Today’s Warner Archive film review is slightly NSFW! That means it’s even more fun than usual! But it’s probably not something you want your boss catching you looking at.
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Sex Kittens Go To College! (1960)
A few months ago, a friend asked if I knew where to get a copy of Sex Kittens Go To College!, a film I had, rather astonishingly, never heard of. At the time there were no real sources for the film, but when Warner Archive released it on a MOD DVD, I grabbed that baby ASAP. A 1960 sex comedy with Mamie Van Doren? And John Carradine, Vampira, Norman “Woo Woo” Grabowski, and Elektro the Robot as “Thinko”? YES, PLEASE.
Mamie plays a college professor who is exposed (heh) as having been a stripper in the past.
There is a lot of silly humor of the beach party variety, which is why Jackie Coogan and John Carradine are here. Wacky hijinks with mad scientists, football players, bookies, and a surprisingly pouty Tuesday Weld occur.
There’s a gag where a gangster finds a violin in his violin case (gasp!) that made me laugh a hell of a lot more than it should have, but the monkey at the typewriter is clearly a joke that’s funnier on paper than on celluloid.
Then a lot of stripping happens!
Sequinned pasties, ladies and gentlemen. Please note that this is the tamest screencap of the stripping sequence I could manage; what is done to the robot is not fit to print. It’s not X-rated, mind you, but it is not family entertainment, either. This footage was removed for the American release, apparently, and has been restored by Warner for the DVD release, which is exciting news for pervs exploitation aficionados like myself.
This movie is crazy, folks, and I would never forgive myself if I didn’t tell you to run and buy this immediately. There are no special features except the trailer, but the print is gorgeous.
I leave you with this color footage of Elektro the robot at the 1939 World’s Fair, before he fell into a life of stripping and ended up on a VH1 “Behind the Music” episode, promising he was now off drugs and high on life.
How could anyone not like a movie entitled Sex Kittens Go to College? It’s got sex! And kittens! And Tuesday Weld! (And John Carradine!)
I find the information about the restored “naughty” footage interesting, because I recall a similar situation with High School Confidential!, also the bailiwick of producer Albert Zugsmith. Was it SOP to stick raciness in these films knowing that it would be snipped for American audiences but ooh-la-la’d across the pond, I wonder?
It must have been, or perhaps with the idea that they would rent the film to private/stag parties or film jernts that showed girlie flix.
I had no idea High School Confidential! had naughty footage. That’s one of my favorite low-budget teensploitation flicks of the 50s. I will have to seek these naughty things out!
I recall seeing it on a VHS tape that I rented when I worked at Blockbuster many moons ago, a compilation of naughty movie scenes but unfortunately I cannot remember the title – anyway, there’s a scene in Confidential! where a girl is lying on a bed, strung out on horse, and in European version she is topless. Vive la smack!
Say WHAAA? I had no idea! Those Europeans get all the breaks.
And oddly enough, Conway Twitty was there, summing it all up in song.
I was leaving Twitty and his amazing hair as a surprise! “What could be better than strippers defiling a robot… WOAH, CONWAY TWITTY”
Thanks for the info about the new “Seagull” release Stacia, as well as that news article about Bartlett and the animal cruelty claims.
And I totally need to see “Sex Kittens”. Ha!
Hi Adam! Did you happen to see this tweet a few months ago?
https://twitter.com/NDRRT8/status/352219472901320704
That’s Tom Hensley, keyboardist for Neil Diamond, who really liked your post on JLS.
Also, I’m going to just say this loud and proud: EVERYONE needs to see Sex Kittens Go To College.
Woah!!!! I definitely did NOT know about Hensley’s tweet!
You’ve made my weekend, Stacia :)
Yay! I thought you might have missed it. Twitter can be pretty awesome sometimes.
What you want: Marilyn Monroe.
What you’d settle for: Jayne Mansfield.
What you get: Mamie Van Doren.
(It speaks volumes about poor Mamie’s relative status even at this late date that the in-line spell checking recognizes “Jayne Mansfield” but has a problem with “Doren”.)
Still, if the movie also stars Tuesday Weld, John Carradine — what, was J. Carrol Naish busy that week? — and Elektro — er, I mean, “Thinko” — the Robot, that sounds like pretty fair compensation.
Mamie is a terrible actress, but I love her to bits. Her worst performance that I’ve seen so far is UNTAMED YOUTH but the rest of the film is so great in that low-budge 50s exploitation way that I forgive her.