PLUGG (1974)
Director: Terry Bourke
Umbrella Entertainment

Ozploitation hits rock-bottom with the nudie detective caper PLUGG, on DVD from Umbrella Entertainment.

Upon the order of his "upstanding" wife Estelle (Pat Skevington, SHAME), the right honorable Claude Marshall-Enright (Edgar Metcalfe, A CRY IN THE DARK) has ordered a investigation under the mayor's nose to dig up the dirt on The Pussycat Escort Agency from the private detective agency of Herman Cavanagh (Alan Cassell, BREAKER MORANT). So concerned with his flagging golf game, Cavanagh has procrastinated on the investigation and decides that it is an easy enough job for probationary detective Horatio Plugg (Peter Thompson, TWINS OF EVIL). What he does not realize is that the mayor has sent Inspector Closer (HOMICIDE's Norman Yemm) and bumbling Constable Hector (Reg Gorman, INN OF THE DAMNED) to trail Plugg and scoop the investigation. Gathering some intelligence from rival escort agency owner Arab Barabbas (David Vallon), Plugg follows the cab driver Birdy Thorne (Sid Plummer, WINDRIDER) who hooks up tourists with the Pussycat Escort Agency and lights upon farmer "Big Mick" Hendlebreyer (Phil Cleary) as a way into the agency when he sets up an appointment with its most popular girl Kelli Kelly (Cheryl Rixon, USED CARS). Plugg unfortunately loses track of them in the hotel and stumbles upon multiple other couples and their kinks to the exasperation of the hotel manager (Robbie McGregor, BREAKFAST IN PARIS) and Closer who fears Plugg might break the case open before he can. Several comic vignettes eventually lead to a scandalous skinny-dipping free-for-all and a court case in which Plugg himself might end up on the dock as a peeper.

Director Terry Bourke made an impression with his dialogue-free grueling hour-long horror film NIGHT OF FEAR – which cast Yemm as its silent psycho – and showed promise with the so-so period film INN OF THE DAMNED where guests check in but never check out; however, PLUGG shows that Bourke had a lot to learn before his memorable LADY STAY DEAD as this sexploitation film is truly bottom-of-the-barrel. Patterned after THE PINK PANTHER - with an animated title sequence in which trench-coated Plugg is chasing what must have been intended as a "pink pussy" - the film makes its "hero" a repugnant lout with almost no dialogue, has his co-stars bellowing out dialogue and prat-falling in an attempt to engender laughs, while the bulk of the film's female nudity seems to have been inserted as cutaways to make the film more titillating. Ozploitation sex film newbies should stick to the likes of ALVIN PURPLE.

Understandably unreleased in the United States theatrically or on video, PLUGG comes to Australian all-region PAL DVD seemingly taken from an aged fullscreen VHS tape – presumably the Australian K&C pre-cert – rather than a tape master with tracking noise along the bottom of the frame normally covered by TV overscan. It does not help that the print used for the transfer was also a bit beat up in the first place. The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono track fares better. There is no menu and the film's trailer plays right after the feature. (Eric Cotenas)

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