October 9, 2018

BUY FROM DIABOLIK

Earlier Dracula Sucksthis year, Vinegar Syndrome made Earlier Corporate Assetsa lot of its fans happy by releasing two volumes in its 5 Years 5 Films banner, allowing titles previously available only on DVD to finally shine in high definition. Well, turns out they weren't quite done with their fifth anniversary celebration as we've now been blessed with two more volumes, again split between exploitation and adult titles. 5 Years 5 Films Volume #3 will be a hot item for the inclusion of a much-requested title, Dracula Sucks, which came out on DVD back in 2014 in both its director's cut and the alternate, inferior Lust at First Bite version. Not surprisingly, the director's cut is what you get here, and it looks fangtastic. Next up is Corporate Assets, a fun 1985 outing about the sexy and sometimes brutal chicanery taking place in and around a stock trading company that's really an escort service. The utterly ridiculous Vixens of Kung Fu from 1975 is an East Coast porno quickie designed to cash in on the martial arts craze at the time, with a lot of familiar names keeping a straight face in this yarn about mystics and female fighter squads in the middle of the woods. This one turned up on DVD in 2013 paired up with Oriental Blue and, as expected, looks about a million times Vixens of Kung Fubetter here than you'd ever expect. Tropic of Desire was one of the label's first Peekarama releases back in 2014 (paired up with Baby RosemaryFantasy World), and it's still one of the best from Bob Chinn as it plays out like a perverse theater piece set in a Hawaii brothel where a bunch of sailors on leave find more than just a quick thrill with the local staff. Finally, the wildest film in the set is easily Baby Rosemary, another one first issued on DVD in '14 (with Hot Lunch) and still a fun horror-laced bit of perversity from Grave of the Vampire director John Hayes. Sharon Thorpe stars as the title character, whose sexual problems go way past standard daddy issues and culminate in a crazy funeral parlor orgy climax that has to be seen to be believed.

Not to be outdone, 5 Years 5 Films Volume #4 tosses together several titles you'd never, ever expect to be sharing the same disc space. For example, we start off with Cry Wilderness, a crackpot family adventure about a boy guided by a magical amulet to his helpful pal, Bigfoot. This one popped up in 2014 on DVD with In Search of Bigfoot, and it's always a fun one to revisit. Still one of the most entertaining DVD double bills in the company's history came Teenage Seductressin 2013 with a Cirio H. Santiago two-fer of Death Force and Vampire Hookers, with the latter getting its Blu-ray debut here. Now you can enjoy a slumming John Carradine quoting Shakespeare and ladies of the evening feeding off of the Filipino population in heightened clarity you never though possible. Then it's Cry Wildernessback to John Hayes territory again with The Cut-throats, a once-rare sexploitation riff on The Dirty Dozen about some American G.I.s sent to infiltrate a German compound using whatever means necessary... and it gets a lot stranger than you'd probably expect. One of Vinegar Syndrome's greatest gifts to mankind was a pristine triple feature in 2013 dedicated to the insane cinema of Walt Davis, a director-writer-actor who jumped through the worlds of horror, porn and satire, sometimes within the span of minutes. Now his opus Evil Come, Evil Go has hit Blu-ray, and it's great to see at least one of those films (the others were Widow Blue and Oh, You Beautiful Doll!) in beautifully rancid 1080p. The story of two lunatic holy rollers on a murder spree against those who indulge in the ways of the flesh, it's still a jaw dropper unlike any other and worth purchasing the set just for this one title alone. Finally actor turned director and eventual hardcore impresario Chris Warfield gets his due with the very misleadingly titled Teenage Seductress, earlier out on DVD with his equally astounding Little Miss Innocence. Here Sondra Currie heads across New Mexico to settle a warped score with her dad, played by Warfield himself; it isn't terribly explicit but the air of melodramatic seediness makes this one an appropriate way to cap off this essential dive into drive-in heaven.

Teenage Seductress Tropic of Desire The Cut-throatsEvil Come, Evil Go


The wealth of unanswered questions lingering since 2012's Leaf Blower Massacre have probably been driving you crazy. What did they do with all the leaves? Would anyone Leaf Blower Massacre 2hire a yardman again after that bloody rampage? And could it possibly happen again? The answer to that last question is a resounding yes thanks to Leaf Blower Massacre 2, which expands on that short film to create a one-hour successor on DVD from T-Nasty Productions. Once again a maniac in a motorcycle helmet is running around town, assaulting them with high-speed winds before ramming his leaf blower into various vulnerable body parts. Two cops have been assigned to the case and soon find that the Illinois rampage goes deeper than the first film indicated, and soon the body count is rising as people play ping pong in front of a poster for The Warriors. Complete with gore (some of it CGI, alas), a gratuitous nude shower scene, a black metal concert, incompetent law enforcement, and a cameo by Ari Lehman (the original Jason from Friday the 13th) as a security guard, this is another amusing nouveaux slasher pastiche with tongue planted firmly in cheek as the filmmakers come up with even more ways to kill off someone with an implement as seemingly harmless as a leaf blower. Be sure to stick around after the end credits, too. Extras include the original short film, six bonus scenes, and trailers for this film, The Icing, The Dirty Sanchez, Murder for Pleasure, and Hands of Fate.


Back in 2011, Code Red released a DVD of one of sexploitation pioneer Joseph W. Sarno's most elusive films, 1969's countryfied melodrama Marcy. A twangy, odd little Marcychamber piece about lesbianism and heavy panting out in the middle of nowhere, it finds Sarno transplanting his usual simmering style to a different setting and pulling it off rather well. You can read a full review of that disc here, and Code Red has brought the same theatrical print (evidently the only one in existence) to Blu-ray with all of its green scratches and hit and miss color schemes Sex and the College Girlintact, for better or worse. This release drops the audio commentary by David De Coteau and Sarno's assistant, Gino Colbert, but now it's been issued as part of a six-film, two-disc set called the All Night Grindhouse Marathon, also available in a three-pack with the label's triple feature of Mama's Dirty Girls, Supervan and Piranha Piranha and a double feature of Teenage Tramp and Cat Murkil and the Silks (more on that one below). So, what else do you get in that double-disc set? Sharing space on the Marcy disc is a projector-worn 35mm print of Sex and the College Girl, a 1964 programmer shot by Floyd Crosby, better known for lensing High Noon and Roger Corman's stylish Poe horror films. One of Corman's repertory players, Luana Anders, is even on hand here as Gwen, one of the young women on vacation in Puerto Rico who's looking for love and competing with Susan (Julie Sommars) and Vickie (Valora Noland). Considering the film has nothing to do with college, or even much to do with sex for that matter, it's likely this was intended as a more prestigious indie cash-in on films like The Pleasure Seekers and Where the Boys Are but got turned into a drive-in place filler instead. The Shut Up and Dealweirdest thing here is easily the presence of a very young Charles Grodin, who would move on to the big time with a small but memorable role in Rosemary's Baby four years later. This one's presented in SD and looks the worst of the bunch with a virtual nonstop storm of damage throughout. Finally on the same disc is Shut Up and Deal, a 1969 roughie that barely clocks in over an hour. The plot, such as it is, revolves around a bachelor party being thrown for a guy named Tom, who's still a virgin and nowhere nearly as savvy as his older brother, who's throwing a big shindig with his poker buddies. The secret plot is to bring in some prostitutes and have Tom lose it to a professional so he'll have an idea of what to do on his wedding night -- and the one chosen to do it is Aphrodite, "the most expensive hooker in town." However, things start to go very, very wrong over the course of the evening, culminating in a grim finale that even Lars Von Trier might think twice about touching. All the actors are hiding behind pseudonyms, but eagle-eyed viewers will recognize regular softcore staples like Lynn Harris, Gerard Broulard (who plays Tom), and Bambi Allen in the cast. Shot without sound and featuring a very canned, The Tale of the Dean's Wifedisconnected soundtrack, this black-and-white scuzzball of a movie first appeared on DVD-R and VHS from Something Weird but actually looks much better here, presented from a nice quality print (some specks and other damage but nothing severe) even though it's still a standard def transfer; ironically it's the most visually impressive title on this particular disc.

On to disc two, it's back to sexploitation in color with 1970's The Tale of the Dean's Wife, a very kitschy portrait of campus upheaval in the post-Woodstock era. While the suspiciously old-looking students are spending their time practicing free love in the woods, their straight-laced dean is unaware that his wife is an unrestrained hellcat who spends her afternoons smacking their French maid Annabella on the butt and helping her use a vibrator. A plot to crash the dean's house and force him to go along with the student's demands for a freer, more with-it college experience soon turns into a orgiastic free-for-all complete with spiked LSD, miraculous sex through underwear, and the inevitable downbeat lesson at the end. Also running The Velvet Trapjust over an hour, this one's been making the rounds on the public domain scene with various banged-up releases from Something Weird and Alpha Blue Archives, and this fresh scan on a 35mm print with nice color is the best of the bunch. If you're up for some late period nudie cutie nonsense with a psychedelic bent, this could be your favorite title in here. Then we hop back a few years to 1966's The Velvet Trap, a monochrome chunk of low-budget noir exploitation about a few very eventful days in the life of Julie (Jamie Karson), whose life waiting tables and slinging coffee at a truck stop diner takes a nasty turn when she's assaulted by her boss. That experience sends her hitching a ride with her favorite client, a photographer whose artistic nudes have Julie more The Tale of the Dean's Wifethan a little intrigued. Soon they're off on a plane and heading to get hitched in Vegas, where he has a date with a "very special client." Unfortunately things don't quite go as planned, and this being a mid-'60s light roughie, that means it's a nosedive straight to a pawnshop and then the nearest whorehouse (which looks a lot more like a burlesque club). Obscure and very rarely seen since its initial theatrical one, this one looks pretty much pristine and has a stagy, lurid quality that may not be to all tastes but delivers a kind of sordid charm if you're in the right frame of mind. And once again, the ending is just downright mean. Finally, Hot Nights on the Campus also hails from '66 and focuses on the dramatic doings in "College Town U.S.A.," where each autumn brings a new influx of students who first time away from home brings both freedom and danger. Here we follow a dim young blonde from the sticks, Sally (Gigi Darlene), who goes to school at Washington Square College in New York and shacks up with a bunch of skanky-looking fellow female students. As she explores the Big Apple (complete with lots of great '60s street footage), she winds up getting involved in wild parties where the women strip down to their lingerie and creepy-looking guys in suits with rifles on their walls like to rub girls' shoulders. She also ends up dating two guys, which ends up being a big problem when she starts getting sick in the morning. Thanks to the nonstop voiceover, fleapit locations, relentless rinky-dink music and random cutaway shots, you could easily mistake this for a Doris Wishman film-- but in fact it's the handiwork of Tony Orlando (the director, not the singer) and, more tellingly, photographer and editor C. Davis Smith, Wishman's regular cohort in cinematic crime who worked with her on everything from Indecent Desires to A Night to Dismember. Both this one and The Velvet Trap were released together on DVD as a double feature back in 2009, but the HD upgrades here look quite nice and give the films a lot more visual depth and polish than you might expect.


As mentioned above, that Code Red set can be purchased as part of a pack with another of the label's release, a double feature Blu-ray that kicks off with the amazingly titled Teenage Tramp. Teenage TrampOriginally issued on DVD as part of the company's "Maria's B Movie Mayhem" line with Teenage Hitchhikers in 2011, this one still has a heavy '60s haze hanging over it despite making being shot in 1973 and hitting most theaters two years later. "What happened to the good times, yeah?" croons a group over the opening titles as we meet our tramp, Kim (Alisha Fontaine), who slaps on a huge hat and hitchhikes her way to see her older sister, Hilary (Robin Lane), while getting her boyfriend, Skip (Don Jarrell), to tag along discreetly in the back of a truck. They're both on the run from a cult and now trying to get some cash from the family estate, which Hilary controls -- and that now makes them all targets for the home-invading cultists complete with a Manson-inspired leader named Maury. The final half hour turns into a sort of lightweight cross between Angel, Angel, Down We Go and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, complete with yet another nihilistic ending. (A pattern seems to be emerging here.) In case there are any PC-oriented viewers who would actually buy a film called Teenage Tramp, be aware that this one is even more ridiculous than usual in its exploitation of the main character with Fontaine's shirt Cat Murkil and the Silksgetting popped open every few minutes for no reason at all. As with the DVD, this is taken from a very worn print with a green scratch jamboree all over the screen throughout, but at least it's sharp and colorful. An option is also included to watch this with Maria's wraparounds, complete with her scarfing down pizza and griping about the print quality. Listed as Cruisin' High on the menu and main titles but Cat Murkil and the Silks everywhere else is this film's co-feature, a long (103 minutes!) snapshot of juvenile delinquents who spend their days getting into trouble at school and their nights out on the prowl. Yet another repetitive theme song ("Slow down, baby, baby, slow down") sung by "Hollingsworth" kicks this one off as Eddie Murkil, nicknamed Cat (future sex therapist David Kyle), and his buddies in the Silks gang go cruising and decide to loot some cars in the school parking lot during a big game. From there it's a long, goofy trek through J.D.-ville complete with a liquor store robbery, knifings, a plan to unseat gang leader Punch (Massacre at Central High's Derrel Maury), and a would-be love triangle involving the wife of Cat's jailbird brother, Joey (Steve Bond, also from Massacre and Picasso Trigger). Loaded with racist lingo, terrible clothes, and lots of teenage angst, this one's something else all right thanks to some bizarre casting choices, with Kyle coming off as more of a whinier Bruce Davison than a tough gang member. The source here is a decent quality 35mm print (though the sound gets really crackly at times), and a handful of shots (some punches during the fight scenes, a lockerroom stabbing, etc.) have been slugged in from a VHS source, probably the old Lightning Video release. Bonus trailers are included for Mama's Dirty Girls, The Great Smokey Roadblock, Spasms, Street Law, and Top of the Heap.


It's becoming more of a rare occurrence for Vinegar Syndrome to give a single classic hardcore film a Blu-ray release, and when they do you know it's going to be something special. Such is the case with Memories within Miss Aggie, a spooky little number from Gerard Damiano shot in snowy upstate New York. Deborah Ashira stars as Memories within Miss Aggiethe title character, who spends an afternoon doing chores and reminiscing about her life to a flannel-wearing companion (Patrick Farrelly) who hangs out by the stove. She's prone to hallucinations like seeing blood all over the ground when she tosses out the cleaning water, and soon we're treated to a trio of fantasy flashbacks in which she's embodied by Kim Pope, Mary Stuart, and Darby Lloyd Rains with sexual partners played by Eric Edwards and Harry Reems (with a ridiculous mustache), among others. As it turns out, this is actually a horror movie with a jolting final movement that puts the entire film in a new macabre light. You could almost pass this off as a Joe Sarno film at times with its emphasis on melancholy mood and eerie, minor key music arrangements, and it's no wonder this one packed 'em in back in 1974 (and even earned a sniffy New York Times review by Vincent Canby). The sex actually takes up a comparatively small amount of the screen time, so be aware that this one aims to be a "real" movie and definitely succeeds with that sudden swerve into bloody horror really giving it a memorable kick. Released on video in a string of truly rotten transfers that made it a chore to watch (and listen to), the film has been given its first worthwhile edition as a Blu-ray/DVD combo from Vinegar Syndrome (with a limited edition embossed slipcover) with what's touted as a new scan and restoration from 16mm archival negative elements. It's grainy and rough as always (including what looks like a bit of baked-in judder in some shots) but the massive boost in clarity is a godsend here for sure. Extras include a video-sourced trailer (super blurry) and a gallery of promotional stills and articles.


Also Her Name Was Lisamingling the worlds of horror and adult films is the grim and very haunting Her Name Was Lisa, one of the handful of hardcore films by late Last House on Dead End Street director Roger Watkins. Vinegar Syndrome already did him proud with an exceptional release of his 1983 film Corruption, and this time they tackle his 1980 study in sexual excess and tragedy from the dying days of disco. We first see poor Lisa (Samantha Fox) lying dead -- yep, "wrapped in plastic" -- at a funeral home, followed by a viewing of her coffin as we find out through flashbacks exactly what happened to this unfortunate massage parlor employee on the way up to a career as a fashion model. That path starts off when photographer Paul (Rick Iverson) talks her into coming to one of his Eyes of Laura Mars-inspired photo shoots (complete with Kraftwerk music), but after they start hooking up, she becomes the target of ruthless magazine editor Stephen (David Pierce), which leads to a gang rape, a revenge scheme involving a scene-stealing Vanessa Del Rio, and a descent into heroin addiction. As with most of Watkins' other work, this is very dark stuff and definitely not for all tastes but makes for a very memorable viewing experience thanks to Fox's terrific performance, a knockout soundtrack, and some surprising visual flourishes including a truly nightmarish climax. This one also wasn't treated very well on home video for decades, circulating in either very dupey VHS copies and/or heavily cut versions that made total nonsense out of some key plot points. The Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray/DVD combo release is uncut and absolutely pristine, and among the extras are the raunchy theatrical trailer and a promotional still gallery. The real keeper here though is "His Name Was Roger," a half-hour reminiscence by Ultra Violent's Art Ettinger about his friendship with the director and an account of how Watkins ended up making porn films that definitely didn't go with the flow at the time. This also goes down in the history books as the first featurette in which the speaker has a poster blazing "Full Erection! 100%!" next to his head.


Far less Candy Lipsartistically accomplished but much, much funnier is Candy Lips, a 1976 would-be roughie from New York that feels like an incomplete project stuck together with the narrative Scotch tape of a framing device featuring our protagonist, Lilah (Susan McBain), reminiscing about her sexually turbulent upbringing while performing a seemingly endless act of fellatio, and a completely dubbed soundtrack that catapults the whole thing into the realm of pure surrealism. The story, such as it is, charts Lilah's progression from a broken home where her creepy old dad beats and rapes every family member in sight, sending her on a carnal odyssey that ends up in a lesbian tryst with Gloria Leonard. And that's really it. The dialogue and narration here are the real jaw droppers though, stuffed with wildly inappropriate but very quotable lines of dialogue guaranteed to stick in your brain for years. Plus you get to see Leonard and her The Opening of Misty Beethoven co-star, Ras Kean, lounge around blowing bubbles during an orgy, so that's a big plus right there.


Not to be confused with Corporate Assets above, 1982's Liquid Assets (or Liquid A$$ets if you're Liquid Assetsgoing by the stylized title) is one of the slickest and funniest films by Roberta Findlay, who had earlier helmed the much darker A Woman's Torment. It doesn't hurt that she's bouncing off the solid premise of Mel Brooks' The Producers, though according to her commentary on the Vinegar Syndrome, this is more the work of her frequent collaborator, writer-director Walter E. Sear, because he wanted to do a work of social commentary. In any case, it's a blast to watch with plenty of gags and a cast of pros having a great time. Mr. Cashbox (Bobby Astyr) has just been told by his financial manager (Ron Jeremy) that he's in major impending trouble with the IRS, so he decides to mount a surefire theatrical disaster to help cover his tracks. He decides to hire the deluded and sexually voracious Stan Slavsky (David Pierce) to direct the production with a cast ranging from bright-eyed newcomer Suzy (Sanja Sorello, never seen again) to acting disaster Veronica Hart. Practically swiping the film wholesale is Samantha Fox again, here cast as an influential critic who's instrumental in the very cleverly done finale. Even Last House on the Left's Fred Lincoln, who had largely moved more to directing hardcore than performing by this point, pops up twice in a funny bit as a very dramatic judge. Released on video in so-so quality by Caballero, the film looks spectacular here and could have been shot yesterday; a disclaimer notes some jittering built into a few shots, but it's a minor flaw that only pops up for brief periods. Findlay appears for another of her engaging audio commentaries with Casey Scott, where she points out the various locations, explains how they landed that theater in New York, and recounts how the industry operated at the time when these films could still have a healthy theatrical life. Also included are the trailer, an interview with Veronica Hart, "Getting the Big Part," covering how she and Findlay would run in the same circles at the time, and another with screenwriter R. Allen Leider (audio only via phone) in conversation with Joe Rubin about his entry into the world of adult films and the process of coming up with the storyline of this spoof.


And now, more sleaze. After Hours has been experimenting with various banners for its vintage adult multi-film releases, and one of the newer ones is the "Venus Theatre" line. Case in point, its U.S.-Mexican border-themed set - Volume 1, The Abduction of Loreleinatch - that begins with Abduction of Lorelei, a 1977 quickie with Serena as the title character. One of many Turn Me 'RoundPatty Hearst-inspired exploitation films, it's about an heiress who gets nabbed by some lowlifes in a van and subjected to a string of degradations as they hold her for a hefty ransom. Clocking in at a meager 55 minutes, it's a nasty little piece of work with a fun little kicker of a shock ending and a thumping soundtrack that gives it all a jazzy, creepy feel. Next up is South of the Border, in which three girls hop in their car on Hollywood Blvd. and say "yippee!" as they head to Mexico. One of them would rather go to Disneyland or the movies, but nope, it's Tijuana or bust despite those "male chauvinist Mexicans." Of course, it isn't long before they're all being held against their will by, uh, three white guys in bandito hats (including Jamie Gillis) who chain them to a wall before the inevitable payback arrives. An ultra-cheap roughie probably shot in about three hours, it's exactly what you'd expect from the premise and nothing more. Finally, Turn Me 'Round barely counts as a movie at a scarce 37 minutes and starts off with a bang thanks to a soundtrack yanked from West Side Story and a credit for cast member "Bert Reynolds." Mr. Grant (John Seeman), "the philandering philanthropist," enjoys taking three-hour lunch breaks to enjoy his bevy of mistresses around the country, with the narrator promising more twists than anything by Agatha Christie or Rod Serling. Unfortunately one of Mr. Grant's playmates, Felicia, turns the tables when her boyfriend (Tyler Reynolds, presumably that "Bert" in the credits) shows up with a gun and makes some sinister threats involving a dead fiancée before... uh, letting him go, but there's a little surprise in store. A one-day wonder that aims low and succeeds on that front, this one comes from fast-and-cheap San Francisco filmmaker Bob Kirk, who also turned out titles like The True Way, Jane Bond, and the rough House of Kristina. All three films are presented in anamorphic widescreen on one DVD from scratchy but acceptable prints, and the soundtracks appear to have been left intact.


Revisiting the horror/sex symbiosis in adult films, Vinegar Syndrome tackles The Sexorcisttwo of the very cheapest and weirdest ones courtesy of a Peekarama DVD double bill of films by Ray Dennis Steckler. Deviates in LoveAfter creating some of the most idiosyncratic drive-in films this side of Ted V. Mikels with titles like Rat Pfink a Boo Boo and The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?, Steckler turned to hardcore under a string of fake names like Sven Christian and the baffling Cindy Lou Sutters, usually spackling narration and inserted loop scenes to turn his Nevada-shot projects into feature films, more or less. The Sexorcist from 1974 (a.k.a. Undressed to Kill, the actual title on this print) checks off all the boxes as a female narrator Janice (Carolyn Brandt, a.k.a. Mrs. Steckler) explains how she was dragged out into the desert by occult specialist Professor Ernest Von Kleinschmidt to seek out a sex-crazed devil cult, while her roommate, a prostitute named Diane, services some guy by the pool. From there it's a descent into dark sexual practices with lots of robes, mystical amulets, and possession as the cast gets whittled down one by one. Barely coherent but fun in an ooga-booga sort of way, this one's useless as porn (Steckler's sex scenes are some of the ugliest ever shot) but quite amusing as a cheapjack horror film. Then it's time to meet Deviates in Love, a confounding 1979 patchwork of loop footage tied together with a shrink telling stories to a female patient about savage sexual practices through the ages. That includes a nasty opening sequence during the Inquisition (censored from many prints), and we even get that Steckler standby, a woman strolling around peeking in windows to make the cutaways to preexisting footage a little more justified. (See Weekend Cowgirls for the most berserk example.) Both films are presented in their original 1.33:1 aspect ratios and appear to be completely uncut, clocking in just under an hour each.


Far more sedate is another Peekarama double feature showcasing two of the lesser-seen Shaun Costello quickies from the mid-'70s, staring off with School Girl Reunion from 1976. School Girl ReunionThe class of 1970 is getting back together, and Roger Caine -- the adult film actor who also got a twig shoved through his throat in George Romero's Martin -- stars here as, well, Roger Caine, who shows up early and hangs out at the bleachers with Kim Pope shooting the breeze about their glory days. That includes his memorable afternoon getting a new kind of French lesson with coach's wife Renee Duval and Pope trying to get a date with Roger by having a menage a trois with C.J. Laing and Alan Marlow to the strains of "Tubular Bells." Throw in a strip poker night, a Sensuous Flygirlsraucous sex party (including a Costello cameo), and a real downer of a twist ending, and the result is another one that probably had the raincoat crowd feeling deflated on the way out but plays like a fascinating experiment today. Caine and Pope are actually quite good holding it all together, and everyone seems to be giving it more than you'd probably expect. This one turned up in very poor quality on an earlier Pope-themed Alpha Blue set but looks infinitely better here with a fresh HD scan in its correct 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Next up is another one from '76, Sensuous Flygirls, which is way more sci-fi than you'd expect from the title. Dr. Horn (Marlow again) has been brought in to select stewardesses for a four-year outer space flight to Jupiter, which is proving challenging after they wound up sending "two queers" on a flight to Uranus, yuck yuck. (Well, that was the '70s.) Enter some prime candidate attendants on a flight from Lisbon led by Mary Stuart, and everyone starts having sex all over the place as the job interview seem to focus on their experiences in bed for some reason. And yes, they do it to "Tubular Bells" again, this time to practically the entire album. Simply put, you'll never be able to watch The Exorcist the same way again after this double feature.


The high Class of 69school theme continues with After Hours' very misleadingly titled 42nd Street Pete Presents Hot for Teacher Grindhouse Triple Feature, which really has very little to do with lusting after teachers at all. It's reunion time again with Class of Sixty-Nine, which was considered a lost film until very recently. The story's Once and For Alleven more skimpy than usual here as Brenda's looking forward to her big high school reunion, especially since she and her classmates were all complete horn dogs. That turns out to have an aphrodisiac effect on her husband (Widow Blue's Alex Elliot) when she starts strolling down memory lane thanks to shooting pool with her old girlfriends, and you can probably figure out where it all goes from there. This one was clearly made during the transition from soft to hardcore, as the sex scenes were shot simulated but about as close to explicit as you could get around 1970 (especially the three involving prolific soft/hardcore actor Gene Rowland). However, someone later spliced in a few XXX insert shots that don't match at all, which didn't seem to have helped the box office. The main titles music here has obviously been replaced since it was most likely stolen tracks that would be impossible to clear today, but the rest of the film (including a Muzak cover of "Love Is Blue") appears to be intact. Next up it's time for more Alan Marlow in Once... and For All, After School Examsa '77 high school comedy about three buddies -- Bill (Marlow), Chuck (Todd Davis), and Stinger (David Dell) -- who are all having sexual challenges ranging from trying to get a new girlfriend to go all the way to handling the school's most nymphomaniacal teacher (Ultramax). It all ends, as such things must, with a four-way in the locker room. The most professionally shot and acted film of the bunch, it's another New York throwaway film with a welcome sense of humor and a very game cast. Last and definitely least is After School Exams, an incoherent 51-minute rambling thing from 1973 that wasn't any more tolerable when Alpha Blue put it out a while ago. Brigitte Maier is the main draw here among a cast of familiar faces like Keith Erickson and Kay White, but they're all just wandering around for a film that has something to do with an R&B band that our leading lady keeps hanging around as she and her friends occasionally hook up with the personnel. None of it really ties together or goes anywhere, but Brigitte completists might find it worth a look anyway. All of the films are presented in anamorphic widescreen, with optional 42nd Street Pete intros to each one and a really skeevy new bonus scene tacked on at the end.


 

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