The Gore Gore Girls (1972)

A young stripper named Suzie Cream Puff (Jackie Kroeger) is doing her makeup when a black-clad stranger arrives and shoves Suzie's face into the mirror, repeatedly, before slitting her throat and mutilating her face. The shocking crime leads a city paper to send journalist Nancy (Amy Farrell) to seek out the renowned private detective Abraham Gentry (Frank Kress), whom she is authorized to pay $25000.00 just to investigate the case, and another $25000.00 if he solves it.

Gentry begins his investigation at a local strip club, questioning strippers and employees of the clubs to find out if they know what happened. Meanwhile, the bodies start to pile up even faster, each one viciously mutilated and with their faces disfigured. Lieutenant Anderson (Russ Badger) of the local police force is also on the trail, but having much less luck.

Nancy can't stay away from Abraham, and, despite his wishes, becomes his partner in the search. In the end, he decides to use her as bait to find the killer. It turns out that all the strippers who died worked in clubs belonging to Marzdone Mobilie (Henny Youngman), so Gentry encourages Mobilie to run an amateur stripper contest to flush out the killer.

Yes, The Gore Gore Girls is as ridiculous as it sounds. Still, I found it to be my second favorite Herschell Gordon Lewis picture, just behind 2000 Maniacs!. Lewis and screenwriter Alan J. Dachman seem to be quite aware of the movie they are making, and there is plenty if intentional (if tasteless) hilarity to be found here - where in most Lewis movies the hilarity seems to be unintentional. There is plenty of that here as well, and those are the parts I refuse to spoil.

It does contain quite a bit of blood (better here than in his previous movies, but still quite fake looking) as usual, which is a Lewis hallmark. The unfortunate thing is that there are too many go-go performances. I say unfortunately because it seems that they are there to pad the movie, and none of the dancers are talented enough to hold interest.

The Gore Gore Girls (1972)
Duration: 81 minutes
Starring: Frank Kress, Nancy Weston, Hedda Lubin, Henny Youngman
Director: Herschell Gordon Lewis


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