And, baby, she sure is!
But while Pamela herself might be summed up as an upper-class housewife looking for a fling, “Pamela, Pamela you are…” is an entirely different matter. From its opening barrage of disorienting images – suburbia, S&M, affluence, a nude orgy, with the film’s titles and credits perversely withheld until the very end – “Pamela, Pamela you are…” is obviously an attempt at something other than a mere nudie. In fact, it comes off as a Sixties-style mix between the groovy mainstream of films like Richard Lester’s Petulia and the sordid underbelly of director WILLIAM L. ROSE’s earlier Rent-a-Girl.
After meeting Calvin Miller (PAUL HARDY), “the perfect escort,” at a party the night before, middle-aged and seemingly conservative Pamela Browning (ELAINE EDWARDS) is startled when the slick-but-creepy guy shows up the next morning at her home. After Calvin first makes her a foolishly elaborate breakfast, he then makes her. Which is when her dippy stepdaughter Susan (MARY LINDSAY) unexpectedly comes home. Pretending to be an architect, Calvin cons Pam’s stuffy hubby Felix – who’s making it with his secretary – all the while zeroing in on Susan. Before the day is out, Pamela and Susan both end up colliding at Calvin’s apartment (when Susan discovers his collection of chains and S&M toys, Calvin coolly explains, “I’m just a collector!”) which makes things between mother and stepdaughter a tad strained. “You horrible, filthy son of a bitch,” Pamela screams before Calvin tears her dress and spanks her.
All of which occupies roughly the film’s first 40 minutes. Things really go insane from here on as we spend the next 30 minutes or so at a kinky sex party Calvin throws at Pamela’s place featuring guests getting their clothes torn off, and a guy dressed as a Nazi, and a gal wearing a giant papier-mâché head, and a gal getting mauled in a coffin, and a guy getting into a catfight with a butch lesbian, and a chain fight between two guys, and a variation on spin-the-bottle with a naked gal getting spun around, and other sexploitation-film debauchery.
Finally, Calvin gives Pamela a sip of LSD, Pamela freaks, wanders outside, finds Calvin trying to make it with Susan in a car, and really starts to trip her brains out. She imagines all the party guests dressed as priests and nuns and filing out of the house to surround her and watch impassively as Calvin beats the bejesus out of her with a stick.
Come morning, Pamela wakes up on the lawn to find glum husband Felix staring down at her. Together they go to a nearby cabin where Calvin has taken Susan. But before Calvin can attack her, Felix attacks Calvin. To comical music….
Ain’t rich people wacky?
A soap opera for degenerates, “Pamela, Pamela you are…” is a strange one alright. Officially rated “X” by those wonderful folks at the MPAA, it’s been digitally transferred from the original negative so you can now play it at your own kinky sex parties.-- Handsome Harry Archer
SKU: 34361
Format: DVD-R
Year: 1968
Color: B&W
Starring: Elaine Edwards
Co-starring: Paul Hardy
Other cast: Mary Lindsay, Sherman Lloyd
Directed by: William L. Rose