"The Secret Of Wendel Samson" (1966) is a homemade film. So don't expect big production values. That said, it packs a lot more entertainment value into 33 minutes than a lot of films with big studio budgets. Don't watch it if you are not into the underground/avant-garde scene. Do watch it if you have an interest in film documents for their historical, cultural, or artistic merit. Directed by Mike Kuchar, twin brother of George Kuchar (director of "Hold Me While I'm Naked" and "I, An Actress"), "The Secret Of Wendel Samson", along with "The Craven Sluck" (1967), are included as supplements on the DVD, "Sins Of The Fleshpoids" (1965).
American folk artist, Red Grooms, stars as an emotionally conflicted man trying desperately to come to terms with, or escape from, the implications of his sexual identity. To underline this, in the opening scene he is shown trapped in a spider's web made of ropes--a blatant visual metaphor (one of many in the film). In a later scene, his platonic girlfriend Margaret (Mimi Gross), attempts to seduce him, and fails. Suspicious that he may be leading a double life, she enlists the aid of two Gestapo-style agents (one played by George Kuchar) to follow his every move. This leads inexorably to the final scene in which Wendel undergoes a kind of secret trial which takes place in his own bedroom, complete with gun-toting jury. Florain Connors, star of "The Craven Sluck", steals the scene as the busty nightclub stripper, who demurely commands Wendel to make love to her while taking aim at him with her plastic Super Pistol!
A stylized fever dream of paranoia and entrapment disguised as melodramatic social commentary disguised as espionage thriller crammed into a half hour meditation on what it is like to be a closeted gay man in the 60s (which would explain Red Grooms' outrageous haircut), better paced and funnier by far than "Sins Of The Fleshapoids", this is a beautiful little unpolished gem, and should be included among the seminal works of Andy Warhol and Kenneth Anger as a classic of queer cinema.
American folk artist, Red Grooms, stars as an emotionally conflicted man trying desperately to come to terms with, or escape from, the implications of his sexual identity. To underline this, in the opening scene he is shown trapped in a spider's web made of ropes--a blatant visual metaphor (one of many in the film). In a later scene, his platonic girlfriend Margaret (Mimi Gross), attempts to seduce him, and fails. Suspicious that he may be leading a double life, she enlists the aid of two Gestapo-style agents (one played by George Kuchar) to follow his every move. This leads inexorably to the final scene in which Wendel undergoes a kind of secret trial which takes place in his own bedroom, complete with gun-toting jury. Florain Connors, star of "The Craven Sluck", steals the scene as the busty nightclub stripper, who demurely commands Wendel to make love to her while taking aim at him with her plastic Super Pistol!
A stylized fever dream of paranoia and entrapment disguised as melodramatic social commentary disguised as espionage thriller crammed into a half hour meditation on what it is like to be a closeted gay man in the 60s (which would explain Red Grooms' outrageous haircut), better paced and funnier by far than "Sins Of The Fleshapoids", this is a beautiful little unpolished gem, and should be included among the seminal works of Andy Warhol and Kenneth Anger as a classic of queer cinema.