In Praise of Rimpau Films

 

Rimpau Films released sexploitation fare in the 60s and 70s.  They even dipped their toe in porn, but no other body parts.

Their inaugural release was a nudist film called PAINT ME A NUDIST (1962).

PLOT:  A painter starving for inspiration is urged by a friend to join a nudist colony, hoping that the sights will be a spark of motivation to paint again.  Does it work?  Well, you know those paintings of nude people playing volleyball in the Louvre. . .

Filmed over seven days at the Sun & Fun nudist colony in Barrington, IL., with a budget of $7,000.  $200 went to getting the official blessing of the American Sunbathing Association.

While PAINT ME A NUDIST was somewhat a paint by numbers nudist film, Rimpau’s next release was anything but.  A nudie roughie that explored the peculiar sexual hang-up of a woman who falls in love with a dummy . . . Not a man with a low IQ, but a ventriloquist dummy!

ALL MEN ARE DUMMIES (1965), filmed in black and white on the grimy streets of winter in New York.

Plot:  Shelly, a curvaceous and somewhat vacuous burlesque dancer, is abruptly dumped by her manager/boyfriend. Feeling down, she strikes up a friendship with a new act at the theater—a ventriloquist duo featuring Roscoe Pike and his dummy, Buzzy. While Roscoe develops feelings for Shelly, she ends up falling for Buzzy, creating one of the quirkiest love triangles in movie history.

Roscoe Pike (the human) and Buzzy (the doll) were an East Coast ventriloquist duo known for their risqué humor, performing mostly in burlesque houses and seedy strip joints. They served as Winter MCs for eight years at the Empire Room Supper Club in Winter Park, Florida, until Buzzy insulted the owner's wife by comparing her vagina to the black hole of Calcutta.

Little is known about Pike & Buzzy, with all of the available information coming from Peter McMurray’s detailed articles in Mouth-Flap Monthly, which shined a light on obscure ventriloquist acts.

From MAY '74 issue:

Altoona, Penn. based act Roscoe Pike & Buzzy had a top-notch act, the trouble was that each were represented by their own agent.  They were constantly bickering over billing, pay, who would get the bigger dressing room.  Buzzy had much better representation and usually ended up with a sweeter deal than his human partner.  In a bizarre murder/suicide, Roscoe Pike ran Buzzy through a mulcher, then while racked with guilt, overdosed on Clorets.

1967 brought THE DEGRADERS, a roughie that featured whippings, beatings, rape, torture, sexual deviancy and even a little bit of plot, that doesn't impede on the whippings, beatings, rape, torture and sexual deviancy.

PLOT:  A closeted, alcoholic, on the take detective, runs cover for a group of white slavers, who keep him in their pocket through blackmail.

1969 was a big year for Rimpau Films as they release had three new features hitting screens.  First up was a perverse cat and mouse psycho-sexual drama called FILTHY PHONE CALLS (1969) aka RING ME UP SOME TIME.

PLOT:  A lonely woman (Lucy Nevins) starts to receive filthy phone calls, but instead of being disgusted by the dirty talk, the calls turn her on.  She starts to make filthy calls on her own, which leads to an in-person encounter that turns her live upside-down.

PSYCHEDELKICKS (1969) featured naked hippie chicks posing and dancing in the midst of a liquid light show with nit much plot to speak of.  

HITCHING FLOWER CHILDREN (1969) is fluffy sexploitation following the exploits of young ladies who use their thumbs and other strategic parts of their bodies to bum rides from one adventure to another.  

WOWZA WOWZA (1970) was a hip sex comedy, that unfortunately wasn't hip, comedic or sexy.

Next up was a double dose of sexy shenanigans with THE EASIEST GIRL I KNOW aka THE EASIEST BIRD I KNOW and SHANTY TOWN AFTER DARK.

THE EASIEST GIRL I KNOW (1970) was a British production about a small-town girl trying to make it as a model in swinging London.  She encounters a variety of kooks, freaks, weirdoes, along the way the lower middle.

SHANTY TOWN AFTER DARK (1970) is a grubby, shot in North Carolina hillbilly film, directed by Michael T. Clodhopper which is a pseudonym for Michael H. Clodhopper.

PLOT:  Dixie and Daisy are the pride and joy of Shanty Town.  Every man who lives in there or is just passing through want to spend some quality time with them.  The sisters are abundant in pulchritude but not overly concerned with morals, and their nightly escapades lead to some wild times in Shanty Town.

 By 1971 the climate was changing around sex in film and Rimpau released TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE.

In this comedy, a twenty-year-old virgin's female friends decide to give him a birthday that he will never forget.  Directed by Walter Peabody who also directed a necrophilia-based film called LUST AFTER LIFE (1973).

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE pushed the limits of what was acceptable on screen. While not a pornographic feature, it still faced resistance in several cities, and prints were even seized during a few raids.

Rimpau was not happy dealing with the busts and lawyer and court costs, so their next feature toned the heat down a few notches.

GIRLS WHO OWN THE DARK (1975) was a West German psycho-sexual thriller that featured three cabaret performers who may or may not be vampires.  Though their thirst for human blood may be a dead giveaway.  Released in West Germany under its original title NACHT DER TANZENDEN VAMPIRES aka CABARET NOCTURNA.

Rimpau returned to the road with their second female hitchhiker-based film THE FUNAWAYS (1976),

STRAßENGEPRÜFTE MÄDCHEN aka ROAD TESTED GIRLS is a West German sex comedy road picture.

Director Heinz Fackler also helmed HEIßE SOMMERNÄCHTE IN BAYERN (1975) aka HOT SUMMER NIGHTS IN BAVARIA and MADCHEN, DIE LIEBE MACHEN, UND DIE MANNER, DIE IHNEN ZUSEHEN aka GIRLS WHO MAKE LOVE AND THE MEN WHO WATCH THEM (1977).

 

Rimpau would release a full-blown pornographic feature in 1978. 

THE WICKER WOMEN is a New York lensed porn treat, especially for those of us who enjoy looking at pretty women on wicker furniture.  Or well-constructed wicker furniture being lounged upon by pretty women.  Suffice to say, that if these are your thing, this is the one movie that you need to see.  This was briefly released as WANDA THE WICKER WOMAN.

Talented lead actress Marla Lanning was a triple threat, an abuser of alcohol, pills and cocaine.

THE WICKER WOMEN was bankrolled by Sam Jarvis. who owned a chain of clothing stores, he opened up a one-off clothing store that specialized in wicker clothing for men, women and children.  Reportedly priding themselves on having a large Husky Section.

RIMPAU’s final release was a return to sexploitation with a West German schoolgirl comedy called EIN APFEL FÜR DEN PROFESSOR, EINE BANANE FÜR DIE STUDENTEN aka AN APPLE FOR THE PROFESSOR . . . A BANANA FOR THE STUDENTS, a risqué title that RIMPAU would rename GED GIRLS.

And that was that.