Though he often teased that he would make more films in the 25 years that preceded his death, 1979’s Beneath the Valley of the UltraVIXENS ended up as Russ Meyer’s final film. For his penultimate release, we go to Russ Meyer’s Up! from 1976.

Adolph Schwartz (Edward Schaaf) – who bears a strange resemblance to a certain Nazi führer – gets murdered when someone plops piranha in his bathtub. This stirs uproar in the small Northern California town where he lives.

However, a distraction soon arrives via busty hitchhiker Margo Winchester (Raven De La Croix). Margo creates a sensation while the pursuit of Adolph’s killer progresses.

Despite the implications of that synopsis, Up! lacks any real plot. Like his other 1970s movies, Meyer uses Up! for madcap antics and plenty of sex more than a real narrative.

Ostensibly, Up! acts as a “whodunnit” to find out who killed Adolph. However, Meyer couldn’t tell a coherent story to save his life, and this becomes an issue here.

Up! tends to function as a collection of sex scenes with occasional plot points dropped in at random times. To facilitate these, Meyer uses a completely nude Kitten Natividad as “The Greek Chorus”.

Not much subtlety to that name, huh? “Greek Chorus” spouts Shakespearean dialogue that attempts to keep the viewer oriented toward the story.

However, these moments seem gratuitous, as they don’t really make the tale any more coherent. Instead, they feel like an attempt to convince the viewer Meyer created a movie with an actual narrative.

Which he didn’t, as Up! fails to come together as any kind of actual story. As noted, we just get one sex scene after another with brief expository sequences that go nowhere.

Along with 1970’s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and UltraVIXENS, Up! acted as one of Meyer’s three screenwriting collaborations with legendary critic Roger Ebert. Whatever skills Ebert showed as a journalist didn’t convey to these inept scripts.

Meyer does find one of his more attractive casts here. Meyer lost his touch with UltraVIXENS, as he went with women who tended to look artificial and unappealing.

With the stunning de la Croix in the lead, we get a bevy of crazy hot females here. Meyer doesn’t skimp on abundant shots of these ladies in the all together.

Too bad Meyer can’t create a compelling movie around these lovelies. Up! keeps the heterosexual male preoccupied with its nearly non-stop female nudity, but a softcore Playboy video would seem just as entertaining.

Russ Meyer’s Up! appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though not one of the best Meyer presentations, the image usually held up fine.

Overall sharpness seemed positive. Despite some soft wider shots, the movie usually boasted appealing delineation.

The flick lacked shimmering or jaggies, and edge haloes failed to manifest. Grain seemed appropriate, and only a handful of print flaws popped up along the way.

Colors felt positive, as the movie’s natural palette seemed appealing. The hues brought a good array of qualities.

Blacks felt firm and dark, and low-light shots brought solid clarity. Even with some anomalies, the image usually seemed positive.

Though it showed its age and budgetary restrictions, the movie’s DTS-HD MA monaural still seemed fine. Speech became a weak link, as lines could seem edgy and thin, but they remained intelligible.

Music showed better range, even if the score and songs never became especially full. Effects demonstrated some distortion but usually offered acceptable clarity. Though not a particularly good soundtrack, the audio was satisfactory for a low-budget movie made almost 50 years ago.

A few extras appear, and we get an audio commentary from film historian Elizabeth Purchell. She provides a running look at the career of director Russ Meyer, cast/crew, some production domains, the movie’s receptions and her thoughts about it.

At the start, Purchell warns us she won’t provide a screen-specific chat, and that largely remains true. She does discuss the on-screen action a couple of times but this largely becomes an audio essay.

And a good one, as Purchell offers a deep dive into the topics I mentioned. She brings us a brisk and informative view of these domains.

In addition to a radio spot, a featurette called No Fairy Tale… This! finishes the disc. It goes for 18 minutes, five seconds and offers notes from actor Raven de la Croix.

She lets us know how she earned her lead role in Up! and provides details of her experiences on the shoot. De la Croix offers a charming presence who supplies a bunch of entertaining anecdotes.

Like the filmmaker’s other 1970s efforts, Russ Meyer’s Up! comes heavy on nudity and light on coherence. While I appreciate the skin on display, the movie lacks any other value. The Blu-ray comes with largely good picture, dated audio and a few bonus materials. Up! only merits a look for those with an affinity to naked 1970s babes.