Expected more

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Gorgeous and voluptuous redhead knockout burlesque stripper Blaze Starr checks into the Sunny Palms nudist camp in Florida so she can get a much-needed break from her overbearing low-rent agent and various nightclub engagements. While at said camp Blaze meets and falls for camp director Andy Simms (strapping hunk Ralph Young). Writer/director Doris Wishman presents the abundant nudity in the most pleasant and unabashed manner possible; because of this the sight of assorted folks in the buff comes across as wholesome and inoffensive instead of as dirty and objectionable. Moreover, it's a riot to see naked people casually participate in such activities as swimming, practicing archery, and playing checkers, volleyball, and even the accordion. The careful avoidance of potentially objectionable lower frontal nudity rates as a prime source of unintentional hilarity, with all the gals going out of their way to cross their legs so the viewer doesn't see any naughty bits. The obvious post-production dubbing and hopelessly wooden acting further enhance this honey's overall kitschy allure. While Blaze Starr isn't much of an actress, she nonetheless sizes up as quite the deliciously ample eyeful cavorting around in her birthday suit. Raymond Phelan's vibrant color cinematography provides an attractive look. The groovy jazz score and infectiously jaunty'n'catchy theme song keep things bubbling along. Good dippy fun.

Doris Wishman (the film maker), in this film, managed to do the impossible, something that I thought couldn't be done. She made nudity *boring*! The movie is little more than scenes of naked people in the outdoors, doing mundane things like lounging around the swimming pool, strolling by the pond, playing chess... Zzzzzzzzzz. And since this was 1960, there's no full frontal nudity anywhere. The only part that really got me interested was "Leslie" demonstrating her swimming prowess in the pool. The rest of the film has the flimsiest of plots, something about Belle Starr wanting to get away from it all by escaping to the nudist camp every weekend, as her weasel-like fiancé/manager gets more and more irate. In the end, it all works out -- the final scene, the final meeting with the studio boss, was amusing (though I saw that one coming).

This film is from director Wishman's less interesting early period of nudist camp movies before she totally wigged out later in the 60s. The unintentionally experimental compositions and editing that Wishman later indulged in are rarely in evidence here. One typical Wishman device that is on display here is the repeated technique of focusing on the person being spoken to during dialogue scenes which makes dubbing a lot easier. Blaze is all physical presence, with little personality and way too much make-up. Look for a cameo appearance by Doris as one of Blaze's agents.

I never fully realized the pressures of being an actress. The story obviously hit so close to home that Blaze Starr just plays herself. Anyone who feels exhausted and disenchanted with their job or life in general will relate to Blaze's circumstances. The attention paid to the details is astounding. Never has a film stretched the musical montage sequence and make it work so well with the theme. This movie is nearly perfect. The only flaw was that it was too short.