Movie Review: Grindhouse Collection: Sex Before Marriage Double Feature (1969,1970)

Whenever a new collection from After Hours Cinema's "Grindhouse Collection" series comes out, more often than not vintage XXX fans get a treasure trove of ultra-sleazy goodness. With some of the biggest stars and directors of the 70's spotlighting many of the releases (John Holmes, Rene Bond, Tina Russell, Carter Stevens) so you're almost certain to find at least something to entertain. The recent release of the Sex Before Marriage double feature has none of those stars but it is appropriately filthy when it's not dull.

Sex Before Marriage opens this double-bill of early XXX smut in grand fashion with a lamb-chop sideburn wearing bachelor partaking in pre-nuptial fornication with his fiancée. One woman ain’t enough for this dude so after he finishes on her belly he goes on the hunt for some cooch not attached to his wife. In between and during the sex scenes we see is wife in front of a church waving a bouquet of flowers and looking frustrated because he hasn’t shown up to the wedding that was actually that day. This one’s watchable for some of the camp value surrounding the pre-wedding shenanigans, but I have to warn, the sex scenes are generally pretty painful.



The second feature on the disc, Freudian, opens in vile fashion with a graphic close-up of a particularly foul-looking, gaping vagina. Imagine Kenny Rogers eating a really sloppy Arby's beef and cheddar, and you'll know what I mean. The camera soon focuses on some heavy lesbian action between the two women.

It doesn't get too much better from here as Freudian is pretty much a mish mash of bad sex scenes with even more unattractive folks. The powerful narrative of Sex Before Marriage is also lacking. So any of the comic relief you might have experienced in the previous film is gone. Yeesh!

The usual After Hours Cinema trailer reel is tacked on as an extra. There are some newer trailers of some much more promising releasing so it may be the highlight of the disc. Overall, this set just wasn't for me, but if you’re a completist and enjoy the series, "snatch" it up!