IMDb user comments for
The Touch of Her Flesh (1967)

advertisement

Filter:

Best Chronological Prolific Authors Loved It Hated It Hide Spoilers:

Page 1 of 2:

[1] [2]

Index

11 comments in total

---

8 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Fantastic 1960s sexploitation, 8 May 2005

Author: S_c_h_i_z_o from North Carolina

Sexploitation pioneers Michael and Roberta Findlay, whose names are probably more commonly associated with films like "Snuff" and "Shriek of the Mutilated", began in 1967 a series of three films which would later be deemed...The "Flesh" Trilogy. The first of these is "The Touch of Her Flesh" which Michael directs(credited as Julian Marsh) and stars in(credited as Robert West) as the misogynistic Richard Jennings.

When Jennings, a weapons expert, leaves out for a business trip to Boston, he leaves behind his beloved wife Claudia, whom we quickly find out is having an affair with another man. Jennings doesn't get too far before he notices that he's left some very important files back in his apartment. So upon returning home, he's shocked to see his wife with her new lover and hysterically runs out of the apartment into the streets of New York and is struck down by an automobile. He regains consciousness at a hospital where a doctor tells him that he's lost an eye and will be paralyzed from the waist down for a short time. It's not long after, that a drunken Jennings sits in his wheelchair and swears to take his vengeance upon all women(whom he considers to be nothing but whores), and later does just that (including Claudia) with a nifty variety of methods.

What I was most impressed with here is the cinematography, which for a late 60s "roughie" is very good. Shot in black & white, there's an abundance of style throughout, and none more so than the very opening where the credits are projected onto the "flesh" of a woman's various parts. Also noteworthy is the hip use of music, such as "Right Kind Of Loving" and others that will reoccur in it's sequels. This all helps to cover up for what I thought to be the films only shortcoming...a lack of dialogue. Of the 75 minute running time, there's probably no more than 5 minutes of speaking (or should I say dubbing?). And that's a shame, cause of those few lines, they're very funny. All in all, it's a really entertaining film that called for two sequels, both of which would get progressively better and even sleazier. I recommend it, not only for it's sleaze value, but also as an important piece of sexploitation history.

---

6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Right Kind of Lovin', 7 January 2001
Author: gavcrimson from United Kingdom

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

SPOILERS INCLUDED Of all the Sixties exploiteers Michael Findlay had the reputation for holding nothing back. Although for years primarily known for Seventies horror movies like the bulk of Snuff or the Yeti themed Shriek of the Mutilated- for a look at the man at the height of his powers those time machines have to be set for New York City at the end of the dirty Sixties. Findlay's notoriety began with a trilogy of movies shot between 1967 and 1969- The Touch of Her Flesh, The Curse of Her Flesh and The Kiss of Her Flesh. This- the opening chapter- introduces us to Richard Jennings (Robert West aka Findlay) a stuffy suit and tie man with an unhealthy obsession for firearms and knifes. Jennings is married to Claudia (Anna Riva aka Roberta Findlay) who is cheating on him with off Broadway actor Steve (John Amero) 'with all those weapons he could be a real lady-killer' ponders the object of Claudia's affections. When Jennings cuts home early on the way to a weapons convention he gets an eyeful of the couple making lurve. Hurt, Jennings maniacally flees from the apartment and is hit by a car- losing an eye and being temporary paralysed for his troubles. Now bitter and wheelchair bound Jennings drunkenly stares into space, planning his revenge on womankind. He delivers a poisoned rose to a stripper, then from the back of a disco, sweats it out, voyeuristically watching on with his one eye as the stripper goes down for the count to the tune of 'I've got the right kind of lovin', baby just for you'. Jennings then wheels himself to a burlesque house and executes an even more audacious killing- murdering a stripper on stage by using a blowpipe which he's discreetly smuggled in under his coat. Fearing Richard's wrath Claudia has hidden away with Janet a nude model in a woodwork factory. When the 'pig that poses nude for Claudia' is spotted chatting to a prostitute, Richard poses as a potential john for the hooker. Literally pushed back to her bedsit Jennings takes to torturing the truth about Claudia's whereabouts out of her 'I'm not afraid to hurt you, very badly'. She spills the beans but Jennings is so completely off the rails by this point that he messily stabs her to death anyway. Now fully mobile Jennings decides to pay a visit to his wife and her buxom friend. By the pictures end Jennings is tearing his wife's clothes off 'let me feel them before they die' and victoriously decapitates her with a bandsaw, but any further efforts to make the world a safer place for misogynists are terminated.... for now. Touch retains a raw power even today, but for a world where a few years previous frolics in nudist camps had been the norm- this must have been the celluloid equivalent of an almighty slap in the face. For the record, the real Michael Findlay is described as a sensitive, sweet person who for his films played out every dark idea he ever had and projected them on the big screen. Jennings transformation from businessman respectability to unkept, eyepatch wearing sex psycho amazes still, and the character seemed to have a profound effect on Findlay as well. Later he would use Richard Jennings as a pseudonym alterego in his films and as late as 1976's Virgins in Heat references to the ubiquitous Mr Jennings lurk in the background. By the mid Seventies Findlay's career was joyriding in all directions, associated with drive-in horror films like Invasion of the Blood Farmers- Findlay was also a 3-D enthusiast and became involved in a revival of the faded gimmick, it didn't work but he did get to fly to Hong Kong and supervise Kung- Fu films. Back in New York, he also followed his (then separated from) wife Roberta into hard-core including a 3-D epic called Funk. With so many tricks up his sleeve its hard to know what Findlay would have pulled out next, plans were ahead for an all out horror film a-la The Last House on the Left, but time was against him. In May 1977 Findlay made a fateful trip to the Pan Am building in New York, the rest is grim history. Viewed chronologically, there is an almost competitive streak to Findlay's films- in that much fun seems to have been had by creating sex and death scenarios even more outrageous than the last film. By the end of the Sixties Findlay had perfected his act with a near faultless sense of shock value. The 'Of Her Flesh' series particularly Touch are urban in tone, so vividly set against a New York backdrop that they are frozen in time shots of the Big Apple in its rotten 60's prime. Touch is so awash with burlesque houses, menacing neon lights and grotty hookers hotel rooms that no director really deserves to be forever tied to that era than Findlay does. For years his films were as notorious as they were little seen, both elements speculatively fuelling each other. In the late- eighties the 'Of Her Flesh' pictures emerged on murky bootlegs mostly run off directly from well projected prints- the rest of the oeuvre was in limbo. Now as we enter a new millenium most of the highpoints of the Findlay back catalogue have resurfaced giving a definite insight into the era in which Findlay defined sleaze. Sadly with Findlay and the times and places he inhabited long gone, its really all there is left. Adios Richard Jennings.

---

6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Robert Findlay sickie that certainly is odd, 20 November 2000

Author: Casey-52 from DVD Drive-In

Roberta and Mike Findlay made over a dozen nudie/sickie/roughies in the 60s and early 70s, culminating with SNUFF in the late 70s. Of all those films, the FLESH trilogy is the most memorable. TOUCH OF HER FLESH, CURSE OF HER FLESH, and KISS OF HER FLESH were three sickie classics starring Robert West as Richard Jennings, a one-eyed psycho who kills strippers in sadistic ways. This was his beginning and is a tad boring, but pays off.

Richard Jennings witnesses his wife having sex with another man and runs into traffic. Losing one eye and temporarily paralyzed from the waist down, Richard vows his vengeance and vents his frustration while searching for his wife by killing strippers in inventive ways. He sends one a rose with thorns dipped in poison, shoots a poison dart into the stomach of another, and by the finale, a dagger, a buzzsaw, and a crossbow fit into the whole mess.

TOUCH OF HER FLESH is really sick. First the audience is treated to coy sex scenes and stripping/go-go scenes, followed immediately by scenes of death and gore. I guess that's why they call them sickies. All the acting is bad, but most of the women would fit right in a Russ Meyer film! Top-heavy tarts make up most of the nudity here, which is pleasing to the eye and sort of differentiates this from other films of its kind. There are some good instances of cinematography and editing that are above par in an exploitation film as well.

TOUCH OF HER FLESH is not for everyone and will probably offend those looking for a softcore sex film from the 60s. The version I saw was cut, as the film only ran an hour (original running time is 70 minutes), but the sex was not graphic; it's the gore that should draw audiences. Sadistic viewers should enjoy it, but I'm surprised cries of misogyny haven't plagued this film from its release! Not heartily recommended, but is worth a look if you're curious. And you should be if you're reading a review of this!

---

6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Weird slasher sleaze, 6 August 1999
Author: Jens Kofoed-Pihl from Copenhagen, Denmark

Roberta and Michael Findlay are mostly known for the infamous "Snuff" (with fake snuff scenes). "Touch.." is the first in the Flesh triology and it's kinda hard to describe. Richard (Michael Findlay) discovers that his wife is cheatin' on him, he then gets run over by a car and becomes a psychokiller who goes on a rampage murdering strippers etc. with different kinds of tools. The film's "plot" is women getting naked and then being killed. It's a bit better than your average Doris Wishman-movie and is kinda of fascinating in a twisted sort of way but defintely not for everyone. The other films in the series follow the same "ideas". On the positive side, there some goodlooking naked women and some good soul/R&B tunes. Something Weird Video carries all three b/w Flesh "epics" ("Curse of...", "Kiss of...").

---

5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
"I got the right kind, baby!", 26 December 2001
Author: Vince-5 from Pennsylvania

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Possible minor spoilers.

First came the nudies--harmless fluff flicks with the cast bouncing around in various stages of undress. Then came the roughies--rape, dominations, whippings, BD/SM. And then...there were the ghoulies. And no one did the ghoulies better than Michael and Roberta Findlay, the all-time king and queen of the New York grindhouse circuit. I must say that this Flesh surprised me. I expected some shaky, cheap-thrill blood-guts-and-boobs epic...and I got a surprisingly professional, highly personal endeavor that comes dangerously close to the realm of Art. I am not kidding!

Michael is Richard Jennings, a middle-class man with the archetypal Madonna-whore complex. When his wife turns out to be the latter, crippled Richard seeks vengeance against the sex industry and the women who populate it; viewed today, it eerily predicts how Bully Boy would destroy much of the vibrant, seedy world that allowed for the creation of this film. In a fantastic psychedelic discotheque sequence, a cute black go-go girl receives a poison rose and after some lengthy topless gyrations (go-go fans take note), drops dead in mid-freakout. A stripper slithers around in what turns out to be her last show. But the ultimate target is unfaithful wife Claudia (Claudia Jennings? Is this where the drive-in queen got her inspiration?), a busty blonde dubbed in Roberta's distinctive New Yawk tones.

This is a steamy, seamy walk on the wild side from the people who did it best. Michael (as Robert West) turns in an excellent performance as the star psycho. The dialogue is minimal and dubbed (quite well in Richard's case); some of it is very funny--"My dear Claudia! Let me see those breasts of yours! Those breasts that he was fondling!" With a little gore, plenty of female skin, and an atmosphere thick with gritty vitality. Sadly, the film is a time capsule of a by-gone era. The Findlays are gone now (Michael has passed on, may he rest in peace; Roberta has disappeared from sight); the seedy vitality of Times Square has been replaced by soulless corporate fiberglass. If your mindset is outside the mainstream...if you think that sleaze is not necessarily a bad thing...you owe it to yourself to see this hour of monochrome madness. We miss you, Mike.

---

4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Grindhouse sleaze at it's weirdest, 26 June 2007
Author: Pete Tha GEEK! from Copenhagen, Denmark

The 'Blood Trilogy' was not the only twisted series of the 60's. New York filmmaker Michael Findlay helmed this sickie, 'The Touch of Her Flesh', that should spawn a trilogy as well with the sequels 'The Curse of Her Flesh' and 'The Kiss of Her Flesh'. All three movies were obviously made under same circumstances with Michael playing the patch-eyed lead and doing most behind-the-camera work with assistance from his wife Roberta Findlay both working under countless pseudonyms. This is vintage grindhouse cinema in it's weirdest possible form! 'The Touch of Her Flesh' is basically an ordinary skin-flick made for a almost non-existing budget and spiced with a savage, misogynist concept that hardly could fail. After a credit sequence, with the credits projected on a naked female body which kinda set the tone, we are introduced to mild-mannered weapon salesman Richard Jennings (Michael Findlay) who leave his home for a convention in Boston. He doesn't get far before he discovers that he forgot his speech and head home, only to find his beloved wife Claudia (Her name is Claudia Jennings! A coincidence?) in bed with another man! Jennings runs out on the street blinded by misery and has a fatal collision with a car that cause him to lose an eye and makes him a cripple for a period! Understandable full of anger and rage he heads for a low-rent apartment where he booze out on the floor. He has hallucinative visions of more female bodies, makes a long monologue about how filthy and slutty every woman on earth is, and finally decide that every last one of them must die! And thats the plot! The now insane and one-eyed Jennings cheerfully murders strippers and hookers before he moves on to Claudia who meanwhile has moved outside town where she lives as an artist in a lesbian relationship with her model! All of it is of course only an excuse to show various girls undressing before they get killed with an unusual tool like a blowpipe, a crossbow or a jigsaw! The dialog is very sparse and mostly substituted by classical tunes. 'The Touch of Her Flesh' is certainly not great film-making but it possess this unique nerve and ideas that makes it a treat anyway. Foremost it is made up with on-location scenes from the seedier parts of yesterday's New York with real people in the background and real burlesque house as the center of the wicked fun. Roberta Findlay also proves herself as a surprisingly competent cinematographer who try out a handful of interesting angles and creates a lot of style in gorgeous B/W. At first sight this could almost resemble some French new-wave flick! And most importantly the girls are really attractive. The prettiest even goes all-nude and shows a little bush! I believe most of them are real strippers playing "themselves" which they do as good as they can. Finally there is also a sweet soundtrack of obscure soul and funk. It is even historical interesting as it is an early example of a slasher where the killer return in two sequels, predating Jason Vorhees and Freddy Krueger with quite decade. In one scene Jennings rubs the breasts of a screaming victim with the insanely evil line: "Let Me feel em before I kill em!" I it any wonder I love this mad gem?

---

2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
A different kind of reality all together..., 1 December 2005

Author: jpilkonis from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The perfect ten rating I gave this film has nothing to do with its technical merits. It's not a particularly well-written film at all. The acting, for the most part, is wooden (with one BIG exception). The music is strictly canned library music. But it's still at ten. It's a ten because, as a cinematic experience, there is nothing else quite like watching the work of Michael and Roberta Findlay. Nothing else compares. And if the goal of cinema is to take you into another world, this is the film that will do it, albeit a sick, claustrophobic, dirty one which will leave you drained and in desperate need for a shower.

Other reviews cover the plot of this film sufficiently. What I'd like to focus on is the way this movie feels. Like other low-budget but truly inspired masterpieces - "Last House on Dead End Street" comes to mind as the perfect example - this film's technical flaws add to its creepiness. This film has no gloss with which to reassure us, and its starkness makes it that much more compelling.

The standout performance I mentioned at the outset of this review is, of course, that of Michael Findlay. The fact that he stars in this film is no coincidence. In fact, nobody else could have done it, since what we're seeing in this film - as in most of the Findlay collaborations - is a very, very personal vision, a celluloid representation of the dark demons haunting one man's mind. While no one is suggesting that Findlay was anything like the obsessed monster of a man he portrays on the screen here - there is much evidence to the contrary, in fact - there isn't any doubt that Findlay wasn't exorcising demons from his own psyche with these films, which, for me, is what makes them so compelling. On screen, Findlay's hammy, bloated performances would be laughable if you didn't know you were watching someone acting out of the depths of his mind, which makes them both disturbing and compelling at the same time.

An interesting experiment in watching these films is to compare it to similar, contemporary films, such as "Saw." While the violence in the latter movie is much more graphic, there's an intensity in Findlay's work which it can't even come close to.

I say all these things only to the special few with the capacity to digest film this way, and I don't expect that to be a particularly large group. You know who you are. And you'll see this film for what it is.

---

Meet Richard Jennings - Insane Murderer Of Buxom Babes, 8 February 2008

Author: Benjamin Gauss from Salzburg, Austria

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Michael Findlay and his wife Roberta were responsible for quite a few cult classics of sleaze in the 60s and 70s, and "The Touch Of Her Flesh" is one of the films that earned the couple their cult-status amongst lovers of sleazy Grindhouse cinema. This is a film any lover of cult sleaze should definitely not miss! As probably many other Exploitation fans out there, however, I must say that my admiration of this film, and my acknowledgment of its pioneering cult character exceeds the actual fun that I had watching it. It is definitely entertaining to watch, but then again, the long scenes of women dancing seductively etc. may have been sleazy and exciting then, but they are quite dated and overlong for today's standards, especially due to the fact that these sequences are very tame compared to what was to come in the 70s. This is also what is to acknowledge about this film however as it is pioneering in its sleaze and weirdness. There is little talking, or, more precisely, dubbing, as people never look at the camera when they talk, which is quite annoying at times. I know this from a bunch of older films, but this is definitely the only film from the late 60s I've seen, that still uses this form of dubbing, which really needs getting used to. Nothing but the low budget can take the blame for that, however, and the low budget is also what makes this film quite amazing in its effectiveness.

After catching his catching his exotic dancer girlfriend with another man, a troubled arms dealer gets involved in an accident. Reciovering from his heavy injuries, the man has become a psychopath on the hunt for sexy women to murder...

This is the first part in a trilogy of "Flesh" films. I have yet to see the sequels "The Kiss Of Her Flesh" and "The Curse Of Her Flesh", and Ia am exited to do so, as I have big respect for this little cult flick, and I highly recommend any lover of Exploitation cinema to see it. People who are not as familiar with exploitation cinema will probably find it crappy, since one has to perceive this film's pioneering character in order to acknowledge it adequately. The film has more than just a sentimental value of originality, however. Director Michael Findlay also stars in the role of psycho Richard Jennings, and the guy's craziness is very entertaining to watch. Female eye candy is also omnipresent throughout the film. It is interesting how beauty trends change, as "The Touch Of Her Flesh" concentrates on the display of big breasts and buxom curves.This is not a movie I'd recommend to everybody, but I strongly advise my fellow fans of sleazy Grindhouse cult not to miss it. This is pure cult cinema, and for Exploitation fans like myself it has a huge value as a pioneering classic of weird sleaze. Recommended to all the Exploitation lovers out there!

---

Better get that cold shower running for afterwords, 26 September 2007

Author: TimothyFarrell from Worcester, MA

Even though it doesn't reach the heights (depths?) of its sequels, "The Touch of Her Flesh" is one of the single sleaziest 60s exploitation flicks I've viewed. Its incredibly misogynistic and has the social redemption of a sewage pipe. Its simply put, one grimy little flick. However, when viewed as what it is, its also pretty effective. It never rises above a trash level, but its trash of the highest order. No wonder its one of the most infamous titles in the Something Weird catalog, and as I said earlier, the sequels only manage to top this one.

What makes this stick out from the pack? While "The Defilers" and many other roughies were certainly sick, there's a discomforting sense of conviction to the depravity on hand here. It has a consistently pessimistic and downbeat worldview. The film is simple and primitive, but wouldn't have worked any other way. Also, its more well-shot and directed than most sexploitation films of the time, and the killings are quite innovative. Plus, its not all depressing, because there's several wrongheaded laughs to be had at just how politically incorrect the product is. "The Touch of Her Flesh" is truly something you couldn't get away with nowadays. (6/10)

---

0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Flesh Trilogy, 11 March 2008
Author: MichaelElliott1 from Louisville, KY

Touch of Her Flesh, The (1967)

* (out of 4)

Richard Jennings (Michael Findlay) catches his wife in bed with another guy so he runs out of the house only to be hit by a car. Now, confined to a wheelchair, he decides to take revenge on any hooker/stripper he comes across. One of the first "slashers", this NYC cheapie might be one of the first of its kind but that doesn't make it a good movie. Like most of these films, the biggest problem is the fact that we've got 20-minutes worth of story and then 50-minutes worth of pointless and boring strip scenes. To me, that's why short films are often a lot better than trying to push something that isn't there into the feature category. Wall to wall nudity can't save this one. The first film in the "Flesh" trilogy.

Curse of Her Flesh, The (1968)

** (out of 4)

Second in the "Flesh Trilogy" has Richard Jennings (Michael Findlay) returning, stalking the streets for more women to kill. The bigger budget adds some better production values and the cinematography is pretty good here. The jazz music score helps move things along and Findlay does a better job with the story structure. However, there's still way too much dead space to be fully entertaining.

Kiss of Her Flesh, The (1968)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Thankfully the final film in director Michael Findlay's Flesh trilogy. Once again the psycho killer stalks the streets looking for women to kill. Boring on all accounts, as is the entire trilogy. These three films could have been edited down and together into a twenty minute movie and they'd still be slow and dull.

---

---

Page 1 of 2:

[1] [2]

Add another comment

---

Related Links

Plot summary	Ratings	External reviews
Plot keywords	Main details	Your user comments
Your vote history