The Kiss Off (1968) User Reviews

For genre fans only

[saducimus · 6/10 · 2 April 2008]

This is one of the scuzzier sexploitation flicks to emerge from the west coast. Running 1 hour, it follows 'John', a psychopathic rapist/murderer who lives in a whorehouse with his abusive mother. Attempting to have comedy relief (via a woman having sex with a phone receiver) between rape & murder scenes this film plays all the more callous.

Scenes from the trailer include several different clips that aren't in the movie, it almost seems like the film was cut, & the producers just used the cut scenes in the trailer. Even without those snippets being included in the final release, this movie is completely tasteless and even morbid. Funny thing is, it actually has a satisfying ending.

Available from Something Weird Video

Very interesting roughie

[lor_ · 19 July 2011]

D.E. Jones' THE KISS OFF is a well-plotted roughie, with better acting and casting than most soft porn films of its era. Even though the extant version (via Something Weird video) is incomplete, it's an engrossing movie.

Credits are fake, but the actors are good nonetheless, particularly John in the lead role of a pervert, introed making mainly unsuccessful obscene phone calls. One ultra-busty blonde responds favorably to his innuendo, and we see her aggressively masturbating in footage spread out through much of the remaining movie. Content is pretty strong for 1968: full-frontal nudity with almost a split-beaver closeup, plus considerable violence.

Main plot has stalwart Gary Kent (uncredited) as detective Sam Schwartz, hired by Mr. Terrier to shadow his promiscuous wife Micki, a former go-go dancer.

Kent's main squeeze Terri is currently a go-go dancer and his private life eventually intertwines with his case. Micki turns out to be a lesbian, who kidnaps (aided by pervert John) Terri, subjecting her to sexual torture and a whipping.

John delights in stalking women and the film's best scene has him tracking and raping a busty girl in a secluded spot, vividly depicted. She's played by the lovely Maria Lease, who played Linda Boyce's partner in I WANT YOU!, and the rape scene ends with her trying to embrace the pervert apres-sex, only to be violently slapped down by him. Lease went on to a very successful career spanning three decades as script supervisor on many hit TV series.

A subplot involving a brothel madam is quite diverting as she proves to be John's mother, and there's lots of interesting twists involving him.

Finale is way too abrupt, probably due to print shredding, as the SWV version runs nearly 20 minutes short.

Filmmaker D.E. Jones later did a John Holmes loop carrier titled HERE COMES JOHNNY and I suspect he had a hardcore career under some other name(s). Many cast members use the same fake names on this film as well as on Ed De Priest's ONE MILLION AC/DC and Gary Graver's THE KILL (aka RESERVOIR CATS) -not sure whether these are correct correlations, or merely the case of using boiler plate credits, as was often done during the hardcore era or in the fake credit card attached to many of the Cosmos Films softcore quickies.