9/10
classic "frigid wife" exploitation from Ron Ormond
2 November 2004
The more of Ron Ormond's 1960's output I see, the more I'm impressed. This gem comes from 1963, and re-teams Ormond with his longtime partner Lash LaRue, with LaRue playing a psychiatrist who, with the assistance of a hypnotist, helps to cure a young wife of her frigidity, caused by a sexual assault as a teenager. The first scene of the film depicting the attack is accompanied by the guitar music from Ed Wood's JAIL BAIT; after that we get an overly long lecture on psychology; after that we get at least five minutes of mondo footage; and somewhere in the midst of all this we get a cheesy swirling disc, as seen in the pre-feature intros of K. Gordon Murray's "Young America Horror Club." The rest of the film is a bit more restrained, but still outrageous, as La Rue brings in hypnotist Ormond McGill (presumably playing himself), who had previously appeared in Ormond's vaudeville anthology VARIETIES ON PARADE, to put the wife into a trance, get her to remember her attack, and then convince herself that it was just a scene in a movie and that she should forget it! Besides the guitar music lifted from JAIL BAIT (and also used elsewhere), there's a lot of fine harmonica duets (heavily echoed) from Jimmy and Mildred Mulcay, who appeared in the earlier VARIETIES and also in the later GIRL FROM TOBACCO ROW and THE EXOTIC ONES (aka THE MONSTER AND THE STRIPPER). The effect of echoed harmonica music on the dramatic scenes is quite distinctive and gives the film a strange, unnerving feel in spots. If you've enjoyed FRIGID WIFE, TEST TUBE BABIES, or ANY Ron Ormond film, you MUST see this wonderful film, sure to become a cult classic when it gets more circulation. Legit VHS copies are still available at low prices, so grab them while you can.
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