User Reviews

Thanks largely to the late Mike Vraney of Something Weird, I've seen over 60 of pioneering soft-core porn maven Barry Mahon's films. CONFESSIONS OF A BAD GIRL displays many of his trademark stylistic motifs and is an enjoyable if flat movie.

First curiosity is that the AFI catalog of films released during the 1961-1970 decade lists the movie as black & white, when in fact it is in color. This is an interesting discrepancy when one addresses the movie's content: its oft-told tale (oft-told by Mahon himself) of a new girl in the Big Apple headed for the gutter seems always to be better in b&w, especially if there are "rough" (here read: rape) elements involved. The color productions of the '60s were reserved for more fluffy skin flicks like comedies or travelogues where the scenery is mainly naked female flesh.

The answer comes from Mahon's many short nudie films, which depict models at work or sometimes documentary-style observations of photographers & their craft. These are invariably in color, and since the bulk of footage in CONFESSIONS shows young model Judy Adler looking for work and disrobing for prospective employers, then color was the way to go.

Extremely episodic in nature, and quite repetitive too, CONFESSIONS shows Judy and other models enduring the travails of lecherous guys, some legitimate ad men, artists or photographers, but mostly horny creeps anxious to molest the gals. Adler is very convincing in acting out the ambivalence of a young person trying to get work but constantly being disillusioned as the need to "cooperate" (means: put out sexually) rears its head at every turn. Most of it rings true, largely because Mahon casts men who don't seem to be actors but really approximate sleaze-balls.

Most dated sequence has to be one about the wife of an artist who can't keep her hands off the models. This allusion to a predatory lesbian is tastefully presented, but it is quite clear that the horror of her light fondling was a big deal 50 years back. The rape sequence late in the film is not graphic at all, but again must have delivered a punch.

Interstitial footage is Judy sightseeing around the docked Queen Mary in a sequence that looks to have been shot at the old Chelsea Piers on the west side of Manhattan. It also adds to the pervasive realism, which is probably more enduring than the film's copious footage of '60s figure models, some familiar, many not, going topless or carefully posed (to avoid showing pubic hair) nude for the audience's delectation.

Confessions of a Bad Girl (1965)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Judith Adams (Judy Adler) is a small town girl who wants to become a model/actress so obviously she heads to New York City. Once there she goes from one audition to another trying to land her big role but she soon realizes that the producers are going to want to see her naked.

Barry Mahon's CONFESSIONS OF A BAD GIRL isn't the most entertaining film that he made but it's certainly up there with the best that he's done. I must admit that this film was a tad bit better made than what you'd normally see from the director and I'd also argue that the ending is somewhat deep. When I say deep I mean it actually makes you think about what you've just witnessed and it makes you think about the type of movie this is.

I think the film has a lot of good things about it including Adler as the lead. I thought the actress was very believable in the part as she seemed rather naive at times and she also had that "girl next door" look to her. I'm not sure if she was giving a good performance or if Mahon just got her to be as natural as possible but either way she was a good person to take us through the film. There are several beautiful women who pop up here and take their clothes off so on the sexploitation level the film works as well.

Mahon actually made several films based around professions and this was used to get the women naked. What was fascinating about this one is that the woman actually stands up for yourself and at times refuses to take any clothes off. She even stands up to a woman who keeps wanting to touch her while at an audition. You very well could argue that this was one of the strongest female characters from these types of films. As far as the ending goes, I'm not going to ruin it but there's no question that the final bit of narration makes you think.

CONFESSIONS OF A BAD GIRL certainly has some flaws in its 63-minutes including parts of it becoming rather repetitive but it's still very much worth watching.