Private Parts Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Private Parts Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson June 18, 2023

One of the better imitators of Psycho and Peeping Tom, Paul Bartel's debut feature Private Parts (1972) reveals the filmmaker's early fascination with gender ambiguity, psycho-sexual anxieties, and voyeurism. The last part of the main titles that segues into the movie's opening, a passionate love-making scene with bare bottoms, contains a voyeur behind the white curtain. Teenager Cheryl Stratton (Ayn Ruymen) claims that she approached the bedroom area occupied by her best friend Judy Adams (Ann Gibbs) and Judy's boyfriend because she was looking for her car keys. But Judy doesn't buy it for one second, admonishing Cheryl for being overly invasive due to her sexual curiosity and the fact that she doesn't have a boyfriend. Cheryl and Judy get into a big fight. This causes Cheryl to pack her suitcase and hastily leave, pilfering Judy's purse before going out the door. Cheryl is a runaway who also stole money from her parents prior to leaving her hometown in Ohio. She treks toward skid row in Los Angeles where she stops at the King Edward Hotel. Cheryl knows that her Aunt Martha Atwood (Lucille Benson; Halloween II), who she hasn't seen in a long time, is the manager there. Martha isn't enthused to see her niece but Cheryl only requests if she can stay for a few days. Martha agrees only under the condition that Cheryl doesn't go wandering around the hotel alone. Cheryl agrees but can't resist exploring the hotel's quarters on her own.

The King Edward is one of LA's oldest hotels and also the site of weirdos and eccentrics. There's the defrocked Rev. Moon (Laurie Main), a homosexual who has a shrine filled with photos of muscle-bound men in his unit. There's also an older man who's a loud and obnoxious drunk. Perhaps the individual who's been at King Edward the longest is Mrs. Quigley (Dorothy Neumann), a kooky lady who once ran the hotel. She often asks about an Alice, which greatly unnerves Martha. And then there's George (John Ventantonio), a handsome loner who's a professional photographer. Cheryl is most curious about him. Unbeknown to Cheryl, a serial killer prowls the hotel hallways, lopping off heads and slitting throats.

Posing for the photographer.

In continuing the voyeurism from the first scene, Bartel shows George as the peeping tom. He gazes at Cheryl from small holes in the wall showing her bedroom and through another wall hole showing the bathroom where she bathes. George leaves Cheryl notes and even "gifts" her with a kinky black outfit that she puts on for him. Cheryl isn't at all bothered or irritated with George frequently watching her. She's at a stage where she's discovering her sexuality and almost seems to revel at the lustful looks he casts on her. George is a very dark character with a troubled past that the film quite wisely lets the audience ponder through its imagination. He has pictures of women in the nude adorning his walls and a blowup of a nipple by his door. He fetishizes inflatable female dolls, one of which he fills with water and even pumps his own blood into using a hypodermic needle. Cheryl's Aunt Martha also has her own fetish: with death and what happens to a person's soul once it leaves his or her body. She attends funerals of people she doesn't know so she can "photograph" the deceased's spirit as it exits the flesh. Private Parts is a tough watch at times but Bartel makes it gripping because he develops these dark and morbid themes so well.

Roger Corman's brother Gene produced Private Parts and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer handled distribution under the name Premier Productions. My research shows that the picture played in Alabama, Delaware, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Texas, and also Montreal. Several critics saw it at the First Avenue Screening Room in New York. In her two- out of four-star review, Kathleen Carroll of the Daily (NY) News was one of the movie's biggest detractors, writing: "Private Parts...shows the disaster that can result when a filmmaker of obviously limited talents suddenly starts thinking of himself as another Alfred Hitchcock. Surprisingly, Carroll claims that it offers "no chills." Ray Finocchiaro of The News Journal (Wilmington, DE) was more favorable in his assessment: "Private Parts...is an interesting, but gruesome debut for director Paul Bartel. Evoking a European Diabolique atmosphere and overloading the premises with visual bric-a-brac and black humor, Bar­tel continually manages to revive the audience’s flagging interest...Ayn Ruymen is both beauti­ful and believable as the runaway." The Minneapolis Tribune's Will Jones was a big fan of Lucille Benson in Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1970). She won him over again in Bartel's film: "[I]n Private Parts [Benson] gets the stardom she so richly deserves....A great deal of skill and technique have been lavished on all this trashy nonsense, and with Ms. Benson's whole­hearted and enthusiastic devotion to the role of freaky old Aunt Martha, who turns out to be freakier than any of her guests, it has the look of well-made, high-quality trash. Ayn Ruymen is also quite good as Cheryl, who turns out to be a bit of a spook herself." Two other critics gave the picture exceedingly high praise. For example, Joe Baltake of the Philadelphia Daily News proclaimed Private Parts "...a veritable spook carnival. It’s terrific. As penned by Philip Kearny and Les Rendelstein, it’s comic, campy, literate and stubbornly kinky — stylishly directed by Bartel with a strong assist from Andy Davis’ beautiful color photography....Private Parts, in total, is a first-class and very high-class addition to the horror­-film genre — every bit as scarey [sic] and arty as Roman Polanski’s Repulsion. It’s well worth seeing." John Crittenden of The Record (Woodland Park, NJ) immediately recognized the filmmaking flair Bartel exhibits in Private Parts: "As far as I’m con­cerned, [the picture] comes up a winner. Private Parts is a treat for voyeurs....For [Bartell's] smooth visual style alone, Private Parts must rate as the best first feature film to come out of Hollywood in a long time."

Private Parts Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Scream Factory has given Private Parts its worldwide premiere on Blu-ray on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50 (feature size: 22.10 GB). The film was previously issued by Warner Bros. on DVD in 2005 with an anamorphic widescreen transfer. It also appears here in its native aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Scream advertises this as a "new 2K scan from the interpositive." For an ultra-low budget indie that's over fifty years old, this restored transfer is a revelation. There are no stability or density issues in the image. Grain is omnipresent but it's not too thick or coarse. It's probably most noticeable in the shadows or in low-lit shots, for instance when George stares at Cheryl through a peephole (with the camera looking directly at his eyes in Screenshot #4). There is some minor debris but it didn't pop out at me in-motion the first time I watched Private Parts. The only large print damage comes early when Cheryl is grabbing her belongings in the closet (you can see a scratch in the upper left-hand corner in frame grab #20). Scream has encoded the feature at a mean video bitrate of 34.00 Mbps, with an overall bitrate of 36.80 Mbps.

A dozen scene selections accompany the 86-minute film.

Private Parts Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Scream has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono mix (1838 kbps, 24-bit). Fortunately, there are no pops, crackles, tape dropouts, or audible hiss on this track. The monaural mix is flat and authentic. Spoken words are clear and understandable enough. The music by Hugo Friedhofer is creepy and suspenseful.

Scream has provided optional English SDH for the feature.

Private Parts Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• NEW Audio Commentary with Film Historian David Del Valle and Filmmaker David Decoteau - Del Valle and Decoteau both knew Paul Bartel and share their personal recollections of him in this feature-length track. They recall that Bartel originally sought Mary Astor for the role of Aunt Martha but she turned it down. They raise the legitimate point that box-office potentialities could have been reached had Bartel gotten Bette Davis, Agnes Moorhead, or Shelley Winters for that role. Del Valle and Decoteau also discuss the themes of Private Parts and how they fit within Bartel's larger worldview. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW She's a Living Doll – Actor Ayn Ruymen on PRIVATE PARTS (18:41, 1080p) - Ruymen does not appear on camera so this is purely an audio interview. Ruymen recalls her performance on stage in Neil Simon's The Gingerbread Lady and how that led to other roles, which were almost all on the small screen, but also the lead in Private Parts. She reminisces on working with Bartel, Lucille Benson, and John Ventantonio. Her remark are accompanied by scenes from Private Parts. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW Frivolous Gravitas – Filmmaker Allan Arkush on the Films of Paul Bartel (13:58, 1080p) - Arkush collaborated with and knew Bartel rather well. Indeed, stills and clips of Bartel are shown from the Arkush-directed Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979). Arkush has some interesting comments about Death Race 2000 and how Roger Corman essentially trimmed it down. Arkush explains why he and his collaborators disagreed with the large edit. He also talks about the working climate at New World Pictures. In addition, he emphasizes that Bartel occupied a key acting role in Hollywood Boulevard (1976). Arkush also describes making Cannonball (1976). He delivers his feelings and opinions on Private Parts and Eating Raoul (1982). In English, not subtitled.

• Still Gallery (4:53, 1080p) - a slide show consisting of fifty-eight images that comprise on-set production photographs and advertising materials for Private Parts. The first thirty-four or so are still pictures and publicity snapshots (all in black and white). The next ten or so are displayed in color. In addition, there's some poster sheets and a complete exhibitor's manual.

• Theatrical Trailers (3:45, 1080p) - two trailers for Private Parts. The first is in better shape of the two. It's presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. While it looks pretty good, it hasn't been restored. This is followed by a shorter trailer shown in 1.33:1. It has several vertical scratches. It may have been used as a TV spot.

Private Parts Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Private Parts (1972) deals thoughtfully and effectively with the thematic tropes of sexual confusion, S&M, and voyeurism. Its perversions are not for the faint of heart. Scream Factory has rewarded fans of this cult film with a clean transfer and some worthwhile supplements. There's an informative commentary track with two individuals intimately familiar with Bartel's body of work. Additionally, the two new interviews are relatively brief but they cover a bevy of topics. RECOMMENDED and a MUST OWN for fans of Bartel!