Review of Vixen!

Introduction

Vixen was made in 1968, three years after Russ Meyer`s mould-breaking Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill, but was Meyer`s biggest financial success, grossing $6million return on a $75,000 budget. The movie led to his first of two major mainstream Hollywood assignment Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls and The Seven Minutes.

Vixen was one of the first movies to receive the MPAA X-rating. While totally softcore, there was enough nudity and sexual action to give many international censors pause for thought. Taking two years to reach the UK, it was trimmed of twenty minutes from its 72 minute running time by the censors of the day. This release is, of course, uncut.

Erica Gavin stars as Vixen Palmer, Canadian nymphomaniac. Married to a charter pilot, she cheerfully bonks anyone who comes to hand while hubby is flying tourists in and out of the area. She`ll even shag her biker brother. However, there is one person she steadfastly refuses to get jiggy with and that`s her brother`s pal Niles - and that`s because he`s black.

Full of pneumatic ladies, horrifying racial stereotypes, cartoon violence it`s your typical Russ Meyer fun.

Video

Shot in 1.85:1, according to the IMDb, but presented here in what I would suspect is open-matte 4:3 (you`re seeing more of the picture than theatre audiences would have). I also suspect that Original Aspect Ratio is not a primary concern of the director, otherwise I`d expect the transfer to have matched the supplementary interview which is presented in 16:9 anamorphic. Meyer shot the movie himself as well as co-writing, co-producing and co-editing.

Audio

Mono soundtrack. Dolby Digital 2.0 reproduction. The sound is rather tinny and very typical of a 1960s soundtrack.

Features

Another good movie for extras in this series. There is an audio commentary for the movie with director Russ Meyer, and a retrospective interview with the stars including a very bony Erica Gavin and Harrison Page (who played Captain Trunk in Sledge Hammer!). The interview is presented in anamorphic 16:9. There is a photo gallery and the ever-present trailer reel.

Conclusion

First in the Vixen trilogy and sharing nothing in common with the other two pictures in the series apart from the word Vixen in the title. For this picture, the title was a veiled reference to a popular lesbian drama The Fox (1967, based on the DH Laurence novel). Played for sensuality rather than laughs, there is one bizarre moment where Vixen gets it on with a trout while go-go-dancing to seduce a newly-arrived tourist husband.