The final film in AGFA/Something Weird's "Doris Wishman: The Twilight Years" box set and…WHAT a doozy to go out on. I had seen 'Love Toy' a few years ago. But i'd almost completely forgotten what the plot of it was. So revisiting it now…Well, when I say that I've seen 'The Baby', 'Last house on Dead end Street' and 'Salo' and they felt WAY more dignified, and made me feel WAY more comfortable than this movie did. I hope it sets the tone of whats to follow.
The plots pretty straightforward, we open with two gents playing cards, one of them is losing badly. He's lost his home, the factory he owns, all his money, and the nest egg he'd saved up for his daughter. When his friend offers a proposition. He'll give back the factory, the house, the nest egg. Everything. But in exchange, for one night, he gets the guys daughter, and he can do what he likes with her.
Naturally he refuses, but when he realises the barrel he's staring down, he eventually reluctantly agrees. and thus begins a night of sexploitation, violence and horror as the innocent young daughter of this man is led into several lurid sex acts and fetish play, all the while her father is bound and abused in the room next door while trying to get to her.
I have…a number of issues with this film, while it doesnt explicitly say that the daughter is under age, the impression is that she's 'inexperienced', 'barely legal' and even the promotional material describe her as 'nubile'. Which puts the film in 'icky' terratory as it is, given her 'lover' is a 50 year old gruff guy who, as soon as things start, reveals himself to be completely deranged.
And what follows are extended sequences where the daughter is made to pretend to be a cat, drinking cream from a bowl while nude, a lusty daughter, a housewife, a lover and a horse. Its…an intense watch to say the least and very VERY grubby in places.
Much like 'The Amazing Transplant' this is one of those films thats essentially just a rinse and repeat of this guy 'playing' with the daughter for an hour or so, in various different scenarios. Intercut with the fathers pleas for mercy, and the other guys 'wife?' getting slowly turned on by the masochism. Theres very little in the way of actual plotting, tonally its all in one gear for the most part, and the ending is very underwhelming. The characters are interesting in the sense that their obscenity and dilemmas are compelling. But they arnt interesting characters in their own right really.
The direction finds us once again in Doris Wishmans apartment (which im sure has more credits that most actors these days) and I will say the erotic scenes are handled about as well as they could be, presenting a sense of intimacy that has been a bit spotty in the other Doris Wishman films i've seen so far. this ones at least fairly consistent. Though; somewhat let down by the fact they forgot to hide that the male 'performer' for this film is totally flaccid for the entire movie.
Outside of the sex scenes, the general vibes are fine enough, the sleazy, grimy nature of the era this was shot in really helps amplify the seedy nature of the production and the choice to have a lot of moving camera moments, helps create a sense of loss of control that I feel works in the films favour.
The cine is rough around the edges, definitiely needed some more thought and refinement to get it over the line. But as mentioned that roughness helps add an almost 'Gonzo' feel to the production in places, that I feel helps it along. the sequences are rather basic mind, and the compositions are FAR from 'professional' it really does feel quite madcap.
Performance wise? this is basically a show piece for Bernard Marcel, who gets to go FULLY off the rails as card game winner 'Alex' here. he's genuinely unsettling for a big chunk of the runtime. and while the other cast kind of mould around his performance. he basically steals the thing…pretty effortlessly.
I have mixed feelings about 'Love Toy' all things considered. On the one hand, its a dirty, grimy, seedy, sleazy, slightly messed up, exploitation, sleazefest that left me feeling a bit icky having watched it. On the other hand, if thats what Wishman was going for (and im not entirely sure it was) then shes really aced the assignment, creating a film where its faults actually help elevate the film to the next level and guarenteeing that noone will be making eye contact with each other as they leave the 42nd street theater.
Much like 'The Baby' or 'Salo' I cant honestly reccomend this one for casual viewing, I cant recommend it for people looking for films that push the envelope, and I cant really even recommend it as a good example of Wishmans work. But what I can say is that this is almost certainly a film for an acquired taste, and that; if you are curious about this film, to maybe give it a spin. I do feel theres an audience out there for this film. People who'll really appreciate it. For me? this is one I feel comfortable enough saying I almost certainly will revisit this one again in the future…But im going to have to be in a VERY particular headspace.
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