Back Room Blues: A Tribute to Smut Palace Insanity

by Heather Drain

You’ve seen it; we’ve all seen it. (Well at least those of us enough huevos to admit it.) You’re at the local video store and greeting your line of vision is the back room door, it’s seclusion promising you sights that may tantalize you, turn you on, or even scare the living bejeesuz out of you. What carnal delights await you in the 18+ video room?

Well unless you have time traveling powers or an exceptional video store, you will be greeted with scores of generic faces and bodies being pried open and splattered with semen. Worst of all is that none of these porn clones have the decency to even look like they are into it. At all. It’s like getting psyched up for a blind date with an exotic stranger and being greeted by your old Science teacher naked and with a dingus up his butt. Gross, wrong, and ultimately disappointing.

Movie Review: Flesh and Bullets

Review By: James DePaolo

On March 1989 the film industry lost the man who could be singled out for my blindness, Carlos Tobalina. To me, he was one of the king of the adult film world with his love of romancing the camera and getting those shots that other directors seem to stray from. When I heard he did a film that was not a porn my first reaction was that it was a porn in hiding, but needless to say this film is nowhere near porn which still should be said, it is a good enough film to recommend nonetheless.

The humor for me comes from the fact that the original print of the film he changed his name to hide the fact of who he was. In a somewhat odd retelling of sorts from Alfred Hitchcock’s Stranger on a Train, we meet two unhappy married men both of whom have shady pasts meet in Vegas and hatch a scheme to murder one another’s ex-wives. Well as you can guess there will be a catch to this plan and each of them fall in love with the other’s ex.

Movie Review: SexWorld (1978)

Directed by Anthony Spinelli

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

It would follow that Michael Crichton’s sci-fi epic Westworld (1973), a theme park for adults with anything-goes pleasure androids would eventually get the triple-X treatment. It took director Anthony Spinelli and his organized crime cohorts three years to mount SexWorld, but the twain between mainstream and porno would never meet. Whereas Westworld jettisoned James Brolin and Richard Benjamin on a futuristic hovercraft, the lower middle class folk ferried to SexWorld have to settle for a smoky ol’ bus, with a “SexWorld” banned hastily stapled to the side. As smut scholar Robin Bougie would note in his essential volume “Graphic Thrills: American XXX Movie Posters, 1970 to 1985,” there was no substituting Hollywood with Inglewood this time around.

Movie Review: The Chambermaids (1974; Impulse Pictures)

...the period, stationed at the Naval drydocks, on the Norfolk, Virginia Naval base, during the early-to-mid '80's, wasn't exactly the most off-time activity prevalent time, in this viewer's eclectically varied military career. Not much to do off-base, after a daily, rough & rigorous 10-hours-plus work shift, except to clear out the mess hall every night, killing the lights, chug a few cans of piss-warm Milwaulkee's Best, and spin the clunky reels of military-sponsored feature films on the rickety ol' projector. However, on the weekend evenings, there was always someone who somehow managed to covertly commandeer one of the base's VW non-designated buses, and as the result, a jaunty motley crew of us would speedily barrel miles down the road, whooping & hollering, and just being good ol' boys, out looking for a good time...or trouble, depending upon the inebriation level. When the bar-hopping scene got stale, and we found ourselves wearing tread on the dirt roads, in and about the midnight hour...without fail, we'd always find ourselves at one of several tucked-away-in-the-fields drive-in theaters, which exclusively flickered some of the wildest, albeit cheeziest and dated X-rated double-feature film fare, ever to have been seen stamped on celluloid. And it was one of these adventurous, late-night occasions, at which time, this viewer first laid eyes on this aged and obscure, playful and kinky little skin flick. Fast forward to 'this very moment'...at which time, afforded the opportunity to fondly revisit this obscure X-rated ditty, with considerably more objectivity, and considerably less alcohol...the invariable question, in this viewer's mind, arises: ...how does "The Chambermaids" hold up, in the advent of 40 years since the film's initial release, during the '70's golden age of skin flicks??...

The Billy Bagg Double Feature (The Violation of Claudia/Hot Honey) DVD

Label: Distribpix Inc / Sweetheart Theaters

Prebook: September 9, 2014 Streets: October 7, 2014 SRP: $19.99

UPC: 828320020016 Cat: 2001 Run Time: 134 Minutes Language: English

Color Widescreen 1.85:1 Dual Mono All Regions

Production year: 1977 / 1978

Genre: Adult Erotica / Drama Not Rated

Director: Bill Lustig

Stars: Jamie Gillis, Sharon Mitchell, Serena, Heather Young, Long Jeane Silvers

Before he became one of the most famous and important horror filmmakers of the 1980s, Bill Lustig(Manic Cop, Vigilante) directed these two X rated oddities. Both films have been newly restored in 2K from their original negatives and each audio commentary with Bill Lustig is moderated by Danish film director, Nicolas Winding Refn(Drive, Only God Forgives, Valhalla Rising, Bronson).

Movie Review: Baby Rosemary (1976) and Hot Lunch (1978)

Directed by “Howard Perkins”

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

Vinegar Syndrome wipes off a couple of shot-on-film XXX favorites that are, uh, more interesting than most. Both Baby Rosemary and Hot Lunch were directed by John Hayes, who directed the quirky Garden of the Dead and Grave of the Vampire. Under the name of Howard Perkins, Hayes would helm hardcore porn, giving these features a bit more attention than they probably deserved.

Baby Rosemary is unconnected with Roman Polanski’s horror classic Rosemary’s Baby (1968), although it has distinct horror elements. Sharon Thorpe plays Rosemary, a most unappealing female lead. With her dishrag personality and frequently dirty hair, still outgrowing a blonde dye job, she blue-balls her boyfriend Jon (John Leslie). Not to worry – John just hoofs it across town to a prostitute (Leslie Bovee) for some relief. The next day, Rosemary goes to visit her estranged father at a San Francisco flophouse – where she is raped at knifepoint by her father’s neighbors Ken Scudder and Monique Cardin! Rosemary decides she likes it and begins to see Scudder romantically where he brutalizes her a second time. She’s saved by John, now in his day job as a police officer!

No, it doesn’t make any sense – remember, this is a porno film! Rosemary’s father has passed, and she is asked to formally identify him at the coroner’s office. Now a teacher at an all girl’s school, two of Rosemary’s prize students, played by Candida Royalle and Melba Bruce, drop to their knees to offer up a pagan prayer involving a Priapic god. Visiting a funeral home, Rosemary’s two students ball a mortuary attendant in a room with classic horror movie posters tacked to the wall.

Movie Review: Honey Buns (1973)

The Impulse Pictures line of DVDs run by the Blu-ray and DVD specialists Synapse Films has consistently shown a dedication to bringing some of the naughtiest filth to DVD that the world has to offer. Whether it’s the crazy Japanese perversion of the popular Nikkatsu series or the goofy Euro-trashiness contained in the School Girl Report releases, Impulse shows a variety any pervert can appreciate. Thankfully, the Golden Age of porn is now becoming more of a focus with the recent release of Honey Buns, starring hardcore and soft-core starlets, Ushi Digard (Super Vixens, Fantasm) and Rene Bond (Please Don’t Eat My Mother, Rene Bond's Sex Fantasies).

Honey Buns is a "story" about a lonely, horny and pathetic schlep who slaves away at his shit desk job for his obnoxious boss who really doesn’t do much work himself. When his boss isn’t yelling at him he throws the always charming lecherous gaze at the females at the office (played by Bond and Digard) and occasionally breaks open a porno magazine right at his desk.

Movie Review: Wakefield Poole's Bijou

As a long time admirer of classic adult features I've come to really respect the work of the folks at Vinegar Syndrome for their ability to put forth an increasingly versatile catalog. There are some interesting adult oriented gems from filmmakers itching for re-discovery and it's important that there are some companies that can take charge in releasing these films in quality presentations. Directors like Carter Steven, Phil Prince, Henry Paris and Armand Weston are a handful of quality golden age directors that I've become fond of over the years - all who need their films brought back to the DVD and Blu-ray format. I'm going to add a new one to the mix in Wakefield Poole (Wakefield Poole's Bible). Wakefield Poole’s hardcore gay feature Bijou has just been released by the Vinegar Syndrome and, well…let’s just say it’s a unique experience.

Bijou opens innocently enough with an interesting mix of three different perspectives – a man driving his car, a mustachioed construction worker walking home from work and a woman crossing a street. The three all come together in not so fortunate circumstances with the driver striking the woman with his car. Our construction worker witnesses this event and promptly takes the injured and possibly dead woman’s purse.

Interracial Sex Havoc Part #4: 1976

We continue our journey through interracial sex in the movies, and this time we’ll take a look at films from 1976. Not all films included here are pornographic, but they had to have at least one interracial sex scene in order to qualify. For this chapter I wrote about plenty of golden age porn [a couple featuring John Holmes], a horror/porn hybrid, a musical/porn hybrid, a Martin Scorsese masterpiece, and more. So, enjoy!

Honey Pie (1976)

The beginning credits’ sketches bring to mind the sleaze paperbacks of the era. This film was directed by Howard Ziehm.

The first scene consists of a girl and a guy having sex in the morning. A bit later the girl leaves, inserts a vibrator in her vagina and takes a ride with a taxi. The taxi driver thinks that there’s something wrong with his fare meter, but in reality he’s listening to the noisy vibrator.

The second sex scene happens between an M.I.L.F. and a young guy. And the third scene is a lesbian one.

Out in the woods, two friends see a married woman, one of them says “Watch what you’re doing” and the other replies “I’d like to do what I’m watching”, and so they decide to do her. She’s open for some double penetration and she’s the hottest person in this movie [Terri Hall].

In the fourth scene, two journalists (one guy and one girl) fuck in the office. The last scene is a BDSM one, in which a white girl is used by a black guy and another white girl. There are many toys used in this one, such as a vibrator, nipple clips, and chains.

Movie Review: Jungle Blue (1978)

What’s one of the best ways to open a movie? In my 35 plus-years of film watching I have to admit seeing a fellow in a gorilla suit somewhere in the sticky jungles of the Amazon getting his wrinkly crank fellated by a hungry young lass is a way you can go. Welcome to the insane world of adult film director Carlos Tobalina. Who needs explosions when you can see this? Michael Bay take note, it’s far cheaper than explosions and has just as much impact on the viewer…err at least me. Tobalina’s Jungle Blue opens like this and it’s just the beginning of the insane proceedings. Vinegar Syndrome has taken this Tarzan porn and prettied it up for the filth loving eyes of classic XXX enthusiasts.

When a group of horny travelers decide to embark on an adventure in the wilds of the Amazon, there lies some truly raunchy fun to be had. The gals seem to go absolutely gaga over a hunky Tarzan-type who enjoys climbing with monkeys and swinging from tree-to-tree. The most fascinating thing about him though is that he doesn’t have quite the "experience" as the other males in the party - mainly because he’s looking for just the right “Jane” to hang from his vine.

Movie Review: Virgin and the Lover/Lustful Feelings (1973/1976; Vinegar Syndrome)

...ya' know?? There's an old saying, once often waved and bantered about the '70's, that said 'different strokes for different folks'; the phrase easily suggested that...hey, everyone is different, and what 'does it' for one person, might not 'do it' for another, no matter how standard, or how unusual 'it' is. Today, the saying might read more like 'whatever floats your boat', or for those more into the indivisible pleasure & pain virtues of a certain Leviathan-ruled, hellish underworld, the mantra might be '...what's your pleasure, sir?' In the end, no matter how it reads, the 'song (always) remains the same'...as Led Zeppelin once sang, and in reiterating, what 'turns on' one person may well be different from what 'turns on' another. Strangely enough...though probably not readily admitted by most...the more unusual the 'turn on', in seeing it through another's eyes, the more irresistibly compelling it is...almost as if one of 'the norm' sees, and is drawn towards something, which one just can't have...that is, without feeling out of 'the norm'. Such tortured complexity of character and emotion...in self-discovery, self-expression and self-indulgence...is the flavor of the moment, as Vinegar Syndrome lets their freak flag fly, in their latest 'drive-in' double feature offering, by 'blue movie' auteur Kemal Horulu (...previously spotlighted, with one of V/S's previous 'drive-in' double feature pairing, "The Sexualist" and "Wendy's Palace"). Lurid & tawdry tales of tortured drama, obsessive longings...and wildly erotic fantasies fulfilled...

Movie Review: The Oral Generation (1970, Vinegar Syndrome)

...this viewer has made no secret of the fact that he absolutely loves the golden age of XXX-rated movies, which was prevalent in and around the '70's and early '80's. There was often a novel story idea, as well as moments of amusement, comedy and bizarre surrealism, interlaced with the voyeuristically lurid and explicitly lingering sex scenes. The actors and actresses in the films, varied in their ability to entice...from bodaciously 'va-va-voom' to alluringly filthy and nasty. And that music...usually ranging from a cool and rhythmic jazz, to...oh, that stereotypically hokey 'waka-waka-ding-dang' riff, which many of the films from that particular era, were known for. Placing that observation on the back burner, for a moment, this viewer later nurtured a curiosity about certain obscure and hard-to-find, sexually explicit films, which were also playing in and around the grindhouse/drive-in circuit, at the time...the trailers of which almost always bore the same enticing line of "...because of possibly impressionable persons in the audience, we can't show you certain scenes of this movie, here in the trailer; however be assured that when this film appears in this theater, it will be presented uncut...a film, specifically geared for today's more progressively promiscuous audience..." (...the late Mike Vraney's 'Something Weird Video's quite entertaining 'Dusk 'til Dawn Drive-In Trash-o-rama' movie trailer collection series, was notorious for splicing in trailers for such films, amidst the genre and exploitation film trailers). Once again, taking it's cue from what 'Something Weird Video' had once done best, Vinegar Syndrome has once again unleashed a selection of films...the headlining "Oral Generation" feature film, and an eclectically assorted & paraded set of short films...which, in this case, herein...delectably, and sometimes mind-scramblingly...assumes the best of both worlds, as mentioned previously...

Movie Review: "The First Time/Oriental Babysitter" (1978/77, Essex/Vinegar Syndrome)

...whoever it once was that said, in the far and away-back, 'music soothes the savage beast', clearly did not foresee it's arousing effects and application, in the varied and widely eclectic genre of blue movies. Given a specific sex scene, from a specific film, from the countless number of films produced since the inception of the genre, the type of music attached to the scene, clearly has the ability to set, manipulate and change the tone, the attitude, the emotional fervor...even the level of arousal, depending upon the viewer (...what was it, someone else said, at one time?? 'Different strokes for different folks'??). As with most films, the music...pieces strategically placed in concert with each other...often times has the power to ratchet up the potency of certain scenes...even the whole film, itself...to a most erotically appreciative pinnacle. And this is what stands out, foremost creatively, in Vinegar Syndrome's latest 'drive-in' two-fer...two delectable and ironically deceptive-titled films from the golden age of '70's X-rated movie fold...from the auteur production studio of Essex, and the deftly welded direction of Anthony Spinelli (...under the alternate nom-de-plum, Leonard Burke), it's 1978's "The First Time", and 1977's "Oriental Babysitter"...

...we open up with Sue (Mimi Margan), who is engaged in a steamy sex scene, and appearingly, very good at what she does; to the amazement of her handsome co-star...as well as Jake (Jack Wright), a lawyer, who's house is being used for the porno shoot...who catches her in between takes, this was her very first outing, in front of the camera. Thinking back onto how she got where she presently is, Sue recalls being coerced into doing X-rated films by her ex-boyfriend, Jan (Joey Silvera), an unmotivated self-serving slacker, who becomes enraged...even roughly taking it out on Sue, sexually...when it is suggested that he find a job, to help support their household... 

Interracial Sex Havoc #2: 1972 - 1974

A selection of film reviews by Christos Mouroukis.

We continue our journey through interracial sex in the movies, and this time we’ll take a look at genre and golden age porn flicks from 1972 to 1974.

There are many films from the period, especially adult ones, that I didn’t manage to track down, but you get what you get.

Even though I have read more than a dozen of books on adult films (mostly biographies), I don’t know much about the subject, and usually I can’t tell who’s who, due to all those phony names. Therefore this journey is a catalog of a man becoming a fan, not a thesis by an expert.

It is a journey that entertains me a lot and I hope the same happens to you when reading my reviews and watching the films. It is a journey full of thrills and kicks; because I dig up movies I’ve never heard of before and get to watch again some classics.

Not all films included here are pornographic, but they had to have at least one interracial sex scene in order to qualify. This chapter includes cartoons, porn, a cannibal flick, a Hammer film, blaxploitation and more. So, enjoy!

Fritz the Cat (1972)

This cartoon is set in the 1960s and revolves around the sexual encounters of the title’s character [voice by Skip Hinnant] and other animals. You got to love adult cartoons! There are burps and pissing (in the first seconds) along with smoking, torture, and nudity. And on the disgusting front, you get to see some swastikas and animal cruelty.

If you like your entertainment to be offensive, you can’t go wrong with this flick. Cops are played by pigs (with small dicks) trying to be tough but end up ridiculous and even get pissed by a rabbit. The whole thing is also full of racial jokes, and technically, loads of “interracial” sex.

Movie Review: Barbara Broadcast (Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack)

If you've had the opportunity of catching the remastered DVD and Blu-ray releases of Radley Metzger's adult features from Distripix / Video-X-Pix like The Opening of Misty Beethoven, The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann and Maraschino Cherry you've come to expect a quality of care that's rarely seen by other adult movie distributors. The recent release of the three disc DVD/ Blu-ray combo pack of Metzger's Barbara Broadcast carries on what those fine titles had going for them with a new restoration and some glorious goodies.

What if there was a restaurant where you could get a hand-job for an appetizer, intercourse for dinner and a little blowjob to finish off things to cap off the evening? This is the reality of  Henry Paris Barbra Broadcast? The elegant and always lovely Annette Haven (Maraschino Cherry) plays Barbara, a very well respected Madame who's on hand in this pleasure-based establishment to do an interview with a reporter named Roberta(C.J Laing) who happens to very interested in her life. From this point forward Metzger establishes an at times off-the-wall fantasy - with the viewer quickly being whisked away in a series of vignettes that weave a decadent piece of Golden Age entertainment.

Movie Review: More Than Sisters

Probably one of the more interesting places to set the backdrop for a vintage fuck-film would have to be in a run-down mental hospital. Shaun Costello's, More Than Sisters takes full advantage of this very idea. Costello, the director of such porn classics as Dracula Exotica, That Lady From Rio, Fiona on Fire and of course, the incomparable Waterpower also takes on the role of John Bollinger, an unconfident guy with coke-bottle thick spectacles, whose very concerned for his wife, Susie Bollinger(Lynn Stevens). Susie seems to be flipping out because of an onslaught of sexually charged dreams. Leave it to Dr Allan Bannister (Jamie Gillis) to help rectify the situation with his own brand of medicine. This hospital , as you'd expect, isn't your average medical facility: The doctors fuck the nurses, the nurses straddle the patients, the patients suck off all of the above. No doubt, sexual healing is the best kind of "therapy".