Reviewed By-Kit Gavin Directed by Ted V. Mikels Starring Leslie McRae, Tom Pace, Jody Daniel, United States 1969 Released by Image Entertainment Region 1 NTSC
The Girl in Gold Boots is the story of Michele Casey [McRae], an attractive small town waitress in a roadside diner, originally named Eat, has dreams of becoming a professional dancer in the big city. One day, at the diner, whilst serving and strutting her stuff, a small time crook called Buz Nicholls [Pace] arrives at the diner, sweet talks Michele and offers her the chance to make it big in Los Angeles. Blissfully unaware of Buz’s intentions to rob her, Michele agrees, with the hope of following her dreams. Along the way, the pair encounters a bizarre fellow Finley Jones, who goes under the name of "Critter", who, a true product of the 60’s, waxes lyrical and sings songs about Peace and Love. All three gradually make their way to California, Michele however starts to have feelings for Critter over Buz, as well as which also seems comfortably off financially, and this causes resentment between the two men. However Critter is on the run, seeking to avoid conscription into the army to go and fight in Vietnam.
Upon arrival in LA, Michele dons her gold boots of the title and becomes a popular attraction at the club, being appreciated by the clients there. Later Michele discovers that Buz is involved in some fairly shady dealings at the Go-Go Revue club where he has introduced her as a dancer. She realises the owners are small time hood involved in dug peddling as well as running a prostitution sideline from the club, which they try and force Michele to participate in the unsavoury acts otherwise she will be made homeless and broke on the unforgiving streets of LA. Even her travelling companion Critter ends up as a janitor and the club and is forced to peddle in drugs or else meet a similar fate.
Things start to turn unpleasant as they realise the life which Buz has lead them into, with both under the heavy hand of Buz and his gangland bosses, and the broken promises he made to them both. Both Michele and Buz end up having to engage in depraved acts to nod up homeless, but despite this, towards the end, a ray of hope shines through and gradually, the two characters start to turn things around and to turn the tables on those who have exploited them.
This film is one of those films, which define the terms "guilty pleasure" and almost reaches the pedestal of being "so bad it’s good". As with all of Ted V. Mikels’ films it is super cheap with a wafer thin plotline but this cheapness does not make it devoid of personality and charm. It is actually rather well shot, though dreadfully edited, and entertaining and is quite the departure from Mikels’ usual output which were still ludicrously cheap and laughable but mainly horror fare (such as Astro Zombies, The Corpse Grinders and the wonderfully titled Blood Orgy of the She Devils). Most of the direction is fairly lacklustre and pedestrian but actually it’s endearingly trash and good cheesy fun despite the sleaze aspect, which might offend some more sensible viewers. Watching it now, it is extremely dated, both in fashion sense and in style, and the dialogue is laudable and contrived which adds to the enjoyment factor). If you are prepared to overlook (or better still enjoy and laugh at) the films awful production values and overwhelming sense of low budget, with a large pinch of salt, the film isn’t at all bad and actually comes across as being pretty good fun.
Most of the actors in the film appeared in a handful of films before disappearing into obscurity. The most well known is probably McRae, who was the poster girl for the US posters of Lucio Fulci’s A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin, both under it’s original export title and that of Schizoid. She also went on to appear in Ted Mikel’s Blood Orgy of the She Devils (as did co-star Tom Pace), Paul Bartel’s cult classic Death Race 2000 for Roger Corman, and in Jack Hill’s blaxploitation classic starring Pam Grier Coffy.
Picture quality isn’t the best, but hey, it’s far from the worst out there (ie it’s not taken from VHS). The colors are bright and vibrant, despite the scratches, especially for a film, some 35 years old and shot on cheap stock. There are unfortunately scratches, and tears but for fans of these drive in movies and Something Weird aficionados, well this will come as a distraction which can irritate at times. Also, unfortunately, there are skips and I think, lost frames, which add to the crazy quality of this film which most might have just binned. I believe the negative for the film was provided (along with others in collection released by Image) by Mikels himself and I doubt many other copies are in circulation. The film hasn’t been available easily on home video, and despite it’s age and the problems above, it looks staggeringly good. Sound too isn’t bad, hisses, pops and crackles are to be found throughout, but one of the amusing aspects of the film is the trashy score and song, and this still sounds intact and fine.
Image are known for their lack of extras however here they have tried their best to make Mikel’s film look viewable and seem to have spent some time restoring it. Even the menus look better than usual (normally it’s just chapter stops!!). Also included is an audio commentary with Ted Mikels, who seems to be enjoying looking back over this film and includes amusing and entertaining stories and trivia, which should interest fans of drive-in movies and low budget pics. As well as this, also included is a brief stills gallery (of the original lobby cards – nice to see none the less), talent info on Mikels, and trailers for other Ted Mikels’ films from Image Entertainment.
Certainly a change from the usual horror titles from schlockmeister Mikels, in this film he opts for the T&A exploitation route. Cheap in the extreme, but by no means should this be a deterrent to potential viewers and will provide good silly entertainment value to say the least. A good-bad, bad-bad, good-bad film.
Audio: 3 BITCH SLAPS Video: 2.5 BITCH SLAPS Extras: 2.5 BITCH SLAPS Story: A very guilty 3 BITCH SLAPS Overall: 2.5 BITCH SLAPS
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