Diary of a Nudist

Ever watch a dull, plotless movie just to see naked women?

Director Doris Wishman is known for pushing genre conventions to the limit, and here she combines wall-to-wall T&A with a phenomenally predictable storyline and a stunningly silly ending. (A few naked men, too, but they're not the focus.) The unrelenting wholesomeness may be shocking if you're familiar with Wishman's later, far seedier work.

I have to agree with the gentleman from England. Seeing this film for any other reason than simple fun would be a mistake! This film is a nudie-cutie. In this day of hardcore, it is hard to imagine that this was the "hardcore" of its day. Beautiful cinematography, beautiful locales and sun-drenched bodies offer a sleepy, idyllic look at an alternate reality. It should be remembered that in those times the idea of the naked form and sin WERE synonymous, therefore, Davee Decker would have been regarded as a lowlife to many for being photographed in the nude. To my mind that makes her a bit of a hero! What makes it more interesting to me is the fact that she looked like the typical young housewife of that era, the lady next door that you would have borrowed a cup of sugar from. A fun little cult film, not to be taken too seriously, I'm really curious to find out if she is still alive and what made her do nudie movies when it was taboo at that time.

This is a very deep movie. It addresses so many social issues in a very subtle way. This should be required viewing for any film class. The director didn't waste valuable screen time with dialog. Instead she got lots of shots of tits. Okay, so a newspaper editor discovers a nudist colony and decides to expose the group to the public and have it shut down. To do this, he assigns his best reporter and tells her to act like a nudist. In other words, let's see those tits. Here's where the story really takes off. The reporter is given a tour of the place by an ugly, old lady who doesn't get naked. We're all grateful for that. While on the tour she's exposed to people playing shuffleboard. The people playing shuffleboard are having a wonderful time, watching a puck slide. They're all happy, smiling and even excited. Playing shuffleboard. They're grinning from ear to ear. Playing shuffleboard. They're naked. Playing shuffleboard. They don't speak. They just grin and laugh and play shuffleboard. The reporter finds herself enjoying the place. All the guests are fairly young and in decent shape. No fatties or old farts. You can see boobs all over the place. The reporter starts to think there's nothing wrong with letting her tits hang out. She thinks playing shuffleboard naked and getting all excited is okay. Then we see the swimming pool. A woman gets out of the water and dries herself. She's smiling. She dries the same spot on her leg for like a minute. She's happy and excited just like the people playing shuffleboard. She doesn't speak either. She just grins and dries herself. I guess she's happy that everybody can see her tits and she's getting paid to show them. Then the story takes us to another place. The editor shows up. He doesn't get naked. He wears this ridiculous bikini bottom that covers his belly button. It looks stupid. He walks around and sees the idiots playing shuffleboard and grinning and women getting out of the pool and drying off and grinning. And of course he sees a bunch of boobs. The editor changes his mind about the place and even falls in love with the reporter. Her dedication to the job, her writing skills, her tits. He decides the place is okay. I mean you've got a bunch of boobs to look at and nobody says anything. Director to actress - "Okay, in this scene I want you to look at the people playing shuffleboard and think to yourself how great it is" Director to cameraman - "Make sure you get her tits in the shot" Most people would think this movie was nothing more than an excuse to show boobs and butts but maybe it isn't. Sure, there's a scene where we see the reporter just looking the place over and showing her boobs. She doesn't speak. She just stands there with her boobs out. Sure there are more scenes where nobody speaks and we see more boobs. But deep down the movie is sending a message. Take your clothes off and play shuffleboard. You'll turn into an idiot. I would give this 10 out of 10 stars but I didn't like how they never told us the score in the shuffleboard matches. So, I give it 1 star out of 10.

"Diary of a Nudist" is an exploitation film that was made at a nudist colony. Several similar movies were made and proclaimed that they were educational in nature, but they really were just excuses to show some lovely naked bodies to audiences. And, it's pretty hot stuff for 1961, though like other nudie films of the era there are no crotch shots.

Arthur assigns one of his reporters, Stacy, to go to a local nudist colony and write a spicy exposee in order to drum up readership and get the place closed. But, unexpectedly, Stacy finds she likes the folks there and the nudist lifestyle and joins the place. So, Arthur arrives in order to write his hit piece himself. Will he, too, succumb to the naturalist lifestyle?

There really is little in the way of plot....just lots of naked folks. But compared to many other nudie flicks of the era, this one has a bit better production values and lovely bodies (many were, conversely, not so lovely in other films). A strange but watchable curio.

An interesting artifact from a bygone era, the "nudie-cutie" move, like the "nudist" movie and magazine arose during the few years between the allowing of nudity in movies and the de facto legalization of hardcore pornography. And then disappeared when hardcore porn became readily available and the skin magazines more explicit. Like "The Raw Ones" and later "Educating Julie" you can take this one as a "documentary" on the nudist lifestyle or an excuse to see naked bodies-girls-but in an un-explicit and more tasteful manner. I am amused to see the "acting" dismissed as "wooden", seen plenty of big budget productions with big names that did not do any better, and appearing in the buff took a bit of nerve back then. So sit back and enjoy it for what it isi.