The Unrepentant Cinephile

by Jason Coffman

  The DVD presentation of the film is a vast improvement over previously available home video releases, restored by Vinegar Syndrome in 2k from 16mm vault elements. It’s not as clean as many of their other releases, but given the available elements this is no doubt the best the film could possibly look. The only special feature on the disc is the commentary, but it’s honestly worth a buy just for that and for having such a good-looking transfer of the film. While it may have been entirely coincidental, it seems like serendipitous timing that this disc was released just days before Mad Max: Fury Road, in which Charlize Theron plays Furiosa, a character with an amputated arm that is never commented on through the entire film. In a strange way, the way the two films approach their characters and their physical abilities are completely opposite: Long Jeanne Silver is entirely concerned with Silver exploring ways to use her unique body to come to an even greater acceptance of its gifts, while Fury Road demonstrates how Furiosa is stronger and more capable than many of those around her despite her apparent “disability” by never acknowledging it at all. The films offer complementary images of empowerment for women whose bodies may be different, but who accept themselves as they are and make their own place in the world.

  Considerably less interesting but unique for entirely different reasons is Flying Acquaintances (1973), released in June. Jamie Gillis stars as Max, a bank teller who moonlights on weekends as a cab driver supposedly for extra cash. However, over the time the film spends with him, Max doesn’t seem to make a dime but does get plenty of other compensation from the ladies he drives around in the form of marathon sex sessions. Meanwhile his wife Patricia (Joy Campbell) carries on with her boss, and the sex-starved neighbor of a stewardess (Darby Lloyd Rains) tries desperately to get her husband in the mood while listening to Max and the stewardess having sex next door.

  There’s no real plot in Flying Acquaintances; it’s mostly just a series of scenes with characters who have some connection to each other. There’s no narrative momentum here, just a parade of characters who appear on-screen, disrobe, and have sex. The thing that makes this such a unique film is that despite spending a large amount of time on sex scenes, this is not a hardcore film. It looks and sounds like one, and there are some familiar faces from adult cinema in the cast, but there is no hardcore sex. This is particularly weird during scenes in which Gillis’s flaccid penis is clearly visible during what is supposed to be vigorous sex, or when he’s obviously not performing cunnilingus but just lolling his tongue around his co-star’s lower belly. Needless to say, it’s not surprising that the film has never been released on home video before.

  Still, Vinegar Syndrome has given it a solid treatment with a new 2k transfer from the 35mm camera negative. The disc also features the film’s original theatrical trailer, a promotional stills gallery, and a lengthy reel of outtakes. Curiously, even the outtakes aren’t hardcore, so it doesn’t look like the film was shot in “hot” and “cold” versions, just designed to straddle the line between a goofy sex comedy and porn. The result is not all that compelling to watch, but as a historical curiosity Flying Acquaintances is worth a look for adult film fans. Anyone else can probably safely take a pass on this one.

  It’s safe to say that with their vast array of releases, Vinegar Syndrome has something for just about everybody. Their commitment to preserving and releasing exploitation film history is impressive, and many of their releases this year (like Long Jeanne Silver and Flying Acquaintances) have given viewers an educational look at the golden age of adult cinema. It’s exciting to think about what they may have in store for 2016, and although it seems like they will have a tough time improving on their 2015 slate of releases they will doubtless have more than a few surprises in store for hardcore exploitation and cult film fans.

  Marsha: The Erotic Housewife (1970), For Single Swingers Only (1968), and Her Odd Tastes (1969)

  Originally published on Daily Grindhouse 26 February 2015

  Vinegar Syndrome’s Drive-In Collection has been a gold mine for fans of obscure exploitation films, releasing everything from hardcore features by Anthony Spinelli (which have since been moved to their excellent Peekarama line) to family-friendly Bigfoot movies (Cry Wilderness), low-budget action (Death Force) and horror (Death by Invitation) and just about everything else in between. The most exciting releases are frequently those by “lost” filmmakers, such as the double feature of films by Eric Jeffrey Haims (The Jekyll & Hyde Portfolio and A Clockwork Blue). The latest Drive-In Collection disc brings together three films by Don Davis, a similarly obscure filmmaker who produced and/or directed a number of films in the late 60s and early 70s (some of which were previously released by Something Weird). These are softcore exploitation films of the type Deep Throat helped bury with the introduction of “porno chic.”

  First up is the last film in this set to be released theatrically: Marsha: The Erotic Housewife (1970). Marsha Jordan stars as Marsha Bannister, a sexually frustrated housewife who discovers her husband Greg (Edward Blessington) has been cheating on him with a secretary at work while she slaves away at home all day with their son. Once she finds out, Marsha goes on a spree, going to bed with any man who will have her and making frequent trips to Las Vegas while hubby is out of town. Tired of her double life, Marsha tells her story to a sympathetic neighbor who helps her figure out a scheme to get Greg back in line, but there’s a risk of exposing Marsha’s infidelities. Will Marsha and Greg go back to their happy home life, or is it too late for their love?

  Marsha is a decent softcore feature with an actual script and good pacing, running a brief 66 minutes. It never feels like it’s dragging, as the story is generally pretty engaging. The acting is all over the place, but Jordan (looking like she may have been on loan from a Russ Meyer production) is fine in the lead role. The writing is pretty stereotypical, but there’s nothing offensive about it. It basically feels like a harmless time capsule from the era right before the independent softcore feature was made obsolete by the booming adult film industry. It’s obviously dated, but that only adds to Marsha’s charm.

  Next on the disc is For Single Swingers Only (1968). Heide Andersen plays Gracie, a young woman who opens the film by directly addressing the camera as she tells her story. Unfortunately, Andersen is clearly not a native English speaker, and her accent (Swedish or Dutch, perhaps?) is occasionally impenetrable. Gracie and her roommate Gloria move into an apartment complex advertised as being “For single swingers only,” and boy, do they mean it. A couple of guys help the girls move into their new place, and by the end of the night they’re already paired up and neither of the girls spend their first night in their new apartment. While they engage in protracted writhing and moaning sessions, the assistant manager Ruth wanders around and peeks in the windows. Another horny resident named Connie drags an old drunk into her place, leading to an unsettling bit where she drapes his boxers over his face and kisses him through the boxers.

  For the most part, For Single Swingers Only is extremely dull. Seemingly half the movie’s 72-minute running time is spent on the sequence of Ruth wandering around eavesdropping on people, while they make a lot of obviously dubbed-in moans and dry hump each other endlessly. The best parts are when Ruth and Connie have a lesbian encounter on what is referred to as a “vibrating bed,” but the mid-60s version of a vibrating bed, which looks more like a medieval torture device than something on which a person could actually rest. There are lots of very poorly-chosen close-ups of some very bad teeth, Gracie’s narration abruptly ends at some point (but not before she informs the audience that the swinging life turns love into “an ugly, smelly game”), and there’s a really weird left-field ending.

  Her Odd Tastes (1969) rounds out the triple feature. Marsha Jordan returns, this time in the role of Chris. Chris decides to move away from her home town following a lesbian affair with her sister Lisa (Capri), and starts a business selling vibrators door-to-door. During one of her sessions with a male client, the man pulls a knife on Chris, and sh
e accidentally kills him in self-defense. She flees and is picked up by a publisher, who helps her clean up the crime scene and discovers that the murdered man was a sex researcher looking for the “ultimate pleasure.” Chris accepts her savior’s offer to continue the research on a world-wide sex adventure in pursuit of ultimate pleasure, taking her to such far-flung locales as Hong Kong and South Africa. Will Chris discover the ultimate pleasure, and can she get away with murder?

  No points for guessing either of those answers. Chris’s adventures are, unfortunately, mostly made up of the same kind of softcore action found in For Single Swingers Only. The set-ups for each scene are different, but the results are usually more of the same. In Hong Kong, a Madame gives Chris heroin. In South Africa, bizarrely, Chris finds herself as the centerpiece in an elaborate Satanic Black Mass/sex ritual before the cult sends her, drugged, to fend for herself in the wild. A hunting party finds her and a kindly young man nurses her to health while his father angrily and jealously looks on. Aside from the relationship with her sister at the start of the film, there’s hardly ever a nod to anything Chris does being all that “odd,” at least until she returns to America to face her ultimate fate.

  The three films are presented on this disc in 2k scans from Don Davis’s private collection, and as such don’t have quite the same level of sharpness and color quality as Vinegar Syndrome releases scanned from negatives or other preferable elements. There are scratches and lines and plenty of visual noise, but not enough to make much impact on the films’ watchability. As per usual with Vinegar Syndrome’s releases, these films look considerably better than they ever have before in any home video release, even if the transfers are not quite as pristine as some of their bigger releases. Fans of 1960s softcore and curiosity seekers will find that this disc is well worth picking up for Marsha alone, and will no doubt have much to look forward to with Vinegar Syndrome’s future discoveries of interesting corners of exploitation film history.

  The New Erotic Adventures of Casanova (1977), Casanova 2 (1982), Fast Cars Fast Women (1981), and Starship Eros (1979)

  Originally published on Daily Grindhouse 1 June 2015

  Anyone who has been following reviews of Vinegar Syndrome’s Peekarama line of adult double features (mine and some other writers’) has probably noticed that director Carlos Tobalina is both the best-represented filmmaker in the line and arguably the least interesting. Of the 22 current titles in the Peekarama line, eight of them are made up of films directed by Tobalina. The latest is a double feature of the two ‘Casanova” films he made with John Holmes, and it is very much in line with the rest of his work. Fortunately, Vinegar Syndrome also recently released another Peekarama double feature of two features by Scott McHaley, which serves as a nice counterpoint to the “Casanova” films.

  John Holmes stars in (and is credited as director of) The New Erotic Adventures of Casanova (1977) as the legendary lover. An opening sequence (which borrows footage from Start the Revolution Without Me, including a very clear shot of Donald Sutherland) introduces Casanova as he is about to engage in a duel for the affections of a lady. The duel takes place in what looks like a public park in what is clearly not 18th century France, and the hilarious anachronisms continue throughout the opening act of the film. Around the 30-minute mark, the story abruptly jumps to San Francisco in the 1970s, where John (also John Holmes) is visiting a therapist to discuss his feelings about a recent weekend trip to visit his friend Paul (Peter Johns) and Paul’s family. John recently came into possession of a magic perfume owned by his ancestor Casanova, and whoever smells it is driven wild with lust. Naturally, this means during his weekend visit John had sex with Paul’s wife, mistress, and three daughters while everyone else in the house also trysted in nearly every possible combination of heterosexual couples. As is typical of a Tobalina film, two of the daughters also had sex with each other, and the third seduced her brother as well. There’s a genuinely crazy twist near the end that marks a welcome surprise from the rest of the movie, but for the most part this is 100% standard Tobalina.

  Casanova ends seemingly mid-scene with a title card threatening a “worthy sequel” coming soon, but it would be five years before Casanova 2 was released in 1982. Running over 90 minutes, Casanova 2 is a complete train wreck that is difficult to sit through. Opening once again in 18th century France, Casanova 2 recaps some of the story of the first film before showing how Casnova’s son Don Juan (Bjorn Beck) was conceived when Casanova saved a woman’s life after almost killing her in a duel. The movie then follows the erotic adventures of Don Juan for about half an hour before jumping to the 70s and recapping the rest of the first film. This includes a full 20 minutes of footage from the first movie; in case the viewer forgot any of John’s sex scenes from that film, they are all represented here. John and his therapist convince scientists to market Casanova’s perfume (by instigating an orgy, of course), and the movie finally staggers to its finale with a fake newscast made by throwing in what looks like footage of sex scenes from a lot of completely unrelated movies while William Margold, Ann Perry, and Maria Pia act as newscasters. Seems everybody in the world is making love, not war, all thanks to Casanova’s perfume. Cue mushroom cloud stock footage(?!?) and credits.

  The Scott McHaley double feature disc starts with Fast Cars Fast Women (1981), a dramatic thriller set in the world of competitive racing. Kristy (Sylvia Benedict) joins a Formula One team owned by Molly (Kay Parker). Kristy’s old friend Casey (Carolyn Jackson) races for the same team, but the team’s other car is out of commission after a fatal accident killed its previous driver, who was the sister of team mechanic Doug (Rocky Balboa). Doug suspects the car was sabotaged by rival team owner Orson (Al Chiurrizzi) and his henchman Dutch (Ron Jeremy). A pair of masked men break into Doug’s garage and send him to the hospital, leading Orson’s mechanic John (Kevin James) to defect to Molly’s team. The fact that Molly and her female drivers like to spend their downtime partying and having sex with each other was probably also a strong incentive. Will Kristy drive the cursed car to victory over Orson, or will he and his goons repeat the tragic past?

  Fast Cars Fast Women is mostly fun and well-made, using a mix of stock footage and new shots of its actors driving real race cars and at a real professional track to create the illusion of a much higher budget than McHaley had to work with. It looks like a comparable mainstream independent movie from the early 80s, although the quality of the stock footage is distractingly different from the rest of the movie, especially given Vinegar Syndrome’s typically excellent video presentation. The cast was clearly not hired on acting ability, although Kay Parker is great as Molly. For the most part the tone is light, but there’s a really unpleasant scene where Dutch forces his way into Kristy’s trailer to rough her up on Orson’s orders that stands out as a glaring exception to the rest of the movie’s sex-positive vibe. Dutch offers Kristy the option of performing oral sex on him rather than getting beaten up, and although Kristy’s teammates interrupt them in the middle of the act, the inclusion of this rape scene is a grim reminder of the misogynist attitudes that pervade too much of adult cinema.

  Starship Eros (1979), McHaley’s first feature, follows the all-female crew of Feminist Regime Starfighter Eros as they leave Earth for a mission that pits them against the deadly Amazoids in the far-flung future of 1995. This film was clearly made on a minuscule budget, and its charms mostly lie in its low-rent sci-fi trappings. There are some hilariously cheap-looking video starship effects and a frankly adorable miniature space station and launch pad, as well as a couple of really cheap spaceship interiors and a robot assistant named Quasar (Mike Ranger) that is just a guy in a plastic C3PO mask and shiny vest with a pair of black sweatpants with a tear away crotch panel. Once again, the tone is mostly fun and light, but there is an uncomfortable scene in which Commander Venus (Lily Rodgers) punishes new crew member Christine Moon (Becky Savage) for interrupting Quasar in the midst of his duties to pleasure her. The punishment consists of Christine being
strapped nude into a chair with stirrups while Venus pinches, prods, and fingers her while pointing a ray gun and shooting her in various places. Like the rape scene in Fast Cars Fast Women, it’s a scene that breaks the tone of the whole movie. McHaley’s features might pass the Bechdel test with flying colors, but they’re hardly as female-friendly as they might first seem.

  As is the Vinegar Syndrome standard, both double feature discs include each film scanned and restored in 2k from 35mm camera negatives and they look fantastic. As noted above, there is some wildly varying video quality in Fast Cars Fast Women when it uses stock footage, but the rest of the film looks great. The Casanova disc includes trailers for both films, while the McHaley disc features a trailer for Fast Cars Fast Women as well as what appears to be a reel of softcore outtakes from the film. These look like they’re just different angles than the ones used in the feature, as there is still some penetration clearly visible. This may explain why there was never a full softcore cut of the film. There is no trailer for Starship Eros, but there is an audio introduction by producer Wesley Emerson that offers up a bit of fun information. These two discs offer a good look at the strengths and weaknesses of the Peekarama line and its all-inclusive approach to archiving adult film history. While both discs feature content that prevents a blanket recommendation—the McHaley films’ uncomfortable misogyny, the fact that the other disc is two more Tobalina movies—they do both represent vastly different approaches to adult filmmaking during the late 70s and early 80s.

  Oriental Hawaii (1982) and Mai Lin vs. Serena (1982)

  Originally published on Daily Grindhouse 22 October 2014

  Carlos Tobalina was a prolific adult filmmaker in the 1970s and 1980s, and Vinegar Syndrome has released a few of his films on standalone discs (Jungle Blue, Marilyn and the Senator) and a total of four Peekarama double features being released through November. September’s double feature is a step up from the first Tobalina Peekarama release, The Ultimate Pleasure and I Am Always Ready. Where those films had some technical issues that made them feel rushed and sloppy, these features are much more technically sound, while keeping up the boundary-pushing sexuality and penchant for group sex that defined those films.