The Seven Minutes (1971)

Best movie of this year hands down!

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Adaptation of Irving Wallace's book about a 30-year-old novel titled "The Seven Minutes," banned worldwide for three decades as being depraved and obscene, coming under fire once again after the son of a major political contributor in California is charged with raping a girl--under the influence of the erotic material! This coincides with the case of a bookstore manager arrested for selling a recent reprint of "The Seven Minutes", resulting in a trial that pits pornography against free speech. Director Russ Meyer's second (and final) film for 20th Century Fox is admirably serious in its attempt to show the hypocrisy of so-called purveyors of decency and political opportunists looking for a legal scapegoat, yet it is too bogged down in talk to appeal to Meyer's fan-base (despite the quick cutting which reduces most shots to a length of seven seconds or less). Yvonne De Carlo has a bravura cameo in the third act as a key witness for the defense, and there's an amusingly old-fashioned tag featuring the defense attorney and his girl making love in front of a roaring fire. But the majority of "The Seven Minutes" concerns itself with the legal protection of salacious material instead of the usual Russ Meyer presentation of salacious material, which didn't thrill audiences in 1971 and probably won't today. *1/2 from ****

Despite being a big fan of his work,I have somehow not gotten round to seeing auteur film maker Russ Meyer's 5 final works for the last year or so! Preparing to write my 800th IMDb review,I felt that it was the perfect time,to at last count down Meyer's minutes.The plot:Going undercover,2 cops raid a bookstore where they find a book called The 7 Minutes being sold.With the book being banned over "moral decay",the cops tell the bookstore owner that along with facing a huge fine,he also faces jail.Making out with his girlfriend,lawyer Mike Barrett finds his fun get rudely interrupted by a call requesting for his skills on a case involving The 7 Minutes.Due to him having been involved in a number of cases related to the case,Barrett gives the store owner directions over how he should plead in court in order to avoid serving time.As he prepares to notch up another successful 7 Minutes case, Jerry Griffith brutally rapes a girl,who is later found dead.Being a big power player in the city,Jerry's dad Frank decides to take advantage of The 7 Minutes being found in his sons car,by turning Jerry's murder case around,into being a battle of "morality",as Frank makes the count for the final 7 minutes.View on the film:Filming over 24 hours worth of usable footage, (good to see that he did not waste any stock!) directing auteur Russ Meyer closely works with editor Dick Wormell to keep each take lasting no longer then 3 or 4 seconds.Along with making the 2 hour running time glide along,Meyer & Wormell also give the film an excellent zany atmosphere,thanks to the rapid-fire editing raising all the tension in the trial to an over the top melodrama.Whilst Fox (who after this flopped,ripped up Meyer's 3 picture deal) put tough restrictions on how much skin he could show, (with there only being the odd peak at Meyer's beauties)Meyer makes sure to still leave a mark that is clear to see,by splashing saturated colours over the most violent scenes,and superbly using extremely stylised close-up,to give the most dramatic scenes an underlying comedic tone.Although Meyer stayed away from the writing room, Manny Diez & Richard Warren Lewis adaptation of Irving Wallace's novel offers a tantalising mix of off-beat private eye sleuthing with a warped court room showdown.Holding back the court for the first hour,the writers make Mike Barrett's search for defence one that takes the film in a number of fantastic detours,which goes from Barrett trying to get the book dealt with by the book,to searching round for a long lost Hollywood star.Unleashing the court room setting with Wormell's razor-sharp editing & Meyer's fast-pace close-ups,the writers make sure to keep up with Meyer's stylised filming by making the case one that appears deadly serious,but slowly reveals itself to be a delightfully exaggerated affair,as Meyer's clock strikes 7.

The Seven Minutes was Russ Meyer's follow up to his big studio debut, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. That one made a lot of money for 20th Century Fox but also caused it a fair bit of embarrassment and flack due to its salacious content and X rating. The Seven Minutes was the second film in his two picture deal and it went down a much less controversial route. It takes the form of a courtroom drama and perhaps unsurprisingly, unlike its predecessor, it bombed at the box office. But as is the way, despite the unfamiliar subject matter, it's still pretty obvious as a Meyer movie and is ultimately quite a strange film.On the face of it, The Seven Minutes is a serious drama but Meyer seems incapable of playing it straight. His distinctive camera-work and super-fast editing are still in abundance. While he still makes space for a bevy of buxom women who appear throughout, such as Shawn 'Baby Doll' Deveraux. In truth, Meyer had no interest adapting the Irving Wallace novel that the film is based on but the studio insisted. In the end he figured the subject of freedom of speech and censorship was something he knew about from past experience and could make something interesting with it. But Fox felt battered by the publicity that they had attracted with Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and the similarly X rated Myra Breckinridge, so they made it clear that The Seven Minutes must make an R rating. Consequently, it is easily the most restrained outing he ever released.The story boils down to a court case about a book called 'The Seven Minutes' which is considered obscene, so much so that it is accused of inspiring a vicious rape. The title refers to the average time that a woman takes to achieve orgasm. To be honest, going into this film I didn't have very high expectations. Its reputation sort of goes before it and the very idea of Meyer directing a film not based around buxom women set off alarm bells, seeing as they always seemed so integral to the success of everything else he did. As it turned out, I was very pleasantly surprised with this flick. Despite being a courtroom drama it still retains enough Meyer madness to ensure it's fascinating. In truth, his fast editing style is wholly inappropriate for such a film, the twists and turns of the plot end up coming at us so fast that it's very hard keeping up with plot developments, while the appearances of the pneumatic women that punctuate the movie are completely incongruous for a film trying to make a serious point! But ultimately, its aspects like these that makes it more interesting at the end of the day. The extreme melodramatic tendencies and bizarre tone and presentation are what mark it out. Make no mistake, it's not up there with Meyer's best movies but who in all seriousness would expect it to be? It's his least typical film though that's for sure and its one I am pleased to have finally seen. It's notable too for featuring a young Tom Selleck as well as a cameo from veteran actor John Carradine; it also features Meyer regulars Charles Napier, Stuart Lancaster and his then wife, Edy Williams.

After scoring a hit at Fox with "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls," Russ Meyer plays it straight with a courtroom drama? Well, sort of...Irving Wallace's novel is a terrific, suspenseful read and Meyer does a good job bringing the story to the screen, completely replacing the "surprise" ending of the novel with one of his own. As you can probably imagine, Meyer can't really play anything straight, so this film is full of Meyer's bright colors and eye-popping, um, camera work. The man is a brilliant cinematographer, and this film looks just as good as any of his others that I've seen. Odd camera angles, fast cuts, bad acting, Edy Williams, and gratuitous cleavage shots are all here and well worth a look.Beware of the old television print of this film, for sale in some US video outlets. The hack job done by the censors just ruins the film. Fox has a gorgeous print of the film around, as it has been shown on the FX channel in the past, open matte (unlike BVOD, this one wasn't shot in Panavision), fully uncut and looking brand new. Write the folks at Fox and demand a proper video release!