LADIES NIGHT epitomizes the quality of a routine, yet sincere, porn movie made at a time (1980) when no one expected the creative destruction that was soon to come, namely Video!!
Annette Haven stars as a stereotypically neglected housewife -she is introduced in a hot tub with a schlub of a husband who only wants to watch the football game and scream rooting and advice at the screen. Haven has a second TV set up and watches a porn video on VHS right next to him: it's an entertaining stag vignette of Ken Scudder getting serviced by Phaery Burd wearing a black & white referee's uniform.
Haven has a truly classic (and frequently anthologized lesbian threesome with Nicole Noir and Lisa de Leeuw -backlit by sun streaming through the window in a sauna -as sensual as XXX porn could get. Then they get together for the title event coinciding with hubby and the guys at home enjoying Monday Night Football.
Rest of the film takes place at a bar where there is plenty of diversion to make up for the absence of further plot material. Herschel Savage is the bartender, also glued to the TV set to watch football, and the running gag (no pun intended, believe me!) of Laura Lazare (likely her film debut if IMDb credits list is accurate) giving him a blow job from her perch on the floor behind the bar is dragged out for well over half an hour.
A bearded Paul Thomas is the m.c. at the club and is both amusing and entertaining as he belts out (in direct sound performance) snatches of songs ranging from "Feelings" and "As Time Goes By" to "Tonight" from West Side Story. A young Mike Horner is one of the Chippendale dancers for the girls to enjoy, and there's a hot foursome staged in the back-room on a pool table involving De Leeuw and Starr Wood. Noir gets hers from the ubiquitous Jesse Adams out in a car (he's the bar's parking valet), and get a load of that period jumpsuit Adams is wearing.
This is part of a genre I term "lifestyle porn" (a category of my own invention) which dates back to the Sarno films of the '60s and is still popular in videos about 21st Century swingers. It's not about plot, drama, comedy or some genre (roughie/crime/whodunit, etc.), but rather presenting the way sex-loving people live. (Think of the imagery of a sexy gangsta rap music video: bling, hot semi-clad women, expensive rides, etc.)
The dichotomy between couch potato hubby (actor has a non-sex role to boot) and more hedonistic superstar Annette is very well-delineated by director Harry Lewis and producer Elliot Lewis.
