Sin In The Suburbs (1964) Psychological Drama Transitional Sexploitation Noir

Here' a good example of a film that got condemned by the Legion of Decency for its racy (for the time) subject. It's quite pedestrian, and almost devoid of any nudity or visual style..  

Now remember the term Films Noir was "actually coined by by Lucien Rebatet, a fascist journalist in the 1930s. in Rebatet's mind, it was a derogatory term (he hated the movies by Carné/Prévert and Duvivier... he used it for quai des brumes, hôtel du nord...etc., etc." (Jean Cottraux). 

It's not the popular Nino Frank myth that came about over a mistranslation.

Out of the nine original French Noir that were studied in Charles O'Brien's Film Noir in France before The Liberation only 5 had the signature Visual Style the other four were condemned as Film Noir just for their subject matter alone.

Now "rumor has it" that at some point Stanley Kubrick saw this and its where he got his inspiration for Eyes Wide Shut. Something to think about...

Written and Directed by Joe Sarno (Flesh And Lace, Moonlighting Wives, All the Sins of Sodom).

Cinematography by James J. Markos, and European inspired edgy, sleazy, dive bar jazz pieces composed by Sam S. Fiedel.

The film stars Judy Young (Flesh and Lace, Olga's House of Shame, The Naked Fog) as Kathy Lewis, W.B. Parker as Louis Muse, Audrey Campbell (One Naked Night, Olga's House of Shame) as Geraldine Lewis, Dyanne Thorne as Yvette Talman, Marla Ellis as Lisa Francis, Richard Tatro as Roy Minton, Derek Crane as Scott Lewis, Ella Daphni as Peggy Thomas, Charles Clements as Cliff Haddison, Wayne Roberts as Jimmy Reed, John Aristedes (Flesh and Lace) as Tad Benton, William Donaldson as Larry Harket, Joseph Garri as Henry Francis, Mari Kiselle as Pam, Carla Conners as Teen Age Girl.

Story

New Jersey, somewhere in a "Levittown" like planned suburbia...

The titles run over a sequence with Yvette Talman a raven haired divorcée (looks like a wig), who is living with her "brother" Lou. We the first sleazy jazz piano tune under this.

She is lounging around in her black garter belt, stockings with matching undies. A see-through cape is draped over her shoulders. Our first view here emphasises her sexual attributes before we ever see her face.

She's waiting in ambush for the furniture repo man who is coming to pay a visit. When the doorbell rings, she gets up and walks to the door and opens it a crack. It's the younger brother of the owner who arrives at the door. 

The beginning of this sequence is all a low angle shot.

The repo man explains, it's about her four month past due $200 unpaid bill.  Yvette opens the door and invites him in for an eyeful. 

Dyanne Thorne as Yvette

Here we get our first good loot at Yvette's face. Big false eyelashes, drawn on eyebrows, lipstick, helmut look wig. Exactly the look Devine loved to burlesque.

The repo brother looks like a deer in the headlights. Yvette seduces the guy in lieu of payment. Of course this sets up her come on look and a little make out sequence but being 1964 it would be even generous to even call it T&A. We get a short freeze frame and the title "Sin In The Suburbs," then they embrace and sink below the frame. 

Cut to a late winter street scene. The streets and sidewalks are bare while the grass and bushes have an overnight coating of fluffy fresh snow. A '55 Ford pickup with a "B&S Homes Inc. sign" and a plywood rack, rumbles up and pulls to a stop in front of another suburban home. Out in the houses driveway, a '59 Oldsmobile Super 88 Fiesta Wagon is parked. 

It must be the maintenance crew for the B&S Homes subdivision. Out doing concrete patch work where the wither snowplows damaged concrete.

Three guys get out and begin unhooking the tailgate. When they let it drop, we cut to...

A bedroom inside the house. The noise outside awakens Lisa Francis, and a five beat percussive tune begins. She is sleeping in just her panties. 

She gets out of bed slips on a nightie top and joins her husband Henry who is almost dressed for work. 

Henry: Oh, you're awake.

Lisa [breathlessly]:Oh I'm awake, I'm very much awake. [hugging him from behind]

There's an imaginary thought bubble with a blinking sign saying "I'm Horny... I'm Horny..." that Henry doesn't detect...

She begs him to call in sick, he replies he can't today because. has an big afternoon meeting. She's hot to trot, and giving off nympho vibes. She counters with he wouldn't have said no two years ago. 

Henry replies two years ago he was just a salesman. He's got to catch the 7:21. 

Marla Ellis as Lisa Francis

Lisa: That damned 7:21. 

Cut to the Lewis', in another B&H Homes track house. Geraldine Lewis and her daughter Kathy in her cheerleading uniform are seated at the breakfast table. 

Audrey Campbell as Geraldine Lewis

Judy Young as Kathy Lewis

Geraldine and Kathy chitchat about last night and Kathu informs her mother that there is a chearleaders party after school today also. Husband Scott appears and has a last cup of coffee. Kathy finishes her cereal and splits for school.

Kathy finishes her cereal and splits for school.

Scott and Geraldine discuss his work. She wishes he was a truck driver who was sitting in his underwear at 5:30PM. Scott counters that if he was a truck drive she would be able to buy the clothes she likes and they wouldn't be able to afford this house. Scott looks at his watch and says he's got to catch the 7:21.

Cut back to the Francis home where Lisa passionately kisses Henry goodbye at the door. 

We hear the cheap jazz again but also the distinctive shovel scraping sounds of the crew outside mixing sand and concrete. Soon after Henry leaves, the foreman of the B&H crew comes to the door with a roll of hose over his shoulder. 

He rings the bell. Lisa opens the door, and gives the guy an eye full. He asks Lisa if he can hook up to their hose. Lisa gives her assent, and closes the door. She's looking aroused again.

Back at the Lewis' house Jimmy Reed knocks on the door. Geraldine assumes he's looking for Kathy, but he tells he he's skipping school today. Geraldine gives him a shiteating grin, and invites him in for coffee and fresh danish. Ahh something must be going on between these two....

Cut back to the Francis living room. Lisa is sitting on her couch. We again hear the sleazy music and concrete work sounds from outside. 

Lisa peeks through the window shade, then opens the front door and stares at the foreman who finally notices her standing in the doorway. 

He gets the message, probably tells his men the lady of the house needs her pipes unclogged, wink, wink, and heads to the house. 

At the door Lisa slowly backs into the foyer followed by the foreman. 

Here we cut back to Yvette Tallman and the repo man who finally comes up for air, rising back into the frame.

When the repo man has gone, out of an adjacent room pops Lou. Here we find out it was his idea for Yvette to seduce the repo man. 

Lou's wearing a bathrobe and it looks as if he doesn't mind sloppy seconds. Just as Lou and Yvette look like they might start getting it on we cut to Lisa and the B&H foreman.

W.B. Parker as Louis Muse

They are passionately kissing, but when the forman starts removing her babydoll top, Lisa has second thoughts.  

She struggles and tells him she don't know. He forcefully and kisses her again. She slaps him. they both drop out the frame to her cries of no.

Back to Geraldine and Jimmy dancing the twist. When the music stops Geraldine tells Jimmy she's having guests and he  has to go. Jimmy kisses her. Geraldine thanks him for coming and kisses Jimmy passionately in return and Jimmy reluctantly leaves. Not today Jimmy, not today.

Back in the Francis living room, the B&H foreman rises up into the frame. He states "no pain, no strain." Then we see a now sexually satisfied Lisa rise up into the frame with him and put her arms around him. When they start kissing again we cut back to Yvette and Lou.

"No pain, no strain."

This sequence is a gossipy one where Yvette vents to Lou about how all the nosy women in the neighborhood with their husbands stood in the street and cackled when he husband moved out and then when Lou moved in tongues also wagged. 

She then states that there's probably many women having affairs between 7;21 and the 6:35 PM train. She then informs Lou that Geraldine and one of her snooty city friends entertain men twice a week at her house....

                                                          Lou getting a brainstorm.....

We cut to just such a session at Geraldine's. Two men and a woman  arrive bearing a gift of Tennessee mash whiskey. 

John Aristedes as Tad Benton

They proceed to get drunk. Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker. 

We cut here back and forth between Geraldine Lewis' and her swinger pals, a twist party social that Kathy Lewis is at, and a brainstorm that Lou and Yvette come up with. 

The couples at the Lewis house get sloshed, shed clothes and pair off. At the twist party Jimmy arrives and tries to put the moves on Kathy, she suggests they go to his house. At Jimmy's he tries to go just a little too far Kathy resists and he slaps her down. She grabs her coat and leaves.

Cut to Lou explaining to Yvette that with all the cheating going on in the subdivision, he thinks that they can cash in on lonely housewives.

Back at the Lewis' things are getting hot and heavy....

Meanwhile we watch a traumatized Kathy running back through the subdivision. When she gets home early, she stops in the kitchen, then goes looking for mom. She becomes shocked when she finds her mother having sex with a stranger. 

She's not downstairs so she heads up the short stair to the split level with the bedrooms.

   

She becomes shocked when she finds her mother having sex with a stranger in a bedroom. She backs away and down the stair.

In the bed room Geraldine's head pops up into the frame, lol, I guess subtext, so if we use use our imagination it probably suggests that Kathy saw her mother Geraldine, having oral sex with her guest....

Kathy runs back out side and eventually runs into Yevette in the road coming back from shopping. When Yvette sees that Kathy is distraught she invites her to her house.

Yevette comforts Kathy, discusses her emotional problems and her sexual hang-ups, makes her understand things from her frustrated mothers point of view and unlocks her sexual repressions and some lesbian tendencies between Kathy and apparently a bi Yvette. 

Kathy leaves for home as Lou arrives with more groceries. He tells he had a conversation with a local hotel owner about their planned swingers parties which will be lucrative to them.

Noirsville

Watching this today its pretty tame stuff. Filmmakers were just beginning to exploit their new found freedoms as the old MPPC crumbled and nobody was giving a shit about what the Legion of Decency condemned. We all had just went through the Cuban Missel Crisis. 

"I was a kid growing up in NYC. You couldn't help but get the feeling that you were living in the biggest bullseye on the planet. If anyplace was destined for the sobriquet "Ground Zero" it was Manhattan. The Cold War was about to boil over. The Cuban Missile Crisis and reactions to it had a way of focusing anxiety.

I remember doing nuclear attack drills in school. A bell would go off and we'd all hunker down under our desks, as if that was going to be any help. I sure that this was the spark that really ignited the counterculture revolution. It got slapped into overdrive. The supposed "grown-ups" were totally fucking nuts. 

If we don't shuck off all this institutional bull shit fast we may never enjoy life. If it feels go do it, and if you don't "do it" now you may never get to do it. We who went out, stopped worrying and "did it" all owe a big thanks to all the politico wackos of the world." (Noisville).

These films only had to play two weeks to make all their money back at a Times Square grindhouse. It's condemnation by the Church help sell tickets. 

Look at Joseph Sarno as one of the pioneers that made Noe Noir happen pushing the envelope farther and father and obscenity laws evolved. Originally on DVD from Something Weird.

Watchable 5-6 /10