Synopsis:

This is the best starring vehicle for redhead Sharon Kelly, who was a men’s magazine model and appeared in low budget sex comedies. They nearly always required her to doff her duds, and one of the many surreal aspects of Delinquent Girls was that all she showed was a little cleavage. Alice Goodbody represents the high point of her career, soon her looks would began to fade and the grindhouse theaters would all go XXX. So Sharon adopted the nom de porn Colleen Brennan and changed with the times.

Here she is cute and bubbly and irrepressibly optimistic as she’s passed around as a sex toy by every pervert in the business. One aspect of the humor deals with the various oddball characters that she is obliged to service to further her ambitions. The second aspect is the type of slapstick humor where everything that could go wrong does, like Laurel and Hardy in Hog Wild when they try to install a rooftop antenna and very nearly demolish the house. Every time she goes back to the movie set she receives a new injury. It begins innocuously enough with a black eye, but that doesn’t stop anyone from wanting to have sex with her at a moments notice. Neither does a broken arm or even a breast cast. Combine these cross currents with a witty and literate script with lots of sight gags and you have a very lean and funny comedy.

But despite the frequently nude presence of Sharon Kelly who is devastatingly beautiful here, the film is anti-erotic because of the downward spiral in which our heroine is engulfed. Is Sunset Boulevard a romance? On the surface you might say so, but it’s really a pitch black comedy with norish elements and a scathing denouement of Hollywood. Replace the noirish with pornish and toss out 99.9% of the budget and you are left with Alice Goodbody.

Alice Goodbody works for many of the same reasons that Tim Burton’s Ed Wood succeeds. Funny and eccentric characters, each a little pathetic in their own unique way, and featuring a lead protagonist whose perseverance in the face of adversity is hopeless, but endearing just the same.

The DVD:

Note: The DVD portion of this review was written by Michael Den Boer.

Alice Goodbody is presented in a anamorphic widescreen that retains the film’s original aspect ratio. This progressive flagged transfer looks very good. Colors and flesh tones look accurate. Black levels look good and details look sharp throughout. There are no problems with compression or edge enhancement.

This release comes with one audio option, a Dolby Digital mono mix in English. Even though there is some instances of background noise. The audio is always clear and everything sound balanced.

Extras for this release include a trailer for the film (2 minutes 14 seconds – anamorphic widescreen), alternate opening credits (3 minutes 43 seconds – anamorphic widescreen) and a audio commentary with screenwriter / director Tom Scheuer, associate producer Garry Maxwell and moderator Lee Christian. Also included with this release are trailers for The Statue, The Working Girls, Group Marriage, Teenage Graffiti, Lonely Wives and Family Honor. Overall Alice Goodbody gets a first rate DVD release from Code Red that is highlighted by a informative and equally entertaining audio commentary track.