1001 NIGHTS (1990)-IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBS, LETTERBOXED PRINT. The young, beautiful virgin Sheherazade (Catherine Zeta-Jones, in her film debut) embarks on an adventure through the legends of the 1001 nights. Aided by a genie living in 1990 London who watches her through his TV, she meets all the great heroes and kings, when she's not getting stripped completely naked, that is. 1001 Arabian Nights is of interest for the chance to see a very young Catherine Zeta-Jones in her film debut, and seeing her completely naked at least 3 times. Zeta-Jones was barely 21 when she made this, and like I said, it is only of interest for seeing her appealingly pleasant, curvy body unclothed at various points - such as when her clothes fly off of her when she endures a great fall and the completely naked young lady falls into the lap of a drunken Sinbad the Sailor.
BARON OF THE LOCKS (1960)-IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBS, LETTERBOXED PRINT. Yet another 'old-fashioned' gem released in 1960, more or less the apex of the new wave, cocking yet another snook at upstarts Truffaut and Godard and showing once again how the Big Boys do it. There's a lot of charm on display here, liberally laced with Style and/or vice versa. Leading man Jean Gabin has not one but Two lovely leading ladies in Micheline Presle and Blanchette Brunoy and winds up with neither. At eleven years his junior Brunoy was nearer his age - plus she's the one we WANT him to bond with but even the twenty-two year age gap between him and Presle is not really so noticeable. The plot - based as so often on a tale by Georges Simenon - has Gabin as a con man, a sort of Gallic David Niven, living on his wits and exuding charm at every pore. He and Presle were once an item and now team up again briefly, fleecing all around them. Brunoy has the most sympathetic part as the owner of a riverside Inn. Veteran Jean Delannoy hits another one out of the park. Eat your hearts out, Truffaut and Godard.
THE DEVIL OF PARIS (1962)-IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBS, LETTERBOXED HD PRINT. THROW AWAY THE SHITTY SOMETHING WEIRD PRINT! Director:André Hunebelle. Cast: Jean Marais, Jill Haworth, Dany Robin, Raymond Pellegrin. Paris, 1840. Whilst driving his fiancée Irène home in his horse-drawn carriage, the Marquis Rodolphe de Sombreuil accidentally knocks down a poor man in the street. Believing the man is only slightly injured, Rodolphe gives him a purse containing some money as a recompense. But the man dies not long afterwards, leaving his wife and daughter Marie desolate. The widow is then arrested by the police, who believe she stole Rodolphe’s purse. When Rodolphe is called to the police station to settle the matter, the distraught widow entreats him to go in search of her daughter, who has recently gone missing whilst looking for work. In fact Marie has been abducted by an old hag named La Chouette and forced to work as a prostitute. Meanwhile, Irène has grown tired of being neglected and becomes the mistress of Rodolphe’s enemy, the Baron de Lansignac. The latter is a mean businessman who has also taken an interest in Marie...
FEMMES FEMMES (1974)-IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBS. Director:Paul Vecchiali. Cast: Hélène Surgère, Sonia Saviange. A curiosity shot in 16mm, with the personnel working for free and using Brechtian acting techniques, the same year that Jacques Rivette released his fascinating story about other two femmes: "Céline et Julie vont en bateau". Paul Vecchiali though is a French director seldom mentioned in the circles of film buffs, but his name should be added to their ruminations, at least for this title, which relies upon the leading actresses' improvisations of dialogue and situations. Hélène Surgère and Sonia Saviange play two mature actresses living in a Parisian flat. While one still tries to work on the stage and in television, the other stays at home sewing dresses for a client or two: both Hélène and Sonia are alcoholics and little by little they are detaching from reality. Characters appear and disappear only to reinforce their isolation, while the story-telling recourse of change of fortune is mainly used as a joke. An experimental work that deserves more prominence, with outstanding work from Surgère and Saviange, who impressed Pier Paolo Pasolini so much during 1974 Venice film festival, that he cast both in his last film, "Salò or The 120 Days of Sodom", as one of the story-tellers and as the pianist, respectively, in which they pay a small hommage to Vecchiali's movie.
FOR THE DAMES (19)-IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBS, LETTERBOXED PRINT. More a murder mystery than a spy flick, Ladies' Man qualifies under a vague espionage angle; four beautiful women (naturally) who happen to be married to powerful men in politics and industry are blackmailed into revealing government secrets. Eddie Constantine reprises his role as the hard-drinking FBI agent Lemmy Caution with his usual winning sarcasm whose fame is such that when we first see him, he is being mobbed by female admirers. Such is the life. There are plenty of humorous moments, nice cars, and beautiful women to keep the viewer amused but this film, like many in the series, tends to slide by without making much of an impact. Paul Misraki's score is as undistinguished as the rest of the film. It's a pleasant diversion and the popularity of Constantine at the time is easily understood as he chides the back guys, woos the women, and relies on brains and brawn to get the job done.
HOWLERS OF THE DOCKS (1960)-IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBS, LETTERBOXED PRINT. Director :Lucio Fulci. Cast: Elke Sommer, Mina, Adriano Celentano. Fast-pasted, almost plot less musical-comedy showing the adventures of a band of friends, teddy boys, and rock n' roll chicks, whose crazy, fun-loving habits inspire jiving from some citizens and bitter complains from others. When a prominent jeans company owner feels that the kids bad reputation is adversely affecting the sales and public image of their product. Prevailing upon the youths to help, he engineers a series of promotional stunts to lighten the publics opinion of these good-hearted rock n roll naïf, and their lovely jeans. But an unscrupulous politician makes things difficult for the youngsters
LOVE AND COLD WATER (1976)-IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBS, LETTERBOXED PRINT. Director: Jean-Pierre Blanc. Cast: Annie Giradot, Miou Miou. Very touching, this little french drama speaking of people, simple people, trying to make it together. You have here Julien Clerc - the famous singer - Miou Miou, who was his mate in actual life, and our good friend Annie Girardot. Annie lives with her lover Julien Clerc, and for this purpose, she leaves her former boyfriend. But it appears that our Young male lead falls himself for a female youngster - Miou Miou - a sort of hippie from Netherlands. Miou Miou is very attractive here, so offbeat. So, she and her new lover leave from Annie Girardot's apartment and go for a trip through France. And suddenly...
PARADISE FOR ALL (1982)-IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBS, LETTERBOXED PRINT. Director: Alain Jessua. Cast: Patrick Dewaere, Jacques Dutronic, Fanny Cottençon, Stephane Audran, Jeanne Goupil. Doctor Valois has invented the "flashage", a cure for depressed people. After having tested it on monkeys, he tries with a first human patient, Alain Durieux. This is great success, everybody's happy except may be Alain's wife, Jeanne, who's worrying about the changes in Alain's personality. Other patients use the treatment with similar successes, and Valois's happy about it. But the monkeys are changing: non-cured ones are made mad by the overstability and stereotyped behaviour of the cured ones. So are the humans. When Valois realizes he can't stop the process, he decides to "flash" himself. Sadly ,it was to be his last movie: he committed suicide a few months later, sometimes truth can be stranger than fiction.
PHYSICAL SCANDAL (1992)- A guy cheats on his wife with a hot Italian lady. This leads to numerous sex scenes. His wife finds out and plans to have the other woman killed. There are some other plot related things that go on but really that's it. Some cool double crossing goes on. This all leads to the most gratuitous and I imagine longest running nude chase/fight scene in film history. Basically, the mistress is surprised in the tub by her would be black gloved killer and is chased for what feels like an eternity with no less than 2 long struggle/fight scenes. Then when you think he has offed her she turns out to not be dead. He then chases her (still nude) with his truck outside.
THE PISCIOTTA CASE (1972)-IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBS. Director: Eriprando Visconti, Cast: Tony Musante, Carla Gravina, Michele Placido. The magistrate, Scauri, inquires into the mysterious poisoning death of Gaspare Pisciotta, the imprisoned assassin of Salvatore Giuliano. He very soon finds himself struggling against a conspiracy of silence, which Scauri must therefore overcome in order to indict two powerful mafia bosses. His only hope comes for a brief moment from the testimony of the young prosecutor Lojacono. But The Organization is the most strong: the young prosecutor withdraws his deposition and the magistrate disappears in mysterious circumstances.
THE SIEGE OF SYRACUSE (1960)-IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBS, LETTERBOXED PRINT. BEAUTIFUL QUALITY AND 121 MINUTES UNCUT! Director:Pietro Francisci. Stars: Rossano Brazzi, Tina Louise, Sylva Koscina. A decent peplum loosely based on historical events, dealing with the valiant hero Archimedes : Rossano Brazzi , the man who was 2500 years ahead of his time , concerning his adventures , invents and lovers : Tina Louise , Sylva Koscina in the location of Syracuse . As Syracuse is a neutral place in the long war between Roman Empire and the Chartaginians ; however , things go wrong when at the island a dispute takes place and then Syracuse government and Archimedes are coerced to intervene against Rome . As Syracuse holds a Roman siege between 214 and 212 B. C. resulting in fateful consequences. Amazing Secret Weapon of Archimedes ! . He harnessed the sun's energy to destroy the entire Rome armada !
A SOFT SUNSET (1984)-IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBS. Director Raimondo Del Balzo. Cast: Mel Ferrer, Patrick La Place, Christiana Borghi. Margie Newton originally had more screen time in the film, including dialogue. However one of the actresses became jealous of her and demanded that her scenes be trimmed down to the point that Margie Newton has nothing more than a silent cameo in the film. The young Nicoletta gets a huge heritage. Her shady stepfather, however, recruits a currency dealer to lock her up in a Swiss nursing home and seize the money.
A TRILLION DOLLARS (1982)-IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBS, LETTERBOXED HD PRINT. Director: Henri Verneuil. The more I see of Patrick Dewaere's starring vehicles the more I see why his early and tragic death was a loss to the continuation of the French film legacy. Verneuil's direction and film adaptation are on the level of Lumet's Day of the Condor. A complex story that unfolds as the suspense and tension build. There's a superb cameo by Jeanne Moreau. With a few subtle jesters, she conveys abandonment and loneliness while leading Dewaere toward her real goal and the gist of the story. Dewaere as the earnest muckraker has found a character he could have relied on but his audience will be forever disappointed. The rest of the cast is solid with mention to the smooth, icy corporate globalist played by Mel Ferrer.
TRINITY SEES RED (1970)-IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBS, LETTERBOXED HD PRINT. Terence Hill plays a hitman who assassinates whomever the highest bidder want taken care of. This leads him to a small village where the oppressed peasants want to start a worker's revolution. The bad guy is the local land owner and aristocrat (Fernando Rey), who horribly abuses the laborers in his community. This chap wants "Trinity" to kill the revolutionary leaders before it gets out of hand. Now it's up to Hill if he (and his kid brother) are to continue their evil ways or take some responsibility for their actions.
UTOPIA (1978)-IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBS, LETTERBOXED PRINT. After a painful separation from the woman he loved, Julien (Laurent Terzieff) leaves his apartment .He goes in search of his yesterday friends but no one answers him and the town stays silent. So Julien is leaving the city in search of his childhood, his old school and his favorite teacher. To the children who are here today he speaks a language that charm them as it also charms the discreet Sylvie (Dominique Sanda) His original teaching method is not to the taste of everyone. It will even provoke the hostility of the parents and the administration. He's fired. Continuing his way, Julien goes to the sea and enters the sea. The classroom doors suddenly open and a huge crowd of children suddenly appears at the top of the dunes preparing to invade the beaches. Then a storm breaks, a new battle is prepared and Utopia seems closer than ever.
VIOLATED (1989)-IN SPANISH WITH ENGLISH SUBS. Directed by Valentín Trujillo, María Luisa Alcalá. Starring: Valentín Trujillo, Olivia Collins, Mario Almada, Eleazar Garcia Jr., Claudia Guzman, Agustin Bernal, Roxana Chavez. This is a story about a sick rapist who's chasing women in the city even in their own flats. He puts on headphones and l;istens music while raping next victim. A freelance reporter and his nerdy friend try to expose him but this leads this guy to their girls. One of them was murdered and another one brutally raped. The reported vows to take bloody revenge...Plenty of action, some nudity, violence, good music, some humor and overall strangeness makes this movie a must for the lovers of weird cinema!
THE WHITE THE YELLOW AND THE BLACK (1975)-UNCUT LETTERBOXED 106 MINUTE PRINT! Don't go into this film expecting a typical Corbucci high body count shoot 'em up. This time around the famous `other Sergio' takes a stab at the comedy/spaghetti sub-genre which was ever so popular in the waning days of the Euro Western. `Bianco, il giallo, il nero, Il' is more or less a bizarro take on the East meets wild West classic `Red Sun'. Eli Wallach plays `Black Jack Gideon', a straight and narrow lawman who reluctantly gets mixed up in a quest to recover a prize Japanese show pony that's being held for ransom by a renegade band of army deserters with a penchant for dressing up like Indians. Accompanying him on his journey are the notorious bandit and womanizer `Swiss', played by Giuliano Gemma and `Sakura' the dung handler turned Samurai played by Tomas Milian. Many unintentional laughs and moments of genuine surreal weirdness set to the equally strange Guido & Maurizio De Angelis score almost guarantee this film to delight fans of the genre and confuse and frighten the average viewer.
SUMMER NIGHT IN TOWN (1990)-IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBS, LETTERBOXED PRINT. Director: Michel Deville and starring a very naked Marie Trintignant and Jean-Hugues Anglade. Nuit d’été en ville is arguably director Michel Deville’s most daring film, and certainly one of his most intimate. This is film minimalism at its most extreme. For those who can appreciate this kind of slow-moving, introspective drama, Nuit d’été en ville offers a rewarding cinematic experience – a work of striking poetry and humanism, and a candid, intelligent portrayal of that most intimate of human relationships. Having made love for the first time, a young couple attempt to get to know one another. Neither had expected anything more than a one-night stand when he, Louis, accepted an invitation from her, Emilie, back to her apartment one hot summer’s evening. As they talk, they enter into each other’s lives, and it becomes clear that their relationship will last well beyond the next morning…
DITIRAMBO (1969)-IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBS, LETTERBOXED PRINT. Director: Gonzalo Suárez and starring Lou Bennett, Ángel Carmona, Francesc Català Roca, Luis Ciges, André Courrèges, Sylvie Couvignon. Considered by some as the first modern movie of the Spanish cinema, "Ditirambo" it recovers a personage to whom Gonzalo Suárez already had given literary life in his novel " Rocabruno bate a Ditirambo". This peculiar alter ego of the author, interpreted by himself, is an atypical hero who, with Buster Keaton's impassiveness, never smiles, says always the truth and carries out, implacable, all the missions. The widow of a writer entrusts him, at the beginning of the film, to locate a former lover of his husband with the intention of taking revenge for her.
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GIRL WITH DIRTY HANDS (1977)-IN GREEK WITH ENGLISH SUBS. I fell in Love with Deborah Shelton when I saw her in BODY DOUBLE. Who new she made sexploitation films in Greece in the seventies? An erotic adventure of two young people against the American underworld. In fact the movie mainly follows the story of a young girl called Aliki (Deborah Shelton) through her various misfortunes and misadventures, half of the time told in flashbacks and with the staple Greek voice narration. There isn't much of an 'American Underworld' to be found though, except maybe for 3 tough guys speaking Greek. She moves in with a backstabbing couple only to get involved into a murder plot, then falls into the hands of a backstabbing gang, then escapes with a stoner hippy and on and on, until she meets the good guy. Generally she gets dragged around a lot and she gets violated a couple of times. The female antagonist (which i suppose is "Miss America" also gets laid a lot, and on her own free will. Meanwhile the Police tries to solve the puzzle.
THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (1969)-IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBS, LETTERBOXED PRINT. Director: Paolo Spinola and starring Giovanna Ralli, Carla Gravina, Anita Sanders and Silvano Tranquillo. This film had long been a subject of curiosity for me due to the very good score by Ennio Morricone. The slim plot involves Laura, a woman married to a respected college professor, who feels herself becoming so marginalized in her marriage as to be, as the Italian title states, invisible. Of course, it isn't helped that there's a quasi-predatory redhead with a pixie living in their stately home, ostensibly a cousin, but really just trying to have her way with the husband and wife. Or that's what she thinks anyway; the underlying theme is that her perceptions are often at odds with the reality of the situation. (Hence the alternate U.S. title of THE FANTASIES OF A SENSUOUS WOMAN).
Helvetica Light is an easy-to-read font, with tall and narrow letters, that works well on almost every site.
DANGER DOLLS (1969)-IN SPANISH WITH ENGLISH SUBS. Once again 3 cute agents in black suits have to destroy the plans of another madman who wants to rule the world, again the housekeeper(Ochoa) tries to make her part funny, but once again she fails in this. Other characters from the first movie (DANGER GIRLS IN ACTION) appear, like the detestable Fernando Casanova or Erick Del Castillo in the roles of boyfriends of 2 of the girls. Featured are scenes of fights, bikinis, high society style scenes, dance numbers by Emily Cranz. One new thing about the film is the girls have Batman-like weapons, a helicopter, a ship and like this is a low budget film and don't have money for something like the batmobile use 3 black mustangs convertibles with phone and some simple weapons.
DESIRE (1990)-LETTERBOXED PRINT. Josie Bisset was 19 when she made this Bruno Mattei sleaze epic, right before stardom would hit with MELROSE PLACE No doubt her copious nude scenes here helped to bury this release from ever happening in the US. Well no more! Jessica Hamilton goes to Venice for a piano competition, but she's running a little late. On arrival in Venice, she finds that she has no room reservation and that she has been taken out of the competition. She is befriended first by Luca Renosto a same-age Venetian boy and secondly, Alvise Contrarini, the director of the competition
PLAGIO (1969)-IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBS, LETTERBOXED PRINT. Director: Sergio Capogna Cast: Ray Lovelock, Mita Medici, Alain Noury. According to star Ray Lovelock 'Il plagio was incredibly successful in Japan – not so much in Italy because it was rather a bizarre story. It was the story of a very rich young man who falls in love with a couple who are at college with him. He ‘plagiarizes’ them in the sense that in the end he manages to go to bed with both of them. But the young man has problems – there’s a suggestion that he killed his parents, who were so much in love that he felt excluded. It’s quite hard to understand but the story takes place in 1968, a time of revolution, of student revolt. There were two nude scenes, not vulgar mind you, but they led to the film being confiscated.
SIGN OF THE COMMANDER (1971)-IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBS, 5 PART TV MINISERIES. Stars Ugo Pagliai, Massimo Girotti (Terence Hill's Dad), and Paola Tedesco, Carla Gravina and Rossella Falk. Without a doubt, this is one of the best Gothic Horrors to come out of Italy (filmed in B&W) and so few people have seen it. A Cambridge professor finds a mysterious diary written by Lord Byron while he was in Paris, and this diary contains the secret of eternal life: the command. Invited to Paris to give a lecture about the diary, Edward Foster will discover that unless he find the commando, he'll die on his 40th birthday, that is in just a week. This is a mini-series in the same line as Polanski's The Ninth Gate. The plot is full of mystery and supernatural phenomena. Comes on 3 dvds for $25
AOOM (1970)-IN SPANISH WITH ENGLISH SUBS, LETTERBOXED PRINT. I have been looking for this offbeat Spanish horror film by Gonzalo Suarez for decades! The film stars Lex Barker, Teresa Gimpera, Fernnado Rey and Craig Hill. The story finds Ristel (Lex Barker) as an actor bored with life who breathes his soul into a doll. The doll is taken by a dim-witted servant, and Ristel's lover Ana (Teresa Gimpera) hires a detective to investigate his death and find the missing doll. When the doll begins to talk, the frightened servant smashes it on a beach, and Ristel's soul enters the body of a strangled woman. She comes to life and confronts Ana, but the woman is strangled again by her original killer. Ristel's restless soul tries to take refuge in a stone.
DESIDERIA (1980)-IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBS, LETTERBOXED PRINT OF PERFECT QUALITY. An overweight teenage girl (Lara Wendel) walks in on her slutty mother (Stephania Sandrelli) having a three-way (right after the daughter's birthday party). She later confronts her mother and gets her birthday cake shoved in her face. She then tries to commit suicide, but survives and loses a lot of weight. Now attractive to boys and men for the first time, she turns into a world-class tease, manipulating a smitten boy her age (so she can rob his parent's house), her mother's middle-age jerk of boyfriend, an older would-be revolutionary, and his sinister contact.
SEWER RATS (197)-ENGLISH DUBBED WITH SWEDISH SUBS, LETTERBOXED PRINT. Man, Dagmar Lassander is hot to trot in this one! Director: Roberto Bianchi Montero and Stars: Richard Harrison, Dagmar Lassander, Ivano Staccioli and Gordon Mitchell. "Una donna per sette bastardi" (Sewer Rats) literally translated means "A woman for seven bastards". Even if it takes place in modern times, this film has somewhat the feel of a spaghetti western. A man with no name is driving through a dirt road when his car breaks down. He's a strong-built man, but a cripple (and that's how the others will call him). Nearby there is an old mining town composed by some wooden houses. When the Cripple (Richard Harrison) arrives there, he'll be received with hostility and distrust. There are six bastards in the town. There's Carl (Antonio Casale) that owns everything in the town. There's Gordon (Gordon Mitchell) that arrived there with a military uniform and is the partner of Carl. There's the Mute (Luciano Rossi). He plays harmonica all the time and besides being mute, he's also a hunchback and seems to be an imbecile as well. There's Smith (Ivano Staccioli) that escaped from a nuthouse. There's Dick (Luciano Bartoli), a runaway convict. There's the Old Man (Andrea Checchi). And finally there's Rita (Dagmar Lassander) who is married to Carl and is the only woman in town. Rita is constantly harassed, beaten and raped, but she seems to enjoy the whole thing. There's dissension and distrust among the crew and they are constantly fighting against each other (often because of Rita). As to the Cripple, he carries a secret with him. Nobody knows who he is or what he wants.
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SILENCE THE WITNESS (1974)-LETTERBOXED PRINT. Director: Giuseppe Rosati and Stars: Bekim Fehmiu, Rosanna Schiaffino, Aldo Giuffrè. De Luca is killed by Marchetti's chauffeur. Marchetti ordered the murder because he was to be accused by De Luca. The two have a car accident while going home to get an alibi. There is a witness, Sironi, who calls the police. But when the police arrive the car has gone and so have the two men. Inspector Santi and young judge Novelli look into the strange case. Marchetti, however, is a powerful man and Sironi and his family begin to be obsessed first by threats then by assaults.
BLOOD ON MY SHOES (1983)-IN SPANISH WITH ENGLISH SUBS. Obscure Jess Franco film starring Antonio Mayans, Lina Romay and Howard Vernon. Sangre en mis Zapatos (Blood on my shoes) is a crime/spy adventure along the lines of such earlier works as Kiss me Killer and Opalo de Fuego. While not the most widely available Franco titles, those are some of the more accomplished and accessible films of the director's post - 1971 period. The busy, pulpy plot of Sangre en mis Zapatos involves various agents spying on and double-crossing one another trying to locate a valuable formula encrypted in the music code (a hell of a McGuffin, Jess!). Lina Romay - the great Lina - gets to show off her comedy chops playing a totally silly but ultimately sympathetic character, very different from the tough survivor she'd played in Franco's excellent Furia en el Tropico. Antonio Mayans with his greying beard and shades plays an undercover CIA agent. He's rugged, charismatic and never bland.
LIBIDINE (1979)-IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBS, LETTERBOXED PRINT. Director: Raniero di Giovanbattista. Cast: Cinzia De Carollis, Marina Frajese, Ajita Wilson. Prof. Gianni, a scientist, sequestered in his villa wants to transplant the metabolism of the snakes into the human body. His neglected wife Carla meanwhile takes every opportunity to cuckold him with the butler when he is in the laboratory . Meanwhile his adolescent daughter Anna returns from convent school. Her sex-crazed step-mother hits on her, but the girl instead becomes quite enamored with her father's genetically modified snake after it protects her twice from being raped.
