Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens (5 Stars)

"Gimme that old time religion, it's good enough for me".

This is the 17th film in the Russ Meyer Collection, made in 1979. It can be considered a sequel to the 15th film, "Supervixens", because a lot of the characters return.

In "Supervixens" Martin Bormann owned a petrol station. He's now come up in the world. He owns a Christian radio station, which earns him a lot more money, judging by the Mercedes he drives. The radio evangelist who works for him is Eufala Roop, who was briefly introduced as "Tom's other wife" in "Supervixens". So she was (or still is) in a bigamous relationship? That doesn't matter. God forgives everything.

The farmer Lute returns, this time as the film's narrator, together with his wife Super-Soul. I never mentioned Super-Soul in my review of "Supervixens" that I wrote yesterday. Silly me. How could I have ignored her? Super-Soul is played in both films by the Swedish actress Uschi Digard, one of the most beautiful actresses who has ever lived. She also played Soul in "Cherry, Harry and Raquel", but that was a different character.

The film's moral, if any, is that religion heals everything. In the case of this film the man in need of healing is Lamar. He can only find sexual satisfaction when he has anal sex, much to the disgust of his wife Lavonia. Let me digress for a moment. In the past few years pornography has become widely available on the Internet. Today's pornography isn't much different to the pornography 20 or 30 years ago. The difference is that it's easily available and discreetly available, even to young teenagers. In the past they couldn't have walked into a sex shop to buy it, but now they can download it for free. Pornography is the first sex education that many young people receive. One of the lessons taught by pornography is that anal sex is normal and all women like it. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most women don't enjoy anal sex and would only do it occasionally to please a man. It's pleasurable to men, especially men with smaller penises, because the back hole is tighter than the vagina, but it only gives women limited pleasure. It's impossible to stop young teenagers watching pornography, but they need to be warned about the false lessons it gives them.

Back to the film. Lamar tries everything to cure his problem, including a visit to the local dentist who doubles as a marriage counsellor, but in the end the only thing that can heal him is being baptised by Sister Eufala Roop. Hallelujah!

The film's sub-plots are as important as the main story itself. In his usual satirical manner Russ Meyer presents the town as living the American dream. The biggest dream of aspiring entrepreneurs is to have their own junk yard, even if they have to kill the previous owner to get it. It's a world in which everyone fights everyone else to possess junk.

Instead of his usual brief cameo there's an extended scene with Russ Meyer at the end of the film. Lute the narrator goes home to his wife, and Russ takes over the narration, giving his own take on the moral guilt or innocence of the film's characters. Interestingly, his judgement of all is kind and forgiving. That's the film's message. Religion heals everything. Religion forgives everything.