The Sin Syndicate (1965) User Reviews

Striptease Routines and Stock Footage: A Masterpiece

[Lang Jr · 3/10 · 28 April 2006]

Interesting curiosity as this is the first credited work in Michael Findlay's oeuvre. Findlay sandwiched some rather dull striptease routines between into stock footage of the Cuban communist revolution and World War II and made a picture out of it. The film tells the stories of four party girls ("Zero girls, because we aren't worth anything") and how they stumbled into their occupation.

Production values as they were, you'll need to use your imagination to match the dubbing with the dialog shown on the screen. The Findlay touch (or should I say "slap") is displayed during a rape scene in a truck (that "Slats", you can't take him anywhere!). Also riveting is the congressional hearing that appears to take place in a funeral parlor. In another scene, a party gets raided because some aging stripper doing a belly-dance puts the party-goer's to sleep. There's also a shower scene with two girls ("Do you think we're...lesbians?"). Slow going, if you can make it to the end.

From now on you'll have a lot of wedding nights.

[lastliberal · 4/10 · 21 November 2008]

The golden age of sexploitation was between 1965 and 1968 after the Supreme Court ruled on I am Curious Yellow.

This sleazy film is laughable now as a pseudo documentary about how four girls came into the clutches of the syndicate and became prostitutes, or "zero girls" as they called them.

It is filled with stock footage of the Cuban Revolution and the bombing of London as a background, and there is a lot of exotic dancing that one might have found at old carny shows, complete with pasties.

One can imagine the hunger men must have had to sit through all this just to get a couple of glimpses of flesh at the end.

Working girls in 1960's New York

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 3 January 2017]

Four young ladies reveal how they all became prostitutes in New York City at a congressional hearing. Director Michael Findlay keeps the engrossingly sordid story moving along at a steady pace, makes neat use of seedy urban locations, maintains an appropriately tawdry tone throughout, tosses in stock footage of both the Cuban revolution and the bombing of London during World War II in order to pad out the running time to a reasonable length, and offers plenty of hilariously obvious post-sync dubbing. Moreover, this trashy flick sure doesn't skimp on the yummy cheesecake: We've got a fetching blonde belly dancer doing a sultry number at a stag party, several sexy strippers strutting their sizzling stuff on stage, and two gals take a shower together. It definitely helps that the voluptuous Yolanda Moreno, comely Judy Adler, slinky June Roberts, and delicious Darlene Bennett are all super easy on the eyes. The spirited library music hits the stirring spot. Findlay's rough black and white cinematography provides a suitably scroungy look. A satisfying serving of soft-core sleaze.

As long as there are men, there will be zero girls.

[Hey_Sweden · 6/10 · 21 February 2017]

Passable skin flick stars the quartet of Yolanda Moreno (as Dolores), June Roberts (as Candy), Darlene Bennett (as Monica), and Judy Adler (as Lorna). Fate has turned these ladies into "zero girls", or "party girls", used and abused by "the Syndicate". The story set-up has them testifying before a Senate committee, where they each spin a yarn describing their journeys to their present situations.

The prolific Michael Findlay strikes again with this watchable trash. Attempts to be somewhat arty mix with some utter crudity, such as the incredibly poor dubbing. The music and the stark black & white photography help to make it reasonably atmospheric. One very amusing thing that Findlay does to pad the running time is to utilize copious stock footage of the Cuban Revolution, the London Blitz, and the bombing of a battleship. The movie only runs an hour and five minutes even with this padding, so it could have been quite brief indeed.

"The Sin Syndicate" is really all about the girl watching, and our very attractive cast indulge in some protracted dance routines. There's also some very uncomfortable scenes of torture, and, blessedly, a gratuitous lesbian shower sequence right near the end that makes it all worthwhile. "Does this make us lesbians?" "No, we're just tired of men."

Six out of 10.