Belgian ex-pat psychiatrist turned theater director with a more profitable sideline in pornography (phew !) Ted Roter a/k/a "Peter (occasionally Pierre) Balakoff" pretty much abandoned the sometimes maddeningly idiosyncratic style of his '70s output (PAUL, LISA AND CAROLINE being a prime example thereof) for a more conventional approach in the following decade. While his "repertory company" (Gena Lee, Monique Fabergé, John Hollyfield) was still present and accounted for, he supplemented his casts with several of the bigger name performers at the time. With less "realistically" droopy female flesh and disparagingly flaccid man-meat (often his own) on display, this definitely cranked up the heat a notch or two.
Possibly his most erotically effective effort of a highly checkered career, RING OF DESIRE borrows its structure from Arthur Schnitzler's oft-filmed play REIGEN a/k/a LA RONDE through a series of couplings with one of the participants instigating the next until the story winds up back with the first character and the circle is completed. Adult films have frequently employed the gimmick of an object (usually a piece of jewelry, in this case a ring, natch) that inspires lust in its possessor. It is handed out among a group of easily recognizable (and generally well-acted) archetypes who then proceed to get down to business. Buying the trinket from a teenage runaway, lawyer Kevin James (sadly no longer with us, but a magnificent hunk as well as a terrific character actor in Fred Lincoln's riotous MITZI'S HONOR) passes it along to his smoldering secretary Drea. Bill Margold's significant other at the time, she failed to make waves as a performer (barring a rare lead in Sven Conrad's gorgeously shot DOING IT) but proved a solid directrix with groundbreaking all black fare like HOT (and its sequel HOTTER) CHOCOLATE. She needs a long lunch break to check up on her philandering photographer boyfriend Paul Thomas who proceeds to put the moves on nervous nude model Jennifer West, who essayed the title role in Gary Graver's steamy TANGERINE. Coming home to her lesbian lover, best-selling authoress Georgina Spelvin, the poor girl is put through the wringer as to what really occurred at the studio.
A party turned orgy thrown by big time movie director Margold – a not always appropriately respected pillar of the adult industry – finds him bagging the ring for his troubles in gratitude for Georgina's sweltering threesome with blonde twins, the female half of which is little-seen Diane Martin who was one of the ballet school troublemakers in Graver's underrated INDECENT EXPOSURE. It is stolen from him by hooker Gena Lee (in an inspired comedic performance, playing little girl to Bill's punishing papa) who in turn has it taken from her by pimp John Hollyfield. He gives it to naive Hollywood hopeful Hillary Summers, star of Ron Sullivan's BUDDING OF BRIE, incidentally the very first adult film I ever saw, now 25 years ago ! One of the films sweetest and most charmingly acted scenes comes next with Hillary turning tricks with an unbelievably svelte Ron Jeremy (hey, the Hedgedhog was a hunk at one time !) who's kind and considerate towards her, making him the jewel's next owner. As a "physical therapist" (rater a masseur with an in-depth bedside manner), he pays weekly visits to hefty housewife Monique Fabergé who just happens to be the wife of the attorney the movie kicked off with.
Aided by Joseph Bryant's brightly colored cinematography and his by now customary classic selections (Ravel's Bolero, Chopin), Roter wastes little time on intricate intrigue, emphasizing sex over story for a change. Performers are given but a few moments to sketch their characters, the varying success thereof significant of their individual prowess. Spelvin, Lee, Summers, Margold and Jeremy come off best, able to breathe life into well-worn stereotypes. The late Roter's admittedly uneven achievements are rarely given their due nowadays but with the endearing A LITTLE MORE THAN LOVE, the witty and whimsical sex clinic farce THE MASTER AND MS. JOHNSON under his belt, his "oeuvre" must surely be ripe for re-appraisal. Here's a good place to start
Possibly his most erotically effective effort of a highly checkered career, RING OF DESIRE borrows its structure from Arthur Schnitzler's oft-filmed play REIGEN a/k/a LA RONDE through a series of couplings with one of the participants instigating the next until the story winds up back with the first character and the circle is completed. Adult films have frequently employed the gimmick of an object (usually a piece of jewelry, in this case a ring, natch) that inspires lust in its possessor. It is handed out among a group of easily recognizable (and generally well-acted) archetypes who then proceed to get down to business. Buying the trinket from a teenage runaway, lawyer Kevin James (sadly no longer with us, but a magnificent hunk as well as a terrific character actor in Fred Lincoln's riotous MITZI'S HONOR) passes it along to his smoldering secretary Drea. Bill Margold's significant other at the time, she failed to make waves as a performer (barring a rare lead in Sven Conrad's gorgeously shot DOING IT) but proved a solid directrix with groundbreaking all black fare like HOT (and its sequel HOTTER) CHOCOLATE. She needs a long lunch break to check up on her philandering photographer boyfriend Paul Thomas who proceeds to put the moves on nervous nude model Jennifer West, who essayed the title role in Gary Graver's steamy TANGERINE. Coming home to her lesbian lover, best-selling authoress Georgina Spelvin, the poor girl is put through the wringer as to what really occurred at the studio.
A party turned orgy thrown by big time movie director Margold – a not always appropriately respected pillar of the adult industry – finds him bagging the ring for his troubles in gratitude for Georgina's sweltering threesome with blonde twins, the female half of which is little-seen Diane Martin who was one of the ballet school troublemakers in Graver's underrated INDECENT EXPOSURE. It is stolen from him by hooker Gena Lee (in an inspired comedic performance, playing little girl to Bill's punishing papa) who in turn has it taken from her by pimp John Hollyfield. He gives it to naive Hollywood hopeful Hillary Summers, star of Ron Sullivan's BUDDING OF BRIE, incidentally the very first adult film I ever saw, now 25 years ago ! One of the films sweetest and most charmingly acted scenes comes next with Hillary turning tricks with an unbelievably svelte Ron Jeremy (hey, the Hedgedhog was a hunk at one time !) who's kind and considerate towards her, making him the jewel's next owner. As a "physical therapist" (rater a masseur with an in-depth bedside manner), he pays weekly visits to hefty housewife Monique Fabergé who just happens to be the wife of the attorney the movie kicked off with.
Aided by Joseph Bryant's brightly colored cinematography and his by now customary classic selections (Ravel's Bolero, Chopin), Roter wastes little time on intricate intrigue, emphasizing sex over story for a change. Performers are given but a few moments to sketch their characters, the varying success thereof significant of their individual prowess. Spelvin, Lee, Summers, Margold and Jeremy come off best, able to breathe life into well-worn stereotypes. The late Roter's admittedly uneven achievements are rarely given their due nowadays but with the endearing A LITTLE MORE THAN LOVE, the witty and whimsical sex clinic farce THE MASTER AND MS. JOHNSON under his belt, his "oeuvre" must surely be ripe for re-appraisal. Here's a good place to start