She Should Have Stayed in Bed

She Should Have Stayed in Bed (1963)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Barry Mahon directed this nudie picture about a photographer who is waiting for his star model to show up for a shoot. While waiting on her he decides to shoot some other women inside an apartment building.

For starters, I'm not exactly sure how the photographer is shooting them since there aren't any scenes of him being in the room with them. In fact, we rarely see the photographer and instead most of what we know about him comes from the narration that he does. Basically this is the type of nudie picture you'd expect from this era where the only goal is to have women undressing in front of you.

This one here has plenty of nudity from start to finish but at sixty-five minutes this thing runs out of gas rather early and it becomes a chore to sit through. Once again, I have to give credit to the men back in the day that had to sit through films like this just to see some T&A. Mahon throws in a couple comedy bits with a cake delivery guy but these really don't score any laughs. Obviously this is a product of its era so if you enjoy these types of films then you'll want to check it out.

The MST3K guys have nothing on Barry Mahon, who energetically embeds voice-over criticism of his own film in SHE SHOULD HAVE STAYED IN BED. Had I been old enough to attend Adult Cinemas in 1963, I probably would have enjoyed this nonsense, given the bevy of beauties going topless here.

Assistant director Sande Johnsen (a talented pornographer in his own right) is credited in voice-over as delivering the verbal barrage making fun of what we're watching. Mahon's better half Clelle is credited with "script" at the opening, but I suspect that means she was the script girl, as usual, though both IMDb and the Something Weird goof-ball shill give her authorship honors (not much of an honor).

Main gimmick is a guy (credited as "Mike Baron") chasing a pretty (fully clothed) girl down corridors for over an hour, as we see gals in various apartments disrobing or posing for still photo sessions. They're all glamor models, and the nonstop array of varied bare breasts has to be considered satisfying by 1963 standards. Attempts at comedy, notably a gag of a guy haplessly trying to deliver a wedding cake with slapstick results, all fall flat.

Highlight is clearly a pointless but arousing doling out of footage of Audrey Campbell endlessly combing her long, lovely hair, sprawled topless (her nipples jutting out) on a couch. Perhaps this served as audition footage for landing her the historic role of Olga in the definitive '60s S&M series of films.

Only other familiar femme is the beauteous Gigi Darlene, wasted in a brief scene with another girl trying on lingerie, with no implication of lesbian attraction included.