Drek; for Audrey Campbell completists only
This poorly made NYC soft porn movie has been reissued by the folks at Seduction Cinema as one of their offerings imitating the successful formula of competitor Something Weird Video. It is barely watchable, suffering from a most awkward film structure, reminiscent (but poorly executed) of the innovations in the 1930s by the great French renaissance man Sacha Guitry in its reflexiveness, but there the resemblance ends.
A director/producer/writer story conference constantly interrupts the action, as they plan the characters' arcs and various scenes. Opening is pure padding, a montage of "highlights" (I use the term very loosely) of the action we will see over the next hour-plus. Inane, insulting narration is almost nonstop; it must have been an adult industry policy (similar to the "Freedom of Speech" fake-patriotic messages of recent decades included on porn videos) of the time for the narrator to digress and extol the virtues of "Sun Worship", with the party line promotion of the wonderfulness of nudism (irrelevant to the action here). The film suddenly ends arbitrarily, belying the supposed care these conferences are supposed to confer on what is ultimately just an excuse to show skin. Not content with the results, there are several color sequences interpolated, lifted from several '50s era short loops; the full loops are included in the DVD as an "extra".
Very little dialog is used, and it is poorly post-synched. Location photography of NYC is the only value here, as well as a nostalgic view of Fire Island, before it became a gay mecca (this is after all 45 years ago).
Cast is unappealing, with the no-dialog role near the end for cult icon Audrey Campbell the only thrill. The DVD package includes three vintage TV commercials featuring Campbell, which surprisingly offer her a better showcase of her acting skills than most of her "evil plus skin" feature film assignments (Joe Sarno excepted). You know you're in deep trouble when the TV commercials are the best thing about a DVD!
A director/producer/writer story conference constantly interrupts the action, as they plan the characters' arcs and various scenes. Opening is pure padding, a montage of "highlights" (I use the term very loosely) of the action we will see over the next hour-plus. Inane, insulting narration is almost nonstop; it must have been an adult industry policy (similar to the "Freedom of Speech" fake-patriotic messages of recent decades included on porn videos) of the time for the narrator to digress and extol the virtues of "Sun Worship", with the party line promotion of the wonderfulness of nudism (irrelevant to the action here). The film suddenly ends arbitrarily, belying the supposed care these conferences are supposed to confer on what is ultimately just an excuse to show skin. Not content with the results, there are several color sequences interpolated, lifted from several '50s era short loops; the full loops are included in the DVD as an "extra".
Very little dialog is used, and it is poorly post-synched. Location photography of NYC is the only value here, as well as a nostalgic view of Fire Island, before it became a gay mecca (this is after all 45 years ago).
Cast is unappealing, with the no-dialog role near the end for cult icon Audrey Campbell the only thrill. The DVD package includes three vintage TV commercials featuring Campbell, which surprisingly offer her a better showcase of her acting skills than most of her "evil plus skin" feature film assignments (Joe Sarno excepted). You know you're in deep trouble when the TV commercials are the best thing about a DVD!
- lor_
- 15 feb 2010