In the last gasp of the days of exploitation movies that carry the flimsy facade of “educational films”, this lurid little beast purports to be an expose of the underground pornography industry and how it baits young women into its clutches. Today, almost every 19 year old girl in America is naked somewhere on the internet, but in 1962 things were a little different.
Here, the cycle begins with some innocent fashion photography and a quick $50 for a few hours work. After that, a girl might get sweet-talked into swimsuit shots. From there, the process leads to a lot of reverse psychology accompanied by a big money offer to the nubile young mark for a topless shoot, only for the girl to find herself faced with blackmail—usually a threat to mail the topless photos to her parents—to coerce her into going completely nude. After she gives in and the panties are off, the sleazoids then keep a thug on the set who beats and rapes her while the photographer continues to snap pics. When these women run their course as models, and are presumed to have no other prospects, their evil bosses keep them on as recruiters of new girls.
While chock full of the high school play-esque acting and poverty row production values found in the work of Herschell Gordon Lewis (here credited as Lewis H. Gordon), this movie is strangely engrossing. I liked it. Right after this, Herschell Gordon Lewis and producer David Friedman would go on to make the pioneering slasher film Blood Feast.
Actress Vickie Miles, who plays the innocent girl whom we follow down the porn path, looks EXACTLY like Sherilyn Fenn.