The
Chambermaids (1974)/42nd
Street Forever: The Peep Show Collection, V.2: Wild Action
+ V.3: Erotic
Dynamite (1970s - early
1980s/Impulse DVDs)/Masters
Of Sex: Season One
(2013/Sony DVDs)/Peekarama:
All Night Long
(1975)/Tapestry Of
Passion (1976) + Erotic
Adventures Of Candy
(1978)/Candy Goes
To Hollywood
(1979/Vinegar Syndrome DVD)
Picture:
C/C/C/C/C+/C+ Sound: C/C/C/C+/C+/C+ Extras: D/D/D/C+/C-/C-
Main Programs: C+/B-/C+/B/C+/B-
Dealing
with erotic material and themes is not easy despite its ironic
abundance everywhere, but most images and attempts to show the erotic
are usually forgettable, phony and lame. Nudity and (as amateur Net
clips prove) having sex on camera can be the opposite if the
intended, not sexy when it is supposed to be sexy. A combination of
factors caused the original rise of the Sexual Revolution including
the birth control pill, various writings and various Civil Rights
movements. The following releases show us now vintage examples of
all of this and a great new TV series on how some of it was
launched...
The
Chambermaids (1974) is a short 72 minutes and is an older
hardcore (meaning nothing is left to the imagination) where whomever
the title referred to, they were reeling and ready to have all kinds
of sex. The cast manages to have all kinds of sex with little talk
and even less storyline, typical of films of the period coming out of
the period and just liberated by the ruling that said it was legal to
show Deep Throat (1972, see more about that one elsewhere on
this site). The print and haircuts may be worn out, but the various
sex scenes are casual, smooth and more realistic than most of what
wee see today. This holds up well enough, if not a masterwork of XXX
films, it is worth a look for the time capsule it is.
There
are no extras.
Pre-VHS
& Beta videocassette, short XXX films were also very popular, so
much so that even when in color, they did not necessarily come with
soundtracks, though Super 8mm and 16mm film had the capacity for
sound, regular 8mm (like some of the loops here) rarely did. 42nd
Street Forever: The Peep Show Collection, Volume 2: Wild Action
and Volume 3: Erotic Dynamite are part of a series that
collects these various shorts from the 1970s to early 1980s here as
is in sometimes rough form in this new series of compilation DVDs.
As hardcore graphic as the features of the time, many were made and
they sold very well well into the early VHS/Beta battle.
It
is interesting and as is the case, like TV commercials or music
videos, some are more memorable and better than others, but all are
curious and the actual films still do sell well, especially if they
are good, have a reputation or even have a name in them in the rare
case they do for XXX fans. The result is a new record of a key part
of the 1970s XXX experience (you could either mail out for these or
buy them at a sex shop) from a period where film was king. It also
shows us when you only have a few minutes, you need to get to the
point ASAP. Interesting and worth your time, though Volume 2 is
better than 3. Hope we see more.
There
are no extras here either.
When
sex is discussed these days, it is as a joke, sometimes politically
by design, so when I heard we were getting a TV show on the
groundbreaking sex studies by Masters & Johnson, I was concerned.
However, it turns out that Masters Of Sex: Season One (2013)
is a surprisingly well made series and I can see despite its
popularity, it is doing something well since not enough people are
talking about it. Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan play the main roles
as Sheen (underrated and well cast) plays the doctor who os trying to
take sex more seriously than just about anyone before ever has. He
is initially ridiculed, but he moves on lands up breaking landmark
ground on the subject. This 12-episode first season is smart, well
made, well done, honest, true to period and well cast show that
deserves an even larger audience than it now has (it is on the pay
cable network Showtime).
John
Madden (a co-producer) and Michael Apted are among the directors,
music by the underrated Michael Penn (No Myth) and a cast that
also includes Teddy Sears, Caitlin FitzGerald, Nicholas D'Agosto,
Beau Bridges, Helene Yorke, Julianne Nicholson, Cole Sand, Rose
McIver, Allison Janney, plus turns by Joan Severance, Courtney B.
Vance, Sarah Silverman and Margo Martindale make this very well made,
densely realized and one of the best new cable TV shows and overall
TV shows of late. As compared to Mad Men, it can more than compete
with capturing its time. Recommended.
Extras
include a brief episode guide printed inside the DVD sleeve, while
the DVDs add cast audio commentary on the pilot, Deleted Scenes, a
Making Of featurette and two other featurettes: A Masterful
Portrayal: Michael Sheen as Dr. Masters and Ahead Of Her Time:
Lizzy Caplan as Virginia Johnson.
The
Peekarama series of double
feature DVDs from Vinegar Syndrome show us XXX features being saved
and now on DVD. Unlike other genres that go to humor later as they
start to wear thin, XXX sex films added humor immediately and so much
so that some integrated it better than others. In the films here,
Alan Colberg's All Night Long
(1975) and Tapestry Of Passion (1976) may not always be
consistent, but they are two John Holmes hits and the Passion is an
entry (no pun intended) in the infamous Holmes/Johnny Wadd series.
They are not bad and historical, but a little disappointing, though
they have their moments. More successful are Gail Palmer's Erotic
Adventures Of Candy (1978) and
Candy Goes To Hollywood (1979) with Carol Conners
perfect as the life ans sex-loving title character.
She
is perfectly cast and her comic timing is honestly impressive, then
she looks great having sex! XXX films were hitting their stride and
both ideas and budgets were climbing. Some films were pushing the
envelope of exploitation, some in the violence sense, while others
were going for the ultimate in epic XXX even mainstream and art
cinema (more on that another time) were trying to add more sex into
their narrative where it would not have been before. At this point,
everyone was enjoying the joys of sex and it all seemed fun on the
surface, but soon censorship, a backlash, AIDS, drugs and excess
would bring this slowly to an end, but all these classic films are
testament to the success and immense popularity of such releases. It
may seem quaint in the HD and Internet era, but these still hold up
better than most films that followed, not to mention the millions of
analog videotaped XXX that even the industry that made them has
treated as quickly disposable.
Trailers
for all four films are respectively included on their DVDs.
The
1.33 X 1 on all the XXX Peep short films and Chambermaid
show their age, with scratches on the prints and other color
variances. Most look like Kodak film, but some used Fuji, Agfa,
Anscochrome and even Ferrania stocks. It is just that the Candy
films look even better so nicely restored, that they are the only
ones on the list that could get Blu-rays now, featured here in
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 presentations like the Holmes
films, which also should get Blu-rays, but need some more work. The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Masters are produced
on HD video and are just too soft here for their own good, but shot
well enough that
The
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on the Masters
episodes are the best sounding here as expected since the rest are
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono films (the short loops are silent, but a
droning projector noise has been added to every
one of them) with sometimes harsh, brightly-edged or even brittle
sound, but the Candy
and Holmes
films fare better, enough that they can compete with the shortcomings
of Masters
more than expected.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
