3 NUTS IN SEARCH OF A BOLT (1964)
Article 4563 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-17-2014
Directed by Tommy Noonan
Featuring Mamie Van Doren, Tommy Noonan, Ziva Rodann
Country: USA
What it is: Sex comedy

An actor is hired by three neurotics living in the same house. All three want to see the same expensive psychiatrist, but they can’t afford her, so they pool their resources by having the actor see her in their stead and act out their problems. The psychiatrist believes the actor to have a multiple personality disorder. Hilarity ensues.

To give you an idea of what this movie considers most important, it’s important to note that most of the movie is in black and white. The four color sequences are all ones involving Mamie Van Doren; two of them have her singing, one has her stripping, and the other has her taking a bath in beer (and flashing quite a bit of flesh in the process). That being said, the movie doesn’t really try to coast on the exploitation value of those scenes alone; it’s really trying to be a wild, madcap comedy in the black and white scenes, and due to a certain amount of energy and a willing to go for inspired silliness, it succeeds enough to remain watchable. One thing that doesn’t really become clear is why it was included in one of my sources as having genre content. Certainly, madness is one of the subjects of horror films, and I’ve covered movies that dealt with multiple personalities before, but there was at least a glimmer of horror content to those movies, while this has none. So let’s call this one another false alarm, and move on down the line.