Goldilocks and the Three Bares

Infobox_Film
name = Goldilocks and The Three Bares


writer =
starring = Alison Edwards,
Rex Marlow,
Thomas Sweetwood,
Netta Mallina,
Joey Maxim
director = Herschell Gordon Lewis
producer = Thomas J. Dowd and Davis Freeman (a.k.a David F. Friedman)
distributor = Dore Productions
released = 1963
runtime = 69 min.
language = English
budget = | music =
awards =
amg_id = 1:137169
imdb_id = 0057111

"Goldilocks and The Three Bares" is the thought to be "lost" second to last nudie-cutie from the legendary exploitation team of Herschell Gordon Lewis and David Friedman. The title can be misleading; the plotline has absolutely nothing to do with the famous fable which inspired the title. Appropriately billed as the "first nudist musical" (not to be confused with "The First Nudie Musical", 1976), it has considerably more depth than their prior attempts at this genre.

History

With slightly higher production values than "The Adventures of Lucky Pierre" (1961) and "Daughter of The Sun" (1962), a series of artistically photographed musical sequences and somewhat more "star power", "Goldilocks" stands out from the other five entries of this phase of Lewis and Friedman's partnership. It also showcases the more clownish side of Lewis regular William Kerwin, who otherwise typically takes on the straight-edge, leading man role. His character's name, Tommy Sweetwood, is also the name under which he was billed, once again to avoid SAG regulations.

Another Lewis mainstay is Allison Louise Downe, appearing under her usual pseudonym Vicki Miles. The main star of the film, would-be crooner and nine-fingered Rex Marlow, was reportedly an employee of producer Thomas Dowd, who insisted (among many other things) that the film be a vehicle to springboard Marlow into stardom. Unfortunately for Marlow, his only other silver screen appearance would be in the Arch Hall, Jr. western vanity project "Deadwood 76". Ironically, in that film, Marlow does no singing at all.

The film was thought to be lost for over 36 years [In the book "A Taste of Blood: The Films of Herschell Gordon Lewis" The film was still listed as being "lost" at the time of its first publication in 1998. It then made its video debut in 1999] until Something Weird Video released it on VHS for the first time. Before its discovery, the writer of "A Taste of Blood: The Films of Herschell Gordon Lewis", Christopher Wayne Curry, said in an interview with Lewis that he hope the film would be found one day, to which Lewis replied: "Oh my, I hope not."

Plot

The film follows the perils of nightclub singer Eddie Livingston (Marlow), as he pursues press agent Alison Edwards (Downe). Livingston's comic foil Tommy Sweetwood is an unsuccessful comedian who manages to offend his entire audience in one way or another with his brash, insensitive humor. Alison likes Eddie enough, but she hides a dark secret; she is (GASP) a nudist! The two go back and forth playing cat and mouse as Eddie sings a series of Bobby Vinton-ish ballads like "Good Things Happen When I'm With You".

One day, Tommy follows Alison on one of her clandestine weekend getaways and discovers her dirty little secret, promptly passing the information along to Eddie. Unable to cope with such a libertine concept in the conservatism of the early 60's, Eddie flips out on Alison during a radio broadcast. But Tommy has been enlightened by his visit to the nudist camp, and plays Cupid for the star-crossed lovers, and the three soon decide to spend the next weekend at the camp. As with almost any non-nudists in these films upon first trying nudism, Eddie embraces the healthy purity of such an Edenic way of life, and becomes a firm believer. This, of course, is parlayed through a lengthy set of sequences showing our heroes enjoying a smattering of activities wearing only the wind such as horseback riding (bareback, nonetheless), yachting, swimming and water skiing (all at the insistence of producer Dowd).

The "star power" of "Goldilocks" extends to the appearance of former light heavyweight champion Joey Maxim as the owner of his eponymous nightclub where Eddie and Tommy perform. So unprepared for his role as himself was Maxim that he would read his lines off his shirt cuff.

In nearly every online review/synopsis of this film, the movie is described as "set in the 1920's". It is unclear from where this conclusion is drawn, as the cars seen in the film are clearly early-60's models, the yachts appear quite contemporary, and no other period indicators of such can be found in the film. The closest thing to a reference of time is the name of the nightclub, "Joey Maxim's Roaring 20's".

References

*"Goldilocks and the Three Bares/Sinderella and the Golden Bra" Special Edition DVD, audio commentary by Herschell Gordon Lewis and Dave Friedman
*"Herschell Gordon Lewis and His World of Exploitation Art" by Daniel Krogh and John McCarthy, 1982

External links

*http://dvdtalk.com/cineschlock/hglewis/

Notes