EssenceStory Well Deserved Praise

Micitype Pretty Good

ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Leofwine_draca THE CENTERFOLD GIRLS is a psycho-thriller of the 1970s that plays out more as a skinflick than anything else. Andrew Prine's weirdo killer stalks and slashes a bunch of women who posed as nude models, and he's on a moralistic crusade to clean up a tide of filth. A bit like Mary Whitehouse, then. Much of the running time contains young and pretty women stripping to their smalls (and less) while the rudiments of a plot serve to join the dots. The sub-plot in which a girl flees from a rapist hippy gang only to encounter Aldo Ray's sleazy motel owner before being straight-razored to death is quite arresting, but then there's a lot of padding in the middle section. Some brief P.O.V. stalking shots might have inspired HALLOWEEN. Things pick up again for the last section featuring the admirably feisty Tiffany Bolling.

Scarecrow-88 Andrew Pine stars as a disturbed wacko, Clement Dunne who is obsessed with "helping" beautiful women who posed for a nude pictorial in a centerfold magazine by stalking them, terrorizing them with unsettling phone calls, sending them flowers, and ultimately slicing their throats with a straight razor, removing a shoe from each victim as a keepsake.CENTERFOLD GIRLS has three different stories featuring the next victim chosen from the magazine by Clement who circles their faces, tearing them away with his razor after finishing them off, consoling himself with a music from his record player. He's very clean cut, tidy, always seen wearing a suit, glasses, bow tie, the works. He drives a beat-up blue station wagon and later tells the third victim that he's a salesman so we might know how Clement works as a serial killer, his trips "up north" a way for him to successfully carry out his methodical acts towards those selected for execution.The first victim is a beautiful nurse, Jackie(Jaime Lyn Bauer), who drives "into the mountains" to interview for a job falling prey to "the family"(Dennis Olivieri, Janet Wood, Teda Bracci, and Talie Cochrane), a group of weirdos, modeled obviously after the Manson Family, who torment her after she graciously gives one of them a place for the night in her aunt's home. Clement, perhaps a reason for his abilities as a psychopath, has a innocent, if nerdy, appearance, and doesn't seem to be such a dangerous threat, and is able to secure Jackie's trust after she is emotionally/psychologically destroyed by the family(..and after nearly being raped by the owner of a nearby hotel, Ed, portrayed by Aldo Ray)which results in a grim conclusion. The second victim, Charly(Jennifer Ashley), is a young woman who joins a crew shooting nude pictorals for another magazine. The crew consists of Melissa(Francine York), the one who calls the shots, setting up the schedule for the layout of the shoot, Perry(Ray Danton)the man "with connections" who enjoys the company of young girls and often "pimps" them demanding a cut of their profits, photographer Sam(John Denos), and two models(Kitty Carl & Ruthy Ross), renting a cabin on top of a cliff overlooking the ocean. Clement secretly boats to their location, awaiting his chances to kill each one of them. The third chosen victim, a pretty stewardess, Vera(Tiffany Bolling), provides the most problems for Clement as she, despite how fate arranges for her possible doom, finds ways to escape potential harm. Vera's car blows a tire as she rushes off to escape Clement, her pursuer(..she decides to leave her apartment after Clement kills Vera's roommate, believing the person was her)hitching a ride with two sailors who drug her, molesting her in the process. Clement offers her a ride, she discovers his magazine(..with the women's faces cut away, with hers circled as next), and a showdown will conclude the film within the charred remains of Topanga Canyon in a fight for survival.I was really pleasantly surprised with John Peyser's CENTERFOLD GIRLS, the idea of an anthology featuring three separate stories linking the killer to all of them. Interesting how the film only provides little details regarding the killer. We are witness to Clement's methods of selecting victims, how he operates, and how he carries out his dedicated mission of "cleansing" them of their immorality, in regards to using their luscious bodies to stain the minds of the viewing public. The razor murders are expertly staged in not showing the slice in grisly detail yet maintaining an impact in how he's able to attack in a quick assault, mostly from behind, without their being able to escape(..except at the end, when Clement, unlike times past, wastes time, flashing his "friend" in front of Vera's face)..director Peyser uses blood spray(..such as how blood splatters a window, or collects in a pool) instead of the typical blade carving flesh in gruesome detail, quick and concise, moving to the next scene.Pine is impressive(..the real standout, a reason his face is recognizable while others not so much)as the killer, a dedicated sociopath who hides his insecurities and sexual incapability under a desire to rid the world of filthy women. The women of the cast(..except York and maybe Bauer)won't knock your socks off with their performances, but their delectable flesh is featured extensively. The film shows the ugly side behind being beautiful and desirable, how the blessings of having alluring qualities can lead to mistreatment and cruelty. Perfectly 70's, particularly how sexually liberated women are in the film, and how mores had changed(..Clement is almost a reject from a different time attempting to right the wrongs of society by "cutting away" the trash that pollutes it). In every story, women are lustfully gazed upon by eager males who present themselves as respectable and helpful, only to reveal their primal urges later. Lots of nudity which is to be expected when dealing with such lurid subject matter. Startlingly resembles many 80's slashers with quite a head-start since John Peyser's CENTERFOLD GIRLS was released in '74..for the exception of 70's characteristics like the clothing styles and vehicles representing that era of cinema. Very effective use of Topange Canyon forests that had been decimated by a fire, whose remains, as Pine effectively proclaimed in an interview, resemble a type of hell.

Steve Nyland (Squonkamatic) First off, let's deal with the pinhead sect who are dissing this movie for daring to give them EXACTLY WHAT IT PROMISED -- A sleazy, disturbing, voyeuristic movie about a deranged psycho who murders centerfold models with a straight edge razor. Since nobody in the free world holds a gun to someone's head and forces them to watch a particular movie (aside from Al Gore's AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, that is), anyone who went out of their way to see this movie and were horrified to find out that it actually had the **balls** to give them exactly what it was advertised as has nothing to complain about. Other than maybe sleeping in on the morning they were handing out working brains. They got theirs after all the good ones were gone, I guess, and had to make do with an addled mind that can't grasp basic concepts ... like trashy exploitation movies actually being trashy, and exploitational. How stupid can people get? If you want art, rent or buy art, and stay away from the gutter, which is where this movie deliberately set out to be.With that scolding out of the way, CENTERFOLD GIRLS is one of the purest, most startling and twistedly imaginative examples of the Grindhouse Exploitation & Sleaze Film as I have ever encountered. Packed wall to wall with glorious female nudity, gory killings, and punctuated by yet another brilliantly twisted performance by Andrew Prine as yet another bizarre psychopath, this movie dares to give viewers exactly what they are looking for in such entertainment: Garbage.And not just your standard run-of-the-mill so boring 'cos we've seen it all a million times garbage, but garbage that keeps one guessing. Not as to the identity of some masked killer hacking their way through a supporting cast of unlikeable morons, but guessing in terms of just where the movie is going from one given moment to the next. There was one murder that was so abrupt, so uncalled for, and so absolutely brilliant in how it was staged that this film should actually be "Required reading at the Academy, Mr. Spock" material for anyone who's interested in making a low budget amoral slasher film. It is still a vibrant, shocking, and sensationalistic masterpiece of exploitation thirty-five years after it was made.Yes, there are vulgar, lurid moments that degrade the women who agreed to participate in the film, and none of the characters -- including the sexy women who's murders the film celebrates in such an unflinching manner -- are truly redeemable individuals. Even the usually heroic Aldo Ray comes off as a despicable monster, something that isn't easy to do, and his villainy is one of the film's great curve balls thrown mercilessly at the viewer. The one thing that impressed me more than anything else about the film was how it so specifically defied any formula for how psycho slasher horror films are "supposed" to be plotted out.There are two keys to the equation of its success: The first are the women themselves, all of whom actually were (or could have been) the girlie magazine pin-up celebrities that the movie depicts them as. They are all stunningly beautiful, with nary a silicone implant to mar their natural female forms. None of them apparently had the slightest qualm with being undressed & paraded before the camera for our amusement to the sole function of any other role in the film. They don't exist as "people" so much as the exist to be Ms. April, Ms. May, Ms. June, Ms. July, and Ms. August. Their names & personalities are exactly as important to the plot as the models gracing the pages of a girlie magazine, existing only to be stalked, terrified, and slaughtered by the psychopath.Is it misogynistic, regrettable, vile and sleazy? OF COURSE. But then again, what girlie magazine isn't? Don't blame the movie for telling things like they are, and indeed if you look at one of those kinds of magazines the first thing printed on the inside cover is a disclaimer pointing out that the habits, lifestyles and personalities of the models depicted in the magazine are not to be taken as actual representations of those people. Here is a movie that understands this concept, and uses it to great advantage.The other key is Andrew Prine, who should have been nominated for some form of an Oscar years ago (I say it should have been for SIMON - KING OF THE WITCHES, but take your pick, really: All of his performances are universally marvelous). With his geeky glasses, Sears Roebuck catalog puritan's suit and complete resolve to see his mission through, Prine is the perfect embodiment of the psychopathic killer who slaughters women in an effort to "help" them, as he explains to more than one of his victims. The old Rambler station wagon he is given to drive is also a perfect extension of his character, and while there is some truth to the criticism that his is the only character in the film that is actually developed that's just part of the stacked deck. You can't fault it for being effective at what it set out to do, and once again Prine's acting stands out amidst a sea of dreck that would otherwise smother any other performer.It is of course wrong to objectify women with pornography, and even more wrong to seek out & murder them for having taken part. But if every psycho killer movie were as honest about their intentions as CENTERFOLD GIRLS were maybe we wouldn't have such a low collective opinion of the idiom. It's the poseur films who wouldn't dare to go as far as this one do that give the form it's bad name. This one gets it right.8/10, and then some.

tristanb-1 Superb exploitation nasty. I loved this one. Real dirty and gritty and fast moving. Well-directed with some nice performances.Andrew Prine is perfectly cast as a saddle-shoe-wearing nerd who is out to "save" all the calender/pin-up girls he can ("save" as in split their head open with a razor). And he really goes about his business. With his ultra-skinny physique and creepy/quirky demeanor he projects kind of a low-rent Norman Bates quality.Film has three (or is it four?) different stories, each following a girl that Prine is tracking down. The killing is ruthless and quick and somewhat unsettling. Also unsettling is that the girls bounce from one horrific situation to the other like pinballs (ALL the men in this movie are creeps - and most of the women, too!!!).If you get a chance, and if exploitation with a sharp-edge is your bag check this one out, you might like it.