Ladies of the Lotus

My review was written in June 1987 after watching the movie on Magnum video cassette.

"Ladies of the Lotus" is an oddball exploitation film that suffers from the pernicious influence of music videos. Shot on film but with post production done on video it is in any case too boring for theatrical use.

Confusing and slapdash storyline concerns warring gangsters in the Vancouver area. Lotus Inc. Is involved in drugs and white slavery, while rival things are mowing down the Lotus personnel and fashioning scams of their own involving a modeling studio run by Lotus villainesses Angela Read and Darcia Carnie.

Lead player Richard Dale begins as a cliched character, a muscle building nut who installs a secret camera that photographs the models in their dressing room; then he stalks them and kills them. He goes through this routine with Carnie and then unbelievably turns into her instant savior when the gangsters also try to kill her. Most of the loose ends in the final reel are settled rather simply by gunfire.

Tiresome film is just an excuse to show pretty models in lingerie ast every opportunity. Cast is either watching music videos or day-dreaming in the form of music videos; action scenes are poorly executed.

As undertone of light bondage links the film to co-director Lloyd Simandl's previous effort, the 1979 picture "Autumn Born" starring the late Dorothy Stratten, a softcore bondage opus that was unflatteringly represented in Bob Fosse's "Star 80".

I bought Ladies of the Lotus at a Video rental store for a dollar. I want my dollar back. This movie was so bad. At first you think "oh, it's a b- movie, so maybe there'll be some sex to make up for the horrible- ness" but no, alas, it has all of the plot of a porno that tries to have a story line, and none of the sex, so there is nothing really good or worth watching about this movie. It sets up sexual scenes and then it cuts away right when you think it'll get good, or at least worth laughing at. I've watched it through a couple of times and it isn't even campy enough to be funny, it's just bad. Maybe good material for mystery science theater, though, or, maybe not.

I bought this video back in 2004. I know what I was in for. I just didn't expect it to be this bad. Would be, aspiring models, actresses (they're all aspiring aren't they) answer an faux ad with a model agency, connected to underground slavery, so you know the rest. Brother looking for his sister caught up in the trade. Blah blah blah. Female flesh is the only good thing about this movie. Bad script, bad acting, bad everything. A full front nude shot of one hottie, being shipped away to her new profession, or fate, I liked. The start I liked too, of another philly being shipped off, a CU- of her white panties as she lightly slapped on the bum. This is just one of those poor shot movies that joins that gutter pile. Luckily for me, my VCR chewed up this movie. I can't tell you how devastated, I was.