The First Nudie Musical (1976)

The First Nudie Musical is exactly what it says it is. It’s a nudie musical. And it was the first nudie musical. It defined the nudie musical genre. OK, so it’s the only softcore porn musical ever made. But I guess it qualifies as ground-breaking.

Harry Schechter’s movie studio is in trouble. His father founded the studio back in the golden years of Hollywood but now Harry has to make porno movies in order to keep the studio afloat. He’s produced such classics as Stewardesses in Cages and Cheerleaders in Chains. Now he desperately needs a new idea. And he has one. A nudie musical. He’s sure it will save the studio.

It will have to save the studio. If it doesn’t his backers will move in, take over the studio and turn it into a shopping mall. That would break Harry’s heart. He fells he has a duty to his father to keep the studio going. It would also break the heart of his faithful assistant Rosie. They have two weeks to make this movie, and hardly any money.

Their troubles have only just begun. One of the backers has insisted that his nephew John should direct the film. John is not exactly well qualified to direct a sex movie, having zero experience with either film-making or sex.

Everything that could go wrong does go wrong but Harry doesn’t give up. Show business is in his blood. It’s all he knows.

This is essentially a backstage musical in the grand old “the show must go on” tradition of 42nd Street, but with naked women. And it really is a genuine backstage musical, obeying pretty much all the conventions of the genre - the setbacks, the heartbreaks, the dramas with the leading lady, the desperate need to come up with a hit, the last-minute search for a replacement for the leading lady. But of course it’s played for laughs. So it’s a sex comedy as well as a backstage musical.

It helps that the principals are actually pretty good. Stephen Nathan as Harry and Bruce Kimmel as the hapless director John handle the comedy adeptly. Cindy Williams, who plays Rosie, would go to TV comedy stardom in Laverne and Shirley and she’s excellent. While the three principals don’t take their clothes off just about everybody else does. While Cindy Williams keeps her clothes on she is the star feature of a musical production number celebrating the joys of cunnilingus.

Look out for Ron Howard in a small uncredited part (and no, he doesn’t take his clothes off either).

Bruce Kimmel wrote the script (and produced and gets a co-directing credit) and the script really is quite amusing.

The songs aren’t great but what’s interesting is that even though this was 1976 the songs are attempts at old-fashioned show tunes.

There’s a lot of nudity (and a lot of frontal nudity) and there are some sex scenes but this is a movie that really isn’t the slightest bit erotic. That’s not what it’s trying to do. It’s trying to be a musical comedy. The nudity is part of the joke. The sexual aspects are played for laughs, with reasonable success.

This is a movie that is serious about being a proper old-fashioned musical comedy. It respects the conventions of the genre. If you ignore the copious nudity it is in its own way a sincere tribute to that genre.

In fact at various times during the movie characters spontaneously burst into song, just as they would have done in a 1940s musical. Other songs form a part of the movie-within-a-movie. There are some pretty outrageous musical production numbers, such as Perversion, Lesbian Butch Dyke and the show-stopping (and jaw-dropping) Dancing Dildoes.

It’s also I guess a kind of satire on the skin-flick business and it’s significant that it was made in 1976, a time when the market for softcore skin flicks was starting to collapse under the onslaught of hardcore. If you wanted to do a softcore skin-flick in 1976 it helped to have a gimmick. It was a time when you could actually imagine someone thinking that a porno musical would a great idea. But this is not a porno musical - it’s a backstage musical that just happens to be set in the world of porno movies.

It’s also a fundamentally good-natured movie. Harry is a nice guy. Rosie is devoted to him. John is utterly useless as a director but he means well. The cast and crew are misfits but they’re harmless misfits. Despite the ludicrous nature of the concept we really do want Harry and Rosie to win out at the end. They’re likeable and we always want to see the little guy win in a struggle with the money-men.

And it really is quite funny. A lot of the humour is sexual, but not all. The scene with John doing the crane shots is one of the movie’s more inspired moments.

Now I know what you’re thinking. A musical should have some romance. Well there is romance and it’s actually a very wholesome romance.

I first became aware of this oddity through one of Danny Peary’s Cult Movies books, published back in the 80s. I managed to pick up all three volumes about twenty years ago and they really ignited my enthusiasm for cult movies. The First Nudie Musical was covered in the second volume so I just had to buy it on DVD. It then sat on the shelf for years until somebody recently mentioned this movie on the Classic Movie Fans group and I dug out the DVD and decided it was finally time to watch it.

This movie is an oddity but it’s a strangely engaging oddity. It shouldn’t work but mostly it does work. If you like all-singing all-dancing all-nude movies with plenty of laughs it’s the movie for you. What’s so appealing about it is that despite the nudity and the very very risqué sexual jokes this movie really is remarkably innocent. It captures the wholesome tone of 1940s musicals exactly. It’s a nice movie about nice people. It’s a feelgood movie. Even the nudity is wholesome. And unlike most modern comedies, it’s funny.

Image Entertainment’s DVD release, which is now hard to find, offers an acceptable transfer. The original negative no longer exists so it was necessary to work from some less than pristine prints and while there is some print damage the restoration is as good as this movie is ever going to look. And there are lots of extras. Including two audio commentaries and a documentary!

The First Nudie Musical had an interesting reception. Paramount had taken over the movie during the post-production stage but before it was released Cindy Williams had suddenly become a major TV star, also for Paramount. And she had become a star of family television. Paramount then decided they didn’t want her name associated with a porno musical so they deliberately sank the movie, despite the fact that it was getting rave reviews. Eventually a new distributor was found and the movie did solid business and gained a major cult following.

The First Nudie Musical is highly recommended for its quirky innocent charm.