Fred_Rap

"DO NOT ALLOW YOURSELVES TO BEND TO THE SODOMITES!"

So counsels Stewart Granger's Lot to his Hebrew brethren in this sin-soaked spectacle -- sage advice indeed in a world where polymorphous perversity rules the roost.

Needless to say, this is no run of DeMille biblical spectacle, what with Robert Aldrich (assisted by Sergio Leone) directing, Stanley Baker as the scheming, libidinous prince bed-hopping with everything that moves including his own sister, Sodom's Queen of Mean and lesbian supreme Anouk Aimee, sexpot Scilla Gabel (TARZAN'S GREATEST ADVENTURE) prancing around in diaphanous Frederick's of Gomorrah finery, and Germany's bodacious Kessler twins (Alice and Ellen) doing a very special specialty dance.

All this plus hotcha orgies, rampant blood-letting, exotic torture devices, eleventh hour miracles (i.e., human beings transformed into pillars of salt), a proto-Irwin Allen disaster scene, and a typically majestic Miklos Rozsa score to give the titillating doings a veneer of spiritual purpose.

Long story short: a slog when dealing with the Chosen People but lively when bending to the Sodomites.

With Pier Angeli as Mrs. Lot and Rosanna Podesta as the virginal object of Prince Stanley's desire.

Tacky, trashy, utterly moronic and completely hilarious from start to finish.

Hoboken homegirl Pia Zadora stars in the role she was born to play -- the rags-to-riches title character of trashmeister Harold Robbins' best-selling Hollywood expose. Shot on the cheap (mainly in Italy), the project was secretly bankrolled by high-flying financier Menachem Riklis as a star vehicle for his then-wife Pia. The munchkin sexpot gives her all and then some as an aspiring screenwriter who claws her way up the ladder of tinsel town success, enduring heartache, humiliation, physical abuse, mental torment and a whole lotta rug burns.

So many highlights, so many moments for bad movie enthusiasts to savor:

SEE Pia age from virginal Valley Girl in overalls to bed-hopping libertine in various states of undress!

SEE Pia engage in a Sapphic romp with a Sophia Loren-like movie star under the watchful gaze of her fat cat husband played by peplum & spaghetti western regular Gianni Rizzo!

SEE party animals boogie to the beat of Pia's novelty hit "The Clapping Song!"

SEE Lloyd Bochner debase himself in smarmy sex scenes and reveal the hairiest back this side of Koko the talking gorilla!

SEE Kieran Canter, the necrophlliac lead in Joe D'Amato's BUIO OMEGA, as a mega-effeminate theater director!

SEE Ray Liotta in his screen debut deliver the immortal line, "Valley Girls are anxious to please," moments before assaulting poor Pia with a garden hose nozzle!

SEE Pia's incredible mental breakdown, a room-trashing freak-out that culminates in a face-off with a typewriter straight out of Pee-wee's Playhouse!

See THE LONELY LADY before she sees you!

The Chinese title of this sleek, stylish, deeply unnerving sex & slash shocker translates as "Category IV Murdering Maniac", as if to promise more bang for the Cat III buck. Does it deliver the transgressive BASIC INSTINCT goods? You bet it does and then some, what with NAKED KILLER's Carrie Ng Kar-lai taking center stage to do what she does best: look chic, get naked, and violently dispatch a string of drooling dumbbells -- this time with the business end of her do-me-pumps.

The plot, such as it is, centers on a hard-boiled (if soft-headed) cop on the trail of seductive serial killer Ng. The body count increases ten-fold when the willowy murderess joins forces with an equally homicidal neighbor; together, they expand the target victims to include hookers, lesbians and transvestites.

Sharon Stone, eat yer heart out!