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Russ Meyer DVD/Film Question

post #1 of 13
Thread Starter 

Two years ago I bought all three of those way cool Japanese box sets that (at the time) were just released and with reasonable expectations as to quality, have been fairly pleased with the purchase. The sets themselves are top-notch. And audio is all in English with optional subs.

Anyways, on to the purpose of this thread and my question...

Having never been a fan of the movie "Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens", I never bothered to pop it in the player until tonight. Was bored and since Russ flicks are usually a late-night kick, thought I'd give it a shot. Opinions aside, I was kind of thrown off by what appeared to have been self-censorship in the film and I'm wondering if it was done at the time of production for the censors board/ratings or some "funny editing" added to my DVD.

Basically, everything is seen that one would expect in this kind of flick, from top to bottom. But whenever there's a close-up or on-screen movement that might yield something potentially more "explicit" than the usual skin shots, a blur appears over the image.

Shots of guys running around pantless are for better or worse, blurred out where it counts. (won't complain about that, hehe)


Kitten Nativdadhkbvetjlhryrigblargh is shown in all her um bushy splendor... but when she bounces around potentially revealing more to the camera, the mysterious blurry orb floats gently beneath her, um money shot!

hehe... basically what I want to know is if I have an edit cut of the film on DVD, or was this the way it was released theatrically, which I suspect?

 

post #2 of 13
Japan has a rule in which you are not to show pubic hair or privates as they optically censor those parts. They been doing it on all release prints, videos, laserdiscs for ages, since the 60's, I figured they'd stop by now, but guess they still are doing it.
post #3 of 13
Thread Starter 
No, pubes are present! 

It's just when a chick gyrates or moves around to possibly expose what lies under the rug, there's a blurry effect that probably would've been part of the original film. I can't imagine full frontal shots of guys for example in a Russ Meyer flick. Even though this is supposedly his most exploitative and worst.

I would just like to know if anyone is familiar with the original film enough to recall whether this was inherit to the theatrical run, or with other region (UK) dvd's??
post #4 of 13

I'll go back and double-check this evening, but I could have sworn that this does not appear in the theatrical cut.  I believe the R2's don't have this blur effect.

post #5 of 13
My LDs do not have this effect.  I have the Vixen collection boxset.
post #6 of 13
Thread Starter 
Thanks, so you guys are saying that you see full male frontal on your copies as well?




When this kid runs down to the water, his junk is not blurred out??
post #7 of 13
Okay, just double-checked and there is no junk blurring.  Of course, now my wife wants to know why I'm zooming through this movie looking for the junk scenes... 

I would also add that I thought the original release rating for this was a single X, which would probably allow showing everything minus explicit stuff.  At least I recall that being the U.S. rating.
post #8 of 13
Thread Starter 
Well that answers that... thanks!

Even though I doubt I'll be revisiting this one anytime soon, I still hate the idea of owning censored DVDs; Especially really expensive ones imported from Japan!

Thanks for your help!
post #9 of 13
I have the US, UK, and Japanese DVD releases of all of Meyer's films. I didn't notice any blurring in BENEATH... SUPERVIXENS, but I sure did in FINDERS KEEPERS, LOVERS WEEPERS! (1968) and CHERRY, HARRY... AND RAQUEL! (1970). The earlier film has about a second of male privates in a shot early on in the film where a man is very briefly exposed. It is pixilated on the Japanese DVD. CHERRY... has a shot of Charles Napier jogging frontally nude with his junk flopping all over the place, though the Japanese release has a flesh-colored blur obscuring his bouncing genitals. The UK and US releases are uncut, though they use what appear to be older (and inferior) film transfers with different color, film condition, analog video artifacts, etc.

I can post still-frames if necessary :-)
post #10 of 13

Well, well... Many of his later films DID have male frontal nudity, though most of the time they were of the synthetic variety. Those aren't censored on the Japanese DVDs.

Check out the 3-foot members on display briefly in UP! (1976) [not to be confused with Pixar's film, definitely not!] and SUPERVIXENS, as well as the extreme close-up of the head of an erect penis near the end of BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRAVIXENS (Meyer claimed it was actually his on display). These shots are not censored on any DVD releases that I know of.

Yes, I realize I sound like a pervert. It's just that male frontal nudity is so rare that when I see it in anything but porn I'm taken aback a bit and I remember it. Boobies make no impression, really, since they are everywhere in movies.

Quote:
Originally Posted by MarcoBiscotti View Post
 I can't imagine full frontal shots of guys for example in a Russ Meyer flick. Even though this is supposedly his most exploitative and worst.


post #11 of 13
Ughhh...Charles Napier, jogging nude...no thanks!
post #12 of 13
He's a brave man, that's for sure. I wouldn't want to be shown jogging flaccid, but he sports a big grin and goes for it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by bgart13 View Post

Ughhh...Charles Napier, jogging nude...no thanks!


post #13 of 13
Thread Starter 
Thanks Chuck!

I did notice the blur in Cherry, Harry, etc... Most of the synthetic members (heh) seem to be obscured by either the camera/lens or optical effects in Ultra Vixens on my Japanese box set.
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