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Arrow Films

Region 0 - PAL

1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio

16X9 enhanced
Average Bitrate: 5.80 mb/s
PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen anamorphic - 1.33:1

Edition Details:
• Interview with Jonathan Ross on The Incredibly Strange Film Show (22:27)
• Trailer Reel
• Photo Gallery

DVD Release Date: March 25th, 2005
Keep Cases inside of Cardboard Case

Chapters 12

Russ Meyer's "Mondo Topless" may well be the most fun documentary ever made. Done as a serious exposé of the mid-60s trend of topless go-go dancing, the film features fourteen of the world's premier dancers performing their craft sans top and sometimes fully nude and mainly in the desert. The film uses narration by the women discussing whatever comes to their minds, from their dancing techniques, to their love lives, to their appreciation of contemporary culture. The film is a real hoot (no pun intended) and at barely an hour never overstays its welcome. It's a wonderful time capsule, covering the a long gone era.

Unfortunately the image on this disc, and indeed all of the films included in Arrow's Russ Meyer Collection, can only be described as a disappointment. The image is incredibly soft and carries low levels of contrast and clarity. The image also contains very distracting ghosting that occurs during almost any movement, no matter how fast it is. Finally, the image is also interlaced. Even when my computer ran interlacing correcting programs, the combing was readily apparent. When they were turned off, horizontal movements looked like they do in the seventh capture.

The sound on this release was just fine, with the Dolby Digital 2.0 sounding clear and about as good as the tracks come. Unfortunately there are no subtitles on the release.

The disc comes with two main extras. First, there's an interview with Meyer on Jonathon Ross's "The Incredibly Strange Film Show". Only part of the interview touches on "Mondo Topless", and we find that Meyer dismisses it as a "piece of crud" that was made solely to recoup the money lost on "Fast Pussycat...Kill! Kill!". The interview takes a much wider look at Meyer's film catalog and should be of interest to any of his fans. Also included is a trailer reel that is found on a number of the releases in this collection and a series of photos of the women that participated in the film.

While the release is far from ideal, I'll give the disc a slight recommendation. What you see is what you get with the poor image, but the film is a hoot and the extras very revealing. Hopefully there'll be a better release in the future that preserves the extras from this one.

 - The Immoral Mr. Teas

CLICK to order from:

Arrow Films

Region 0 - PAL