Reviews

I have nothing to add to the spot-on reviews herein. I just want to say that if you look at the scene near the end of the movie with all the grasshopper-like Martians streaming across the screen, then watch the start of a cross-country skiing race, you might notice a great similarity. Coincidence?

By the way, this movie is truly chilling in spots, not because of what you see or hear, but for how the actors respond to what they are seeing offscreen.

Nine women sign up for a class in striptease at the "extension." Apparently this is an enrichment class, not one you could take to satisfy a degree requirement. Kim Yates plays their instructor, as well she should, having worked once in real life as a showgirl. Each of the women has a story and the movie follows five of them through the class and its affect on their lives.

Using that storyline, Stripper Wives delivers the goods. There are more naked women in this one than dead guys in a Rambo movie. Seven softcore sex scenes, while not incendiary, feature the finest bodies in the movie. Notably absent, however, is Ms. Yates. One of the best softcore actresses ever gets to do nothing more than flash her buns while teaching class. Not arguing with that, but she has no sex scene and no topless shots. Incredible.

Amber Newman and Lauren Hays get the most skin time, which is good. No, real good. Amber has three sex scenes, only the second of which gets down to it. Her third scene is the obligatory girlfest with Ashlyn Gere.

The remaining sex scenes belong to Ashlyn (batting leadoff), Sage Kirkpatrick, Brande Roderick (yes, the 2001 Playmate of the Year and Baywatch babe), and Hays. Just sayin', by the way, this movie is not listed on Brande's web site or on her Wikipedia page. Hmmm….

At the end of the movie, the girls are given their final exam at a local strip club by providing the evening's entertainment. Very nice all around.

Oh, yes. There are some good-looking guys in it, but who cares about them? First-rate production values, as usual from an EROS movie. There isn't a lot of drama in Stripper Wives, just a bunch of wives, or not, stripped. Recommended.

To be clear on the first thing you need to know, the girl on the cover is not in the movie. Oh, well, Kim Yates is. Though Judy Thompson is the lead, the movie belongs to Kim. She is not the best actress you have ever heard get through her lines somehow, but she is without peer when it comes to softcore performance. She puts her flawless, slender figure through the paces like no one else can. As for Judy, if you like fake breasts (no way these are real) that are too big, she's your gal. There seems to be a story, but I forgot what it was. No matter. I don't watch these movies to be told a story. Watch it to see Kim, in the Unrated version, of course.

My overall rating of seven stars is for this as a softcore movie. Not comparing it to Citizen Kane.

For most of you, the attraction to this movie is its stunning star, Brigitte Lahaie. In a twist, she is not in that many sex scenes, spending most of her screen time in a supporting role. I won't be seeing all of her films, because they're hard to find in the States, but of the ones I have seen, she is at her most charming in La Rabatteuse.

She plays a woman with the singular talent, not some sex trick, but of being able to convince any woman, in seconds, to have sex with another man. You might think this would be a real nice girlfriend to have. Even better, and less complicated, if she is your best friend's girlfriend. That's exactly the role she plays here. Her boyfriend leaves on a business trip, leaving Brigitte in the care of his best friend and encourages him to let B work her magic for him. The pair hasn't even left the airport dining room when he asks her to start off with a stewardess played by Karine Gambier.

Karine comes to visit the lucky guy, Robert, played Ghislain Van Hove, at a dinner party for three. Robert wants to serve dessert, but the two horny gals pull him into the parlor and make him their dessert. Not only does he have his way with the stew, he gets a throw at Brigitte, too. His best friend's girl! Oh, those French.

The next day or so the two go shopping for lingerie, and Brigitte tries on a virginal nightgown, with Robert and the sales clerk, Danielle Troeger, in the fitting room with her. Big fitting room. Big enough for the clerk to strip down and try on the same model of nightgown, at B's urging, then lose it and her G-string and try on Robert. At B's urging.

A horny countess, played by Emmanuelle Parèze, pays a visit the next evening and there isn't much to be said about this scene other than they try to slow her down and don't really succeed.

Sitting in a sidewalk café, a mother and daughter are at a neighboring table. Robert leaves and Brigitte engages the pair in a sisterly conversation. Cut to Robert's parlor where the daughter, the legendary France Lomay, is guided by her Mom, played by the ordinary Marion Schulz, into the ways of love. They might have had The Talk before this, but Mom is now taking her charge through her first Practical Examination. A naked Brigitte orchestrates the ménage à quatre. After Robert has initiated France's loins, Mom gets a turn.

In movie pacing, directors condense what might be a fifteen-minute real-life encounter to about three. In sex movies, there is the meeting and the set-up, which can take about that much screen time, before the good stuff begins. After a while, though, all you want is the good stuff. That's what you get now. In quick succession, Robert goes through five women: cinema usherette Nicole Velna, dog-walker Samantha, pedestrian Alexandra Sand, petite shopgirl Claude Janna, and pedestrian Barbara Moose. The first four ladies get less than five minutes apiece: ten-second encounter, set-up off screen, then enter Robert's apartment, parlor, and undress, about twenty seconds, make an oral howdy-do to Robert, and let the fun begin. Barbara's scene concludes the film, with the countess coming back for an encore. When her chauffeur crashes the party, there are two men and three women (Brigitte, heretofore a naked non-participant, is back, giving it and getting it), with more hook-ups in more ways and you have to be taking notes to keep track of it all. If Brigitte's boyfriend were to show up the combinations would involve French mathematics currently beyond my comprehension (though I'm a quick study).

Men, if you have ever had the fantasy of having every woman you want to say Yes (do I really need to ask), this film is for you. Women, if you have ever had the fantasy that you just want to cut through the crap and get down to it, this film is for you. What more does it need to offer?

Filmed with high production values, imaginative "choreography," and lots of pretty women. Robert is quite fine, too. If you could have only one sex film (silly thought), this one would be a pretty good choice.

This initial film offering by G. Brian Benson tells of a street musician who plays for quarters and dollar bills in the cold winter streets of Reno, Nevada. He has people pretty well figured out, but that doesn't make him a rich man. Or does it?

Everyone on the street has a story. Benjamin is a disabled war vet. Probably Vietnam. Cowboy spent his early life building the superhighways we drive on to get to Reno. Raised a family, has children and grandchildren. John is a comedian. It wasn't a straightforward path. The Guitar Man? We don't know where he came from, but we do know he wants that shiny dobro in the window.

Guitar Man is nine minutes of warmth and inspiration. It's a small movie with a big point.

Rebecca Brooke, playing Carole, the young American housewife, doesn't confess much in this move, but has sex with everybody. It's a wonderful compliment to Rousseau, who confesses everything and never has sex. OK, she does confess to her Mom that she is "a very hot, horny girl and has been ever since high school." She doesn't do a lot of housewife stuff, either. OK, she folds a towel once. A towel. Once. It's her mother, Jennifer, played by the bustiful Jennifer Welles, who is the housewife of your dreams. Great in the kitchen, great in the sack. Even though she's about the same age as Brooke, Welles has a mature look that makes her believable as Brooke's mother. Move over, Stifler's Mom, Welles is the original MILF.

Carole and her husband Eddie (David Hausman) live next door to Anna (Chris Jordan) and her husband Pete (Eric Edwards). The foursome are a "foursome." After Mom-Jennifer comes for a visit and stares at herself in the mirror (naked, of course) for a good long while, the four kids strip down in the living room like they were in the gym getting ready for a workout. It's actually their nightly romp, which becomes a group grope with Carole in the middle while she is unloading something about her Momma's breasts that must be a complex with the name of a Greek play attached to it. Best to watch this scene with the sound turned off.

The next day, Pete puts a move on Mom, which Mom thinks is really cool, but that would make the kitchen way too hot, so Mom starts packing. Carole talks her into staying, and the next day the delivery boy (uncredited) from the supermarket shows up. Boing! Mom now has reason to live! And have sex. In the middle of the next night's orgy, (don't these people ever go bowling or something?), Pete slips upstairs and slips into Mom. The next time Delivery Boy comes with the groceries, Mom sets the hook with pie, coffee, and a sweater to keep him warm. Note that Mom, who heretofore has had her hair pinned up in a matronly wad, now has it flowing seductively below her shoulders. You learn to notice those things in film studies class.

Here comes the money scene, where the three ladies go to see Shandara, a mystic of some kind who teaches enlightenment through lesbian sex. They have the night off because the boys are going bowling (so what do I know?). So in see-through nighties, which don't stay on very long, Shandara leads Mom and daughter and friend through ritual kissing, breast-fondling, and a bunch of other stuff that you can fill in on your own. It comes to a close when Mom, in a moment of unfocused lust, almost launches herself at her daughter, but at the last second she stops. Darn. I could go on, but I'll leave you to see for yourself what other trysts director Joe Sarno came up with. Hint: Mom gets it from every direction.

Reviewing this review, I seem to have left out the plot and mentioned only the sex scenes. But then, that's all there is to mention. The movie starts off slowly and hits the finish line at 100 miles per hour. I think Sarno was going to make a movie with a message but halfway through said, "Aw heck, maybe next time," and just set up the actors for one grind after another. As always, the movie is well lit, and well photographed. Sarno is a filmmaker, after all. Recommended.

Any movie the title of which has a person's name followed by "is Back in Town" means that wrong was done to owner of said name and said owner has returned to extract revenge. Except in this one the title character was wronger, not the wrongee, and deserved to get the boot. Abigail (Jennifer Jordan) was a sex hound whose crime was bedding down with one guy too many—the husband (Jamie Gillis) of the beautiful but tightly wound Priscilla (Rebecca Brooke). Now she's back, the town tramp, whose quest is to prove to everybody who drummed her out of town (they're all high school buddies from about seven years ago) that they were/still are as sex-mad as she was/still is and place as little value on sexual propriety as she did/still does.

Boy, does she do a bang-up job of it. First she lures in the ladies, one at a time and then in group gropes. Next come the guys, again one at a time, then mixing and matching with the ladies here and there until there should be uniform numbers and a scorecard to keep track of it all. Naked bodies everywhere, brightly lit, clearly displayed, much of it likely performed in hardcore but filmed in softcore.

No one is going to win any acting awards for the film, though Eric Edwards, as the lovable but somewhat dim Chester (Chester? Who makes a movie with a character named Chester in it?) tries his hardest. Jennifer Welles appears as Aunt Drucilla (no, she's not a vampire) bent on loosening up her niece Prissy—"I'd be happy to loan you Bo (Sonny Landham). He'd be happy, too." Bo comes over later and Priscilla tries, but she just can't bring herself to cheat on, of all people, Jamie Gillis. Wow.

Well, Prissy finally goes to see Abigail for some sex counseling and gets it in the form of top-notch oral sex in which Brooke chews up the scenery with her over-reaction to what must be the first orgasm of her life. Best to watch this scene with the sound turned off. A few orgies later she is courageous enough to propose running away from Bayport with her one true love—Chester. In the final shot, the happy couple walks through the sand toward the surf and you keep expecting them to make a left turn, but no, they keep walking straight toward the ocean and, who knows, maybe they're going to walk right in and just keep walking. One note about Bayport. It's really Amityville, New York, director Joseph Sarno's hometown. The horror house in not shown in this film, but several scenes were shot adjacent to it. This was four years before the James Brolin film came out.

Of course this movie is not just about naked people. There is a social message, which is, who are we to judge the horniness of others when we are just as horny as the ones we condemn and would act on it if given half a chance? Maybe even a quarter of a chance. Just who are we? At least I think that's the message. Another message is that if you have a camera and a passable script you can get lots of people to take off their clothes for you and watch them have sex with each other. No fool, our director.

Rebecca Brooke was in Europe to film The Image, and stuck around to be in this Max Pecas film. Brooke, whose beauty in sex cinema is second to none, is a busy gal herein, but she gets a run for her money from Beatrice Harnois, her diminutive French co-star for whom this outing came in the middle of a brief career in hardcore. Harnois plays a young teen-ager (Felicia) who is sent by a relative to live with Brooke (Gabrielle) and her husband, played by Jean Roche (Paul), for the summer. It is never clear if this is the summer of Felicia's sexual awakening, or if she is already wide awake, but regardless, her self-appointed mission is to wake up anybody who moves. No one is safe around this kid.

First, Felicia warms up on herself as Paul and Gabby have a session in the kitchen downstairs on the day that Felicia arrives. On to two of fashion photographer Gabby's models whom she catches getting involved with each other in the dressing room after a shoot, and blackmails into letting her watch the full deal. Next she pounces on a lad about her age visiting with his parents for an outdoor barbecue. Gabby is next, in a moonlight tryst in the garden. Then Paul by the firelight, when Gabby is out of town on work. Finally, it's Gabby and Paul together in a bit of makeup sex since Gabby is none too pleased with Paul over his dalliance with Felicia, hers notwithstanding. Let's not gloss over Paul and Gabby's midnight romp al fresco after Felicia barges into their bedroom. I'll bet you didn't think you could do these things in a swimming pool.

In the film's final scene, after Paul and Gabby drop Felicia off at the airport for her flight home, they give a pretty young man a lift back into the city. The happy couple exchange glances which promise Gabby will be a well-used woman in the next few days. We're not sure which of the two is more eager to let the games begin, but her wry smile makes us think the Gabster can't wait to get home so the two guys can get started in on her.

There is plenty of real-time, honest on-screen oral sex performed by the stars, and a few hardcore inserts that look like they were done by body-doubles. Both Brooke and Harnois are naked all over the place, which is a good thing. All voices are dubbed, including Brooke, who is the only non-French actor, in a French melodramatic style that you had better overlook unless you want to spend the entire film in stitches. Other reviewers have commented on the lighting. When the action gets down to the good parts, things sometimes get shadowy and you can't always see the goodies. Pecas is too good of a director to have done that by accident. The background is classic French movie music, which elevates the film above its lowbrow nature. This is a decent semi-hardcore film with enough of a plot to keep you interested and actors who play their sex scenes without the theatrics that you would otherwise expect. It has the look of being made by a filmmaker, rather than by a sex director who threw scenes together. Recommended.

Marc Ross interviews his intrepid model Meg, who in the video identifies herself as Valerie, about her personal relationship with bondage as he puts her through costume changes and assorted bondage predicaments. While she answers Marc's penetrating questions, Meg shows us how to use handcuffs and rope for self-bondage, how to look good in strappado, how to look great immobilized to a wall-mounted ladder, and how to look fabulous on the floor in a hogtie. Of course, she as topless as often as not, but that's part of the job and Meg doesn't mind. When Marc runs out of questions for the moment, or Meg runs out of answers, he applies an oral restraint, which she wears so well.

Marc asks her if bondage is a big part of her life, she says, smiling, after thinking for a bit, "Well, I'm here, aren't I?" Yes, you are. Meg/Val comments toward the end of the movie that the best part of her job as a bondage model is the underwear. We think so, too. She looks like she's having fun, she says she's having fun. Two minor flaws, a radio playing music so loud it's hard to hear Meg's muffled protests when she is fastened to the ladder, and a coffee table that gets in the way of her hogtied excursion in the final scene, mar, but not too much, what is otherwise the most varied and engaging Meg video. Recommended.

This video is billed as red-haired, full-figured Meg's first time in ropes for the camera, but I'm not sure that's exactly true. When it comes to knowing what to do when the red light goes on, Meg is a pro. She struggles against her restraints not to get free, but to enhance the eroticism of her predicament. Clearly, being tied up is something she likes to do. Normally, director Marc Ross and his models are engaged in playful banter, at least when the model can talk, but in this video Marc and Meg are silent throughout, with Meg in cleave gags or ball gags most of the time.

The video starts with Meg fully clothed, and progresses from the chair the floor, in less clothing and more rope as the setup changes. Next following a costume change from black to white, Meg is suspended for a while, then squirms around on the a bound in zip ties rather than rope. The movie ends with Meg wrapped in rope from head to toe, hopping around the living room, then collapsing on a couch, sliding down to the floor for a workout, then somehow getting herself back on the couch. It's an athletic event. Way to go, Meg!

Like all the Marc Ross bondage videos, this is just a girl having fun in rope and lingerie, topless as often as not, all for our viewing pleasure. Recommended.

In this outing, the perky Meg challenges Marc to tie her in the upstairs bedroom so she can't come down. Though she's still tied, she does get down. Round 1 to Meg. Then, in considerably less clothing, the trussed-up Meg thinks she will go shopping instead, but no dice. A small add-on puts a stop to Meg's sassy comments. Round 2 to Marc. Next is Meg in a costume change and featured as a quiet, squirming dinner table centerpiece, followed by some banter with the now verbal Meg on the couch with only slightly more freedom. Round 3 is a tie. The party ends with the silenced Meg immobilized on the floor, but doing her best, in the Blue Bustier of Bondage. Round 4, and the video, to Meg.

This entry is part of Galaxy's Amateur Bondage Series which features lovely young women, like Meg, whose idea of fun is to get undressed and be tied up. No DIDs or rough stuff in these videos. This is as vanilla as a bondage video gets, and it's nice to look at. Recommended.

Mrs. Barrington (the character) can't seem to keep her rich husbands alive. They always die off, with her help, leaving her with loads of money. After all, a girl's got to make a living. The movie starts out at the funeral of her latest ex-husband, and takes us through her search for the next rich husband/poor victim whom she needs to support her expensive life style. Along the way she takes several detours, a series of softcore sex romps, which show that while she is choosy about the men she marries, any man will do when it comes to play time. She won't say No to a woman, either. There is also one amusing strikeout at a swingers party.

Mrs. Barrington (the film) features notable mid-70s New York sex actors Rebecca Brooke, Eric Edwards, David Hausman, Chris Jordan, Jennifer Welles, and of course Kim Pope in the title role. They all get naked, too. I mean, are you kidding? Most of these actors would appear in other Chuck Vincent films, and spill over into Joseph Sarno's work, as well. The film is more or less a comedy with naked women thrown in, and not too badly done. It's not easy to find these days, and I wouldn't suggest that you go looking for it, but if you do come across it, give it a chance. It's a good look at how they made 'em in the old days.

Sometimes you wonder how a film gets approved for financing. With this one, you could pitch it by saying, Let's put "Story of O" in the title and lots of people will watch it. Doesn't matter what the film is about. You could say, Let's tell a story about the downfall of a prideful man, sort of a morality play, and lots of people would watch it. Or you could say what you meant to say all along, Let's make a movie overflowing with naked women that has a story line we'll think of later to make it all hang together, and lots of people will watch it. Now we're talking.

This film is not in any way an adaptation of Return to the Château, Pauline Reage's sequel to her famous novel. It does borrow the title character, O, played by the stunning Sandra Wey. O is an instrument of destruction here, hired by a group of businessmen to ruin the life of a rival who is attempting a takeover. The weapon she uses is sex. O takes Carole James, playing the businessman's daughter, to the château to have her initiated into O-dom in a way quite reminiscent of O's. That means we get to see the fully-equipped James naked a lot, and that's a good thing. O then hires out the seduction of the businessman's wife and his son, who bats from the other side of the plate, and let's not leave out the guard dog. No kidding. The dog. When she has compromised everyone in the family, O turns the family onto each other to complete the ruination of her victim. Roll credits.

This movie is filmed in a European style, which means sexuality is handled much differently than an American film company would do it. It's softcore, but the simulated sex scenes have a hardcore feel. Like I mentioned before, there are naked women everywhere doing European things. The actors move the story along well enough, no one chews up the scenery, though there are a few ridiculous Western accents in the dubbed soundtrack. This is a decent sex film that has a story easy to ignore while you wait for the good parts, which fortunately come by fairly often. Recommended.

When the Just Jaeckin film version of Story of O came out in 1975, many reviewers criticized Corrine Cléry for being a wimpy O. And they were right, she was. But now there's Story of O: Untold Pleasures. You want a wimpy O? Let me introduce you to Danielle Ciardi.

This version of the classic story of sexual submission pulls its punches so often you wonder why it was even made. Let's get clear right off the bat that there is a lot of nudity in the movie: pretty, naked women all over the place, no disappointments there. The Award of Merit in this regard goes to Ciardi's backside. You just don't see 'em like that very often. The problem is with the film's conception of O. She is supposed to give herself completely to Rene and then Sir Stephen to do with her as they please. That's the whole sexual fantasy the story speaks to. Except in Danielle's portrayal, she gets deep into submission when she is at the château, but as soon as she goes home, it's "OK, whatever." She keeps going back and forth between, "I'm yours. Take me," and, "Are you kidding? Why would I want to do that?" O has to buy into the fantasy, the commitment to subservience, for the viewer to buy into it as well. Ciardi never gets us to that point. One begins to wonder why Sir Stephen, played by the talented Neil Dickson, after all her vacillating even wants to give her the time of day.

As for the château, in the Jaeckin version, when O doesn't obey, she gets her ass whipped, hard, from here to sunrise. She even gets her ass whipped for no reason at all, which is actually the best reason there is. In this version, O objects and they say, "Oh, OK." Good grief. Oh, yeah. The whipping in this move? Lame beyond belief.

O (and I guess we have to blame the director for her confused portrayal, not Ciardi) has the gravitas of someone who just doesn't get sex. There is no sense of lust, of craving, of submission, of yielding herself to the moment. She treats sex with as much heat as if she were stringing beads at summer camp, and with about that much maturity. The gap between her front teeth and her school-girl bob don't help much to create the look of a sexual creature, either.

Again, there's lots of nudity, but none of it smolders. There's no fantasy world to get lost in, which this kind of story should provide to you. The only people who should see SoO: Untold Pleasures are completists who want to say they have seen all the film versions of the O story. A check mark on their list is the only thing they'll get out if this one. If you're looking for a turn-on, this movie ain't it.

So what struck me the most about this film is the early morning light that was present throughout. It has that relaxing start-of-the-day feeling that compliments the low-key pace of the story and lack of action in what could have been a pretty brutal film. All the colors are muted as well, the sound track stays in the background, costumes are first-rate, interiors are high-end but restrained, and there are few wild interactions between any of the characters. Moderation in all things, suggesting a reality not based on everyday lives, but of a set of people operating in a parallel world not connected to our own.

Then there's the story. At several points, the Universe screams to a character to just walk away from all this and you'll be fine. The longer you stay the more trouble you're getting in to. It's "don't go down the basement," and what do they do? They go down the basement, of course (in the figurative sense). The ending? That is to say, That's it? The only thing the ending added was a change in style. For the first time, we saw a bright, sunny day with shadows and washed-out colors, perhaps to suggest going back to the normal world. But the actual ending. Gosh, there could have been so much more.

Good acting, good production, but the resolution is for the birds. When the main plot problem is resolved, and you'll know when it is, you can stop watching.

This early work from Jason Whitman is all about attitude adjustment, starring Georgia van Helsing (Master Control) and Natasha Cole. Aunt Carla (played by GvH) thinks that her niece Lisa (Cole) needs some discipline because Lisa's life has been taken over by cocaine. Carla talks to Mr. Thorn (T.J. Shaw) about introducing some to the lass. (Discipline, not cocaine.) Sounds like a good idea to him.

Thorn arranges for Carla and Lisa to go out to get some cocaine, but that is really a ruse for Travis (Whitman) to capture Lisa and put her through a few days of roughie bondage to change her mind about the way life works. Masterful, no? Carla offers to go along with the discipline at first, to fool Lisa into thinking that she is only a hapless victim of circumstance. Travis puts them both through their paces, though through more paces for Carla than she was counting on. There's suspension for both, a little whipping and light tormenting, then Carla is led off and released while the charade continues with Lisa.

The next day, Travis, instead of tormenting Lisa further, introduces her to self-pleasure in bondage, which she really takes to. Meanwhile, Carla goes back to the scene allegedly to check on Lisa's progress, but we find that Carla and Travis have a past in this regard, and Carla wants to get back to old times. Travis, a resourceful man, obliges. He hoists up Carla for a bit, brings her back to Lisa for a bit of bound girl-on-girl play, whipping, more bound g-o-g, and in a grand finale, Carla-Mr. Thorn and Lisa-Travis exit as happy couples for, well, it might be this kind of movie, but it's not THAT kind of movie, so we can only imagine.

This is one of Whitman's more imaginative films in terms of the scenarios he presents to his stars. They have variety and show off the ladies well. His models are usually more full-figured than the slender Cole, but she blossoms as an actress in the transition from "Please, no," to "More, please," as the film proceeds. This is her only talkie. She starred in the loop Three For the Money (found on Bondage Classics 21) and was in a few magazine shoots for HOM.

This effort by Jason Whitman manages to get some of his lesser-known stars, Lana Ryan and Toni Stern, normally used for magazines and loops, into a talkie, as well as featuring regulars Georgia van Helsing and Sharon Montgomery, star of the legendary loop, Sign!, found in Bondage Classics 10.

GvH (Dr. Wier) is a mad scientist in competition with a Dr. Edwards to develop a mind-control device that reduces a person to someone without a mind of their own, open to any suggestion given by a controller following the sound of the password: P***y, pretty, p***y. What all that has to do with roughie bondage might not be clear, but Whitman quickly clears it up for us.

Montgomery (Sally), who wears only thigh-high boots and a leather waist-cincher throughout the picture, is Dr. Wier's test subject. The machine works. The maid, Tammy Twitchell (Lana Ryan), gets snoopy and discovers Sally standing, uncomprehending, in a spread-eagle pose, but is discovered herself by Dr. Wier and becomes similarly strung up wearing not much. Tammy's friend Kate (Toni Stern) shows up looking for Tammy and, wouldn't you know, she ends up helpless in her skimpy undies, too. There's whipping mixed in liberally, because that's just how it goes in the Wier laboratory. After a while of all that, Dr. Edwards shows up and rescues everyone, letting them give Dr. Wier a taste of her own medicine. The movie closes with Dr. Wier in ropes, the rest of the ladies wearing only their tiniest, Dr. Edwards smiling, and that's a happy ending for a House of Milan movie, I suppose.

Unfortunately, Whitman's work here falls below his usual standards. The positions he typically puts his models into enhance their figures and beauty, adding to the allure of their plight, but not here. It's just women in ropes, mainly suspension, done without much imagination except in a few minor cases. The set pieces are perfunctory. This is not one of Whitman's better outings, but that doesn't means his fans won't like it. Recommended, but if you're starting out with him, see Curiosity Excited the Kat first.

Tourist Trap II is a sequel in concept to Whitman's earlier Tourist Trap. Different models are use in TTII, though. The star of this outing is Karen Arthur (The Escape), who did mostly loops and still shoots. We are back in Nagwaya, a mythical Latin American country that has captured the interest of International Students for Peace, a college organization whose only members seems to be outrageously good-looking young women who perform their peace- keeping duties in tight dresses, strappy high heels, and skimpy underwear. What could have been a sobering documentary about efforts to bring political stability to a developing country take a left turn from the very first frame and becomes a first-class rope-fest.

Arthur and HOM stalwart Lori Waverley are given the Whitman treatment in different scenes, solo and paired, each position more strenuous that the last, along with an unnamed damsel whose connection with all this is never explained to us. To the rescue comes Sharon Montgomery in her diaphanous dress and, guess what, strappy high heels, who is forced to join the Arthur-Waverley tag team and demonstrate her ability to stand up (literally) under the contortions that Whitman, as The Sargent, fastens her into. And all three are set upon by the evil Maria. There is just enough plot here for the goings on to make sense, as if they really need to, but a story line does create dramatic tension that is resolved in the end by the sound of machine-gun fire off camera. The revolution has begun and the hapless lasses are saved, but not before we have seen another hour of roughie bondage that only Whitman's mastery could produce. Very recommended.

The House of Milan was a major producer of bondage magazines and movies in the 1980s under the direction of Barbara Behr. The genius behind the HOM heyday was Jason Whitman, who also used the name John Blackmore. Whitman got on with HOM as a still photographer, later parlaying his degree in cinematography into making loops and talkies. HOM produced what are known as "roughies," where the models are put into strenuous positions intended to create discomfort and distress. Suspension and tight crotch ropes are a constant feature of Whitman's style.

Whitman had a warehouse which he rented and constructed sets in for magazine photo vignettes, and for filming. Backgrounds consisted of brick walls, sturdy beams and posts, ropes and pulleys going everywhere, and props stacked in the background for whatever effect Whitman wanted to create. He recycled his sets; the opening set in Sweet Nightmares, for example, can also be seen in other talkies, several loops, and in still photo shoots. The bondage is always inventively different, though.

Whitman films appealed to a niche, but they were nonetheless films. You can see him using solid cinematic technique to move his story lines along. In a point-and-shoot genre, Whitman's movie stand out because they really are movies.

Sweet Nightmares is a star vehicle for HOM's mid-80s superstar, Sharon Montgomery (Curiosity Excited the Kat, Punished 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6). Sharon, as Kay, is telling to her husband over dinner about the nightmares she has been having lately about being tied up. They can't really be nightmares, because it looks like they're lots of fun, in the HOM meaning of the word. Sharon shows why all eyes were on her in this corner of the bondage world. She gets tied and "tormented," most of the time dressed in only enough underwear to get past the Reagan-era censors (and that ain't very much), gets to do a little tormenting herself, and in separate scenes watches Laura Sharp and Toni Stern, another oft-used HOM beauty, in suspension and being played with. This is a solid work, currently available on DVD. Highly recommended.

The House of Milan was a legendary producer of bondage magazines and movies in the 1980s. Under the direction of Jason Whitman, HOM had a unique style that admirers refer to as the Golden Age of Bondage. Most of the HOM film offerings were 10-minute loops which are now collected in the Bondage Classics series. CEtK was filmed in the same style, but around a script with a story.

Sharon Montgomery, deservedly HOM's superstar, is investigating the treatment of several women held prisoner in a South American jail. She thinks she can get the lowdown in the colonel who runs the joint if she gets arrested and becomes a prisoner herself. Can't argue with that logic. What she gets is the same treatment as the other two prisoners, tight and not- so-pleasant bondage with a little whipping thrown in. Extra points are awarded for pretty lingerie. She was made to order for this kind of role, absolutely gorgeous, and her breathy "no turning into yes" response to her torment is pretty hot. Her co-stars give brave performances themselves, but Sharon's light shines too brightly for them to emerge on their own. In fact, she pretty much took over every movie she was in.

If you want to see what HOM was all about, this is the movie to watch. It has true historical significance as the archetype of the mid-80s "roughie" sub-genre. Rough, but not hurty. They don't make 'em like this anymore.

This video is one of a series for four Galaxy Entertainment bondage videos starring Meg, an auburn-haired Philadelphia girl. Each video in the series features the curvy Meg tied in various poses and in various states of dress and undress, squirming around and bantering with the director/camera operator, at least when she is able to talk. They're light-hearted videos, just a pretty, tied-up girl having fun.

The premise of Master's Delight is that Meg has been shopping for sexy underthings and Marc wants her to model each new outfit for him -- in bondage, of course. What can the plucky girl do but say, yes? The director's style is to start each new scene with a different costume and restraint than the one before, then progressively remove a bit of the costume and add a bit of restraint, generally in three stages, and somewhere along the line rendering our heroine unable to speak. Eight scenes, each one a delight.