Let My Puppets Come

[StevePulaski]

Let My Puppets Come (1975)
Directed by: Gerard Damiano

Rating: ★★★

It takes a depraved, creative mind to come up with something as warped as Let My Puppets Come. It takes an overly curious soul to seek it out and watch it (let alone buy the Blu-ray). It takes a real twisted mind to find the execution of its concept effective and its humor amiable and effective. Draw your own conclusions, dear reader.

Let My Puppets Come, by definition, qualifies as softcore pornography. The proverbial tongue is firmly planted in the proverbial cheek from the jump, with puppets being involved in all of the sex-scenes. It's quite hilarious at times, if unusual at others. The "uncut" version is a mere 75 minutes, which is ideal length for an oddity of this nature. If puppets are your kink, you'd do better here than spiraling down the annals of PornHub.

The film opens with a series of puppet businessman — Ned, Fred, and Red — who are in dire straits. They need to conjure up the $500,000 they owe to Mr. Big so he doesn't take a bat to them. They decide that pornos are generally profitable and come up with ideas for a feature. These ideas are played out in vivid detail via their daydreams, which involve everything from a woman and her dog to the classic nurse trope. Any sane person would shut the film off after the first 15 minutes. I couldn't bring myself.

They finally acquire a set and some performers willing to get down with puppets and their comically large, fluffy appendages. Interjected in the film are a couple of spoof commercials, including an ad for "Climax" spray (featuring Lynette Sheldon) and "Lusterine" (featuring the late porn titan Al Goldstein). Props to the committed puppeteers skilled enough to pull this off. The professional quality strips away the inherent scuzz of the material and makes for something wryly funny, if overly pun-laden.

There's certainly an audience for Let My Puppets Come. On that note, you already know who you are.

NOTE: Let My Puppets Come is available on Blu-ray via Vinegar Syndrome. Per usual, the film preservationist website went above and beyond ensuring a beautiful restoration and chocked the disc full of enjoyable features. Purchase here: vinegarsyndrome.com/products/let-my-puppets-come

Directed by: Gerard Damiano.