|
Mantis In Lace
[Somehing Weird]
1968; color
Directed by William Rotsler
Starring: Susan Stewart, Steve Vincent, M.K. Evans, Vic Lance & Pat Barrington
|
|
Alternately titled Lila, Mantis In Lace is a story about a young Los Angeles based lady - named, obviously, Lila - who is a stripper / go-go dancer with a hatred of bananas. Actually, we don't know about the banana thing yet. (And, by the way, I'm sure there are absolutely no hidden meanings implied with this fact.) The rest however is apparent immediately, thanks to the explanatory theme song playing over the credits as the lovely Lila (Susan Stewart), clad in a red sequined bikini, gyrates awkwardly in front of a dirty mirror to an enthusiastic, equally dirty looking crowd. When the song ends, she steps off the stage as her white pump wearing replacement takes over and, after brushing off one customer who wants to buy her a drink, disappears from our view. This type of thing - random acts of stripping and softcore sex - will happen a bunch over the course of the film so if that's not your cup of tea you'll either need to sip it anyway or keep the remote handy. Anywhoo, when Lila reappears she approaches another customer and invites him join her for a friendly game of pool and slang laden double entendres. After poor attempts at dialogue and pool playing the two arrange to meet later when Lila gets off work. Fast forward to 2 AM (in a hilarious move, they employ one of those zoom cut aways a la an episode of Batman), the two meet up in a dark alley; lit up slightly by Lila's fabulous pink swing coat. Ever the liberated female Lila insists they get in her car and - insert zoomy thing here - a moment later we see it come to a halt. She leads her future lover into her lair, a dark and dingy warehouse belonging to her father and, after sharing a drink and more slang, the guy offers to enhance their collective experience with a little LSD. Lila seems unfamiliar with the drug but not unwilling to give it a try. Once it's ingested, she performs a private dance to, I suppose, get everyone in a proper mood then the two get down to business, so to speak, to an instrumental version of the theme song. All seems to be going according to everyone's respective plans until Lila starts to have a bit of a psychedelic freakout and, unfortunately for our earring wearing friend, this good trip gone bad results in her grabbing a screwdriver and stabbing him the back repeatedly. He survives but only long enough to watch her stab the air with the screwdriver while shrieking "go away!" before he collapses in an awesome bloody wall slide. Then she grabs a meat cleaver and hacks away until we cut to the next scene. From here on out it's nothing but more slowly paced dancing, killing, and softcore sex, plus the prerequisite inept cops trying to solve the case sub-plot, and the aforementioned "hypnotic theme song that will live in your brain forever." (I had to copy that one straight off the box because it's so true! Mostly because the ratio of the number of times the song is played compared to the running time of the film is as astonishing as it's lyrics.) In case the film itself isn't enough Lila for you, SWV offers up both an "alternate psychedelic murder sequence" and some other never before seen outtakes in addition to some other appropriately lysergic extras. (An LSD scare film, trailers, exploitation art gallery, etc.) At the risk of falling back on clichés and repeating myself (neither of which would be all that out of place around here) they simply do not make movies like this anymore. Many would argue that is a good thing but despite this film's many obvious flaws - and largely because of them - I liked it.
—Bunny
|
|
