Customer Reviews

Hideout in the Sun

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If the gentle sensuality of beautiful women strolling around a nudist camp is enough to make you smile, you'll likely enjoy "Hideout in the Sun", a good example of the "nudie cutie" genre of the late 1950's and early 60's. "Nudie cuties" were exploitation flicks that played it safe by observing the letter of the law of the period, which essentially said that nudity in itself wasn't obscene, as long as sexual content- real or implied- wasn't part of the mix, too. After all, I'm sure it was reasoned, why produce outright pornography and risk getting shut down by those pesky local community standards when you can just make something like "Hideout in the Sun" and sell almost as many tickets?

Like "Hideout in the Sun", many "nudie cuties" were set in- where else?- nudist camps, as they're among the limited amount of places where one could credibly depict extended scenes of nudity that obstensibly had nothing to do with sex. Other examples of this undeniably picturesque but bizarre genre include "Diary of a Nudist" and "The Monster of Camp Sunshine", which is an honest-to-God nudist horror movie (and an extreme hoot, to boot).

Most "nudie cuties" at least go through the motions of delivering some kind of plot (again, to protect against charges of producing unlawful sex fare). This one features a bank heist plot, with the two heisters eventually taking refuge in a Miami-area nudist camp after their original getaway plans (which involve escaping to Cuba, which tells you how old this movie is), turn sour. The movie actually turns kind of sweet after that, as one of the crooks starts regretting his criminal ways and falls for a fetching redhead at the camp.

As said at the outset, if you can look past the strictly Ed Wood-style production values (or at least enjoy laughing at them), and just sit back and enjoy the pretty nude women walking around, lounging, and talking to one another (really, that's all they do), you'll get some modest pleasure out of this glimpse into this long-extinct genre. However, one has to laugh and wonder what poor raincoat-crowd types thought of all this back in 1960. They likely bought a ticket hoping for some honest adults-only fare and ended up getting endless scenes of the crooks' car driving around Miami before and after the heist, no sexual content at all in the actual nude scenes, and to top it all off, a long, laughably filmed "action sequence" at the end where one crook (the unrepentant one, of course) is chased by the cops into one of those roadside reptile zoos they have all over Florida and ends up fending off both cops and poisonous snakes, which inexplicably are slithering around free inside the zoo. So much for titillation.

This nice little DVD package offers a full-screen print of the film on disc one, a widescreen print on disc two, samplings of other exploitation fare of the period (some fairly sexual, some generally innocent like the main feature), an interview or two, and an interesting commentary track by an expert/enthusiast of the "nudie cutie" genre. "Hideout in the Sun" itself looks pretty good for a film that made heavy rounds on the exploitation circuit, though there are occasional bad splices and sound dropouts. If fringe cinema of years past interests you, however, don't let these small flaws stop you from ordering this bucolic curiosity.

I'm sure "Hideout in the Sun" was filmed with a cynical eye towards cashing in on local rubes' desire to see something a little naughty, but, watching the movie, one can't help but feel that the filmmakers- once the cameras were rolling- gave themselves over to honestly documenting the innocent, playful sensuality of the nudist camp and its denizens. I say this because the middle section of the film gets into a nice little "naturist groove", and you'll probably start feeling the peacefulness and relaxation of the camp's residents yourself. I know I did. Not a bad little bonus from a silly exploitation film, huh?

I just received this movie in the mail today, I've watched about half of it ... I had to stop because my kids came home, I don't want them to think Daddy's a perv. This is my first Doris Wishman DVD, but it won't be my last.

The plot goes like this, 2 guys Rob a payroll Company of $100,000, on their Getaway to "Cuba" they make a stop at "Food Mart" to switch cars, when their new car has a dead battery, they decide carjack another car to continue their plan, of course they pick a good lookin' Dame with great Hooties. The Bad Guys find a card on this little cutie that says she is a member of the "Hibiscus Country Club" they decide to Hole'Up there until the Heat Cools Down. It's here they find out they are at a Nudist Camp. One fella poses as her husband, puts on his Birthday suit and goes outside for fun, the other stands in the window and watches the nudists outside (I'd do the same thing) and that's where I left off.

What I love about this film is it's attempt to make good film with no money. Doris obviously did not have the equipment to record sound on location, so it was dubbed in later, and it never quite looks right, but the actors deliver the lines well anyway. The camera work is often shaky, but it still looks great, and was all shot on beautiful sunny Florida days.

The best and funniest part of this movie is the nudity, since they could not show genitalia at the time, Doris had to strtegically cover em' up. Everyone is always carrying a towel a beachball or wearing an apron. When they are playing volleyball (a favorite sport at nudist camps), the team with it's back to the camera is naked, and the team facing the camera has shorts on, in school the Coach would call this "Shorts and Groins" OOOH! that's bad!

That's where I left off. My kids are going to bed so it's time to finish the movie.

I have the Double Feature Nude on the Moon/Blaze Starr goes Nudist coming in the mail. Watch for my review.