the audience right out of their seats. The jump cuts featuring Uschi are nice to look at but without any substance they cannot be put into proper perspective as relative to the film. Charles Napier is fine as the corrupt sheriff (he plays bad guys extremely well) but it is the amply endowed women in the cast that steal the show.

To all the critics who consider Meyers work near porn I always say this, he essentially makes Carry On style movies and but adds boobs to keep peoples attention.

Granted they aren't as funny as the Carry On classics but they do have their own special charm once you get past the gratuitous usage of a certain pair of popular lady parts.

Sadly this particular Meyer film lacks any laughs at all, is short on charm and with the exception of the always excellent Napier even the cast falls flatter than a flat thing on the flattest day of it's life flattened by an electrified flattening machine. So fairly flat! I didn't see this one until adulthood whereas many of the others I was younger and maybe there is a connection there. Not suggesting at all that I watched Russ Meyers movies as a youngster for any nefarious reasons but now into adulthood the mere sight of a nipple does not make me jump up and down, whistle and bang my head with a frying pan repeatedly looney toon style.

Harry Sledge (Charles Napier) is a small-town sheriff who doubles as a drug runner for an old, rich pervert. He gets involved with the old man's woman, plus another big-breasted girl. Meanwhile he stalks a rival indian dealer in the desert. The film features typical great dialogue, masterful editing, photography and wonderful sex scenes. It also has some great action scenes and is surprisingly bloody. Charles Napier gives one of his best performances. It's a very entertaining 70 minutes.

The story takes place in the Nevada desert… Frank Bolger is a conspicuous man in the community who also happens to run a drug-smuggling ring on the side… The local sheriff is in on it, acting as his hit man.

After a hot scene with one of the local women, Bolger orders the sheriff to eliminate the Apache (John Milo), an Indian who has been cutting into their marijuana sales... The sheriff reluctantly agrees, takes the boss's woman home, and relieves his frustrations on her before trying to carry the Indian away…

Meyer does indeed have a fascination for very richly gifted women, and this film is no exception… The scene where Bolger talks the nurse into giving him a body massage is a classic erotic tease… Also, Meyer has very cleverly juxtaposed a sensual lesbian scene against a bloody battle between the sheriff and the Indian… But much of the sex is unmotivated… Meyer cuts so quickly, however, that it is more of a lack of respect tease than an exploitive treatment of sex…

Larissa Ely (Raquel) is wonderful as the steamy, sweaty, desert young woman… Linda Ashton (Cherry) is delightful as the sexy nurse, but Charles Napier steals the show as the violent, explosive, cruel of a sheriff

Sex and violence in a desert town as sheriff Harry (Charles Napier) gets involved in bushwhacking and murder. More breasts and bloodshed from Russ Meyer, with minimal plotting interrupted by staccato clips of naked women frolicking in the dunes. It's obviously a bad picture, but it does have Napier and he's worth watching in just about anything. I loved Pauline Kael's assessment of his rock-solid stature in her review of "Citizen's Band" (she called him "an erotic Steve Canyon"). To me, he's a kinky Brian Keith, a mountain of brawn and straw-blond hair. He has criss-cross scars on his face and a smile that has a maniacal bend (like Nicholson's Joker without make-up) and his sex scene with Raquel--or is that Cherry?--in the sand is really something to see (and one of the few times the film is not chopped up to provide deeper meaning in the subtext). *1/2 from ****