It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Private Parts isn't at all scary, but it's really disturbing and creepy. The intro is a film of rapidly flashing, glittering rainbow lights... well, it was 1972, maybe it's an LSD thing. The movie features a teenage girl named Cheryl as the main character; she's a runaway from Ohio who has moved out to L.A. with her best friend, Judy. After Cheryl is caught watching Judy having sex, she takes off running to find an available room at her fat Aunt Martha's decrepit motel. Aunt Martha is old and strict and has various people staying on the same floor as Martha. There's a gay priest, a drunk and next door to Cheryl's new room there's a mysterious tenant who lives in the dark, watching through holes in the walls and taking photographs. All's still for the most part going okay until people end up murdered.This is a typical 1970's movie, with hippie kids, trippy background music and various odd characters. If you like horror movies or like to laugh at the old, low-budget ones, you'd probably like this one. Some of the characters are just so strange, I haven't seen a movie as odd as this in a long time.

In the 1970s there was a genre I like to refer to as the "70s doom" film. I'm not sure if "Private Parts" qualifies, as it's much wilder than most of the ones I hold most dear (like "The Pyx" and "Don't Look In The Basement"). But it's definitely got the aesthetics down pat, and if it seems a little too deliberate or *too* well made to be authentic, it's at least an unforgettable experience.Groovy 70s chick Cheryl (pronounced "CHAIR-ul") is on the run with her friend Judy, who freaks out on her when Cheryl spies on her having sex with a groovy L.A. hunk. Cheryl packs her suitcase and takes off, along with Judy's wallet, and heads out into the sleaziest part of L.A. looking for her long-lost Aunt Martha's hotel. Unfortunately for Cheryl, she finds it, and Aunt Martha takes her in.Aunt Martha is a stout, homely woman with no tolerance for worldly ways. She insists that Cheryl wash "that paint" off before joining her for dinner, and lectures her on the evils of sex. Cheryl plays along for a place to stay, but she soon finds out that the hotel is full of loonies of all types. There's a gay priest who has a thing for male bodybuilders, a drunk guy who doesn't do anything except pass out in his room, and an old lady who wanders around looking for a girl named "Alice". Oh, and don't forget the reclusive photographer, George, who shows his affection for Cheryl by spying on her through cracks in the wall, leaving her pornographic reading material in her room, and offering her fetish gear to wear for his amusement. Cheryl craves the attention, but she's not aware that people are being murdered in the hotel, or that someone may cut her head off with a machete one of these days. Is that what really happened to "Alice", anyway?Not all aspects of the movie work. I wasn't a big fan of the music, although others have raved about it and found it reminiscent of Bernard Hermann (!). It seemed too grandiose for this film, and I longed for the cheesy thriller cues from "Don't Look In The Basement". I also found the movie overall to be a little too polished. Paul Bartel has a great eye for detail here, many of which don't really mean much except to add an otherworldly quality to the movie, but it's almost too calculated. It also comes apart too soon at the conclusion, when outside authority figures come to the hotel and reveal themselves to be as weird as the residents there. It detracts from the notion of the hotel as being a microcosm of insanity.But there is a lot to love about it. Some of the strongest images in the film come as a shock to the first-time viewer, so make sure you don't watch the trailer included on the DVD (it's one of those that reveal all the twists in the film, including who lives, who dies, and who's doing all the machete chopping), but this movie will not make anybody jump out of their seat. Instead, it gets under your skin, particularly a see-through vinyl blow-up sex doll that George likes to dress as Cheryl, complete with an enlarged photograph of her face attached to it. George fills it with water, and never has vinyl looked so disturbing and bizarre as it does here while the doll slowly unravels, snake-like, taking human form gradually while still looking completely alien. It's a low-key chill, but something that I've never seen in a film before this one. What a shock some of this must have been back in 1972.Even today it's still bizarre. It's the kind of movie that infuriates some people for being too vague and meandering (and thus boring), while other people will read into it and find it fascinating. I'm one of the latter.

This bizarre and entertaining cult film was Paul Bartel's first feature, and it's probably his most interesting film. Good use of seedy LA locations and an effective score by Hugo Friedhofer create a genuinely creepy atmosphere. Well cast and acted. Lucille Benson, who could easily be Norman Bates' mother,is a standout as Aunt Martha."Too nosy for her own good", runaway Cheryl Stratton investigates the various characters and rooms in her aunt's hotel, while a resident photographer spies on her; ultimately, with her knowledge and participation. Like so many films, Private Parts owes a debt to Psycho. Though the film becomes somewhat silly with the arrival of the 2 policemen near the end, it is original and compelling, and Bartel displays admirable restraint throughout. The film ends with a good last shot:Cheryl checked-in a girl, and checks-out a vicariously experienced woman. When the film opened in New York, at the now defunct First Avenue Screening Room, The New York Times' reviewed it favorably. Happily, it has finally been released on DVD with the trailer. Definitely worth checking out. "Follow Cheryl as she leads you through the darkest corridors of your mind", you'll be glad you did.

"Private Parts", the directorial debut of Paul Bartel, is a wild and thoroughly engaging black comedy. Ayn Ruymen plays Cheryl, a young but not so innocent girl, who runs away from home and eventually ends up at the hotel of her Aunt Martha (Lucille Benson)in the skid row section of downtown Los Angeles. Although warned by her puritanical aunt to stay put, Cheryl explores the old place at every opportunity,soon becoming involved with George, a mysterious photographer. He is only one of the odd tenants in the establishment, but he's the one who fascinates her the most. With its lurid plot, beautiful color photography and great, brooding score, "Private Parts" is not to be missed! This October, Warner Home Video will release it in a widescreen DVD featuring the original trailer! It's not likely to be in print long, so grab it while you can!