Indecent Desires is a 1968 film directed by Doris Wishman.
Zeb is a creepy weirdo. How creepy? Well, he seems to have nothing to do all day except root through garbage cans and pay phones, hoping to find a spare nickel or whatever other treasures he can discover. But really, how creepy? One day while rooting through a garbage can in the park, he plucks a doll and a costume jewelry ring out of the garbage. Being a creepy weirdo, he keeps both.
Enter Ann, a curvaceous secretary. Ann is walking to work with her similarly curvaceous friend and coworker, Babs. Ann attracts the attention of Zeb the creepy weirdo, who has the doll in his hand and the ring on his finger. Somehow, the doll seems to imprint itself on poor Ann, as shown in a shot where an image of the doll is superimposed on Ann while she stands at the corner.
Zeb the creepy weirdo takes the doll home, to his creepy apartment which seems to be mostly unfurnished (he has little other than a single couch and unopened boxes). Zeb starts to caress and fondle the doll. It seems that Ann and the doll have become linked, because whenever Zeb fondles his doll, Ann feels his caresses in real life.
Tropes:
- All There in the Manual: The character called "Zeb" is unnamed throughout the film, but is called "Zeb" in the credits.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's not completely clear if Zeb knows about the Voodoo Doll connection and whether or not Ann can feel what Zeb does to the doll.
- Black Bra and Panties: Ann's normal attire for lounging around at home, it seems, at least when she isn't wearing a see-through nightie.
- Cigarette Burns: Things start to get dark when Zeb, who has been following Ann around, sees her kissing her boyfriend Tom. He goes back to his creepy apartment and burns his doll with a cigarette. Naturally, Ann feels a terrible pain on her face, and sports a burn for a while (although, unlike the doll, Ann's burn mark heals).
- Creepy Doll: Well, the doll might not be creepy on its own. But when Zeb turns it into a Voodoo Doll and starts molesting Ann, that's pretty creepy.
- Note also how Ann the human woman wears makeup that sort of looks like a Creepy Doll. She has excessively long fake eyelashes like a doll, and her eyelids sort of look like a doll's eyelids that are detached from the face.
- Downer Ending: Tom makes his way into Ann's apartment and says that not only will he marry her, they'll get her the psychiatric help she needs. Unfortunately at that very moment, a jealous Zeb snaps the neck of his doll. Ann's head twists in an unnatural way, then she crumples to the floor of the apartment, dead.
- Dramatic Drop: In one scene Ann dramatically drops the coffee cup she's holding, when she's startled by the sensations caused by Zeb caressing the doll.
- Filming for Easy Dub: A signature trope for Doris Wishman, who never filmed with synchronized sound. Zeb the creep never speaks at all. For the other characters, the camera often catches them on a telephone, speaking with the receiver hiding their mouth, or the camera points in a different direction than the character who is talking.
- Imagine Spot: One whole scene involves Zeb the creep, who has been following Ann around, imagining a night of sex with her.
- Inner Monologue: Heard on multiple occasions from poor Ann as she wonders why she senses ghost hands feeling her up.
- Lingerie Scene: It seems that whenever Ann is relaxing at home, she's either in her underwear or in a see-through nightie.
- Neck Snap: Well sure, it's easy if you're actually snapping the neck of a little doll. The film ends with a jealous Zeb snapping the neck of his doll, which causes Ann to die of a snapped neck as well.
- Stocking Filler: One of the fanservice tropes in this film is Ann, quite slowly and deliberately, putting on pantyhose as she gets ready for a date with Tom.
- Toplessness from the Back: Seen from Ann in the opening credits!
- The Voiceless: Zeb never says a word onscreen. Probably part of Filming for Easy Dub.
- Voodoo Doll: It's not clear whether Zeb knows what's going on with his doll. But somehow he created a voodoo doll, and whatever he does with the doll, happens to Ann. When he fondles the doll, Ann is startled to feel invisible hands caressing her. When he starts to touch the doll in a more X-rated way, Ann feels sexual pleasure. When things turn dark, and an angry Zeb burns the doll with a cigarette, Ann feels the pain.
