The Flesh Merchant (1956) User Reviews

Just look at yourselves! Your nothing but a bunch of drunks and lechers!

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 13 January 2008]

***SPOILERS*** 1950's exploitation film involving these two women Paula and her kid sister Nancy who end up as call-girls from a prostitution ring in circa 1956 Hollywood.

Nancy who came to Tinsel Town to visit her older sister Paula, who's been gone for some four years, is impressed with her lifestyle of a having big and spacious apartment and fur coats and jewelry. Paula to her credit tries to talk Nancy into going back home and forget about being a "big star" like Nancy thinks that she is. Even when this old over made up floozy friend of hers Liz shows up at the apartment asking Paula for some cash, obviously for either drugs or booze, Nancy still doesn't realize what she's getting involved in trying to make it big in Hollywoodland.

Picking up this business card, for the Antoine School of Art, that she finds at Paula's apartment Nancy instead of going back home like Paula begged her to do goes straight to the "art school" to start her career as a big time model. It isn't long that the owner of "Antoine" Bernie Sokol recruits Nancy to work for him at his private "Colony Club" outside L.A. It's there at the "Colony" where the rich powerful and horny of the city's upper crust go for fun and games as well as having their way with the girls, like Nancy, that are there to "entertaine" them.

Surprisingly Nancy seems at ease to all the goings on, like the casual sex and drunken parties, at the "Colony" that you at first can't find it in yourself to really care for her one way or another. Nobody forced her to join Mr. Sokol's harem of call and party girls and she's treated rather nicely compared to her roommate the less attractive and much older Easy. In fact it's Easy who gets the worst of all the girls or women at the "Colony" in being abused and worked over by both the customers and manager there.

The manager of the "Colony" Mr. Vito Perini starts to feel that Easy is a bad influence on his prized possession Nancy who in no time at all becomes the most popular girl there. Perini decides to have Easy shipped out to a dingy hotel in the skid row section of L.A to teach her a lesson for her insubordination. Refusing to go along with his wishes Easy is then brutally beaten up by Perini to the point where she loses consciousness! It's just then that Perini's boss Bernie Sokol unexpectedly shows up at the "Colony" and, seeing what he did to Easy, has him sent to manager the same sleazy hotel that Perini was to send Easy to just moments before!

It when Perini now out of his head, in losing his very well paying and prestigious job at the "Colony", just goes wacko in dumping an unconscious Easy in his car and speeding off, to who knows where, only to be chased and caught, after he was run off the road, by two state troopers. In what looked like and attempt to commit suicide by cop, getting the police to shoot and kill him, Perini not only succeeds in getting himself offed but also, with Easy now alive and willing to testify, get his boss Mr. Sokol busted for trafficking in white slavery or prostitution.

It's when Paula later shows up to work at the "Colony", to replace the departed Easy, that she's shocked to find her little sister Nancy, whom she thought was back home in Indiana, entertaining the drunk and horny boys in attendance there! The ending is really worth the price of the DVD with Paula letting the barley sober customers at the "Colony" really have it and have it good in a powerhouse speech that even Winston Churchill would envy.

It's just when an outraged Mr. Sokol and his hoods are about to do in the uncontrollable and mad as hell Paula that LAPD's Let. Bushinski, the hero of the movie, shows up just in time. Bushinski arrests and puts the cuffs on Sokol together with his cohort Mr. Barnes, who replaced the now deceased Vito Perini, the "Colony's" new manager.

If that hot headed as well as brainless Vito Perini just left Easy alone all this wouldn't have happened and everything would have been just fine for him as well as Sokol & Co. Like they say Perini was the weak link in the chain of the Sokol sex, and probably drug, empire and that weak link just couldn't handle all the pressure and finally broke. Which in the end was a stroke of good luck for Nancy Paula Easy and all the other girls who were forced to both work and suffer in that den of sin and depravity called the "Colony".

Super-sleazy film that is somehow STILL reasonably watchable

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 24 September 2007]

In the late 1930s and into the 50s, several independent production companies made exploitation films that were intended to sneak nudity and illicit behavior past the state censors. The way to do this--package trashy films as "educational" and say that they are being marketed to concerned parents, when in reality, they were hoping that perverts would come to the films in the hopes of seeing a bit of nudity. By today's standards, the nudity is very tame and the films don't seem all that sleazy, but in their day, films like THE FLESH MERCHANT were about as close to pornography as many in the audience hoped to find.

The plot involves a very stupid young lady who moves to Los Angeles to live with her sister. She, too, hopes to make it big in the big city, though her sister urges her to go home. Instead of riches as an actress, the younger sister becomes a nude model and eventually a high-priced call girl who is virtually held prisoner by her pimps. Oddly, despite this situation, the sister seems to like the new life and takes to it rather quickly--only to eventually find out her older sister is also working for them! The plot is, of course, very sleazy and the acting rather amateurish. However, unlike most exploitation films, this one is definitely better made and more interesting--in a sensationalistic sort of way. Sure, the plot is gross and the characters sick freaks, but somehow it all is rather engaging and interesting.

By the way, as I mentioned above, these sort of films have some nudity. This one doesn't have a lot, but it's NOT a good film for the entire family due to this and the subject matter.

Moral degradation in a dark quickie

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 22 August 2015]

THE WILD AND WICKED is another educational/exploitation flick from W. Merle Connell, who handled a string of sensationalist fare along the lines of TEST TUBE BABIES. This one's much like an earlier entry I watched (in the same Mill Creek box set) entitled GAMBLING WITH SOULS, except without the gambling angle.

In essence, the film charts the journey and moral degradation of a pretty young woman who finds herself cast adrift. She unwisely falls in with a crowd of men who run an establishment dedicated to the art of pleasure, in other words a brothel. Will she ever manage to escape their clutches?

Wow. The plot is certainly an arresting one and the calibre of the acting is a little better than the norm in this low-budget quickies. And THE WILD AND WICKED certainly contains plenty of the latter, some truly scuzzy characters in support. The abrupt non-ending is the worst part of it, but there are some fun moments along the way like the manhunt for the criminal.

Above average 50's exploitation

[Mark_D-2 · 20 August 2001]

"The Flesh Merchant" (or "The Wild and Wicked") is fairly typical of 50's exploitation cinema in that it denounces a moral evil (in this case, young, innocent girls who are tricked into prostitution under the guise of becoming models) while at the same time titillating the audience with scenes of scantily clad women (and even a quick flash of bare buttocks). That being said, "The Flesh Merchants" is one of the more interesting films in the grindhouse genre. This is largely due to the acting, which is above par for most films of its kind. Lisa Rack, who plays the prostitute sister of the young innocent ingenue, is especially good. She infuses her dialogue (and a couple of sizable monologues) with a lot more fire and expression than entire casts of other low-budget films, and makes you sit up and take notice (even though a lot of the dialogue is pretty laughable). It's a shame that she doesn't seem to have any other film credits, because she certainly could have gone places.

All in all, this is one of the more watchable "Adults Only" films of the 50's. You can certainly do worse. I know I have.

"Don't let this happen to YOU " flick from the 50s.

[ksf-2 · 3/10 · 29 June 2008]

i wondered if i was watching the same movie shown here, since on the back of the "Cult Classics Collection" (Mill Creek, 2006) the run time is listed as 90 minutes (its really 60, as IMDb correctly shows). In addition, on IMDb, the title is Flesh Merchant, with the subtitle Wild and Wicked. The acting is just hideous, the sound is iffy, the photography not bad. This was directed by Merle Connell, who incidentally, directed Test Tube Babies, also on the Cult Collection. A young girl comes to the big city to visit her sister and be successful. Right off, she lands a job as a nude model, quite willingly, where they convince her to go to "The Colony"....where the rewards are even better, and her roommate is called "Easy".... This was the only acting gig for most of the cast, and we can see why. It has the feel of a really low budget John Waters movie, but without the fun characters and plot. Whenever the star says her name "Nancy Walker", I can't help but think of the real Nancy Walker, who would have been 34 when this movie came out. The real Nancy had made four films by 1956, so i have to think she had the name first, since her birth name was "Anna Myrtle Swoyer", and appears to have changed it by 1943. Producer Dan Sonney must have made big bucks off this flick, since he sure didn't spend it on actors or location. He also was the producer for "Knockers Up", "My Tale is Hot", and "Daughter of Fanny Hill" in the 1960s. Gotta love it. Will make a fun rental ,but I sure wouldn't spend more than a dollar or two to see it.

Better characterizations don't make this a better film.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 13 November 2020]

This is the story of two sisters (Joy Reynolds and Lisa Rack) who haven't seen each other in four years. Reynolds arrives at Rack's apartment, hoping to cash in on the lavish lifestyle that her sister has apparently found. What she doesn't realize is that Rack is basically owned by a racket exploiting young women as party girls who are basically. Rack wants her sister to go home, but Reynolds has other ideas same racket, only not in the same circuit as her sister.

It's only a matter of time before they run into each other, and during that time, the audience gets to see what happens to those who cross those in charge. One is demoted to work in a cheap skid row dive and another finds herself nearly dead when she tries to attack the violent pimp like Marko Perri.

Rack gets her say when she goes off on a group of dirty johns, and it is surprising that she doesn't end up like the girl earlier or the older salty veteran party girl whose best days are long behind. It's more depressing than scandalous, yet too short to really fully develop the characters and give a convincing moral.

58-minute cheapie exploitation film, which only manages to exploit the gullibility of the audience

[scsu1975 · 3/10 · 24 November 2022]

Unknown Joy Reynolds, as 22-year-old Nancy, travels to Hollywood, where she surprises her older sister Paula, played by the equally unknown Lisa Rack. By the way, the name "Rack" is an example of faulty advertising. Nancy is determined to make it big, like her sister, who has a fur coat. Paula tells Nancy to go back home and forget all this. While Paula goes into another room to find a blanket and pillow, Nancy finds a business card for Antoine's School of Art, conveniently located near the liquor glasses (the card, not the school). So she decides to try her hand at modeling. Using a phony last name, her first gig is posing nude for some sketch artists. Brilliant career move. She is quickly offered a job at "The Colony," where, and I quote, "some of the wealthiest men go, for relaxation." Oh, I get it - but Nancy is too dense to figure it out, even after she meets "Easy," the dame who is sharing her room.

"There's just one thing to remember, Nan," Easy says. "One thing and you'll be alright. Cooperate. That's all. Cooperate." Oh, I get it. But Nancy still doesn't.

Donning her swimsuit, she goes off with a "gentleman" to be photographed in the woods. "It's so peaceful," she says. "Nature in the raw." "That's how I like it," he says, "nature in the raw." He then makes his move. HEY NANCY, DO YOU GET IT YET NOW???

Nancy decides to split the joint, but is restrained by one of the resident goons. The "manager," named Vito, sets her straight with a couple of b-slaps. She then goes off to "apologize" to the gentleman. Oh, I get it - and so does the gentleman.

Eventually, Nancy starts liking her job, what with the gifts she keeps getting. Unfortunately, while Nancy is on the way up, Easy is on the way down. After Easy rebuffs a drunken "gentleman," Vito decides to ship her out, but not before cuffing her around. Vito is then ordered by the "boss" to get rid of her, but the cops intervene (he is caught speeding) and gun down Vito. Easy spills her guts to the cops. Meanwhile, the boss realizes he needs a replacement for Easy. Who will he get to be Nancy's new roommate? (Hint: she is related to Nancy).

In the hilarious finale, older sister Paula launches into a diatribe during a party, spouting "Get away from me, all of you! I'm sick to death of your lousy filth! Every one of you - dirty! (blah blah blah) Look at yourselves! You're all drunks and lechers! (blah blah blah) You're scum! Buyers of sin!"

Anyway, the cops arrive and everything gets cleared up.

As Nancy, Joy Reynolds looks good; her acting gets a little better as the film moves on. Rack is a pretty good actress; this dame had some talent, but made just this one film. The other people are forgettable, including some little wise guy who reports the time as "one-toity" and pronounces "epitome"as "EP-a-toe-me." He apparently graduated from the Slip Mahoney School of Elocution.

As for exploitation, we do get a shot of one woman's naked posterior, and a chubby woman does the mambo.

"Dirty" taboo warning entry with standout denouement 'you need to hear the truth' speech

[Bofsensai · 2/10 · 1 September 2016]

BUT TEN stars for forgotten starlet Lisa Rack!

Another of another 'why add another review' when most others here have already well summarized the plot and reasons to 'enjoy': well, cos in anyone's equal enjoyment of the quaint 'masochistic movie musings mode', to confirm you MUST see this if only for the elder, wiser sister's (Lisa Rack) closing tour de force speech decrying all that is debauched about 'sinners and lechers': it's superb - and moving - literally so, as those previously 'wicked' patrons in corner look suitably chastened and so slope off ashamed at the close of her tirade. So well done Lisa - and what a surname for her character's (Laura) chosen (?) vocation; even though that would be better appurtenant to her little kid sister, Nancy (pretty, marvellously full dark maned coiffed, Joy Reynolds) who turns up at the outset at Laura's (Lisa) apartment out of the blue, decked out in a top underpinned by something Madonna, c. 1990s would have been proud to sport. This is most, er, 'pointedly' displayed, when Laura has to answer the door to 'elder' compatriot of 'the colony' that should immediately warn Nancy, now sitting proudly, ah, 'pert' right next to the front door, to what you're likely letting yourself in for: her (the, ah, more mature actress, sadly indefinably credited - possibly Debbie Marshall?) brief performance is suitably addled (presumably by long term) vice indulgence. Great.

Then, what impressed me was that up at the sleazy, suspect, (debauched?) 'colony' (note the loss of freedom forced labour inference there), who can blame naive Nancy to be taken in by the pool location shown as mere joie de vivre fun: so that, clearly overjoyed at her apparent good fortune to be at such a spot (and after only one - implied (sorry, you don't see it) - flash ya bare rear to art enthusiasts modelling stint), Nancy soon accompanies - alone - a photography 'enthusiast' with still not one iota of an inkling as he might want more than swimsuit shots as he only exhorts her to first divest herself of her swimsuit overdress, but then, more sleazily suspiciously, 'lets have those (swimsuit) straps down, too, dear': ah, that is until he then quite unexpectedly - lecherously - attempts an unconsensual full on mouth kiss with her! Well, now that's it: off she runs pell mell determined to get out of there, toute suite (exclamation of constant humorous bon mots light relief guy): but then, no, she soon relents: them diamonds and furs ("he's gonna give me a mink coat") make such 'kissing' expectation degradation all worthwhile.

Then after older hand 'Easy' (and now, lads, just why might she have got that appellation?) is appallingly assaulted by brutal establishment boss (to be 'sent down' to where even the winos 'need their thrills' - yeuch; truly repulsive, beware girls*), will come this earlier entry into the shock twist ending that you surely could not have expected (well, I didn't: perhaps I'm just naive, too - or let these throwaway efforts just wash over me): ohh, could never have guessed that of .. (won't say who!)!

* which leads to what were they thinking when they made these? In fact, when you see the poster tag lines (for the better and far more accurate title 'The Flesh Merchants'), I would disagree that this was made as some form early erotica get off film for the "dirty" raincoat patron: Rather I'd believe the target audience were those bored with repressive fifties home life young girls that might just be tempted to so follow in wide eyed innocent Nancy's footsteps: which neatly leads back to Ms Rack's closing diatribe: and for that alone, you must see this.

Badly acted, badly scripted tale...

[dwpollar · 2/10 · 17 February 2007]

1st watched 2/17/2007 - 2 out of 10(Dir-W. Merle Connell): Badly acted, badly scripted tale of the underbelly of Hollywood. Where girls go when they can't get acting jobs I guess, is to the local Art school to pose nude for the students and then are introduced to high-class & low-class prostitution by the heads of the art school(believe it or not). That's what this story is about in a nutshell as the younger sister shows up at the doorstep of a woman who's already involved with this crowd and has the nerve and guts to try to keep the younger one away. It doesn't work though because she picks up one of the cards from the school and she ventures out on her own and gets involved in exactly what the older sister was afraid of. The older sister shows back up in the picture later to give another hypocritical speech to the younger sister as they end up in the same room doing the same job. All around bad movie, where the characters are just wooden caricatures of our worst fears and there's not much worthwhile to care about. It also ends abruptly like everything is going to work itself out when the cops get involved -- yeah right, oh well on to the next movie..

A Very Sweet Film less exploitative than 90% of the Movies out Today

[jayraskin1 · 7/10 · 7 January 2008]

Fascinating story about prostitution in the 1950's. Joy Reynolds is sweet and really sexy. Lisa Rack gives a performance that would have won her an academy award if this had been a big studio film.

What is funny is the antiquated morality. Joy Reynolds really seems to be enjoying herself as she enters the "dirty" world, quickly graduating from nude art school model to high priced escort in less than a day. Sure a client actually attempts to kiss her (horrors!) but after two minutes of soul searching, she decides that the diamonds and mink coats are worth it.

Except for a brief scene of a man beating a woman for about 20 seconds, the film has no sex or violence. It would probably be rated PG13 today.

Watch it for some great acting by Joy Reynolds and Lisa Rack and some cute witty dialogue.

Wild Wicked

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 3 January 2022]

Also known as The Flesh Merchant,Sex Club andDial 5683 for Love, this W. Merle Connell-directed (Untamed Women, Test Tube Babies) frolic tells the sordid tale of Nancy Sheridan, a twenty-something fresh off the bus looking for her sister in Hollywood. Unlike something like The Seventh Victim, where one finds Satan, instead here one finds sin.

Sure, she finds her sister Paula and falls for the high end opulence she has in her Hollywood apartment, what with all the fancy furniture and fur coats. Older sister tells her to scram, but how do you send a girl back to the farm when she's seen La-La Land?

Paula's in-road starts at the art institute, where she poses nude, and let me tell you, I went to an Art Institute and none of our models looked like Joy Reynolds does in this movie.

Let me ask you - inspired by the review that the much more intelligent than me G. G. Graham wrote - what's the worse prison? Selling your body willingly and making the money that your gifts have earned you from a variety of gentlemen or giving it all away for the slavery that lies behind a white picket fence? Is Nancy right to fall in love with the night? Does Paula wish she hadn't made the same mistakes? Are we to pull morals out of a movie that has a normal cut and one with smoker inserts?

classic 1950s L.A. low-budget exploitation

[django-1 · 8/10 · 14 April 2002]

Those who enjoyed Dance Hall Racket, Gun Girls, and the like should enjoy this early 50's L.A. exploitation film about prostitution. This isn't as sleazy or exciting as the above-mentioned films, but it's got the same hard-boiled dialogue, high-school play level acting, flat lighting, and static camera you expect from these gems, and it's also got an uncomfortable, "dirty" feeling throughout, which is an acceptable substitute for the lack of nudity. You'll recognize some of the cast and the canned music from Phil Tucker's Broadway Jungle, and it's directed by W. Merle Connell, veteran of countless exploitation and burlesque features. If you like a hard-boiled, sordid film that plays like a bus-station sleaze paperback, this is it. Enjoy! I did...

"Well make room Big Sister, the youngsters are moving in!"

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 30 May 2009]

It doesn't take too long to figure out that the operative word for the characters in this film is 'cooperate'. Up and down the line, cooperating helps one get ahead, and not doing so could get you to lose one. I saw this one under the alternate title "The Wild and Wicked", and it seemed about as suitable as "The Flesh Merchant", but I couldn't help thinking that the best might have been "The Slick and Sleazy". Definitely the type of flick that invites a shower after watching, hot or cold depending on your disposition.

The picture is available on a neat four disc/twenty movie set from Mill Creek Entertainment that goes by 'Cult Classics', and it's a gem if you're a fan of this kind of stuff. Most of the movies offered are of the exploitation variety from the Thirties and Forties, although this one came out as late as 1956. Big sister Paula (Lisa Rack) tries to warn little sister Nancy (Joy Reynolds) about the dangers of her profession, without really letting her know what her profession was, so Nancy proceeds to find out on her own. Actually, it looked like Nancy was getting into the whole scene fairly comfortably without anyone's help, except maybe a little push from boss Vito Perini. Too bad about Vito, getting whacked for running a red light and opening up on the coppers wasn't a wise career move.

I have to agree with some other reviewers for the film about that great impassioned speech Lisa Rack gave at the finale. I wondered as well why she doesn't have any more film credits, until it finally hit me. It could be that she gave the same speech to the producers of this picture!

One Stunning Performance!

[jery-tillotson-1 · 23 March 2009]

This is a vastly entertaining antique from l952 that probably did great business in the grind houses on 42nd Street. But what really amazed me was the performance of the long forgotten actress, Lisa Rack! She portrays the older sister whose younger sibling, a very vivacious and attractive, Joy Reynolds, who comes to Hollywood to make it big. Although the production values are typical of these exploitation movies, the acting was way above average for this no-name cast.

As I've mentioned, Lisa Rack delivers a powerhouse speech at the end of this tale, shouting and denouncing all the sleaze-balls who've ensnared women to become prostitutes under the guise of nude modeling. Lisa Rack really let's them have it in a passionate, gusty denunciation. As far as I can tell, Rack made no other pictures, which is a shame. If this had been a big studio effort, she would have won all kinds of accolades. Just watch this one, though, with your eye on Lisa Rack and be amazed at what she did with her part in this long forgotten exploitation gem.

A fun mix of "Dragnet", B Movie, and, ugh, 1950's puritan sensationalism

[jkff · 8/10 · 13 January 2014]

The type of fun frequently had from campy B movies or the Dragnet TV shows. You can laugh "with" the movie at certain parts and "at" the movie in other parts.

This movie is an enjoyable low brow story that mixes multiple individual and social underworld subplots into a standard puritanical treatment of the main subject, promiscuous\casual sex, as an inevitable and certain road to Pandora's Box\Prodigal Son types of evil and suffering. Very cleverly, the Christian conservative types in charge of this picture use forced prostitution\prostitution by coercion as representative of all forms of promiscuous sex/casual sex when in reality that is clearly only one of several forms promiscuous sex/casual sex. This intentional, sloppy generalization is clear in the climax to the movie when one of the hookers "sees the light" and give a preachy speech to all of the participants and gangster-operators of the whorehouse resort.

Various parts of this movie deceptively conflate promiscuous sex\casual sex as necessarily related to female exploitation and prostitution.

FYI, no stag movie or even Risky Business type of sex or quickie shots of any good flesh.

Examples of a few subplots. One of the gangster-pimps has an anger control problem that gets him in trouble. A few of the prostitutes share their own views on the benefits and drawbacks of their vocation. The sheepherder, go-between between the prostitutes and the gangster- management of the resort is smart aleck, Jimmy Durante type of male who talks to everyone in relatively funny smart Aleck ways.

One of the laugh "at" this movie moment happens when the cops first arrive to respond to the main character's phone call to ask to be rescued from being held against her will at the resort. When they arrive in response to her phone call, they toss a few Joe Friday type of insults at the chief gangster-pimp in charge but he quickly sweet talks, confuses, and lulls into them into frustration and leaving before they even step foot on the resort property to do any proper investigation. Unlikely, but perhaps this is a ham-handed way for the writers to symbolize corruption and weakness in certain vice squads back then.

The scenery in the settings is interesting and a decent dose of variety. Everything from a street corner in an upstanding part of town to a 1950's style pool party at a resort to a dance hall room to a forest where consensual couples can get it on (and non-consensual women can feel harassed). The clothing and communication styles provide us with interesting historical views of the fashions and conversation styles from that part of the 1950s.

All of this content furnishes a fairly engrossing, interesting 60 minutes of a film that moves quickly and features multiple confrontations.

Could happen to any girl!

[youroldpaljim · 18 August 2001]

Naive Nancy comes to Hollywood from her dull small town to visit her glamorous sister in hopes of becoming a model. Her sister tells her its no life for her, but Nancy is determined. In less than 48 hours Nancy ends up working at a high priced house of prostitution! In an incredible coincidence, she works at the same house of ill repute as her older sister. Nancy decides selling herself for money is not for her but the mobsters who run the place won't let her go.

THE FLESH MERCHANT is a no budget "exploitation" picture with bad acting, silly dialogue, and a script loaded with coincidences. There is also some very brief nudity. There is one really weird character called "Joker", who plays the mobsters all around "go for." He has a Brooklyneese accent and delivers malaprops ala Leo Gorcey, but physically resembles latter day Bowery Boy Eddie Leroy. There is one funny line when one of the "older" girls starts giving trouble. The boss says he going to send her to work at the "hotel" in the city. When she protests, he says "Hey! Even winos need a few thrills."

Joy Reynolds, who plays Nancy, is quite an eyeful if may say so myself.

Fun Exploitation Picture

[Michael_Elliott · 12 January 2014]

The Flesh Merchant (1956)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Above average sexploiation film about 21-year-old Nancy (Joy Reynolds) who travels to Los Angeles to visit her sister and with dreams of getting into modeling. She meets a modeling agent but he's actually just a pimp and soon Nancy finds herself at a resort selling herself to older men. Director W. Merle Connell was no stranger to the exploitation genre and a quick look at his filmmography will show titles like TEST TUBE BABIES, THE DEVIL'S SLEEP and UNTAMED WOMEN. He certainly knows how to fill his film's with interesting characters and that there is what helps THE FLESH MERCHANT from being boring. Running just under a hour there's certainly no time that's wasted as we're pretty much introduced to the girl, see that she's willing to make a few bucks and it's off to the whorehouse she goes. The film runs at a very quick pace thanks to the director but the screenplay also deserves a lot of credit for the rather fun characters. The Nancy character is just as naive as you'd expect and the warning, soap-box preaching sister is a real hoot as well and especially at the end. There's the wiser hooker who is getting too old for the game and of course all of the pimps are downright fun in their own way. If you're looking for a serious drama about the horrors of street walking then you're not going to find it here. This is an exploitation picture that wants to "warn" of things but at the same time highlight the fun of being at one of these clubs. There's even a quick bit of nudity, which was clearly a wink at the mostly men who would be watching this. The performances are actually a lot better than you'd expect as well. THE FLESH MERCHANT isn't a lost masterpiece but for fans of the genre it's certainly worth watching.

Wild and Wicked, 50's Style

[dougdoepke · 14 January 2014]

A naïve young woman follows her older sister into what turns out to be a prostitution ring.

The wild and wicked. Heck, the only thing wild and wicked about this 60-minutes is a fleeting glimpse of a bare butt. Otherwise it amounts to a fashion parade at what looks like a mountain dude ranch, where everyone sits around like a nightclub. There's not even a passionate clinch to suggest what might be going on in the rooms. Oh sure, there's plenty of polite innuendo about what's being served up here, bordello style. But nothing that might offend 1950 norms, even the exploitative kind. Then there's the most poorly staged shootout on record, I guess to inject a little action, since we're not getting any other kind.

Have to agree with Mark D-2, however. Lisa Rack delivers an A-grade performance as Paula, while the pert Joy Reynolds manages a pretty good Debbie Reynolds. And what a burst of inspiration getting that wizened old hooker to put in a sudden jolting appearance. But what's with the ending. It's like someone tripped over the tripod and decided to call it a wrap. Did they run out of film. Anyhow, the movie does prove how tightly the 1950's lid was clamped down, even on supposedly disreputable flicks like this one.

"Nothing But The Best!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 16 August 2021]

Young, innocent Nancy Sheridan (Joy Reynolds) tires of dull, small-town life and heads for the big city. There, she meets up with her older sister Paula (Lisa Rack) who, in Nancy's eyes, is living the high life. Nancy soon winds up in an "art" studio, where a group of slimy, seedy men attempt to direct her "modeling job".

Nancy is sent to a club called "The Colony" -run by even slimier men- for her new, higher paying "career".

It only gets worse from here.

THE FLESH MERCHANT is another semi-exploitation film posing as a cautionary tale. While it's not completely wretched, it's not very exciting or entertaining either. This is one of those "naughty" movies that great-granddad used to sneak off to see. It's only "shocking" if a fleeting glimpse of a female posterior gives you the vapors! In reality, it's tamer than a neutered tomcat...