There is no better feeling, than sitting down and watching an old ’70s X-Rated Hammer film. Okay, maybe there is, but you can’t deny that I haven’t peaked your interest. Once again, The Moon is a Dead World is running a project, where you choose between two different movies, The Rig and House of Whipcord and give it a review and on Feb 3rd, he’ll post his review, along with links to everyone else’s review. Now, I was originally going to review both movies, but I wasn’t able to get my hands on The Rig, so I decided to go with the one movie that would have more boobs in it. Sadly, there wasn’t enough boobs to satisfy my boob cravings, but hey, you know what, the movie actually turned out to be pretty damn good.
Release: April 19th, 1974
Short nitty-gritty plot description from IMDb is as follows: An old man that lives in an old house conducts a correctional institute for girls. But he does not realize that the date is the present as he is cooped up in the house. He is assisted my a matron who likes to get the girls into trouble and present them in front of the old man who thinks he is the law and he passes out punishment. Afterwards the girls get tied to a cross and whipped. Meanwhile The matrons son falls in love with a girl at a party and bring her to the this house.
Tatlock’s Quick ‘n Dirty Recap: No offense to whoever wrote that plot summary on IMDb, but that is by far the most confusing plot description I’ve ever read, yet it perfectly describes the movie. Anne-Marie DeVarnet, a model who has posed nude and been arrested for it, meets a guy at a party, who invites her to meet his Mother. Little does she know, he is taking her to an old prison, where a group of people run an outside of the law institution. They take in women who have been naughty and teach them a lesson. Three strikes, such as trying to escape, stealing food, or even talking, will see them hung. Not exactly legal. Anne-Marie tries her hardest to get to freedom and in the mean time, her friend back in London, is worried for her and starts an investigation.
Tatlock’s Opinion: I was quite surprised after the credits rolled on House of Whipcord, as I was entirely thinking it was going to be some low budget, cheesy sleaze film, but instead, it was a low budget, sleaze film, that was original and well shot. In fact a lot of the newer films that we like to call torture porn, owe a lot to this type of movie. It has all the ingredients you see in modern horror films of it’s kind, but has a certain raw feeling, much in thanks to it’s low budget and interesting set pieces, especially the walled in prison.
The acting most certainly isn’t something you’ll want to cheer about, as the lead actress, with her heavy french accent, had me laughing more than I ever should be. The matrons of the prison, along with the head mistress, were all well acted, throwing up one eyebrow left, right and center. I got a good kick out the blind old man, who had no idea what time of year it was, or what was actually happening in the prison he was supposed to be running.
As for the movie being X-Rated, I was definitely thinking there was going to be tons more nudity involved, but I was quite surprised that it was pretty tame. Oh yes, there is boobies and a little bit of ’70s bush, but you’re certainly not swimming in it and to be perfectly honest with you, I’m kind of glad, as this type of movie does not lend well to nudity. Most of time, when you’re seeing boobies in this movie, it’s in an uncomfortable scene, except for the London scenes with the other hot girl (those were some good boob scenes).
Verdict: House of Whipcord surprised me in a pretty good way. It had an interesting story, that kept you invested in the plight of these unfortunate women. It had you hating the people that were running the prison and rooting for them to be put down. The acting is just okay for the most part and the sleaziness is pretty tame compared to nowadays, but all in all, House of Whipcord is a definite recommend.
Rating:
