Night Rhythms

The second of three T&A flicks I sat thru in a row using a radio concept for lust, mystery & murder, 'Night Rhythms' is decent. From hardcore director Gregory Dark (under a pseudonym) it's got not only the female nudity you want, but good camera work and a lite but fun tale.

DJ Nick West (Martin Hewitt) hosts a popular late night call-in show as his audience is largely lonely or mistreated women. When horny caller Honey (Tracy Tweed, sister to Shannon) shows up in studio, he sends his female producer Bridget (Delia Sheppard) home and they get sexy. Then Nick wakes up and she's dead with no idea what happened. On the run from cops, psycho strip club owner Vincent (David Carradine) he gets help from a few ladies including bar owner Cinnamon (Deborah Driggs) to clear his name.

Poised up against a microphone in a dank, low light radio studio with his pack of smokes filling the air, a sip of booze and with the right sounding voice Hewlett nails his role. You grant him the indulgence of sleeping with random but always helpful beautiful women. Won't build the story up into something it's not - the nudity is very much the focus - but this title has atmosphere unlike many of it's low budget peers. Julie Strain has a bit role as a caller, Delia gets naked once.

With stops that include a strip club (no shock), a strippers pad (ditto), sex in a bar, sex with a masseuse as a potential lead, 'Night Rhythms' is everything you think it is but done with some style. A heavy saxophone score goes into overdrive and the whole thing shot well due to director of photography Wally Pfister before he went onto bigger films.

One of the better B-flicks from soft-porn director A. G. Hippolyte, involving a framed radio host and a few questions. The story is just simple enough to be acceptable, and sets the scene for some well-crafted short sexual encounters. A few that stand out involve the underrated, under-used Tracy Tweed; a ride-em threesome; and a sweet brunette. It would have been nice to see some more realism and thought put into the authenticity of the lesbian club - it was a bit false. Pure eye candy, but the good kind.

I didn't give this movie a 10 for it's acting, it's script or it's music. I gave it a 10 because the lead character, Nick West (Martin Hewitt, apparently looking around the set for Brooke Shields) manages to have sex with every woman he meets in the film and have time to beat a murder rap. The story goes like this: Nick is sexy radio show host who likes to talk dirty to his female listeners and then go to the bar and have sex with them. One night he invites a listener down to the station and they have sex on the air. But...things go horribly wrong and Nick wakes up next to a dead listener with an audience who thinks he did it. He must run from the cops, clear his name and have sex with any woman who comes near him. Rounding out the master thespian cast are Delia Sheppard as his partner who he doesn't have sex with. Nick isn't really her type....if you know what I mean. This film has great sex scenes in the unrated version and a soundtrack with the sleaziest saxophone this side of a Jazz station. Great fun.

Unlike 99 percent of the "after-dark" films out there, this one actually has a plot and is actually watchable without the steamy sex scenes, which are also very good. The acting is decent, the cast is not bad (David Carradine), and the girls attractive. Pleasantly surprised.

Probably my most favorite guilty rental before Showgirls came out; Night Rhythms is lurid fun. Martin Hewitt plays Nick West, a sex-talk radio host that claims to LOVE all women. Strangely, he's never seen in this movie with anyone who ISN'T at least halfway gorgeous. If Kathy Bates or Peggy Rea tried to make a move on him, would he live up to the claim? Anyway, he helps women who are unlucky in love, mostly by providing free sex-talk for three hours a night. Of course, he also gets male callers who take shots at him as well. He also deals with his jealous producer, played by Gregory Dark favorite Delia Sheppard.

Well, one night, a woman by the name of "Honey", played by Tracy Tweed (sister of Shannon) calls his show with her sob story, but later on, shows up in the studio. He tells the producer to put music on while they have a "philosophical discussion", which leads to whoopee. Unbeknownst to West, someone has turned the radio frequency back on, and the listeners hear them having sex, but then, they hear Honey being strangled to death. West is knocked out, and when he comes to, he sees Honey's corpse, and he flees. The rest of the movie is about West clearing his name of the murder. Of course, on the way he has time to make love with just about anyone who'll help him, providing she's female and good-looking.

The movie is very steamy and erotic, with lots of gorgeous women, and a few OK ones. The best one is Deborah Driggs, who plays West's ex-stripper friend Cinnamon, who helps out the most with his plight. The aforementioned Ms. Tweed burns up the screen in her short appearance, and the lady who works as a masseuse is primo. Sam "Flash Gordon" Jones, who plays a detective chasing West, and veteran actor David Carradine, who plays a shady strip club owner, add some name power.

This is a pretty good film in the genre, probably the pinnacle of Gregory Dark's soft-core films. Mirror Images 2 and the first two Secret Games movies are great stuff as well.