Excellent but underrated film

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Exploitation bottom-feeder casts Andrew Prine as a vintage car-driving, vintage record-playing nutcase in wing-tip shoes and horn-rimmed glasses who manages to get the phone numbers of all the centerfold models in Bachelor magazine (did his fingers do the walking?). He abhors their sinful displays of naked flesh, calling the nubile beauties to warn them of his wrath before following that up with a little straight razor action. Jeremy Slate as a police lieutenant belatedly shows up an hour into the proceedings to do the usual movie-detective work, but Prine's hit list is pretty well completed by this time. Absolutely awful mixture of titillation and bloodshed: first show off the naked body, then show off the naked corpse. Old pros Aldo Ray (as a camp manager who likes a fight from his women: "When it comes out easy, baby, it's not worth it!") and Ray Danton (as a glorified pimp brow-beaten by his lover) pretend to be interested. * from ****

I love these seventies movies that are so well made. The Killing Kind and Double Exposure are two that spring to mind here. Why does this film work so well? The fine performance of this excellent actor lead. He is so chilling and it's not just his looks. It's his tone of voice to character too, somewhat like a mislead child in one sense. I guess there's not many people familiar with Prines's work, e.g. Simon King Of The Witches, They're Playing With Fire, but he's an actor who f...in' acts. He's anti pornographic, killing off nude centrefold models of every month, chronologically of course. Cause he's a religious nut, he totally finds this immoral and he's out to punish them. It starts off where he's dumping a body, his trademark after murdering these lovelies, is he plays this creepily ill fitting tune, totally unnerving to the listening viewer I thought. The tune sounds like something out Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls. What's different about this movie and it will come as a bit of annoyance to some people, who might just easily shut it off, is we spend a bit of time with each girl before their demise so we get to know em' a bit. I liked the aspect of that, cause even we may not care much about these girls, you still gotta remember they're human beings. With their screen time, we do tend to care a bit more about em' and in the climax we cheer on the lucky centrefold who outwits this psycho and gives Prine what he truly deserves, and what we've hungrily anticipated.

After my viewing of the terrible Mary Millington Giallo-Lite British (s)explotation film The Playbirds,which was an "unofficial riff" remake of the proto-Giallo Noirish British film Cover-Girl Killer.So when I heard about this film,my first feeling was one of dread that this would be another disappointing "riff" on the film.When I viewed the film,I instead found an extremely entertaining movie,that does an amazing job at juggling genres.The plots- (note:due to the film being an anthology movie,I am going to write each "story" of the movie separately.Serial killer Clemment Dunne decides that he is going to kill every girl who has featured in a "best of the year centrefolds" adult magazine,due to none of the girls now being "pure" and "innercent"Story 1:A nurse (Jackie) starts to get very threatening phone calls,from a man who is stalking her,who says that he wants to help "clean her of all her sins" by murdering her.After hearing this,Jackie feels that it is best that she gets as far away from the stalker as possible,by going for a new job that is very far away from her current working place.As shes fuels up Jackie,meets a free-spirited hitchhiker (Linda Williams),who says that she is completely on her own.Feeling sorry for her Jackie decides to invite Linda to come along with her.When they at last reach the new place that Jackie hopes to be working at,she is told that the doctor that she was meant to have an interview with for the job is off today.Luckaly Jackies aunt has a villa near by that is currently empty,which she can stay at with Linda for the night.Later in the night,some of Lindas friends decide to pay her and Jackie a visit,which gets Jackie to start thinking that a killer stalker may not be the only thing that she has to fear tonight..Story 2:A group of models,who are hoping to get a big "break" into being major stars for adult magazines,go to a remote island for a photo shoot by a man who claims to have all of the connections that they each need to make it big in the business. (Although they each must do him "favors" if they want him to help them break into the business)When they arrive on the island,they discover that no one else is living on the island,and that the electricity is down.Although,with one of the models (Charlene) having recently been getting some very nasty phone calls from a man (Dunne),they may not actually be the only people that are on the island.Story 3:With having had a constant stream of threatening phone calls,and "funeral" flowers from Clemment Dunne,Air Steward-turned pin-up Vera Porter decides to go into hiding,so that there is no chance of Dunne finding her.Just before she leaves,Porter tells one of her best friends where she will be staying,and that her friend should not tell anyone where she is hiding,unless it is for a family emergency.Inadvetantly,her friend gives Dunne all the details about where Porter is staying,due to him pretending to be her mums doctor.When Clemment finally catches up with Vera,he is astonished to discover that there are other people that are wanting to destroy Porter..View on the film:For the three stories in the film,which are all slightly interlocking,screenwriters Arthur Marks and Bob Peete have impressively been able to make each section of the film tackle different genres very successfully.For the first story in the film Marks and Peetes do an extremely enjoyable mini-Giallo! (with the killer wearing gloves during the murderers)whilst the plot has a similar feel to Umberto Lenzis interesting (though pretty flawed) Giallo Oasis Of Fear,although in this version (which thankfully has made some of the uncountable Manson over tones in Lenzis film,a bit more subtle)the story progresses in a very well paced way,with Jackie warming to Linda,before realising that she may have let her guard down over Linda and her "friends" a bit too soon.One of the main things that really made this part of the film stand out to me,was director John Peysers very artistic final death scene,which is very cleverly done,and is a scene that would put smiles on Lenzi and Dario Argentos faces!.Peysers also chucks the viewer straight into a great slasher movie,which along with an excellent location that really sets the mood for the story,is also helped by a mesmerising performance of Andrew Prine as Clemment Dunne,who really shows the characters calculating and ruthless side,in this section of the film.whilst the last story in the film,is a sadly less gripping road/chase story,it is still a huge amount of fun,with Marks and Peetes letting Dunne see a bit of a different side to one of the girls,and the final chase/battle scene seeming to take place on a stunning forgotten burnt-out planet!.Final view on the film:A cleverly written and directed (and very different) anthology film,that any fans of Giallos or Slashers will really enjoy.

First off, let's deal with the pinhead sect who are dissing this movie for daring to give them EXACTLY WHAT IT PROMISED -- A sleazy, disturbing, voyeuristic movie about a deranged psycho who murders centerfold models with a straight edge razor. Since nobody in the free world holds a gun to someone's head and forces them to watch a particular movie (aside from Al Gore's AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, that is), anyone who went out of their way to see this movie and were horrified to find out that it actually had the **balls** to give them exactly what it was advertised as has nothing to complain about. Other than maybe sleeping in on the morning they were handing out working brains. They got theirs after all the good ones were gone, I guess, and had to make do with an addled mind that can't grasp basic concepts ... like trashy exploitation movies actually being trashy, and exploitational. How stupid can people get? If you want art, rent or buy art, and stay away from the gutter, which is where this movie deliberately set out to be.With that scolding out of the way, CENTERFOLD GIRLS is one of the purest, most startling and twistedly imaginative examples of the Grindhouse Exploitation & Sleaze Film as I have ever encountered. Packed wall to wall with glorious female nudity, gory killings, and punctuated by yet another brilliantly twisted performance by Andrew Prine as yet another bizarre psychopath, this movie dares to give viewers exactly what they are looking for in such entertainment: Garbage.And not just your standard run-of-the-mill so boring 'cos we've seen it all a million times garbage, but garbage that keeps one guessing. Not as to the identity of some masked killer hacking their way through a supporting cast of unlikeable morons, but guessing in terms of just where the movie is going from one given moment to the next. There was one murder that was so abrupt, so uncalled for, and so absolutely brilliant in how it was staged that this film should actually be "Required reading at the Academy, Mr. Spock" material for anyone who's interested in making a low budget amoral slasher film. It is still a vibrant, shocking, and sensationalistic masterpiece of exploitation thirty-five years after it was made.Yes, there are vulgar, lurid moments that degrade the women who agreed to participate in the film, and none of the characters -- including the sexy women who's murders the film celebrates in such an unflinching manner -- are truly redeemable individuals. Even the usually heroic Aldo Ray comes off as a despicable monster, something that isn't easy to do, and his villainy is one of the film's great curve balls thrown mercilessly at the viewer. The one thing that impressed me more than anything else about the film was how it so specifically defied any formula for how psycho slasher horror films are "supposed" to be plotted out.There are two keys to the equation of its success: The first are the women themselves, all of whom actually were (or could have been) the girlie magazine pin-up celebrities that the movie depicts them as. They are all stunningly beautiful, with nary a silicone implant to mar their natural female forms. None of them apparently had the slightest qualm with being undressed & paraded before the camera for our amusement to the sole function of any other role in the film. They don't exist as "people" so much as the exist to be Ms. April, Ms. May, Ms. June, Ms. July, and Ms. August. Their names & personalities are exactly as important to the plot as the models gracing the pages of a girlie magazine, existing only to be stalked, terrified, and slaughtered by the psychopath.Is it misogynistic, regrettable, vile and sleazy? OF COURSE. But then again, what girlie magazine isn't? Don't blame the movie for telling things like they are, and indeed if you look at one of those kinds of magazines the first thing printed on the inside cover is a disclaimer pointing out that the habits, lifestyles and personalities of the models depicted in the magazine are not to be taken as actual representations of those people. Here is a movie that understands this concept, and uses it to great advantage.The other key is Andrew Prine, who should have been nominated for some form of an Oscar years ago (I say it should have been for SIMON - KING OF THE WITCHES, but take your pick, really: All of his performances are universally marvelous). With his geeky glasses, Sears Roebuck catalog puritan's suit and complete resolve to see his mission through, Prine is the perfect embodiment of the psychopathic killer who slaughters women in an effort to "help" them, as he explains to more than one of his victims. The old Rambler station wagon he is given to drive is also a perfect extension of his character, and while there is some truth to the criticism that his is the only character in the film that is actually developed that's just part of the stacked deck. You can't fault it for being effective at what it set out to do, and once again Prine's acting stands out amidst a sea of dreck that would otherwise smother any other performer.It is of course wrong to objectify women with pornography, and even more wrong to seek out & murder them for having taken part. But if every psycho killer movie were as honest about their intentions as CENTERFOLD GIRLS were maybe we wouldn't have such a low collective opinion of the idiom. It's the poseur films who wouldn't dare to go as far as this one do that give the form it's bad name. This one gets it right.8/10, and then some.