Les collines du plaisir

Hardly very 'extreme' but I have a soft spot for this. Anne Michelle stars (with her sister) and through the course of the film develops from a mini skirted dolly bird to a rather convincing coven priestess. The girls look great in their tiny skirts and without their clothes so the fact the plot line is not up to much barely matters, as it were. We get sex, lots of nudity, witchcraft scenes indoors and out and a girlie magazine shoot. That's about it really and there are slight threads involving the deposed priestess's lusting for young Anne and a young man's attempts at rescuing the younger sister from the Sabat. It's pretty, it's English and it moves along. Can't say fairer than that.

The difference between a British sleaze film of the 1970s and an American sleaze film of the 1970s is that the British film is well acted and features interesting locations. "Virgin Witch," quite possibly the quintessential sleaze film of the 1970s, manages both. It's not that the film is not exploitative and rather insulting to women, it's just that one would have to take it seriously to take offense. The film stars real-life sisters Ann and Vicki Michelle as an ambitious career woman (Ann) and a repressed virgin (Vicki) who leave their strict parents and come to London. On the way they meet Johnny (Keith Buckley), in one of those 1970s movie coincidences, and he develops a bone for Vicki. Meanwhile, Ann answers an advert for a model and is "auditioned" by lesbian agent Sybil Waite (Patricia Haines), who invites her up for the weekend at a manor house owned by Gerald Amberly (Neil Hallet), a sort of proper Hugh Hefner, who is (of course) also the leader of a coven of witches. Ann (character name "Christine") is all for it, even the attentions of Sybil, if that's what it takes to get ahead, but Vicki (Betty) is still repressed. Sex rites ensue. In fact, the coven really isn't much into black magic at all, just sex games. Suffice it to say that the film did not have much of a costume budget. It would be a lot easier to dismiss this film as so much trash if it were not decently acted, particularly by Haines and Hallet. Ann Michelle--a kind of road company Martine Beswick--also does well under the direction...at least under the camera pointing...of stuntman-turned-director Ray Austin. There's nothing scary about this "horror" film, and truth be told, even with the vast amount of nudity, there's nothing very erotic about it either. It's a time capsule of a particular era of very strange British thriller films, but a rather disarming one.

It seems this was made as an excuse to show plenty of nudity from two highly attractive sisters and some poorly constructed witchcraft scenes. Unlike many Hammer releases, it at least portrays sex with more then a childish giggle. Overall, this takes itself too seriously and the plot becomes too confusing towards the end. However, the dated fashion is worth a look as is the sleazy fashion photographer. Not to mention the main sisters involved, (later to be seen in the popular UK TV series 'Allo Allo').

Watchable if only for the appearance of the delectable Patricia Haines (Mrs. Michael Caine as was), Virgin Witch also subverts some 70s clichés quite neatly.

Nice music and fairly attractive photography lift this from the mire as does the Surrey location.

Some passages and attitudes obviously grate a little with 21st Century sensibilities. Be disappointing if they didn't. But all in all a pleasant and (to this viewer at least) pretty sexy hour or so.

And who wouldn't want to wake up next to the unclad Ms Haines?

Or is it just me?

A girl gets a job for a modeling agency, only to later discover that it's all a cover to recruit young girls for a coven of witches. Her sister and her sister's boyfriend get dragged along on the adventure.

The plot here is a little shaky. While the goals of the coven aren't really revealed, and the modeling agency may or may not be real (they never explicitly say), there is a definite story. Whether or not it's enough story to really matter is up to the viewer, I suppose.

The obvious reason this film was made was not to make a horror film or a classic film or any other type of film except one: a movie where two sisters (as well as many others) are naked in approximately 90% of the movie. In the modeling agency, in a field, on a car, in a witch's ceremony, in bed... I didn't time it, but to say that 90% of the film has nudity is really not much of a stretch.

According to Wikipedia, "The film has subsequently been disowned by its sibling stars Ann and Vicki Michelle. Vicki's website makes no reference to the film, while Ann's cryptically refers to it as 'not an experience Ann cares to remember'." I suppose this shouldn't surprise me. Although one (if not both) of the girls became known from this film, it's not really something you want to say was your crowning achievement.

The witch aspects were done very well, with the ceremony and explanation of the high priest's role very believable. The topic of magic was very minimal, which I guess is unfortunate, but it didn't take away from the witch storyline as much as you might think.

On a personal note, my biggest disappointment with this film is the choice of the leading actress. The sister is far more attractive than the lead, so I would have rather their roles were reversed. This way, the attractive one would have more on-screen nudity. Although, if you're watching this to get turned on (as the tagline implies) you might be let down: after the first fifteen minutes, the nudity was so pervasive it wasn't even that odd anymore (like living in a nudist colony).

If you're into exploitation films and horror films, this is worth checking out. The plot is thin, the acting decent and the nudity excessive. Hey, some people go for that -- they made a whole market of the stuff. I expected much worse from this, so I guess I can't complain and would not even be opposed to owning it if it was available for a reasonable price.