Supervixens (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #10

There are films that are impossible to file under any one genre. Is "Supervixens" a road movie? Is it a comedy? Is it a political satire? Is it a fairy tale? Is it a sex film? Is it a neofeminist propaganda film?

It's all of them and more.

While anyone who sees the film for the first time might be shocked and confused, fans of Russ Meyer will laugh and say "It's typical Russ Meyer".

The opening credits are accompanied by the Nazi marching song, "Heil Hitler Dir". I wanted to quote the lyrics here, but they're so disgusting that I'm ashamed to post them on my blog. You can easily find them online if you search. Was Russ Meyer a Nazi? Far from it! He frequently spoke out against political extremism on both sides of the political spectrum. By using racist political imagery in his films, he was just acknowledging a fact. Racism exists. We all know that it's bad, but if we don't talk about it, it'll grow stronger.

The film's hero, if he can be called that, is Clint Ramsay. He's a poor, not too intelligent man, who lives somewhere in the South of the USA. "Supervixens" was filmed in Arizona, but it could be anywhere. Clint's curse is that he's irresistible to women. He does his best to fight them off, and he suffers as a result.

Clint works at a gas station owned by Martin Bormann, Hitler's former private secretary. As everyone who watches Russ Meyer's films knows, he survived the war and fled to America, where he became a respected citizen. In this film he's a lowly gas station owner, but in "Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens" he's worked his way up to become the owner of a Christian radio station. In America anything is possible.

At least, that's the theory. Look at the town where they live. The houses look like they've been built in a scrap yard, surrounded by junk and poor farms. There might be an American dream, but this is the American nightmare.

People who take a quick glance at Russ Meyer's films see the naked women with large breasts and shrug them off as films that exploit women. The opposite is the case. The women are in control, and they use their nudity to get what they want. There are three archetypes in Russ Meyer's films, two male archetypes and one female archetype. The men fall into one of two categories.

The first type of man is weak and stupid, but sexually capable.

The second type of man is strong and stupid, but sexually impotent.

The women are all strong, intelligent and sexually demanding.

Women use the first type of men for their sexual pleasure. They ridicule the second type of men. In fact, they ridicule both groups. They demand more and more sex from a man, and when he's eventually worn out they laugh at him.

This is Clint's wife, Super Angel. Do you find the name strange? All the women in the film are called Super. It shows their position in the pecking order. Super Angel is fiercely jealous of Clint. She constantly suspects him of infidelity, even though he fights off women all the time. She's isn't faithful to him. She's quick to jump into bed with any man she likes. That's her privilege as a Super woman.

This is Super Lorna, tempting Clint at the gas station. She wants to drag him into the men's room, but luckily Martin Bormann drags Clint away. Nazis can be useful at times.

Back home, Clint and Super Angel get into a fight over his alleged infidelity. A neighbour calls the police. Along comes Sheriff Harry Sledge, who throws Clint in jail to cool down for a few hours. Super Angel wants Harry as a replacement for her husband, but she's disappointed. Harry belongs to the second type of men. When she laughs at his sexual inability, he kills her and frames Clint.

At the time of Super Angel's death, Clint was sitting in Super Haji's bar getting drunk. She could have given him an alibi, but she was angry with him because he'd refused to have sex with her. So Clint flees, hitchhiking across the USA towards the West. Everywhere he goes he meets Superwomen who want his body.

After turning down Super Cherry, she kicks Clint in the groin so hard that he's left lying unconscious at the roadside.

Clint is rescued by a farmer, but his wife Super Soul needs another man.

Clint flees from the farm and rents a room in a motel, where he's accosted by the motel owner's daughter, Super Eula.

Incidentally, this is her father. As Eddie said in "Jurassic Park: The Lost World", there's not much of a family resemblance.

On the run again, Clint finally arrives at Super Vixen's Oasis. Water in the desert. I told you it's a fairy tale! Until now he's resisted every woman who wanted him, but Super Vixen is different. She reminds him of his wife, which is hardly surprising, because she's played by the same actress, Shari Eubank.

"My name is Supervixen. My friends call me Vix".

Super Vixen gives Clint a job, and they become lovers. And they all lived happily ever after?

Not quite. I have to leave a few things open.

This is an absolutely brilliant film. It's not as culturally significant as "Faster Pussycat Kill Kill", but I still think it's Russ Meyer's best film. For unfathomable reasons it's been out of print in America and the UK for years. It can still be bought in Germany.