Who killed the beauty? Producer David Friedman has devoted his entire career to so-called exploitative cinema, which used sharp or taboo themes not for deep analysis, but solely for the purpose of making quick money. Initially, Friedman produced mainly paintings by Herschel Gordon Lewis, who went down in the history of cinema as the creator of the genre “splatter” (naturalistically shot films with murders), but then began to work with other directors. Sometimes he would sit in the director's chair to shoot another cheap craft. One of these tapes is the film “Brick Doll House”, in which Friedman disappeared under the pseudonym Tony Martinez.
At the beginning of the film, five attractive girls working as models discover that their housemate has been murdered. Arrived at the scene, police Lieutenant Parker interrogates witnesses of the murder, whose testimony should help solve the crime. Each girl tells her own version of what happened, adding additional details. Since the beauties lead a very free and frivolous lifestyle, most of their testimony is occupied by parties and dances to winding music shown in detail on the screen. It is easy to notice that the plot structure of the picture is borrowed from Akira Kurosawa’s film Rashomon, but, of course, simplified almost beyond recognition.
Formally a detective, Brick Doll House uses the murder investigation as an excuse to show naked female bodies in various situations (massage, showering, trying on underwear, swimming in the pool naked, etc.). Despite the more than modest timekeeping, the tape seems long and boring, and solving the mystery of the murder almost does not cause interest. In the end, Friedman was well aware that viewers of such films are not primarily interested in detective intrigue. The film can be of interest only for lovers of looking at pretty girls, since from an artistic point of view it has no value.
4 out of 10