Tweet
Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: May 31st, 2016.
Director: Howard Ziehm
Cast: Fran Spector, Marsha Bishop, Howard Alexander, Eve Orlon
Year: 1970/1971
Purchase From Amazon
The Movies:
A Howard Ziehm double feature from Vinegar Syndrome? Bring it on!
Harlot:
First up is the illicit story of a 'high school girl' named Mary (Fran Spector) who gets her kicks turning tricks. She makes some money on the side going down on random dudes in random cars but seems to enjoy her work well enough. She doesn't really seem to spend too much time in class, as opposed to one of her school acquaintances, Melody (Patty Alexon). A bit more proper than Mary, Melody will fool around with her brother's goofy friend, sure, but she hasn't let him or anyone else go all the way yet.
But Melody is curious. She wants to know more about carnal affairs. As such, she talks Mary into bringing her along on a hooking session one fine day. It isn't long before a horny guy stops to pick the two girls up. At first he and Mary go at it but they're interrupted and he chickens out - until she coerces him into finishing the job after relocating. Later, Mary figures since she's missed so much class she's bound to flunk out, so talking teacher Mr. James (Leroy Jones) into doing the dirty deed with her seems like her only option if she wants to finish the year - it works, and she even gets the female principal to join in! Meanwhile, Moldy takes what she's learned from Mary and puts it into practice when gets picked up by a goofball voyeur with a bit of a masochistic streak in him. Now emboldened by what she's done and ready for bigger things, she takes her next trick, a scruffy looking biker - but this one is more than she bargained for…
Co-directed by Ziehm and Michael Benveniste, Harlot doesn't reinvent the wheel but it's quickly paced and interesting to see. It's not often you get to see early seventies smut films that feature aerial photography, but here they pull it off. What's interesting about this is the locations - a lot of where the sex takes place appears to be pretty much out in public view and there are more than a few shots where you can see people in the background kind of wondering what those closer to the camera are getting up to. Spector's in nice shape and enthusiastic when and where it counts, while Alexon is genuinely pretty and almost as into her work - that makes this pretty fun to watch, until things go into unexpectedly dark territory towards the end.
Tijuana Blue:
The second feature is less inspired but still interesting in its own way and presented here in considerably longer form than as it was featured on the old DVD release from Alpha Blue Archives. The story follows Jamie (Howard Alexander) who is talked into dealing by a guy known only as 'The Man' (Keith Erickson). Why the career change? Jamie knocked up his girlfriend (Jill Sweete) and now he needs some easy money.
And to make that easy money, he's going to have to take a road trip south of the border into Mexico to find a man named Oddball and retrieve from him a package of what we can safely assume to be contraband. Jamie gets his pal Rick (Martin Victor) to tag along for the ride and off they go, paying the warning that 'The Man' gave them about behaving themselves while down there absolutely no mind whatsoever. That means that pretty much as soon as they his Mexico, they're screwing gals left, right and center. Soon enough, they've dug up some contact info for Oddball and, after taking in a live lesbian sex show, they're on their way to meet up with him. But the whorehouse that they're told he'll be at produces only whores. They try again, but Jamie quickly comes to the realization that they're being set up…
The film has an interesting travelogue aspect to it - this was obviously meant to pad out the running time of the feature but it does give us the chance to visit early seventies Mexico in all its shabby glory and it gives the otherwise fairly tepid storyline some character. It builds to a conclusion best described as stupid, or maybe nonsensical, but it might at least make you laugh. The film's erotic content is pretty hit or miss. Some of the girls are attractive enough, a few of the others are looking pretty Haggard here. A lot of the actual scenes of coupling really do feature some performers that look like they're going through the motions rather than actually enjoying themselves. In the end this is a fairly gritty, grimy, low budget cheapie - it's a bit of a tough watch unless you geek out over some of the location footage.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Both features arrive on DVD from Vinegar Syndrome in a new 2k scans from the original 16mm elements framed at 1.33.1 fullframe. As these were shot on 16mm it's not surprising that we get a pretty grainy looking picture but the detail you'd want is definitely there. Colors look good most of the time but there are fluctuations from scene to scene. There is minimal print damage throughout each film and occasionally more obvious scratches pop up but it's not a big deal. The disc is well authored so there are no problems with compression artifacts.
The English language Dolby Digital Mono sound mix, the only one available on the disc, sounds fine. You might notice the occasional pop in the mix if you're listening for it but aside from that the levels are properly balanced, dialogue is easy to understand and the score and sound effects are mixed in effectively enough. There are no subtitles provided on this DVD.
The only extra on the disc is a commentary track from director Howard Ziehm who is joined by Vinegar Syndrome's Joe Rubin for a talk over Harlot. Ziehm talks about casting the picture, what it was like working with some of the performers featured in the movie, the locations used and working with producer Bill Osco on this picture. He also talks about dealing with the cops at the time and how he and his crew avoided problems in that regard, some of the photographic techniques used to capture some of the action portrayed in the film and a fair bit more. It's a very well-paced track with some great stories in it. Ziehm does occasionally do the 'I'm going to describe what you're already looking at on screen thing' which usually means sudden death for a commentary, but that only lasts a few minutes early on. Stick with it - this is a good listen.
The Final Word:
Vinegar Syndrome's DVD Peekarama double feature release of Howard Ziehm's Harlot and Tijuana Blue is more interesting for its historical value than its erotic content. These early efforts from Ziehm and company to create some plot based adult features might not get your pants tight but they're curios worth checking out if you're into the history of explicit motion pictures. The presentation is probably about as good as it's going to get, and the commentary seals the deal.
