Welcome to another review here at B-Movie Enema.

If you have been around this website for a while, you know that we’re fans of the works of British director Norman J. Warren. So much so, of the nine feature films he directed between 1968 and 1987, I’ve already covered two-thirds of them over the years. Well, it’s time to start getting into that final third I’ve not yet touched. While I’ve mostly covered his best known films in the horror genre, the last time out, I looked at 1979’s Spaced Out, a return for Warren into the world of the sexploitation circles.

Sexploitation was where Warren got his start. In 1967, our favorite director was 25 years old and already had two shorts under his belt, 1963’s Drinkin Time and 1965’s Fragment. As he would put it, he was desperate for a job, especially one on a feature film. Enter producer Bachoo Sen and arthouse cinema owner Richard Schulman. The two had just entered into a partnership to start making their own films. It just so happens that Schulman had been screening Warren’s Fragment at his cinema. They needed a director for their first film, and they approached Warren. Warren, as I mentioned, was desperate and had no idea what he would be asked to make, but a job was a job.

Norman J. Warren’s feature film career began with this week’s movie, Her Private Hell.

Her Private Hell was written by Glynn Christian. Christian was from New Zealand and emigrated to London in the 60s. According to Christian, the script was sort of autobiographical. Christian claimed the idea for this script came from his firsthand experience as a foreigner living in London in the 60s.

The film was made on a scant 18,000 British Pounds. Warren had to also serve as editor to help keep that budget down. The film was shot in just about two weeks in the late summer of 1967 for a release in January 1968. For the most part, Her Private Hell didn’t really wow a lot of critics. It had to have played somewhat well to audiences because Bachoo Sen and Norman J. Warren would team up for another film, 1968’s Loving Feeling, made on nearly double the budget.

This movie mostly stars people who are largely unrecognizable to most American audiences. Our lead, Marisa, is played by Italian actress Lucia Modugno, and another character, Matt, is played by French actor Daniel Ollier. Both of them were to appeal to mainland European audiences. However, there was one actor whose name I recognized in the cast, and another who auditioned who is well known. That guy who auditioned only to lose out on getting a role was Udo Kier. The name I recognized is Michael Craze. Craze has a very small role in this, but had a much larger role on television shortly before Her Private Hell. From 1966 to 1967, he played Ben Jackson on Doctor Who. Ben was one of the final companions of the First Doctor, William Hartnell, and, thus, among the first companions (along with Polly Wright) to be a companion of Patrick Troughton’s Second Doctor.

Craze has a super important role to play in the life of Norman J. Warren. Craze started a production company that produced Warren’s Fragment. Fragment was not a fly-by-night short shot and pumped into cinemas to play before features. It was an award winner. When Warren made his first feature film, he brought his producer along for a role. Later, in the 70s, Craze appeared in Warrens’ Satan’s Slave and Terror. So it appears the two had a long relationship working together.

The movie opens with title cards and credits playing over a couple nakedly embracing and seemingly in the process of making love. There’s this really great theme song that is very lounge club-y with horns and xylophone and a whole lotta smarmy charm (or possibly charmy smarm?). It’s telling you right out of the gate that this movie is made for adults of a certain age. This is going to be full of mature themes. Sure, teen boys will want to see the mature themes, but they aren’t old enough to understand the complexities of adult sexual relationships. Adults, particularly British adults, over, say, 30, would see this as trashy excess when there is no need to flaunt the youthful exuberance of sexy bits and bobs.

As the credits come to a close, we see a young Italian model named Marisa arrive in London. She’s there to do modeling work. Upon her arrival at the airport, she is brought to Margaret (played by Pearl Catlin). Margaret, along with her business partner, Neville, are the owners of the magazine she’s doing the photoshoot. Upon Margaret and Marisa’s arrival at the studio of Bernie, the photographer for the shoot, she immediately turns heads.

Marisa is shy and kind of introverted. She is not entirely cold because she is excited to be working for Neville and Margaret, but she’s received fairly coldly by Neville. Neville is “very British” and is very curt. He demands punctuality and wants Marisa to change in the studio instead of a dressing room or private booth. After all, as Neville puts it, “She will have to get used to it.”

Neville is played by Robert Crewdson and, well… he looks like Satan. He’s impeccably dressed in a well-tailored dark suit. He has a goatee that somehow makes his face seem longer and thinner than it really is. His entire presence and impatience at the lateness of Margaret and Marisa make the entire setting of this studio weird and nervous. You’d think a combination of Margaret and Bernie would make things a little lighter or seemingly more pleasant, but not really. The air in this studio is full of awkward silence and oppressive weight.

As the shoot begins, Bernie tells Marisa that England is different. He basically directs her to wear the clothing and move as he photographs her, as opposed to her being direted to give the poses the photographer wants. Once the shoot begins, Bernie is pleased with how she wears the clothes she’s modeling. When he verbally compliments her work, Neville is quick to shoot it down by saying THEY will be the ones who will determine if her work is good or not.

Neville and Margaret are called away on business. However, before doing so, he wants to see Marisa’s naked body. It’s odd, and Marisa is nervous about it. It leads to the last few shots that Bernie needs to take, which are all naked. Bernie is nice enough, but she’s clearly uncomfortable posing nude.

Later, Margaret picks up on some uneasiness from Marisa. Margaret tries to understand why Marisa is hesitant about the opportunity she’s giving the young model. She thinks Marisa should be excited that she will become a fresh face that will appear on the cover of nearly every magazine in a few short months. Margaret asks if she’s unhappy about the living arrangement made with Bernie to share his flat. Marisa says that’s not it. Bernie is a great photographer and Neville is difficult to please, but Margaret assures Marisa they are delighted with her work. So what could possibly make Marisa have some cold feet about this opportunity being handed to her on a silver platter?

It’s the kind of photographs Neville wants. Marisa didn’t think she was signing up for nudes. Margaret says they are one of the biggest fashion magazines in the country. They are going to make sure those nude photos don’t get out all over the country. They are “protecting” her as well as themselves. They want her to live with Bernie in order to keep her away from other photographers who may not have the same scruples. It’s all normal stuff. They have pictures of her naked and they want to make sure that ONLY they have those pictures.

So, come on, Marisa… Sign the motherfuckin’ contract so they can get on with the protecting you and shit!

Marisa signs with Margaret and Neville’s magazine and is then taken to Bernie’s flat, which is a flat inside a giant palace on the outskirts of London. His place is full of all that cool late 60s modernity that kind of pleases the young model. Maybe a little too much, as she leaps into Bernie’s arms after being so happy to live in such a cool place.

I guess Bernie’s rent policy is “Grass, ass, or cash…” Later that night, she’s lounging in bed in her nightgown and Bernie brings her a drink. She lies down and he starts to move into the kissing and the caressing. As he kisses around her face and neck and thighs, she decides that maybe the embracing and the kissing isn’t too much to ask for rent and she opts to pay her deposit with ass.

The next morning, she wakes up feeling pretty dang good about what she and Bernie got up to the night before. However, she also woke up alone in bed with Bernie in his own bed in his room. She tries to wake him up but he kind of blows her off and wants to sleep in. Not letting a perfectly fine English morning go to waste, Marisa decides to explore some of the rest of the palatial estate that is home to Bernie’s flat. She finds a lot of dust and nothingness until she suddenly finds a creeping photographer coming around a nearby corner and taking pictures of her. While the guy was kind of creeping around, we’ll soon learn he’s no creep.

When she returns to Bernie’s flat and walks into her room, Marisa finds a couple of snooping, jealous bitches going through her shit and making no apologies for it either.

So, 24 hours after arriving in London, Marisa has been shuttled to a magazine shoot for Satan. She’s coerced into shooting a few topless photos that she was not all that interested in or comfortable taking. She’s more or less blackmailed into signing with Satan’s magazine to make sure those photos don’t get out. She’s forced to live with the photographer for her “protection,” and he seduces her. Former discoveries of the fashion world (with Bernie’s help) come into her room without her knowledge and go through her shit and tease her about being just another new girl that Bernie’s bagged. There’s a creeper taking her pictures when she didn’t expect to find the guy in an abandoned part of the estate that Bernie’s flat is in. Oh, and one last thing. After those jealous bitches tell her that they heard everything the night before thanks to the “thin walls” in the building, she goes to confront Bernie about what happened only to find him gone.

I’d say this is an inauspicious start to Marisa’s U.K. modeling career.

Marisa meets Matt (Daniel Ollier). Matt is the photographer who spooked her earlier. He’s actually a really good guy. While he was originally looking for Bernie, he was saddened to find a crying Marisa. He knows the two asshole girls, Sally and Paula, are just that… assholes. He also thinks she might want to leave while she still can. He warns her that Neville, Margaret, and Bernie are simply using her for their own needs. They will do and say whatever to keep her around, but won’t hesitate to dump her if she’s no longer useful to their money-making needs.

Marisa rebuffs Matt’s suggestion and continues working with Bernie and the magazine. She also hits the town and continues her romance with Bernie. Matt is also on the shoots with the two, and it poses some interesting thoughts in both Marisa and Bernie’s minds. For one of the shots, Marisa runs and leaps into the arms of Matt. Bernie doesn’t seem to take kindly to that. After another shot of Marisa on the ground looking into the sky, the sun is blocked by the two men looking over her as if she is literally seeing a choice before her.

Plus, there’s this really cool shot:

This movie does have a hell of an energy and vibe to it. It’s shot really well. Warren is also doing a great job editing this movie to give it that vibe and energy. It’s edited like a magazine in motion. I don’t really know how to describe that. But there’s this feeling as we see Marisa doing her shots with Bernie or when she’s exploring the estate that first morning at Bernie’s flat. There’s an energy to the way it’s shot and cut together that almost feels like you’re flipping the pages of a magazine and looking to see what the next shot is. Does that make sense? Am I making sense? Eh… I think I am.

This is, on its face, and for very good reason, a very different Norman J. Warren flick. Not only is he seemingly controlling the pace by way of his direction and editing, but he’s also showing you he did a lot of experimentation with his short films. I believe Fragment, the short film he made that got him this job, was entirely without dialogue. This movie has several moments without dialogue too. When Marisa was picked up at the airport by Sally (one of the pair of jealous bitches that tried to knock her off her cloud after sleeping with Bernie), they have a whole exchange we are not privy to. In fact, we seem to learn far more about Marisa when actress Lucia Modugno doesn’t speak than when she does. Again, we’ll talk more about how this plays into what themes are usually derived from this movie later, but Marisa’s character absolutely informs us about her naivete and the pressure on her from her silence.

Marisa detects an “atmosphere” between Bernie and Matt whenever she’s around. Bernie tells her that Matt would like to “use” her for a shoot. Marisa isn’t necessarily interested in working with Matt, but Bernie doesn’t want her to because he says she’s his model and Matt needs to find his own. Turns out, there’s another reason Matt rubs Bernie the wrong way. Matt won a photography prize, beating out the more experienced Matt.

What’s more, when Marisa is dancing during one of the shoots, Matt decides to dance with her to Bernie’s chagrin.

Later, Marisa tries asking Bernie how much money she has. After all, she’s on the cover of the very magazine she’s reading before bed. He tells her the money’s being kept for her but won’t say how much she has. He says she shouldn’t be concerned about such things. She has so many things other women would die to have. She wants to do some things for herself and wants to ask Margaret what money is available to her. Bernie just tells her to stop worrying about it. Bernie eventually relents and tells her he and Margaret are going to Paris for a few days so he’ll leave Marisa some extra money.

While Bernie’s away, the Matt will play. He comes over to Bernie’s place and confronts Marisa about how Bernie never wants to talk about her with him. The only thing he told him is that Marisa doesn’t want to work with him. This forces Marisa to admit that she simply said that she didn’t see the point in working for Matt. Now, sure, Matt forced her into a corner to admit something she said in private to the other guy, but I’m still working under the assumption that Matt is the objectively better person in the photography biz so I will let him pass.

Matt suggests that Marisa work with him this weekend while Bernie is in Paris. He says it will be a lot of work, but it will be a lot of fun. He wants to do something new in photography. He needs models in his collection to sell the idea and he wants her in his collection. He really does want to create art. In contrast, Bernie just wants to make money in fashion model photography. As for the other girls that live in the building? Matt has thought about them but doesn’t want them. He wants Marisa.

And, yeah, they have a good time together. Matt is more like Marisa and a lot less stuffy and indifferent like Bernie. They have some sweet times together in nature with only a camera, a teddy bear, and their energy. It’s not long before they begin making out and then making love.

Marisa asks if he would like her to take off her nightgown for nude shots. Matt doesn’t require it but knows it would make his shots better. She agrees because she wants to, not because he wants her to.

When Bernie returns, she shows him the great shots Matt took of her. Bernie gets pissed. He calls them dirty and cheap. Margaret finds them quite artful. She says, as if she’s Senator Palpatine, that she’ll be keeping an eye on Matt as an up-and-coming photographer. She even goes so far as to say she wants Matt to shoot her like he did Marisa the next time they go to the country together.

Margaret then consoles Bernie. She tells him that she had to take an interest in Matt so they (read: HE) wouldn’t lose Marisa. She even pokes and prods a little bit, wondering if somehow Bernie is in love with Marisa. She twists the knife a bit into Bernie by saying he must remember love and lust are two different things, and Matt is the better photographer. Margaret doesn’t want to lose Marisa, her current cash cow as it were, to something as silly as jealousy. She tells Bernie that Matt will have access to Marisa and that these things are not decided by people like Bernie. He’ll just have to deal with that.

Also, she wants him to lay it on thick with Marisa and sex her up but good so the model will be more likely to pose “half naked” for the next big shoot. But, here’s the thing… It’s not all sunshine and puppy dogs. Sure, Marisa is happier and excited to still work with Matt. That’s good. But not so good is that Matt is pushed aside and has to see Bernie and Marisa playing house upon his return from Paris like nothing happened. Bernie is also jealous about how much happier Marisa is after she’s been working with Matt.

Well, it all comes to a head at a party put on by the magazine. Matt toasts Marisa and kind of nuzzles up to her, but is enticed away by Sally to dance. Marisa and Bernie start dancing, but another girl comes up and cuts in. Someone unzips the girl’s dress, and Bernie gets handsy. He then gets a little lecherous as he watches the girl begin dancing by herself and doing a striptease. Marisa is pretty bummed out about all this from Bernie but Matt saves the day and takes her away from the party to somewhere more private.

The next day, shit explodes against the fan. One of the nude photos that Marisa shot with Matt was sold to a nudie mag in another country. Believing she’s been betrayed by Bernie, she goes to see Margaret to demand answers. She says that it was the most important thing that she didn’t get published in the nude. Margaret first says why should it matter, especially in another country’s magazine? That… that’s not what Marisa was looking for in terms of an answer Margaret promised protection that those nudes would not be published if she signed on with the magazine. Then, Margaret reminds Marisa that what she signed was a release form for ALL photos taken by the magazine and their photographers.

And there’s the rub… When this movie went through reevaluations, the themes found went beyond what was stated as Glynn Christian’s experience of being a foreigner who recently moved to London. Sure, some of the feelings of isolation and trouble fitting in with a new culture right away are present. Early on, Marisa is bashful, shy, and introverted. When Margaret and Bernie start glazing her up and/or seducing her, she starts feeling more welcomed into this new world. However, all the while, she was being used for someone else’s gain, and multiple people were working against Marisa to that end.

So this movie is about manipulation. It’s especially centered on young, beautiful women. Marisa was lured away from Italy to England with a shot at becoming a brand new face that everyone would see on the covers of magazines. They wooed her with compliments about how she looked and how she posed, and how the photographer liked her. They forced her into signing that contract by first having her pose in the nude, something she did not want to do but felt pressured into doing so in order of even having a shot at getting the job, and then saying that her becoming a signed model with a contract would ENSURE the nudes wouldn’t get out. It’s putting the cart before the horse. To get the job, you have to pose nude. But to make sure we, or anyone else, wouldn’t publish those pictures, you have to get the job. To get the job, you have to sign with us, the people who possess these sensitive photographs. It’s gross and it’s manipulative and it preys upon Marisa’s naivete.

Then the pictures got out anyway.

Marisa says Margaret leaked the photos because she was jealous of her success and her work with Matt. Margaret holds firm that she did not sell the photographs. After giving Marisa some money, Margaret calls Bernie, who also says he didn’t sell the photograph. He only admits to leaving the magazine for Marisa to find to shock her. Both Bernie and Marisa then blame Matt. It was his photographs after all, but he also denies it. He loves Marisa, but Marisa tells him to get lost, and she’s going to run away with Bernie.

Matt tells Marisa that the whole thing was concocted by Bernie. Bernie had to have created this disturbance to get Marisa away from Matt, and keep her to himself away from Margaret and Neville. However, Bernie has convinced Marisa, once again using manipulation, that Matt really was the culprit and he is a scumbag or trying to pin everything on him to win Marisa for himself. However, Matt learns that Neville uses these pictures of models he employs as leverage and money making opportunities.

Back at Bernie’s, Marisa is planning to leave. She keeps asking Bernie when he will be joining her but he doesn’t commit to anything. Just as she is on her way out, Margaret arrives. As Marisa tells Margaret that she and Bernie are leaving, Bernie plays dumb. Matt arrives to tell Margaret that he and Marisa will be the ones leaving and quitting the magazine. Marisa tells Margaret that she will never ruin her. Marisa agrees to go with Matt when he tells Margaret that dignity and self-respect will always be more important than money.

After Matt and Marisa defy Margaret and leave, Bernie tells Margaret to not worry because there will always be others they can manipulate. Margaret and Bernie were the masterminds of everything all along. Margaret laughs and says that no one ever told Marisa that she was sleeping with “her husband” (Bernie).

Her Private Hell is really pretty good. It’s full of a lot of good performances, particularly from the main players, Lucia Modugno, Terry Skelton (Bernie), Daniel Ollier, and Pearl Catlin (Margaret). I do think it is edited with zest, and any scenes in which Marisa is being photographed are full of life and fairly vibrant. Sure, the movie does get into some melodrama in the climax, but I will mostly forgive that based on some really good stuff in the first 60 or 70 minutes. This movie is subtle in how the antagonists are constantly scheming and manipulating and playing this poor, naive foreigner to get what they want out of her, which is just money from her looks. If nothing ended up happening with Matt at all, I suspect Marisa would have been a superstar in modeling for about a year, hardly see any money, and then quickly and sharply decline and be left working a secretary job in London unable to really even get back home.

It’s just another cautionary tale of how people who make others famous will just chew them up and spit them out once they get what they can from them.

One thing I find kind of most interesting is that I think everyone is going to turn out to be okay in the end. Matt and Marisa will be successful. He’ll be an artistic photographer, and Marisa will be his partner and subject. Bernie and Margaret claim they have lost their job and everything, but they will also be fine. Shit… They say as much when Bernie reminds Margaret that there will be other models and photographers they can take advantage of and buy and sell to their hearts’ content. Losing Marisa is like not realizing you dropped a $20 bill out of your pocket. It sucks but you aren’t ruined over it. If Matt and Marisa say anything negative about Neville and Margaret, the powerful will only insulate themselves with either their own overpowering notoriety in the biz or they will sue. Matt and Marisa will only be seen as idealists by those who will naturally side with the more powerful couple.

That’s the kind of a bummer takeaway – nothing ever changes. The powerful tend to remain powerful. It’s impossible for one or two people to take down an individual power duo and for it to actually last. Power consolidates around itself just like the non-powerful can consolidate around themselves. Those who want what Matt is doing aren’t going to be as interested in the mainstream stuff that Neville and Margaret pump out through the stated lesser photographer, Bernie. Everyone will go their separate ways, and Neville, Margaret, and Bernie will absolutely find yet another fresh-faced girl who is juuuust hungry enough to believe she will be the next top model, pose nude, and let them pressure her into playing ball their way. Matt and Marisa will be happy together and with those who will appreciate their artistic integrity. While the antagonists will frustratingly win in what they do, we should at least take solace in our protagonists in this movie winning out in what they do too.

Wowzers… okay! That does it for this week’s review. It’s sad that we’re down to only two more Norman J. Warren movies left, but I’m glad we got a really good one for this week. Next week, it’s time to visit with another favorite director in these parts, Brett Piper! We’ve looked at a handful of his movies from 1985 to 2000, but let’s look at something much more recent. Join me in seven days as we fend off an attack from Queen Crab!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve gotta pose dick-out for a couple of uppity magazine owners that I’m sure will not use these to blackmail me at all.