In general, this movie an unremarkable exploitation comedy (not to mention rather tame by sexploitation standards--despite the presence of such B-movie queens as Uschi Digard and Dyanne Thorne, nudity is kept to a minimum). However, the gonzo performance of Timothy Carey as the lame-jacketed thug Vincent rises above the rest of the movie and makes the whole thing worthwhile. It appears that Carey was given free rein in his scenes, improvising outlandish speeches and such bizarre actions as clucking like a chicken. Indeed, if you look at some of the other performers onscreen during Carey's big moments, you'll see genuine confusion (and perhaps even a little fear) on their faces. Carey was known as an eccentric and difficult actor to direct...apparently, in this case, the director decided just to stay out of Carey's way.
4 Reviews
Chesty!
BandSAboutMovies20 April 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Chesty Anderson is a WAVE (Woman Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) in the U. S. Navy and the lead character in a movie that promises that you will see bare breasts. That's 1976, I guess, and Shari Eubank is the right actress for this. A former cheerleader and homecoming queen at Farmer City High School in Illinois, she only was in one other movie and what a movie: Russ Meyer's Supervixens. After this movie, she quit acting and moved back home where she became a drama teacher. And she's a way better actress than most people would be in sexploitation film, but man, Supervixen is your drama teacher? The world is fascinating.
While this movie is a snooze - how can a movie named Chesty Anderson, USN be boring? - it does have a fun cast. It left Scatman Crothers ill-prepared for dealing with Kubrick, as one can only assume every scene is done in one take; I'll bet there were fewer takes in this all put together than in one scene of The Shining. Timothy Carey is devouring scenery and being a lunatic as a mobster, while Ilsa herself Dyanne Thorne is in this as a fellow WAVE, while Joyce Mandel (Wham Bam Thank You Space Man), Uschi Digard (so many mammary-based movies), Rosanne Katon (Bachelor Party), Marcie Barkin (Fade to Black), Connie Hoffman (The Naughty Stewardesses), Dorrie Thomson (Policewoman) and even Betty Thomas show up. Fred Willard too, as Chesty's square boyfriend.
Chesty's sister has been killed after taking photos of Senator Dexter (George Dexter) in drag, which gets organized crime involved. And a man-eating plant is part of the story.
Yet through all this - a movie with all of these people - it's very PG. And look, I'm not demanding sin, but in a movie with this cast, even the shower scenes could be watched on regular television. It promises you vice and gives you virtue. Well, not much, but you get the point.
Director Ed Forsyth also made Superchick, Caged Men, The Ramrodder and more, while writer Paul Pumpian mostly worked in animation after this and this is the only film for his co-writer H. F. Green.
While this movie is a snooze - how can a movie named Chesty Anderson, USN be boring? - it does have a fun cast. It left Scatman Crothers ill-prepared for dealing with Kubrick, as one can only assume every scene is done in one take; I'll bet there were fewer takes in this all put together than in one scene of The Shining. Timothy Carey is devouring scenery and being a lunatic as a mobster, while Ilsa herself Dyanne Thorne is in this as a fellow WAVE, while Joyce Mandel (Wham Bam Thank You Space Man), Uschi Digard (so many mammary-based movies), Rosanne Katon (Bachelor Party), Marcie Barkin (Fade to Black), Connie Hoffman (The Naughty Stewardesses), Dorrie Thomson (Policewoman) and even Betty Thomas show up. Fred Willard too, as Chesty's square boyfriend.
Chesty's sister has been killed after taking photos of Senator Dexter (George Dexter) in drag, which gets organized crime involved. And a man-eating plant is part of the story.
Yet through all this - a movie with all of these people - it's very PG. And look, I'm not demanding sin, but in a movie with this cast, even the shower scenes could be watched on regular television. It promises you vice and gives you virtue. Well, not much, but you get the point.
Director Ed Forsyth also made Superchick, Caged Men, The Ramrodder and more, while writer Paul Pumpian mostly worked in animation after this and this is the only film for his co-writer H. F. Green.
Misleading title
plex22 June 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Ok, let's cut to the quick. With the graphic of the poster, the name of "Chesty" and with "actresses" Uschi Digart and Joyce Gibson (credited as Joyce Mandel) it certainly would not be much of a stretch to assume there'd be at least a couple of scenes of exposed female body parts. You'd be wrong. One reviewer penned "nudity is kept to a minimum" key word being MINIMUM. Joyce is rear-view nude for about 2 seconds, and about the same time for lovely 70's T&A actress, Rosanne Katon's boobs. That's IT! Particularly strange when you consider all R-rated movies of this genre in the 70' had rampant/gratuitous nudity. This must be the ONLY film Uschi is fully clothed. By today's standards this could easily be PG-13.
The film itself is one big cliche: a senator hires the mob to kill a witness to him having sex in drag, and the US Navy girls are hellbent on solving the case Charlie's Angels style.
However, most surprising of all is the cast: Scatman Crothers (The Shining) Fred Willard (Spinal Tap) and Timothy Carey (Paths of Glory) just to name a few. Carey is the runaway performer, he's hilarious! But in the end, this film overtly bills itself as a sexploitation film, and it's simply not in any regard. What it really is, a snooze fest and a waste of time.
The film itself is one big cliche: a senator hires the mob to kill a witness to him having sex in drag, and the US Navy girls are hellbent on solving the case Charlie's Angels style.
However, most surprising of all is the cast: Scatman Crothers (The Shining) Fred Willard (Spinal Tap) and Timothy Carey (Paths of Glory) just to name a few. Carey is the runaway performer, he's hilarious! But in the end, this film overtly bills itself as a sexploitation film, and it's simply not in any regard. What it really is, a snooze fest and a waste of time.
An impressive cast in a silly comedy
lor_8 February 2023
My review was written in May 1984 after a screening at Selwyn theater on Manhattan's 42nd St.
"Chesty Anderson -U. S. Navy" is a relatively obscure exploitation film shot in 1975, released the following year by the since-defunct Atlas Films and just arrived in New York as a second feature. Chief interest here is the cast, combining many voluptuous pinups of a decade ago with a number of familiar character players later to become famous troupers.
Shari Eubank, who had just starred in Russ Meyer's "Super Vixens", portrays the titular character, a Wave in the U. S. Navy whose younger sister is kidnapped and killed by local Mafioso -the Baron (Frank Campanella) and VIncent (Timothy Agoglia Carey) for having photos that would incriminate a Mafia-controlled corrupt senator (George Cooper).
Anderson sets out with three of her fellow servicewomen to find the missing sister, but their adventures on land (for a service comedy, film contains absolutely no seafaring action) play second fiddle to silly gags. Ultimately, a government undercover agent (Fred Willard) unravels the case and collars the baddies.
Besides Wiilard, whose straight-ahead thesping resembles his more familiar persona as a (former) regular on the "Real People" tv series, there are glimpses of the ebullient Scatman Crothers as a pool hustler and even acmeo by Betty Thomas of "Hill St. Blues". For pulchritude, Eubank is upstaged by the superstructures of costars Rosnne Katon and Dorrie Thomson, plus numerous other starlets, including Dyanne (of the "Ilsa" sex and gore films) Thorne as a nurse in a lengthy burlesk-style "Doctor will see you now" segment, Joyce Gibson and Uschi DIgard, also of "Super Vixens". Surprisingly, there is very little nudity here.
Acting honors go to Carey, who is way over the top "winging it" with stream-of-consciousness Italian expressions and an hilarious limping-jiggling gait. The young heavy of 1960s pics, John Davis Chandler, pops up as a gangster henchman who gets fed to a carnivorous plant, in explicit homage to "The Little Shop of Horrors". For obvious reasons, good or bad depending upon one's point-of-view, no one makes films in this vein anymore.
"Chesty Anderson -U. S. Navy" is a relatively obscure exploitation film shot in 1975, released the following year by the since-defunct Atlas Films and just arrived in New York as a second feature. Chief interest here is the cast, combining many voluptuous pinups of a decade ago with a number of familiar character players later to become famous troupers.
Shari Eubank, who had just starred in Russ Meyer's "Super Vixens", portrays the titular character, a Wave in the U. S. Navy whose younger sister is kidnapped and killed by local Mafioso -the Baron (Frank Campanella) and VIncent (Timothy Agoglia Carey) for having photos that would incriminate a Mafia-controlled corrupt senator (George Cooper).
Anderson sets out with three of her fellow servicewomen to find the missing sister, but their adventures on land (for a service comedy, film contains absolutely no seafaring action) play second fiddle to silly gags. Ultimately, a government undercover agent (Fred Willard) unravels the case and collars the baddies.
Besides Wiilard, whose straight-ahead thesping resembles his more familiar persona as a (former) regular on the "Real People" tv series, there are glimpses of the ebullient Scatman Crothers as a pool hustler and even acmeo by Betty Thomas of "Hill St. Blues". For pulchritude, Eubank is upstaged by the superstructures of costars Rosnne Katon and Dorrie Thomson, plus numerous other starlets, including Dyanne (of the "Ilsa" sex and gore films) Thorne as a nurse in a lengthy burlesk-style "Doctor will see you now" segment, Joyce Gibson and Uschi DIgard, also of "Super Vixens". Surprisingly, there is very little nudity here.
Acting honors go to Carey, who is way over the top "winging it" with stream-of-consciousness Italian expressions and an hilarious limping-jiggling gait. The young heavy of 1960s pics, John Davis Chandler, pops up as a gangster henchman who gets fed to a carnivorous plant, in explicit homage to "The Little Shop of Horrors". For obvious reasons, good or bad depending upon one's point-of-view, no one makes films in this vein anymore.
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