Chatterbox! (1977)

Excellent but underrated film

Better Late Then Never

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Before Me And Him, the female anatomy had something to say. Smoking hot Rialson (Hollywood Boulevard) breaks into fame much quicker, becoming an overnight sensation, when her anatomy (vagina) starts talking back to her, and boy! can she sing. Sadly for Penelope (Rialson) this is causing her quite emotional impact and upset, when her boyfriend, who looks much older, leaves her. A horny female customer gets the wrong idea at her place of work too. There are some funny bits, and the C word is used to quite an advantage, here, a one liner, concerning The Star Spangled banner, the memory highlight of the film. You could say, this is just an excuse to belly a pornographic film, but Chatterbox is more than. It's quite an original, but also done in a smart way. There's not much fornicating, but more nudity and hottie Rialson, is truly something in the bare. The choreographed number with Rialson's anatomy and backup, with Rialson, is dressed up in light chicken get up, feathers flying is classic and catchy. Be sure to catch this one, with good performances to boot.

Chatterbox may be the strangest comedy I have ever seen. It reminded me of Eating Raoul, the Paul Bartel/Mary Woronov flick of the same era. Penelope(Candice Rialson) works in a beauty parlor as a hairdresser. One night, as she and her boyfriend are getting it on, her vagina speaks to her lover, with insults. He thinks that Penelope is making fun of him and leaves. Her lower half also loves to sing. She visits a psychiatrist to demonstrate her dilemma, and he comes up with the idea to enter show business. Dr. Pearl takes her on the road and she and her partner become stars by singing show tunes. Chatterbox is not graphic, but sort of soft porn with typically bad acting and a very cheap look to the camera work and sets. At seventy two minutes, it never becomes boring; so if you are in the mood for a light farce, and extensive nudity on the part of Ms. Rialson will not offend you, Chatterbox is a short diversion from the troubles of the world.

Sweet hairdresser Penny Pittman (a typically charming and radiant performance by lovely blonde 70's drive-in cinema starlet Candice Rialson) discovers that her vagina can talk and sing. Penny's helpful agent/psychiatrist Dr. Pearl (affably essayed by Larry Gelman) turns Penny and her foul-mouthed speaking cervix (who's affectionately named Virginia) into an unlikely reluctant celebrity: Penny and Virginia appear as guests on Professor Irwin Corey's TV show, record a funky hit disco song called "Wang Dang Doodle," have sex with a whole high school basketball team, pop up on a game show, and star in a musical porno feature surrounded by dancing and singing men dressed up in chicken costumes (this latter particular jaw-dropping sequence rates as the definite gut-busting surreal highlight of the entire picture). Director Tom DeSimone, working from a cheerfully crass and silly script by Mark Rosin and Norman Yonemoto, milks a lot of infectiously naughty laughs out of the one-joke premise, maintains a zippy pace throughout, and keeps the raunchiness at bay by effectively creating a surprisingly zany and good-natured tone. Besides the talking vagina gimmick, we also get hilariously bawdy jokes about predatory lesbians, preening homosexuals, and, of course, sex. The ravishing Rialson just barely manages to retain her dignity in the rather thankless lead role and bares her lovely body as often as possible. The supporting cast is likewise up to par: Perry Bullington as Penny's clumsy nice guy lover Ted, Jane Kean as Penny's proud, supportive mother Eleanor Pittman, Rip Taylor as Penny's effeminate gay boss Mr. Jo, Cynthia Hoppenfeld as Penny's loyal best gal pal Linda Ann, Michael Taylor as hunky romantic stud Dick, and Robert Lipton as pretentious hardcore film director Jon David. Tak Fujimoto's polished cinematography gives the movie a nice slick look. Moreover, the boom mike dips into the top of the frame at alarmingly frequent intervals. A choice wacky chunk of vintage 70's lowbrow humor.

Really bad, in that weird seventies movie way. Basically one joke, and the premise wears thin, but it is one hell of a weird premise. For similar bad/weird/sexy kicks see Percy and Percy's Progress.