College student James (Sean Andrews) is driving through the desert towards the ranch home of his estranged father, Hezekiah (Darrell Sandeen). Along the journey, James notices at the side of the highway an attractive young woman hitchhiking, and he stops for her, thinking what a stroke of luck. She climbs in and asks him where he's going, but he's not from around these here parts, so doesn't know if he will be able to drop her off at her destination. However, that problem is quickly solved when she takes a look in the glove compartment and is shocked to see a collection of pornographic magazines and a masturbation aid in there. Realising he is some kind of pervert she demands he stop the car and she gets out, leaving James to throw the offending items away and speed off ashamed. But he has a bigger guilty secret than that...
If Russ Meyer ever teamed up with Herschell Gordon Lewis, then the result might have looked something like the aptly-named Pervert!, but this film went further in the name of outrageous comedy than either of those two filmmakers. Written by Mike Davis, director Jonathan Yudis' movie was a exercise in recreating the breast-obsessed Meyer's fast-cutting and plotting delirium coupled to a deeply unlikely shocker story that grows more ridiculous the longer it goes on. The homages are there to see, complete with buxom ladies decorating the scenery and driving the menfolk wild, all presented with a wink as if to ask, "Are you in on the joke?"
It has to be said, a little of this goes a long way, and it's just as well that the film runs under ninety minutes because any more of this might wear out its welcome, no matter how wacky it was. Hezekiah (Sandeen in the Frank Bolger role) is married to a young woman, Cheryl (suspiciously-named Mariah Carey lookalike Mary Carey), who he doesn't really get on with judging by the intensity of their arguments, but she agrees to put up a front for James' arrival. He and his father haven't seen each other since James' mother's funeral, unless you count that time they bumped into each other in the queue outside an adult movie theatre, but they make up for old times by getting to work on the ranch.
However, Hezekiah has a hobby that makes James pause: he sculpts with raw meat. Not worth worrying about perhaps, but when the hesitant James and Cheryl can resist each other no more, Hezekiah flies into a rage and she disappears. There are plenty of twists in the story, such as the revelation that not only did James used to be a compulsive masturbator, but he went to a voodoo witch doctor to find a cure, a point that will become very important later on. Pervert! is not all bare breasts, though there are enough of them to keep Meyer afficionados happy, mainly this is a comedy and a number of laugh out loud moments are featured. Yet eventually, it all gets too silly as if it's trying to see how far it will go and damn the consequences for credibility, but you have to admire their nerve - and their possibly unique villain. The whole cast seem to get the idea of what Yudis and Davis are trying to do, and it's at least good natured in its daftness. Plus the choice of library music and sound effects is inspired.
[The Region 2 DVD has a making of featurette, deleted scenes, extended lesbian scenes (it's the scenes that are extended rather than the lesbians), bloopers, a trailer and a photo gallery.]
