Soft Skin on Black Silk (1959)

Strangers in the night forge love affairs founded on murder in José Antonio de la Loma’s sultry French-Spanish melodrama Soft Skin on Black Silk (1959). Ira Lewis and Edie Burke star as lovers who meet at an isolated Mediterranean beach house and quickly commence with a steamy affair. Director de la Loma cuts between their amorous play and a narrative about a handsome gangster (Vicente Parra) and a femme fatale (Agnès Laurent). The first cut of the dueling narrative was relatively tame, and a 1963 English-language re-cut was struck to squeeze in a bit more gleeful depravity. Nevertheless Laurent keeps things exciting by losing her top during a moment of black-and-white excitement.