lor_ Reviews

Cry of the Bewitched (1957)

Dumb but sexy

[5 May 2024]

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Alfredo Crevenna; Produced by Ruben Calderon; Mexican production Released in America retitled "Cry of the Bewitched" by Azteca Films (Spanish-track) and Domino Films. Screenplay by Julio Alba and Julio Alejandro; Photography by Raul Martinez Solares; Edited by Gloria Schoemann; Music by Lan Adomian and Obdulio Morales. Starring: Ninon Sevilla, Ramon Gay, Rosa Elena Durgel and Fedora Capdevila.

Mexican voodoo film lacks the proper atmosphere, emphasizing instead (to the point of exhaustion) Nino Sevilla's oile limbs writhing in vaguely Allison Hayes- "The Disembodied" styled postures. A modicum of white nightgown action is included for the dedicated fans, and the hammy acting is fun.

Night Gallery: Cool Air/Camera Obscura/Quoth the Raven (1971) Season 2, Episode 12

Lovecraft country

[5 May 2024]

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Jeannot Szwarc; Produced by Jack Laird for the Universal TV series "Night Gallery"; Broadcast by NBC. Screenplay by Rod Serling, from Story by H. P. Lovecraft; Photography by Leonard South; Edited by David Rawlings and Sam Vitale; Music by Robert Bain; Art Direction by Joe Alves. Starring: Barbara Rush, Henry Darrow, Beatrice Kay, Larry Blake and Karl Lukas.

"Cool Air" is a good adaptation by Rod of an atmospheric HPL opus. Barbara is very convincing and great hand-held, first-person camerawork delivers windblown action at start and finish to create a bittersweet mood for this tale of artificially preserved life after death, and a woman's reaction to the realization and loss accompanying her discovery of her lover's malady/final demise, as well as her recalling these events with a chill. Jeannot uses slow-motion and stylized white-out for the climactic scream scene. The haunting Spanish guitar score is excellent.

Crowhaven Farm (1970 TV Movie)

Fine, well-cast TV horror

[5 May 2024]

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed and Produced by Walter Grauman; Executive Producer: Aaron Spelling; Broadcast by ABC TV. Screenplay by John McGreevey; Photography by Fleet Southcott; Edited by Aaron Stell; Music by Robert Drasnin. Starring: Hope Lange, Paul Burke, Lloyd Bochner, John Carradine, Patricia Barry, Cyril Delevanti, Milton Selzer, Cindy Eilbacher, Louise Troy, William Smith, Virginia Gregg, Woodrow Parfrey and Ross Elliott.

Stylish deja vu tale of Hope inheriting a farm, gradually realizing that she is the reincarnated prey of revenge-seeking fellow witches. Set in Brampton, Massachusetts, the film boasts a 1971 Dodge Challenger, white nightgown action, wide-angled vaseline smeared lens memory sequences and a 10-year-old girl's letch for Paul. Also, Satan's bite mark, Rosemary's Baby action and a voodoo-style reprise of the animal sacrifice/pain in Paul ritual from the previous Grauman/Burke epic "The Disembodied".

The Colossus of New York (1958)

Not the Statue of Liberty or King Kong

[5 May 2024]

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Eugene Lourie; Produced by William Alland, for Paramount Pictures. Screenplay by Thelma Schnee, from Story by Willis Goldbeck; Photography by John F. Warren; Edited by Floyd Knudtson; Music by Van Cleave; Special Photographic Effects by John P. Fulton. Starring: John Baragrey, Mala Powers, Otto Kruger, Robert Hutton, Ross Martin and Charles Herbert.

An award-winning scientist believes that the brain is the one part of the body with the possibility of immortality. To prove his point he inserts his late son's brain into a 10-feet high robot, who promptly goes on the rampage. The robot's design is curiously old-fashioned, but the film is in the late 1950s sci-fi mold. (The colossus looks like an exaggerated Frankenstein's monster with brightly glowing eye regions.) The film manages to deliver up Mala in a white nightgown, but the robot's "rampage" in New York is minuscule. Typical plot of the creation taking control of its master is trotted out one more time. Cheap keyboard musical score is straight out of the Silent Era.

Night Games (1987 Video)

Loop da loop

[5 May 2024]

A crummy loop carrier features 6 old sex scenes, one new foursome and a full 13 minutes of credits that includes highlights of the same footage. It's porno fraud.

Four friends play trivial pursuit and shoot the breeze: Peter North and wife Tracy Adams and their friends, the couple Scott Irish and Tammy White. After they introduce flashbacks or fantasies (old footage), all four have sex, with a lousy plot twist at the end.

A pretty and sexy fire-eater highlights the opening credits, but the rest of this junker is mainly drek. Jeanna Fine is styled as a pixie-haired blonde, serving Field Marshal Bradley in a highlight.

Talk Dirty to Me One More Time Part II (1987 Video)

On a serious note...

[5 May 2024]

Anthony Spinelli takes a serious approach to what, in other hands, might just be a sex filler VHS release with four XXX vignettes. Missing from IMDb for nearly 40 years (I just added it today), this volume of his "Talk Dirty to Me" series has excellent acting by all concerned.

It's presented in a documentary style as a series of interviews (by an uncredited speaker, perhaps Spinelli himself) of folks who knew Jack, the hero of the series played by John Leslie. It's all for a movie titled "The Last Great American Gigolo". Krista Lane, Lisa Bright, Keisha and Shanna McCullough are featured talking and in flashback sex scenes, all of whom (except Keisha) give testimony to Jack's peculiar allure, which of course included him talking dirty to each of them.

McCullough is especially interesting in that she is proud of having stood up to Jack, goading him by calling him "too old". She got his goat, and their flashback conversation has him offended when she calls him a gigolo, and he refuses to have sex with her.

Jack is also presented as a voyeur: he watches two sex scenes of Keisha, first with Jon Martin in which Jack shouts directions as they make love and then Keisha having sex with Shanna as he hides, doing an "I like to watch" routine reminiscent of yet another popular porn series.

Movie ends on a bittersweet note: as Jack watches Keisha and Shanna in action, Spinelli presents a montage from earlier videos of Leslie having sex with many familiar porn ladies, his own reminiscences, before he walks away. Even in a sex vignette format, this clearly demonstrates how meaningful characterizations can elevate porn.

Undressed Rehearsal (1984 Video)

Trivial

[5 May 2024]

Ginger Lynn earned star vehicles with her almost instant success back in 1984, and this has been one of them.

Back-of-the envelope scribble summarizes the screenplay: Robert Bullock is casting a new video starring Black stud Tony El-Lay and needs girls. That's all she wrote.

Ginger is rounded up among four actresses to visit Bullock, and we have plenty of f*cking with his assistant Tom Byron and Tony himself. Punch line is typical of a shaggy-dog story, and attempts at humor are meek. The other actresses including Gina Carrera are pretty but Ginger has no problem remaining the center of attention.

Breast Worx 3 (1991 Video)

A harbinger

[5 May 2024]

Watching this random gonzo porn VHS from 1991 I was struck by one thing. Director Bobby Hollander did nothing special here, but the first of three vignettes making up the feature-length video runs over 40 minutes, a clear precursor of the approach of most porn made now: the all-sex formula audiences seem to crave.

Mature German star Greta Carlson seduces a nonentity (named "John") who is cleaning up his bar after a party, with some improvised dialogue as the nominal "set-up" prior to 40 minutes of XXX action. It's a familiar scene, reminiscent of those much shorter loops that existed in porn always, but decades later has now supplanted actual storytelling.

A brunette with big fake tits, Chelly Supreme, follows with a masturbation scene in which she's unsatisfied and phones Tony Montana to come over for a booty call and maybe bring a friend. Tony shows up quickly,services her and then his pal Biff Malibu drops by and finishes the tag-team action, not a threesome but more like "sloppy seconds".

Hollander ends the show with Trisha Lea phoning Alexis Gold (a/k/a Julie Juggs) to come over and the girls have fun with dildos, until just before the end of the video a guy called "J. Bowen" (not the British director John Bowen a/k/a John T. Bone, despite the obvious name similarities) delivers a bottle of champagne before briefly having a threesome and then ending the show with faked (invisible) cumshot.

Nothing special but an indicator of bad things to come.in Adult Entertainment.

The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964)

Weak entry in the Hammer series

[4 May 2024]

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Michael Carreras; Produced and Written by Anthony Hinds for Hammer Films. Released by Columbia Pictures. Photography by Otto Heller; Edited by Eric Boyd-Perkins; Music by Carlo Martelli; Clapper Loader: Doug Milsome. Starring: Ronald Howard, Terence Morgan, Fred Clark, Jeanne Roland, Jack Gwillim, Michael Ripper, George Pastell and Marianne Stone.

Pretentious entry in the renovated mummy series lacks the nea archaic qualities of the originals. Featuring a foolish-looking revenge-seeking mummy and a creep with semi-Frankenstein's monster makeup. The emphasis is on Hammer sadism and a pretty babe thrown in occasionally.

Psycho-Circus (1966)

This is Edgar Wallace speaking

[4 May 2024]

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey. Produced by Harry Alan Towers. British-German co-production, Released in America as "Psycho-Circus" by American-International Pictures. Screenplay by Harry Alan Towers from an Edgar Wallace novel; Photography by Ernest Steward; Edited by John Trumper; Music by Johnny Douglas. Starring: Christopher Lee, Heinz Drache, Leo Genn, Margaret Lee, Suzy Kendall, Anthony Newlands, Eddi Arent, Klaus Kinski, Cecil Parker and Victor Maddern.

Reprise of the plot of earlier "Circus of Horrors", Terror and mystery elicited by grisly murders in a circus milieu. The film has colorful style, absolutely gorgeous girls and the thrill of seeing the German Edgar Wallace regulars articulating in English.

Voodoo Blood Death (1965)

Suspenseful Shonteff film

[4 May 2024]

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Lindsay Shonteff. Produced by RIchard Gordon. Original British title: Curse of Simba. Released in America by Allied Artists. Screenplay by Brian Clemens; Photography by Gerald Gibbs; Edited by Barrie Vince; Music by Brian Fahey. Starring: Bryant Halliday, Dennis Price, Lisa Daniely, Mary Kerridge, Ronald Leigh Hunt, Jean Lodge, Louis Mahoney, Valli Newby, Beryl Cunningham and Mike Nightingale.

Voodoo curse torments a white hunter who killed a lion in an area of lion-worshiping natives. It dominates his life back in London until he returns to Africa to kill his curser. Fine music, female pulchritude and excellent, suspenseful photography help punch up the weak story. An English forest is used to simulate the African bush, giving these scenes a most unroutine look in comparison to the stock safari saga. Lack of chills or supernatural atmosphere causes the film to be far inferior to Shonteff's memorable next effort: "The Devil Doll".

The Crawling Hand (1963)

Before it could walk

[4 May 2024]

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed and Edited by Herbert L. Strock. Produced by Joseph F. Robertson; Released by Donald Hansen Enterprises. Screenplay by William Idelson and Herbert L. Strock; Photography by Willard Van der Veer; Music by Marlin Skiles. Starring: Peter Breck, Kent Taylor, Alan Hale Junior, Allison Hayes, Arline Judge, Richard Arlen, Tristram Coffin and Sirry Steffen.

Slapdash sci-fi-horror film in which the severed hand of an astronaut crawls about threateningly, and turns a poor victim into a scary Dr. Caligari (heavy eye shadow) type killer. The photography and direction are quite clever at times, but the acting is hampered by a "one-take only" policy, which made for numerous verbal clunkers in the final print. Also poor is the trite shaggy-dog ending, Film's outstanding feature for the Ghoulardi-oriented fans is its extensive showcasing of the Rivingtons' recording of "The Bird's the Word".

Creatures the World Forgot (1971)

It was impressive in first-run

[4 May 2024]

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Don Chaffey. Produced by Michael Carreras for Hammer Films; Released by Columbia Pictures. Screenplay by Michael Carreras; Photographed by Vincent Cox; Edited by Chris Barnes; Music by Mario Nascimbene; Assistant Director: Ferdinand Fairfax. Starring Julie Ege, Tony Bonner, Robert John, Brian O'Shaughnessy, Rosalie Crutchley, Marcia Fox, Doon Baide, Sue Wilson, Gerard Bonthuys, Don Leonard, Ken Hare and Fred Swart.

Prehistoric tribes on the loose grunting their way across Africa, facing mini-cataclysm and indulging in non-stop savagery. In a "2001"-ish Dawn of Man mode, their customs are delineated well, although their beliefs in the supernatural and their origins are handled crudely. The big difference: no oversize creatures appear in this one other than a big grizzly bear.

See-Thru!: An Invisible Love Story (1992 Video)

Inept gimmick comedy

[4 May 2024]

Another day, another clunker from Scotty Fox & Cash Markman. Randy Spears concocts an invisibility formula that he tries out in order to help win his dream girl Alexis Devell because he's shy -how's that for a flimsy story premise?:

The SPFX for his invisibility are terrible, with an outline around his body visible looking like a cutout. The comedy is feeble throughout and the sex routine. None of it makes any sense, and a subplot of crew member J. B. playing some sort of gangster with Steve Drake and T. T. Boy as his henchmen goes nowhere.

Fox & Cash almost single handedly have created the notion that porn stories are moronic, which is true for their work but hardly applies to all others.

Climax!: Keep Me in Mind (1957) Season 4, Episode 5

A stinker

[4 May 2024]

"Stinker" describes both the lead character and the quality of this poorly done "Climax!" segment. It stars Johnny Desmond, as a lame tie-in to his record "Keep Me In Mind", played or sung live half a dozen times by Johnny during the show.

He plays a fictional pop singer, playing Vegas and prone to publicity stunts. Story is the basic "boy who cried wolf" chestnut, as the press and everyone else is sick of Johnny's dumb hoaxes designed to get publicity, so when he claims to know the identity of a mad killer on the Strip nobody believes him. Guess what -the killer does go after hi and he captures the creep.

Along for the ride are Marisa Pavan as his love interest (a truly nothing role), Jackie Coogan as his manager and James Dunn as his harried press agent. Denver Pyle gets the killer and zero dialogue.

Danger Man: The Island (1960) Season 1, Episode 16

Jump that shark!

[4 May 2024]

An insultingly poor episode of "Danger Man" had me awestruck - how bad can you get?

Drake is a buffoon in this one, all brawn and no brains. The miserable story (co-written by Brian Clemens, who should have been ashamed) has him escorting two dangerous assassins to America by chartered plane. It's all downhill from there, one stupid twist and turn after another.

The airline owner's daughter Ann Firbank can't get a booking, so she tags along with Drake on the charter, changing places with a real stewardess, after all, who could turn down the boss's daughter. Her ineptitude helps the handcuffed baddies escape, they shoot the pilot after getting Drake's assistant's gun and Drake takes over, crashing the plane in the ocean.

No mention of the assistant's fate (he's written out of the show), the four of them are washed up on a convenient desert island. Casting is absurd, as the assassins look like stuffy British clerks, almost comical characters. A scruffy hermit on the island is fooled by the baddies into thinking that Drake and his heroine are the murderers, and that they are escorting them to American justice.

It gets worse and worse from there, one silly little scene after another. For me, casting of plain-Jane Ann Firbank as leading lady was a dumb idea -if you get stranded on a desert island it should be Joan Collins with you!

When things are finally and unconvincingly set right, a boat just happens to appear, and the hermit waves goodbye to the quartet, Pat back in charge. Not a moment too soon, or for me, the hapless viewer, a 1/2 hour too late.

Four Star Playhouse: Looking Glass House (1955) Season 4, Episode 8

An unusual ghost story

[4 May 2024]

Da Lupino gets to play a dual role in the offbeat Four Star Playhouse segment, directed by Roy Kellino. It starts as light romance, but segues into classic Gothic melodrama, replete with white nightgown action, eerie music and repressed guilt.

In a sort of riposte to the "meet-cute" scene of traditional rom-coms, Richard Comstock (Arthur Franz) is thunderstruck at the sight of Ida, working in a department store where he shops for his mother. When she discovers that Mrs. Comstock refers to his mom, not to a wife, she deigns to go out with him and romance blossoms.

Everything is hunky-dory until he brings her home to the family mansion to meet his mother (nicely play by Olive Blakeney). The show immediately turns into a suspense tale, as she's given a "forbidden room" to stay in, where she's shocked to discover a framed photo of Richard's late wife, her own doppelganger!

How this strange tale is resolved requires viewing, not a synopsis (IMDb's summary is erroneous and misleading). Lupino's dramatic acting is excellent and transcends the insistent genre cliches of the material.

Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre: After the Lion, Jackals (1966) Season 3, Episode 11

An amazing Wellesian drama

[4 May 2024]

Suzanne Pleshette receiving top billing attracted me, like a moth to this flame of a show immediately, and I was rewarded with a strong, glamorous performance by her, a talented actress who rarely was cast as the central figure. But the surprise here is a towering performance by "special guest star" Stanley Baker, portraying a self-centered, misanthropic author with an acid tongue.

Their story is told in embedded flashbacks from a script by Stanford Whitmore, who seems to be channeling the approach so often favored by Orson Welles, in such films as "The Immortal Story", "Mr. Arkadin" and "Lady from ShanghaI". Not the detail, but the spirit of the storytelling.

Show opens with a tour of The Citadel located in Sicily, Baker's home as the tour guide narrates the tortured tale of his last days and the melodrama concerning the "great man's" fate. In non-linear fashion we witness his widow, Pleshette, closing the place five years after her husband's death and firing the loyal house staff, then going back in time to when she first arrived, hired as Baker's secretary, to type up his latest novel from his manuscript.

She idolizes him but he is mean and belittling to her (he calls her "kiddo") and everyone, almost acting like a civilian Don Rickles, holding court at parties where well-heeled people enjoy his cruel putdowns.

The saga leads to their unlikely marriage, her quick disillusionment of having to live in his shadow, neglected and unfulfilled, her seduction by a sleazy Sicilian lothario/criminal, nicely played by John Saxon with a fake moustache, and several inventive twists and turns including tricks of fate.

Like Welles, the pleasure of mythmaking permeates this forgotten TV episode. The three main characters, and what they represent, are larger than life and yet highly personal thanks to the acting talent. Pleshette's transformation is remarkable and the thematics are powerful.

Kraft Suspense Theatre: Knight's Gambit (1964) Season 1, Episode 20

Formula "Woman's Picture"

[4 May 2024]

Movie star Eleanor Parker headlines this bland Kraft Suspense Theatre entry, which lacks the suspense and sense of danger (until a bit in the final reel) that the series is known for.

Supporting cast is quite weak: TV heartthrob Roger Smith lacking all but his good looks as her "younger man" romantic interest, an "international playboy" on a secret mission who is transparently entrapping Parker right from the git go. Chester Morris's drunk routine is tiresome and Erika Peters as a sexy blonde add little to the action.

The escapist location set in Majorca, Parker's loyalty to her corrupt politician boss/lover, and the gangster subplot make for a boring, cliched hour, with very clunky key plot twists, and a lame "wrap it up already" ending.

Scandalous: Scene 4 (2024) Season 1, Episode 4

Mystery solved

[4 May 2024]

Lovely Ella Hughes takes charge once again in the finale of this Digital Playground series directed by Danny D. The hostess with the mostess has a hot threesome after flashbacks show us what really happened on that fateful night, resolving the whodunit suspense without too many loose ends dangling.

Not only is the sex hot but there's a final twist in store after the cumshots making for a satisfying, unexpected "surprise" ending. Credit is due to both British stars, Danny and Ella, for delivering a quality feature-length mystery movie, notable for its attractive costumes and production design.

Scandalous (2024)

Quality mystery from Danny D

[4 May 2024]

Ella Hughes stars in this effective Danny D feature, shown in four segments by Digital Playground, built around the murder of a chancellor ( Kocic) of a mythical European country and the palace intrigue surrounding whodunit.

Danny produced and directed, while co-starring as an intrepid detective who interrogates the folks who attended entrepreneur Ella's fancy party, where she introduced her new line of sex toys. There's plenty of sex for her and her guests, while Danny puts together evidence for a case against the guilty parties.

In the currently favored Adult Cinema fashion, the XXX content tends to overwhelm the story elements, but the final segment does a good job of solving the mystery as well as providing a quality final twist. An international cast does a fine job, perhaps setting a standard for similar porn mysteries a la those mainstream Hercule Poirot dramas.

The Year of the Sex Dragon (1986 Video)

Uh Oh! Ron's in charge

[4 May 2024]

One of hundreds of slapdash videos directed by Ron Jeremy, the title spoofs Michael Cimino's flop, but the actual story is ridiculous.

Tiffany Storm, with a straight face yet, runs a Chinatown massage parlor where she insists that her girls only give massages: no nudity and definitely no hanky-panky. Of course the girls don't obey, so we get the oh-so familiar Oiler genre cliches.

Jeremy handles all this very sloppily, with scenes that make no sense, like a couple where the girls, hopefully facetiously, want to pay their male clients for servicing rather than vice versa. Worst segment has Peter North and his pal Don Fernando confronting Tiff after they've had sex with her staff and insisting that she have sex with them, too. She's offended by the suggestion, but seconds later is loving it.

"Miki Kurosawa" gets an "introducing" credit and no surprise -this was her only porn role. Ronnie Dickson has a double-vag scene and she soon moved on to specializing in bondage/fetish videos.

Harem Girls (1986)

Old-fashioned and hokey

[4 May 2024]

This porn feature is a curious throwback, playing like a late '60s softcore movie ("The Lustful Turk" for example) but with tons of explicit sex. The silliness of its dialogue (no screenplay credit is listed) which alternates flowery romantic lines with pornspeak and anachronisms, approaches camp, but is merely dull.

Except for slapped-on second unit footage of a horse rider in the desert that bookends the movie, it's claustrophobic sex action taking place in the Sultan's tent, with Herschel Savage giving hammy readings of his stilted speeches, and Michael Knight heading up the court intrigues. Ron Jeremy is awful as the nominal villain, treating the whole show with contempt.

And in the center of it all is beautiful Barbara Dare playing a European actress who the Sultan must have for his official wife, even though he's getting plenty of sex from his concubines like Tiffany Storm. Dare has two lengthy masturbation scenes, both featuring her oiling up her body, before the inevitable climax of her servicing Savage and becoming the new Sultana. The "drama" is on a par with a silent Rudolph Valentino movie.

Strangest element is that the obligatory big-deal orgy scene is incredibly short, just thrown in (obviously heavily cut) as almost an after thought during the big Savage/Dare finale.

The Art of Teaching (2024 Video)

TS Recycled

[3 May 2024]

These two Adult Time scenes paired on VOD were previously issued in October 2023 on separate VODs.

In the "Transfixed" scene titled "Table T&A", Gracie Jane plays an unlikely teacher who's grading Multiple Choice exams with her former student and now teacher's aide Lulu Chu. Even this set-up is deficient, as it should be essays they're slaving away grading, since the multiple choice sheets merely need counting up correct choices, duh!

Main gimmick, which also is poorly done (introduced but proving irrelevant) has Daphne, an actress who may be cis or trans, given that she appears in NonSex roles so far, cast as Gracie's wife so as to create "suspense" (not) on whether Lulu and Gracie will get caught in the female-cuckold action. Mechanical sex is the result as Gracie's big dick is put to use with Lulu's mouth and pussy -casting seems strictly random. It appeared previously on the VOD "Trans-cended".

Anatomik Media's segment is "Girlschool", a display of plenty of fetish content as a professor played by Christy Love finds her teacher's aide Kenna James having sex with TS girl Jade Venus in a faculty area, and after bawling them out finds herself invited to a kink party;.

Four masked women showing up, the trio plus another TS star Korra Del Rio for plenty of mixed and match trans-lesbian sex, emphasizing anal action, with a dollop of foot fetichism thrown in. It's well-made and entertaining. Vignette was previously released on the VOD titled "The Way I Like".

Four Star Playhouse: Here Comes the Suit (1955) Season 4, Episode 7

Niven's comedy expertise

[3 May 2024]

This very cute segment for Four Star Playhouse spotlights David Niven's comic timing and ability, at times reminding me of a true master -Stan Laurel. It's a treat for any of his fan's to see.

He plays a nerdy advertising man who handles Novelty accounts (think of a couple years later, items like hula hoop or frisbee). He gets no respect, from his boss, who passes him over for a vice president promotion, strangers he meets on the street and even the office building elevator operator, beautiful Joi Lansing in a walk-on role.

As farcical elements accumulate, the show takes its central turn when super-effective con man causes Niven trouble by giving him the hard sell pitch and membership in a suit raffle club. Forced to tailor one free suit, he sticks Dave with the loudest possible striped clown suit, which instead of humiliating our hero makes him popular with everyone and even gives him ideas that his boss at work loves, earning him the promotion after all. And even sweater girl Joi Lansing returns to give him a wolf whistle of approval.

For pure escapist fun, this is a world-beater of a comedy.