Strangers When We Mate

The SANDSTONE group encounter craze of the '60s and '70s was an obvious premise for porn, and the cleverly titled STRANGERS WHEN WE MATE exploits the gimmick. There was one classic early porn feature made on the subject (TOUCH ME), but STRANGERS is of poor quality.

A guy credited as "Heywood Hymen IV" portrays Dr. Horace Freud, who has invited seven people to a rural mansion for a group encounter session. What unfolds is an unstructured orgy, divided into segments largely dictated by money shots, necessitating time outs for the three male stars. That is virtually the film's entire content, with it ending merely when it's time for the folks to return home.

Oddest element is that only Becky Sharpe seems to have been scripted or at least rehearsed -the rest of the cast ad libs uncomfortably. Sharpe dominates the early reels, clad only in high leather boots, and ordering everybody around or saying nasty things to them. But director Walt Davis, whose films are generally more interesting and far more creative than this real-time clunker, abandons interest early on and reverts to wall-to-wall sex.

Film is edited confusingly, with little regard to placing later scenes in their proper order. At one point the two uncredited actresses, an unattractive but buxom redhead and a girl with a Louise Brooks-styled wig on, go off for a lesbian scene, but it's not shown, with only a stray couple of seconds of them locking lips together placed out of sequence near the end of the movie. Similarly, John Holmes as a Texas boy (with lousy attempted Southern accent) finishes one hump scene and is immediately shown in progress in another, being rebuffed by the virginal redhead, who's afraid of his big cock.

Film proper has no music (just seconds of intro and out theme), adding to the tedium. Harsh lighting throws looming shadows during the sex scenes, including very sloppy shadows of the camera crew every time the camera moves around, plus silhouette of the boom man & his mic projected on the wall behind the action.

Holmes' member is flaccid as usual, so when Sharpe or another girl tries to ride him (in St. George position) it is an embarrassing sight to behold. Ric Lutze giggles his way through the proceedings and George Peters is merely a mustache with a dick attached.

Dr. Freud does not get involved in the sex action, but instead briefly entertains his guests with a carny-level display of fire-eating. It's about the only off-the-wall moment that indicated the quirky approach of auteur Davis.

I've reviewed the VCX video; Something Weird issued a mongrel edition that contains only the first 26 minutes of the film, and then shifts to about 20 minutes of random footage of Ric Lutze humping various women, either culled from stag loops he made or scavenged from other unrelated Lutze features.