jjcarr-49015 *Borderline Spoiler* Stacey (Meg Myles) works as a burlesque dancer in a carnival. When her ex-con, (ex?)junkie, ex tries to reunite with her and start anew she tricks him out of his money and flies to New York, wearing a trench coat over her burlesque outfit. She picks up another man on the plane. Hoping to become a nightclub singer at Pepe's she is willing to use and be used by such men (and women?) to do so. Pepe (Grayson Hall), the manageress who grooms her, is portrayed as a then-stereotypical lesbian, just as the piano player is shown as effete. Arnold (Mike Keene), the club's crooked owner, has paid off his last mistress (played with some dignity by Nolia Chapman) and sees Stacey as her replacement. Laurence (Robert Yuro), his Fredo-like son, falls for her. She tries to juggle the two.When the ex, high, knife in hand and initially intent on revenge, finds her she sees the chance to play him for a sap yet again. Get him to kill the father supposedly so they can be together, then get the son, the father's money and the ex back in jail. Why a six? This is a competently made, if unexceptional, low-budget film with a noir feel to it. The characters are sordid but not portrayed in a sleazy fashion. There are elements of titillation, the femme fatale spends a lot of time in lingerie and/or leather and the British actress Sabrina, famed in her day for her natural Barbie-like figure, appears as herself as Stacey's rival in a series of glamorous outfits.

Elliot James Gritty, glum, moody, downbeat, depressing---all the elements that make black & white 60's sexploitation films based in New York City so much fun on a rainy afternoon. Superstacked sexbomb model and singer Meg Myles is perfect. Grayson Hall is great. Why Hollywood never utilized Myles' talents always puzzled me. Intrator lucked out casting her as a bitchy, cold-blooded user who gives an inch and takes a mile from everyone. He did a good job although his camera focuses more on Myles' feet than her famous 42-inches. Through sheer happenstance, she winds up at a Manhattan cabaret that's inhabited by a nest of spidery characters as jaded, rotten and nasty as she is. They try to mold her to their specifications. Her rebellion is futile because she wants to become the star of the club. Another 50's-60's bullet-bra icon, British blonde Sabrina, makes a rare film appearance as another club entertainer.

Charles Garbage Del Tenney fans MUST see this depiction of early-60's club life in which he plays Paul, a bisexual pianist (!). It's pretty hard to believe that this suave leading man later directed THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH and I EAT YOUR SKIN. The main character though is Stacey, played to the bitchiest by sexy, husky-voiced Meg Myles. Stacey moves inner-city with her junky boyfriend and gets a job as a burlesque entertainer. There, she gets catty with Pepe (Grayson Hall), her female boss for wanting her own way and becomes involved in a romantic triangle with Pepe's son and husband.The music was by jazz composer, Mundell Lowe who's album TV ACTION JAZZ has become a rare collector's item over the years. One of the songs from that album (a nice version of 'Naked City') as been issued on to CRIME JAZZ, a CD compilation avalible from Rhino. The music in SATAN IN HIGH HEELS is pretty mundane jazzamaspazz but I'm after the the original soundtrack (from Parker Records) just for one great song sung by Meg Myles (in leather clothes and a whip!), 'More Deadly Than the Male'. Also starring in the film is Sabrina, something of a poor man's Jane Mansfield, who sings a really bad number before Stacey's act. I was amazed to know that Sabrina was a real sensation down here in Oz! She was down here regularly starring in television commercials (one was for Amcal oil-cubes!) and was featured in lots of newsreel footage (always holding her poodle, just like Jane) and magazines. I even found reference to her in Peter Doyle's AMAZE YOU FRIENDS, a crime novel set in Sydney during the 1950's.Aside from all these fascinating facts, SATAN IN HIGH HEELS is a fairly enjoyable little film with lots of class. It also remains a decent examination of sleazy, smokey inner-city burlesque clubs which will never again be seen or experieced.

Gothick Too bad this movie is so hard to find in rental stores. It's got underground cult classic all over it, and deserves an annual revival at the Film Forum with audiences dividing up between those who do Meg Myles' lines and those who chant along with Grayson Hall: "You'll EAT and DRINK what I SAY until you lose five pounds IN THE PLACES WHERE!"Designed as an homage to the noir sensibilities of the late Forties (think Blue Dahlia), this movie was filmed at a bargain basement budget in New York's old La Martinique cabaret. The hachi-machi dialogue and ratty looking clothes seem like a prophetic foreshadowing of Valley of the Dolls; the sleazy atmosphere of coffeehouse decadence make this a much slicker variant on some of the themes canvassed by the better known British noirette Beat Girl (featuring Christopher Lee and Oliver Reed). Satan in High Heels is essentially a showcase for the talents of three women: Meg Myles, Grayson Hall and Sabrina. Suave Z-movie director Del Tenney ("Horror of Party Beach") contributes a deft turn as gay piano player Paul. Of the three female principals, Miss Myles distinguishes herself for her ability to wear some pretty sharp avant-garde leather ensembles and deliver some punchy salvos. Grayson Hall rules the roost as Pepe, cocking a jaundiced eye at every sad sack who wanders into her orbit with a l-o-o-o-n-g draw on that impossibly baroque cigarette holder, and the mordant comment, "Bear up, darling, I love your eyelashes." As Herself, Sabrina is some force of Anti-Nature. Don't miss her big production number which finds her pneumatically shoe-horned into Charlie the Tuna regalia pouting, "I CAHN'T be good!" The big Meg Myles number, "The Female of the Species (is more deadly than the male)" had its title riff quarried for the soundtrack of some pitiful Sixties retread last year.This is the movie that proves the truth in the maxim that if the good die young, the bad are ALWAYS much more entertaining in their indecent old age.