Sinderella and the Golden Bra

When Milos Forman was casting the mental patients in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" he looked for unfamiliar faces. One of those who made the biggest impression was the remarkable Sydney Lassick. But it was not his first screen appearance. Ten years earlier he had played the Fairy Godfather in this ridiculous breast-obsessed nudie musical. Perhaps it is not surprising that it didn't lead to further movie parts. He apparently didn't make another movie until "Cuckoo's Nest".

While Lassick provides the main curiosity value in a pretty terrible movie, the film as a whole does provide plenty of "what were they thinking!" entertainment value. The songs are terrible and it all comes across like a pantomime for intellectually challenged adults. There isn't even a hell of a lot of nudity, which after all was the main selling point. But it is unique.

The trend for making "adult" versions of fairy stories, often with song and dance numbers, would continue, peaking in the late seventies with Albert Band's production of "Cinderella" (1977), which was much slicker than this one, but not necessarily any more entertaining.

This is not much more than a cheesy stag-party film. Plenty of beautiful women with impressive breasts, briefly bared for the pleasure of the lusty audience. Loosely based on the children's classic, but hopelessly lost in dirty-old-man-land.

The production values are minimal. Poor color (by Kodak) and even worse sound, both faded and crackled throughout. The actors appear to be of various European back ground, with various accents mingling about. The dialog and individual situations stray from the original story. Instead of a golden slipper, we have a golden bra, and taking the place of the Fairy Godmother is an effeminate elderly Fairy Godfather.

There is one outstanding moment, completely unexpected for such a low quality film: Somewhere past the middle of the film, Sinderella sings the enchanting "My Day Will Come", a definite highlight in an otherwise forgettable movie. This film is recommended for fans of the old style cheesecake magazines. Those lusting after beautiful breasts will get an eye full. If you are looking for any other substance, Sinderella does not offer much.

Sinderella and the Golden Bra (1964)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Prince David (David Duffield) can't seem to find a woman so his father decides to throw a ball and have every women in town attend. At the ball David falls for a beautiful young woman (Suzanne Sybele) but at the strike of midnight he loses contact with her. The only thing left behind is her golden bra.

SINDERELLA AND THE GOLDEN BRA was one of a number of "fairy tales" that were given the nudie spin during the 1960s. If you're looking for the ultimate adult telling of Cinderella then you should check out the 1977 version. This one here features a few funny moments but for the most part it's pretty tame and is an incredibly soft R-rated film.

I say soft because there's really not too much nudity. There's some at the start of the picture, which seems to be edited from another movie and then we get some towards the end as various women try on the bra. I feel sorry for people who paid to see this in a theater because they really didn't get their monies worth. The one saving grace in the film is the fact that there are some funny sound effects throughout and a few of the jokes worked as well.

Sybele is mildly entertaining in the title role but the highlight is seeing Sydney Lassick in the role of the Fairy Godfather. Most people will remember him from playing Martini in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST. As for this film, those interested in nudies will find it slightly interesting but most will want to stay away from it.

Sinderella and the Golden Bra had me baffled, well, pretty much when they started singing, but most definitely by the end. This is such a disparate clashing of movie making styles and genres. I'm giving it 5 stars purely as a curiosity, with its fair share of deficiencies.

First of all, this is a brilliant premise for an exploitation picture. An "adult" take on Cinderella, where instead of a glass slipper, the prince goes door-to-door throughout the kingdom, and has every maiden try on a golden bra left behind at his ball. Any hopes can be pretty much dashed right here. Behind the very first door they go to, is a drop-dead gorgeous woman. Apparently this actress chose not to go topless ("put her on the poster!"), as the filmmakers show us her back. The rest of the kingdom is not only quite unremarkable, but awful short on nudity in terms of this premise.

That leaves us with what surrounds this sequence (as in, the bulk of the movie), which is, frankly, bizarre. Elaborate period costumes... from another galaxy, singing, dancing, flat jokes, MUGGING, part fairy tale, part bizarro world, just a really odd movie to go nudie with. Also, with the exception of the prince, the male character actors (I know one went on to some prominence) are all disturbing to look at! (Insert mugging here). Every time there was a pause, I'm like, Please don't sing. Yeah, no shortage of musical numbers. There is a scene and number with Sydney Lassick in drag, and his back and pits get covered in sweat. Not for me, thanks.

Though I must say, a couple of the early numbers gave me an uneasy feeling of other-worldliness, like something you'd find in The Wizard of Oz. Not that these two movies should ever be mentioned in the same sentence, but I felt like that's something that's kind of intangible that this movie reached. I don't know if that's something that makes it worth sitting through, but I think if you do, you can at least say it was an experience.

Although this obviously isn't first class movie making, and the conscious jokes are mostly duds, this flick is worth seeing for its novelty and as a relic of a bygone era! I would venture to call this movie an attempt at a sophisticated sex comedy. The toplessness is remarkable for simultaneously being unabashedly gratuitous yet taking up such a small part of the film. In fact the breasts aren't even shown very closely, in one scene, at least. Seems the goal of the movie makers was to appeal both to an "art" film crowd and a nudie crowd. The musical numbers (yes, musical numbers!!!) and the costuming actually reflect a fair degree of ambitiousness. And the attention to the characters and to the spirit of the original fairy tale. At the same time the sound, acting and screenplay are all noticeably low budget. A quite odd bird for 21st century viewers! And I had a fine time watching it. It may be dumb, but it's entertaining!! And of course the concept is...classic.