MONDO TOPLESS
DVD region 0. Arrow Films.

Although often dismissed and one of Russ Meyer's more lightweight and disposable films, Mondo Topless still holds up well almost four decades after the initial release, and in many ways has more appeal now than it might have had in 1966. It certainly shows just how moribund and pedestrian most modern striptease/glamour videos - which this is definitely the precursor of - tend to be.
Mondo Topless opens in classic Meyer style - a travelogue guide to San Francisco with superannuated narration and perfectly gratuitous cut-ins of a busty beauty 'driving' through the streets. This then gives way to the main thrust of the film - the study of the "topless craze". Meyer cranks up the narration to epic proportions and hammers the viewer with rapid-fire fast cutting of the buxotic babes profiled in the film as they gyrate, groove and frug away in scenic outdoor locations. For the next fifty-plus minutes we get a feast of go-go girlies shaking it with enthusiasm while they express - via voice over - their philosophies on life, love and toplessness over an irresistible grindhouse score.
The girls are generally eye-catching - pre-hippy chicks who shimmy and shake with abandon. Viewers sharing Meyer's own predilections will be particularly impressed with England's very own Darlene Grey, a slim cutie with boobs that have to be seen to be believed! Then, there's sexploitation starlet Pat Barringer, continental cutie Babette Bardot and others. Meyer even throws in test footage of Loran Maitland - the eponymous star of Lorna - and gives the film a European kick by splicing in striptease footage from his last movie Europe in the Raw.
The DVD also includes the Meyer episode of Jonathan Ross' groundbreaking Incredibly Strange Film Show, a brief photo gallery and trailers.
Highly recommended!

DAVID FLINT

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