INSANITY aka Striptease (1976) Mogul VHS Video US

US MOGUL HOME VIDEO RELEASE NTSC VIDEO VHS
English Language


Stars: Terence Stamp - Corinne Clery - Pilar Velazquez ( fury) - Veronica Miriel ( llamada delsexo ) Georges Rigaud - Manuel Zero - Gerard Tichy - Alberto de Mendoza - Fernando Rey- Conchita Montes - Dir. By: Germain Lorente - ( tres mujeres de hoy )

Video Info:
"Striptease" (1976) was released in the US as "Insanity" by Mogul Video during the mid 80's. Mogul released many Euro B-Movies in English Language Dubbed Versions. Most where Italian films from the mid-70's. These Mogul videos where often un-cut versions with great picture quality. Mogul videos were marketed with garish video covers, usually illustrated in gaudy colors with exploitive titles that misrepresented the content of the film. In this case both the film title and the video title are misleading.

Review:

Corinne Clery stars in the inappropriately titled film "Striptease". Not that there is not an ample amount of stripping from the "Story of O" actress. But the title suggests a plot about a tawdry stripper or perhaps a hot nightclub filled with salacious stories. What we have instead is a take off of of Jean Luc Godard's "Contempt". Terence Stamp plays an eccentric producer who hires a disillusioned director to save his disastrous film project. Clery - the stripper, is his muse, the inspiration for his over ambitious and pretentious film project.

Similar to "Contempt" the small group of characters spend there time together in a remote island estate. Here they gather to drink and spout philosophy. Stamp is willing to risk everything for his new project. He becomes infatuated with Clery as an ex actress turned stripper with a mysterious past. He sees her life story as a way to get back into film making. His lover (Silvia) becomes jealous of the attention to the film and the real life subject. Stamp confides to his lover that he must make himself fall in love with the stripper in order to really be able to create his film. They both agree to play along with a charade that will make Clery fall in love with him. Stamp's old friend (George) is brought on to direct. The director is sauced half the time and when sober shows little interest in the project other then the money it provides him. He does however, manage to warn Clery that the film maker is a cold hearted user who plans to destroy her in order to make his fictional character a reality. The slow moving story of affluent euro-types is thankfully interrupted about every 5 mins. with a stage scene of Clery dancing nude.

The story takes place in only two places, either the nightclub or the estate. There are only 4 main characters. So you wouldn't think that such a small set-up would require narration. But, yes indeed the Clery subjects us to her inner most thoughts via narration. A sexploitation version of Contempt sounds like a great idea. To bad this isn't it. We are supposed to believe Stamp as a devilish manipulator but the audience never really feels any real threat to the Clery's character.

Notes: Director Germain Lorente also directed Tres Mujeres de Hoy with Charo Lopez. Another film concerning cabaret show girls. View link to see my post of the MAGO us video release of this film. Mexican actress Veronica Miriel makes a brief cameo appearance in "Insanity". Her more important films will be included in this blog shortly.

Plot Keywords: Stripping, Movie Production, Love Triangle,

See RETROSEXYCINEMA for more info on Corinne Clery & Pilar Velazquez

For more INFO on Terence Stamp see CINEBEATS Blog