The penultimate feature of 'Doris Wishman: The Daylight Years' finds us watching 'Diary of a Nudist' an early turn for Wishman, her 3rd Nudist film to be exact, and theres definitely a refinement in her film making with this entry.

This time around our film follows 'Stacey' a reporter for a local newspaper who's been put onto an 'expose' piece by her editor 'Arthur'. While out hunting one weekend, Arthur managed to stumble on a nudist colony, and; armed with only limited knowledge at what goes on at these camps. He charges Stacey with the job of going undercover as a patron of the camp to learn about the Nudist lifestyle, and then spin it into a hit piece to EXPOSE these nudie loving freaks for the sick perverts they all TRULY ARE!!!

But after getting a tour of the camp, and spending several weeks integrating with the locals. Stacey finds herself actually quite surprised by just how friendly, communal and open the nudist community are, and how supportive they are of her getting into the lifestyle. Putting Stacey in a difficult situation of whether to double cross her new friends for the sake of a 'hit' piece, or whether to confront her editor about the REAL conditions of the camp, and potentially lose her job in the process.

Not really a whole lot to say on this one ultimately; Its a definite improvement in my opinion plot wise over 'Hideout in the suns' broken and bloated narrative, and it seems to have more going on with it than 'Nude on the Moon' (even if the visuals arnt quite as up to snuff. The plot here feels a bit more refined, a bit more pointed and actually feels like it has direction, flow and intention.

Theres a clear 3 act structure, it keeps a relatively good pacing, it doesnt seem to sag really. Though, as is to be expected, this being a 'Nudie Cutie' film, do expect an UNGODLY amount of time following naked people around as they engage in day to day activities…

The characters are all well defined and get a good degree of development across the three acts leading to a rare and welcome 'satisfying ending' for a Doris Wishman production for once! Its maybe still a little on the slower side for a modern audience, but it works fine enough as a high level narrative + atmosphere piece to kill 71 minutes of your time.

Direction here is a little more simplistic. But, as i've learned watching Doris Wishman movies, the less Doris tries to 'push the boat out' and get weird or interesting with cine and scene direction. The more solid, stable and sturdy the production becomes. This isnt wow-ing anyone. Its a fairly basic, largely static production, Its not as vibrant or colourful as 'Nude on the Moon' and later films would handle the direction much better than whats here. But what IS here is a largely solid production thats engaging, light and gets the job done. Nothing too fancy. Its shooting for function over form.

On the cine front, its much the same, functional, gets the job done. Not a whole lot to say, compositions are largely fine, the underwater footage is a novelty for 1961, shots are largely in focus, look fine and make sense. sequences could have done with more B-roll and cutaway footage to smooth over the rougher cuts. But this was likely shot on a low/no budget with slim to no time for reshoots or cutaways. So I'll give it a pass.

Our lead cast members are Davee Decker and Norman Casserley. And both of them are okay, a little stiff in places on line delivery and physicality on screen. But i've seen far worse from Wishman, they dont do anything to knock your socks off, but they're a solid enough pair of leads. The supporting cast are largely mute, and apart from a few awkward moments where we either have nudists who dont know how to act natural on camera, or models who dont know how to act casual while nude and out in the open air. they're all just about passably fine.

'Diary of a Nudist' isnt the worst of Doris from this era. In fact, if you were going to exclusively check out her 'naturism' era, this is probably a pretty solid foot in the door for what to expect. Not her best, far from her worst. Its absolutely middle of the road, one I could see myself catching again at some point. Though absolutely not for everyone.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/diary-of-a-nudist/