Vixen! (1968)

100% of critics liked it
(11 reviews)
66% want to see it
(1,120 ratings)

Tom Palmer (Garth Pillsbury) is a good natured "bush jockey," flying chartered tours in and out of scenic British Columbia and entertaining visitors at his remote mountain cabin. He shares his secluded home with his wife, Vixen (Erica Gavin), a hot-blooded wildcat of a woman who is irresistibly… More Tom Palmer (Garth Pillsbury) is a good natured "bush jockey," flying chartered tours in and out of scenic British Columbia and entertaining visitors at his remote mountain cabin. He shares his secluded home with his wife, Vixen (Erica Gavin), a hot-blooded wildcat of a woman who is irresistibly drawn to illicit physical affairs despite truly loving her husband. Her pants are even hot enough to flirt shamelessly with her own brother, a motorcycle riding hooligan named Jud (Jon Evans), though his African-American friend, Niles (Harrison Page), earns nothing but Vixen's racist contempt. When Tom brings a wealthy young couple to the lodge for a few days of fishing, Vixen goes on the offensive and soon has her way with both visitors, helping to patch up their marriage in the process. Next she decides to ease the sizzling sexual tension with her brother by joining him in the shower, and their incestuous coupling is witnessed by Niles. Again, Vixen cruelly insults his race and taunts him for dodging the American draft by heading for Canada. Frustrated and angry, Niles starts talking with Tom's new charter flight customer, an Irishman named Mr. O'Bannion (Michael Donovan O'Donnell), who is secretly planning to hijack Tom's plane to reach Cuba. He's a Communist, and after a political debate, Niles decides to join his cause and help O'Bannion carry out his terrorism. Once the felonious duo are up in the air with Tom and Vixen, though, she refuses to keep her volatile tongue still, and nothing goes as planned. ~ Fred Beldin, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 10 min.
Directed By: Russ Meyer
Genres: Drama, Adult

Critic Reviews

Variety Staff, Variety
http://www2.variety.com/ref.asp?u=IMDB&p=H2BE&sid=VE1117796152
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Good unserious fun.
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
Russ Meyer's 1968 skin-flick is a hilarious, stylistically adroit compendium of middle-American preoccupations: breasts, fishing, anticommunism.
Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion
A furiously inspired anthology of lusty American fixations
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Equally popular with both male and female viewers, Vixen is a take-charge woman who gets what she wants.
, Time Out
The film that showed Meyer to have the most dynamic editing style in American cinema, and took him from nudie king to national monument via the most outrageous exploitation of bosom buddydom ever.
Clint Morris, Mediasharx
Light years ahead of its time - it's script and subtext are wonderfully unique
Rumsey Taylor, Not Coming to a Theater Near You
The dialogue of this film alone, without any visual accompaniment, would presage a much more explicit film, not to mention its entertainment in and of itself.
Jamie Russell, Film4
Gleefully silly, Meyer's skin-flick proved a landmark in American cult cinema by blending non-stop soft-core with asides on racism, draft dodging and Cuban communism.

Read all 9 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Eric B

The genius of Russ Meyer is that he directs sleazy subject matter with the bright, cheery energy of a harmless TV sitcom. The viewer's moral filters are fooled -- it's a guilty pleasure, minus the guilt! One of Meyer's better vehicles, "Vixen!" squeezes… More
The genius of Russ Meyer is that he directs sleazy subject matter with the bright, cheery energy of a harmless TV sitcom. The viewer's moral filters are fooled -- it's a guilty pleasure, minus the guilt! One of Meyer's better vehicles, "Vixen!" squeezes plenty of bouncy fun into just 70 minutes. Of course, the plot is secondary to the sex scenes (which are quite tame by today's standards), but the story is delightfully offbeat: Bush pilot Tom lives with his insatiable wife Vixen (Erica Gavin) in the remote forests of British Columbia. Vixen's motorcycling brother Judd also hangs around the place with his black, draft-dodging friend Niles. All sorts of quirky dynamics simmer between these four. Vixen boasts that she'll sleep with anyone except "spades and cripples," and repeatedly infuriates Niles with racist epithets. Niles is prone to break into diatribes about being asked to fight the white man's war, while otherwise being treated like a second-class citizen. Naive, easy-going Tom has no idea about his wife's frequent infidelities. And Judd and Vixen nurse incestuous desires for each other. Oh my. The action heats up even more when Tom is hired to fly a young, attractive couple to Toronto, and lets them temporarily stay at his lodge. Dave neglects his wife Janet but is tempted by Vixen's overt flirtation, and sex-starved Janet is eager for revenge. Will these curvy women keep their tops buttoned? If you've ever seen a Russ Meyer movie, you know the answer. The final act takes an unexpected turn when Tom brings home a second client whose unusual agenda makes Niles reconsider his anti-America mindset. Intriguing, how Meyer manages to fit discussion of communist Cuba into a lowbrow skin flick. Gavin lives up to her character's name with a lovely, refreshingly natural body (she looks somewhat like Sarah Silverman, if Silverman were actually as sexy as her male fans insist). She's not the world's best actress -- when she's in an aroused frenzy, her tremors and clenched jaw seem more murderous than excited -- but her seduction dance while fondling a river trout can not be missed.

Cast

Erica Gavin
as Vixen
Harrison Page
as Niles
Garth Pillsbury
as Tom

Michael Donovan O'Donnell
as Mr. O'Bannion
Robert S. Aiken
as Dave
Peter Carpenter
as Constable

See full cast

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Vixen! (1968)

Critic Reviews

Featured Audience Ratings

Eric B

Cast

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