"Unbelievably-Fantiscally TRUE! The brutal facts behind the expose of the so-called PUBLIC RELATIONS racket!" Despite that titillating tagline, the only thing exploitative about THE NAKED ROAD is its title and what a missed opportunity it is, too, considering the storyline. A young model (Jeanne Rainer of YOU'VE RUINED ME, EDDIE! fame) who won't put out for the married ad man she's out with is held as collateral when they're pulled over for speeding and fined by a corrupt Justice Of The Peace. Another motorist is hauled in for the same reason and he pays both their fines but the erstwhile Good Samaritan later drugs the girl's coffee and kidnaps her, intending to make her work for his public relations firm as an escort girl. If she doesn't, he'll turn her into a drug addict... Although rife with possibilities, the movie's all talk and very little action until the end when an escort girl gets thrown out a window and the cops chuck tear gas at the bad guys' hideout. Unfortunately, the only one home is the kidnapped model. The lethargic cast acts like they're under water and the whole thing looks like it was filmed for about a buck ninety-eight in an endless succession of living rooms and bedrooms. The same room with different furniture is probably more like it. Still, I can't say I didn't like it and why I don't know.

Just when you think every obscure low budget potboiler has been exhumed, here comes The Naked Road, more of a film noir than the usual softcore stuff that Something Weird Video seems to put out. No nudity, in fact even though this is roughie-type material, it's handled in a PG-rated manner. No nudity or even mild swearing. Could have almost been broadcast on television, even at that time.I was reminded of nothing less than Ed Wood's The Sinister Urge. The quality of the sets was about the same (bare bones), the acting was actually a little bit better (heavy Ronald Long was a recognizable character actor throughout the next 15 years on a bevy of network TV shows), but the directing was just about as competent as Wood (static long shots, actors poorly used, except for Long, who probably did it all himself) but without EDW's lovable quirks or infectious enthusiasm for whatever overblown piece of underfunded crap he was pushing as the next Citizen Kane.I'm sure whatever grindhouse or drive-in theater patrons that happened to accidentally watch this back in the day (probably last on the bill at 3:00 in the morning) were not overly impressed. A few chuckles here and there, but not worth seeking out.

I discovered "The Naked Road" as part of Something Weird's excellent "Weird Noir" collection. Like everything in the set, it more than lives up to it's name. Director William Martin, who made some other strange films around the same time, seems to have something, perhaps something feminist, on his mind. The film compares the casual exploitation by an of Ad Man of a beautiful young model (the lovely Jeanne Rainer) with out and out White Slavery. In fact, the ad man, who ultimately shrinks from his pangs of guilt, is no doubt intended to be the biggest sleazbo of them all. Even considering that Martin had little time or budget, his approach to filmmaking is downright odd. He shoots every scene in a three or four shot with all characters in view, and just when the monotony becomes unbearable; he cuts to a close up at an utterly irrelevant moment. The actors seem to have been instructed to speak slowly and leave gaping holes between the lines. And none seem to be incompetents, tubby Ronald Long went on to a highly successful career, but his performance here is hilariously, well, odd. Martin may have been no worse or better than Ed Wood, but he had his own approach to making a terrible film. The abrupt climax is probably all for the best, but I could have stood another 15 minutes or so of these strange goings on. And again, Jeanne Rainer, you could have been a contender.

A weird grade B picture. Yes weird, in the acting - very slow dialogues, like early Bela Lugosi features ! - only indoor sets, and such a way of filming. It reminds me also scifi films, as those directed by Richard Cunha and Roger Corman in the fifties. The story has been told in plot line above. It reminds me, for the first part, an Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode. Slow, very slow, but not uninteresting although. The score is laughable, when you ear it on the sequences shown in the same time. I don't know the actors. A film from outer space in the film noir genre. I am not used to it. In sci fi yes, but not with crime movies.