(1989)

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7/10
Would be gangster epic stars legit Italian actress
Wolfgang_Rodenbach8 December 2009
With this feature former Italian mainstream actress turned porn-star Lilli Carati tried her luck in American Adult features. So, director Alex de Renzy jumped on this opportunity to make his own 'Godfather', complete with an opening sequence set in Palermo, Sicily (but obviously not filmed there). Also note the Italian dialog with English subtitles. Still, the end result is just a bunch of American looking people with big Eighties hair and enormous shoulder pads trying to act butch while having a lot of sex.

The version of The Whore commented on here was found on the internet and at 45 minutes is definitely incomplete, though it does feature lengthy opening and closing credits (much longer than those usually found on this sort of picture). Since it does have a beginning and and an end, I feel like I get the gist of what De Renzy was going for, meriting this comment.

During the aforementioned Sicilian prologue, Gina (Carati) becomes an unwilling accomplice in a mafia hit. Fearing the wrath of Don Depisco, she flees to her family in San Francisco. This despite the fact that uncle Don Lucano (Jamie Gillis) is not exactly happy to have her staying in his house. This is because Lucano is facing deportation at the hands of Judge Hollis (a very young and underused Mike Horner). Lucky Lucano immediately finds some dirt on the Judge: he likes to visit a fancy brothel and dress up in women's lingerie. But the owner of the brothel, Eddie Perroni (the distinctly un-Italian looking Joey Silvera) refuses to compromise his privacy policy and will not shoot any embarrassing pictures of Hollis.

The Don then arranges to kidnap Eddie's wife Liz (Tracey Adams) and puts her up in his late mother's bedroom. Which is a bit strange as he normally won't have anyone in there. The room is strictly off limits for his Sicilian niece, whom he naturally catches getting to know the maid intimately in there. Not to be outdone, Eddie somehow kidnaps Gina (the version I saw skips right to the end around this time) and there is an exchange, in which it turns out Liz prefers to stay with the Don instead. So it's not exactly Mario Puzo, but it does have a more elaborate plot than most films of it's ilk. Unfortunately I must have missed how the whole subplot with the Judge was resolved, if any. Still, this Whore is worth seeking out if only to see Lilli Carati's final on screen role, and partially in English to boot.

7 out of 10
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Tired-blood porn
lor_15 September 2011
Warning: Spoilers
THE WHORE is an extremely disappointing porn film, given the talents involved and even the wasting of "shooting on film" for such a boring result. I'm reviewing a complete (86 minute) version on DVD, as opposed to a half-is-missing copy watched by the previous IMDb poster.

For the DVD packaging, Lilli Carati is downplayed, as well she should be. Her American porn film debut does not show her to great advantage, and she emerges rather than the expected showcased star but instead just along for the ride. It's not surprising that this was a career-ender.

Producer Henri Pachard and his director Alex de Renzy were riding high with a critically acclaimed success THE NICOLE STANTON STORY, a well-made and still remembered hit. But they flunked this time for distrib Caballero. The DVD has the unfortunate Caballero latter-day gimmick of presenting all the dialog in echo-chamber format, very annoying throughout.

Jamie Gillis in the lead role as a world-weary West Coast mafia don is quite boring, and is physically in bad shape, not fit and with a deathly white skin pallor. His sex scene is not up to the quality of his prime '70s career, so fans are likely to be disappointed.

Lead femme Tracey Adams is likewise out of shape, looking a bit embarrassing in a one-piece pink bathing suit (she might be a poster child for those TV commercials warning women to slim down for "bikini season"). I'm a big fan of hers, and was unthrilled to see her this way.

So it devolves on Jeannie Pepper, then perhaps the top Black actress in porn, to shine as Gillis's maid, who gets it on with Carati and later (under duress) his unconvincing capo Tom Byron.

Adversary Joey Silvera has an unplayable role as a pimp who finds Gillis "offer you can't refuse" refusable, setting into motion the boring storyline of Gillis kidnapping his wife Adams, and Joey later kidnapping Carati (Gillis's fresh-off-the-boat niece) in return to create a final reel Mexican standoff.

SPOILER ALERT:

Suspense is generated for a while by Gillis's gentlemanly behavior: he insists that his captive Adams be treated with utmost respect, and only finally breaks down to have sex with her because, this is a porno movie! The film has no script credit for good reason: there is a ton of exposition but the story is completely unconvincing.

Key subplot of Mike Horner miscast as a cross-dressing judge who is poised to sign deportation papers on Gillis (and must be blackmailed to avoid that) is muffed. Carati is preposterously sent in as a whore to compromise the judge when Silvera balks at letting his own staff (lovely Debi Diamond) do it, yet Diamond is in the scene anyway for a threesome. The resolution of this boring nonsense is Gillis merely deciding to leave the country with new beau Adams rather than resist deportation -a yawner of a conclusion.

Idiotic "twist" of Adams' brother (Marc Wallice) turning out to be Carati's dead boyfriend whose picture is in a locket he gave her is lame in the extreme.

Entire cast walks through this one in bored fashion, while Carati hasn't a clue what to do -speaking mainly in Italian or stabs of pidgin English. Producer Pachard hams it up as a flunky working for Gillis and is embarrassing.

But the biggest embarrassment is the non-contribution of director Alex de Renzy. One of the key creators of early porn, he would direct over 100 videos after this one, generally all-sex anal fetish films using the pseudonym "Rex Borsky". But his loss of interest by 1989 when this was shot is evident in the unstimulating sex scenes and deadly dull "acting" scenes.
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