Because there is really no getting around this fact, especially if you've already watched this film, I will just say it now: this movie isn't that great. It essentially borders on being mild pornography rather than trying to be something with an actual plot you can be interested in. It's often been called a noir movie, but the majority of it doesn't have a real criminal atmosphere, so I'd take this with a grain of salt. This movie centers around Cleo Moore playing a girl named Lily, who is arrested and brought to a police station one day. Upon being released, a man named Max (Raymond Greenleaf) snaps her picture, and Lily gets angry because she doesn't want the image to be shown to everyone. However, Max offers to take erotic photos of Lily at his apartment in exchange for keeping the picture private. She agrees. After some time taking pictures with Max, she starts to learn how to be a decent photographer and decides to pursue her own career in it, changing her name to Lila. Eventually, Lily meets Russ Bassett (Richard Crenna), who happens to know the owner of a nightclub named Les. Lily works there for a while, but then begins to work at a more prestigious club and she soon gets a picture of Mrs. Grange, an elderly woman who used to have Max take pictures of her. She doesn't look as good as she used to, but Grange is so impressed with Lily's camera skills that she wants her to pursue them further. Lily starts attracting her own crowd wanting to have their pictures taken, and Max is now second in command to her. Meanwhile, Russ keeps offering Lily a job that has a more reliable way of making money, but she doesn't want it. Soon, Lily is back in the club during a celebration for Mrs. Grange's birthday, but the latter passes out while dancing for seemingly no reason and dies shortly afterwards. Before she died, Lily took a picture of her, which is later published without her knowledge. Lily tries to tell her boss and the other people wanting photos from her that she had nothing to do with this and that she destroyed that picture, but they don't believe her. Lily is fired, and since she needs money badly now, she wants to sell an incriminating photo of a mobster named Backlin, which was taken at the nightclub. Backlin doesn't like being exposed, so he sends his thugs to kidnap Lily. Russ is forced to bail her out after finding out where she is being held from a thug he subdues. Russ incapacitates all 3 gunmen at the scene, and Lily is saved. She and Russ then get married. Like I stated before, this movie is quite forgettable. It's similar to any one of the films Mae West or Marilyn Monroe made, because it really tries to rely too much on the attractive nature of the protagonist as opposed to telling an interesting story. Without any substance to stand on, Cleo is just stuck being a photographer in a fairly average "noir." That doesn't mean this entire movie was a waste of time. She's definitely up there with the likes of Marilyn Monroe in terms of being the center of each scene that she's in, but Moore never actually achieved worldwide fame like many other women of comparable appearance. Overall, there isn't much to say about this movie. I just thought it was hard to take Richard Crenna seriously in a role like this, considering he's probably most well known for playing Rambo's boss. Altogether, Over Exposed is mostly a disappointment, and I only watched it because I thought it was a noir movie. You'll never know if something is worthwhile unless you see it.
Review of Over-Exposed
