''The Girl Who Returned'' is a 1969 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

, notable as the directorial debut of

Lloyd Kaufman Stanley Lloyd Kaufman Jr. (born December 30, 1945) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. Alongside producer Michael Herz (producer), Michael Herz, he is the co-founder of Troma Entertainment film studio, and the director ...

, future co-founder and president of

Troma Entertainment Troma Entertainment is an American independent film production and distribution company founded by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz in 1974. The company produces low-budget independent films, primarily of the horror comedy genre. Many of them pla ...

. It was made during his sophomore year at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

. The story is set in an alternate reality in which the world is made up of just two countries:

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

and

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

. Luxembourg is inhabited only by women and

only by men. Every four years, the two countries hold an Olympics competition to determine the supremacy of the world.

Overview

The film was shot on a

Bolex Bolex International S. A. is a Swiss manufacturer of motion picture cameras based in Yverdon located in Canton of Vaud. The most notable products of which are in the 16 mm and Super 16 mm formats. Originally Bol, the company was founded by ...

camera which did not have a sound sync and could only record forty seconds at a time. The film features a rare cameo from Troma co-founder Michael Herz and his wife Maris. What the film lacked in a coherent plot, it made up for in endless gratuitous shots of scantily clad women exercising. The film received negative reviews from campus newspapers and Lloyd Kaufman himself described the film as "boring", going so far as to say that, like the

infinite monkey theorem The infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type any given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare. In fact, the monkey would ...

, "if you put two monkeys in a room with movie cameras they will make ''The Girl Who Returned'' in twelve days." Filmed on a budget of $2,000, ''The Girl Who Returned'' made a profit from dollar screenings at Yale and other colleges. Other than these showings, the film was not released commercially until 2009, as an

easter egg Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are eggs that are decorated for the Christian feast of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The oldest tr ...

on ''The Sexy Box'', a

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

boxset of ''

Squeeze Play! ''Squeeze Play!'' is a 1979 American comedy film directed by Lloyd Kaufman. Plot A group of New Jersey women, upset over their boyfriends' tendency to pay more attention to softball than their love lives, decide to beat them at their own game. ...

'', ''

Waitress! ''Waitress!'' is a 1981 American comedy film directed by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz of Troma Entertainment. It was the second in Troma's line of "sexy comedies", preceded by the 1979's ''Squeeze Play!'' and followed by 1982's ''Stuck on You! ...

'', ''

Stuck on You! ''Stuck on You!'' is a 1982 American comedy film directed by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz of Troma Entertainment and starring Irwin Corey, Virginia Penta, Mark Mikulski, Albert Pia, and Norma Pratt. ''Stuck on You!'' was the third in a serie ...

'', and ''

The First Turn-On! ''The First Turn-On!'' is a 1983 American comedy film directed by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz of Troma Entertainment. It was the last in a series of four "sexy comedies" that helped establish Troma as a film studio, starting with 1979's ''Squ ...

''. In December 2016, the film made its debut on the Troma Now streaming service.

References

External links

* 1969 films American independent films Troma Entertainment films 1969 comedy films Films directed by Lloyd Kaufman Luxembourg in fiction Films set in Luxembourg Films set in Mongolia 1969 directorial debut films Fictional Luxembourgian people Fictional Mongolian people 1960s English-language films 1960s American films {{1960s-comedy-film-stub

Overview

See also

References

External links