The Nudist Story

This title has been available for quite some time from Something Weird Video under the title For Members only, The Nudist Story. This was the original complete title in the UK. Film quality is excellent. The opening credits briefly switch from the original to the title page of "Pussycat Paradise" and then back to the original. That was a brief alternate title in the mid to later 60s.

I don't have any idea how long this movie has been available, but it was a happy shock to learn of it's original British title, Google it, and discovery that it has been here for some time.

Beyond the opening credits, the film remains complete and beautiful quality. There is even a film trailer after the end of the feature.

This film is being screened this week by Talking Pictures, my favourite British TV channel because of its old black-and-white films, though "The Nudist Story" is in rich colour.

It all seems very harmless nowadays,with a number of topless women and glimpses of pubic hair on both sexes. But when it was first released back in 1960 I was 15 years old and was curious about what women looked like and around that time I did watch another nudist film. As I remember it, pin-up photos in girlie magazines and the nudist magazine "Health and Efficiency" had photos of both sexes with the groin areas airbrushed out, so I was a little surprised to see the pubic hair, though in most scenes the actors carefully employed a towel so as not to show very much.

I watched the first part of this film, with its predictable plot, endured the synchronised swimming and then fast-forwarded through the camp concert and the rest of the film. Enough said.

Stephen Blake - "Have you ever been to a nudist camp Miss Robinson?" Jane Robinson - "Certainly not!" "The Nudist Story" is a 1960 British B movie, nicely shot in colour. Jane is a young business woman who inherits her Grandfather's nudist camp, at first she is quite shocked but her opinion changes when she falls in love with Stephen, a lawyer and secretary of said club. I can think of three different driving factors behind this movie - 1. It presents a case for public acceptance of nudist clubs (which is does well). 2. It is a drama/love story. 3. It is an excuse to show of lots of naked flesh. Though the latter is tastefully done I could imagine plenty of men in long coats going to the cinema to see this for a dose of titillation! The budget was obviously quite low, some of the sets look very studio bound and the acting varies from acceptable to poor (Gloria, who tries to put a stop to Jane and Stephen's romance, is played but a very wooden - though attractive - French actress). "Highlights" (for wants of a better word) include watching two couples perform synchronised (or at least they try to be) swimming, seeing Jane strip off for the first time and a song and dance segment. This last bit has the happy campers perform cheesy singing and dancing to band music despite no band being there, and it does drag on. In the UK the movie is rated BBFC 15 yet the excellent Talking Pictures TV screened it with an 18. That was very odd as there is nothing sexual or explicit about this harmless movie, there are even children in the cast, naked along with adults but all quite innocent. I had never heard of this film before and it does not appear in any of my movie books. As something of a curiosity I found it to be a fairly entertaining watch, for a movie made in Britain in 1960 I was surprised by the amount of flesh on display. For people interested in the history of "skin flicks" this is recommended viewing.

THE NUDIST STORY is your garden-variety nudie flick, with a threadbare plot of sorts to keep the momentum going and more than half the running time devoted to cinema verite-style footage of men and women going about their business at a nudist camp. It was made by the 'British Sunbathing Association' and feels at times like a propaganda flick; you can guess the kind of viewers this type of film attracted.

Lead actress Shelly Martin puts in a surprisingly good performance in the leading role as a prim and proper young woman who treats the idea of nudist camps with the usual prejudice. When she inherits one and begins to learn more about it, her eyes are opened to a very different world. A love triangle sub-plot of sorts serves to drag out the short running time a little further, while topless nudity from woman after woman - not all of them young and nubile either - is the order of the day. It's nothing more than a forgettable fluff piece in retrospect.

It is rather strange that TPTV has given this film a 18 rating but when it was shown in cinemas it was given an A certificate which meant that children under 16 could view it if accompanied by an adult. It has been reclassified as a 15 by the BBFC.

Films such as this would often be shown at the Cinephone Cinema, opposite Selfridges. It would be supporting a Bridgette Bardot X certificate film.

This film is so mildly inoffensive and rather amateur and about as erotic as cold rice pudding.