Take Me Naked (1966)

Michael and Roberta Findlay would become sexploitation legends with their infamous Flesh trilogy (beginning with The Touch of Her Flesh), which pushed the boundaries of good taste and good sense further than those things should ever be pushed. The Flesh films certainly have their own depraved charm. Take Me Naked, made in the previous year, can be seen as a kind of dry run for the Flesh films. Many of the Findlays’ trademarks are already apparent but they haven’t yet dived really deeply in the sleaze pool.

A New York City bum tries to add some meaning to his miserable existence by watching the woman in the apartment across the way. Elaine doesn’t have much of a life either. She spends most of her time drinking or masturbating. In a weird way Elaine and the bum are kindred souls. They’re both lonely and lost. They weren’t necessarily bad people but they’ve hopelessly lost their way. That, the voiceover narration informs us, is what modern cities do to people. The scenes of Elaine masturbating are shot in a way that is, for the Findlays, rather sensitive and compassionate. She isn’t just seeking sexual pleasure. She’s searching for a meaning to her life.

We (and the bum) soon discover that Elaine is a lesbian. Again the Findlays show an unexpected sensitive side. Having Elaine with her head between June Roberts’ thighs should be really hot but instead it’s almost unbearably sad, as Roberts gently strokes her hair.

Roberta Findlay takes a starring role as Elaine, with Michael playing the bum’s ill-fated friend and fellow bum. Roberta Findlay proves herself to be not that bad as an actress. Sexploitation legends Darlene Bennett and June Roberts both put in appearances.

The big surprise is that this is the Findlays not only being sensitive but poetic and arty as well. The voiceover narration includes copious quotations from the poetry of two of the greatest poets of the Decadent Movement of the 1890s, Pierre Louÿs and Arthur Symons. This is a movie that tries to be both scuzzy and arty. The early street scenes are incredibly bleak and desolate, in a grimy arty way.

The Findlays share the writing, directing and producing credits and did everything else as well from the editing to the cinematography to the music, with Michael using the name Julian Marsh and Roberta using the nom-de-plume Anna Riva.

There’s virtually no plot. That’s because Elaine and the bum don’t have actual lives. They live entirely in their own fantasy worlds. Elaine has read far too much of the lesbian erotica of Pierre Louÿs and thinks lesbianism is all feelings and poetry. In her fantasies lesbians never take their panties off because that would be too real for Elaine. They just hold each other and think poetic thoughts. The bum sees himself as the hero of a decadent novel, an over-sophisticated man of the world. In fact he’s terrified of women. Neither can handle reality and that of course will have unfortunate consequences.

Most of the movie is taken up by poetic dream sequences, to the point where you start to think this is not a roughie after all. The roughie elements do eventually kick in, and this happens in a remarkably abrupt way which may at first seem like a weakness in the film. But it does make a sort of sense - it’s the characters’ dream worlds suddenly shattering in an instant, which is what tends to happen to dream worlds.

In the 60s and 70s a lot of film-makers were fascinated by the idea of combining art and softcore porn. Both mainstream film-makers and exploitation film-makers made attempts to do this. The results were sometimes embarrassing but occasionally it worked. When mainstream film-makers tried it they invariably fell flat on their faces, party because they were so clearly uncomfortable with the erotic elements and partly because they thought it would be more arty to make the erotic elements as unappealing as possible. Exploitation film-makers like Radley Metzger, Joe Sarno, Jean Rollin and Jess Franco had more success.

It’s a surprise to see the Findlays trying it, and trying really hard to make it work. It doesn’t quite come off but it has a few moments that do work and it has a few striking and poetic visual images. Considering the minuscule budgets the Findlays worked with (a few thousand dollars) it was a brave effort.

This is part of a Something Weird double-header that includes another Findlay film, A Thousand Pleasures, plus Findlay-themed short subjects.

Extras include an excerpt from Mnasidika, a 1970 movie from the Findlays which demonstrates that the obsession with decadent poets and lesbians in classical Greece displayed in Take Me Naked was an ongoing thing. There’s also an excerpt from a 1970 Roberta Findlay feature, Janie, which seems to be the story of an extraordinarily violent young lady.

Take Me Naked isn’t quite a complete success but it’s an example of the cinematic oddities that make the world of 1960s sexploitation so much fun to explore. It’s worth a look.