Revenge of the Virgins

Most of us who are over 50 remember Henry Darrow not just from HARRY-O, but from his far better-known role as Manolito Montoya on THE HIGH CHAPARRAL. Credited as "Hank Delgado" (his birth name is Enrique Delgado), Darrow plays gunslinger Wade in this schlock western penned by the late great Golden Turkey Award winning Ed Wood (under the pseudonym Pete LaRoche). The film definitely lives up to Wood's stellar (ahem) reputation as a *really* bad movie producer/writer/director. The cast thought they were filming a straight-forward low budget western, and only learned after the fact that "footage of explicitly topless 'Indian' maidens had been spliced into the film post production." Unfortunately, the nudity meant that while it was his first "starring role," Darrow, who "transcended lousy writing, directing, photography, somnambulant co-stars and rubber rattlesnakes to give a credible performance" couldn't list the movie on his resume. For fans of both Darrow and Wood, however, it's quite a B-movie collector's item, though I'd be more inclined to call it a D-movie! Hilariously, unintentionally funny.

(Quotes are from the book HENRY DARROW: LIGHTNING IN THE BOTTLE by Jan Pippins and Henry Darrow.)

Revenge of the Virgins (1959)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

A group of men and a woman head into the Old West because one of the men located gold there years earlier. As the group begins their search for gold they come under attack by some topless Indian ladies protecting their land.

REVENGE OF THE VIRGINS is best remembered for being the first nude Western, which I guess is good enough of a reason for people to check this film out. It should be noted that it really does appear that a Western film was taken and edited down with the nude scenes added. I say this because the Western cast is never in the same scene with the nude Indian ladies but I will admit that the filmmakers did a good job at editing the footage together.

With that said, there's really not too many reason to check this out unless you're a fan of sexploitation and want to see this extremely early example of flesh on screen. The Indian ladies are all extremely good looking and show off their breasts whenever their long (fake) hair isn't covering stuff up. As far as the Western film, it's pretty typical for the era and is extremely boring.

REVENGE OF THE VIRGINS is pretty bad on all levels but thankfully it lasts just 53 minutes.

You can almost smell the mould from the basement they undoubtedly found this one in. At first glance, this film looks like another one of the many low-budget westerns cranked out in the thirties and forties, even though it was made sometime later. It "borrows" its basic idea from THE TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE, i.e. a small group of people go prospecting for gold and fall victim to their own greed. A new twist is that they're prospecting in "injun country," and are being watched by a small all-female tribe.

This brings us to the real point of this movie. All of these Indian maids are TOPLESS. REVENGE OF THE VIRGINS was made at a time when independent film producers were just starting to put nudity into their product. Because this is such an early example, it is a very tame one. It's hard to imagine now that people would actually leave their homes to see a few brief, black and white shots of darkly-photographed breasts - but they did.

For all of you fans of cheap movies,this one is narrated by Ed Wood regular Kenne Duncan, reuses the music from THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS and is directed by Pete Perry - who gave us the amazing KISS ME QUICK!

Hard to believe 2 cinematographers receive credit for this. All medium shots, no closeups, and the camera stationary. Inter-cutting within a scene is almost non-existent. Everything feels like it's happening from a distance.

The music score by Gene Kauer was lifted from the previous years THE ASTOUNDING SHE-MONSTER to which he is also credited. Kenne Duncan who narrates this at the beginning and closing portion also acted in aforementioned film.

The print quality of the Something Weird Video release is flawless which shouldn't be too surprising as it's doubtful the negative received any wear and tear beyond generating a few prints for circulation at the time of it's release.

An old-timer leads an uneasy group of treasure seekers back to the gold-rich creek he'd discovered years before and the group ends up being systematically hunted by a fierce tribe of bare-breasted Indian women, led by a white (blonde) chief!

The fact that the two parties never actually appear in the same frame and subtle differences in film stock, leads one to suspect that this was originally shot as a straight western and later spiced up with gratuitous, tacky footage for the grind-house crowd.

However, it's still an interesting, hard-boiled little picture that breast-worshipers undoubtedly will be happy to behold. Some others might find it a bit too silly, though.

Personally, I'd like to see the original version.