On Her Bed Of Roses / Psychedelic Sexualis (1966)

A young man lies by a highway with a rifle, shooting people in cars. As the police close in, he kills himself. In flashbacks, his girlfriend explains why it all happened.

IMDB 5.3/10 from 24 users

Director: Albert Zugsmith
Writer: Richard von Krafft-Ebing (book)
Actors: Ronald Warren, Sandra Lynn, Barbara Hines, Lee Gladden
Rated: R
Runtime: 101 min

On Her Bed Of Roses also known as Psychopathia Sexualis (as it claims to have been based on the book of the same name) stars Lee Gladden but here he doesn’t play himself, he plays Doctor Krafft-Ebbing and this time around he’s treating a patient named Melissa Borden (Sandra Long). Her (Barbara Hines) is more than a little promiscuous and this has caused her to develop an unusually close relationship with her father (Ric Marlow). They’ve bonded while mom has been out screwing around.

If that weren’t enough, Melissa also seems to have a thing for Stefan (Ronald Warren), the strangely immature and paranoid guy who lives next door. Stefan may or may not have something sexual going on with his own mother (hint: he does) but there’s more to what Melissa feels for him than just their shared dysfunction.

When Melissa decide to have a costume party at the home one night, her dad gets in on the action and winds up doing the deed with one of the guests (Lovey Song again) but Melissa puts a stop to that as soon as she can. As her therapy continues, it turns out she suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder, but as crazy as she is, she’s got nothing on the neighbors. One shooting spree and overly long flashback later and ol’ Doc Krafft-Ebbing would seem to have his work cut out for him.

This isn’t quite as intriguing as the first feature but it’s still got enough twisting and turning going on to hold our attention. The quirky performances add to the appeal and it doesn’t hurt that Lovey Song pops up again, this time sans eyepatch unfortunately. Yowza. Gladden is still as wooden as a board but again, he looks the part and stays stoic in the way that you expect a stuffy psychoanalyst would in such situations. The pacing isn’t quite as efficient this time around but the jazz score is a killer and the cinematography pretty great. This is worth watching just for the out of left field ending and the screwball costume party scene.

A mere year after The Incredible Sex Revolution, Zugsmith made Psychopathia Sexualis (an obvious play on Richard von Krafft-Ebing's infamous 1886 tome that covered over 200 cases of human sexual behavior) aka On Her Bed Of Roses. While sharing some similarities with the first film (cue obnoxious brass horns), including yet another appearance by the good “Dr” Gladden, who doesn't come into the picture until a little bit later but is credited as “technical adviser”), On Her Bed Of Roses is a striking, slightly high-strung work.

For starters, the first fifteen minutes of the film are without any dialogue. It begins with a disturbed looking young man, who wakes up in a daze and alone. He stumbles over to a rose bush and picks one, his hand gripping its thorny stem until blood is running down his skin. His grip will never loosen.

Walking straight through the outdoor pool as borderline ethereal music plays, he ends up in a white room and finds a guitar case. Briefly cradling it like a warm body, he grabs it with his free hand and throws it in his car. Bloody rose still in hand, he speeds off and has all the earmarks of a man who should never be behind the wheel, especially given the weird and cryptic state he is in.

After he nearly causes multiple vehicular homicides, the soundtrack starts to get deliriously good. Post-auto-mayhem, he walks up a rocky hill, sanguine rose and guitar case both in hand. Opening the latter, he pulls out a huge rifle and starts randomly shooting and killing several people. As the police finally arrive, he puts the barrel in his mouth and ends his young, strange life.

Cut to a pretty blonde, Melissa (Sandra Lynn), entering a doctor's office. She is greeted by non other than our very own Dr. Gladden, who is happy to see her and presents her with a “one year merit badge” as a “token of progress.” Instead of being giddy, she screams, passes out and then has a strange dream sequence where, the grown form of herself is in pig tails and going to her “Daddy.” (Who has taken the form of Gladden in her vision.) Sitting on his lap, Melissa smiles as he gives her a peck on the lips.

That's not enough though and she demands him “Kiss me on the lips like you kiss Mommy!!” Daddy issues a-go-go and before you can reach for a fresh glass of brain bleach, Melissa awakes and is suddenly more testy with the kindly doctor. As we get to learn more about Melissa, it turns out that the young lass has a veritable Whitman's sampler of issues. There's the aftorementioned weird sexually-tinged obsession with her father, which does inspire some soap-tastic moments, including her getting into a physical altercation with a friend after catching her kissing daddy dearest and Melissa's cougar mother making a bitchy comment about her own daughter sleeping with every middle-aged man in town. (That is when she is not trying to actively seduce any boy Melissa attempts to date.) A flower in the suburban-sin cesspool of Melissa's life comes in the form of sweet but awkward Stephen (Ronald Warren), the next door neighbor whose house is surrounded by fragrant rose bushes and an overbearing mother. Stephen has his own demons though and the end result is a sad la ronde twist that solidifies the film's chic look but bleak-ish tones. On Her Bed Of Roses is a striking creature of its time. On one hand, it was not the best, sexiest or certainly most outre of the mid 60's sexploitation era. Not by a long shot, but that said, it has a professional sheen, a strong and impressively dark intro and a surprisingly solid lead performance by Sandra Lynn. There's enough sleazy-camp moments to appease the cult film crowd but the film has enough serious and surreal touches to give it some borderline art-film shade.

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