Daughters of Lesbos

Daughters of Lesbos (1968)

** (out of 4)

Rather silly but entertaining look at a secret club for women where they can go to "be" with other women. There's really not too much plot here. The film was recorded silent and we've just got narration telling us everything going on. Basically we see a group of women sitting around a table and then one by one we hear and see why they turned out to be lesbians. During the flashbacks we get to see their stories, which includes one woman being date raped with Spanish Fly, another virgin just knowing what she really is as well as a hitchhiker who runs into a stronger lesbian. DAUGHTERS OF LESBOS isn't a film to be taken serious but I must admit that it kept me entertained throughout its short running time and there's also no doubt that it's much better than most films in this genre. I say that because this one here actually has some pretty erotic sequences, which isn't the norm for this type of film. It also doesn't hurt that there are plenty of cute looking women and the full nudity is something else you really didn't see too much of back in the day. Director Peter Woodcock does a very good job at making these stories erotic and I think this is the greatest plus going for the thing. There's also a very good Jazz score that really helps keep the film moving at a nice pace and the cinematography is also a step above what you'd normally see in a film like this. I wouldn't say any of the performances were "good" but I think they were good enough for this type of film.

This movie, under the title "Daughters of Lesbos", has recently been released as a supporting feature on a campy lesbian-themed DVD. Most "hip" DVD reviewers have mocked it as another inept sleaze pic of the 60s. However, it is superior to most items in this genre, and shouldn't be discussed in the same breath as the main feature, the inept (but hilarious) Ed-Woodian pseudo-documentary "Chained Women".

The film revolves around the meeting of the titular club, whose members loathe men and consider the female of the species to be superior beings. It is also hinted that the meeting's purpose involves discipline of some kind, but this only comes into play at the very end. Instead, a series of vignettes illustrate key moments in the girls' past lives -- a drug-induced date rape (by a male, of course); the summer camp "initiation" of an erstwhile onanist; another initiation, this time of a hippie hitchhiker by a more aggressive dyke; and another serial masturbator who daydreams of a previous bathtub liaison, attracting the attention of a (male) voyeur.

All this is filmed without direct sound; instead a sometimes-purring, sometimes-scolding female narrator very effectively describes and comments on the action in passionate prose. A frantic free-form jazz combo intensifies the action. The girls are generally good-looking, and the soft, shadowy photography highlights their tender flesh to advantage. The sex scenes (with full-frontal nudity) are (as usual) quite repetitive, but placing them in the context of these stories gives them a boost.

The clincher comes in the very last sequence, when the girls take vengeance on an offender. The Penthouse-forum style melodrama suddenly and completely unexpectedly veers into "roughie" territory, and the consequences will leave the viewer stunned. One reviewer has guessed that Roberta Findlay may be behind the director's ridiculous nom-de-guerre, and the ending certainly smacks of her work.