Private Parts (1972)
Starring Ayn Ruymen, Lucille Benson & John Ventantonio
Directed by Paul Bartel
Written by Philip Kearney & Les Rendelstein

 

With a small amount of cash and nowhere else to go, Cheryl makes her way to a rough area in L.A. and ultimately, to her Aunt Martha's (Lucille Benson) hotel. Not really a hotel as much as an apartment building, Cheryl talks her Aunt into letting her stay there for the time being, and in return, she will help out around the hotel to earn her keep. This hotel is not the normal stomping ground for a youthful girl and it is filled with many eccentric, or better yet, strange residents. The hotel is also filled with many dark and dangerous secrets, including the hotel's resident serial killer that preys on any unwanted trespassers.

Cheryl's proverbial "rabbit hole" is the entrance to the seedy hotel, filled with fantastical characters that are not facets of the "normal" real world. All of the hotel's inhabitants are odd and varied in strangeness with one character who frolics around dressed up as a priest and seemingly enjoys big strong men. There is the usual crazy old lady lurking the halls, spewing weird shit about a girl named Alice to anyone who will listen and then there is George. George (John Ventantonio) is a creepy photographer that keeps to himself, but has some very unhealthy sexual issues.

Cheryl is attracted to George, who is a good looking guy and to top it all of, is an artist to boot. The reclusiveness and dark aspects of this loner are very appealing to Cheryl and the two indirectly play a game of slightly unhinged cat and naive mouse. However, Cheryl is a very willing mouse and her fairytale adventure is mostly driven by her curiosity towards sex. Cheryl, who hates being looked at as a kid, thinks that the way to being an adult is through sexual activity in a way and she pursues it in an innocent, yet very aware fashion.

She is driven by a sexual desire and with a wide eyed curiosity, she looks to do something that she is not familiar with, but stimulates her youthful, yet growing feminine needs. She may be young, but she is not intimidated by even the more out there aspects of sexuality. Some of the things that George is into and asks her to partake in are things that would scare off or creep out the average girl, especially a younger girl. That is not the case with Cheryl - she seems to be intrigued by it all and maybe sees it as a way of being liberated from childhood. Even when she realizes that someone may be peeping in on her in the bathroom, she is not even fazed by it, instead, she seems to be slightly turned on by the voyeurism of it all.

Ayn Ruymen as Cheryl is terrific and the driving force of the movie. Watching her navigate the halls and sneak around, curiously investigating all the little secrets that the hotel has to offer is very enjoyable. This is where you see that no matter how sexual she wants to be, or thinks she is, she is just a kid, exploring a place that offers curiosities that would be appealing and taboo to a girl of her age. Ruymen, who was much older than the age of her character Cheryl, captures the youthful inquisitiveness very well and I found that I was along for her journey with her. She has a great look and while being near mousy, she is also incredibly cute and looks great on screen.

Now I keep talking about this film as being like a fantasy, but that is more me picking at the top layer and pealing it back a little. Private Parts is a sexually driven film, but it is a horror film in many ways. Many of these aspects that I have brought up are in a way staples of the horror genre, but they are not as much the driving force of the film, which is the case with Private Parts. The hotel setting is creepy and filled with many odd dark corners, creaky floorboards, and quirky little intricacies that make it a nice visual world for Cheryl to explore.

There are a few murders, though they are few and far between, but the horror aspect more comes from the undercurrent that something is going on in the hotel that very few people seem to know about. There is a dark history, one that Cheryl's Aunt Martha does not want to see repeated as she is constantly warning Cheryl to stay inside and keep away from the other tenants. Under a seemingly normal and stable guise, Aunt Martha is as odd as the rest of them too and can switch hit her personality in a heart beat. One moment, she warns Cheryl to just keep safe and out of sight, then the next, she is preaching abstinence and yelling about how she will not put up with any painted whores in her home. Martha plays the cautionary role, but in true fantasy form, she would appear less than trustworthy at times as she is clearly hiding something. This almost pushes Cheryl to be more interested in persuing a sexual relationship with the shady and much older, George. Martha is protecting Cheryl to a point, but she is clearly protecting and hiding something else too.

Private Parts is directed by Paul Bartel, who is best known for Death Race 2000. His direction here is very solid and the strength of it comes from subtlety. There are little flashes of eye catching style - little touches that would show up from time to time, but it never went too far. This really works perfectly for a film with the slight fantastical element that is set in the real world. To go too far with the visual prowess would take away from the realism and the subtlety of the movie. The fantasy elements are never over the top, so why would the visual aspect go all out? These slight touches are just small reminders that there is something off about everything, showing that Cheryl is in a sort of skewed reality, but not in your face about it either.

There is plenty I didn't touch on in this review of Private Parts, but I plan on touching Private Parts as much as possible and I encourage you to do the same. It is an odd little films that fits perfectly the cult mold and while I enjoyed it when I watched it, I like the film much more after contemplating some of the deeper aspects of it. That is always a clear sign of brilliance for me, when a film can expose itself to be more than it appears to be even after I have watched it.