Let My Puppets Come (1976)

Touches You

Sick Product of a Sick System

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It's safe to say that you won't find many films more distasteful, misanthropic and deliriously odd as Gerard Damiano's puppet porno Let My Puppets Come. The erstwhile director of Deep Throat and other, more classy hardcore epics here delivers a side-swipe at, well... just about everything: film-making, pornography, sex, capitalism and the American dream, in the shape of the most degenerate puppet show you'll ever see.The film begins with Damiano himself at a hot dog stand, buying a dog and surprised at being joined by a small puppet who buys the same snack for himself. We then discover that this puppet is a gopher in an on-the-rocks business that owes money to a mysterious "Mr Big". The gopher arrives back at the office to find the puppet suits in an uproar - they need to make a hefty sum of money quick, otherwise they're for the chop. They decide to make a porno.The gopher pitches a couple of ideas, and we see them enacted by puppets before us: one has a woman poked by her pet dog, the other a patient blown by a nurse. It is somewhat disconcerting to see puppets, with foam-made sexual organs, explicitly engaging in sexual intercourse, and it is in this queasy sight that the film's peculiar ability to arouse unease arises: human sexuality is debased to mere puppetry, organs are no more than sown on (and on one occasion sliced off) appendages, volition is reduced to being moved around by some unseen person with their hand up your ass.Soon the suits have recruited a relative of their eldest member, one Gepetto, as creative consultant on the movie; he arrives with his son Pinocchio - as soon as you see the boy's nose you know where it's going to end up. The filming begins, with a puppet leather man called Lash whipping the performers and instructing them with shouts and abuse. Musical numbers are filmed, including a jaw-dropping tribute to the All American Dream Girl sung by a prick and danced by a a torso with chicken legs, a c**t with jaws and breasts but no head. Rarely can the idea of the American dream have been so ridiculed, cheapened and disgraced.There follows an interlude in which one of the backers goes to a bar to get away from sexual organs, but find a (real) woman dancing lewdly. He rescues her from a drunk and finds himself back at her place. She wants to reward him, so he takes her underwear. What this little piece of random insanity might portend is anyone's guess, but the interaction between the live humans and the puppets is unnerving.Back on set, the filmmakers need more in the film, so they make some sexualised adverts. These feature real porn actresses with puppets, and conjure up an image of the commercial world which is beyond cheap and tawdry, but which resolutely drags the Capitalist idea that "sex sells" through the dirtiest of dirt. One example of the jingles, this for a vaginal deodorant: "Use Miss Sweet Fish every day / Keeps Miss Skanky c**t away".Mr Big arrives at the set, played by a human dwarf, threatening to kill them all because they haven't got his money. He is placated by a blow-job from a puppet. Then the cops arrive and arrest them all for making an indecent film, but they get off because a "pansy judge" has found the film to have "social redeeming value." "Social redeeming value my ass," mutters the cop, "f**cking is f**cking." The film goes on to win the best picture Oscar - presented for some reason by Damiano - and Variety is abuzz with the gossip about the puppet porno and its makers.All of this amounts to a really freakish assault, in the end, on human dignity. We're all merely puppets, in our careers and sex lives, moved around by the demands of making money. Lord knows whether Damiano meant this as the desperate satire it now seems - it certainly is a porno comedy which leaves a very bitter taste in the mouth.

Pornography is a strange thing; I mean porn distinct from erotically tinged or even centered film.Porn by its nature is otherworldly, something that isn't real. The world of most porn has nothing at all in common with the world we live in except for a few words and the common existence of genitals. (Fortunately, surgical modification of those isn't popular yet.) The whole value is in pretending, where erotic art is all about revealing.So porn might as well be done by puppets, cartoons or computerized animation. The only reason that's not prevalent I suppose is because folks off the street are cheap and plentiful. Well, here's an early experiment, one that fails in all respects except for perhaps humor. At least it is intended to be funny.The later to be great Peter Jackson did something like this, but with a grosser attitude. This is mostly childish and the emphasis is on jokes. When I enter something like this, my first reaction isn't based on whether the jokes are funny, but whether they are clever and cinematic.Most aren't, they're at the fifth grade level, which means they are desperate for attention. Some are slightly better: dumb ideas that seem slightly novel with puppets. The first episode is dog-girl, but because they are both equally removed from humanness, the overall effect is worthy of Jack Smith.Only once, maybe twice is there a truly cinematic effect that takes advantage of the fact these are puppets. Towards the end, a fish, a man, some sex, some eating.The oddest piece is an appearance by a human girl, a topless dancer who spends ever so long doing what she and many others I guess think is sexy. She looked like a puppet.I think someone, someday will do something deep in this area. But this, it ain't even fishfood.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

I just recently bought this film (which is very rare in Australia because of it's X rating) and I must say I wasn't expecting much. Let My Puppets Come did have a few laughs in it (some of which are unintentional) and does get better every time you watch it, however it still pales in comparison to Peter Jackson's muppet-bashing classic. I would still say it was worth the $3 I spent on it just to see another smutty puppets film (a 70's porn at that!) and Bloodsucking Freaks star Luis De Jesus in another film role. I would recommend any fans of Meet the Feebles to check out this little known classic. Oh yeah, and the X rating is because of the hardcore trailers at the end of the film (the Aussie video release), not LMPC itself, which as NO human sex scenes at all.

Well, I guess there's worse movies out there. I just don't know what they are. There is no real plot, but there is enough nasty perversion in this movie to satisfy Jeffrey Dahmer. I'm not a prude, but I guarantee that you will not like this move (unless you are a serial killer or something). I swear, most pornos aren't this revolting. BTW, it was shown at the 1998 B-Fest--and was a resounding bomb, probably because everyone had to go vomit in the toilet afterwards. I wish I had missed it like my friend.