The First Time

"The First Time" (1978), directed by Anthony Spinelli, is a classic example of the adult film industry in the late 1970s. It delivers on its promise of explicit content, but falls short in terms of storytelling and originality.

The film wastes no time in diving into the action, opening with a sex scene featuring the gorgeous Mimi Morgan as the innocent Sue Morris. Her performance, however, feels blank and unengaging, despite her character's raunchy exploits. The plot revolves around Sue's boyfriend, Jan (played by Joey Silvera), a manipulative and lazy character who coerces Sue into making adult films to pay the bills. This sets the tone for a movie that explores abusive relationships, the seedy world of pornography, and the swinger lifestyle.

While the premise has potential, the execution falls flat. "The First Time" feels like a rushed, low-budget production with a runtime that drags despite its brief 71-minute length. The story is predictable and offers nothing new or exciting to the adult film genre. It is a simple, uninspiring plot device to showcase a series of sexual encounters.

That being said, the cinematography by James Barbetta is impressive, giving the film a polished and aesthetically pleasing look. The groovy theme song also adds to the overall vibe, enhancing the film's few redeeming qualities.

In conclusion, "The First Time" is a forgettable addition to the adult film canon. While it may appeal to fans of vintage pornography or those seeking a quick, titillating fix, it fails to leave a lasting impression.

I saw THE FIRST TIME for the first time theatrically back when it was fresh and was underwhelmed. Revisiting it in DVD reissue, the faults are obvious.

Mimi Morgan looks beautiful, but gives a fairly blank performance as the heroine, introduced in the middle of a sex scene opposite Blair Harris being shot for a movie. Gimmick is that it's her first scene of explicit sex for the cameras, yet she handles it with a pro's experience and technique. Film in flashback shows what led her to this point, and it's an unfortunately uninteresting story.

She lives with Joey Silvera, doing his typical hissable creep routine, as a goof-off who refuses to get a job. They have a romantic sex scene notable for her wearing cutout black panties during sex, rather than getting naked.

Her boring life with Joey is uneventful. They attend a party for swingers thrown by Jack Wright, a really clean-cut young man who makes one wonder how he ever ended up in porn. While Joey is typically making out to a bongo beat with a cute young girl, Mimi gets it on with Wright.

There's a cryptic scene back home of Joey engineering a threesome featuring Mimi and loops star (memorably of the mixed-combo 14-INCH ROOT) Suzannah French, in which he injects Mimi with a huge hypodermic needle. This clumsy scene ruined the film for me, and led to a dull conclusion of her splitting from Joey and ending up on the film set which started the picture.

Fans, including myself, back in the days of Porno Chic, deserved more intricate and involving story lines than this throwaway one.

The First Time (1978)

** (out of 4)

Jan (Joey Silvera) is a lazy, no-good piece of trash who manages to talk his innocent girlfriend Sue Morris (Mimi Morgan) into making adult movies so that they can pay the bills.

Anthony Spinelli's THE FIRST TIME is a pretty routine porno that clocks in at 71-minutes but to be honest the running time felt twice as long. This is one of those no-budget films that seems to have been shot very quickly so that they could get it into theaters and there's honestly nothing fresh or original to be found.

If you're a fan of the genre then there's nothing awful here but at the same time there's not going to be anything here that you haven't seen before, or after, and done much better. I really wasn't all that impressed with Morgan. Sure, she really did have that "girl next door" look about her but I just didn't find her all that interesting.

The same can be said with the story, which just didn't do much for me. I'd also argue that the sex scenes weren't all that memorable and overall there just wasn't anything here that kept me entertained.