If you ever wanted a collision of two absolute titans of mid-century exploitation cinema, Blaze Starr Goes Nudist is your holy grail.

First, you have Blaze Starr (born Fannie Belle Fleming), the undisputed Queen of Burlesque. Blaze wasn’t just a dancer; she was a master marketer and an American icon who famously caught the eye of Louisiana Governor Earl Long (a romance later immortalized in the 1989 film Blaze starring Paul Newman). She was known for her explosive red hair, her couch routine and a gimmick in which her G-string would literally catch fire, thanks to clever stage pyrotechnics. Blaze’s famous smoking gimmick was achieved using a hidden battery pack and a small piece of flash paper. She actually brought a version of her stage show to the film, giving audiences a taste of the act that made her rich.

Behind the camera, you have the legendary Doris Wishman. A true anomaly, Doris was a female director ruling the male-dominated, sleazy world of 1960s sexploitation. Wishman’s style is instantly recognizable, as she often shot without sound and dubbed everything in later. Watch as her camera stares at ashtrays, feet, light fixtures or the back of a character’s head while they are speaking to avoid having to match lip-syncing! It creates a dreamlike, disorienting and utterly fascinating watch.

Let’s be honest: nobody was buying a ticket to Blaze Starr Goes Nudist for the gripping narrative. The plot is a clothesline — pun absolutely intended — designed to do two things: showcase Blaze’s charisma and fill the runtime with footage of people living the nudist lifestyle.

The film falls squarely into the nudist colony documentary subgenre that was wildly popular in the early ’60s. Legal loopholes at the time allowed for onscreen nudity as long as it was presented as a healthy, educational lifestyle choice. So, Wishman gives us plenty of wholesome, naked activities, like naked volleyball, naked badminton and naked lounging by the pool.

Nudist colony movies are as boring as it gets, but it’s a boredom I invite into my life. A calming, serene boredom, a time when it seemed like all we had to worry about was sitting naked in the grass, which seems like a horrible idea.

This was filmed at the  Sunny Palms Lodge in Homestead, Florida. The same location was used for Doris’ The Prince and the Nature Girl, Diary of a Nudist, Gentlemen Prefer Nature Girls and Playgirls International, as well as E.S. Seeley Jr.’s Shagri-La, which stars Sammy Petrillo!

Blaze herself is incredibly charming here. She possesses a natural, easygoing screen presence that outshines the stiff, community-theater acting of the supporting cast. The story is simple. Blaze is tired of her agent, Tony —who is also her fiancé—running her all over the country doing her act, so she goes to a nudist colony to relax, using her real name—Belle Fleming—as an alias. She soon gets quite close to the director of the colony, Andy Simms, who is played by Ralph Young, the singing partner of Belgian-born Tony Sandler, performing as Sandler and Young. His songs “The Moon Is the Lamp of Love,” “Moon Doll” and “Hideout In the Sun” all appear in Wishman movies.

While the film has that distinct, low-budget Wishman grime around the edges, it’s surprisingly lighthearted, breezy and innocent compared to the darker, sleazier roughies Wishman would direct later in her career (like Bad Girls Go to Hell). It’s basically a 70-minute vacation video with a burlesque superstar.

Like most Wishman films, the audio was recorded entirely in post-production. However, Blaze Starr didn’t dub her own voice! Another actress was brought in to provide Blaze’s lines, giving her a slightly different vibe than her actual Maryland/West Virginia twang.

To keep the film from being seized by vice squads, Wishman had to adhere to the era’s strict censorship rules: plenty of bouncing and bare skin were allowed, but showing pubic hair was a one-way ticket to a courtroom. The cast spent a lot of time strategically standing behind bushes, holding volleyballs or framing shots from the waist up. You do get to see two dudes run, wangs swinging, however.

You can watch this on Cultpix.