This faux documentary was released to capitalize on the runaway bestseller "The Sensuous Woman" by the pseudonymous "J." Written and directed by one of Jayne Mansfield's ex-husbands, it's a goofy hoot. Narrated by a breathless Lindis Guinness, the sixty-five minute film tells American women that they need to step up their sexual game if they want to compete with the more sensuous and looser foreign-born women for the American male's attention. If only our country wasn't founded by the Puritans, whose belief system was somehow ingrained into the American female psyche all of these generations later...one example of the suspect science at work in the film. Because most American women lay around all day, without employment or children to worry about, they should use things around the house to explore their bodies. One hilarious sequence involves a woman caressing hideous late 1960s decorous items like a lamp and that sexy vase. Sensuously rubbing yourself with an apple is funny enough, but choosing assorted vegetables to insert into other orifices besides your mouth -watch out for that radish!- is both hysterical and gross. The hardcore sex scenes are not sensuous at all, and filmed in the name of "instruction." The uncredited cast of women go through the mechanical-like motions. A couple of women sport ill-fitting wigs, one of which almost falls off during a sex scene. Another sex scene is difficult to watch because the couple looks angry at each other, and Matt Cimber's camera may have captured the beginnings of a physical altercation. In an interview, Cimber indicated that he wrote and filmed this as a lark, and was sued. The director was triumphant, the film was a smash, and Cimber is correct: the film is a lark, and a relic. "The Sensually Liberated Female" is also known as "The Sexually Liberated Female." Feminists would probably protest this as misogynistic, but honestly it's funnier than a lot of mainstream comedies on your streaming services right now.
Review of The Sensually Liberated Female
