Mona, die Schwedin

With beautiful Swedish actresses and occasionally risque (but only by '50s standards -otherwise quite tame) material, "Blonde in Bondage" is a curio that turns out to be more interesting than many mainstream movies of its period. It's sold as an exploitation movie and might have played in Art Houses in 1957, but now seems quaint.

Our hero Larry is assigned to write a magazine story on location in Sweden, and the film's first conceit is that not only does he constantly run into beautiful women but they all are uncannily attracted to him. He emerges as a wish-fulfillment hero for a lonely male target audience (presumably watching movies solo in some crummy movie theater), surrounded by beauties and going with the flow. Usually such a character is a slapstick comedian, but here he's an intrepid reporter rather than a figure of fun.

He soon is entangled in a crime story, trying to save lovely blonde stripper Mona Mace from her evil manager/captor, skilfully played by Lars Ekborg. The cast handles English language dialogue well, giving the movie a leg up on so many dubbed foreign imports of the era.

Oddest thing is not part of the film- itself, but that the director, whose career went nowhere, ended up marrying Hollywood superstar Janet Leigh after her divorce from Tony Curtis. How's that for wish fulfillment!