Playgirl Killer

In the awards category of 'most cuckoo killers of all times', this film's anti-hero Bill is a strong contender for the win! Bill, last name unknown, is an artist who needs models to paint a vision that occurred to him in a dream. Finding these models isn't an issue, because for some strange reason gorgeous women throw themselves at Bill's feet, but they are terribly unprofessional and they...won't...sit...still! So Bill goes berserk and butchers them, but luckily he's also creative and persistent enough to find a solution to use their corpses.

"Playgirl Killer" looks and feels a lot like a Hershell Gordon Lewis movie, but without the extreme gore. That's largely because lead actor William Kerwin is a HG. Lewis' regular, but also and simply because it's an absurd and low-keyed B-movie story without continuity or tension, and with a lot of amateurish performances. Plus, it's a typical product of the sixties; meaning there's irritating and useless dancing footage. Perhaps the most remarkable gimmick is that it stars Neil Sedaka in his first and only real acting role. Sedaka is the singer of such crooner hits like "Oh Carol!", "Calendar Girl" and "Breaking up is hard to do". His role here, as Bob, requires him to - surprise - sing a song during a pool party.

PLAYGIRL KILLER stars intergalactic mega-star, William Kerwin as Bill, an artist with a penchant for murdering his models.

Within seconds viewers will be asking these 3 QUESTIONS: #1- Who needs a spear gun in a rowboat on a small lake? #2- Who, in their right mind, gets into a rowboat with a guy with a spear gun?! #3- What sort of person, aside from a madman, wears white socks with sandals?! In a rowboat or anywhere else?!

Meanwhile, at a nearby pool party, Neil Sedaka sings, and has everyone doing "The Waterbug"! A striptease erupts, as was common practice during late 1960's pool parties. We soon see a shirtless Sedaka in bed. Good Lord! This movie has no shame!

Bill winds up getting a job as a handyman at the residence, and untold terror begins. Somewhat.

Bill's new boss, Arlene (Jean Christopher) does her best to seduce him, prancing around like a cat most of the time. Bill watches her. A lot. A saxophone plays along. Bill can take only so much prancing. Poor Arlene.

Setting up shop in Arlene's mansion, Bill unabashedly wears his leather-strapped stockings of pure eeevil! More death results. He even goes to town in Arlene's aircraft carrier-sized Cadillac! This man is shameless!

In the end, though Bill might receive his comeuppance, those be-sandaled, white cotton foot coverings shall haunt our dreams forever!

EXTRA POINTS FOR: Counting the number of times that Bill goes bug-eyed! No one stares at a phone with more raw intensity! No one!...

This film is a really sick piece of work. The artist kills women just because they won't stay perfectly still for him and you feel no sympathy for any of them as most of them either come off as nymphos or just have bad attitudes. Only the third victim, the girl who answers an ad for a boarder, seems like a nice girl. Unfortunately, she is killed before you really get to know her. Also, just before the girl is killed she is conveniently taking off her clothes and is only in her bra and panties when she is killed.

It seems like the director had a real hatred for women and was just interested in showing them in various states of undress. No wonder people say that this is one of the worst films ever made and that the only time that it was ever shown was late at night when the kiddies were asleep.

This movie is quite reminiscent of the 60's b-films by either Roger Corman or Hershell Gordon Lewis. All the women look like playboy models, it has characters come in and out of the story needlessly and for little reason other than the fact that they could only hire their "star" (in this case Neil Sedaka) for a day or two. There's the weird-O-rama soundtrack from Hell consisting of lots of single sustained organ notes, and lots of neat location shots of characters running around to and from each other. I'm quite partial to this film since it was made in Montreal and I recognize many of the sites where it was made even after almost 35 years. There is no way to reccomend this other than saying that if you like the works of either H.G. Lewis or Roger Corman you'll want to add it to your collection. Otherwise you'll find the somewhat sadistic storyline, grindingly slow style and cardboard characters who talk like Edgar Allan Poe wrote their lines quite anachronistic and dull compared to todays films.

Because I just watched the "Playgirl Killer", I'm may have to rework my entire list of movie ratings on IMDb! "Playgirl Killer" is worse than "Witchtrap", it's worse than "Teen Wolf Too", worse than "Slaughter High", MUCH worse than "Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill" and even worse than my previous Worst Picture I've Ever Paid To See, "The Green Slime"; in short, this is my new nominee for the worst picture of all time.

The plot of this movie involves fraudulently separating a viewer from his hard-earned money. It is so simple that it has to be padded with long stretches of listening to tepid music and/or watching teenagers dance. It is not really a plot at all, it is more a series of poorly staged homicides separated by interminable padding.

The spoken words in the movie were mostly dubbed in after the the film were shot and in many cases bear no resemblance to what the actor's lips are doing. It is as if the script was not finalized until after the film was in the can.

The movie pretends to be a slasher film, but for most of the murders, the killer drags his victim off screen to kill her. In some cases, the viewer knows who the killer is going to murder so long before the actual killing, that the killing is actually a relief when it occurs.

Finally, the climactic plot twist is so long and drawn out that it comes as no surprise when it finally, laboriously plods onto the screen.

In short "Playgirl Killer" offends any person who could possibly want to see it. The creators of this movie could have learned a lot by studying the collected works of Ed Wood.