Welcome a new B-Movie Enema review, my dear Enemaniacs!

I’ve got something a little different than I usually do on this blog, but I would also say it touches upon a few things I’ve referenced before. The movie I’m looking at this week is 1964’s Kitten with a Whip starring Ann-Margret and John Forsythe. I would label this movie as a late example of the 50s and early 60s “girls gone crazy” exploitation boom. Throughout that era, you had bad girls all played by bombshells who were young and curvy and had a bite to them that made men drool all over themselves.

I’ve talked about a movie several years ago that was a part of a Showtime series of made-for-cable TV movies that were produced by Debra Hill that all took names of classic 50s-era exploitation films and made something slightly different from them. That movie was Confessions of Sorority Girls starring Jaime Luner and Alyssa Milano. Some of these movies were also featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 through the early 90s. That’s where I first saw Kitten with a Whip. The movie is, as we’ll definitely talk about throughout this review, okay, but there is no chance you can watch this movie without noticing the 23-year-old Ann-Margret in the lead role of a bad girl who has all sorts of very sexy issues.

Ann-Margret was born in Sweden in 1941. While her father wanted to get the hell out of Europe as soon as Nazi Germany invaded neighboring Norway in April of 1941, her mother hesitated to leave right away. He ended up leaving ahead of her and her mother. They joined her father in the United States in 1946 and she became a citizen in 1949. In 1961, she began a recording career. She was known for having a pretty sultry voice and was often billed as the female version of Elvis. In those days, it didn’t take long for her looks and her management team to get her into film. She quickly rose to starring roles after appearing in the successful films State Fair and Bye Bye Birdie. Interestingly, both of those movies showed the two sides of her public film personas – the bad girl and the sweetheart.

1964 would be an interesting year for her. Not only was she in this film, but she also starred opposite Elvis in the huge hit Viva Las Vegas. Between that and Bye Bye Birdie, Ann-Margret was considered a huge new star. For Viva Las Vegas, she suggested the hiring of her dance teacher, David Winters. We know him from classics like Space Mutiny. It was a huge deal because it would be his first film where he was credited as a choreographer, and he would work often with both Elvis and Ann-Margret multiple times afterward. However, Kitten with a Whip would prove to be the first of a string of four flops for her that kind of smudged her rising star. She would not have another successful film until the Steve McQueen hit The Cincinnati Kid the following year.

In the 70s, Ann-Margret would get some pretty good accolades for her acting. That started in 1971 when she appeared in Carnal Knowledge by director Mike Nichols. She starred alongside Jack Nicholson, Candice Bergen, and Art Garfunkel. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars for that film and won the award at the Golden Globes. In 1975, she starred in the rock opera Tommy based on The Who’s concept album. She was nominated for Best Actress for that, and, again, she won the Golden Globe Award in that category. Then, in 1978, she played Peggy Ann, an unhappy wife and former crush of Anthony Hopkins’ Corky in the thriller Magic. That was a little less sexy or verbose role but played very well in a very well-appreciated movie.

Ann-Margret has remained a very big star throughout her 60-year career. It’s also hard to discount her incredible beauty. Her bad girl roles might be what made her a big star, and it is certainly something that has been influential. Lindsay Lohan called Kitten with a Whip her favorite movie and really wanted to do a remake of the film some 15+ years ago. Honestly, I don’t know if there’s anyone more perfect for a remake than Lohan would have been back then. It’s a shame it didn’t get a new treatment.

This was based on a novel by Wade Miller (a pen name for Bob Wade and Bill Miller). It was thought to be a vehicle in the early 60s for Mamie Van Doren. However, it was then passed to Nancy Kwan (who we saw in Wonder Women), but it didn’t get made then either. Later, Brigitte Bardot was offered the part when a new plan to adapt the novel went into motion. She turned it down, and Ann-Margret was given a modest $150,000 salary for the movie and a percentage of any profits. Finally, filming began in late 1963 with TV writer and director Douglas Heyes at the helm as co-writer and director of the movie.

Our tale opens like so many a man’s most enticing dreams and fantasies: a young, beautiful Ann-Margret running away from some sort of peril and desperate to find a place to stay. Ann-Margret plays Jody Dvorak. Jody is clearly in peril and seemingly running through a town in only her nightgown. She tries hopping a train, but gets chased off by a railroad guy. She then tries to find a factory to squat in, but a security guard and a dog chase her off. She hides, momentarily, in the bushes in front of a nice, suburban house. She notices several days of newspapers on the lawn which indicates the residents are probably away on vacation.

Jody sneaks into the house, and like Goldilocks, finds a warm, comfortable bed to doze off in and cuddle up with a teddy bear. Shortly after, a car arrives in the driveway. Out comes Senate candidate, David Stratton, played by John Forsythe. Stratton invites his friends in for a drink, but they decline. Stratton tells his friend that his wife is away with their daughter visiting friends. There seems to be some marital strife between David and his wife. The indication is the campaign may be straining their relationship. They want to remain married, which is exactly what David’s friend wants to hear because if there’s one thing that somehow really teeters a close election battle, it seems to be something to do with how the candidate appears as a husband and family man.

The friend leaves, but David is about to get a shock of his life. The next morning, David shaves and, as he finishes up, he hears his daughter’s teddy bear fall to the floor and make a noise. He goes into his daughter’s room to find a body in the bed. And, oh what a body it is!

David is rightfully angry at Jody. He doesn’t think at all about this girl being troubled. He doesn’t even think that she’s there to rob him. He thinks she must be some sort of political plant to discredit him as a candidate. As he waits to talk to his detective friend to get the girl out, Jody tries to run.

Here’s where there’s a real sign of what’s going on with Jody’s character. She starts sweet and kind of innocent. She really has no idea who David Stratton is. She wasn’t even trying to take anything of his or his daughter’s. She was just looking for a place to sleep – at least as far as we’ve seen. When he starts making accusations that she’s there for a different reason, instead of trying to clear herself of those accusations, she gets angry. VERY angry. She snarls at him and becomes defensive by trying to use words to hurt him. It’s a switch she flips, and it will be a very telling thing about Jody throughout this movie.

David ultimately tells the detective that he does have a problem, but one he can handle himself. Jody asks where his wife and daughter are. She then spins a yarn about having terribly strict parents who would pull her out of college over a sorority stunt. David immediately sees through that. She tells him that she was running away from where she was shacking up. She tells him that a man was attacking her and she slipped away after kicking him in the balls (my words, not hers). She shows him scratches on her back that she says the man did to her.

David becomes sympathetic after the sad story she feeds him. He tells her he was too worried about his own image to consider that Jody might have troubles of her own. He says they’ll figure something out. Martha, the sister of David’s wife, Virginia, stops by to check in on David and find out when her sister will be back at some point. David is able to mostly get rid of Marth relatively easily. After talking a little more to Jody about what her plans were for where she was trying to escape, Jody tells him she has an aunt she could go to. David says that her tattered nightgown would not be suitable for the remainder of her travel.

David goes shopping to get Jody a suitable dress, shoes, and underwear. Unfortunately, he runs into someone he and his wife know, Peggy. She immediately noses around about the dress David is apparently buying and says that Virginia would never squeeze into a size 7. This is something this movie is kind of good at in these early stages. David is so recognized and has so many connections, that he can’t seem to even dip out quickly to get this stray kitten a dress and not have his business immediately come under the attention of one of those contacts or friends. He can’t rightfully explain he has a young, very hot Ann-Margret cooped up in his house while his wife and daughter are out of town. He wouldn’t even be able to get to the “But it’s not what you think” stage of his story/explanation before people would immediately think he’s cheating on his wife. A wife, I might add, who is out of town BECAUSE the relationship with David isn’t as smooth as it should be. It’s a little nerve-racking how this carries on for a little bit. And I do mean for a little bit.

David does end up picking up the nice girly things for Jody. She is so happy she can barely contain how drop-dead gorgeous she is in the dress. She first says the dress is “terrific”. She then says it’s all so “creamy”. These are adjectives that make me tingle when she says it looking like that.

It’s very obvious why this movie should be a slam dunk. Ann-Margret was not just extraordinarily attractive but was also, somehow, both the girl every guy would have wanted to marry and a bad girl that would make every guy drool. This movie is the culmination of whatever her previous roles would have had her play. When she’s good, she’s an absolute angel. When she’s bad, she’s downright evil.

Just after beaming with joy and excitement over the dress that David got her, and how it makes her look, she is riding in David’s car. She’s still over the moon. It seems as though she thinks this is the typical life she should have. Nice dress. Enjoying a ride in a nice car. A man to buy her those clothes and drive that car. He tells her it’s time to go to the bus station. She starts up her bad girl act again. She says that of course, it has to be time for him to drop her off and leave. This change in attitude is brief. He gives her a little money to help her get started and drops her off and she tells him that he can just tell her what he spent on her and she’ll someday pay him back. She plans to be rich and famous.

He feels good about what he did. He helped a woman in a bad situation and it gave him hope for how he can help others. He’s just about to tell his friend that he meets for lunch about this encounter when, uh oh… Jody’s face is on the news. Jody was not escaping strict parents or a man who became a little too handsy with her. David learns that Jody escaped a juvenile delinquency facility after stabbing a matron and starting a fire.

David’s got a problem. He had interactions with an escaped delinquent. She knows his name and where he lives. What’s worse, she didn’t get on that bus out of town to go stay with her aunt. She returned to his home. When he gets back from seeing his friend, and learning the truth about Jody, she’s got Loony Tunes on and her comic books all over the floor and wearing only a towel after taking a shower (my kind of woman!). Seems as though that charity case David thought he did a good deed in helping is not going to be so easy to get rid of.

She initially worried David came home with someone else. She put her hand near his chest and comments about her worry that someone saw her there wearing only her towel because of what they might say about that. Angry, he grabs her wrist. She says if he ever bruises her, she’ll tell everyone about how they know each other. When he wants to call the police, she says she’ll scream “Rape!” and it will ruin him. The cops, his wife, and every dirty mind in town will believe her. Besides, a Senate candidate and an underage delinquent would get the tabloids in a tizzy.

Just as the conversation gets heated, Virginia calls. Jody tugs at the phone cord while he tries to get the flight information from his wife. It ultimately leads to him falling and knocking over a table. He has to recover quickly and make the conversation feel natural again with Virginia. As he finishes his conversation, Jody gets in one of his wife’s gauzy nightgowns and asks if she fills it out as well as his wife or… Does he find it a little more enticing on her?

It’s at this point, the movie does begin to show all its cards and kind of devolves. One of the key reasons why this movie ultimately failed at the time of release is due to a relatively unbelievable plot. There is something to politicians being concerned about their image and where people might be trying to screw them over. However, it’s highly unlikely that a juvenile delinquent who is wanted for stabbing a matron and setting the facility on fire would have a hard time convincing the police that anything an upstanding member of the community said about how she broke in, he did try to help her not realizing who she was, and she continued to force her way into his life through duress and blackmail was not the truth. One successful phone call would end this story pretty quickly, but David never manages to worm his way free from this scenario and it becomes kind of frustrating.

So, while Kitten with a Whip is definitely a vehicle for Ann-Margret, who was a huge star at the time, it also delves into the exploitation side of things. You have a beautiful woman playing sweet and innocent and naughty and bad in regular rotation. It’s Ann-Margret. Have I mentioned that she’s in this movie and the camera is loving every facial expression and movement of her body? Oh, and her character is only 17. That’s got a whole lot of heat and forbidden sexual energy tied to the movie. You would have thought this should be a runaway success. But it inexplicably runs out of gas quickly.

The movie now enters into the phase of David being totally powerless to Jody’s demands. She demands he gives her a place to stay where the cops won’t catch her and she can do what she pleases when she pleases or she’ll claim David is raping her. It starts with David’s friends Grant and Vera coming over in advance of a dinner party with a major donor and supporter. Vera notices a picture of Virginia that Jody drew on with lipstick. She sees that it looks like someone picked up a phone to place a call on one of the lines in the house. She tries pushing miracle cures for a headache when David gets out of the dinner party after saying he’s got a headache.

After getting rid of Grant and Vera, David finds Jody in the bedroom crying and worrying about what will come of her if the matron dies. Again, David sympathizes with Jody. After a news report showing the matron is recovering, Jody celebrates. She celebrates being apparently clear from a possible murder charge. Things are only about to get worse for David, though.

Earlier, Jody called some friends over for a wild party. The three who come over are bad boys Buck and Ron and flippant Midge. Everyone is in on the information that David can’t do much about them being here or Jody will make his life hell. Ron is also quite aware of who David Stratton is. Now, again, David doesn’t really have to deal with this. The blackmail is flimsy as hell. If he gets away just long enough to call the cops, he can get rid of all these people.

Ron tells David they are on the way to Tijuana. They apparently plan to buy women down there. He also wants money from David. At least Ron is a fair guy. He says he doesn’t want it all, only what he can spare. What’s more, he is willing to support Jody’s claims if David tries to get rid of them. Since Ron and Buck also poured themselves a drink at the bar, he says they also have that they can tell the cops about.

Doesn’t it come to anyone’s realization that it’s possible for underage people to take alcohol if there’s reason to believe an adult is powerless to stop them? It doesn’t mean that he’s contributing to a minor? Oh, fuck it. This movie is 83 minutes. It’s hard to fill that much of a runtime without some plot convenience.

I guess that also means there’s time enough for Ann-Margret to do a sexy dance too.

Things at this party that Ron, Buck, Midge, and Jody are throwing get a little out of hand. David tries turning up the volume on the turntable in the hopes that maybe someone in the neighborhood would call the police on a disturbance thing. Then, David tries to pick up the phone to call the liquor store for more ice. Buck grabs the phone and hits David with it, making him bleed. He then takes David’s straight razor and holds onto it as a weapon. Ron makes a play on Midge, which pisses off Buck. Buck tries to repay Ron by making a play on Jody. Buck gets violent and jumpy with the straight razor and gives Ron a pretty bad cut on the arm.

While they see to Ron’s wound, Midge decides it’s not so good hanging out with these three psychos and cuts out. David doesn’t think Ron’s wound is as bad as cutting any arteries that would make the injury serious, but he can’t stop the bleeding. Since Ron and Buck were planning on going to Tijuana anyway, they wonder if Ron could make it there to see a doctor. David thinks so if they leave now. The problem? Again, Midge cut out. That means it’s up to David to drive them across the border.

I have to assume that one of the concerns about crossing the border is using the main way into Mexico with Jody being a fugitive and all. So they go through a small town and bust through a barbed wire fence to bust into Mexico. Ron is not doing so good. Apparently, a cut on the arm is downright deadly? Sure. Whatever. Anyway, part of the fence post that David ran over is stuck under the car. Buck gets out to dislodge it and Jody slams on the gas to leave Buck at the border. They next drop Ron off with a doctor to get his arm dealt with.

David now wants to find a place to leave Jody so he can finally be done with her. He takes her to a motel where she gets a room and David plans to get back home. She asks David if she can kiss him for luck on the cheek. As she does, Jody nabs David’s keys and locks herself inside the motel room. She wants one drink with David and she’ll let him go. Jesus Christ, this is a nightmare. He barely got rid of Ron and Buck, and he STILL is stuck with this crazy chick who, sure, looks swell, but is making his life a living hell. Speaking of Ron, he’s gotten to Tijuana and looking for David and Jody.

Speaking of David’s life being a living hell, he goes into town to get a bottle of hooch for he and Jody to have that last drink before he goes home. He barely misses Buck. He is shocked to see Grant and Vera walking the streets of Tijuana with those major donors/supporters. I’d like to know how this is at all realistic and believable. Grant and Vera were supposed to bring David to a party where they would meet this supporter who could be a huge benefactor in getting David over the hump in his election. There was no mention of it involving Tijuana. Are Grant and Vera and these rich old people just the kinds to go take in a donkey show in Tijuana or are they there to look at the “colorful” people of Mexico? Why are they here? It’s bad enough that Buck is hunting for him. It’s bad enough that Jody is absolutely bonkers and has his keys. Why do we need one more instance of David running into people who know him before the movie ends?

Anyway… Fucking Christ. Okay, so David is now spinning yarns about his car, why he has a bottle of hooch, and so forth. He nearly gets found by Buck. He acts quick and tries to take the group into one of the establishments. They say they just left that place when they saw him. He says they haven’t seen the floor act, which just so happens to be the best in town. What kind of establishment is this?

A burlesque joint. David should just give up on his hopes and dreams of ever being a politician. This is actually kind of funny. He has to try to sell the idea that the last time he was at this place, it wasn’t burlesque, it was a flamenco act. Just then, Ron comes in after being fixed up by the doctor. David slips out and Ron finds him. He says Buck’s looking for him and wants to know where Jody is. Buck plans to rough her up a bit. David slips Ron by telling the cops that Ron was trying to sell him pot.

David returns to Jody’s room. He gives her the booze in exchange for his keys. He asks if she’ll be okay because Ron and Buck are looking for her. She says they don’t know about this spot. She won’t be around very long anyway. She’ll get back and she’ll turn her life around. When David sees her next, he won’t recognize her. She talks long enough for Buck and Ron to catch up and find where she is by seeing his car out front. They attack Jody, but David helps pull Buck off Jody, but he gets beat up pretty bad. She breaks a bottle over Buck’s head and gets Ron to help her get David into the car so she can take him to a doctor. Apparently, some pretty good punches are fatal too.

Jody is chased by Ron and Buck. She plans to go across the border through the main road. Buck forces David’s car off the road and it wrecks and catches fire. Jody and David are thrown from the car. David wakes up in the hospital. Both legs are broken and some of his ribs are broken too. Buck and Ron are blamed for the accident and they were killed instantly. The police believe Jody was also in the car Buck stole. She told a story to clear David before she died.

The movie ends with the detective going to retrieve Virginia for David while he fidgets with his wedding ring… because, you know… He was clearly cheating this whole time.

While Kitten with a Whip is far from a bad movie, it’s not a very good one either. I can understand why this is liked or memorable for some. There’s an attitude to it. Ann-Margret brings a lot of sultry heat to her portrayal of Jody. It was made at a time in which the bad girl was enticing for people to watch on a titillating level. She was a star who rose quickly and I’m sure Universal, the studio behind the movie, thought they could cash in on that.

As I stated previously, the movie doesn’t work because David has to be so paralyzed by fear of what this girl would say about their relationship that he would be incapable of getting out from under her. In some ways, I could see how that could possibly work. What if she committed a terrible crime that he was there to witness but failed to prevent or speak up about? That would be a reason why he couldn’t easily turn her in without some blowback on him. But that’s not it at all. He’s trapped by her for very flimsy reasons that she tries to dangle over him. It doesn’t make any sense.

I’m curious how the book this was based on was received. I suspect it isn’t that major of a book. It’s likely just paperback pulp fiction. It does make me wonder what reasons Jody uses to keep David under her thumb. Is there something far more believable about her planned story she’d weave with the cops or that illegal activity I suggested above that David is involved in? It’s possible it’s sexual attraction.

While David is not leering at Jody, he does buy her a dress that is an absolute knockout and when she’s good in those early interactions, he does seem drawn to her. There’s a major subplot about a possibly failing marriage that David has to clean up if he plans on being elected to office. It would be very easy for David to be tempted by Jody. It would certainly explain how he always tries to protect her despite witnessing firsthand that she’s unpredictable and suffers from some imbalance. I really do think that the source material plays that up in a way a movie adaptation couldn’t… at least in 1964.

But, if I’m being honest, this movie is watchable all over the place. There’s one VERY good reason for that – Peter Brown in his role as Ron. Nah, I’m just jerking your bishop. It’s Ann-Margret. She’s whole-assing this performance. She plays both sides of Jody in a way that is truly like a light switch but does not ever jar the viewer. You can see the exact glints in her eyes when she is going to go from sweet and endearing to a maniac who might claw your eyes out. It’s no wonder Ann-Margret was a quick-rising star. Every line read she has is meant to strike at your heart. When she’s the bad girl, it’s a dagger digging into it and twisting it. When she’s the good Jody, it is designed to caress and ultimately melt your heart.

She and John Forsythe are good in this movie. It’s a flimsy plot and an incredulous one at that, but the movie is watchable because Ann-Margret commands every eyeball. The camera loves her. Her wardrobe loves her. Her hairstylist loves her. Everything is directed right at her and she shines.

But, we must leave the love fest for this week and focus our attention on next week. We are off to a faraway planet that is about to be invaded by a Beast and saved by the all-powerful and all-holy Glaive. You better get your magic throwing star ready because B-Movie Enema takes off for Krull in just seven days!

Until then, Daddio, don’t let any hot escaped delinquents take up residence in your house… Well, unless they’re Ann-Margret. She can stay. The rest, like me until next week, got to go!