Love Toy (1971)
*** (out of 4)
Here's another nutty film from director Doris Wishman. Gamblers Alex (Bernard Marcel) and Marcus (Larry Hunter) have a high-stakes card game going. Before long Marcus loses everything he owns and is pretty much homeless but Alex offers to give him everything back in exchange for a few hours with his daughter Chris (Pat Happel).
LOVE TOY is certainly one of the director's most entertaining films and I think it could have been even better had it been edited down some. The short 75-minute running time starts to run out of gas towards the end but leave it up to Wishman to come up with a nutty little ending. If you're a fan of the director then you'll certainly want to check this one out as it's a perfect example of being creative when you don't have much money.
The set-up itself is quite simple and the majority of the film takes place inside the daughter's bedroom where Alex turns out to be a major pervert. He wants to act out various sexual fantasies with the daughter including spanking, playing a housewife, a threesome and even one scene where the girl is forced to be a cat and drink milk from a bowl! Wishman is quite creative with the story to make sure it's not just the same type of sex scene over and over. I'd also argue her eye was terrific here as the color decorations are wonderful to look at.
Another major plus is that all four of the actors are extremely good in their roles. Marcel is certainly very believable as the perverted creep. He certainly makes you believe that he's this low-life character. Uta Erickson plays the wife and she's extremely sexy and you can see why these two would be a couple. Hunter is good in the role of the father but it's certainly Happel who steals the film as the young girl who gets caught up and excited by these sexual plays.
As I said, I think the film would have been even better had it been a little shorter but there's no question that this ranks among the best movies Wishman made.
