MONDO KEYHOLE (1966):
THE PSYCHOTRONICA COLLECTION #2
Label: VCI Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 67 Minutes 37 Seconds
Audio: English PCM 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Jack Hill, John Lamb
Cast: Nick Moriarty, Adele Rein, Carol Baughman, Pluto Felix, Christopher Winters, Penelope Faith, Cathy Crowfoot
Mondo Keyhole (1966) is a lurid black and white "roughie" film, directed by Jack Hill (Foxy Brown). In it Howard Thorne (real-life pornographer Nick Moriarty) is an L.A. pornographer who produces and distributes mail-order smut, at home he has a horny, heroin-addicted wife named Vicky (Adele Rein, Common Law Cabin) who does everything she can think of to spice up their love-life, but no matter what she does (sexy lingerie, halloween masks, stripteases) he's never sexually attracted to her.We discover that Howard is not only a pornograpoher, but a serial rapist, the only way he can get it up is to stalk and rape young women, raping them at home, on the beach, in a bathtub, in the the desert, even abandoning his wife at a streetside cafe to follow one woman home to attack her!
Jack Hill adds some surreal flourishes to this seedy roughie, including hallucinogenic nightmares of being drown in a pool my naked women, weird narration, S&M fetishes, and a totally bizarre acid-trip food-orgy when both Howard and Vicky unexpectedly encounter one another at a hedonistic gathering, where Howard is attacked by a lesbian black belt dominatrix (Cathey Crowfoot, Mermaids of Tiburon), the vengeful girlfriend of one of a woman he's recently raped tracks him down and delivers some S&M revenge! Among the many rape victims, credit where credit is due, we have Rene De Beau and Barbara Nordin from Orgy of the Dead, and Rene De Beau (Mermaids of Tiburon). As roughies go i thought this was pretty entertaining stuff, not only is it lousy with busty women and seedy debauchery, but I love how the camera is always moving around, its a bit off-kilter and unsettling, but also quite silly, Jack Hill loads it up with odd imagery and weird quirks, which I loved.
Audio/Video: This is advertised as being a "new 4K-UHD Restoration from the original 35mm camera negatives", presented here in 1080p HD in 1.85:1 widescreen. The source(s) generally looks solid, a lot of the daylight outdoor scenes look blown out with clipped highlights, contrast is weak, detail is soft, but the darker interior scenes fare much better with solid blacks and improved contrast and detail. It looks like it's been digitally cleaned-up, grain is not its strong suit, but there are still traces of grain at least. There is some occasional tears and scratches that pop-up, but it's generally clean and quite serviceable. Audio comes by way of English PCM 2.0 with optional English subtitles. The track offers a mic of bad sounding live recorded audio and a lot of unnatural sounding ADR'd dialogue, but like the imperfect video presentation I thought the audio was quite serviceable.
We get an Archival Audio Commentary by Jack Hill moderated by Elijah Drenner- it gets into the score, the cast, the camera set-up, stealing scenes without permits in L.A., different versions of the film, locations, the numerous rape scenes at the behest of the producer, and much more. It's a fun track with some anecdotes about the making of the film. We also get a new 2025 Audio Commentary by Rob Kelly noted film historian, host of the Fade Out podcast, which I have not taken in just yet. other extras include a 4-min
Photo and Poster Gallery and a 3-min for Delinquent Schoolgirls, which is also available on Blu-ray from VCI as part of the The Psychotronica Collection.
Special Features:
- 2025 Audio Commentary by Rob Kelly noted film historian, podcaster and artist.
- Archival Audio Commentary by Jack Hill moderated by Elijah Drenner
- Photo and Poster Gallery (4:01)
- Trailer: Delinquent Schoolgirls (2:49)
Screenshots from the VCI Entertainment Blu-ray:
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