THE LUSTFUL TURK
Color, 1968, 71 mins. 13 secs.
Directed by B. Ron Elliott (Byron Mabe)
Starring Abbe Rentz, Linda Styles, Heidi Krane, Harvey Shain, Tom Ato, Nancy Crandall, Felice Novid, Ronnie Runningboard, Kathy Williams
Distribpix / Something Weird (Blu-ray) (US R0 HD), Something Weird (DVD-R) (US R0 NTSC)

THE JOYS OF JEZEBEL
Color, 1970, 76 mins. 11 secs.
Directed by A.P. Stootsberry (Peter Perry Jr.)
Starring Christine Murray, Christopher Stone, John Rocco, Jay Edwards, Dixie Donovan, Angela Graves
Distribpix / Something Weird (Blu-ray) (US R0 HD) / WS (1.85:1) (16:9), Image Entertainment (DVD) (US R1 NTSC), Something Weird (DVD-R) (US R0 NTSC)

After making his name with H.G. Lewis gore and nudie films, producer David F. Friedman set off on a string of colorful, brilliantly marketed softcore productions based on a brazen number of famous literary and historical sources. From Shakespeare to Zorro to Boccaccio to Cleopatra to Alexadre Dumas... you name it, Friedman probably sexed it up. Stacked with any Florida or California actors he could wrangle, the films encompassed a range of exploitation filmmaking names like Lee Frost, Peter Perry, Bob Cresse, and Byron Mabe. Of course, after their theatrical run they became the cornerstone of putting Something Weird Video on the map when he met Mike Vraney, and the rest is history. Two of the most visually outlandish films from his late '60s period have now been collected on Blu-ray from Something Weird and Distribpix, transferred from their original negatives and looking better than ever before.

Adapted from the infamous 1828 erotic novel, The Lustful Turk (or... Lascivious Scenes in a Harem Faithfully and Vividly Depicted in a Series of Letters from a Young & Beautiful Lady to Her Cousin in England) begins in 1814 London as Sylvia (Crandall) receives a letter from her melancholy future sister-in-law Emily Barlow (Rentz) who is setting off to India with her handmaiden Eliza (Gentell) before she can marry Sylvia's brother, Henry. Meanwhile at the Palace of Myzra Bey of Tunis (sleaze vet and future TV character actor Shain), pretty much any woman in sight is considered fodder for the prince and his cohorts including "Ali, Dey of Algiers" ("Tom Ato," whoever that may really be) who derive pleasure from their slaves and the thought of indoctrinating any foreigners. When some pirates capture Emily's ship, she and Eliza become initially unwitting captives with letters sent back to Sylvia chronicling their exploits before some violent payback finally ensues.

Keeping the promise of the opening scene, The Lustful Turk unfolds through the use of letters as a narrative device which will result in either great amusement or boredom depending how much you love hearing wildly unqualified nudie models spouting reams of literary dialogue. By this point Radley Metzger had made a cottage industry out of classy, literate softcore films that were winning over many critics, but the Friedman approach here is a whole different beast with director Byron Mabe (under his usual "B. Ron Elliott" name here) cranking this out with as little aesthetic fuss as possible during a busy year that also saw him doing The Head Mistress, The Bushwhacker, Space Thing, and Nude Django. The occasional blasts of intense primary-colored lighting do their best to distract you from the very cheap sets and costumes, which again have their own thrift shop charm if you're in the right mood. Though it made decent money and earned a prominent plug in an issue of Film Comment in the '80s, The Lustful Turk largely flew under the radar among its Something Weird-Friedman companions, never earning a retail DVD release of any kind and only circulating from an okay but dated tape master on VHS and DVD-R for decades. The Blu-ray looks gorgeous with frequently eye-popping color and exceptional detail, and the DTS-HD MA 2.0 English mono track sounds pristine with optional English SDH subtitles provided.

Then we move to The Bible itself as the source for The Joys of Jezebel, shot in 1969 but released the following year. Here director Peter Perry Jr. (Kiss Me Quick!) pulls out all the stops with a candy-colored phantasmagoria best described as Jigoku with boobs. Miffed at being consigned to Hell after being betrayed by Joshua (The Exotic Dreams of Casanova's Rocco), Jezebel (Murray, a.k.a. mainstream actress Luanne Roberts) makes a deal with the perpetually randy Lucifer (The Notorious Cleopatra's Stone) to go back to Earth for vengeance by swapping places with good girl Rachel (Tobacco Roody's Donovan). When the switch happens, Jezebel runs rampant and corrupts Rachel's portly fiance, Jeremiah (The Secret Sex Lives of Romero and Juliet's Edwards), with multiple carnal and comic complications ensuing with a multitude of biblical characters involved along the way.

Pretty much any semblance of a linear plot gets tossed out here fairly early on to make way for a succession of softcore sex scenes and witty dialogue delivered by a surprisingly qualified cast, with Murray, Stone, and Donovan in particular standing out. You would think the gimmick of doing a sexploitation spin on the Old Testament (basically a fanciful sequel for lack of a better description) would have caused an uproar in certain areas of the U.S., but this never seemed to run into any trouble for some reason. That might be because the story is too silly and episodic to take seriously, including a memorable detour to the Pit of Nymphs where everyone is horny for eternity but can never reach satisfaction. Image Entertainment originally released this on DVD in 2007 as part of its Something Weird line paired up with another Hell-themed film from Perry, My Tale Is Hot, with "The Hot Bed of Pleasure" extras including the "weird cartoon" Satan in Church, the bonus movie Go Down, Death!, the short film Boudoir Belle, and trailers for Touch of Satan, The Naked Witch, Olga's Dance Hall Girls, Soul Lover, The Devil's Garden, and Up in Smoke. The Blu-ray presentation from the original negative is a major upgrade, correcting the framing to 1.85:1 and looking far more balanced here with more info on the sides while cropping a lot of vertical dead space especially on top. Again the DTS-HD MA 2.0 English mono track is in excellent shape and comes with English SDH subtitles.

Both films come with new audio commentaries by The Sin Syndicate podcast's Gentry Austin and Casey Scott, who are obviously vastly qualified to tackle both of them with a wealth of observations about the cast, Friedman, the directors, and a host of tangential figures including William Rotsler and Harry Novak. They're quite open about any shortcomings the films may have but possess enthusiasm for just about everyone who made them, with fun observations peppered throughout along the way (including some funny bits about the bizarre choice to have Edwards get naked frequently on camera). The 2003 documentary "Honest Dave" Still With The Show (69m1s) is a nice portrait of the legendary cinematic showman, including coverage of him at work on his 2002 reunion film with Lewis, Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat. Also included are trailers for both films in nice new scans (the 5-minute one for The Lustful Turk is incredible and comprised largely of behind-the-scenes footage) and a 10-minute gallery of stills and promotional art. The limited edition set also comes with a 11x17 replica Japanese one-sheet for The Lustful Turk and a very nicely illustrated booklet featuring the highly recommended essays "Bodacious & Bawdy: David F. Friedman's Ribald Bodice-Rippers" by Something Weird's Lisa Petrucci, "Lawrence of Arabia... but with girls!" by Austin Miller covering legal weirdness over adult films and obscenity, and "The Wolf of Smut Street: Rudy Escalera" by Cinema Sewer's Robin Bougie about the gifted painter's remarkable and unmistakable poster art.

THE JOYS OF JEZEBEL: Distribpix (Blu-ray)

THE JOYS OF JEZEBEL: Image (DVD)

Reviewed on June 9, 2026