Miss Nymphet's Zap-In (1970)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Herschell Gordon Lewis

Writer:

Herschell Gordon Lewis (writer)

Release Date:

June 1970 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

You'll Be Zapped Right Out of Your Chair

Plot:

A series of short comedy sketches featuring the topic of sex. They include: a French governess who paints...

Plot Keywords:

Female Nudity | Independent Film

Cast

Dixie Donovan
Tony Mark
Christine Murray
Ed Pawlin
Sonora
Mij Shippen
Jessica Leland
Phyllis Stengel		(as Phyllis Stangel)
Wendy Winders
Sonald South
Cathy Adams
Sonny Seymour
Elsie Wine
Ed Kelly
Michael Cheal

Runtime:

USA:76 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:X (self applied)

Filming Locations:

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Creative Film Enterprises Inc.

Movie Connections:

References "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" (1967)

Laugh-In Goes to Hades!

Regardless of his barbarian sexual politics, Herschell G. Lewis is a unique filmmaker. His works range from clever and haunting art-brut (TWO THOUSAND MANIACS, MOONSHINE MOUNTAIN) to cynical, crude and artless product exploiting a current fad (COLOR ME BLOOD RED, MONSTER A-GO GO). Sadly, the long-lost MISS NYMPHET'S ZAP IN falls into the latter category. It isn't Lewis' worst film: that honor must go to the abysmal THE MAGIC LAND OF MOTHER GOOSE. But ...ZAP-IN is likely Lewis' second-worst film.

The title suggests that Lewis was trying to capture some of the spirit of TV series ROWAN & MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN. Sadly, ...ZAP-IN reflects none of LAUGH-IN's topical political content or vivid pop-art style. ...ZAP-IN is a pointless, ghastly, unfunny, pitiful piece of junk, a cinematic monstrosity, a smutty vaudeville sketch show with hopelessly winded attempts to "modernize" it.

These attempts to turn this horrid flop into "pop art" consist of three basic elements. The title sequence features crummy drawings of a frog turning into a prince (why?), self-effacing credit cards, and some pathetic color-optical switching.

Next, almost every "bit" is followed by generic footage of two topless chicks dancing to terrible music in what looks like a cluttered movie-props warehouse. The topless dancing segments are further "enhanced" by absolutely horrible superimposed titles which reveal rotten and hoary puns and jokes such as, "Confucius say, 'Man who messes himself in church = sits in his own pew'!"

Last and certainly least, there are the "Zap" inserts, which also bookend the sex bits. These shockingly primitive snippets of film must be seen to be disbelieved. Lewis got the entire cast together, stood them in front of a dull gray wall and made them prance around in a circle like "Musical Chairs". Every few seconds, they stop and yell "Zap!". They fall, they ham, they posture, they giggle, they look every which way including at the camera, in vile moments that look more like home movies of a drunken 1960's barbecue than professional film shots. There is even an older gentleman dressed inexplicably in a Little Lord Fauntleroy costume, to finalize the pathetically desperate atmosphere of this woeful footage.

The episodic "bits" consist of sexual situations propelled by hoary, lame jokes. The infantile and obvious punch lines are mumbled without conviction by lethargic amateurs, rendering much of the humor absolutely indecipherable, and making the bits "impotent" on at least two levels. Thus, watching this wretched film is ofttimes like watching a foreign film, so failed is its attempt to communicate. The mostly-naked women and mostly-dressed men stumble around dreary, threadbare sets, doing their little dinner-theatre shtick with first-take candor.

Considering Lewis' legendary misogynist agenda, the females actually get off pretty lightly in this chapter of his "art of hate"; they are mere sex objects, and nothing worse... Our "hostess" is, in her own words, "Miss Nympho, er, tee hee, Miss Nymphet!". Miss N stands uncomfortably topless during her scenes, delivering stand-up lines with nary a nod to nuance, emoting or timing. One failed joke follows another, without any audience reaction, until the editor mercifully cuts to the next doomed setup.

The "bits" themselves are so angry and awful and adolescent that they come across as unreal. The cumulative effect of this barrage of appalling jokes, feebly told, is one of numbed shock combined with slack-jawed disbelief. At long last, the naked Miss Nymphet returns to bid us adieu, and chirps, "Make Love, Not War!" Four men wearing suits enter, pick up the girl and carry her off , as she mumbles lethargically, "Oh, well, better Bed than Dead..."

The parting shot is the remaining "Zap" inserts, unedited. We see the gang twist, freeze, mug and posture, over and over again, like day one of an improv class in purgatory. This stark moment of creative failure lifts the illusory veil of cinema once and for all, and confirms that MISS NYMPHET'S ZAP-IN is primal theatre of the absurd.

Lewis unleashed MISS NYMPHET'S ZAP-IN in 1970, using his "Sheldon Seymour" pseudonym for director's credit. Not one to sit idle, Lewis more than redeemed himself later the same year with his baffling existential masterwork, THE WIZARD OF GORE. The difference in quality and content between these two features could not be greater, and makes one wonder why Lewis even bothered with vapid tripe like ...ZAP-IN.

Yet it could be argued that MISS NYMPHET'S ZAP-IN is Lewis' treatise on the Sexual Revolution, his Kinsey Report, his "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex...", his CARNAL KNOWLEDGE. It covers, in brutally literal and terminally adolescent fashion, the entire catalog of sexual phobias and crusades and fetishes of the age, with striking clarity.

If it were only more competent and coherent, MISS NYMPHET'S ZAP-IN might be some sort of classic. Still, if you desire to see how seriously depressed and confused a time this was in terms of progressive social relations, and the truly pathetic attempts to jump-start them in a debased, alienated society, MISS NYMPHET'S ZAP-IN is a historical document without peer. It shows the sadness, bleakness, anger and deceit of the era with fierce transparency. MISS NYMPHET'S ZAP-IN is both ugly and angry (as are all Lewis' films, which lampoon and exploit the flaws of society with ruthless candor and complete derision). It is also the grimmest and meanest sex "comedy" ever made.