This was the third and last of the B movies written and directed by Don Schain, that featured Cheri Caffaro as Ginger, a private investigator whose activities frequently result in her losing her clothing and finding herself in sexually compromising situations - both welcome and unwelcome. It appears to have been the one with the highest budget, and it clearly suffers from the problem that each new film in such a series has to outdo all the previous ones in several important respects if the interest of the viewers is to be maintained. This is a common problem with many film series. It effectively and quite quickly destroyed my interest in the (not dissimilar) James Bond series where more and more exotic, unreal, and unnecessary special effects were felt to be necessary in each new film.. Since the two later Ginger films each attempted to outdo the first one in their exploitation of both sex and violence, it may be as well that there were no more than three of these films. For example, this film opens with a sequence showing raiders attacking a holiday chalet, torching it and murdering the couple on vacation there. This sequence is a perfect example of gratuitous and unnecessary violence -even granting that these events had an important role in the story, they could have been covered more effectively by filming a briefing session for Ginger in which these events were featured only through newspaper, TV or police reports.
I saw all three of these films soon after they were first released, but until very recently had not seen them since. However when commenting to IMDb on a more recent film of the same genre, I found myself spontaneously commenting that the films in the Ginger series had been much better, so I recently re-watched both this film and "Ginger", the first one in the series, to determine whether this impression was an illusion which would be destroyed if I watched them again. I quickly appreciated that my favorable memories of these films were undoubtedly coloured by the facts both that they broke new ground at the time they were released, and that I was watching them through the eyes of relative youth. However I believe there were other reasons why I did find them less forgettable than the many other films of the same type which I must have seen since, and I have discussed these reasons in the comments I am simultaneously submitting to IMDb on the film "Ginger". Here I would like to comment primarily on some other aspects of these films.
When these films first appeared, Cheri Caffaro a native of Miami was widely referred to as a Brigitte Bardot look alike; and, as she showed more acting ability than most of the stars of the B movies of the period (admittedly not much acting is required in this class of film), there were suggestions that she might well be able to move on to mainstream Hollywood parts. She did in fact act in several films other than the Ginger films, but these were all typical B movies as the Hollywood system at the time created a barrier between the studios producing B movies and those producing mainstream films which was almost impossible to penetrate. (Even Marilyn Monroe, after succeeding in mainstream films, encountered major problems when it was revealed that she had previously posed for figure studies for a still photographer.) This rather rigid distinction stopped most attempts to produce B movies with any real artistic qualities, and the Ginger films were all straight sexploitation movies. Their audience was primarily young couples visiting drive-in cinemas or attending the late night showings at conventional movie houses, and the main attraction for the woman was watching a private investigator who could put both male colleagues and adversaries in their place, whilst that for the man was nudity and more nudity. (After all, he had done the right thing by taking his girl to the cinema, otherwise he could have been in the local bar with his pals watching the strippers!) Clearly the stars of such films had to be prepared to deliver, and there is no point in criticising their roles on this score. Nevertheless the men in the audiences also usually expected some measure of violence, as well as threatened violence when one of the "good guys or girls" was captured by the gang. As my comments about the opening sequence of this film indicated, I am old fashioned enough to believe that such violence should be limited to circumstances where it is a necessary part of the story line. But not everyone would agree with me so perhaps this is also not a valid criticism.
However in this film Ginger showed quickly that she was a threat to the conspirators and, with the example of the first sequence in mind, it seems clear that she should have been a target for immediate elimination by them if she was captured. Instead when this occurred her captors amused themselves by trying to excite her sexually. This is the sort of highly improbable incident that certainly fits in with the theme of the movie but does not fit with the basic story line. Such concerns must affect the evaluation of a movie by a critic, but do not usually have much influence on its acceptability to its intended audience. After considering all such issues, I am left in the position where I feel that this was a well made movie of its kind, and was much better than many of its later imitations. It deserves a reasonable rating based on this assessment, but it could never receive the type of high rating one might give to a film which attempts to leave its viewers with a significant message or conclusion to think about. Six out of ten.
