Scyla

Probably because he was catering to a very small fetishistic subset of the porn audience, director Nick Millard could push the envelope at times. This early effort is poorly made but includes some explicitness not yet permitted at the time, giving it footnote status as an artifact. Retro-Seduction Cinema copyrighted the print in 2007 but it has sat on the shelf another 3 years before being unleashed on a retro-minded public.

While many of Nick's 1960s movies are duly annotated in the massive AFI Catalog of Feature Films 1961-1970, SCYLA is missing. Perhaps its then "offensive" visuals limited bookings and kept it completely sub rosa. In any event what emerges is a crudely constructed effort, shot MOS per Nick's usual m.o., with a lovely femme voice attempting to inform and arouse in voice-over.

The Greek myth of nymph Scylla (different spelling), luring unwary mariners to their death parallels that of Circe and also Charybdis. Though Scylla and Charybdis are two peas in a Greek pod, Nick chose to match the modern Scyla in this film against Circe. It's enough to make Laurence Olivier show up and yell "release the Kraken!". (Remember, Liam Neeson was only 15 years old when Nick made this film -he was too young to even be admitted to the theater.)

Our non-hero Greg is a beach bum who spots Scyla sun bathing and is immediately infatuated with her. Unfortunately, her boyfriend Montgomery shows up and whisks her away before Greg can even trot out a come-on line (in voice-over of course, this being Silent Era filmmaking). Greg trails them home and does some heavy-duty peeping as the duo make love. Fortunately for the fans Nick emphasized Full Monty nudity from each of his three actresses here, nearly unheard of for 1967 or even 1968 if my reckoning is correct, and probably illegal in most states.

Most fetishistic element (from the king of fetishists) is Scyla whipping Monty playfully with her hair during sex -I've seen this in another porn effort ASIA NOIR 6 where it made a whole lot more sense, seeing as the Dragon Lady of the piece had floor-length hair.

Unlucky Greg is caught peeping at the window by Scyla, and flees. At this point, perhaps hampered by the silent format, Nick's continuity goes to pieces as we're treated to a romantic scene of Greg and Scyla, which never happened. So he's fantasizing? Who cares? Back alone, Greg paints clown/mime makeup under his eyes (a weird touch, as with the companion feature on this DVD, named ODDO, where the Vietnam war vet hero paints a mustache on his face at a moment of extreme alienation). Is Nick trying to tell us something? Or is he just being visually pretentious, to match the voice-over pretentiousness?

Circe is introduced playing sexily with a pet mouse (!), cast as Greg's old flame. But she turns out to be the real deal, a Greek sorceress who here conjures up a striking nymph, clad in Nick's favorite black leather boots & bra, soon to reveal herself in all her glory in what I would reckon to be the first "split-beaver" closeup in feature film history (we're not counting the loops & stags). Nick, you've earned your footnote! Praise be the gods! Circe is mightily angered when Greg tells her (silently) of his new love Scyla; she doesn't know he never got to first base with her. She mesmerizes Greg and then the nymph & sorceress make love together, a salute to Nick's favorite Greek isle: Lesbos. Lucky for him Greg finally gets some sugar -a threesome ensues.

After Greg splits, Circe finds his wallet with convenient info on Scyla -like her address (doesn't gibe with the story so far, but whatever). Greg phones Scyla and she invites him over (another contradiction), but who arrives at her door, but Circe! Circe slips Scyla an aphrodisiac and they make love, but Scyla becomes ill and has a tiny bit of makeup applied to make her look under-the-weather. Climax of the film is unbelievably poor, as Scyla supposedly loses her looks and ages - what we get to represent this fate is a Halloween mask of a guy with a big mustache (no, not Groucho). This was perhaps a foreshadowing of the lousy, no-budget horror films Nick ended up making in the '70s and '80s after his porno career evaporated.

Musical score is by a harpsichord-led jazz combo, same music repeated in Nick's HOW I GOT MY MINK on this same DVD. I'm crediting the music to Al Deline (likely a pseudonym), who actually got a screen credit (wonder of wonders from Nick, who eschews all credits) for the jazz score of ODDO. His drummer is terrible, but Al, if he's indeed the keyboard man, does provide some interesting runs in the manner of a poor man's Mal Waldron.

Yes, you can make something out of nothing, and that is after all what makes a video company like Seduction/Retro-Seduction/After Hours/Secret Key (plus their horror subsidiaries) tick. Hire a "film historian" hack to write florid and misleading liner notes for this stinker (they go on & on about the locale and sets/posters, which have zero impact on screen) and maybe an ignorant public will believe it. Not me, brother.