Wednesday 29 September 2010

STRIP TEASE MURDER

CONTAINS SOME MILD SPOILERS; CONTAINS NO "PHWOOAAARGH, GET A LOAD OF THE UDDERS ON THAT"

Notable not for any kind of strip tease beyond the mildest of disrobings; there's not so much as a single nipple on view. Although there are two murders and several musical numbers. It's a grotty little British B-feature designed to play on the bottom half of a double bill (with what?) that runs less than 70 minutes, shot incredibly cheaply, and inevitably isn't any good.

Still, while living up to the luridly prurient come-on title Strip Tease Murder would be a doddle today, back in 1961, with cinematic nudity largely confined to naturist "documentaries", and photographed in black-and-white to boot, it was impossible. At London's Flamingo Club, one of the performers is murdered by a dope kingpin and a mad inventor with an unexplained gizmo that looks to be some kind of remote energy transmitter. But why? Was she even the target? The victim's husband (and club comic) won't accept the verdict of natural causes and sets out to investigate.

It's cheap, shabby, and proceedings frequently grind to a halt for dance numbers, to the extent that there's maybe 40 minutes' worth of plot in there and the rest is padding. The stand-up bits are mercifully brief and still terrible (transcription of the gags would implode the internet, so I won't bother) and the semi-strip routines all seem to be done to the same few records. Sole point of interest is that the comedian/hero John Hewer went on to spend over 30 years as Captain Birdseye in television commercials.

*

No comments: