The Unrepentant Cinephile

by Jason Coffman

  From here, things get really complicated. After the incriminating foursome, Cindy informs her john, er, John (Billy Dee) that his wife probably hired George to take pictures so she could get a divorce. John heads home and confronts his wife Rose (Kathy Harcourt), who has no idea what he’s talking about. George meets up with somebody higher up the food chain and they determine that Renee is out of control. John and Rose—who takes the news that her husband cheated on her with two women in the same night extremely well—hatch a plan to catch the guy they think framed John with his pants down. At some point the audience learns that a bunch of these guys work on some sort of fire safety commission, and then the film inexplicably ends with a couple of minutes of news footage of the 1981 Hilton hotel fire in Las Vegas. THE END.

  What exactly happened in The Seductress is anybody’s guess, but here the focus is much more on the sex scenes than the dramatic intrusions between them. That said, the lengthy scene between Billy Dee and Kathy Harcourt, which includes a hilarious exchange about his “weenie,” has a disarming charm, with the two characters talking to each other a lot leading up to and during the scene. They really sell the idea of a happily married couple, even if it is stretching credulity a bit that she wouldn’t be a tiny bit upset with his infidelity. Similarly, Lisa De Leeuw and Richard Reynolds are convincing as a couple on the opposite end of the spectrum and at the end of their rope. Still, this is a sex film first and foremost (and on that level it certainly delivers), so anyone looking for Sadie’s level of drama would do well to look elsewhere.

  Vinegar Syndrome presents both films in 2k digital scans from the 35mm internegative (for Sadie) and the 16mm camera negative (for The Seductress). Both films look fantastic, and as a bonus the disc includes the original theatrical trailer for each film. As usual, this is a solid release for anyone looking for a way into the imposing world of 1970s and 1980s adult feature filmmaking, perhaps better than most of Vinegar Syndrome’s previous releases thanks to these films’ heavier focus on story and character.

  Sex & Astrology (1970) and Sensual Encounters of Every Kind (1978)

  Originally published on Daily Grindhouse 20 March 2016

  After releasing a pair of great standalone features in January, Vinegar Syndrome returned in February with two very different films. One represents the early days of “hardcore” cinema before Deep Throat, while the other is a fairly typical example of adult film in the late 1970s. Like January’s releases of Star Virgin and Too Naughty to Say No, February’s releases of Sex & Astrology and Sensual Encounters of Every Kind are interesting for offering a look at the particular era in which they were produced. Unlike the previous releases, though, they are not quite as strong on their own terms as entertainment.

  Sex & Astrology (1970) opens with a credits sequence in which all the crew are given ridiculous fake names like “Basil Barff” and “Ivan Cutchacockoff.” This sets the tone early and tips off the viewer that this is not going to be a serious-minded film. In fact, the film was directed by exploitation legend Matt Cimber, and the tone here is reminiscent of another of his films recently released by Vinegar Syndrome, The Sensually Liberated Female. Like that film, Sex & Astrology has a tongue-in-cheek voiceover, although here it is more overtly comic and frequently absurd.

  This film purports to be an exploration of the sexual personalities of people born under different signs of the zodiac, presented as a series of vignettes tied together in an orgy thrown by Venus. The sets are minimal but garishly colored, as are the actors. Many appear in full-body paint with wild makeup, writhing under lurid colored lights. The sex is clearly unsimulated but certainly not shot in any way typically associated with “hardcore” film, making Sex & Astrology a curiosity: a film with real sex that is not very explicit.

  Vinegar Syndrome presents Sex & Astrology on DVD restored in 2k from “16mm vault elements,” and the results are solid. The colors are bright and the print this scan was taken from looks to have been in surprisingly good shape for one that was probably screened quite a bit over 40 years ago. The only special feature on this disc is the film’s original theatrical trailer, but in this case it’s more than enough to fill in another missing film in the oeuvre of Matt Cimber. That alone makes Sex & Astrology worth checking out.

  February’s other standalone release is director’s Sensual Encounters of Every Kind, produced by Harold Lime. Some of Lime’s other work has been previously released by Vinegar Syndrome including The Young Secretaries (also directed by Kanter, released on one of the early Peekarama discs with Deep Tango) and The Suckers (directed by Stu Segall, released on a Drive-In Collection disc with The Love Garden). Lime worked behind the scenes in sexploitation film in the 1960s and 1970s, eventually moving into hardcore and working in video in the 1980s and into the 2000s. While obviously taking its title from a play on 1977’s Hollywood hit Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Sensual Encounters, is (perhaps disappointingly) not a hardcore remake of that film.

  Instead, this is the story of a magical amulet which grants its owner their deepest sexual fantasy before it mysteriously moves on to the next person. This very loose structure means the film is another series of mostly unrelated vignettes tied together by the passing along of the amulet, intentional or otherwise. These include a wealthy woman (Lesllie Bovee) coerced into a gangbang with her three male gardeners, an in-home teacher (Georgina Spelvin) seduced by her two young students, a senator and his mistress (Serena), a gym coach (John Leslie) seduced by two cheerleaders, and more. The first two scenes with Lesllie Bovee and Georgina Spelvin are actually uncomfortable to watch since they both involve their female leads being persuaded to take part in sex despite their own strong resistance. This is not a factor at all in the rest of the scenes, and opening the film with them gives it an off-putting feel that never quite goes away despite the enthusiasm of the female characters throughout the rest of the movie.

  Sensual Encounters of Every Kind was restored by Vinegar Syndrome from the film’s 35mm camera negative, and the results are great as usual. The disc includes an audio interview with actor Jon Martin that is presented as a sort of commentary track that plays over the film. Martin’s career in adult film spanned decades and included work with the Mitchell Brothers, Gail Palmer, Anthony Spinelli, Bob Chinn, Carlos Tobalina, Alex de Renzy, and a legion of the most recognizable stars of the Golden Age of Porn. The interview, conducted by Vinegar Syndrome’s Joe Rubin, runs about 50 minutes and is well worth the price of the disc on its own.

  Vinegar Syndrome’s dedication to preserving and releasing exploitation film history is impressive, and these two releases are great examples of their work. While neither of these films are probably of much interest to casual fans of adult film of the 1970s, anyone who is interested in the history of sex cinema will find them both well worth a look.

  Spaghetti Western Double Feature: Grand Duel (1972) and Keoma (1976)

  Originally published 12 June 2012

  Mill Creek Entertainment has released quite a few spaghetti western collections over the years, including a huge 44-film collection released in 2010. The company has slowly been dipping their toes into the waters of Blu-ray recently, including releasing a double feature of spaghetti westerns Four Dollars of Revenge and The Last Gun. Their latest Blu-ray release collects two very different Euro-westerns on one disc: Giancarlo Santi’s Grand Duel (aka The Big Showdown, 1972) and Enzo G. Castellari’s Keoma (1976). The two films could not be much less alike and still be in the same genre of film, but they are both well worth a look, especially in their Blu-ray debut.

  Grand Duel stars Lee Van Cleef as a sheriff named Clayton on the trail of a fugitive named Phillip Wermeer (Alberto Dentice). Once Clayton catches up with Wermeer, the two return to the town of Saxon, from which the bounty was issued on Wermeer by the corrupt Saxon brothers. Their father, “The Patriarch” (Horst Frank, who also plays one of the Saxon brothers), was murdered, and in the aftermath Wermeer went on the run and Clayton was stripped of his badge, but it doesn’t take
long before Clayton’s true intentions for returning are made clear. Grand Duel is punctuated by stylish film noir flashbacks to the night of The Patriarch’s murder, and features a fantastic Luis Bacalov score that Quentin Tarantino borrowed to use in Kill Bill. Lee Van Cleef is great as usual, but the show is nearly stolen by Klaus Grünberg, who plays the vicious but well-dressed Adam Saxon. The transfer on Grand Duel is gorgeous, easily the best this film has looked on home video even though the previous Mill Creek releases of it have not been that bad. The sound is not as strong as the picture, unfortunately, but this is still the best version available of the film.

  Keoma is an odd beast, a bleak western fable that follows Keoma (genre legend Franco Nero), the half-Indian son of William Shannon (William Berger) who returns home after fighting in the Civil War. He returns to find his town in the grip of Caldwell (Donald O’Brien), who have cut the town off from any outside contact and have quarantined people sick with a plague, refusing to give them medical treatment. Even worse, Keoma’s three half-brothers have thrown their fortunes in with Caldwell. Keoma saves a pregnant woman, Lisa (Olga Karlatos), from being left in the plague camp and returns her to town to hide out in the office of the town doctor (Leonardo Scavino). Keoma hatches a scheme with the doctor and former slave George (Woody Strode) to leave town and bring back medicine and federal agents to deal with Caldwell. Keoma was directed by Enzo G. Castellari (The Inglorious Bastards), and is a beautifully-shot film– in fact, it would unquestionably be a classic spaghetti western if not for its bizarre soundtrack, featuring acoustic guitars, psychedelic keyboards, and singers narrating everything that happens on-screen. It’s still definitely worth a watch, but that soundtrack is a lot to deal with. The transfer on Keoma is not quite as much of an improvement over previous releases as that on Grand Duel, as the film was previously released in a nice special edition DVD by Blue Underground, and the sound is about on par with that of Grand Duel.

  Overall, this disc is an excellent deal, and could serve as a very good introduction to the spaghetti western genre. Both films are great, and represent different styles of western– Grand Duel is more traditional, Keoma more allegorical– and while they both look good here, Grand Duel has never looked better. The only extra content on the disc are trailers for each film that look pretty battered, but they’re nice to have. Blu-ray owners curious about either film really can’t go wrong with this release. Here’s hoping Mill Creek has more of these double features up their sleeve in the future!

  Star Virgin (1979) and Too Naughty to Say No (1984)

  Originally published on Daily Grindhouse 16 March 2016

  After releasing about 70 films on DVD and Blu-ray in 2015 and making even more available through their new streaming service Exploitation.tv, Vinegar Syndrome took a little time off at the end of the year. They returned in January and are off to a running start for 2016, including two related and particularly notable standalone DVD releases in January: Star Virgin and Too Naughty to Say No.

  In Star Virgin, a race of robots in the distant future spawns a human female in their space ship for… some reason. She emerges from the protoplasmic chamber as a fully-formed and scantily-clad adult woman (played by “Hustler Centerfold Kari Klark”) with an overactive sex drive. She is kept in a room with a robot called Mentor (Kevin Thompson) who shows her videos about the history of sex, which “began in 1950.” This leads to a series of unrelated vignettes tied together by scenes in the ship as Star Virgin breathlessly asks Mentor to teach her more about human reproduction. The only problem is that the more she learns, the more sexual energy she builds up. Can Mentor help before his superiors put a premature end to her education?

  Star Virgin was directed by Howard Ziehm, best known as the director of the 1974 softcore sci-fi parody Flesh Gordon. This film is at its best when Ziehm uses stories to replicate the look and tone of other types of genre and exploitation film, and it hits an early high point with a silent film-style horror segment about a pair of young people who are stranded at Dracula’s castle. The opening segment transplanting Adam & Eve to a 1950s high school is clever, and Ziehm explains on the commentary track (with Bill Margold and Vinegar Syndrome’s Joe Rubin) that he took about a week to film each part of the film. The care and attention to detail with costumes and production design pay off and make the early sequences more interesting, but the final segment is a lengthy 8-man-2-woman orgy in a red-curtained room that could have been lifted from any contemporary porno film.

  Vinegar Syndrome’s DVD of Star Virgin presents the film in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, scanned and restored in 2K from a 35mm print. The film looks good for the most part, but there are some recurring lines in some parts, especially noticeable in the first reel. None of them are a major issue, though. The disc includes the previously-mentioned commentary track, which is very interesting for any student of 70s exploitation cinema. Ziehm mentions early in the commentary that he hired Kari Klark on the recommendation of Suze Randall, and the film was written by Randall’s partner Victor Nye. Randall and Nye were two of the main creative forces behind the camera on January’s other feature Too Naughty to Say No.

  Catholic schoolgirl Betty (Angel) falls asleep while studying and dreams of a weird series of erotic encounters. Her friend Catherine (Ginger Lynn) introduces her to a “Sex Maniac” (Jamie Gillis) and they have sex while Betty watches. Then Catherine takes Betty to the brother of Madam Rose (Lisa De Leeuw) where Betty peeps on some of Rose’s employees (including a pink-haired punk girl). Rose auctions off Betty to the highest bidder between a priest, a senator, a film director, and a Nazi. She flees the brothel and meets two randy policemen, a sex-crazed undertaker (Harry Reems), and a suspiciously friendly woman who offers her a ride to a secluded spot and initiates her into lesbianism and exhibitionism.

  Victor Nye, screenwriter of Star Virgin, wrote and directed Too Naughty to Say No. The film was produced by Suze Randall, a former model and photographer. Randall worked for Playboy and Hustler in the 1970s and went on to success in the adult entertainment and film industry as a photographer, producer, and director. This Vinegar Syndrome DVD release of Too Naughty to Say No includes a lively commentary track by Nye and Randall (again with Joe Rubin of Vinegar Syndrome) that, like Ziehm’s commentary on the Star Virgin DVD, will be essential for serious fans of 70s and 80s adult cinema. Too Naughty to Say No is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and was restored in 2k from the 35mm negative. Needless to say, it looks fantastic, exactly what one would expect given Vinegar Syndrome’s previous track record of restoration work from original elements.

  Of these two films, Too Naughty to Say No would serve as a better introduction to quality 1980s productions for anyone looking for a good jumping-on point. It features recognizable stars and high production values, while Star Virgin was obviously made with considerably limited resources. However, both of these films are fun and well worth picking up for any dedicated fan of the Golden Age of Porn.

  Three Ripening Cherries (1979), Sensual Fire (1979), Sexual Heights (1981), and Undulations (1981)

  Originally published on Daily Grindhouse 16 February 2015

  Carlos Tobalina made a lot of hugely successful adult films in the 70s and 80s, so it makes sense that Vinegar Syndrome have released over a dozen of his films in both double features and as standalone discs. They probably sell pretty well, too, since many of them feature big-name adult stars of the era such as Serena, John Holmes, Jamie Gillis, Dorothy LeMay, Paul Thomas, etc. etc. In January, Vinegar Syndrome released two more Peekarama double features of Tobalina’s films, one disc featuring 1979’s Three Ripening Cherries and Sensual Fire, the other with 1981’s Sexual Heights and Undulations.

  Three Ripening Cherries, purportedly based on an essay by Guy de Maupassant (!?), is about sisters Sally (Dorothy LeMay), Lucy (Misty Regan), and Ann (Brooke West). One day they come home from school to get a lecture from their mother Rose (Kitty Shayne) about sex, complete with flashbacks to Rose’s early sexual experiences. Horr
ifyingly, the first of these is her being raped by a family friend as a young teenager, which is represented in the film mostly as Rose screaming “NO!” on the soundtrack over and over again while her daughters make pained expressions. Once Rose is done with her talk, the sisters retire to their room for a lesbian threesome which their cousin Claudia (Rosa Lee) steadfastly refuses to join, choosing the company of her silver vibrator instead.

  For the rest of the film, the three girls have sex with each other while fantasizing and trying to seduce fellow students and a couple of teachers. Lucy goes after her cute gym teacher, who meets her at a hotel but can’t get an erection. Sally makes a move on her math teacher, who has unusual tastes. By the end of the film, the girls have decided to wait until they meet guys they really like to have sex with, or just use Claudia’s vibrator that they stole from her room. Three Ripening Cherries is incoherently edited and a huge chunk of its run-time is typically taken up with the three sisters — who, by the way, bear virtually no resemblance to each other or to their mother, once again mitigating the creep factor of Tobalina’s casual approach to incest — in lengthy unbroken orgy scenes.

  Sensual Fire opens with some crazy lens flares and some very exciting library music, which is sort of totally inappropriate for the comparatively subdued action that follows. Roy (Jamie Gillis) invites his lover Laura (Jesie St. James) and her daughter Teena (Dorothy LeMay) to move in with him. Unfortunately, Roy quickly becomes obsessed with the beautiful Teena, and consults a psychiatrist friend who refers him to Madame Rose. Madame Rose runs a brothel catering to very specific requests, and after Roy drops by and has sex with the secretary (Serena) while the other girls sit around looking bored, he believes his problems are over. Then he spies Teena through his office peephole again, and it’s back to the drawing board.