amazingtransplant

For audiences in 1970, when this film was released, it must have seemed a truly bizarre premise behind a horror film. Comic books from the thirties and forties, as well as pulp novels, had used transplant ideas – such as The Hand of Orloc - before in thematic terms – such as a possessed hand, or an eye transplant with psychic paranormal powers. Obvious suspension of disbelief by the reader and viewer is essential in such a situation (as with all the bet horror movies), but the amazing transplant goes one step further with the most bizarre premise of all to inspire evil and homicidal tendencies. Yes, you’ve guessed it – the amazing transplant is that of a PENIS transplant.

Later the theme would be extended – no fun intended to an attempt at comedy in the pretty British comedies of the two Percy films. Not satisfied with a penis transplant, the tastelessly un-PC but hilarious SS Experiment Love Camp decided to opt for a testicular transplant (with two of the biggest gonads ever committed to celluloid), but Wishman, who’s films were often on the bizarre to say the least got in there with THE AMAZING TRANSPLANT, hiding behind the bizarre pseudonyms of Louis Silverman and Dawn Whitman (as writer).

Doris Wishman was as interesting and unusual a personality as her films were. She was one of the few women who made sexploitation films – another that springs immediately to mind is Roberta Findlay. But Wishman (born 1912) was interesting in that she started her career without a husband as a co-director and that she put together her first feature when she was in her late forties. All of Wishman’s films were shot with minimum budgets and she turned out a considerable number of features over her career – none of which could lay claim to being exceptional or breath taking, but some are interesting to say the least, one of which is this film.

THE AMAZING TRANSPLANT has the air about it of a porno film, from the acting of the performers, the camerawork, to the threadbare sets; the whole ambience is imbued with that feel and edge. Also there is plentiful female nudity on display, although for the most part this is not conveyed in a particularly erotic manner. That said, the male slightly stocky lead, does not shy away from nudity either, quite prepared to show both his genitals and get down and be naked with his co-stars. As is usual with a Wishman film, and particularly unusual to the audience is that the film has been dubbed post-synch (or not as the case often is). The film is not especially well shot, rather half heatedly at the best of times. Apparently most of Wishman’s films were shot silent, and only dubbed afterwards in the studio – which gives the film a feel of watching a bizarre very low budget European horror film at times. There are moments where the feel is almost like that of Polselli’s REVELATIONS OF A PSYCHIATRIST IN A PERVERSE WORLD OF SEX. The film has a loose detached feel from the characters which occupy it – creating a slightly off the wall, uneasy (deliberate or not) feel for the spectator. At times the camera does not even stay on the participants but on inanimate objects, shying away from the actors conveying their lines. Not that the lines of the actors are generally any better. The dialogue is hammy, stilted and at times cringe inducingly awful. You can but squirm at how the voice artists felt when dubbing the lines. In fact the voice artists didn’t too good a job either as the dialogue rarely matches what the actor was actually seemingly saying on screen. None the less, this adds, for me to the perverse enjoyment of the film, but then, perhaps, I am a glutton for punishment.

The film opens with bizarrely the film print claiming the film dates from 1980 (maybe a misprint in the credits?) but the film is obviously of it’s time and ilk. Credits are superimposed over black and white photos of scenes from the film, mostly showing scenes of the female cast topless in awkward sexual or possibly violent situations. The film proper opens like a nudie, with Mary Thorn, lying naked on her bed strumming (but obviously not really playing) a dulcimer like affair. The phone rings and interrupts her playing and on the other end is her one time boyfriend Arthur Barlan. He tells her that he must see her and overcomes her reluctance to meet up with him after her attempts at some of the most feeble excuses for their not meeting up claiming that Saturday is her only day for shopping. Mary takes a quick shower, and Arthur turns up whilst she is having a quick rinse and lets himself in.

Mary sits down and starts to converse with Arthur about how their relationship failed. How Arthur lost interest in her before getting up and to get dressed. Arthur offers to wait as she dresses before pacing up and down her sitting room, hands in pockets, before declaring how much he loves her, wanting to marry her. Mary, delighted at Arthur’s proposition accepts his proposal. Something triggers Arthur and he brings Mary into the bedroom. He gets a bit rough with her and she strips off. Arthur gets on the bed and strangles Mary (in a very truncated scene). He then leaves, nervous, for the act he has just committed. Ann, his mother, calls Bill, her brother in law, asking him over as she cannot believe Arthur to have murdered any one. Bill, a policeman, tries to reassure Ann that everything will be okay. Bill calls up his precinct wishing to be transferred to the case of his nephew, to which reluctantly his commanding officer grants his request to solve the case. Bill then sets about visiting the girls in his nephews address book which Ann has provided him with, in an attempt solve the case.

Bill then proceeds to visit a couple of the girls in the address book. One recounts how she met Arthur the once inviting him in, before he suddenly started to tear off her clothes. Arthur pins her down – slaps her unconscious and then proceeds to rape her. Bursting into tears at the recounting of her sordid tale, Bill departs, nonchalantly thanking her for her help. Bill tells Ann his findings and she cannot believe what she is hearing. Bill says he is interested in speaking to a Doctor Mead in Arthur’s address book, who apparently operated on Arthur for an appendectomy and nothing more. The other calls the police and admits that Arthur too assaulted her. However unlike the other girl, she submitted to and seemingly enjoyed her ordeal. Another woman, Bobby, in the same apartment block recounts how she was attacked, however one of her earrings comes off and Arthur’s libido stopped and he fled from the apartment.

Investigating further, Arthur’s uncle pays a visit to Dr Mead at his office. Mead tells Bill of Arthur’s friendship with his assistant, Felix, who dies a few months previously of a rare virus. When the policeman leaves, the doctor is clearly hiding something and is guilt ridden. We see another flashback to Arthur, approached by a whore. She takes him home and proceeds to fellate him. Arthur then leaves, taking a knife with him. Bill returns to Dr. Mead where the doctor recounts the story of Arthur and Felix’s friendship before Felix’s demise from an unnamed fatal virus. Arthur turned up pleading with Dr Mead to transfer Felix’s penis to him, believing that this will somehow give him the confidence to lose his virginity. Dr Mead tries to dissuade him saying it will make no difference, that it might be tantamount to murder. Arthur however blackmails Mead with his shady dealings in illegal abortions, and of a patient who died as a result. The doctor removed Arthur’s penis and replaced it. Bill leaves to confront Arthur outside, who plans on killing the doctor.

Bill persuades the troubled Arthur to tell all. Arthur recounts how Felix had planned to get his laid but when he turned up a threesome (shot in black and white) was taking place. This upset Arthur so he left. He then admits to the murder of Mary Thorn. He tells Bill how Felix used to get terribly excited whenever he saw a girl wearing gold earrings. Arthur then recalls all his victims were wearing gold earrings. Bill offers to help Arthur, seeing what he can do. The film ends on a bogus newspaper headline held down by an ashtray saying that Arthur was found guilty.

AAAAAAGGH!!! What a frustrating ending, and unsatisfactory conclusion to an entertaining little piece of schlock. Leaving everything that has gone before as if the film had simply run out of ideas and deciding to just cop out leaving loose ends is nothing more than insulting to the intelligence of the viewer. Despite this final irritation, well to be honest outrage, there is much to recommend. For a start, there is ample female nudity in the film and it is served up by mostly attractive females too. At times there camera is unflattering however as it tends to rather notice the spottiness of the backside of one of the victims. To an extent nudity was still quite taboo in the US, Playboy hadn’t even allowed their centerfolds to start to show what lay below the belt other than in a brief fleeting glimpse. Most of the cast is relative unknowns but most interesting is an early appearance by Kim Pope (also known as Kim Bishop). Pope went on to pursue an adult career and even turned up in inserted scenes in Roberto Montero Bianchi’s SO SWEET, SO DEAD/THE SLASHER – together with Harry Reems (later in Wishman’s DEADLY WEAPONS) under the new title of PENETRATION. There are also scenes where, perhaps bizarrely for a female film maker, the girls who engage in the sexual acts seem to enjoy the frequent violence that accompanies them such as the rape and forced sex which unfortunately leads to their demise. Also amusingly enough, to keep the film from becoming hardcore in nature, Arthur is never shown erect despite the fact he has and is apparently engaged in sexual acts.

Part of the films lurid appeal is he seventies feel, with its bright lurid colors and un-PC atmosphere. Also at times the film is devoid of tact – such as when Mary arrives wearing her gold dangly earrings, which trigger off Arthur’s homicidal tendencies. The camera homes in, leering, telling the viewer that this means danger for the potential future victim but it comes across as ham fisted. Of interest, the film was made at the time when the nation was recoiling from the shock of the crimes of Albert De Salvo, the Boston Strangler, which perhaps added another exploitation marketable angle to the film. There is also a slightly inappropriate and diverse musical theme throughout. But what makes the film enjoyable despite the erratic unusual camera work is the leering, unabashed voyeuristic feel and the attempts at artistic touches by showing characters nervous gestures, etc, yet this is contrasted with shots that times are plainly out of focus. There are some disorientating moments where the camera just hovers over objects, remaining there, static – such as a saddle, etc – even before we see the character on screen.

Wishman was later to explore some of the underlying themes in this film nearly a decade later with the transsexual pseudo documentary LET ME DIE A WOMAN. This film included footage from apparently a real life sex change operation and included some icky footage including the newly created vagina being prodded, etc. There is none of that to be found here, given the subject matter.

Included with the DVD are some interesting and unusual extras. Something Weird continues it phallic theme by having a small penis shaped pointer glide along the menus as opposed to the more traditional arrow. Nice touch there, guys! Among the extras are trailers for four other Wishman features, including the two Special Agent 73 movies, which featured the gargantuan mammary endowed and former Polish stripper Chesty Morgan, who despite having an unattractive face, was rather on the fat size and with ugly hair, was something of a mini celeb in the mid 70’s appearing in the two Wishman films and even popping up in Fellini’s Casanova. Included is the original trailer, which I first saw on the Extra Weird Sampler, and inspired me to seek out this film. There is also appears to be missing (or alternative) scene of two girls at it, shot in color, which is included, bizarrely in the trailer, and aren’t the same girls as in the black and white flashback to the threesome. Huh??!? Also included is a trailer for another Wishman oddity called Love Toy, shot just after the film under review, which features some of the same cast members and looks suitably trashy and sleazy, I do hope that SWV can locate a print and release it at some point.

Also included, as supplements are two public education films, loosely related to the main feature, which SW seems so keen on including. No complaints there as it adds to the fun factor of their discs which I confess I do enjoy. Both are suitably penile in context. The first, under the name of Sex Hygiene, refers to sexual antics within the US Navy, and the prevention of venereal decease. Some of it is bound to make even the hardiest of male viewers wince in his seat. The other is simply entitled Penis Facts 1952 and is an amusing anachronism, sadly in pretty bad shape, referring to and discussing the penis in a purely educational non-sexual, non homoerotic context. Despite the age and condition of the film it is bound to raise a few sniggers for its seriousness rather and acts as comic relief to the earlier feature. Also included is a gallery of exploitation art, ads and rarities, played over by radio ads. Just to round off the package under review.

According to various WebPages dotted around the Net, this film exists in a longer, stronger variant than this DVD version from Something Weird, as well as damaged, is incomplete. The print is, in fact, bright and colorful, which really adds to the feel of the movie, and I believe, is taken from the original negatives. That said, there are shakes, speckles and at times some bad damage. White vertical (scratch?) lines across the print at times annoy rather than detract and there are moments where the film has been slowed down. There is apparently a mistake in the colorization towards the end of the film. Shot in Black and White but apparently should be sepia tinted. Yet this film print is from a quality source so it is a shame that it trimmed, cut, or missing footage. The first murder seems shorn of any violence as the act of strangulation lasts no more than a mere few seconds. It all seems somewhat irregular and unusual especially as Something Weird usually strive to release complete versions of the films they have in their catalogue.

Despite these cuts and changes and alterations, I enjoyed this silly little tale. Were the film complete and uncut, I would have no doubt found it more entertaining and enjoyable, but this sadly is not the case with the print that SWV had at their disposition. There is some cod psychology clearly at play, and the motivation behind the killings, resulting from the penis graft, is plainly laugh-out-loud ridiculous. Doris Wishman was never one of the best filmmakers or even a pioneer, yet her work is often interesting and entertainment value-wise is well worth seeking out. Her career was bizarre and eclectic to say the least and it is unusual to think that this film was the work of a woman. That said, it is pretty tame stuff (perhaps owing to the cuts) despite its nasty content and subtext, the rampant rape, murder and female nudity. It could have been SO offensive, so unpleasant, much like I Spit on Your Grave, which sorely divided and divides critics still but ultimately it never achieved the notoriety of I Spit, purely because of how the subject matter has been handled. Entertainingly silly, enough sleaze, hammy acting and nudity, and most of all, an enjoyable way to pass a rainy afternoon, which is exactly what I did with it. Not to everyone’s taste, but silly fun none the less.

Overall: 2.5 (mainly owing to the fact this release is CUT!!!) BITCH SLAPS

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