Too much love for any one man

One of the film greats, Pandora’s Box gives us Louise Brooks (who never looked better) causing the perdition of men with her beauty and charisma. An unsuccessful case is made that there’s a supernatural quality to Lulu, equating her with the mythological Pandora. She may have too much love for any one man (or woman) but she’s not evil or even malicious. The story ends on Christmas Day.

In Rabid, Marilyn Chambers (famous as a porn star) develops a bizarre organ in her armpit and an unusual thirst after experimental plastic surgery. She acts like an out-of-control, promiscuous young woman, only partially conscious (her condition causes temporal amnesia) of her mosquito-like feeding and infecting of as many as she can. A memorable scene shows a massacre at a Santa Claus mall booth, making this a strange Christmas movie. An interesting example of David Cronenberg’s venereal horror films.

• Pandora’s Box (Germany) 1929, Moviegraphs
• Available on YouTube and GoMovies
• Rabid (Canada) 1977, New World Pictures
• Available on Amazon Video and Vudu