Diversions

As others reviewers said the uncut, "export" version of this movie "Diversions" would NEVER have been passed by the 70's British censors. Nor would it probably do too well today even outside of Britain. It has been taboo in America since the early 80's days of the "Meese Commission" for hardcore porn films to contain violence (or for that matter actual drama). And even "sexually liberated" European countries like Sweden would probably ban a film like this today, not for the sex but for the violence. What I find highly ironic though is that the combination of real hardcore sex and fictional violence does not generally make for a more potent and disturbing film, as many hysterics claim, but actually a far LESS potent and disturbing film. This is because the long hardcore sex scenes tend to take away from the suspension of disbelief that makes many non-hardcore "grindhouse" films like "Cannibal Holocaust" or "Last House on the Left" so disturbing and compelling. And violence, whether fake or real, is simply NOT very sexy if you're not ALREADY a serial killer of extreme sexual deviant.

This movie, for instance, contains a disturbing "fantasy" sequence that supposedly takes place in a Nazi prison camp. While this scene starts out as pretty disturbing, it soon turns into typical three-way porno scene and the effect is lost.(I also think the swinging hedonists of the world should protest the way Nazis are always being portrayed as swinging hedonists when the real-life Nazis, if anything, were repressed puritans much closer in spirit to the right-wing censors. Some historians believe, for instance, that despite his last-minute marriage to Eva Braun, Adolph Hitler actually died a middle-age virgin). There's also another "fantasy" sequence where the heroine, supposedly a victim of war-time rape (even though the twenty-five-year-old lead actress Heather Dealey wouldn't have even been BORN during the World War II), decides to get even with the male sex by picking up random men and murdering and castrating them. But while the sight of a blood-covered woman masturbating may be a disturbing image at first, when it goes on for five minutes it basically turns into typical porno starlet doing her solo "thing" while covered in red-dyed Karo syrup. This then is followed by a rather unusual fellatio scene (without the guy attached) and then an absolutely ridiculous scene involving vampires inspired by a Forry J. Ackerman's "Vampirella" comic book (which amazing did not result in a lawsuit).

On the plus side, Heather Deeley is a much more attractive than your average porn actress. In fact, she is much TOO attractive to be in a sleazy, ineptly made British excuse-for-a-porn-film like this. Instead of watching this, I'd suggest you get the British sex comedy "Intimate Games" where Deeley has a smoking hot lesbian sex scene with Suzi Mandel (albeit a softcore one) or "Erotic Inferno" where she gets together for an equally memorable scene with Mary Millington. Then afterward you can follow it up with "Cannibal Holcaust" or "Last House on the Left". That way you'll definitely get turned on AND profoundly disturbed. You'll be very lucky to manage EITHER one of those with this lame-brain movie though.

Released in the U.K in a butchered format, the full version of "Diversions" is one that has too be seen to be believed.

Ole Heather Deeley has been sentanced to a prison term and her two guards are escorting her via train.

Once in the carriage she starts to day dream and her first involves a man who reminds her of her "first time" which we see in all its "glory". Including Heather unwashed Glory-Hole, which is a sight for sore eyes, so dont have food near when this evil vision is launched upon you, it may rot the stuff.

Then back to the train, she has a fantasy with a man she imagines as a Vampire, cut with her being assaulted by some nasty nazi's, in the meantime she cuts off a man's penis and lolls it over her chest, gets gang-banged by Nazi's and is mistaken for a call girl.

I cant imagine the reaction when this was played in Cinemas U/C at the time, it has Hard Core elements but the bizarre plot takes you away from this, on a Diversion you could say.

Worth tracking down, ask a smut hound.

Well, it's not like Britain to produce hardcore porn, and while this film is probably (I'm not too well versed in seventies British porn, to be honest) one of the most graphic examples of the genre that Britain has to offer; it's not as hardcore as a lot of it's American counterparts (e.g. The Taming of Rebecca, Sex Psycho, Hardgore etc), and it's not even all that interesting. The scenario here involves a woman bored while sitting on a train. To counteract her boredom, she begins inventing tales of strange and somewhat nasty sexual encounters, which we get to witness. Given that this film is completely obscure, it's not surprising that my copy was jumpy and a bit poor; but that doesn't disguise the film's lacklustre production values and low amount of ingenuity. The sex in the film isn't particularly interesting, and overall is pretty standard compared to other, similar, films. The central gimmick - the being that all the sex is imagined is good in theory, as it allows for a number of different themes to enter the film...but it's not very done as all but one of the segments failed to capture my interest. This film may be of interest to fans of pornography for the fact that it's (a bit) hardcore, and British, but personally I reckon that this hardcore porn is one of the few things that Americans do better!

"Diversions" by Derek Ford is a five part sex anthology which stars Heather Deeley as the main character.Deeley plays a female prisoner escorted by the police.During her transport by train she begins to create sexual fantasies involving her travelling companions.The second vignette is easily the most controversial of them all.Deeley has a pretty wild sex with Tim Blackstone.Suddenly she stabs him to death with a dagger,masturbates with the murder weapon,bloodily castrates him and performs fellatio on his severed penis.However the special effects are pretty poor and annoying music destroys entirely the credibility of this slightly unsettling sequence.The other episodes are not as interesting,but still provide plenty of hard core sex and sleaze."Diversions" even in its uncut form is not as shocking as it's reputed to be.American porno roughies like "Forced Entry","The Taming of Rebecca" or "Femmes de Sade" are much more disturbing.7 out of 10.

On the face of it most saucy British sex films of the 1970s look pretty harmless today. Movies like 'Keep it Up Downstairs' (1976) and the legendary 'Come Play with Me' (1977) were released to UK cinemas with only the merest flashes of nudity and simulated sexual shenanigans mixed in with a barrow-load of silly jokes. However, in their export versions these naughty classics showed just about everything - the sort of hardcore sex scenes that would have made the British censor choke on his cornflakes!

In repressive Seventies Britain it was commonplace for the X-rated movie makers to produce 'two versions' of all their sex film productions. The American and Continental markets demanded much more explicit action in their sex movies, but one infamous British skin-flick went much, much further than all of its contemporaries.

Released in Britain in 1976, Derek Ford's 'Sex Express' ran for barely 50 minutes, but in its re-titled export version ('Diversions') the movie featured a further half hour of some of the most degrading, shocking and perverted sex scenes ever shot in the UK. Director Ford had previously dabbled in some pretty innocuous hardcore 'extras' for his movies 'Commuter Husbands' (1972) and 'Keep it Up Jack' (1973), but he went beyond the pale for his latest sleazy epic.

The story follows the extreme sexual fantasies of lissom beauty Heather Deeley. Miss Deeley, who had been working in the adult industry since her late teens, had already appeared in a few sex comedies, but 'Sex Express' gave her a first bite at a leading role and the movie proves what an excellent actress she was. Her cute-pie acting is as enthralling as her palpable sexual energy. She really is a force to be reckoned with and had she stuck around longer would have really given British legend Mary Millington a run for her money.

Sadly, Deeley disappeared completely from the film business in 1977 (further details are found in Simon Sheridan's excellent book 'Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema', published in 2001) and never capitalised on her immense talents. Who knows where she is now?

The full version of 'Sex Express' shows just how far a British exploitation director was willing to go to crack the overseas market. Aside form the very explicit heterosexual and lesbian sex scenes, the movie is chock-a-block with horrifying overtones of violence. In one sequence (completely missing from the UK print) Deeley and her co-star Jacky Rigby are forced into nasty submission by a couple of gun-toting Nazis and in the film's most unpalatable scene Deeley plays a man-hating rape victim who castrates her Soho pick-up (the ever-reliable stud Timothy Blackstone) post-coitus, and then does unpleasant things with blood and his amputated member!

It's impossible to go into too much detail here on the IMDB, but needless to say if you get to see the complete unexpurgated version of 'Sex Express' you won't believe your eyes. Without doubt it is one of the most shockingly dirty movies ever shot. And its all the more surprising because it's British!