Mondo Keyhole is a monochrome roughie from the mid-60s regarding an LA-based serial rapist and his heroin-addicted wife. It weaves together noir atmospherics, uneasy/ troubling sleaze, moments of all-out derangement, and porn business parody/send-up. Here, as part of VCI Entertainment’s Psychotronica Collection, is a dual DVD and Blu-ray release of the film, featuring new and archival commentary tracks.

Mondo Keyhole, working title The Worst Crime of Them All, is from the year 1966. It was jointly directed by Jack Hill & John Lamb, with Hill taking writing credits. Of the two, Mr Hill is the most well-known/ notable, as between the early 60s and early 80s. He had seventeen directorial credits, including deranged artists' horror Blood Bath (1966), cannibalistic comedy horror Spider Baby (1967), WIP action thriller The Big Doll House (1971), and classic blaxploitation Coffy(1973). Between the early 60’s and early 70’s Mr Lamb had nine directors credits- and his output certainly sat on the more sleazy side of things- with the likes nudist documentary The Raw (1965), and all-out porn titles like of Little Women Get Ahead(1970), Big Beaver Splits The Scene(1971), and Sex Freaks(1974).

The film runs at just over seventy minutes- but boy, do they manage to stuff a fair bit into the time, both with the content and tonal shift. We open with wonderful mood-setting post-credits scene, where we see a medical dummy head- first with flesh, then just eyes & skull- we get close up of the heads brain running with dark liquid, inversed footage of the sea, and a woman dancing- all cut together in a fairly rapid manner- with Mr voice over detailing that the film we are about to sees shifts through reality/ non-reality, and sanity and madness.

We then drop into see a man attacking/ raping a woman on a bed with stark white light above- the attack is scored by sleazily to avant-grade jazz. We then switch to the darting torch-lit interior of a nighttime car to meet our lead character- the sweaty and suited Howard Thorn (Nick Moriarty), who we later find out is the president of an adult mail order company. We get a voice over from Howard detailing how he’s raped many women, and the one tonight might just get him get caught.

He arrives back home to be greeted by his tangled blond-haired and large-busted wife, Vicky(Adele Rein)- who opens the door with a Halloween mask on, and we fairly soon find out she is a heroin hooked housewife, who just wants hubby Howard to show her love, but he never does.

As the film unfolds, we visit Howard’s work- where they are sending out albums of sounds from S&M sessions, and various types of porn. In his offices, there is also an S&M studio where a director is filming his next short, and Howard casts a few women- before following one of them, to chase and then rape her in the mountains surrounding LA.

As you’d imagine, we see quite a few more attacks from our rapist- these are soundtracked with a mix of wonky to angular jazz, which sometimes blends in high noise tones, and jarring elements of chicken and cat field recordings. Some of the attacks are really rather unpleasant.

Also in the film, we visit a few deranged parties- the first is one in a large hall where naked, body-painted women are dancing around with weird masks on. The second finds a woman sitting in the punch bowl as guests drink from it, another nude woman stacked with food, which gets messily devoured by folk, and a very messy whipped cream pool fight- with troubling undercurrents.

On the subject of troubling, we get a few dream sequences/ could be dream sequences- notable of these is where Howard tried to be drown in a hot tub by a selection of women, which rather brought to mind the scene in sleazy 80’s slasher Maniac- I wonder if this was an influence on the film?

I must say I was rather blown away by Mondo Keyhole- as it manages to be an effectively nasty roughie, but also blends in great moments of derangement and noir atmosphere. Our lead Moriarty is believable as the on-the-edge busman/ rapist, and Rein sells his drugged-out/ horny wife.

Mondo Keyhole is a cheap, but wonderfully creative roughie that is most effective in both its sleazy unpleasantness, derangement, and touches of noir moodiness. 

This Blu-ray/ DVD set features a fairly rough, ready, and fairly washed-out print, but really, I didn’t mind this as it very much fits the tone of the film.  On the extras side, we get just one main thing- it’s a commentary track from film historian, podcaster and artist Rob Kelly- this is very good, as he balances great research, observations, and one or two chuckles. He begins by pondering what the raincoat crowd would have made of the film. We find out that this version of the film is its longest cut of the film- it’s mentioned on IMDB as having a run time of one hour ten, but this one runs at one hour seventeen minutes, as all the nudity/ sleaze is in it. He talks about how the film's original title was The Worst Crime Of All, and chats about how the Mondo Keyhole title is somewhat misleading, as it suggests secret suburban sexual encounters. He talks about that apparently lead Nick Moriarty was a real pornographer, not an actor.  He comments on how the business Howard runs clearly doesn’t have an HR department, as he’s constantly touching/ fondling his staff. We find out the victim in the S&M film within the film is director Jack Hill. We find out that a lot of the film's audio was dubbed in later, to enhance the odd/ dreamy quality of the picture.  Later on, in the track, he gives us snippets of interviews with Jack Hill regarding the picture, which gives a nice insight- clearly the director wasn’t that impressed by the film. He talks about the nude party scenes feeling real, so that maybe the Mondo title is relevant. We find out that it ended up playing for six long years across the states after release, as either part of a double or triple bill. All told, a great track, which I may well return to.

Otherwise, we get an archive commentary track from Jack Hill, and a poster artwork gallery. With case has a reversible cover.

Hands down, Mondo Keyhole is an exploitation masterpiece- if you enjoy where sleaze, flesh-bound unsettlement, noir, and low-key/ unbalancing artiness meet, it’s a must. This was my first taste of VCI Entertainment’s Psychotronica Collection, and I really can’t wait to check out other entries in the series!.