Sweet Kill, Wear a Bikini...Strip Naked...Die!

Tab Hunter is best known as a teen heartthrob from the 1950s. Even in the 1970s this blonde actor could take the breath away from any woman. Usually this blog tends to a bias for sultry babes, but today we have a feature centering on a hunk who takes his shirt off a lot. Okay...I admit, there will be dozens of bikini babes and nude women...but you gals will love Tab Hunter in 1972's "Sweet Kill."

Like many sexual-psychos, Eddie (Hunter) has mommy issues. This hunk prowls the Venice beach and babes just flock to him. Nubile bikini babes throw themselves at him...after all, it is Tab Hunter...strip off their garments and rip his clothes off. In the throes of seduction, Eddie gets violent and he will kill the beautiful Sherry (Kate McKeown) first. Eddie is a gym teacher and an all around good guy...or so people think. Sherry's beautiful roommate Lauren (Cherie Latimer) will get suspicious and start snooping...this won't go well for this beauty. We get glimpses of Eddie's backstory and he seems to have a similar upbringing to Norman Bates.

Eddie just doesn't wait for the women to come to him. He also sneaks into their rooms at night and...well...you'll see.  Lauren will try to get the police interested in Eddie but her drug problem ruins her credibility. Eddie also is a regular customer to a prostitute (Roberta Collins) who obliges him by dressing up as his mother and allowing him to strip her clothes off. Weird and awkward...but that sums up this movie. Oh yes, Eddie has a main squeeze, Barbara (Nadyne Turney). Barbara has no clue she is dating a Californian Norman Bates...can you guess how this will turn out? As the sultry California bikini babe population takes a major league hit, Eddie unwinds even more.

Will Eddie's reign of homicide ever end? Will Lauren's attempt at being an amateur private-eye prove deadly? I'm afraid the answer to that is easy. Is being murdered while naked in the shower worth the trouble if Tab Hunter is the guy in the shower with you? Directed by Curtis Hanson, "Sweet Kill" (aka "The Arousers") is not the feel good film of the 1970s. There will be no humor and the beautiful will die horribly. Fans of 1970s drive-in and exploitation fare will love this "Psycho" rip-off.