The Touch of Flesh

If you are the type of person who seeks out this movie, you are likely familiar with the paperback fiction of the 50s. You know the kind -- the ones with some underclad girl on the cover who is in the process of losing the rest of her clothing. Depicted, luridly, is a hot sweaty low class Southern locale -- a log cabin or a mangrove swamp or the outbuildings of a declining old plantation. Meanwhile, the story inside the outrageous covers isn't exactly what's promised on the cover. There are no naughty bits, really, in the prose. There is usually a somewhat erratic plot that goes from tough talk, to lynchings, to odd encounters with rough tough sheriff types. Sometiomes the writing is pretty good -- a lot of the paperbacks bring an unexpected sense of place (Florida, Georgia, Mississippi) to the goings on, or manage an unexpected turn of phrase, or being out a memorable character or two, or some plot twists.

Well, this film is much like those paperbacks. The actors ain't memorable, and the photography is nothing too great. (It is always good to see location photography from this era, and there are some good looks at at Florida town that, as of 1959, was still "old South") But the story -- which starts out as a boy from the wrong side of tracks knocks up a rich girl narrative -- takes a series of unexpected twists which lead to a rather surprising (if slightly outrageous) ending. Every now and then, we also get to see shots of of the two female leads in their underwear, offering themselves up to our somewhat lunkheaded hero. If you are in the right mood, this is a good way to spend 72 minutes. I am curious whether the scriptwriter did other movies, because the plot is the best thing here.

She loves sex but commitement and babies aren't for her.

Never use word abortion Photo of naked marilyn.

"The Touch of Flesh" is a very cheap but also very entertaining film. It's tough, cynical and features an incredibly downbeat ending...which is actually perfect for the movie.

When the story begins, Joan discovers she's pregnant with her boyfriend's baby. Now this film is NOT all about the evils of fornicating. No, Joan isn't the least bit upset about having a very, very strong libido....she just doesn't want to be bothered with having a baby. So she tells the guy she's planning on "seeing a doctor in Tampa" (which is 1950s code for saying she's going to get an abortion. Surprisingly, he is dead set against this and he wants to be a father and argues with her about this.

Joan later tells her father about this and demands she get him an abortion. Considering he's the amoral sort, he quickly agrees and has his friend the sheriff take the would-be father into custody and put a scare into him The sleazy sheriff takes this to mean he should torture the poor guy half to death and he might have killed him had an attorney not walked in and seen the beating being administered with a rubber hose!

Where does this go next? Well, suffice to say that after the beating doesn't work, Joan decides to take matters into her own god-awful hands...leading to an amazingly wild and over the top ending.

This is not a film intended as anything other than a cheap exploitation film. But it's a good and entertaining one...mostly because it's so blunt and unrelenting. Joan is truly an awful person without an ounce of conscience...and it makes for a neat film!

By the way, I am not going to rant like people have about pro-choice/anti-abortion matters and I really don't think this was even the point of the movie. I just enjoyed it on a silly superficial level and found it well worth seeing.

The Touch of Flesh (1960)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Joan is the daughter to the richest man in town and her daddy just happens to run everything. Joan gets knocked up by working man Eddie but she wants to have an abortion. Eddie, on the other hands, begs her to keep the baby but Joan wants to use the abortion against the good man.

THE TOUCH OF FLESH was released to DVD under the title YOU'VE RUINED ME EDDIE, which is actually a lot better and certainly a title that draws you to the film. I must admit that I was really looking forward to this abortion drama but it turned out to be a real disappointment because the story is simply all over the place and there's just nothing here that really keeps you glued to the film.

I think the biggest problem was its screenplay, which was all over the place and it tries to do way too much without making anything entertaining. You've got the rich girl and her rich father doing typical rich folk evils. You've got the working class man who is constantly spit on. You've got an outside girl trying to help but she has her own drama. None of these characters were all that original and they certainly weren't very entertaining.

The performances are what you'd expect out of a film like this but I think the biggest thing is that I'm not sure who this film was aimed for. It's too poorly made for the mainstream crowd and there's not enough exploitation for those who like that type of thing. THE TOUCH OF FLESH isn't awful but it's pretty forgettable and boring.

Quite possibly the first pro choice film. It brought tears to my eyes.

A boy gets a girl pregnant and ,most amazing thing ,it's the boy who wants the baby ,who wants to marry the girl :although she comes from a richer family than his ,he who is an orphan and who is alone in the word .The selfish girl does not care and asks him and then his daddy to find someone for an abortion ( termination of pregnancy was then illegal here there and everywhere) .

Not very well acted , this movie is nothing but derivative ,because the roles are reversed :generally the girl asks for a quick marriage .Here the boy is not even interested in the family's money;all he wants is someone to care,someone he can love ,he does not care if the girl should divorce him afterwards.

The boy is harassed ,bullied ,beaten up, because he lives on the wrong side of town , because he can compromise another girl's parole, because ,without a family to support you , you're absolutely nothing. Melodramatic,but also very noir, directing is not up to scratch ,particularly in the swamp scenes :there was a great potential and an unusually tragic ending,but it fails to move us .