Available perhaps for the first time since it originally ran in crummy little grindhouses across the country over forty years ago, "cult" director Doris Wishman's first feature film, Hideout in the Sun, a tame, tepid, yet watchable "nudie" ("Filmed in Gorgeous Eastman Color in...Nuderama") that mixes goofy Dragnet dramatics with the conventional nudie genre, is now available from Retro-Seduction Cinema in a deluxe 2-disc editon. Shot in bold color in and around Miami, Florida in 1960, Hideout in the Sun works just as well today as a visual record of the times, in addition to providing plenty of shots of healthy sun-worshipers enjoying their carefree days at a family-friendly nudist resort.

When two pissed-off bank robbing brothers, Duke and Steve (Greg Conrad and Earl Bauer) pull a heist at a Miami bank, they're soon up the proverbial creek without a paddle when they try to switch getaway cars - only to find the battery is dead. Spotting pert, healthy-looking Dorothy (Delores Carlos) coming out of the supermarket (what, no groceries?), they carjack her, taking her along as a hostage. Discovering she works at the exclusive Hibiscus Country Club on Terain Island (read: nudie resort), the punks decide this is as good a place as any to lay low until their boat transport from Cuba shows up.

Dorothy, sensing bigger things in Steve than just being a bank robber (make your own joke there), grows close to him as Steve drops trou to keep the other naked club members' suspicions at bay. Posing as Dorothy's husband, Steve gradually succumbs to the life-force enhancing properties of the naturist life. Soon, he's frolicking with Dorothy, indulging in naked archery (!), naked badminton, naked emu petting (they're naked, not the emus), naked volleyball (skins versus skins), naked fountain prancing, and naked picnicking (that sure looks like a Coke bottle he's handing her), while his pent-up, repressed, and dammit, fully-clothed brother is quietly flipping out in Dorothy's bungalow. Soon, the tension is too much for Duke, and he makes a break for it. Will Steve go, too, or will he return to Dorothy and the sun, and let the healing solar powers wash away all his sins?

As nudies go, Hideout in the Sun was fairly typical of its day. Traditional nudist camp nudies weren't a particularly diverse (or diverting, for that matter) genre; as one of the interviewees on a bonus feature included here on the Hideout in the Sun disc says, "How many times can you watch naked volleyball?" (to which I would answer: in direct proportion to how good-looking the players are. Centerfolds=unlimited viewing; the actors in most nudies from the 1950s and 1960s=once is more than enough). Nudies enjoyed a brief but extremely profitable run at exploitations houses in the late 1950s and early 1960s, until the restrictions of the genre made them repetitive and frankly, dull. Indeed; how many movies can you make where the message is: be nude, frolic, play games, all within the confines of an insulated nudist colony or camp? There's not a lot of room for dramatic license.

So Hideout in the Sun caught my attention because at least it tried to tack on a fairly straightforward, B-movie subplot concerning the bank robbers "hiding out in the sun." Unfortunately, the premise sounds far more interesting than the actual execution. What could have been in the hands of a half-way competent director either an entertaining B-flick with guns and naked broads, or a sly parody of the genre with plenty of opportunities for farce, is resolutely humdrum in the hands of shaky first-time director Wishman. Wishman, who's featured in an interview on this disc, admits that she had no idea what she was doing when she "directed" Hideout in the Sun (Lazarus L. Wolk is actually credited with directing the film, but scholars today credit Wishman with the overall direction of the film). In fact, she even admits to never knowing what she was doing during her long exploitation career (she made over 30 films, right up until her death at aged 90 in 2002). Wishman seems like a straight shooter, with no claims to false modesty. When she says she was incompetent, I believe her.

Hideout in the Sun's B-movie bank robbing plot is laughably familiar, with the opening bank robbing scene drawn out far too long, while the film's supposedly deadly climax, where Duke meets his fate at the Miami Serpentarium, is crippled by obvious cheating in the shots (Duke's nowhere near any snakes there). The fact that Hideout in the Sun was shot non-synch doesn't help the dramatics, either, particularly when we're looking at the back of actors' heads all the time to cover the lip synching (and when the voice actors do get a chance to synch up, they do it poorly).

As for the nudie elements, well, they're dropped down in the middle of Hideout in the Sun, and they're certainly nothing spectacular. I liked the occasional tableaus of two women "arranged" on the grass, holding strategically placed orchids like something out of a old cigar box illustration, and plenty of people are awkwardly walking around with beach towels and beach balls covering their nether regions, for fear of showing too much (a definite no-no in nudies at the time). It is disturbing, though, to see shots of little kids running around naked with these adults. Although the nudist movement has always maintained that it's a predominantly "family-friendly" movement (apparently, these kids are supposed to be part of a family), and while it's obvious there's nothing salacious or endangering in the way the kids are photographed (they show up a couple of times, very briefly), in today's society, those kinds of shots in this kind of film can make a viewer extremely uncomfortable, especially now with the advent of computer-assisted pandering to such proclivities. Be forewarned of that element of Hideout in the Sun.

If anything, Hideout in the Sun works best as a visual record of its time. Wishman spent a lot of time filming the streets and avenues of Miami and the surrounding sprawl, and the film takes good advantage of this atmosphere. You can check out the kinds of cars that were out on the road in 1960, the clothes people were wearing, the roadside signs and businesses and how they looked, and the general "feel" of 1960 Florida. But all of that really happens at the beginning of the film; the rest of Hideout in the Sun spends a lot of time poolside and at the volley ball court, so get out your sun block.

The DVD:

The Video:
Evidently, a relatively good 16mm print of Hideout in the Sun was found in Wishman's basement, the film's only known surviving element. From that print, Retro-Seduction Cinema fashioned a new hi-definition transfer, both in a regular 1.33:1 aspect ratio, and an anamorphically enhanced, 1.78:1 matted letterboxed version (available on the second disc). As you can see from screen shots above, there's not a tremendous amount of difference between image information, and with a film like Hideout in the Sun, you're not going to missing anything, anyway. Color is strong, but there are plenty of splices and jump cuts still, along with scratches and dirt. But overall, Hideout in the Sun looks far, far better than comparable titles from that period.

The Audio:
The English mono audio mix no doubt recreates the exact theatrical presentation. All dialogue is clearly heard, as well as that hilariously haunting theme song, straight out of the Ames Brothers' songbook. There are no subtitles or close-captioning options.

The Extras:
There are some tasty extras included in Hideout in the Sun. On disc one, there's a full length commentary by Ashley Spicer and Wishman biographer Michael J. Bowen. As well, there's a seven minute interview with Wishman, from 1998 (she's pretty self-deprecating). There's a six minute interview with David Friedman, exploitation director and producer, on his relationship with Wishman. A newsreel from 1960 is included (no nudie news, unfortunately) is included. There's a trailer gallery fro The Sexploiters, The Sexperts, and Moonlighting Wives (please click here to read my review of that film), as well as a trailer gallery for Inga, Seduction of Inga, and Swedish Wildcats.

On disc two, the anamorphic letterboxed version of the film is included, as well as a fun compilation (27 minutes) of foreign nudie films from the late 1950s, early 1960s retitled Postcards from Nudist Camp, presented also in 16x9 anamorphic (there are some seriously good-looking French babes in the first segment). Unfortunately, someone added some silly sound effects over the footage, along with some ill-matching classical music, seriously damaging the viewing experience (the booklet included here seems to suggest that these sound effects -- including football scores -- are original, but they're obviously not). If Retro-Seduction has the complete films of these European nudies, they should release them - they looked like a lot more fun than Hideout in the Sun. There's also a trailer gallery for Retro-Seduction collections Naughty Nudes of the 1960s, Curiously Obsessive Peepshow, and Busty Stags Collection. There's also an original theatrical trailer for Joseph Sarno's Daddy Darling. As well, there's an informative, illustration-heavy 12-page booklet that reprints an interview between Wishman and biographer Bowen. It's pretty cool. All in all, a ton of extras for this title.

Final Thoughts:
As nudies go, Hideout in the Sun isn't too bad, with at least an attempt to fashion a bank robbing subplot to the usually restrictive conventions of the genre. Director Wishman, by her own words, didn't know what she was doing, and it shows. But Hideout in the Sun is colorful, it moves quickly enough, and provides plenty of nudie pleasures if you're so inclined. There are a ton of extras included here, including an anamorphic letterboxed version of the film, that should please fans of the genre. If this is your genre, by all means buy the two-disc special collection, Hideout in the Sun. But if you're still a little tentative, if you still feel a little shy stripping away all those confining clothes that your impersonal, soulless society forces you to wear to hide your shame...well, then a rental might do for starters.