Satan Was a Lady (2001)
** (out of 4)
Hooker Cleo Irane (Honey Lauren) wants everything great that life can offer but she constantly finds herself with low life losers that can't give her anything. She begins blackmailing one of her richest customers but soon a chance encounter has her meeting and falling in love with his son (Glyn Styler).
Doris Wishman made her previous film in 1983 and it took nearly twenty years for her to make a comeback with this picture, which is a semi-remake of her 1975 film of the same name. If you're expecting high art or something like Bergman then it's best to avoid this picture but as long as you know what you're getting yourself into, Satan WAS A LADY is an okay time killer. Again, if you're looking for something of a classic then this here certainly isn't it.
Fans of Wishman are probably going to notice early on that this film certainly has a more polished look than her previous movies. She was always known for her rawness but that pretty much takes a backseat because visually the movie looks good. I'd even say the story itself and the situations aren't nearly as raw or brutal as her earlier films but I guess it's fair to say she had changed some since she was 81-years-old when she made this. The sex isn't all that naughty and while there's a lot of nudity all of it is done quite tasteful.
The performances are pretty much what you'd expect in a movie like this and that's ranging from fair to awful. Lauren certainly doesn't give the greatest of performances but I thought she fit the character nicely and you certainly believed that she was this hooker. The film does have a few clever things throughout but the highlight has to be the sequence where Cleo and the son meets. First, the camera flows down the son as Cleo looks at him. Then, as the son looks at Cleo, the camera stops right at her breasts.
Satan WAS A LADY isn't a good movie, a classic or a masterpiece. If you're a fan of Wishman you'll find it mildly entertaining even if at just 82 minutes the film feels long.
