Six She’s and a He (1963)

I was in the mood for something weird so when I dug thru my to watch pile and found Six She’s and a He from Something Weird Video I thought to myself, ‘this seems like a good choice.’ See what I did there? For the uniformed the previously mentioned company is best known for saving and releasing oddball and sometimes thought lost regional low budget cheapie drive-in flicks. But was this one worth the effort? Lets check it out and see.

A voiceover tells us that the man floating along in a raft is a bomber pilot from World War II. This is immediately after us hearing voices talking about a rocket launch over some stock footage of the space program. Um okay movie this isn’t a good start. The astronaut/bomber pilot, Fred, lands on a beach and is rescued by six lovely ladies in bikinis. After reviving him with some water they show a severed head on a stick and tell him that he is now their slave. This is because they are the Love Goddesses which explains the excruciatingly bad song of the same name that they keep playing.

The rest of the movie follows a pattern. Fred has to “service” the ladies at night and then is hooked to a plow or forced to mow the grass (with a scythe no less!) during the day. This “torture” is almost unbearable. Mixed in is a flashback where we see them kill a Nazi… okay so it is World War II. Luckily one of the ladies, Desiree, offers to help him escape if he will take her with him. Seems she isn’t a fan of the island and the Love Goddess gig at all. He agrees and they execute the worst escape plan since… well maybe ever! The lifeboat goes back in the ocean and with some more stock footage and voiceover work Fred is back to being an astronaut in the sixties. Well shit…

In the sixties there was a trend from regional filmmakers when they made content for the drive-in circuit. Since they didn’t have the budget, crew, gear, and in many cases the talent to compete with Hollywood they had to find another way to get the audience to show up. The easiest way to accomplish that was to titillate the audience with things that they weren’t getting elsewhere. That is exactly what Six She’s and a He is trying to do. While we don’t get any nudity, it was the early sixties and Florida was still a bit restrictive as to what you could get away with, there are a lot of lovely ladies dancing around in bikinis. In fact, that is most of the story if you can even call it a story. The pattern is some day labor with a bit of dialogue followed by a lady in a bikini dancing in a pool waiting for Fred to “take care of business”.

That is the plot in it’s entirety. This is repeated four times before Fred is strapped to a pole and cut/beat until the ladies close their eyes and hum/moan. It is at this point Desiree cuts him loose and they make a break for it. Why does this work? How come none of them notice this? Has anything I’ve mentioned so far make you think they are going to take the time to explain? There is a girl fight and then they leave on the lifeboat. There is really zero story here. The script is from actor William Kerwin who appeared in several movies from directors H.G. Lewis and William Grefe who shot a lot in Florida. This is his first writing credit, and I can confirm he doesn’t get better with practice.

There are a few attempts at gore with the severed head and an extended sequence where the Nazi is stabbed and his guts are pulled out. I imagine that this was horrifying for an early sixties audience so that had to be effective. This is another example of indie filmmakers giving the paying customer something Hollywood wouldn’t or couldn’t. While the gore is still fun it is far too brief to make this movie worth a watch. The ladies and implied naughty activities haven’t aged well and while they may have shocked when new it has gotten tedious. Though to be fair to all involved in the making of Six She’s and a He I don’t think they were trying to make art or expected the movie to still be around. This was a quickie shot on the cheap cash in to play as the second or third feature at the local passion pit aka. drive-in. Again, I can’t recommend this one, but it is an interesting bit of cinematic history.

 

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