Review of Vixen! (1968) by Eric B — 12 Nov 2011

The genius of Russ Meyer is that he directs sleazy subject matter with the bright, cheery energy of a harmless TV sitcom. The viewer's moral filters are fooled -- it's a guilty pleasure, minus the guilt!

One of Meyer's better vehicles, "Vixen!" squeezes plenty of bouncy fun into just 70 minutes. Of course, the plot is secondary to the sex scenes (which are quite tame by today's standards), but the story is delightfully offbeat: Bush pilot Tom lives with his insatiable wife Vixen (Erica Gavin) in the remote forests of British Columbia. Vixen's motorcycling brother Judd also hangs around the place with his black, draft-dodging friend Niles.

All sorts of quirky dynamics simmer between these four. Vixen boasts that she'll sleep with anyone except "spades and cripples," and repeatedly infuriates Niles with racist epithets. Niles is prone to break into diatribes about being asked to fight the white man's war, while otherwise being treated like a second-class citizen. Naive, easy-going Tom has no idea about his wife's frequent infidelities. And Judd and Vixen nurse incestuous desires for each other. Oh my.

The action heats up even more when Tom is hired to fly a young, attractive couple to Toronto, and lets them temporarily stay at his lodge. Dave neglects his wife Janet but is tempted by Vixen's overt flirtation, and sex-starved Janet is eager for revenge. Will these curvy women keep their tops buttoned? If you've ever seen a Russ Meyer movie, you know the answer.

The final act takes an unexpected turn when Tom brings home a second client whose unusual agenda makes Niles reconsider his anti-America mindset. Intriguing, how Meyer manages to fit discussion of communist Cuba into a lowbrow skin flick.

Gavin lives up to her character's name with a lovely, refreshingly natural body (she looks somewhat like Sarah Silverman, if Silverman were actually as sexy as her male fans insist). She's not the world's best actress -- when she's in an aroused frenzy, her tremors and clenched jaw seem more murderous than excited -- but her seduction dance while fondling a river trout can not be missed.