The Wild Pussycat (1969)

The Wild Pussycat is a 1969 Greek exploitation movie directed by Dimis Dadiras and written by Giannis Tziotis. Now I know what you’re going to say, that you didn’t know the Greeks made exploitation movies. Well they did, and very good ones too. Movies like the crazy but excellent Tango of Perversion (1974).

The Wild Pussycat exists in two radically different versions. Firstly there’s the export version which is a wild psycho-sexual thriller. That’s the movie Dimis Dadiras and Giannis Tziotis wanted to make, but there was no way it could be released in Greece. So a whopping 25 minutes was cut from the film and replaced by footage which turns the movie into a straightforward crime thriller with a totally different plot. Mondo Macabro’s Blu-Ray release gives us both versions, with the export version in English. It’s obviously the export version with which this review is going to deal.

Nadia (Gisela Dadi) is trying to find out why her sister Vera committed suicide. She finds Vera’s diary and the tragic sordid take unfolds in a series of flashbacks, intercut with scenes from the present as Nadia seeks revenge.

The other interesting thing is that The Wild Pussycat was remade in 1975 by Joe D’Amato as Emanuelle and Francoise (AKA Emanuelle’s Revenge). The stories are pretty much identical. The best ideas in D’Amato’s movie were lifted directly from The Wild Pussycat. The only difference is that the endings are slightly different.

Vera had been living with a good-looking sleazebag named Nick (Kostas Prekas). One day Vera arrives home to find Nick in bed with his new girlfriend. He hands Vera her suitcase. Vera leaves and then throws herself in front of a car.

From reading Vera’s diary Nadia concludes that Nick was totally responsible for her death. Nadia decides that Nick will have to pay. But it will be a woman’s vengeance. Only a woman could devise a scheme like the one Nadia cooks up.

The plan will only work if Nick walks into her trap. That won’t be a problem. Nadia knows that if she offers sex as the bait Nick will go for it.

Nick has always manipulated women. Not only does he not know what to do when a woman manipulates him, it doesn’t even occur to him that a woman could be more fiendishly cruel and manipulative and devious than he is. He just has no idea what is about to happen to him.

Nadia’s revenge is delightfully perverse but I’m not going to spoil the movie by offering you any hints as to its nature. It’s much more fun when you don’t know exactly what she’s planning.

Gisela Dadi doesn’t have to do all that much in the way of acting but she needs to look right. She needs to look like the sort of women who could persuade Nick to do what she wants. And she has to give off the right crazy vibes. Gisela Dadi proved to be a perfect choice on both counts. She's a very striking woman. I love her eye makeup.

Kostas Prekas is wonderfully slimy and nasty as Nick and he adds a nice touch of outraged self-pity when the nature of Nadia’s revenge becomes clear to him.

The movie was shot in black-and-white and takes full advantage of the black-and-white 60s aesthetic.

Dimis Dadiras keeps the plot steaming along at a brisk pace.

So the big question is which film should be preferred, Dimis Dadiras’s The Wild Pussycat or Joe D’Amato’s Emanuelle and Francoise? I think it’s largely a matter of taste. Both are worth seeing. Dadiras’s movie is perhaps just a bit more genuinely perverse and of course Dadiras gets extra points for coming up with the idea first. I think Emanuelle and Francoise is well worth seeing but perhaps The Wild Pussycat has the edge.

Mondo Macabro have included both the export and domestic versions on their Blu-Ray released plus a bonus feature film, another Greek production, The Deserter (written and directed by Christos Kefalas in 1970).

The negative of the export version of The Wild Pussycat has been lost so Mondo Macabro had to reconstruct it using materials from a release print and from the domestic version. We’re warned that there may be slight print damage but in fact it’s so minor you’re unlikely to notice it. Overall the export version looks just fine.

The Wild Pussycat is a superb example of the female revenge genre with some sexploitation sleaze thrown in. Highly recommended.

Tango of Perversion (1974)

Tango of Perversion (AKA Tango 2001) is a 1974 Greek exploitation movie and it’s certainly the first Greek exploitation movie I’ve ever seen. Thanks to those wonderful folks at Mondo Macabro we can now get to see such exotica in our own living rooms. It was directed by Kostas Karagiannis.

Tango of Perversion tells the story of Joachim (Vagelis Voulgaridis), a young man who suffers from impotence. As as result he’s obsessed by sex. During the opening credits sequence Joachim is siting in a night club watching people dance and he imagines that all the girls are naked. Which gives Karagiannis the opportunity to show us bare boobies in the first few seconds of the movie. Which shows that Karagiannis understands what the exploitation movie biz is all about - you need to get the attention of the punters right at the start.

Joachim gets his jollies by filming people having sex. He films them through a one-way mirror. He lets his friend Stathis (Lakis Komninos) borrow his apartment whenever he wants it so that Stathis can have sex with his various women. Stathis has no idea that his sexual escapades are all being captured on film.

Joachim’s doctor has assured him that there’s nothing physically wrong with him. His impotence is caused by fear. It makes sense that Joachim would be afraid of women because he seems to be afraid of just about everything.

Stathis earns his money as a gigolo. He is having trouble with his girlfriend Joanna (Erika Raffael). He hasn’t got the money to buy drugs for her and if she can’t drugs from him she’ll get them from a lady friend. A lesbian lady friend named Rosita.

One memorable night Joachim lets Rosita borrow his apartment. Rosita and Joanna are just about to get down to some serious lesbo loving when Stathis shows up and things get all crazy and violent.

The upshot of all this is that Joachim makes an amazing discovery. He’s too frightened to have sex with living girls but dead girls aren’t frightening at all.

It’s all very sleazy (as you may have gathered) but it’s sleazy in a slightly tongue-in-cheek off-kilter way that makes it less offensive than it sounds. There’s just a hint of black comedy to the proceedings. It’s subtle but it’s there and it makes things more interesting. The fact that it’s hard to tell just how seriously we’re expected to take the movie that makes it intriguing. I suspect that we’re supposed to approach it in a slightly ironic way. On the surface it seems serious and then again it’s just too outrageous to be taken seriously.

While this is not a sex comedy Joachim is the kind of character who’d be right at home in that type of movie. He’s shy and awkward and decidedly nerdy. I liked Vagelis Voulgaridis’s performance. It’s low-key and I liked the subtle glee he takes in his new-found depravity.

Lakis Komninos as Stathis is also good. Stathis is a very nasty piece of work and yet he’s slightly absurd. He tries very hard to be a tough guy but he’s such an obvious loser that you don’t really believe he could ever be totally successful as the hard man he thinks he is.

Erika Raffael looks gorgeous. She had a brief career in the 70s, mostly in Britain. I know nothing at all about Dorothy Moore, who plays Rosita.

There’s plenty of violence but no gore. There’s quite a bit of nudity and sex although by 1974 western European standards it would be considered to be pretty tame.

The major influence at work here is obviously the giallo and Tango of Perversion does have a giallo look to it. It’s not quite a giallo though. To my mind there’s a slight Theatre of the Absurd feel to this film. At times it reminded me just a tiny bit of Polanski’s Cul-de-Sac.

The transfer is fullframe. Mondo Macabro warn us upfront that the source print was problematical but the transfer is actually very good. Both Greek and English language versions are provided (the former with English subtitles). Extras include a documentary on postwar Greek cinema which is actually pretty good.

Tango of Perversion doesn’t have the punch that the best giallos have but it’s sexy and kinky and twisted and enormously entertaining with some rather nice plot twists. Highly recommended.