Miss Leslie's Dolls

Vintage clothing lovers or those who aspire to be so can find some interest in the costuming of this film. For those looking for um... something else there is some nudity and light gore. LOOK out for Miss Frost!

For those looking for LGBTQ representation this movie can be seen as friendly considering the time period. Though the difference between "drag queen" and "transgender" seems lost at least to whomever wrote the synopsis.

I had the privilege to catch this at a single BFI Southbank screening in London last night. I loved the introduction from Julian Marsh III, who told of how he discovered the last remaining print in his hallway and I loved his recorded telephone conversation with second male lead, Charles W. Pitt. The film itself starts very predictably in a graveyard at night in the rain. Inside a nearby dwelling the three lost students and their teacher are given some sort of welcome by the statuesque but clearly male, Miss Leslie. Despite the fact that the central character is in drag for the entire film almost nothing is made of it. The film is rather slow but does pick up with the frantic bed swapping of the teens and their 'liberated' teacher and the nocturnal wanderings of the axe man (lady). There is corny dialogue to laugh at, an unbelievable acceptance of the goings on by the youngsters but a sinister tone is established and when the dolls appear we know we are watching something, just that little bit different. Great fun and after that slow start very enjoyable.

'Miss Leslie's Dolls' is an early 1970's attempt at satanist horror in the grindhouse style. Imagine, if you will, a high school theatre production put on celluloid, the acting in this flick is far worse! Having said that, it kept my attention and some of the ideas were fairly original. You might find the titular character odd, but don't let that interfere with the movie. Glad I watched it, but really for horror lovers only.

Miss Leslie's Dolls wears its low budget and limited resources on its sleeve and feels like it was cobbled together over a holiday weekend, but there's so much charm and spirit that one can overlook any major flaws and appreciate it for the bizarre freak show that it is.

Like in many horror films, a car full of fresh blood breaks down in the middle of nowhere and the inhabitants (in this case, 3 college girls and one guy) find shelter in a spooky house by a graveyard where an eccentric middle aged woman named Miss Leslie lives. Miss Leslie is immediately drawn to one of the girls who bears a striking resemblance to someone she once knew and loved. As the night goes on, the group of young folks find out that Miss Leslie isn't as harmless as they once thought and their lives could be in danger.

Miss Leslie's Dolls suffers from many quirks that a lot of low budget films have. Some of the acting isn't so great, nighttime scenes are sometimes impossible to make out, pacing is off and can feel padded at times, and most of the gore effects amount to someone throwing a bucket of fake blood on the floor. Still, your jaw will rarely leave the floor throughout its run time.

"Miss Leslie's Dolls" follows a young female professor and three of her students who seek shelter at the home of a reclusive, strange woman named Leslie during a torrential storm. Unfortunately, Leslie is an outspoken occultist who collects female corpses with the hopes of transferring her soul into them--and her four guests are in grave danger.

This highly-obscure quasi-slasher flick is one of the weirder offerings of the early 1970s, and has remained largely buried (I believe it was for a time thought to be a lost film). For fans of garish horror, "Miss Leslie's Dolls" certainly delivers; it feels like a low-rent take on a Mario Bava film, chock full of awkwardly dubbed, rambling explanatory dialogue from the gender-bending protagonist/antihero, extended single shot takes, and stilted performances.

While there are many amateurish streaks here, the film does have its pluses: It is at times colorful and nightmarish, and there are a handful of truly creepy sequences involving Leslie's "dolls," which again recall the bright, floral color tones of films like "Blood and Black Lace." At its dreariest, the film looks drab and depressing (probably intentionally so), especially with the dull interior sets of Leslie's home. Midway through, the film nearly becomes a sexploitation flick with attempted threesomes and a lesbian tryst, before going into full-blown axe slasher mode. The finale is ridiculous and the final girl is unexpected, but the conclusion of it all is weirdly fitting given how outlandish everything else is.

All in all, "Miss Leslie's Dolls" is a strange offering; a mix of proto-slasher with late-'60s occult hangover. It's silly by and large, but it does have some interesting visual elements and an atmosphere that is indelibly bizarre. If nothing else, I've never seen anything quite like it. 6/10.