Private Parts

Gay cult actor/director/writer Paul Bartel (1938-2000) began his film-making career in 1968 with a 28-minute black comedy entitled 'The Secret Cinema', a movie about a woman who discovers that her life is being secretly filmed and shown in installments at a local art house cinema (an intriguing idea more elaborately developed in Peter Weir's 1998 film, 'The Truman Show'). For his first full-length feature, 'Private Parts', Bartel naturally gravitated toward a script by Philip Kearney and Les Rendelstein that took the themes broached in 'The Secret Cinema'—voyeurism, invasion of privacy, vicarious experience—and combined them with kinky eroticism and serial homicide to come up with a truly strange movie. Ayn Ruymen plays Cheryl Stratton, a naive but inquisitive 16-year-old runaway from Ohio who rooms with her best friend, Judy (Ann Gibbs)—until Judy angrily ejects her for spying during a lovemaking session. Cheryl subsequently moves into the King Edward, a skid row L.A. hotel run by her morbidly pious Aunt Martha (Lucille Benson). Despite Martha's pretensions toward respectability, the ominously seedy King Edward harbors all kinds of weirdos and sexual deviants, e.g., Reverend Moon (Laurie Main) a gay cleric with a fetish for bodybuilders; Mrs. Quigley (Dorothy Neumann), a dotty, deaf spinster constantly searching for a girl named Alice; Artie (Patrick Strong), a hardcore alcoholic who regularly passes out in his room; George (John Vantatonio), an effeminate photographer/voyeur who photographs couples making love in the park and sells the photos as pornography. After stealing a set of master keys, Cheryl launches a private, voyeuristic investigation into the rooms and lives of her fellow tenants, all the while being spied upon by lecherous George (cf. Norman Bates in Hitchcock's 'Psycho'), who acts out his crush on Cheryl with an inflatable sex doll. The plot thickens when Cheryl stumbles upon the remains of the aforementioned Alice, a teen fashion model recently gone missing. When Cheryl's friend, Judy, and her boyfriend Mike (Len Travis) come to the hotel looking for her, they also end up dead and dismembered before the (gender) identity of the killer is revealed in a surprise ending. A tension-inducing score by Hugo Friedhofer ('Ace in the Hole') adds a spurious gravitas to the proceedings. Subversive even by the more relaxed standards of the early Seventies, 'Private Parts' offended public sensibilities; some newspapers actually refused to print the title, "Private Parts," in ads for the movie, substituting "Private Arts" or "Private Party." Likewise, the movie embarrassed M-G-M, the studio famed for such estimable classics as 'The Wizard of Oz', 'Quo Vadis', and 'Dr. Zhivago'. Though it was hemorrhaging money at the time, M-G-M sheepishly relegated Bartel's unclassifiable opus to a dummy label (Premier Pictures) and made no effort to market it. Not surprisingly, 'Private Parts' fell flat. VHS (1991) and DVD (2005).

"Private Parts", the directorial debut of Paul Bartel, is a wild and thoroughly engaging black comedy. Ayn Ruymen plays Cheryl, a young but not so innocent girl, who runs away from home and eventually ends up at the hotel of her Aunt Martha (Lucille Benson)in the skid row section of downtown Los Angeles. Although warned by her puritanical aunt to stay put, Cheryl explores the old place at every opportunity,soon becoming involved with George, a mysterious photographer. He is only one of the odd tenants in the establishment, but he's the one who fascinates her the most. With its lurid plot, beautiful color photography and great, brooding score, "Private Parts" is not to be missed! This October, Warner Home Video will release it in a widescreen DVD featuring the original trailer! It's not likely to be in print long, so grab it while you can!

This movie begins with the protagonist, a teenage girl (Ayn Ruymen) being kicked out by her roommate after she spies on said roommate and her boyfriend having sex (this is perhaps a little strange since the protagonist is quite the babe while her roommate is kind of a beast even by non-Hollywood standards). Fortunately, she has an aunt nearby who operates one of those old fashion LA hotels and who gives her a room and job. Naturally, the hotel is chock-full of weirdos, and one of the weirdest is a reclusive, voyeuristic photographer with whom the aunt seems to have some strange relationship. Things start to turn around for the girl. She meets a nice guy, and also becomes romantically involved with the strange but handsome photographer. Unfortunately, though several bloody murders occur in the hotel and her former roommate, who comes looking for her, meets a sticky fate. And someone seems to be stalking the protagonist herself.

Many times in the past I've heard some loutish guy say of a pretty girl that he'd like to "drink her bathwater". Well, the stalker here does a lot more than that (I couldn't really spoil it if I wanted to, but it also involves a blow-up doll and blood-filled syringe). This is Paul Bartel's first film. It was made before "Death Race 2000" or "Eating Rauol", but it holds it's own pretty well against those. It has a great creepy locale (I'd love to stay in one of these old LA hotels if there were still any around that haven't been turned into vastly overpriced B and B for tourists), and it has an effective horror/black comic atmosphere. The mystery here isn't all that surprising, but it sure is deliciously weird. Ayn Ruymen and the women who plays her aunt are both pretty good. Ruymen was very cute, and while I personally am much too cultured and refined to make crude comments about drinking her bathwater, I sure did enjoy seeing her in it.

Also don't confuse this with the later Howard Stern movie of the same name. This is less famous, but actually a lot better.

This bizarre and entertaining cult film was Paul Bartel's first feature, and it's probably his most interesting film. Good use of seedy LA locations and an effective score by Hugo Friedhofer create a genuinely creepy atmosphere. Well cast and acted. Lucille Benson, who could easily be Norman Bates' mother,is a standout as Aunt Martha.

"Too nosy for her own good", runaway Cheryl Stratton investigates the various characters and rooms in her aunt's hotel, while a resident photographer spies on her; ultimately, with her knowledge and participation. Like so many films, Private Parts owes a debt to Psycho. Though the film becomes somewhat silly with the arrival of the 2 policemen near the end, it is original and compelling, and Bartel displays admirable restraint throughout. The film ends with a good last shot:Cheryl checked-in a girl, and checks-out a vicariously experienced woman.

When the film opened in New York, at the now defunct First Avenue Screening Room, The New York Times' reviewed it favorably. Happily, it has finally been released on DVD with the trailer. Definitely worth checking out. "Follow Cheryl as she leads you through the darkest corridors of your mind", you'll be glad you did.

Paul Bartel's vision of perversity in a seedy L.A. hotel has more entertainment value than most of today's re-hashed, redundant, repulsive, wannabe exploitation flicks. The acting alone is uncommonly good for this type, with Ann Ruymen as the not so innocent Cheryl, and Lucille Benson as the proprietor of the unforgettable King Edward Hotel, absolute standouts. The quirky residents are both believable and intriguing. Murder, fetishism, voyeurism, what more could you ask for from this wonderful mixture of bizarre characters? Great photography, great character development, great script, great dark comedy. Highly recommended. - MERK