We've reached the end of AGFA and Something Weirds fairly comprehensive 'Doris Wishman: The Moonlight Years' collection, and its 'Too Much, Too Often!' a somewhat generic, seedy exploitation roughie film that once again, doesnt really do enough to put it head and shoulders above Doris's other exploitation roughie (or generally surreal) pictures) but does do enough to position itself in the upper middle portion of her filmography (in my opinion at least)

The film follows Mike Torson…And I dont really know what Mike does for a living…'Criminal' seems like too broad of a career definition. But he's a thief, a rapist, a pimp, a blackmailer, a molestor, a manipulator, a muscle for hire, and seemingly, he's taken it on himself to also be a Dom to repressed men in his area. And as the film opens we find Mike flogging Gordon Dite, a respected businessman for the area.

Mike is blackmailing Gordon, as he documented one of their 'sessions' and is threatening to release the footage if Gordon does anything Mike doesnt like, he's also levying Gordon for protection on that front, which is allowing Mike much higher access to women, and further criminal activity than he would have had before. Gordon detests Mike, but is somewhat helpless to really do much of anything else.

The film from there largely centers around Mike taking advantage of school girls, bored housewives and anyone he can find down at the docks. At first scmoozing them into a semi-codependent relationship, before turning abusive and demanding of his victims until they either slip up and get horrendously abused to the point that they cant do much of anything anymore…or they leave town. Gordon infrequently recieves word of these incidents and increasingly becomes more and more mortified of what Mike is enabled to do.

But things really cross a line, when Mike decides that Gordons Daughter is his next target, manipulating her into a rushed marriage and poisoning her against her father by convincing her he's jealous that shes marrying into a better place than Gordon can provide for her. Leading to a final confrontation with an old face from Mikes past who may be the answer to Gordons problems.

What we have here is a seedy and grimey little picture that really showcases Doris Wishman and her cinematographers best talents honestly. While the script itself is fairly middle of the road for the 'roughie' scene, it does have some dramatic punch and weight behind it, which is something thats been missing from a lot of Doris's roughie pictures. The characters have history, backstory, depth and more importantly they grow and develop across the runtime in a meaningful and non superficial way.

Quite a few of Doris Wishmans films all felt like character development on a surface level, if there was any development to be had at all. This felt quite a bit meatier. And while I do think its a bit of a cheap trick to, 10 minutes off the end of the film, introduce a new character from Mikes past who had a serious incident with him 3 years prior…Only to then flash the film back 3 years to show the incident, then flash forward to show an inconclusive resolution to the main plot we've been following. Everything up to that point I felt was pretty solid, if not a little slow.

A key problem i've had with a lot of Doris Wishman films is the pedestrian pace as it struggles to hit feature distribution runtime. This handles it better than most, its still on the slow side, but it at least moves quicker than 'Indecent desires' or 'My Brothers Wife'.

Tonally; the film doesnt ease up for a second as we unflinchingly follow Mike as he destroys or disrupts life after life with horrifying antics, its probably one of Wishmans nastier offerings honestly. Which in someways makes it standout a bit more than a lot of her 60's offerings.

The direction is fast paced, and feels like Wishman was definitely enthused by the topic. theres some really creative story and world building, and it feels like Wishman really wanted to get this story right and in a way that only Wishman at this point in time could deliver it. Theres some striking moments, and the whole thing feels quite carefully crafted (…for the most part…)

The cine too is rock solid, I didnt notice any soft shots, composition is great, theres some very nice creative work, the lighting is incredible and the film really leans into that Black and white aesthetic, creating something altogether murky, but fascinatingly beautiful.

Sequences are carefully curated and scenes flow smoothly, while you can sometimes feel the cheapness of the budget on this one. its undeniable that they really tried to make this film feel as expensive as they could, and I feel it really succeeds in that sense.

As for the performances, This is a great turn for Buck Starr as Mike, a malevolent presence, he plays evil so effortlessly, its genuinely unsettling. Probably my favourite performance in a Wishman film to date. he has a fantastic physical menace and his line delivery is largely faultless. He's great!

Bob Oran as Gordon also gets a great turn as the utterly frustrated and totally helpless captive of Mike. you really feel the rage in his performance, and by the end theres a tremendous melancholy added to the mix that only makes the performance stronger still. He's great!

Add to that the staple library soundtrack and Obligatory Doris Wishman apartment tour. and 'Too Much, Too Often!' is a solid Doris Wishman feature in my opinion. Definitely one of her better 'Roughie' offerings. i'd recommend it as a great starting point to get into this era of Doris Wishman film making, and if you havent seen it, but have seen other Doris films, this is definitely one of her better offerings. One i'd almost certainly revisit, and one that I can definitely recommend. its grizzly, but VERY compelling!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/too-much-too-often/