Nude on the Moon– can there ever be a film title to top that one? I seriously doubt it. This whacky gem is included in this new box set from AGFA- The Films of Doris Wishman: The Daylight Years, the final collection of films by the great female exploitation director. These represent her humble beginnings as a filmmaker. Her trademark feet and ashtray cutaways; lusty black & white melodramas; not to mention Chesty Morgan– were years away. But we can revel in her nudist films, even though you have to endure endless shots of happy naked people playing volleyball or tennis, a hedge or ball strategically placed to hide their genitals.
When I interviewed Doris Wishman years ago for Paper magazine she told me that the death of her husband was the reason she began her career as a filmmaker. That she needed some major distraction from her grief. But, according to her biographer Michael Bowen, that was not exactly the truth. No matter what brought her to this decision I’m thrilled it happened. Wishman worked for film distributors in New York, so she knew the business. Producer Walter Bibo’s financially successful Garden of Eden was called “not obscene” by the courts who said it was okay to show films about nudist camps, just as long as there wasn’t any sex involved. So, Doris headed to Florida to shoot her first nudist film- Hideout in the Sun.
Hideout in the Sun (1960) was a family affair. Doris’s sister Pearl lent her the money to make the film and niece Judith Kushner wrote the theme song (which was sung by Ralph Young of the singing duo Sandler & Young). The movie is about two criminal siblings- Duke (Greg Conrad) and younger brother Steve (Earl Bauer) who rob a bank of a $100,000 payroll. (Their dubbed voices sound like they just escaped from a 1930s Warner Brothers gangster film). Chased by police they kidnap a young woman named Dolores (Dorothy Courtney), commandeer her car, and decide to hide out at the Hibiscus Country Club which Dolores is a member. What the two men fail to realize is that it’s a nudist club. (Oh please- is this any weirder then two men getting in drag to flee from the mob in Some Like It Hot?) Anyway, Steve and Dolores begin to fall for each other while wandering naked around the club playing volleyball, badminton and archery or just lounging nude by the pool. The happy sunbathers sit on the grass, knees raised to hide their private parts. With towels draped over their laps. Or just stupidly holding an inflatable volleyball tastefully in front of their crotches. Bad brother Duke gets a fitting finale for the snake in the grass he is. And Steve promises to return nude to Dolores after his prison term. Filmed in “Nuderama.” Even though Doris gave the director’s credit to the cameraman, this is her film, and you can see a younger Wishman leaving the bank in the beginning.
Nude on the Moon (1961) was Wishman’s second feature and most beloved of her nudie epics. Once again Judith Kushner wrote the lilting theme song: “I’m mooning over you my little moon doll…” Two rocket scientists (in long johns, with silly helmets on their head) create their own spacecraft and arrive on the moon to find it looks suspiciously like Florida (where it was filmed). They discover a race of rather hefty-looking topless moon dolls in saggy brown panties with pipe cleaners sticking out of their heads. Filmed in the amazing Coral Castle, a crackpot Miami tourist attraction that was originally created by the eccentric Edward Leedskalnin and made up of stone walls, tables, crescent moons, fountains and a sundial. It’s a fitting setting for this deranged treat.
Diary of a Nudist (1961) The film begins with all these smiling happy nudists sitting around a corpulent man with a book in his lap reading the screed of the nudist. “There are many good reasons for the nudist philosophy. We believe that sunshine and fresh air must definitely result in both physical and mental benefit….We strive for a healthy mind and a healthy body.” Then we launch into the credits with a woman diving naked in a pool while the theme “Sun Lovers Blues” (by Judith Kushner) croons in the background. “Read the story on page one. ‘Bout the lovers of the sun. Read the story in the news. ‘Bout the sun lovers’ blues.” Arthur (Norman Casserly) a newspaper editor, gets lost while out hunting and stumbles onto a nudist camp. He gets his ace reporter Stacy (Davee Decker) to go undercover and write a scathing expose. But when she gets there and sees all these joyful nudists playing shuffleboard, volleyball and lounging around the pool grinning like idiots, her feelings change and she embraces the lifestyle. Special thanks is given to Zelda R. Suplee, who appears in the film, the director of the Sunny Rest Lodge in Homestead, Florida, who initially demanded the crew be nude also. Doris got around that edict herself.
Blaze Starr Goes Nudist (1962) Doris cashed in on the notoriety of Blaze Starr– a burlesque stripper who had a scandalous affair with Louisiana governor Earl Long. Starr plays a harried movie star who ducks into a movie theater and is entranced by Doris Wishman’s Diary of a Nudist. “Imagine, a weekend away from all the rush and pressure of movie making.” So, she drives to the nudist camp and meets the director (played by Ralph Young of the singing duo Sandler & Young), who invites her to join the colony. She spends weekends basking in the nudist lifestyle, watching naked men and women playing checkers or volleyball or paddling around in little plastic rowboats. Doris Wishman gives herself a cameo as a press agent’s assistant complaining to Blaze that she isn’t showing up for important publicity shoots. Wishman told me she got along famously with Blaze Starr and they remained friends over the years. What I love about the busty, red-haired beauty Starr is that she looks glamorous and trashy at the same time.
Gentlemen Prefer Nature Girls (1963) It used to be “gentlemen prefer blondes” now it’s “gentlemen prefer nude blondes.” Ann Bell (Joan Bamford) is a faithful secretary for a real estate firm. Tom (Lou Alexion) is one of her bosses but secretly is married to Ann. They have to lie about their marriage because their stodgy boss- Mr. Bennett (Jim Antonio)- doesn’t like inter-office relationships. They share another secret too- on weekends they drive to a nudist colony where they are members. Frolicking by the pool, listening to naked accordion players, even basketball in the buff. When their boss accidentally finds that Tom is a card-carrying member of the “American Nudist Association,” Tom is fired. “I can’t have a member of a nudist organization working for me.“ Ann and Tom run into one of their big clients at the nudist camp and they conspire to teach Mr. Bennett a lesson and get him to appreciate the healthy, wholesome joys of being on a seesaw with no clothes on.
The Prince and the Nature Girl (1964). I wonder if The Prince and the Showgirl would have been any better if Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe played the film stark naked? This is about Frank A. Prince (Jeffrey Niles) who is sent by his father to work at an office in New York City, “and exchange the idyllic palace for the boring glass palace.” Twin sisters Eve and Sue Pearson (Joni Roberts) head to New York to stay at their Aunt Mary’s while she is abroad. (You’ll recognize the gaudy drapes, furniture and home bar from other Wishman epics). They may be twins but Eve is blonde and Sue has dark hair. They get a job as secretaries in the office with Mr. Prince and both fall for him. Conveniently they weekend at a nudist camp (most all of the footage is outtakes and footage from other Wishman nudist films). Mr. Prince (who doesn’t go nude and wears shorts at the camp) falls for blonde Eve, but when she goes out of town for a wedding Sue puts on a blonde wig and starts romancing him. It eventually blows up in their faces but as the narrator says, “There’s no room for sadness at a nudist camp.”
The box set comes with wonderful liner notes: “Sunshine and Spaceships” by Something Weird’s Lisa Petrucci and an interview with Doris Wishman by Donald A. Davis. There are some terrific humorous and scholarly audio commentaries by Frank Henenlotter (Nude on the Moon), Michael Bowen (Blaze Starr Goes Nudist) and Elizabeth Purchell (Diary of a Nudist). I heartily encourage you to strip off all your clothes when you slip the Blu-rays in and watch these loony wonders in the raw for maximum enjoyment.
Elon Musk should bring Nude On the Moon with him when he travels to Mars on one of his space ships.