Vixen!

Russ Meyer's VIXEN was one of the first films to receive the newly-formed MPAA's X rating. There were stories that in some theatres, people would pay just to see the trailer for it then leave before the main feature(shades of THE PHANTOM MENACE!). Comparing it to other adult films of that era or even to some of Meyer's other films, VIXEN looks almost tame. Erica Gavin stars as a sexually voracious woman who lives in Canada with her bush pilot husband. During the course of the film, Gavin has sex with her husband, a Mountie (apparently they always get their WOMAN too), both members of a married couple that they guide through the Great White North and her own brother(!). Oddly enough, the only name I recognized from this movie was Harrison Page, the black friend of Vixen's brother. Page, like Gavin, also appeared in Meyer's BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, but he also had a sitcom in the Seventies (LOVE THY NEIGHBOR . . . and no, it wasn't about wifeswapping!). As with Meyer's other work, there is no way you can watch this and keep a straight face . . . nor should you want to.

Russ Meyer made movies that are unlike any others I can think of. Remembered as one of the pioneers of nudies and sex comedies, what isn't commented on as much as it should be is the sheer strangeness of his output. Never as flamboyantly bizarre as Jodorowsky, Argento or Lynch he nevertheless in his own way is as surreal as they come. 'Vixen!'s appeal may be mainly the promise of sex, that's a given, and the buxom Erica Gavin is unforgettable in the title role of a Canadian nympho who can't seem to keep her hands off any man, woman or even (in a fantastically strange erotic dance sequence) fish, but how does that explain the unexpected and jarring racial and political themes and speeches? What exactly was Meyer trying to achieve? Beats me. I've been a fan of his for years and I still can't explain him.

Erica Gavin (later in Meyer's classic 'Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls' and Demme's women in prison exploitation flick 'Caged Heat') may not be able to act for toffee, but watching this you can't keep your eyes of her. In between spewing racial epithets and taunts at her brother's draft dodger friend Niles (Harrison Page, also later of '..Dolls'), she screws her husband, a Mountie, a visiting couple, and even her own brother Jud, a hip biker type (Jon Evans). Vixen's loving husband Tom (Garth Pillsbury, 'Supervixens'), a freelance pilot, remains oblivious to her goings on and adores her. However before the end, Vixen, Tom and Niles world's will be turned upside down by the arrival of a mysterious Irishman O'Bannion (Michael Donovan O'Donnell), who has an agenda of his own.

'Vixen!' has to be seen to be believed! Another oddball classic from Russ Meyer.

I love this film. So many Meyer fans seem to undervalue it and I don't understand why. I prefer the early films and find the bigger more farcical movies harder to take, so I guess as usual it's all about horses and courses. Nobody can deny, though, the masterful camera-work and editing. The scenes in the woods, the 'rape' and the glorious helicopter ride are so well shot that one is always wishing he could have harnessed these skills to more cinematic effect. The racial taunting surprises now and must have divided audiences at the time (some probably shouting along with them - how times have changed) and similarly the references to Vietnam and communism, whilst now of socio/historic interest must have been far more directly involving. Ms Gavin does well as do the rest of the cast and if she has trouble with her facial expressions once or twice (particularly during the girl on girl scene) there is not much wrong with her breasts, even if she and Meyer thought them a bit small! Very enjoyable and lacking the campy aspect of later output.

The print I saw was in terrible condition, with several minutes eliminated by jumping and scratching and the colour a uniform washed-out pink. On the bright side, this added an even more surreal layer to Meyer's already fairly radical editing style. Anyway, a lot of it, although entertaining enough, is pretty basic stuff of Gavin pouting and staring and flaunting herself and jumping on every man in sight with an infectious shameless pleasure. It gets radical when she seduces her own brother in the shower, with little moral hesitation (at that point she's already gone through another woman, a Canadian mountie and a couple more guys). The most intriguing aspect is embodied by the black character whom she relentlessly and openly taunts; he then falls in with the IRA guy and...well, see for yourself. The juxtaposition of nudie exploitation with such open rabble-rousing politics is fairly startling just as an idea, but Meyer pushes it so far that the woman goes beyond mere feistiness and carefreeness into a systematic challenger of all niceties and convention - she calls the black guy every racist epiphet, but her lack of bull ultimately opens his eyes.

I find it amazing nobody has yet commented on this film, which it's certainly impossible to ignore (just like any other Russ Meyer fare).

So I'm not going to comment either. I won't talk about how ignored Russ Meyer is as a genuine auteur or how misinterpreted his films are by the vast majority of critics. And I won't mention how I think Russ Meyer has a great talent for writing dialogue with deep, philosophical implications (though some people would never know it).

If I have one complaint, it's that the film (or filmette) is rather too short at only 70 mins US, 63 mins Deutschland. Those poor Germans had fully 10% of the movie slashed, and one wonders why; it was rated 18 or X anyway, and though the film has "adult themes" (in case you didn't notice) it's in no way "pornographic" (for that matter, neither is ANY Russ Meyer film, in my opinion).

The most entertaining aspect of the movie is undoubtedly the unique style of acting. Actually, I don't think the acting in this movie (or for that matter ANY Russ Meyer movie) is "bad". It's just self-consciously mannered in a style that immediately tells you, as soon as you switch on the TV, that you're watching a Russ Meyer movie. Russ worked hard (I'm sure) to coax such performances from his interesting casts. There is no other director I can think of whose work is so strongly styled that it's immediately identifiable as one of his films. When you watch a Russ Meyer film, you enter a parallel universe much stranger than reality.