The First Nudie Musical

The First Nudie Musical is a 1976 American musical comedy film directed by Mark Haggard and Bruce Kimmel. Overview The movie is a comedy starring Cindy Williams, Stephen Nathan and Bruce Kimmel. Nathan plays Harry Schechter, heir to a Hollywood studio forced to make a musical comedy porno in order to stave off bankruptcy. The movie features a series of farcical lewd musical numbers in the style of classical Hollywood musical comedies including: "Orgasm", "Lesbian Butch Dyke", and "Dancing Dildos." An early staple of Cinemax, it has become a cult film since its initial release and was released on DVD in 2001. The film is featured in Cult Movies II by Danny Peary, and has a long entry in the book about 1970s film musicals, We Can Be Who We Are by Lee Gambin. It was one of several farcical musical-comedy collaborations between Kimmel (who also co-starred in the movie) and Williams, along with The Creature Wasn't Nice in 1981. Originally distributed by Paramount Pictures in 1976, it was picked up by World-Northal in 1977. Reception The film was panned by Janet Maslin of The New York Times, who described the concept of the film as "a losing proposition" and found the music "tuneless." Arthur D. Murphy of Variety wrote, "A few clever bits are drowned in a larger sea of silliness, forced gags and predictable cliche." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film half of one star out of four, calling it "juvenile" and "flaccid." Alan M. Kriegsman of The Washington Post panned the film for "crude photography, bad editing, sophomoric story and forgettable music."