Tally ho!

THE BUNNY CAPER (aka, GAMES GIRLS PLAY, aka SEX PLAY 1974) begins with a nod to Marilyn Monroe's infamous skirt lift from THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH (1955)...

... except that this time you can see bush. There you go, the essence of this fine film in a bra cup. As far as pieces of shit go, this one's not too bad and kind of fun if you're not easily offended by broad racial stereotypes and the naked parading of hungry young actresses desperate for a break in films. It's easy to make yourself depressed over the rank cynicism of the whole thing but there are a couple of grace notes that make the experience worthwhile.

Front and center is the starlet casting of Christina Hart as Bunny O'Hara (not to be confused with BUNNY O'HARE), an American diplomat's daughter who has clandestine sex with one too many important men and is subsequently packed off to a British boarding school to stave off starting an international incident. Once on campus, Bunny radicalizes the student (nubile) body, engenders institutional insouciance and contempt for authority...

... promotes unabashed nudity...

... organizes extracurricular skinnydipping...

... and spearheads a wacky caper in which each of the girls will seduce an important foreign dignitary, with the first to get her potentate into bed being the winner (of what I've already forgotten). Oh, it's like a page torn right out of Feydeau.

You might remember Christina Hart from smallish roles in RED SKY AT MORNING (1972), CHARLIE VARRICK (1973) and as a victim of Neville Brand's serial rapist in THE MAD BOMBER (1973) ... but for me she will always be Manson acolyte Patricia Krenwinkel in the CBS TV movie adaptation of HELTER SKELTER (1977); with her shaved head and icy, hateful stare, she was a bona fide monster non pareil. It was ace casting on somebody's part, as there had always been a note of madness in Hart's clear blue eyes that made her unpredictable even in undemonstrative roles; she had a cruel smile that no doubt invalidated her as a proper leading lady but you remembered her after seeing her just once. She went on to a high-profile guest role on a couple episodes of HAPPY DAYS mid-decade but after that it was bits and pieces until she retired from movies in the mid-80s.

Even given her limited run in the movies, Hart was as key a player in the decade of great exploitation films as was Candice Rialson (HOLLYWOOD BLVD.) and Roberta Collins (CHAINED HEAT). Given that she rarely got the chance to take the lead, THE BUNNY CAPER is made bearable and more interesting than it deserves to be by her plucky contribution and (seeming) lack of modesty and self-consciousness.

Believe it or leave it, THE BUNNY CAPER was directed by Jack Arnold, one of the big wheels behind the Golden Age of 50s science fiction: IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (1953), THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954), REVENGE OF THE CREATURE (1955), TARANTULA (1955), THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (1957), MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS (1958)... stop right there and you're talking about a monster resume. This film, of course, is part of his gradual decline into forgettable programmers and episodic television and there's really nothing here to recommend Arnold as an auteur... but it's kind of cool knowing he did it anyway.

There are some familiar British faces among the cast, too, but the ringer is Ed Bishop, who had just come off the two-year run of ITC's UFO series. Looking slightly embarrassed throughout, Bishop plays a Yank under secretary who scolds the girls on their impolitic pole vaulting in the third act. Given that THE BUNNY CAPER is strictly soft core, the things ends with the expected whimper but as a time capsule of 70s sexploitation it's reasonably diverting guilty pleasure material that at least doesn't overstay its welcome.

THE BUNNY CAPER is set to be released on DVD by Dark Sky Films, under the alternate title GAMES GIRLS PLAY.