The Wicked Dreams Of Elke Sommer

The best thing about The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz is the presence of Elke Sommer in the title role. The weirdest thing about the flick--an upcoming comedy thriller about a zaftig East German track star who hops, skips and jumps her way to freedom over the Berlin Wall, not once but twice--is that it includes no dream sequences at all, despite its title. Never a magazine to avoid dispelling ambiguity where we find it, Playboy decided to take a not-too-serious look at the inner reality of Paula Schultz while performing the pleasurable task of exploring the outer reality of Elke--dreamy territory, indeed, first brought to our readers' attention in The Nudest Elke Sommer, in September 1964. "During the two days of shooting that produced these photos," West Coast photographer Frank Bez told us, "Elke and I kept Paula's feisty character and hopes for freedom uppermost in our minds. We did make a real attempt to illustrate the dreams Paula would most likely have had. Since she is young, beautiful and trapped, the dominant themes in the shots are sex and freedom. On the other hand, neither Elke nor I had any pretensions about making profound Freudian analyses." In that spirit, we can only suggest a vigorous nod to the pleasure principle and a leisurely perusal of the next seven pages. Pleasant dreams.