By Melissa Antoinette Garza
After watching HOUSE OF WHIPCORD (1974), I decided to go a lot lighter into Pete Walker territory, for this review. TIFFANY JONES (1973) is a straight-up comedy based on a 1960s British comic strip, by the same name.
Like in the comic, Tiffany (Anouska Hempel) is a model in London. It opens with her in the middle of a mattress commercial, where things go wrong and she ends up taking an unintentional swim at the beach.
Back at Tiffany’s apartment, it becomes clear that her photographer, Guy (Ray Brooks) is sticking around to get some candid shots. Emerging from a bath, in only a towel, Tiffany’s friend Jo disapproves. Jo tells Tiffany to put on more clothing. Needless to say, I’m not very fond of Jo.
Soon, it becomes clear that Tiffany is not just a model. She becomes a spy. She’s a secret agent. She’s a female James Bond!
What I love about Pete Walker is that he understood the true sentiment of feminism and was years ahead of his time. When you think of atrocities like CATWOMAN (2004) that attempt to show female strength, we often end up with a woman taking down another woman. The evil gal is generally associated with something Hollywood believes is important to women. With CATWOMAN, that was an anti-aging cream. Halle Berry fighting for the rights of pink, baby, unicorn, orphans, would have been less patronizing.
Walker on the other hand, gets it, but you know what he doesn’t get enough of? The answer is credit. He does not get credit for the strong female leads in his film! Whether they’re antagonists or protagonists, hero or villain, he created movies with some of the strongest female leads!
Do you know who Tiffany is assigned to take down? She’s taking down an evil world government. She is called to President Boris Jabal’s (Eric Pohlmann) house. He is the leader of the fictional country Zirdana, and also very creepy. He sexually harasses, but she more than holds her own. I love that! She isn’t pushed around or taken advantage of. She’s cool and will play the game to get what she wants, but she is ALWAYS in control. That’s the feminist aspect to it that is missed.
She is confident in her sexuality and beauty and loves modeling. The perceptions that the men obtain about that picture, aren’t a reflection of her or reality at all. When in the company of a man, who views her as an object, she manipulates marvelously.
At one point, chefs have her tied to a table and threaten her with all sorts of food-based torture. It’s an odd and disturbing scene, especially for a comedy; but that’s why I love it. It is something that any sexploitation fan would instantly recognize as Walker’s work. She also gets away. There’s no brutality and not even a hint of real danger. Some viewers may have an issue with it, but I think those people wouldn’t be reading this anyways – so for us weirdos, it’s fun viewing!
Tiffany can be sexy and use her wiles and intellect to wrap people around her finger, so much so, that she can infiltrate an evil, violent dictatorship. Prince Salvator (Damien Thomas) calls on her to help. He is the son of the former king, who was slaughtered by Jabal. She shows no fear and jumps in headfirst, ready to save Zirdana, by taking down the president. She’s like a female James Bond. It’s awesome fun.
Salavator is a gorgeous romantic, who dresses in a phenomenally androgynous disguise later, which definitely added to the enjoyability of the overall picture. There’s this hilarious scene where a homophobic old woman, chastises her husband for bringing her to the club because Tiffany and Damien, both dressed in feminine attire, are making out. You know that elderly lady got more fantasy fodder that night than she had seen in decades!
For whatever reason, TIFFANY JONES, never really found its audience. It’s campy, silly, self-aware, and quite hysterical, at times. The cast is great. There is plenty of 70s’ sexy, exploitative fun to enjoy. It’s currently on AMAZON PRIME. Give it a go, because it certainly deserves it.
Scared Stiff Rating: 7/10
