For Members Only

This title popped up on youtube. I'm sure it was marketed for its titillating subject, a throwaway "adult" low-bill title. It's actually fairly well made, with decent acting and production values. The story is exactly what you might expect, but it's not bad. Except for the skin, this could be Disney film.

There is some padding in the middle, where we're treated to not one but two full-length songs. Maybe they were giving the drive-in audience a chance to go to the snack bar. Also, being very English and very 1960, it's extra shades of whiteness.

It is rather strange that TPTV has given this film a 18 rating but when it was shown in cinemas it was given an A certificate which meant that children under 16 could view it if accompanied by an adult. It has been reclassified as a 15 by the BBFC.

Films such as this would often be shown at the Cinephone Cinema, opposite Selfridges. It would be supporting a Bridgette Bardot X certificate film.

This film is so mildly inoffensive and rather amateur and about as erotic as cold rice pudding.

This title has been available for quite some time from Something Weird Video under the title For Members only, The Nudist Story. This was the original complete title in the UK. Film quality is excellent. The opening credits briefly switch from the original to the title page of "Pussycat Paradise" and then back to the original. That was a brief alternate title in the mid to later 60s.

I don't have any idea how long this movie has been available, but it was a happy shock to learn of it's original British title, Google it, and discovery that it has been here for some time.

Beyond the opening credits, the film remains complete and beautiful quality. There is even a film trailer after the end of the feature.

This film is being screened this week by Talking Pictures, my favourite British TV channel because of its old black-and-white films, though "The Nudist Story" is in rich colour.

It all seems very harmless nowadays,with a number of topless women and glimpses of pubic hair on both sexes. But when it was first released back in 1960 I was 15 years old and was curious about what women looked like and around that time I did watch another nudist film. As I remember it, pin-up photos in girlie magazines and the nudist magazine "Health and Efficiency" had photos of both sexes with the groin areas airbrushed out, so I was a little surprised to see the pubic hair, though in most scenes the actors carefully employed a towel so as not to show very much.

I watched the first part of this film, with its predictable plot, endured the synchronised swimming and then fast-forwarded through the camp concert and the rest of the film. Enough said.

Contrary to a previous review on IMDB from 2006, the recent 2017~2019 re-release of this film under the title Pussycats Paradise (1960) by Sprocket Flicks for Amazon Prime Video is of terrible quality with film grain, scratches and splotches, and has been SEVERELY cut down to a mere 69 minutes from its original 90 minute runtime. As you can imagine, it has been scrubbed clean of smut, but also a great deal of continuity and story. You are taken on a wild journey of "how did we get here now?" around every bend, with entire segments of the character's lives obliterated for the sake of preserving their modesty. Especially the female characters in the camp, who can barely get in a speaking role on screen because their chests are so naughty.

I rate this as 6 stars, out of respect for the film as a whole as it was clearly well written and directed, with a quality cast and nice storyline. I just hope to see it some day, in its full unabashed glory. I'm very disappointed, because it was otherwise rather good.