The Click
The Click
| 17 April 1985 (USA)
The Click Trailers

A man, Dr. Fez, is blackmailed into taking a fall for his boss. However, with a cruel invention that he created, Dr. Fez has plans of his own to seek revenge against his blackmailer.

Reviews
lazarillo

The name Alain Siritzsky should be familiar to many people. This is the producer who took the very European and somewhat classy (or at least, pseudo-classy) French "Emmanuelle" series with Sylvia Kristel and by the 1990's turned it into godawful late-night TV filler starring American b-movie bimbos like Monique Gabrielle, Krista Allen, and Tiger Woods sex-buddy Holly Sampson. This movie, "The Click" is basically an 80's European film "Americanized" by Siritzsky, although it looks like even the original European version was filmed partly in New Orleans. I don't know that it was ever any good, but it sure is a strange misbegotten mongrel of a movie in its present form.The movie is about a scientist who invents a machine that turns any woman in its radius into a crazed nymphomaniac. An 80's American film would have turned this ridiculous plot device into a stupid but innocuous sex comedy, but the European version seems to do something much weirder. The scientist decides to get revenge on his previous employer who fired him by using it on the guy's young, beautiful wife (Florence Guerin). But first he has test it, of course, on a bunch of completely innocent women in various random scenes that were most likely inserted for the American version. But even the obviously European scenes with Florence Guerin could give you whiplash with their sudden changes in tone. It goes from a revenge thriller to a love story and from borderline misogynist to pseudo-feminist. In a typical scene the protagonist uses the device to cause the wife to have degrading sex with a tough-looking customer in the filthy bathroom of a movie house, but when the man is rude to the wife afterwards, the scientist steps in and gallantly beats up this hulking brute (who's about twice his size).You might want to watch this if you just want to see something off-the-wall, politically incorrect, and just plain jaw-dropping, but it really has only two things going for it. One is Florence Guerin, who was one of the most beautiful actresses in 80's low-rent Euro film industry. She doesn't seem to be nearly as talented as the Euro-exploitations actresses who preceded her like Edwige Fenech or Barbara Bouchet, but who can tell since she appeared almost exclusively in bad movies like this. She's always very memorable though (much like the Italian actress Jessica Moore, who also appeared in a lot of 80's-era Euro swill). The American scenes of this movie also feature a very early appearance by low-budget American actress Maria Ford, who did a lot of stripper movies for Roger Corman ("Stripped to Kill 2", "Stripteaser", "The Showgirl Murders") before getting ill-advised breast implants and becoming a softcore porn star. She has the best role in the added US footage as a young bride-to-be who jealously crashes her husband's bachelor party at a strip club and ends up doing a full striptease for everyone at the club after the scientists "tests" his device on her.Still, I don't know if a couple of hot girls and the very, um, unique weirdness of this movie really justify actually watching it.

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jeremydb77

what happened is that this guy has a scientist friend that makes a remote that makes women horny, and unable to control themselves. the comic strip was published in penthouse. the movie is old so the quality is low none of the actors are famous there are parts that are in the comic that are cut out. these parts might give us a clearer picture of what's going on. as for the dog well for good taste they cut out a the reason he is in the movie. all in all this is a funny movie with sexy parts. okay now i have to keep typing things to get to the minimum of 10 lines. so I have to talk talk talk fill it with fluff. so I live in west Michigan and it's really nice out side.

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emdoub

Minor spoilers ahead.Okay - the basic plot and most of the characters seem like they're from a bad comic strip - but they are based upon a strip by Italy's Milo Manara, who specializes in erotica, not plot or characterization.The story: Dr. Fez, defrocked because of an incident with a student while he was researching at a university, now works for Mr. Christiani - the most evil and corrupt man in New Orleans. Bribed into taking the fall for a "job" that's never described, he plots revenge when he hears of research that enhances sexual excitement in lab rats. Constructing a projector, he changes sexual response for several people, working up to his bosses wife - with largely pointless but fun results.The problems: The flaws in the story (the black box seems to work by radiating a signal, but only works on the women he wants it to work on - not the women standing next to them) are broad and obvious, the characters are more cardboard cutouts than usual, and there's a lot of weird stuff (the one-eyed detective with an attack dog - a black lab named 'Bazooka') tossed in to keep you from figuring out what's going on. The cars with the steering wheels on the wrong side, the non-USA license plates, the choice of a black lab as a killer attack dog, etc. will keep you from suspending disbelief - unless you really are ready to hang it by the neck until it's dead.The pluses: Well, in the version I saw (_The Turn-on_, claiming to be from 1989 and unrated), there are plenty of good-looking women to fall prey to the doctor's black box, and nobody seems shy about full frontal nudity. The plot is tolerable, and the humor exists - it's not laugh out loud material, but it is amusing.For a tawdry, "let's make up a plot as an excuse to ask the actresses to disrobe on camera" drama, it's fairly good. As I haven't read the comics it's based on, it may well be true to the source - I dunno. I've seen far worse plots, with worse camera-work, gain audiences.This will be one of those "guilty pleasures" you'll share with your buddies, but never let your wife catch you watching. All in all, worth the rental.

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