Chained Girls (1965; Joseph P. Mawra)
A faux-documentary with narration that starts by asking the question, “Who and what is a lesbian?” The assertive narration keeps us well informed and we’re told right away that “Jealousy among lesbians is common due to their emotional immaturity.” The dirty black and white twilight photography suits the unpleasant portrayal of lesbians who mainly prowl, lurk or participate in secret soirées. “Many lesbians, as a rule, are heavy drinkers, many of them alcoholics.”
The Bull Dyke is given much attention as the pipe-smoking butch who prefers wearing oversized men’s clothing and gets off on pushing other dykes around and orchestrating rapes. “The dyke is a very selfish person.” the narrator continues.
I would be very surprised if at this point anyone still thought that this was a legitimate documentary. Chained Girls was certainly distributed on the sexploitation circuit and if there was an audience anywhere that understood sex and violence it was that audience. This was not filmed for the Nature Channel or PBS. That it is devoid of any actual journalistic merit is obvious and I seriously doubt the film was ever meant to be taken too seriously since the audience it was made for demanded sex and violence in nudies and roughies like this. Eventually all pretense of Chained Girls being an authentic documentary is hilariously forgotten, “The dyke will fight…sometimes to the death.” Thankfully we do get to see two dykes ‘fight to the death’, but it is unconvincing.
The film ends in a way that must have annoyed many men who sat in those theaters when this was first screened. Every one of those horny straight men could see that even a lesbo butch in a form-fitting frock looks pretty good, but when the nudity finally comes, it’s the manly, pipe-smoking Bull Dyke who disrobes! It’s a slow grind into the groin for those men who would have preferred that one of those sexier Baby Butches wrap up the final reel. Adding insult to injury is the incongruous, womanly shape of the Bull Dyke who slowly releases her large breasts from their pointy bra. There are worse ways to give lesser men complexes about their sexuality.
Overall, the film is short enough that the comedy doesn’t wear too thin. Recommended
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