The Naked Venus

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A young American painter and his French wife move with their small daughter to the US when the husband's father dies. His mother takes an instant dislike to the wife, and when she finds out ... Read allA young American painter and his French wife move with their small daughter to the US when the husband's father dies. His mother takes an instant dislike to the wife, and when she finds out that her daughter-in-law is a nudist who once posed naked for an artist, she declares her ... Read allA young American painter and his French wife move with their small daughter to the US when the husband's father dies. His mother takes an instant dislike to the wife, and when she finds out that her daughter-in-law is a nudist who once posed naked for an artist, she declares her son's wife to be an unfit mother and sets out to break up the marriage--which may not be d... Read all

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.1/10

181

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
Nudist camp footage shot in Europe was interspersed throughout the film.

Connections
Featured in L'Oeil du cyclone: Chassez le naturiste... (1994)

User reviews4

Review

Featured review

Ulmer Does the Nudist Film

The Naked Venus (1959)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Yvonne (Patricia Conelle) is living in France when she meets the American Robert (Don Roberts) and before long the two are married. Everything turns to hell when they return home and Robert's mother learns that her new daughter-in-law was a nudist. Before long mommy is pushing for her son to get a divorce.

THE NAKED VENUS, believe it or not, comes from director Edgar G. Ulmar, the man behind Universal's THE BLACK CAT as well as countless other "B" movies. When they said Ulmer messed with every genre they really weren't kidding as this nudist/docu-drama is a pretty silly movie but it's clear that the producers wanted to try something a tad bit more serious and I'm going to guess that's why Ulmer was hired. Why he wanted to do the picture is a mystery to me but perhaps it was just a job that paid.

For the most part I found this film to be very entertaining, or at least once it gets to the scenes that were the reason someone like Ulmer would have been hired. A lot of the early stuff is basically nude camp footage where we see various people walking around naked. The scenes on the nudist camp really aren't anything overly special but for 1959 there's a lot of nudity and of course that's why people would come to a film like this.

The final portion of the film is devoted to a divorce trial where the woman has to get a lawyer (also a female) and the two must battle and prove that being a nudist shouldn't be looked at as a crime. We get countless experts testifying and of course some of it is rather campy but at the same time I must admit Ulmer does a good job at telling the story and the courtroom scenes play out quite effective and entertaining.

The performances aren't the greatest and that's what really keeps the "drama" from being better. For the most part THE NAKED VENUS isn't going to appeal to everyone but it's certainly an interesting little film.