Touches You

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Meyers complex social commentary about the Deep South is layered in a fashion that targets his audience from the first scene. The traveling salesman breaks down, and wanders through a land inhabited by beautifully developed female characters. The women are portrayed in a manner that many males may have perceived them to be, not just in the depression era Deep South, but in many areas across the country. They are beautiful, yet serve no purpose except for sex and entertaining. The southern male is portrayed as weak of character , stupid, and drunk. It is only when a northerner brings in his line of intellect, does life change for the rural people he encounters. While the northern salesman is bland with a mediocre intelligence, he appears to have the answers for the " unfortunates".....if this sounds like governmental policies and a political satire hidden in a T&A flick, then you get it. A sub plot is added about violence against women and lynching. Why I gave this movie a 9. Because it allows me to watch hot scantily clad women engaging in adulterous affairs while at the same time it assuages any feelings of guilt by decreeing that this was a film that mattered and it is important because of the social issues it brings forth....Is it an exploitation film? Or is it much more veiled by the cinematic low hanging fruit of beautiful women.to cover themes that couldn't be expressed in general cinema in that time period. I have to add this because it is a bothersome area of the film, and I can't figure out what Meyers was trying to express ; an ideal, or just shock,,,but the most beautiful actress in the film plays the role of a mute and mentally challenged nymphomaniac. Was this a statement of how men in our culture perceive women and the Jungian principle of the animus? I couldn't tell you, but it made me cringe and squirm, and evoking that response from the audience may be all that Meyer was trying to do with this submission in his repertoire.

This film is a classic and brilliant Russ Meyer effort which shows talent and creativity, delivering an ultimately jolting and outrageous picture. It has a perfect mix of sex and violence and a great central character who's a complete degenerate who gets his comeuppance in the memorable conclusion. Moonshine liquor, nudity, religion, set in the backwoods of Missouri during the Depression, populated by bizarre somewhat stereotypical characters a seasoned viewer of Meyer's films might expect to see, there isn't a wasted minute, as the film unleashes a variety of assaulting and memorable scenes that follow one after another.

Drama takes place in Missouri during the Depression (though that adds little to the story). Drifter Calif McKinney (John Furlong) comes by a small town looking for working. He finds it at the Wade farm run by Luke Ward and his niece Hannah (Antoinette Christiani) and her alcoholic abusive husband Sidney (Hal Hopper). Calif starts to fall for Hannah--Sidney sees that and doesn't like it. He gets the town and the local preacher (Frank Bolger) to rally against Calif. Also there are the two beautiful, huge-chested sisters (Lorna Maitland and Rena Horten) who are in the local cat house...It all leads to two near rapes, violence, murder and tragedy. But it does (in a way) have a happy ending.Sleazy (in a good way) and enjoyable Russ Meyer drama. He ignores the campy dialogue he had in his previous features and gives us a straight forward drama. The script is good and it's well-directed with some beautiful black and white cinematography. The acting was (surprisingly) pretty good--especially when you consider all the women were hired for their bodies not acting ability. Furlong and Christiani give good performances but Hopper screams all his lines and Bolger is hopeless.There is nudity on a few occasions but it's pretty tasteful. No great shakes but right up there with "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" as one of the best Russ Meyers film.

I know this movie has it's fans, is considered a satire and is preferred to the slightly earlier, Lorna, but I just cannot agree. Certainly this has pretensions to seriousness with it's stance against the simple preacher and the easily manipulated lynch mob, but everything is so overblown all becomes simply crass. As for the bulk of the film preceding the melodramatic ending, tiresome might be the word. There is the crazy family where is Lorna Maitland is reduced to playing a bit part for some reason and the homestead that takes on the new hired hand. There is so much unwarranted screaming and hysteric laughter that I felt like switching off during the first twenty minutes. Sure there are some fine sequences, the rape and murder of the preacher's daughter is very powerful, but I think this loses direction and has a pat 'satirical' theme tagged on for want of something better. The characters are nothing like as rounded as in Lorna and as with the later, Faster Pussycat, Meyer is probably at his best with the themes kept nice and simple.