Hip Hot and 21

Hip Hot and 21 (1967)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Extremely confusing tale from Dale Berry about a country girl (Diane Darcel) who is sold by her redneck father for fifty bucks. From here she goes with her new husband and.... Well, then the story switches to new people including a drug addict madame and various hookers.

HIP HOT AND 21 doesn't make a bit of sense. I must admit that throughout the 87-minute running time I couldn't figure out what was going on. If you've seen any of Berry's four pictures then you know that telling a story wasn't his strong suit and for the most part it seems the director just wanted to get some flesh on the screen. With all of that being said, this film really isn't one of his entertaining ones and comes off as a disappointment.

Darcel is certainly a beautiful girl and she offers up some nice moments in regards to her sexuality. The film doesn't contain as much skin as you'd expect so I think even the raincoat crowd will be disappointed by it. The biggest problem is the fact that you never know what is going on and the film gets rather boring after a while. The film goes in countless directions and even changes tone quite a bit and so much so that it really does seem like multiple scenes from multiple movies being edited together.

A poor farmer gal gets lost in the big bad city after her boyfriend dumps her. She encounters alcoholic lesbians, junkies, pimps, hookers, and lots of go-go dancers. "Hip, Hot & 21" isn't much of a film, just a few dialogue scenes (with bad sound) spiced with sex, nudity, rape, striptease, drug use, ridiculous violence and a loud rockin' score of beat/surf/jazz instrumentals. Would you trust a guy called Ernie The Pervert? Fans of Doris Wishman/H.G. Lewis might wanna track it down.