Private Parts

"Private Parts" tells the story of the runaway teen Cheryl Stratton (Ayn Ruymen) and her stay in her aunt's shady San Francisco hotel. Cheryl's story is not one of those pleasant coming of age films knee deep in moral values or road movies that enlightens the viewer about the importance of the journey. No, director Paul Bartel, in his first feature, has something completely different in mind, as he presents an extraordinarily bizarre tale of voyeurism, sexuality, and passionate murder. The voyeuristically loaded opening credits apply camera flashes and exposed body parts, which cue the audience in the direction of the story's sexual nature. The subsequent scene presents the sexual nature of the film in a much more tangible manner, as Cheryl sneaks a look at her friend and her boyfriend. However, Cheryl finds herself caught peeping. It places her in an awkward situation, which she avoids by leaving after she has stolen her friend's money. Here "Private Parts" pays homage to "Psycho (1960)" with similarities such as having a girl with stolen money seeking room and board at a hotel. Additional parallels to "Psycho" emerge as the film unfolds; for example, there is an intriguing bathroom scene.

This was a very odd movie, and I really enjoyed it. The story may not be all that unique, but it's told with flair, originality, and a dark, comic undertone that kept me interested throughout (the seediness and squalor of the characters quickly overshadows that of the hotel and its surroundings). The really interesting aspect for me was how, as the movie started, it just seemed a series of loosely connected events and strange details not really leading anywhere, but later on I began to realize this wasn't the case, as there was a sly subtly in the hinting of the material in terms of the various relationships and past occurrences with the hotel and its residents. Bartel made a number of films, some of them not so great, but when he's working with material that suits him, as is the case here, wonderfully tacky things ensue.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

A runaway bad-girl touches ground at an urban hellhole...a residence hotel owned and operated by her kindly, but captious and set-in-her-ways Aunt Martha. The tenants of the hotel are a curious bunch, among them a senile old bat, a gay transvestite priest, and a handsome, mysterious photographer with a secret that's darker than pitch. An unidentified psychotic killer is active among them, as well...before long, Aunt Martha's hotel has several unexpected vacancies.

A steady momentum of shocks and a vague, peculiar climax help to make PRIVATE PARTS something rather special. Splendidly perverse creative gusto which could only have escaped from the bizarre mind of the sorely missed Paul Bartel...this is a very unusual picture, infused with brooding atmosphere and deftly appointed in every aspect of its poverty-line production.

8/10

This bizarre and entertaining cult film was Paul Bartel's first feature, and it's probably his most interesting film. Good use of seedy LA locations and an effective score by Hugo Friedhofer create a genuinely creepy atmosphere. Well cast and acted. Lucille Benson, who could easily be Norman Bates' mother,is a standout as Aunt Martha.

"Too nosy for her own good", runaway Cheryl Stratton investigates the various characters and rooms in her aunt's hotel, while a resident photographer spies on her; ultimately, with her knowledge and participation. Like so many films, Private Parts owes a debt to Psycho. Though the film becomes somewhat silly with the arrival of the 2 policemen near the end, it is original and compelling, and Bartel displays admirable restraint throughout. The film ends with a good last shot:Cheryl checked-in a girl, and checks-out a vicariously experienced woman.

When the film opened in New York, at the now defunct First Avenue Screening Room, The New York Times' reviewed it favorably. Happily, it has finally been released on DVD with the trailer. Definitely worth checking out. "Follow Cheryl as she leads you through the darkest corridors of your mind", you'll be glad you did.

Gay cult actor/director/writer Paul Bartel (1938-2000) began his film-making career in 1968 with a 28-minute black comedy entitled 'The Secret Cinema', a movie about a woman who discovers that her life is being secretly filmed and shown in installments at a local art house cinema (an intriguing idea more elaborately developed in Peter Weir's 1998 film, 'The Truman Show'). For his first full-length feature, 'Private Parts', Bartel naturally gravitated toward a script by Philip Kearney and Les Rendelstein that took the themes broached in 'The Secret Cinema'—voyeurism, invasion of privacy, vicarious experience—and combined them with kinky eroticism and serial homicide to come up with a truly strange movie. Ayn Ruymen plays Cheryl Stratton, a naive but inquisitive 16-year-old runaway from Ohio who rooms with her best friend, Judy (Ann Gibbs)—until Judy angrily ejects her for spying during a lovemaking session. Cheryl subsequently moves into the King Edward, a skid row L.A. hotel run by her morbidly pious Aunt Martha (Lucille Benson). Despite Martha's pretensions toward respectability, the ominously seedy King Edward harbors all kinds of weirdos and sexual deviants, e.g., Reverend Moon (Laurie Main) a gay cleric with a fetish for bodybuilders; Mrs. Quigley (Dorothy Neumann), a dotty, deaf spinster constantly searching for a girl named Alice; Artie (Patrick Strong), a hardcore alcoholic who regularly passes out in his room; George (John Vantatonio), an effeminate photographer/voyeur who photographs couples making love in the park and sells the photos as pornography. After stealing a set of master keys, Cheryl launches a private, voyeuristic investigation into the rooms and lives of her fellow tenants, all the while being spied upon by lecherous George (cf. Norman Bates in Hitchcock's 'Psycho'), who acts out his crush on Cheryl with an inflatable sex doll. The plot thickens when Cheryl stumbles upon the remains of the aforementioned Alice, a teen fashion model recently gone missing. When Cheryl's friend, Judy, and her boyfriend Mike (Len Travis) come to the hotel looking for her, they also end up dead and dismembered before the (gender) identity of the killer is revealed in a surprise ending. A tension-inducing score by Hugo Friedhofer ('Ace in the Hole') adds a spurious gravitas to the proceedings. Subversive even by the more relaxed standards of the early Seventies, 'Private Parts' offended public sensibilities; some newspapers actually refused to print the title, "Private Parts," in ads for the movie, substituting "Private Arts" or "Private Party." Likewise, the movie embarrassed M-G-M, the studio famed for such estimable classics as 'The Wizard of Oz', 'Quo Vadis', and 'Dr. Zhivago'. Though it was hemorrhaging money at the time, M-G-M sheepishly relegated Bartel's unclassifiable opus to a dummy label (Premier Pictures) and made no effort to market it. Not surprisingly, 'Private Parts' fell flat. VHS (1991) and DVD (2005).

Paul Bartel's vision of perversity in a seedy L.A. hotel has more entertainment value than most of today's re-hashed, redundant, repulsive, wannabe exploitation flicks. The acting alone is uncommonly good for this type, with Ann Ruymen as the not so innocent Cheryl, and Lucille Benson as the proprietor of the unforgettable King Edward Hotel, absolute standouts. The quirky residents are both believable and intriguing. Murder, fetishism, voyeurism, what more could you ask for from this wonderful mixture of bizarre characters? Great photography, great character development, great script, great dark comedy. Highly recommended. - MERK