Potere

Mario Salieri, a specialist in porn thrillers, delivers a quality edition in STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN, also known as POTERE. It spotlights a beautiful black XXX actress Charlene Roben, in the mold of a Paula Kelly or Leslie Uggams (okay, that's wishful thinking on my part). Now if he'd hired Freda Payne to do hardcore, Italian style, that would have put me on Cloud Nine.

The complicated story has to do with all sorts of political intrigue involving Uganda, but the action is largely restricted to the sexual kind. There are many other beautiful femme performers here besides Roben, including the post-augmentation Jeanna Fine (looking mighty fine in low angle shots), Zara White(s) and Sunny McKay, plus a very tall, ultra-busty unidentified blonde who was my favorite in the cast. Sean Michaels is uncredited but figures prominently as usual in both interracial and all-black sex scenes.

Salieri's photography, credited to regular camera lady (?) Francoise Lemoin, is expert as usual, with fully saturated color, good use of shadows and an eye for composition. You don't see this level of quality often in shot-on-video programs, yet this team has studied the breakthroughs from the '60s pioneered by Mario Bava.

For current DVD exposure, the feature is augmented by two vignettes starring Sarah Young, and is marketed with her as marquee bait as either SARAH & FRIENDS 13 or the more recently issued version SARAH YOUNG DIRECTORS CUT 3. She delivers a 9-minute solo segment looking very sexy in lingerie & black stockings/high heels applying a dildo to various orifices, followed by a 17-minute menage a trois segment set in a carpentry shop, excerpted from one of her German features. Added to Salieri's 75-minute opus it's a decent package.