The Flesh Merchant

THE WILD AND WICKED is another educational/exploitation flick from W. Merle Connell, who handled a string of sensationalist fare along the lines of TEST TUBE BABIES. This one's much like an earlier entry I watched (in the same Mill Creek box set) entitled GAMBLING WITH SOULS, except without the gambling angle.

In essence, the film charts the journey and moral degradation of a pretty young woman who finds herself cast adrift. She unwisely falls in with a crowd of men who run an establishment dedicated to the art of pleasure, in other words a brothel. Will she ever manage to escape their clutches?

Wow. The plot is certainly an arresting one and the calibre of the acting is a little better than the norm in this low-budget quickies. And THE WILD AND WICKED certainly contains plenty of the latter, some truly scuzzy characters in support. The abrupt non-ending is the worst part of it, but there are some fun moments along the way like the manhunt for the criminal.