Starlet! (1969) Richard Kanter

The Lure of Motion Picture Stardom for Young Pretty Girls Has Always Been Part of the American Dream!” One of the crowning achievements of sixties softcore cinema, Starlet! is an hilarious send-up of the adult film industry that casts the actual EVI Studios as itself.

Ethically-challenged producer Kenyon Adler (Russ Meyer star STUART LANCASTER of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!) and sleazy director Phil Latio (Fabulous Bastard from Chicago’s late great JOHN ALDERMAN) contend with blackmail, jealousy, and lesbian troublemakers in their quest to rule both boxoffice and bedroom with an iron fist. Their star is hitched to Carol Yates (DEIRDRE NELSON), a former stag film actress they’ve renamed “Starliss Knight,” and are promoting as a softcore skinflick superstar.

But their washed-up former star, the vengeful Maxine Henning (KATHI COLE), conspires with an angry lesbian malcontent to bring down Adler and Latio by exposing their new leading lady’s tarnished past…

Fast-paced, funny, and surprisingly sexy, Starlet! is a lustful wink at the outlaw spirit of the people who made X-rated movies before the show-all days of hardcore porn. The original script, from producer extraordinaire DAVID F. FRIEDMAN (who also titled his outrageous autobiography, A Youth in Babylon, after Miss Knight’s fictional film-within-a-film), crackles with mirthful dialogue and sardonic insider’s observations.

Filmed on the old Monogram lot (home of the Bowery Boys, Charlie Chan, and Bela Lugosi’s most outrageous cheapies), loaded with sumptuous production values and the usual bevy of bare beauties, Starlet! is a must-see for every sexploitation fan.

Shapely SHARI MANN starred in Friedman and RICHARD KANTER’s Thar She Blows!, released seven months earlier, which also featured the first appearance of Lancaster and Alderman as the slimy Adler and Latio. We would’ve loved to have seen a whole series of films starring these two. From the 35mm behind-the-scenes & beneath-the-sheets negative.

Starlet! (1969)