Serta sleeper poster girl Joey Heatherton stars along with a brazenly slumming Richard Burton in this exercise in low rent film making.
Joey and Raquel Welch along with a gaggle of European actress of different levels of renown play the various wives of Burton, wearing a ridiculous transparently fake blue beard.
Top billed Raquel shows up as a nun with quite a past and wisely stays for under ten minutes. Other than her beauty she adds nothing to her part, not that there is much depth in hers or any role to explore.
Of the other ladies Virna Lisi is probably the best known and therefore gets to retain her clothes for her brief role. She was an extremely beautiful woman when she was young but you would never know it from her appearance here. She's tarted up with an atrocious wig and some of the most retina burning day-glo lingerie ever created. She eventually became a well respected character actress in Europe but this was made during her sex bomb period and her role is as vapid as all the rest.
As for the other actresses none really make an impression but all manage to lose at least their tops in order to pander to the audience.
Which brings us to Miss Heatherton, she offers a non performance of such staggering ineptitude that in its way it becomes enjoyable. Blank faced no matter what horror presents itself and with a flat expressionless voice she comes across as a third rate showgirl who wandered onto the set in error. In a way she is, she gets no assist from Burton nor does anyone else. Of all the great actors who squandered their talent his did so the most willingly. His bored, strictly for the paycheck performance is an affront to the paying audience.
That leaves only two points of the film to discuss. One is the unseemly and unnecessary violence to both the women and animals. The rough treatment of the women is part of the story since Bluebeard is a serial killer but the shooting of various animals is unimportant to the story and could have been deleted.
The other facet is the incredibly bad, and cheap, production design. While the castle which is the setting of the film is beautiful outside what the rooms look like inside is enough to upset your stomach for days. Red flocked wallpaper, electric blue velvet wall coverings and other nauseating geometric patterns abound causing the viewer eye strain, perhaps it was to distract them from the idiotic plot! Even worse are the cheap-jack effects: spiderwebs that looks like cotton candy, ice in a walk in freezer which looks like nothing more than white shag carpeting the list could go on and on. It's dreadful and funny at the same time.
The film is valueless by any measure of good film making but if you are a fan of bad movies there are things that will amuse you. Anyone else watch out!
Joey and Raquel Welch along with a gaggle of European actress of different levels of renown play the various wives of Burton, wearing a ridiculous transparently fake blue beard.
Top billed Raquel shows up as a nun with quite a past and wisely stays for under ten minutes. Other than her beauty she adds nothing to her part, not that there is much depth in hers or any role to explore.
Of the other ladies Virna Lisi is probably the best known and therefore gets to retain her clothes for her brief role. She was an extremely beautiful woman when she was young but you would never know it from her appearance here. She's tarted up with an atrocious wig and some of the most retina burning day-glo lingerie ever created. She eventually became a well respected character actress in Europe but this was made during her sex bomb period and her role is as vapid as all the rest.
As for the other actresses none really make an impression but all manage to lose at least their tops in order to pander to the audience.
Which brings us to Miss Heatherton, she offers a non performance of such staggering ineptitude that in its way it becomes enjoyable. Blank faced no matter what horror presents itself and with a flat expressionless voice she comes across as a third rate showgirl who wandered onto the set in error. In a way she is, she gets no assist from Burton nor does anyone else. Of all the great actors who squandered their talent his did so the most willingly. His bored, strictly for the paycheck performance is an affront to the paying audience.
That leaves only two points of the film to discuss. One is the unseemly and unnecessary violence to both the women and animals. The rough treatment of the women is part of the story since Bluebeard is a serial killer but the shooting of various animals is unimportant to the story and could have been deleted.
The other facet is the incredibly bad, and cheap, production design. While the castle which is the setting of the film is beautiful outside what the rooms look like inside is enough to upset your stomach for days. Red flocked wallpaper, electric blue velvet wall coverings and other nauseating geometric patterns abound causing the viewer eye strain, perhaps it was to distract them from the idiotic plot! Even worse are the cheap-jack effects: spiderwebs that looks like cotton candy, ice in a walk in freezer which looks like nothing more than white shag carpeting the list could go on and on. It's dreadful and funny at the same time.
The film is valueless by any measure of good film making but if you are a fan of bad movies there are things that will amuse you. Anyone else watch out!