Sunsetglamour
Classic Striptease and Glamour Films vol. 7
(Editors note: Just to let you know, Java's Bachelor
Pad and Sunsetglamour are in cahoots together. They send us videos. We
review them. These are great documentaries of glamour era beauties and
well worth the money. Anyone, who says otherwise, is itching for a fight.)
I have to admit the "Striptease and Glamour Films" series is my
favorite from Sunsetglamour.
They not only give you the nudie-cutie films (like the ones you could find
in the back of those classic men's magazines like Adam and
Sir
Knight), but they also include honest-to-goodness burlesque footage.
These are the sort of peepshow loops that don't make you feel like a member
of the trenchcoat crowd at an adult video arcade. In fact, set against
modern sensibilities, women in pasties and a G-strings could almost be
considered family viewing. This series features 21 volumes and features
such notables glamour girls as Michelle Angelo,
Virginia
Bell,
Candy Barr,
Lili
St. Cyr, Sherrie Knight, Sally Rand,
Blaze
Starr, Tempest Storm,
and many others who danced the burlesque circuit or posed for film cameras.
Volume 7 not only features a few of those great
old stage loops, but it also features two women worth noting--Honey
Bee (on the advertisement) and stripper (and Jack Ruby employee)
Candy
Barr (photo below).
The video starts off with some old burlesque footage
including a fan dance, a dance with giant balloons, and a great silent
movie loop (complete with title cards) called "A Girl Revue." Hosted by
a topless woman with top hat and cane, she introduces one costumed (yet
naked) women after another. They walk to a stage, pose (modestly), then
walk off. The costumes consist of mostly hats and other accessories. These
include a hula girl, a clown, an Indian maiden (with bow and arrow), a
pirate, and two seasonal beauties--"Miss Summer" and "Miss Winter." The
video editors (with their wry sense of humor) have added great grindhouse
music complete with catcalls and whistles. It's a nice touch that really
puts the video in perspective.
After a few more dancing girls, we get to the loops
featuring Honey Bee. Now, the ad above says that this is
the "greatest burlesque movie ever made." Don't believe the hype. Honey
Bee looks so unsure, moving from pose to pose, that is makes the
viewer uneasy. She looks and talks off camera trying to get directions
on what to take off and how to move. She sticks out her chest, plays with
her stockings, and goes from smiling to looking like she wants to cry.
This is a woman who should have stuck to doing pin-up shoots rather than
film loops.
The highlight of this video is, without a doubt, the three segments that
feature legendary dancer (and featured glamour girl in the Java's
Bachelor Pad's Femme Fatale section) Candy Barr.
The first film fragment shows Barr backstage after, what
we can assume, was a hard night of taking-it-off on-stage. She take a drink,
teases us by unrolling her nylons, and then shows us what it looks like
when the tassels come off. In the next two segments we see Barr
in a slow strip moving gracefully across the stage and stripping down to
her requisite pasties and G-string. It's sad to say, but the only place
left to see these old burlesque dancers in their prime is on these revival
videos. Even in these short clips, you can understand how dancers like
Barr
reached stardom. When you watch a number of these old films, you can tell
which dancer have "it" and which are just going through the motions. These
stars project an air of comfortably with their bodies (like Barr),
like dancing half-naked is the most natural thing for them to do. And then
you have those on the bottom end of the scale--the ones that makes you
feel uneasy with their uncomfortableness (like the afore mentioned Honey
Bee).
This video also includes your typical film loops
of the period (50's-60's) of playful women posing on beds, on fur rugs
next to fireplaces, sunbathing outdoors, and the like. Most move from pose
to pose as if they were being photographs for men's magazines rather than
move as if it was real life. The scenes move with degrees of risqué-ness--from
playing posing with pillows to all-out bumping and grinding. As a rule,
the more fun a women seems to have posing, the more fun she is to watch.
And this video volume has plenty of fun and plenty of classic film loops
to make anyone happy.
