p e n g u i n d e v i l

For another stop in the (rather limited view) Russ Meyer tour of the sordid side of America, we take a look into the go-go (topless) dancing scene of mid-60’s San Francisco with Mondo Topless. And though the title is fairly accurate, it’s not as exciting a composition as one might think. Starting out in standard Russ Meyer fashion with a few minutes of film montage (this time of San Francisco) and a rather dramatic and titillating narration about the glories and magnitude of the great metropolis that is San Francisco. Once we become aware of the worldly cultural and economic importance of this city, the narrator then whisks us off to North Beach to see the other side of the coin (or is it?). Be prepared as we are entering nearly an hour of “go go girls in and out of their environment”. And while somewhat enjoyable, it is generally a rather boring hour. While go-go dancing itself seems an exciting endeavor, how long can you really come up with the interest in watching little snippets of go-go dancers frolicking around? It seems like a one or two minute scene from and old movie played over and over again. Especially since he seems to follow the rule of “the less interesting that they are to watch the more screen time they get”. In terms of their environment, the focus is really on “outside of their environments” as the lion’s share of the scenes are outdoors (this is Russ Meyer after all) but still, they are seen in all sorts of hokey settings: from the stages of go-go clubs…





to writhing around in the mud…





While a dancer is being shown, we get to hear her expressing “sensitive comments and opinions” (generally regarding dancing) over a background of crazy rock n roll music. The movie focuses on about a dozen dancers, mainly good-old American dancers but there are a few foreign theme dancers who are the most boring segments (seemingly all of that footage is taken from Europe in the Raw) .

Mondo Topless, while certainly a “watch once, if you can manage to sit through the whole thing” film, does have some high points. First off, there is a lengthy segment with Lorna Maitland which, while it mainly consists of footage from her namesake film, does have an interesting and enjoyable commentary from her about getting the role of Lorna and the making of that film and, secondly… There are many, many scenes with the shocking British bombshell Darlene Grey…





Still, it’s not much worth watching the whole thing. Unless you are attempting to watch all of the Russ Meyer films in the Arrow Films collection.