'Blaze Starr Goes Nudist' (Also known as 'Blaze Starr Goes Wild!') is an early offering from Doris Wishman, everyones favourite Octogenarian Apartment bound smut peddler. At this point in her career, shes Florida bound, hanging around beauty spots and making 'Nudie Cutie' movies with local Naturist communes and nude models.

'Blaze Starr' follows the story of…'Blaze Starr' an actress who's run down in a busy social world. Blaze is struggling with constantly being stuck in 'Actress' mode, shes filming or in meetings for most of the day, and when shes done with that she's having to be a full time home maker for her finace (and manager) Tony.

As such, she craves escapism, and she finds it when, while trying to lay low from her fans, she winds up in, what im assuming is an adult theater. Playing that day is a naturist documentary about a nudist camp where the sun is always shining and the air smells like warm root beer and anyone off the street will gladly shave your back for a nickle (wakka wakka doo doo yeah!). Blaze is captivated, and MORE than intreagued when she realises the camp is less than 30 miles from that very theater.

Without hesitation, she jumps in her car and heads out, where she meets the camp manager Andy. Who introduces her to the nudist lifestyle in all its idyllic bliss. Andy is 'no pressure' about Blaze choosing to take up the lifestyle, but sends her a hand written invitation for membership a day or two later. Which Blaze readily accepts.

The rest of the movie from here on in follows Blaze's journey into naturism, a showcase of the lifestyle, and how different life could truely be. But when Tony becomes increasingly upset that Blaze is M.I.A most weekends, and is becoming increasingly irritable with Tony about how she spends her time, and what her availability should be. It leads to a final act where Blaze must decide her destiny, Tony starts digging into Blaze's whereabouts, and both of their careers lie in the hands of the elusive studio boss 'D.W'.

I'll be honest, I enjoyed this film quite a lot. At 74 minutes long, it moves at a clip, is ultra campy and over the top in places, has a good foundational A-plot and a couple of B-plots to keep things interesting. the pacing is faster than most Doris pictures, but does slow a little towards the end, but not to the point that I got bored. The characters have a good range of depth and detail, theres actual character progression, which is nice, especially given the nature of what 'Nudie Cutie' films were really supposed to be. This is probably the most linear and sensical Doris Wishman film i've seen in a long time.

The direction is clean, makes sense, is well grounded…Maybe a little over simplistic in places, but ultimately, i'd rather a solid piece of work that knows its limits, than a piece that has NO idea what its doing and doesnt care to try and figure it out.

We have clean vibrant full colour cine which looks incredible (thanks to restoration efforts) given its age. the cine is rich, detailed and very well composed, sequences are maybe a little loose here and absolutely do NOT follow the rules of 'The Line' or of shot compositions…or even basic continuity really…But again, compared to Doris's other works? This is downright competent. And I really appreciated just how much the visuals popped off the screen.

Add to that the performances, which are camp as christmas and an utter delight to behold, with THE Blaze Starr really stealing the show with incredible physicality, bizarre line deliveries and a wardrobe that would make Widow Twankey envious. The supporting cast range from overtly camp and VERY dry in line deliveries to full blow bombasiticism. Its such a Kitsche little movie.

Even the soundtrack is full of life, with library string tracks, but upbeat 50's style muzak stuff. which really ties the whole thing together.

I had a blast checking out 'Blaze Starr Goes Nudist' Its not the most 'original' idea in the world. But its goofy, campy, over the top fun that feels like its trying to be whimsical while also giving paying customers what they came to see. Definitely one i'd reccommend if your looking to get into Doris Wishmans 'Nudie Cutie' era. I think its a great foothold on not only her work, but the subgenre itself.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/blaze-starr-goes-nudist/