No Es Nada, Mama, Solo Un Juego

I never understood the appeal of David Hemmings. He was never a very good dramatic actor, nor was he particularly sexy or leading man material, so I was always baffled that he gave such dull performances again and again, even in movies I love such as Blow-Up and Deep Red. This one, at least, is so wacky that it deserves to get a watch just out of sheer morbid curiosity. Hemmings plays a spoiled man-child whose mother and father allow him to treat women like animals and make them play in kinky sexual games. When his new maid Lola (Andrea Rau) rejects his many come-ons, he locks her in a stable, treating her like an animal and ‘preparing’ her to become his willing sex slave. But Lola is no typical damsel-in-distress, and soon joins onto Hemming’s games to find a way out.
This is an interesting production from Spain, directed by Jose Maria Forque who made many productions, mainly in Italy and Spain. Most are dramatic works, but this is definitely a sore thumb in his hands, as it reaches a level of perversity that is neither too offensive nor is it completely conservative, either. Hemmings is as dull as ever, and like Megan Fox, only has one facial expression during the whole movie. He was never a good dramatic actor, as I said earlier, but I wished he had made more comedy, which he was very good at (his cameo in Barbarella, for example). Andrea Rau is much more interesting, being both fragile and sexual, and very easy on the eyes. She’s also nude a lot of the time, and that helps. Almost as naked as she was in Daughters of Darkness, only here she is a little more tougher than she was in Daughters. We also have small but memorable roles by Alida Valli (Suspiria, The Third Man) as Hemmings mother, and classic Spanish character actor Francisco Rabal (Nightmare City, Dagon) as Tio.
The movie, sadly, doesn’t go far enough in its attempts at perversion, and the plot drags at a snail’s pace. After a while I just didn’t care about the movie, but kept interest solely because of Andrea Rau’s compelling performance and sexiness. We get some hilarious moments of perversion, such as Hemmings chasing after a victim dressed in a bunny suit, or when Hemmings fondles Rau’s naked body with a machete blade. But sadly these are small moments in an otherwise dull, long, and uninteresting film.