Continuing through 'Doris Wishman: The Moonlight Years' we have 'A Taste of Flesh', a film *presumably* lost to time, as its presented on AGFA/Something Weirds lovely Bluray boxset as an (admittedly high quality) S-VHS rip.

The plot opens with Hannah and Bobi, Bobi is a European traveller who Hannah met a couple of years ago while backpacking (they're in a lesbian relationship essentially, though the film never out and out says it) Bobi has come to the states for work, and Hannah has kindly invited her to stay at her apartment for a few days while Bobi's in town. Things were heading into 'hot and steamy' terratory when things are interrupted by Carol. Hannahs roomate, who gets the lowdown on their new house guest and things start to settle in.

However; it isnt long before things take a sour turn, as two men claiming to be plumbers stage a home invasion and take the ladies hostage. It turns out that Bobi's 'Work' is in fact following and monitoring the prime minister of her country. and the gents who've broken in are determined to find out what time the PM will be checking into his hotel, in order to stage an assassination attempt. And conveniently, the PM's hotel is within eyeshot of the ladies apartment. Leading to a tense race against the clock to see if our three leads can take out the criminals before they achieve their nefarious goal!…And because this is a Doris Wishman film, smut peddlers need'nt fear, theres plenty of nudity, dry humping and 'Roughie' stuff to keep things turning over.

While not exactly my personal idea of a 'thrill ride' I did enjoy 'A Taste of Flesh' and at 71 minutes long I think you could do far worse…especially when it comes to the films of Doris Wishman.

The plot steadily builds up across the runtime, keeping a consistent rising tension, tone and pace that does feel pretty satisfying by the time of the payoff, theres a clean 3 act structure, we have a smaller cast than usual, which means we get a lot more time giving these characters, depth, interesting character arcs, ACTUAL development that feels like it pays off in the end. Its probably the best structured Doris Wishman film i've seen to date if nothing else!

While I will say the plotting does maybe bulge a little in the 2nd act, there wasnt anything egregious here that made me baulk. Its just a pretty solid, kind of fun, okayish story, thats consistent, but not exactly earth shattering.

The direction, is a bit of a mixed bag, with the majority of the film taking place solely in Doris Wishmans apartment, it quickly becomes apparent that theres only so many ways you can film 3 rooms, all of which have the same coloured walls, carpets and decor. While I will say there is some very pleasent cine and planned direction here (a dream sequence featuring Hannah and Bobi is a definite highlight) for the most part this feels a little uninspired.

Combined with some mixed ability cine, the sharp and dramatic compositions have instead been exchanged for more handheld shots, that dont quite feel as thought through as some of the other films in these box sets. While it is nice to still see (some) attention to detail on the lighting front, it feels a lot more slapdash and not quite as satisfying as 'Bad Girls Go To Hell' or 'Indecent Desires'.

As for the edit? its fine, theres a couple of effects shots that are nicely handled, cuts are largely consistent, I didnt notice anything to awful. the sequences hang together fine and theres some half decent attempts at creative transitions… Its not BAD particularly…her 70s work struggled a LOT more on that front. But its just not to the standard I know Doris CAN do.

Performance wise, for me? Its all on Peggy Steffans and Buck Starr as Hannah and the home invader 'Franky' respectively. While the supporting cast do give a decent range and solid enough performance Peggy and Buck both go above and beyond tantilisingly dancing into Campy terratory, but just pulling back enough to stop it from being farsical and annoying. I think they both get a great range to play with, have some of the best line deliveries of the feature, have great physical presence and just…really plumb their all into this, they were very satisfying to catch here.

And the soundtracks mostly library tracks again, but the selection very much matches the tone of the film, and it was nice to see some Syd Dale thrown into the mix! (one of the unexpected plusses of enjoying Muzak and library intrumentals!)

All in all? This is definitely one of the better Doris Wishman offerings. I enjoyed it, I thought it was light enough to enjoy both with full attention, or as a background movie. I cant say its a lifechanging movie, nor can I say its 'Must See' but if you are curious about the works of Doris Wishman, and dont want to have her filmography ruined by seeing her absolute best works up front. Then this is probably one of the best starting points I could recommend for an idea of the kind of thing Doris does best. I absolutely do recommend this for people looking to learn more about the films of Doris Wishman, and for folks working through her films who havent caught this one yet. For people looking for decent 'roughie' films…you almost certainly can do better.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/a-taste-of-flesh/