Bizarre (1970)

Interesting facts

Secrets of Sex, released in the US as Tales of the Bizarre and Bizarre, is a 1970 British multi-genre sexploitation anthology film, directed by Antony Balch and narrated by Valentine Dyall. It was written by Martin Locke, John Eliot, Maureen Owen, Elliott Stein and Balch.

Production

After directing the Burroughs-influenced shorts Towers Open Fire (1963) and The Cut Ups (1967), Balch approached producer Richard Gordon in 1968 to direct an anthology film running just over an hour and entitled Multiplication.

Five writers are credited with the screenplay; several others, including Brion Gysin and Ian Cullen (writer of Cruel Passion (1977) and husband of Yvonne Quenet) also claimed to have worked on the script. After the script was rewritten to bring the film up to feature length and the budget doubled (£32,000) filming took place over 14 weeks in 1969.

Many of the actresses who appear nude in the film, such as Cathy Howard and Maria Frost, were topless models who had begun to get minor acting roles in British sex and horror films of the period. Frost, who plays Lindy Leigh in the film, was so horrified she'd been given a major role in the film that she reportedly told Balch "I'm a model, I can't act." She had previously appeared in the two Harrison Marks shorts Maria and Scouts Honour.

The dinosaur sculptures that feature in the "Strange Young Man" segment are the famous Crystal Palace Dinosaurs.

Commenting on the film in an unpublished 1975 interview, Balch claimed "this is a very uneven film, but three episodes and a single shot, are good. I liked the ones with the photographer, Elliot Stein, and the Lady in the Greenhouse. The episode of the monster baby is a bore, but the single shot of it, at the end is brilliant."

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