Famous T & A

My review was written in October 1983 after watching a Cultvideo video cassette.

Lurking behind its lurid title of "Famous T & A" is a valid home video concept, introducing outtakes and alternate takes of feature films into the collectibles market. Many of the film titles currently in home video circulation are domestically unreleased films (of interest to specialized audiences), and the logical extension is previously unavailable "cutting room floor" material from the vaults and labs.

This compilation program by Ken Dixon focuses on nude scenes of famous actresses, mainly culled from their less famous films. In addition, Phyllis Elizabeth Davis (costar of the "Vegas tv series) is featured in numerous alternate takes from "Terminal Island" and "Sweet Sugar", while Barbara Leigh is also seen in "Terminal Island" outtakes.

Quality of material on view varies considerably, with one highlight being a lengthy segment of young Italo star Ornella Muti in "Summer Affair", an obscure 1971 picture by Giorgio Stegani Casorati originally titled "Il sole nella pelle". Also of interest is an excerpt of Ursula Andress in Sergio Martino's 1978 "Slave of the Cannibal Gods", in which she is ceremonially painted by native girls in the same manner as ex-husband John Derek had wife Bo done upin his 1981 "Tarzan, the Ape Man".

Padding out the running time are silly segments featuring a nude California motorcyclist, a fashion model and even a music video (to the Yardbirds' 1965 hit "For Your Love") peopled by busty models. These depart from the film clips format and seem extraneous.

Sybil Danning (taped rather than filmed) hosts, rather coyly avoiding the full nudity of her many films. Reading the cue cards, her stint is diappointing, and she oddly dresses and moves in live-action imitation of the lead femme warrior animated character in Columbia's "Heavy Metal".

Library music score is effective, including repeated (uncredited) excerpts from Ennio Morricone's "One Night at Dinner" soundtrack LP. Packaging incorrectly promotes footage of Nastassja Kinski (who doesn't appear) and displays an R rating even though the compilation was not submitted to the MPAA.

Famous T&A (1982)

** (out of 4)

In the days before the internet VHS shelves were full of movies and companies like Full Moon released a number of "compilation" videos to give people a desire to check out other movies. These videos included FILMGORE, THE BEST OF SEX AND VIOLENCE and this item here, which is hosted by Sybil Danning.

Movies like FILMGORE were basically a collection of trailers that were meant to make you interested in those films so that you would rent them the next time you were at the video store. This compilation here is slightly different as it shows you various famous actresses in nude scenes. I'm a little confused what the purpose of this video was because if you can see the "good" stuff here what would be the point of renting the movie?

Either way, with a title like FAMOUS T&A I'm sure this got quite a few rentals back in the day. When viewed today there's certainly nothing overly special here and I'm sure younger people won't understand the fact that we couldn't just do a Google search back in the day to see such scenes. There's a nostalgia aspect that will make this desirable to certain people. There's certainly a fun nature to the film and Danning is in good spirits as she hosts and talks about the various scenes featuring the likes of Ursula Andress, Brigitte Bardot, Phyllis Davis, Uschi Digard, Claudia Jennings, Jacqueline Bisset, Ornella Muti, Edy Williams, Elvira and many others