Carne y pecado

Milly Vitale comes to London to see what she can make of herself. She meets John Derek and it's love, love love..... until one evening, she realizes he's a pimp who's been grooming her as a streetwalker.

It's a rough film to sit through. Can anyone be that naive? Can anyone be that coldly manipulative? Derek plays it like Dirk Bogarde; there's something soft about him, compared with his hard, mobster brother, Martin Benson, that makes the whole thing make sense of sorts.

The movie takes its time, but I find the conclusion, with its statement that there are some things you can come back from, that society will forgive, to be unbelievable; or perhaps it's a wish that the world will forgive.

The Flesh is Weak is directed by Don Chaffey and written by Leigh Vance and Deborah Bedford. It stars John Derek, Milly Vitale, William Franklyn, Martin Benson, Freda Jackson and Norman Wooland. Music is by Tristram Cary and cinematography by Stephen Dade (not Gerry Massy- Collier as listed in some sources).

It's a British crime drama with film noir shadings. Plot finds Vitale as the innocent girl who upon visiting London falls in love with the shifty Tony Giani (Derek). Before you can say "vice girls" she finds herself facing up to the harsh realities of the Giani family operations.

It's a nasty subject that is still relevant today, but the makers handle the subject well. Obviously clipped somewhat by how far they could push the material at the time, it's still surprisingly frank with the vice girls subject to hand. Strong plot is acted accordingly, with the main characterisations carrying a believable factor that hits home the required impact.

The girls are treated with sympathetic hands, steering the story away from exploitation histrionics, and while it's a bit too stage bound to really give it some earthy strength, it's a well constructed production that's further boosted by Dade's moody photography. Interesting low rumbling horror movie type score by Cary as well. 7/10

Producer Raymond Stross, whose company was named Eros Films, specialized in making movies with sexual subjects of all sorts (usually starring his wife Anne Heywood), and this one is all about prostitution in London.

Milly Vitale is quite impressive as an innocent Italian girl, just arrived in London who soon is lured into a degrading world of selling her flesh. She's naive in the extreme, and takes only four days to fall madly in love with a low-life pimp, well-played by Hollywood heartthrob John Derek (long before he became famous for his series of actress wives Ursula Andress, Linda Evans and Bo Derek), and soon become a hardened, disillusioned woman.

Script by Leigh Vance charts the inner-workings of small-time gangsters and everything seems hopeless until the final reel when Milly finally sees the light and is poised to testify in court against Derek.

Best scene comes when Derek finally blows up against the heroine he's been mistreating, and with his eyes bugging out in closeup he reads her the riot act in a terrifically negative outburst of pure misogyny.

One or two performances in this story of prostitution and the pimps behind it made this an interesting film. The United States hadn't seen such a blatant tale with such a good cast before; this is why this film caught the attention of the viewers. The writing was terse and pointed; the black-and-white cinematography made the picture riveting in much of its running time. The direction of the film is excellent and always tasteful.

Certainly, nothing in John Derek's film history gave a hint that he even knew what a pimp was, nor had he played a villain before. His performance was slick and believable. Milly Vitale had played completely sympathetic roles in the films for which U.S. audience knew her -- "War and Peace" and "The Seven Little Foys" -- but roles that amounted to nothing, so her performance in this small, dark film was a welcome surprise.

The remainder of the company -- Martin Benson, Freda Jackson, Patricia Jessel, Shirley Ann Field, and others -- were slightly known here at this time, later to make their superior talents known both on stage and screen; in this film, their contributions are very welcome!

A good British film and a better use of these actors' talents than American cinema gave them!

When this film was released Soho was dominated by violent gangs.One of the tools of their trade was the flick knife which is shown in the film and which was shortly to be banned by act of parliament.One of the basic problems are the leads.Martin Benson is fine but the parachuted in American star John Derek is woefully miscast,pretty he is menacing he isn't.By the way why does he and Benson have different accents?Monica |Vitale plays an innocent Italian girl picked up by a pimp.There seems to be a gang war of sorts and there is an investigating writer,not reporter,played by William Franklyn.Much of this film is muddled and not helped by the small studios at Walton.It has to be said that this film clearly earned its X certificate on its release.