Viveca’s “problem” begins when she catches her live-in boyfriend Don (Harry Reems, credited as “Stan Freemont”) cheating on her with a young woman named Marie (Suzy Mann). Marie invites Viveca to join them, but is much more interested in Viveca than Don. This encounter angers Don, who the women push aside entirely, and excites Viveca, who quickly forgets her anger at Don’s infidelity. After this, Don and Viveca attend a swingers’ party in the hopes of patching things up, but Viveca’s attention is immediately drawn to a beautiful young woman named Linda (Laura Cannon, star of Andy Milligan’s Fleshpot on 42nd Street). Luckily for Don, a belly dancer at the party (Arlana Blue) is happy to spend some time with him. Another similarity the film has with Doris Wishman’s work is its bizarre, abrupt ending, in which Dr. Rogers proposes a highly unusual treatment for Viveca’s problem. They have sex on his couch, and Viveca pretends Dr. Rogers is Linda, and then the “THE END” title card plays. Your guess is as good as mine.
The second film on the disc is 1974’s Angel on Fire (aka Angel Number 9). At this point, Roberta Findlay had directed a few other films after Altar, so the quality of her filmmaking had much improved. This film also features many more familiar faces from the New York adult film scene of the 70s, and much more of an actual storyline than Altar.
Steven (Alan Marlow) is a total bastard. When one of his girlfriends, Carol (Judy Craven), tells him she’s pregnant with his baby, he viciously berates her and throws her naked out of his apartment. Watching him from Heaven is Angel #9 (Jennifer Jordan, who played the title role in Joe Sarno’s Abigail Lesley Is Back in Town), who manipulates events so that Steven is run down by a van. He goes to Heaven, where Angel #9 explains that he is going to be returned to Earth as a woman to learn what it feels like to be treated the way he treats women, and when he falls in love with a man who behaved the way he did, he will be able to return to Heaven.
And so Steven returns to Earth as Stephanie (Darby Lloyd Rains), where she puts her new body to use right away in a tryst with the guy who drove the van who ran her over. Stephanie manages to convince one of Steven’s girlfriends of her incredible story of being returned from Heaven, and she introduces Stephanie to photographer Jeff (Jamie Gillis). Jeff is just as big a bastard as Steven was, and before long Stephanie finds herself in the same situation as poor Carol, pregnant with the child of an irredeemable, uncaring lothario. In a bit of neat symmetry, Jeff gives Stephanie an almost word-for-word reprise of Steven’s farewell speech to Carol, leaving her weeping and begging for Heaven to take her outside his apartment. This character arc is compelling despite the film’s somewhat goofy concept, mostly thanks to a solid lead performance by Darby Lloyd Rains. Angel on Fire is another example of how adult cinema in the 70s aspired to more than just titillation.
Vinegar Syndrome presents these films scanned and restored from the best available elements: The Altar of Lust, scanned from the film’s 35mm camera negative, has a little visual noise but probably looks as good as it did when the film originally played on the big screen, if not better. Angel on Fire, scanned from a 35mm theatrical print, looks considerably rougher and any opening and closing credits the film might have had are missing entirely. This makes sense, given that the print from which it came was no doubt run through a projector countless times, and Vinegar Syndrome has done a great job restoring the film. It may look a little rough, but this is as good as it could possibly get given the source material. These films are interesting artifacts of the heyday of real grindhouse cinema, and anyone looking for a good introduction to Roberta Findlay’s films should find this a good place to start.
Anticipation (1981), Flesh Pond (1983), My Sinful Life (1983), Las Vegas Girls (1983), Pulsating Flesh (1987), and Super Sex (1987)
Originally published on Daily Grindhouse 15 October 2015
Of all the filmmakers whose work has been released by Vinegar Syndrome, Carlos Tobalina is the most well-represented. With the September release of the Peekarama double feature of Lust Inferno and Marathon, the total number of Tobalina’s films released on DVD by Vinegar Syndrome comes to 27. No other filmmaker is anywhere close: they have only released ten films by Bob Chinn on Blu-ray and DVD. Tobalina is a divisive figure among Vinegar Syndrome fans, and in previous reviews of releases of his film I have suggested that his work is probably the least interesting of any of the adult films that Vinegar Syndrome has released. Tobalina was successful and worked with many popular adult film stars of the ’70s and ’80s, but his films are uniformly slapdash and frequently incoherent. They are, in short, probably the most reminiscent of cheap modern porn features, often featuring threadbare plots to string together lengthy sex scenes. Over the last several months, Vinegar Syndrome has released three Peekarama double features of Tobalina films (and a fourth in September). Here’s a rundown of what each of those releases has to offer.
First up is Anticipation (1981) and Flesh Pond (1983).
In Anticipation, newlyweds Jerry (Jesse Adams) and Joyce (Sheila Parks) check into a hotel for their honeymoon and Jerry tells Joyce how his brother Steve (Joey Silvera) ended up in jail. Steve was framed for murdering his wife Wendy’s (Karo Akamoto) lover, but he’s been released just in time to move back into their parents’ home along with Wendy, Jerry, and Joyce. As soon as they meet for the first time, Steve and Joyce and Jerry and Wendy are all instantly and powerfully attracted to one another, indulging in explicit sexual fantasies while lounging on the beach. Jerry and Steve consider divorce, but a Halloween costume party allows them to act out their fantasies and they all live happily ever after.
In Flesh Pond, two escaped convicts happen upon a swingers’ party at an isolated ranch. They force the attendees to perform sex acts at gunpoint, including a female performer who does some of her act with a terrifying life-size sex doll named Johnny. One of the swingers, a magazine reporter (William Margold), believes the men when they say they’re innocent, and Carlos Tobalina (as himself?) learns from a friend that the men would have been released on the strength of new evidence in their case if they had not escaped. Carlos visits the ranch and explains the situation; the magazine writer offers to buy the rights to their story and write it up. The gun-toting convict puts away his gun and finally joins the orgy. Nobody seems too sore about being held at gunpoint and forced to do sex stuff.
Next is My Sinful Life and Las Vegas Girls (both 1983). Tobalina has exhibited a predilection for incest in his previous films released by Vinegar Syndrome, but in My Sinful Life it’s the primary focus of the film.
Jill (Danielle) moves in with her Aunt Vickie (DJ Cone) to go to college, and explains to Aunt Vickie that she’s “getting tired of fucking” her parents “all the time.” Vickie is shocked by Jill’s revelations that she must have been “a baby” when she was “deflowered,” and that her parents have sex with both her and her brother Ron (Tom Byron) regularly. However, Vickie reminds Jill that she and her brother were adopted, so apparently she’s surprised but doesn’t seem think that it’s cruel and disgusting and/or realize that it’s illegal that their parents molested them their whole lives. Jill gets a job at a whorehouse run by Madame Zsa Zsa (Helga Sven), who had to give up a pair of twins for adoption twenty years earlier when her longtime boyfriend Martin was kidnapped by Pygmies and held for three years while they forced him to inseminate all their women. Ron comes to visit Vickie and Jill and Vickie catches him masturbating while reading a book, and then has sex with him. Jill and her friend Laurie (Brooke Fields) walk in on them and Laurie recruits Vickie for Madame Zsa Zsa and invites Ron over for some sex. Jill and Ron have sex with Martin and Zsa Zsa, and later Jill discovers that Martin and Zsa Zsa are in fact her birth parents. Nobody seems weirded out that they’ve had sex with their kids or parents.
Las Vegas Girls follows a pair of detectives (Dan Boulder and Karen Hall) hired by the wealthy Harrisons (Mrs. Harrison is played by Liz Renay) to find their runaway daughter. They go to Vegas and hire a bunch of people for sex parties to track her down, but it turns out she fled to M
exico. The detectives finally admit their mutual love for one another. Another happy ending after a whole bunch of previous happy endings.
Super Sex and Pulsating Flesh (both 1987) make up the third double feature.
In Super Sex, therapist Dr. Rosenberg and his receptionist are going on vacation and he brings in Dr. Stein and a new receptionist to fill in while they’re away. Stein hypnotizes his first patient and learns about her dream about her parents making love to her, and then his next patient explains a dream she had in which she possessed the body of her best friend and had sex with her friend’s husband. Stein prescribes having sex with him to cure her frustration, and when the patient returns later the new receptionist seduces her as well. Stein joins in, but the three are caught by Rosenberg and the previous receptionist. Rosenberg is convinced this is the future of therapy and fires his old receptionist, making Stein a partner in the business. Business is booming and they have sex with all their female patients while the new receptionist listens in on the speakerphone, knits, and shakes her head at their hijinks.
Pulsating Flesh tells the story of Peter Longfellow, who goes on the Joan Carson show to talk about how he impregnates any woman he has sex with. He shows clips of his filmed exploits, and two young women watching at home (on a small TV sitting on top of a much larger TV) become aroused by his stories. Peter explains that his ultimate fantasy is “two bisexual high school girls,” and tells how a rich woman made his fantasy come true (and how they were joined by the Milkman, played by Harry Reems). The two women watching at home decide they want Peter to come visit them, so they call him at the television studio–the phone on the set where the show is being taped live as Peter and Joan have sex actually rings and Joan picks it up–so he can join them after the show is done. They have sex with him and then discover that he gets every woman pregnant even if she’s on the pill and using other contraceptives. They’re kind of annoyed, and the credits roll.
As always, Vinegar Syndrome has given each film a great transfer, so they all look and sound as good as they ever could. The discs all include trailers for the various features, but otherwise there are no extras. While it’s admirable that Vinegar Syndrome is dedicated to preserving the adult film history of the ’70s and ’80s, it’s tough to imagine why viewers keep snapping up these Tobalina discs. There’s nothing in any of them that is particularly memorable, other than the creepy and reprehensible stuff, so they don’t lend themselves to multiple views for any kind of cinematic value.
Even his weirdo Jungle Blue is just inept, never quite crossing the line into real cult/outsider cinema territory. Tobalina’s work is lazy and workmanlike at best, only ever distinguished by his own fetishes. In any case, by this point you’ve probably got these in your cart already or you checked out three paragraphs ago — if you’re into Tobalina, you probably already pre-ordered them all, and if you’re not these aren’t going to change your mind.
Artsploitation Films 2015 Update: The Treatment (2014), Reckless (2014), Chasing the Muse (2014), Cub (2014), The Summer House (2014), and Bloody Knuckles (2014)
Originally published 6 January 2016
Artsploitation Films returned in 2015 after a hiatus with a strong slate of varied international films. Their stated mission is to distribute “intriguing, unsettling, unpredictable and provocative films from around the world,” and the films they have released since their return have certainly lived up to that standard. We at Film Monthly have covered some of these previously throughout the year, including The House with 100 Eyes, Der Samurai, Horsehead, and Children of the Night. However, there have been several releases that we have not had time to cover, an unfortunate oversight that this piece will hopefully help to correct. There are not enough distributors willing to take chances on risky films in the States, and while their releases may not all be great films, the label certainly deserves the support of any serious cinephile.
The Treatment (Belgium, dir. Hans Herbots): For decades, police detective Nick Cafmeyer (Geert Van Rampelberg) has been tormented by Ivan Plettinckx (Johan van Assche), the man he believes kidnapped his younger brother. When a gruesome crime is uncovered involving a family imprisoned in their home and their young son abducted and murdered, Cafmeyer becomes obsessed with tracking down the killer. As the investigation wears him down, Cafmeyer begins to suspect that Plettinckx may know the man the police are searching for, and the investigation into the new crime tears open Cafmeyer’s old psychic wounds. The Treatment is a bleak but compelling crime procedural anchored by a host of strong performances. Director Hans Herbots creates an intense ticking clock narrative by expertly orchestrating the action of the investigation and the movements of the villain and their latest victims. The Artsploitation Blu-ray and DVD releases of the film include deleted scenes (complete with title cards from the director explaining why the scenes were excised), a featurette on the film’s premiere, and the film’s trailer.
Reckless (Netherlands, dir. Joram Lürsen): Victor (Tygo Gernandt) and Rico (Marwan Kenzari), recently out of jail, have a plan to make a mint. They kidnap Laura Temming (Sarah Chronis) in hopes of getting a large ransom from her wealthy father. The plan is set and the kidnapping comes off without a hitch, but things quickly become very complicated in very unexpected ways. Reckless is a remake of J. Blakeson’s The Disappearance of Alice Creed (UK, 2009), and like that film it is a neat, compact thriller with some genuine surprises. Unfortunately, it’s also virtually a shot-for-shot remake of that film, so anyone who has already seen Blakeson’s version will probably find Reckless a little too familiar. Regardless, it’s a tense, well-made, claustrophobic thriller that is well worth a look
Chasing the Muse (France, dir. Jean-François Davy): Filmmaker Jean-François Davy sets out on an erotic odyssey across Europe looking for the perfect actress to star in his next project. This process involves meeting up with a bunch of women in various cities and coaxing them into having sex with him on camera while he pontificates on art and eroticism in voiceover. We learn very little about the young women who have sex with him, and there are some odd choices in the presentation of the sex scenes that don’t make a lot of sense. Namely the fact that Davy is clearly actually having intercourse with these women, but their genitals are blurred and shots are framed to keep any explicit images just barely off-camera. The result is an uncomfortable and blatantly exploitative film that Davy seems to believe explores the line between art and pornography but actually does little more than celebrate his own virility at nearly 70 years of age. The Artsploitation DVD includes a “director’s cut” of Davy’s 1974 documentary Exhibition, which is considerably more worthwhile than the disc’s main feature. Following adult film actress Claudine Beccarie as she shoots (uncensored, hardcore) sex scenes and discusses her life in 1974 with brief follow-up interviews in 1978 and 1982, Exhibition offers a fascinating look at the life of an intriguing, intelligent, but oddly conservative woman as she navigates the seemingly irreconcilable contradictions of her life. This disc is worth picking up for Exhibition alone.
Cub (Belgium, dir. Jonas Govaerts): Sam (Maurice Luijten) is a smart, imaginative, and very unpopular kid. When his scout troop heads out for a weekend in the woods, Sam is convinced that there is a monster waiting out there to gobble up the boys and their teenage counselors. He is unfortunately proven correct, but the monster is not what he expected: it’s a feral young boy called Kai (Gill Eeckelaert) who doesn’t like outsiders and has rigged the forest with deadly traps. Worse, he’s not be alone, and soon the troop is forced to fight for their lives against both Kai’s traps and the boy’s bloodthirsty mentor. Cub is a brutal, unique take on the typical slasher film that pulls no punches toward its unfortunate teen (and pre-teen) victims. Propelled by an excellent electronic score by Steve Moore (composer of the similarly stellar score for Adam Wingard’s The Guest), Cub is a lean, taut thriller that any horror fan looking for something different will not want to miss. The Artsploitation Blu-ray and DVD includes deleted scenes, a special effects reel, and
trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray version are a short film by director Jonas Govaerts (“Of Cats & Women”) and a music video also directed by Govaerts for the song “One Hour” by Deadsets.
The Summer House (Germany, dir. Curtis Burz): Markus Larsen (Sten Jacobs) is a successful architect who seems to have it all, but the facade of his happy family is crumbling. After a business deal threatens to go south, Markus’s life starts to unravel. His neglected wife Christine (Anna Altmann) just wants Markus to show he still cares for her, but he seems to hope their swinging lifestyle will keep her satisfied sexually and distract her from his own affair with a younger man. Much more troubling is Markus’s inexplicable attraction for his business partner’s 12-year-old son Johannes (Jaspar Fuld), who catches his attention when the boy drops by to visit the Larsens’ daughter Elizabeth (Nina Splettstößer). While Markus invites Johannes to the family’s summer house to spend more and more time alone with the boy, Christine starts to break down. The Summer House is a low-key drama that deals with some deeply uncomfortable subject matter, although it never feels exploitative. Writer/director Curtis Burz keeps the audience at a remove from the characters, more coldly examining their behavior than engaging with them to figure out explanations for their actions. This is somewhat frustrating, but the solid performances and deceptively subdued tone make The Summer House a singular cinematic experience.
The Unrepentant Cinephile Page 77