Flesh and Lace (1965) User Reviews

One of Joe Sarno's lesser efforts

[Woodyanders · 6/10 · 9 September 2016]

Lonely and kindly toy store owner Julian (a fine and touching portrayal by Joe Santos) lets sweet, yet insatiable nymphomaniac Beverly (woodenly played by fetching blonde Heather Hall) reside in the basement of his place. Complications ensue when Beverly's snippy gal pal Joan (a deliciously snarky performance by attractive brunette Judy) suggests to her no-count lowlife boyfriend Rook (a nicely slimy turn by John Aristedes) that he rob Julian's toy store in order to pay off his mounting gambling debts.

Writer/director Joe Sarno alas allows the ridiculously convoluted story to unfold at a plodding pace, fails to generate much in the way of erotic sizzle, and stages the contrived downbeat ending in a flat manner. Fortunately, Sarno captures the smoky atmosphere of a seedy dive bar well enough, there's a satisfying smattering of bare distaff skin (special kudos go to June Roberts and Marlene Starr as a couple of buxom bar girls), and having Beverly do the deed with various guys in the cellar of the toy store rates as an inspired deviant touch. The acting is generally sound (Younbg in particular excels in a real juicy part and even belts out a torchy blues song at one point), although Hall's stiff line readings and lack of expressiveness make it difficult for the viewer to care much about her character. Stan Free's groovy bebop jazz score and the crisp black and white cinematography by Jerry Kalogeratos are both up to speed. While not one of Sarno's best, this film nonetheless passes muster as an acceptable entry in Sarno's teeming oeuvre.

full of surprises

[christopher-underwood · 8/10 · 11 January 2007]

Absolute tosh of course but it always looks great and is always watchable and, being a Joe Sarno film, is full of surprises, including at one point, wind-up toys!

True, the performers seem often to just stand around waiting to deliver their stupid line as flatly as possible but despite this Sarno keeps the movie moving forward in it's weird and wonderful way, as if it had a life its own.

This presentation is much helped by an absolutely fantastic b/w print, being the perfect showcase for plenty of flesh (and lace and also stockings and suspenders etc etc!).

Disappointing Sarno lite

[lor_ · 22 August 2011]

Claustrophobic and uneventful, Joe Sarno's FLESH AND LACE is one of his lesser efforts. Though made before his assembly-line techniques of the late '60s, it resembles those half-hearted productions.

With overlapping cast, film is a companion piece to the similarly deficient MY BODY HUNGERS. One-shot Heather Hall contributes a dreadful leading performance as Bev, a blonde working as a B-girl at a low-class strip joint where catatonic June Roberts and buxom Marlene Starr dance around in lingerie and go topless.

Owner Dop (Norman Lind, who I could imagine impersonating Henry Kissinger in summer stock) is on Bev's case due to her inability to lead the customers on to push drinks. Sarno's never-credible scenario flunks out early, because she is simultaneously shy and prudish with the customers but in reality an extreme nymphomaniac. Georgina Spelvin or even Meryl Streep couldn't pull off this nonsensical role, let alone the untalented Hall.

Plot sickens with the arrival of Rook (untalented John Aristides, slightly more animated than he was in MY BODY HUNGERS), a gambler who mooches off girl friend Joan (Judy Young, memorable co-starring opposite Audrey Campbell in OLGA'S HOUSE OF SHAME). Bev is rooming with Joan, and it's three's company with Rook moving back in.

Of course Rook rapes Bev late one night as latter sleeps in the anteroom, but she digs it, establishing her nympho status, which is a plot peg Sarno will milk far beyond its worth.

Rook has markers from his craps game totaling $1,500 held by Dop, with a 24-hour time limit to pay up. Coincidentally (via asinine scripting), Bev has confided to Joan that a kindly toy shop owner (Joe Santos, paying his early career dues in porn assignments for Sarno) keeps all his money not in a safe but tucked away in his shop behind an encyclopedia.

So Rook grabs Joan's handgun and goes to burglarize the shop, setting up a very badly directed shootout climax.

Most preposterous subplot involves the oddball Santos/Hall romance. Santos is introduced initially unsympathetically, as a shylock overcharging a guy for borrowing some money, his toy shop seeming to be a front. But later on he's Mr. Nice Guy, letting Bev sleep in his basement after Joan throws her out. He can't satisfy her (nympho, remember) sexually, so he has his young store assistant shtup Bev and immediately calls up another guy to come service her. Outside of porn circles, I would say that's carrying niceness too far.

Along the way Sarno's most famous fetishes are all on display: two scenes featuring wind-up toys, both throwaways (compared to his chilling use of same in INGA and YOUNG PLAYTHINGS); cheap-jack transition exteriors of heroines walking along the sidewalk or by the El trains, recycled endlessly in his late '80s porn videos; sexy panties, stockings and high heels, also the dominant contrast for his '80s output.

We see Hall nude from the rear, but given her non-acting, the fans deserved more skin from their leading lady than that, even back in 1965. This was a loser, though Sarno sycophants evidently salute.

Oddest touch is casting of the film's sound man Lee Dichter in a key role, one of the customers who hassles Bev, and gets her fired. Dichter has been a top NYC sound re-recorder, at Sound One, in NYC for over 40 years, though I doubt if he remembers this peculiar moment in the (low-budget) sun.

Lesser Sarno Feature

[Michael_Elliott · 23 January 2018]

Flesh and Lace (1965)

** (out of 4)

Cute blonde Beverly (Heather Hall) works in a bar but her boss is unhappy because her shy ways towards men doesn't lead to many alcohol sales. All of this changes over a short period of time and Bev turns into a nymph where she will play men against one another.

Joe Sarno's FLESH AND LACE contains a lot of plot and in fact there's way too much for its short 73-minute running time. That's certainly the biggest problem facing this picture, which really isn't considered one of the director's better features. The screenplay has a lot of plot, a lot of twists and a lot of characters but none of them are all that interesting and sadly the film gets very boring very quickly.

Another problem with the movie is the Beverly character. She's just not very interesting and I'd argue that there's nothing entertaining about her. It also didn't help that Hall was so wooden in the part. She just doesn't have a bit of energy, passion or anything else going on to make you give a darn about her character. The supporting players are decent at times but they just can't carry the script.

FLESH AND LACE features some nice cinematography and I'd argue it's well-made for what it is but at the same time it's just too slow and boring to work.