Hideout in the Sun

I recently watched Hideout in the Sun (1960), a quirky little film about two bank robbers who take a young woman hostage while looking for a place to hide. She mentions a cottage she's staying at, which seems perfect-until they arrive and discover it's located in a nudist colony. Needless to say, that throws a major wrench in their plans.

The picture is co-directed by Larry Wolk (Nature's Sweethearts) and Doris Wishman (Nude on the Moon), and stars Greg Conrad, Dolores Carlos (Diary of a Nudist), Earl Bauer, and Carol Little.

This is one of those movies full of random circumstances, bizarre sequences, and even an unexpected love story. There's definitely a message baked in about nudism as a lifestyle and worldview. The plot itself is absolutely wild. The bodies are impressive, and there's plenty of nudity throughout-but the way they occasionally try to hide the private parts is unintentionally hilarious. You can see how hard they're trying. The background music during these scenes adds to the amusement and keeps things light.

In conclusion, Hideout in the Sun is a random, wild ride with a message-if you can see past all the naked bodies. I'd score it a 5/10.

I don't understand the voters who scored this movie a 1/10. What the heck were they expecting? This movie does exactly what it tries to do: lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of T&A with very attractive women, with a delightfully campy plot and performances.

If you're the kind of viewer who would be interested in a film like this in the first place, there is no way you won't like it. The audio/video sync is poor at times (they somewhat get around this by not showing the faces of the characters who are speaking a lot of the time) and there are a few spots where part of the print is missing (never more than a fraction of a second), but these "flaws" only add to the charm. The video quality of the DVD is actually quite good. Video quality is often a problem with obscure films rescued from a half a century ago, but Something Weird got a good print of this one.

It is the epitome of its genre. If you're interested enough in this kind of movie to be reading this review, you will love this movie. See it. You will not be sorry.

One of the oddest sub-genres of cinema is the craze for nudist camp films that occurred in the early 1960s. Taking advantage of relaxed censorship laws, these were often free of plot or constrait, appealing more like tourist documentaries than actual films. HIDEOUT IN THE SUN, by the notorious Doris Wishman, at least has the semblance of a plot in the tale of a couple of bank robbers who take a girl hostage before hiding out at her preferred resort. Of course, it's little more than an excuse for endless nudity, but the touches of plotting, such as a rather effective romantic sub-plot, work fairly well.

Pound for pound, Doris Wishman is the toughest filmmaker in the history o' the silver screen, and "Hideout" is the film that launched the most prolific career of any woman director *ever*. "Hideout" was missing for 40 years after it's original distributor died in jail and took the prints with him. This picture deserves wider exposure and its worth seeking out.

I couldn't help but notice the parallel between the plot and Wishman's real life after her husband died a year earlier while they lived in Florida for a short period of time. So, the bank robbers hide out in a Florida nudist camp. Here the film seems to be an extended commercial to join a nudist colony. Her husband was an adman, too. One falls in love, the other dies. The film had me laughing at some ridiculous moments. I swear the naked folks spent so much time soaking in the pool it must've given them water wrinkles in a couple of days. A lot of girls with attractive boobs appear and seem to be filmed twice over again.