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BOOBIE TRAP
Produced by Herb Henderson, Joseph Garmon, and Peter Lashway
Written, Photographed, Edited, and Directed by Herb HendersonHarold Burns - Randy Byars
Clara - Melissa Wolf
Grace - Stacy Sheets
I liked Herb Henderson's BOOBIE TRAP even more the second time around. Sure, with the new uncut verion you've got 15+ minutes of Melissa Wolf in all her masturbatory glory, but that alone doesn't give a movie re-watchability
No, I take that back. Melissa Wolf is one gorgeous lady who does things in the new version that will make you wear out your VHS copy. Maybe we should call that "forwardability" on account that your always forwarding to the juicy Melissa bits.
Funny how a naked woman can make you loose your train of thought, huh. Where was I? Oh yeah, "re-watchability."
There's a great deal more going on than I found in my original viewing of the R-rated version a few months back. Some of the humor was just lost on me then. Maybe I was just in a bad mood that day, who knows? This time around there was something in every scene that produced at least one good-sized chuckle, most of it being pop-culture sexual innuendo.
"It was a comfortable couch. Sitting here made me wonder how many guys Clara had balled on it. One dozen? Two dozen? Three dozen? The world may never know."
Nothing like a good Tootsie Roll gag to get you going! Most of humor stems from our hero, a down-on-his-luck P.I. who's as vile as they come. He's the kind of leacher who would drool over his mother if she had a nice ass. Played by Randy Byers with that sort of drawn-out Georgia-twang that reaches beyond perversion and into desperation, our hero, Harold Burns, is the comic relief given his chance in the spotlight. Hopefully, director Herb Henderson will bring Byers back for more Burns outings. He's a fun character and it looks as if Byers is having a good time playing him.
Is the uncut version of BOOBIE TRAP a better film than the R-rated? That really depends on your point of view. The extra Melissa Wolf masturbation slows the pacing to a crawl, but then again it's extra Melissa Wolf masturbation! Would you rather have Melissa take her time or would you rather have to stop what you're doing and hit the rewind button a few times?
Dept.13, the distributors for BOOBIE TRAP, just raised their prices before Christmas. The original R-rated runs about $15. Do yourself a favor and shell out the extra money for the extra 15 minutes. You could always fastforward through the naughty bits. Yeah, right!
Below is my original review for the R-rated version.
Dept.13 is quickly becoming one of my favorite micro-budget production studios. In all their technical proficiency, they remember the cardinal rule of b-movie making, "keep it fun." Earlier films, such as CAMELEON and DIAL 911, were both serious thrillers grounded in the same pulp novel conventions that gave rise to this centuries' most respected genre writers. Herb Henderson's BOOBIE TRAP owes its existence to those same pulp novels, only there's nothing serious about this movie at all. It's all about shameless exploitation (and that means keeping the beautiful Melissa Wolf as naked as possible for as long as possible - yes!).
Harold Burns is a private detective, but don't expect someone of Sam Spade or Philip Marlow coolness. Burns is like that distant, retarded cousin no one wants to talk about. He's rude, crude, thinks with the wrong head, and is often very wrong to the point of convicting the wrong person. I guess you could call him the Anti-Marlow.
Burns is hired by the cherubic Grace to find the murderer of her sister. All signs point to a high-class hooker named Clara played by the gorgeous Melissa Wolf. Burns charges $500 upfront for expenses with another $500 when the job is done. After seeing Clara for the first time, he goes back for another $500 so he can taste her wears.
That Burns, a credit to the whole male race I tell you…
Things do take a turn for the worse in the second half. Some of the sweet charm is lost once the killer is shown in the act. Up until this point, the film was a lovable sex comedy in the same vein as John G. Avildsen's CRY UNCLE!, but things get darker, much darker.
Even though the story switches from twisted fun to demented "bleh", Henderson is able to keep the tone light, which makes the final events all that much more discomforting. The unbalancing of emotions throws the viewer off as they aren't exactly sure what to feel. Hitchcock used similar techniques in his films.
Is Herb Henderson the B-Industry's answer to Hitchcock? I wouldn't go that far. But I would suggest you check out his movies.