The Seven Minutes

After scoring a hit at Fox with "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls," Russ Meyer plays it straight with a courtroom drama? Well, sort of...

Irving Wallace's novel is a terrific, suspenseful read and Meyer does a good job bringing the story to the screen, completely replacing the "surprise" ending of the novel with one of his own. As you can probably imagine, Meyer can't really play anything straight, so this film is full of Meyer's bright colors and eye-popping, um, camera work. The man is a brilliant cinematographer, and this film looks just as good as any of his others that I've seen. Odd camera angles, fast cuts, bad acting, Edy Williams, and gratuitous cleavage shots are all here and well worth a look.

Beware of the old television print of this film, for sale in some US video outlets. The hack job done by the censors just ruins the film. Fox has a gorgeous print of the film around, as it has been shown on the FX channel in the past, open matte (unlike BVOD, this one wasn't shot in Panavision), fully uncut and looking brand new. Write the folks at Fox and demand a proper video release!

During the time of VHS the only way to get new copies of Russ Meyer movies would be to order them directly from his marketing outlet. I called to get The Seven Minutes and I was told he didn't own the rights to the movie or to Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Both movie were assignments and not personally produced by him. I asked, "Are you Russ Meyers?" and to my astonishment he answered "Yes". We chatted for 20 minutes. 35 years later I have finally tracked the original through an English distributor. It's exactly as I remember when I saw it as a 16 year old. It did not drive me murder. The small crowd I saw it with was hurling derisive comments at the screen throughout. It is a scream. It's hard to describe. It's one of a kind. For a film buff and a Meyer fan like myself it is a hoot. Stars galore, all playing it straight but you can see it in their eyes that they're having a walloping good time. Pious and self-patronizing as only Russ Meyer could do. All tongue-in-cheek. Anyone taking this seriously has missed the point. Not the same over-the-top as Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and certainly not the unbridled, raunchy sex fare of his personally produced classics. But it's the kind of sly slight at puritanical mores that only Meyer could pull off . It is a riot. The story revolves around the possible obscenity of the book The Seven Minutes and local government officials using it as a political cudgel. In this regard it's quite topical in a smirking way. It's a must see for those with sense of humor. Star gazing at its best. Carey, Flippen and De Carlo are especially fun.

"The Seven Minutes" is a film by director/producer Russ Meyer, the same guy who brought us films like "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" and many other boundary-stretching pictures, I really expected this movie to be much sleazier that it actually was. Sure, there is a lot of adult content by 1971's standards...much of it seemingly over-the-top. But there also is a very good story buried underneath the nudity and unusual language...one possibly worth seeing.

When the story begins, some vice cops arrest the manager of a book store for selling a book they considered obscene. However, the prosecutor and his friends don't see much reason to pursue the case. After all, times have changed and the crime is only a misdemeanor.

Unfortunately for the poor bookseller, a huge political insider's son is accused of rape...and they decide to try an interesting defense. The District Attorney agrees to blame the book for the sexual assault! While this seems insane, back in the 1970s some folks did believe obscenity could cause rapes. More unfortunate is that seemingly EVERYONE is now lock-step behind the prosecution and the defense attorney is stymied again and again because he's one man fighting a huge machine. Does he stand a chance or will the manager be a scapegoat to be tossed to the wolves, so to speak?

Underneath the Meyer excesses (there is a lot of adult material in the film for a 1971 release), the story actually is very good and has some merit. It fights for First Amenment rights and also exposes a LOT of hypocrisy...which isn't surprising since the novel it's based on was by Irving Wallace.

I think this film is well worth seeing, but remember...it's an adult film. I wouldn't show it to your mother, kids or Father O'Malley if he stops by for a visit!

After Russ Meyer hit it big with BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS for 20th Century Fox, he directed his second movie for the studio's two-picture deal with him. THE SEVEN MINUTES was a box office flop and ruined any chances Meyer may have had to continue with Fox. But I actually found myself liking this movie and while it's not as fantastic as his comedies or action flicks, MINUTES is still unique in its own way.

"The Seven Minutes" is a book that has been charged with obscenity and is blamed for leading a young boy to rape a girl. The film revolves around the court case against the book. That's pretty much it. Regular Meyer fans will be disappointed in this film, no doubt. While it does feature Edy Williams, Charles Napier, Stuart Lancaster, a young Tom Selleck, the actor who plays Martin Bormann, and the black boxer from BVD, these cast members appear in what amount to cameos and disappear very quickly. Yvonne de Carlo is great as an old-time Hollywood actress, though. The major problem with the film is that it is a serious film, not a slapstick comedy, a real turning point for Meyer. I wonder if he even wanted to make this film, as it is such a departure from his regular content.

THE SEVEN MINUTES is not filled with busty beauties or excellent music or outrageous situations, but features lots of Meyer's trademark lightning-quick editing and enough twists and turns in the plot to get the viewer involved in the story. The surprise ending is totally out of left field. Still, I would only recommend THE SEVEN MINUTES to diehard Meyer fans and even then, very carefully. The film is very hard to find, but I was able to rent it from Video Vault in Alexandria, VA. Even Meyer doesn't offer it on his Bosomania label! So if you spend lots of time searching for it, expecting another BVD or SUPERVIXENS, you will be disappointed when you finally see it. Worth one viewing.

Adaptation of Irving Wallace's book about a 30-year-old novel titled "The Seven Minutes," banned worldwide for three decades as being depraved and obscene, coming under fire once again after the son of a major political contributor in California is charged with raping a girl--under the influence of the erotic material! This coincides with the case of a bookstore manager arrested for selling a recent reprint of "The Seven Minutes", resulting in a trial that pits pornography against free speech. Director Russ Meyer's second (and final) film for 20th Century Fox is admirably serious in its attempt to show the hypocrisy of so-called purveyors of decency and political opportunists looking for a legal scapegoat, yet it is too bogged down in talk to appeal to Meyer's fan-base (despite the quick cutting which reduces most shots to a length of seven seconds or less). Yvonne De Carlo has a bravura cameo in the third act as a key witness for the defense, and there's an amusingly old-fashioned tag featuring the defense attorney and his girl making love in front of a roaring fire. But the majority of "The Seven Minutes" concerns itself with the legal protection of salacious material instead of the usual Russ Meyer presentation of salacious material, which didn't thrill audiences in 1971 and probably won't today. *1/2 from ****