Sinful Cinema Series: The Abductors (Volume 1) [Paperback]

sinfulcinemaCombing the landscape of obscure cinema is tricky. It’s a journey that will often leave you with a lemon if you’re not careful. Author Doug Brunell’s reasoning for the “Sinful Cinema” book series makes a lot of sense as spotlighting certain movies that not many authors out there would be willing to spotlight is a neat idea. If you’re someone who wants to visit films that are completely out of the ordinary, author Doug Brunell seems intent on delivering spotlights for films you wouldn’t normally see discussed in most books about film. Sure, you can probably find summaries and brief essays about something like “The Abductors” in a review compilation, but author Brunell devotes an entire book to it. I’ve been a fan of Brunell’s since his days on Film Threat, so it’s fun to see him releasing a series of books for film lovers old and new.

For someone like yours truly constantly seeking movies different than the standard fare, “Sinful Cinema” is a useful tool. For book one, “The Abductors” from 1972 is a part of the “Ginger” trilogy starring Cheri Caffaro as the titular Ginger, a very sexy and vivacious private eye and globe trotting spy who beds her enemies at the drop of a hat. It’s an unusual choice to for book one to spotlight one in an unofficial trilogy of exploitation films about a woman named Ginger who indulges in adventures in the vein of James Bond. Author Brunell discusses the movie in its entirety, the influence the film had on other exploitation fare, and how star Cheri Caffaro fared in the role of Ginger, a swinging metropolitan chick tasked with finding a group of women that were kidnapped and sold in to sex slavery.

Brunell also examines a lot of the nuances about the film itself, including the odd wardrobe changes mid-scene, and the warped overtones about the advantages of taming defiant women with rape and torture. Author Brunell zeroes in on the cultural climate during the time “The Abductors” was released, and how it’s received today among many other film lovers and scholars, many of whom don’t seem to really consider context at all when exploring the movie inside and out. He even cites Amazon.com reviews, and how normal movie lovers perceive the film’s inherently twisted tone. Author Brunell covers the ins and outs of the film, successfully lending it a unique dimension that you wouldn’t find anywhere else. “Sinful Cinema,” at almost a hundred pages, should serve as an entertaining companion for fans that love exploitation cinema, or are bonafide fans of the “Ginger” trilogy.