Sunday, March 26, 2006

“Adult” Entertainment Warning.
Adult matters to be discussed. Please move on if under 18.

Sex Comedy Double Feature Night

Fantasm – 1976

     This movie, and its sequel (reviewed below) are kind of an oddity. They were made after movies like Deep Throat and The Devil in Miss Jones had established “porn chic”, and opened the floodgates of what we would now consider hardcore pornography. But these movies are softcore, which went out of fashion everywhere but cable when the “real” porn arrived. Most makers of “adult” entertainment in the 60’s didn’t make the transition to hardcore, for any number of reasons. They didn’t like it themselves, those who were making it were mostly gangsters, etc.

But that’s not the story here. These movies were intentionally made this way, for a very good reason. See, they’re made for Australians by Australians. Back then, hardcore wasn’t allowed into the country. But everybody knew about the movies and who was in them. So the clever plokes who make these movies decided they’d make a flick that they COULD get into Australia, using actors whose names everyone would recognize as “adult” stars, and that would be the big draw. Seems that they were right, as the movie cost $50,000 to make, and made $600,000 in Australia alone. Not a bad turn of profit. So successful, that a less than inspiring sequel was created.

So, that’s the backstory. What we have here is a movie of 10 skits, supposedly detailing women’s fantasies, as explained by a shrink. The “doctor” is most of the comedic relief here, and some of his shtick is pretty funny. But to call this a sex comedy is kinda stretching it. Not a lot of laughs by today’s standards.

But a couple of the skits are pretty good. The strip poker orgy was kinda hot. And the cross dressing/S&M scene would have been really shocking in 1976. There are probably circles where it might still be shocking today. Not my circles, you understand. There are those who’d say that MY life is more shocking than this skit. I’ll leave it to the peanut gallery to chime in on that one.

And there are some real classic stars. The wonderful Rene Bond, who started in the 60’s with such classic titles as Please Don’t Eat My Mother (known in IMDB as Sexpot Swingers) and Frankie and Johnnie….Were Lovers. Much of her work is available from Something Weird Video, and you owe it to yourself to see as much of it as you can.

Other “adult stars” in attendance are John Holms (who shows more pickle in one scene than 10 Showtime flicks. In the commentary, the Producer said that you could hear a collective female “gasp” when the scene of him emerging from the pool came on. I bet!), Candy Samples (under the name of Mary Gavin, which I suspect might be her REAL name), and Serena. These names alone would have guaranteed success in 1976.

There are no subtitles, but there is a featurette which is an interview with the director (in shadows, cause he still doesn’t want folks to know that he made it, even though his real name is listed in IMDB) and the producer. And there is the previously mentioned commentary by the producer, which is excellent and mostly entertaining. Although a second person there to ask questions and keep it moving would not have hurt. I was very surprised to hear that the movie was shot on 16mm and blown up. Usually that results in a fairly grainy picture (see the original Evil Dead for an example). But this movie looks and sounds great. And a 10 day shooting schedule would be demanding for any movie. These folks knew what they were doing. And the $50K I mentioned earlier? That includes the blowup, which was an expensive process. So they really did a great job with not much money.

Four beers out of five. (More boobage than you can shake a stick at)

Fantasm Comes Again – 1977

Nearly all successful movies spawn sequels. Especially low budget movies. And most suck. This is NOT the exception that proves the rule. This movie is definitely worse than the original. If there’s comedy in this, I didn’t see it. It’s just a collection of 10 skits connected by this reporter and his replacement that have to write a sex advice column for a newspaper. The skits are the letters sent in.

Most of them are kinda lame. There are fewer “adult” stars, and the other actors oftentimes just cannot act. Listen to the girl’s conversation in the pool scene for a sterling example of people who don’t need to be in front of a camera.

There are no extras on this one, except it has a commentary. In it, the same producer (the movie has a different director, but the same writer) admits that this movie was a quickie knockoff, and isn’t as good.

I agree.

Three beers out of five (still lots of boobage, just not as much fun)