A Smell of Honey a Swallow of Brine

David F. Friedman, the producer king of 60s sexploitation sinema, is best-known for SHE-FREAK (a 60s remake of FREAKS) and this movie. I much prefer this one. It's interesting, well-made and doesn't disappoint.

Sharon Winters (Stacey Walker) is a virgin secretary who loves to tease men and entice them to bed with her. When they get close enough to having sex, she accuses them of rape and ruins their lives! In her spare time, she teases her lesbian roommate and when they finally almost get down 'n' dirty, Sharon throws her out! But Sharon meets her match in a nightclub singer who likes to rough up women.

The plot is simple and quick. How can it stretch into an 75-minute movie? There's lots of scenes of bathing, changing clothes, and elongated foreplay scenes that lead to coy nudity, but never sex. Stacey Walker is a fantastic actress who carries the movie on her own. She's pure bitchery and is quite sexy. It's just her hair that bothers me... She made only one other movie for Friedman (NOTORIOUS DAUGHTER OF FANNY HILL), then returned home to her state of Texas and went back to high school (she had dropped out to make movies). No one knows where she is today, but she is sorely missed. Look quick for David F. Friedman playing the juror in the opening courtroom scenes. The musical score by el petra is great, basic garage band rock and roll that is complex in its simplicity. It certainly gives the film atmosphere and a soundtrack CD would be appreciated. Director Byron Mabe (who also directed SHE-FREAK) does a superb job handling the black-and-white cinematography and his editing during the foreplay scenes is wonderfully done.

A SMELL OF HONEY is the best introduction to 60s sexploitation sinema for anyone interested. Everyone should see at least one example of this type of movie to (if anything) compare to the pornography we have now. Something Weird Video is the only source for this on video and their print is rather scratchy and jumps at times.

This movie begins with a young man named "Roy Bradley" (Michael O'Kelly) and his girlfriend, "Sharon Winters" (Stacey Walker) making out in a car. When they get to a certain point Sharon tells him to stop but being too wound up Roy continues to press the case. Sharon then begins screaming which draws the attention of a nearby policeman. When he gets there he finds both of them without hardly any clothes and Sharon asserting that she had been raped. Roy gets arrested and since Sharon continues to insist she was raped he is found guilty in a court of law and sentenced to 2 years in the state reformatory. Six weeks later Sharon is dating a new boyfriend named "Dick Owens" (Tom Hughes) who is extremely polite and reserved. Recognizing this Sharon decides to tease him by undressing and taking a shower with the door opened slightly and a full view of herself through an adjacent mirror on the wall. After that she proceeds to tease him but just prior to actual sex she starts yelling "rape" which scares the young man so badly that he quits his job and leaves his home for fear of going to prison. And once again Sharon doesn't seem to care as she continue with the same pattern again and again. But what she doesn't realize is that not all men are the same and that sometimes there are consequences for her actions. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that I was totally surprised at how intense this low-budget sexploitation film turned out to be. Although neither the acting nor the script were anything out of the ordinary, when considering the year this film was produced, I found the overall plot and many of the scenes to be quite extraordinary. To be more specific, there are a number of scenes involving a sexual nature and quite a bit of nudity as well. In any case, although the overall production values are not that good this movie still managed to stand out and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

Fairly interesting exploitation flick in black and white written by David F. Friedman. The lead actress Stacey Walker is well-cast and strangely attractive. She resembles a deranged Renee Zellweger with a bad hair-do. This chick only made two of these films and then moved back to Texas. The music is terrible. One of her boyfriends is played by Sam Melville (from the TV show THE ROOKIES) using a different name.

Best line in the film from Tony - "Are you putting me on, doll? None of my chicks put me on". Good B/W cinematography from Laslo Kovacs (EASY RIDER & TARGETS & many others). Good locales (cool swimming pool, also used in THE DEFILERS). Strange ending but fitting. A 4 out of 10. Best performance Stacey Walker.

I don't know what it is, but Stacey Walker, the lead character in this film, has a real screen presence. She is riveting, exuding a real sexiness that transcends physical beauty. Otherwise, there would not be much to recommend this film, as it drags at times and the plot is very predictable once the general premise becomes known. I thought Stacey was at her most erotic in the final scene of the film, when she was hanging out on a street corner with a cigarette dangling from her lips, waiting for a John.

According to the Director, David Friedman, he discovered Ms. Walker on the beach in Santa Monica when she badgered him to buy het a hot dog. While I find that hard to believe, it could possibly be true. Alas that Stacey Walker made only two feature films before disappearing into obscurity. I think she could have been a real star in the sexploitation movie industry had she wanted to. But I suppose it is always better to leave them wanting more. I do however recommend this fiim for Stacey Walker alone.

The story for this one is pretty simple, simple enough that it doesn't really fill a 69 minute running time, so a fair amount of padding is utilized. The incredible Stacey Walker ("The Notorious Daughter of Fanny Hill") delights in her rotten role as Sharon Winters, a man-hating sexpot who gets her kicks getting guys all hot and bothered and then screaming for the cops with cries of "rape", delighting in their resulting misfortune. One goes to jail, one is financially ruined, and one suffers a particularly nasty fate. It's not until Sharon meets Tony (Bob Todd), a chauvinistic, brutal singer, that she finally meets her match.

This is the kind of exploitation flick this viewer would have dearly liked to have enjoyed a little more. Instead, it's just too draggy for its own good, with scenes of seduction that just go on and on. What does make this tolerable enough are the physical charms of Ms. Walker, who has so much fun treating people - even her lesbian roommate Paula (Sharon Carr)! - like garbage. This leads to that one great line with which many of us who have seen the promotional sequence on all Something Weird DVDs are familiar:

"Paula, I may be a bitch, but I'll *never* be a butch."

Now *that's* priceless.

The almost non-stop garage rock music on the soundtrack does serve as atmospheric accompaniment; it's just too bad that there's not a little more action, as this could have been a trash flick really worth savouring. Of course, we can always have fun with the unbelievably amateurish acting in the supporting roles, such as Tom Hughes as the shy and awkward Dick Owens. Writer / producer David F. Friedman, one of the all time legends in the exploitation genre, cameos as a juror near the beginning; the direction is by Byron Mabe, who'd also acted for Friedman in "The Defilers" and directed "She-Freak".

There's definite curiosity value here in seeing vintage black & white trash (shot in style by the great Laszlo Kovacs) such as this flick; it is worth seeing for people eager to check out the Something Weird catalogue. Kovacs and co-star Sam Melville (who plays Lowell Carter) work under pseudonyms.

Six out of 10.