HENRI PACHARD'S LADIES ROOM (1987)

  Henri Pachard started out directing smut way back in the 60s on actual film, by the 80s though he was forced to switch to video which this one is a sorry example of. This is the era where they usually sorta still attempted the flimsiest of story to wrap around the sex scenes. In this case though there really isn't a story but instead just a collection of sex scenes that all take place in the same bathroom throughout the decades starting in the 30s. The first scene has a girl vomiting in a toilet while the action takes place in the stall next to her so that sets a nice classy mood! The rest of the decades sexual antics are pretty standard starring all the big names of the era like Jerry Butler, Krista Lane, Tom Byron, Herschel Savage etc. up until the final bit with Sharon Mitchell as a male-to-female sex-swapped punk rocker. Her sucking a guy's ass while the muzak version of A-Ha's "Take On me" plays is pretty strange and ends things on a bizarre note. I can easily see how Pachard was able to crank out 20 of these "movies" in '87 since they seem to have minimal effort put into them.

FEELS LIKE SILK (1983)

 Sharon Mitchell and her blonde friend who looks slightly retarded(Dana Dennis credited as Diana Rogers) open up a whorehouse, except that it's a whorehouse where you bring your own whores. So basically they just open up a fancy hotel where they hook up monitors to watch all the sex-activities. Jamie Gillis shows up with Shauna Grant(credited as Callie Aims for some reason) unless you watch the DVD-version of this where his scenes are cut out. Bill Margold plays a Nazi into disciplining his hooker and Jessie St. James and Billy Dee also appear along with a bunch of people that I've never heard of. It's all pretty dull typical porn stuff that was directed by Alan Vydra(credited as Alan Everett) who is a European fellow who had mostly done Euro-porn before this so maybe that's why it's a bit lacking as it seems to be trying for a more artsy feeling and just ends up being extra-tedious. aka DIANA, LOVE AND ECSTASY

 

JOY (1977)

 It was an almost surreal night watching this on the big screen from a last-minute/hobbled together 35mm print last night. Star Sharon Mitchell and director Harley Mansfield were in attendance to speak about the making of the film which was cool but the weirdest part for me was sitting in a row between legendary actor Richard Bolla on one side and 80's porn director Larry Revene on the other.
 The movie itself is kinda strange also. It's basically a comedy, albeit a comedy that basically uses the plot of DEATH WISH, including a couple of nasty rapes, as it's main inspiration. Instead of following down the typical rape-revenge path this one veers off into male-fantasy-land where our innocent virgin Joy(Mitchell) decides in the middle of being raped that she really likes it and instantly becomes a nymphomaniac who stalks the streets in search of more men to vanquish. "I want more!" is her battle cry as she goes from "victim" to "victim"(including Mr. Bolla) satisfying her desires. Strangely(well not really since these movies were made primarily for men) she seems to get off mostly by just giving blowjobs to random strangers. Besides probably being totally offensive to modern social-justice warrior-types I found a screwy message of female empowerment buried under all the male-wish-fulfillment. Then again I doubt many feminists will site a film where the star is penetrated by a handgun when looking for positive examples of girl-power. Luckily I'm not a feminist so I thought the movie moved along really quickly and was alternately funny and dark where it was supposed to be. AKA SEX CRAZY

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