Sandra: The Making of a Woman

The sexploitation movie era of the late sixties and early seventies began with the allowance of gratuitous nudity in mainstream films and ended with the legalization of hardcore porn. It's peak years were between 1968 and 1972. One of the most loved and talented actresses of the era was Monica Gayle, who had a small but fanatic cult of followers. She was actually able to act, unlike many who filled the lead roles of these flicks, and her subsequent credits proved it. And her seemingly deliberate fade into obscurity right when her career was taking off only heightens her mystique.

Gary Graver, the director, was also a talent; probably too talented for the sexploitation genre, and his skill, combined with Monica Gayle's screen presence, makes Sandra, the Making of a Woman, a pleasantly enjoyable experience. The film never drags and you won't have your finger pressed on the fast-forward button.

A small town girl, "Sandra" (Monica Gayle), lives with her drunken, embittered father after her mother has run off with another man. Her father constantly accuses her of all kinds of slutty behavior, and she does her best to prove him right. After her liquored-up pa dies in a car accident (a scene tastefully intercut with "Sandra" in bed pleasuring herself), she decides to run off to San Francisco. She hitches a ride with a transvestite lingerie salesman and has the first of MANY sexual encounters. Her other conquests include a door-to-door make-up saleswoman played by Uschi Digart (you would think one would have to speak English intelligibly to be a saleswoman), a dirt-bag biker who follows her home from a movie and forces himself on her, and two of her employers--one a married man and the other who is also her psychiatrist (and no doubt breaching all of his professional ethics). They all get a nice piece of "Sandy". Of course, this being 1970 it all ends with a groovy "free love" coda.

Gary Graver was a respected cinematographer who actually worked with Orson Welles in his late career, Gallo-pitchman days. He had very bad luck as a director though, finding what little success he did have in this, the softcore porn genre. I didn't like this as much as some of his other softcore stuff like "And When She Was Bad". The cinematography (strangely enough) is pretty unimpressive (but then I saw a pretty lousy print). The editing meanwhile is the kind quick-cut "Easy Rider" style that was big at the time, but I did find it interesting that some of the flashbacks actually turned out to be flash-forwards to the very end of the movie (kind of original I guess).

Monica Gayle is one of my favorite 70's exploitation actresses. She was every bit as sexy as Uschi Digart, Rene Bond, Sharon Kelly, etc., but she was also genuinely pretty. She was never really robbed of any Academy Award nominations, but I did think she was a lot better in "Strawberries Need Rain" and "Switchblade Sisters". But all the acting here is really hampered by the horrid sound. Still, Gayle is always appealing in her tight little birthday suit, and there is some pretty cool footage of San Francisco a few years after the "Summer of Love" (when the serious 70's sleaze was beginning to settle in). This movie is not very good, but certainly not lacking in interest value.

Basically this movie is an excuse to see Monica Gayle in various stages of undress. There is a plot, but it is too cliche to matter. Girl from small town goes to big city in search of sexual fulfilment, etc. Ms Gayle, a veteran of numerous soft core flicks from the early 70's, has rarely looked better. Ironically, she has some acting talent, which she later displayed in mainstream movies like "Switchblade Sisters". The surviving edition of this movie has been severly butched by time, and several nude scenes have been excised. but what remains is still pretty good.

Sandra, the Making of a Woman was clearly a very cheap production and as such there isn't too much that is all that impressive on the surface; but considering other efforts in this genre; this is actually a rather good example of a sexploitation film. It's a sort of coming of age drama, except rather than learning how function in the adult world; the title character in this film really just finds a lot of different people to have sex with. The plot and script are incredibly simple and director Gary Graver seems happy to just let things flow; which is fine by me. Despite being simple, the film is interesting for the duration and Sandra meets a variety of people. The film is not exactly hardcore - there isn't any full frontal nudity or extended sex sequences, but it is erotic nonetheless and the film makes very good use of the talents of the very pretty Monica Gayle who fits into the lead role very well indeed. The film looks very cheap, although this does give it a gritty edge of realism and the locations used are all very believable. Sandra, The Making of a Woman is not a life-affirming drama (or anything like), but it's a decent way to spend seventy five minutes and I can't see too many soft porn fans being disappointed with it.